A portable 3D ultrasound device having an ultrasound transducer. The ultrasound transducer includes a transducer array with a plurality of transducer elements arranged in a plurality of dimensions, the transducer array including an emitter to emit ultrasound energy, a receiver to receive responses generated in accordance with the ultrasound energy, a plurality of sub-array beamformers, a signal processor to convert the generated responses into a 3D ultrasound image and a display unit to display the 3D ultrasound image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable ultrasound device, and more particularly, to a hand-held or hand-carried ultrasound device that displays a 3D image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previously, in order to generate a 3D ultrasound image, large machines were required. These machines used transducers having a 1D array of elements, which required complicated circuitry and a complex rocking or back-and-forth movement of the transducer to generate the 3D image. Due to their size and complexity, these machines required large power supplies and heavy power cords, which made these machines even less portable. Furthermore, these machines have not utilized recent advances in computer technology, which allow complex signal processing to be achieved with small chip components. Thus, previous 3D ultrasound machines were either completely stationary, moveable on a cart which weighed 300–400 pounds, or fitted into a large case which was transported in a vehicle trunk, but were too heavy to be carried by hand. These machines were expensive to build and operate, and due to their size, ultrasound analysis could only be performed in certain locations. Although previous portable ultrasound devices were able to generate a 2D image, the circuitry necessary to perform the beamforming, rendering and other processing necessary to generate a 3D image was too large to allow for portability.


Gene complementation is used to restore cholesterol independence in NS lineage murine myeloma cells, such as NS0 and NS 1, yielding a selectable system for recombinant production of polynucleotides and polypeptides.

Different platforms have been investigated for the production of recombinant proteins including bacterial, yeast, insect and mammalian cells. The main advantage of mammalian cell expression is that the mammalian cell properly and efficiently recognizes the signals for synthesis, processing and secretion of eukaryotic proteins. A diverse range of biologics produced in mammalian cells has been licensed in recent years for therapeutic, diagnostic and research purposes. These include thrombolytics, cytokines, growth factors, immunoglobulins, plasminogen activators, erythropoietines and vaccines.
NS0 is a mammalian cell line widely used in recombinant genetic engineering. NS0 cells are non-immunoglobulin secreting mouse myeloma cells. These cells were originally derived from immunoglobulin-producing tumor cells (NS1 cells), and hence they are well equipped for producing and secreting proteins. NS1 cells express intracellular light chain, while NS0 cells do not.
NS0 cells can be genetically manipulated to express a gene whose product is of interest and are widely used in the bioprocess industry to produce recombinant proteins. Currently, the Glutamine Synthetase-NS0 (GS-NS0) system is most commonly used for expressing recombinant proteins in NS0 cells. The GS system is based upon the extremely low levels of endogenous glutamine synthetase activity in NS0 cells. Exogenous supply of GS through expression of the gene is therefore used for selecting transfectants in glutamine free medium. NS0 cells are much more commonly used than NS1 cells in the industry for the purpose of producing recombinant polypeptides such as antibodies, although NS1 cells can be used for this purpose as well.
NS1 cells and derivatives, including NS0 cells, are cholesterol auxotrophs (Chen et al., Exp. Cell Res., 163(1): 117-126, 1986; Sato et al., In Vitro Cell Dev Biol 24(12):1223-8, 1988; Sato et al., Mol Biol Med 2(2):121-34, 1984). These cells therefore require cholesterol in the media for successful growth. Cholesterol supply and delivery to cells has been particularly difficult to deal with in the bioprocess industry, raising issues involving solubility, filterability, dispersion, physical stability and container adhesion.
The observed cholesterol dependence of NS1 mouse myeloma cells has advantageously been used as a selection mechanism for hybridoma production. Myoken et al. (In vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology: J. Tissue Culture Assoc., 25(5):477-80, May 1989) reported that hybridoma cells produced by the fusion of an NS1 cell and an antibody-producing cell capable of synthesizing cholesterol could be selected from a mixture of such cells and unfused myeloma parent cells by culturing the cells in a cholesterol-free medium. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,737 (Myoken et al.).
However, for applications involving recombinant protein production, for example, cholesterol auxotrophy remains a significant drawback to the use of NS0 and NS1 cells. A mechanism for creating cholesterol independence in NS0 and/or NS1 cells would greatly enhance their utility in many diverse biological applications.

Restoration of cholesterol independence and its use as a selectable marker in NS0 cell culture


The present invention consists of a method and apparatus for authenticating an electronic document. In one embodiment of the invention, a party wishing to digitally sign an electronic document (the "client") stores the unsigned electronic document, and the client's public and private keys, on transportable storage media such as a floppy disk. The client conveys the storage media to an authorized electronic document authenticator. An authorized electronic document authenticator is an individual or enterprise that has access to the apparatus of the present invention or that has been authorized to use the method of the present invention. The client presents identity documents to the authenticator to verify the client's identity. The client digitally signs the electronic document in the presence of the authenticator. The authenticator verifies the digital signature using the public key provided by the client. Having witnessed the client digitally signing the electronic document using the client's private key, having verified that the public key supplied to the authenticator by the client corresponds to the private key used by the client to produce the digital signature, and having verified the identity of the client using the identification documents provided by the client and/or biometric measurements taken of the client, the authenticator appends an "authenticator identification envelope" containing a certification to that effect to the electronic document. In one embodiment of the invention, the authenticator identification envelope includes digitally recorded biometric data obtained from the client. The authenticator digitally signs the resulting electronic document, creating an authenticated electronic document. The authenticator transfers the completed, authenticated electronic document onto transportable storage media and returns it to the client.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electronic commerce, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for authenticating electronic documents.
2. Background Art
Well established mechanisms exist for creating legally binding written instruments. One such mechanism is the application of a handwritten signature to a written document. For certain transactions, authentication of a handwritten signature, for example by a licensed public official such as a notary, is required. Authentication of a signature by a notary requires a personal appearance before the notary. The notary personally witnesses the execution of the signature, inspects identity documents to verify the identity of the person executing the signature, and affixes a notary statement and seal to the signed document. Notarization of a signature provides a level of assurance that the written instrument was in fact executed by the person identified by the signature, and prevents repudiation of the signed instrument by the signer.
Electronic, computer based methods of doing business are increasingly displacing traditional paper based methods. Electronic communications and electronic documents are replacing written contracts, orders, payment instruments, account statements, invoices, and other paper documents.
Unlike their paper counterparts, electronic documents do not exist in physical form. Instead, they consist of sets of digital data that may be stored on various types of digital storage media ranging from volatile internal RAM memory to non-volatile ROM memory to magnetic and/or optical disk storage media, and that may be transmitted over various computer communications links including local and wide area networks, and the Internet. Because electronic documents do not have a physical form, the mechanisms devised to create legally binding paper instruments, such as affixing a notarized signature, cannot be used for electronic documents. Accordingly, a need has arisen for alternative mechanisms for creating and authenticating legally binding electronic documents and communications. Digital encryption, digital message digests, digital signatures, and digital certificates are some of the existing cryptographic tools that are used in the present invention to address this need.
Two well known types of cryptography are secret key cryptography and public key cryptography.
Secret key cryptography is a symmetric form of cryptography in which a single key is used to encrypt and decrypt an electronic document. To encrypt an electronic document, the electronic document and the secret key are supplied to a hardware device or a software encryption program that transforms the electronic document into an encrypted electronic document by means of an encryption process that uses the secret key and the electronic document as an input. The original electronic document can only be obtained from the encrypted electronic document by applying a reverse decryption process using the same secret key. Because the same secret key is used for encryption and decryption, both the sender and the recipient of the encrypted electronic document must have a copy of the secret key. The security of secret key cryptography can therefore be compromised by either the sender or the recipient.
Public key cryptography is an asymmetric form of cryptography that uses a two-key pair, typically referred to as a public key and a private key. These two keys are different but constitute a matched key pair. In public key encryption, electronic documents encrypted with either the public or private key of a public-private key pair can only be decrypted using the other key of the key pair. For example, an electronic document encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted using the corresponding private key. Conversely, an electronic document encrypted with a private key can only be decrypted using the corresponding public key.
The terms "public" key and "private" key stem from a manner in which public key cryptography is often used. A party A, concerned about privacy of its incoming communications generates a public-private key pair, using cryptographic hardware and/or software. Party A keeps its private key secret, but freely distributes its public key. Party B wishing to send a confidential electronic document to party A, can encrypt its electronic document using party A's freely available public key. Since the electronic document can then only be decrypted using the corresponding private key, party B can be assured that only party A, in possession of the private key, will be able to decode the encrypted electronic document.
A number of uncertainties arise with respect to the use of public key cryptography. One uncertainty relates to the identity of the owner of the private key that corresponds to the public key. It is possible, for example, that a public key may be circulated that fraudulently purports to be the public key of party A, but the corresponding private key of which is actually held by party C. A sender who encrypts a confidential communication to party A, using the public key the sender believes belongs to party A, will instead be creating a confidential communication that can be decrypted and read only by party C.
A second uncertainty, from the perspective of the recipient, relates to the identity of the sender of an encrypted communication. Since the recipient's public key is freely distributed, encryption of a communication with the recipient's correct public key does not provide any information concerning the sender, other than that the sender is someone who has access to the recipient's public key. As public keys are often freely available from public key repositories, the sender could be anyone.
A third uncertainty concerns the integrity of the communication--that is, there is an uncertainty as to whether the communication received by the recipient is the actual communication sent by the sender. For example, the communication may have been intercepted, modified, or replaced.
Digital signatures and digital certificates have been devised to address some of the uncertainties inherent in public key cryptography.
One of the purposes of a digital signature is to link an electronic document with an owner of the private key corresponding to a particular public key. Additionally, a digital signature can be used to determine whether an electronic document has been altered during transmission of the document from the sender to the recipient.
One form of digital signature uses a message digest. A message digest is a value that is generated when an electronic document is passed through a one way encryption process ("digesting process") such as a hashing routine. An ideal digesting process is one for which the probability that two different electronic documents will generate the same message digest is near zero. In this form of digital signature, both the sender and the recipient need to know which digesting process is being used. The sender generates the electronic document, and generates a message digest by passing the electronic document through the digesting process. The sender encrypts the resulting message digest with the sender's private key. The result, the encrypted message digest, then becomes the digital signature of the electronic document. The digital signature may be appended to the electronic document or kept as a separate entity.
The recipient obtains the electronic document and the digital signature of the sender. The recipient decrypts the digital signature using what the recipient believes to be the sender's public key, obtaining the decrypted message digest X. The recipient processes the received electronic document using the digesting process, obtaining message digest Y. The recipient then compares message digest Y to message digest X. If X=Y, the message digests are the same. This verifies that the electronic document was (1) digitally signed by the private key corresponding to the public key used to recover message digest X, and (2) that the electronic document content was not changed from the time that it was signed to the time that the digital signature was verified. However, the uncertainty remains as to whether the public key used by the recipient to decrypt the digital signature, which the recipient believes is the public key of the sender, is in fact the sender's public key.
The effectiveness of the digital signature, as well as other uses of public key cryptography, thus depends on the level of confidence as to the identity of the holder of the private key corresponding to a particular public key.
Digital certificates are intended to provide a level of assurance as to the identity of the holder of the private key corresponding to a particular public key. The issuers of digital certificates are called certification authorities. A digital certificate constitutes a certification by a certification authority that a particular public key is the public key of a particular entity, and that this entity is the holder of the corresponding private key.
Certification authorities are often commercial enterprises that collect fees for issuing digital certificates. To obtain a digital certificate, an applicant submits an application for a digital certificate together with the applicant's public key and some form of identity verification to a certification authority. The certification authority reviews the application, and if the application meets the criteria established by the certification authority, issues a digital certificate to the applicant.
The digital certificate itself is an electronic document. Although a variety of formats exist, a digital certificate typically includes, among other items, the name of the certification authority, the name of the certificate holder, the expiration date of the certificate, the public key of the certificate holder, and the digital signature of the certification authority. The digital certificate constitutes a certification by the certification authority that the holder of the certificate is the owner of the public key specified in the certificate, and, by implication, is therefore the holder of the corresponding private key.
The authenticity of a digital certificate is tested by verifying the certification authority's digital signature using the certification authority's public key. The level of assurance provided by a digital certificate depends on a number of factors, including the reputation of the certification authority issuing the certificate, the thoroughness of the procedures used by the certification authority in issuing the certificate, and the level of confidence in the certification authority's public key. Some certification authorities issue different levels of certificates, corresponding to different levels of investigation performed by the certificate authority during evaluation of an application.
The authenticity of a digital signature depends largely on the authenticity of the public key used by a recipient to test the digital signature. A digital certificate may be used to help authenticate a digital signature by verifying the authenticity of the certificate holder's public key. The digital certificate may be appended to an electronic document, or the recipient of an electronic document may obtain a copy of the certificate from the issuing certification authority or other certificate repository.
One drawback of using digital certificates for authentication of a digital signature is that a party wishing to digitally sign an electronic document must have previously applied for and obtained a digital certificate. If a party does not have a digital certificate its digital signature is questionable. A second drawback of prior art digital certificates is that certification authorities do not require an applicant to prove that the applicant has actual custody of the private key corresponding to the public key the applicant presents to the certification authority for certification at the time of application. Accordingly, the question remains as to the identity of the real holder of the private key corresponding to the public key identified in the digital certificate.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a means for verification of the authenticity of a digital signature in the absence of a digital certificate, and for verifying that a purported owner of a public key in fact has present custody of the corresponding private key at the time a digital signature is executed.

Method and apparatus for witnessed authentication of electronic documents


Provided is a water pump including a lower casing, an upper casing coupled to an upper side of the lower casing to form an impeller accommodating space therein by the coupling with the lower casing and having an inlet communicating with the impeller accommodating space and allowing a fluid to be introduced therethrough and an outlet allowing the fluid to be discharged therethrough, an impeller provided in the impeller accommodating space and including an upper plate and a lower plate arranged to be spaced apart from each other vertically and a plurality of blades arranged and coupled between the upper plate and the lower plate, and a rotor coupled to the impeller and rotated together with the impeller, wherein the upper casing has a spacing recess provided on an inner surface corresponding to an outer circumference of the upper plate of the impeller.

Water pumps are devices for circulating a coolant to an engine or a heater to cool the engine or heat a room. These water pumps are classified into mechanical water pumps and electric water pumps.
The mechanical water pump is a pump connected to a crankshaft of the engine and driven according to the rotation of the crankshaft and the electric water pump is a pump driven by rotation of a motor controlled by a control device.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are an exploded perspective view and a front cross-sectional view showing an electric water pump of a related art.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the electric water pump of the related art includes a housing 10, a stator 20, a can 30, a rotor 40, a rotating shaft 41, a lower bearing 42, an upper bearing 43, an impeller 50 and an upper casing 60.
More specifically, the stator 20 is provided in the housing 10 having a concave accommodating space, a protrusion 31 protruding downward from the can 30 is inserted to pass through a central portion of the stator 20, and an upper portion of the can 30 is coupled to an upper end of the housing 10. An inside of the protrusion 31 of the can 30 has a concave space in which the rotor 40 is disposed, and both ends of the rotating shaft 41 coupled to the rotor 40 are coupled to and supported by the lower bearing 42 and the upper bearing 43. In addition, the upper casing 60 is coupled to an upper side of the can 30 so that the impeller 50 is provided in an internal space formed as the can 30 and the upper casing 60 are coupled, and the impeller 50 is coupled to the rotating shaft 1 and rotated together with the rotor 40. Accordingly, a fluid flowing into an inlet pipe 61 formed at the upper casing 60 according to rotation of the impeller 50 is boosted through the impeller 50 and then discharged through an outlet pipe 62 formed at the upper casing 60.
However, since the impeller 50 and the rotor 40 are rotatably supported by the bearings, there is a gap for the rotating shaft 41 of the rotor 40 to move in radial and axial directions. In addition, a position of the impeller 50 is moved or the impeller 50 is inclined by a pressure of the fluid, while the fluid is being force-fed by the rotation of the impeller 50, and thus the upper casing 600 wears as an outer circumferential edge of the impeller 50 comes into contact with an inner surface of the upper casing 60 surrounding the impeller 50. As a result, noise and vibration may occur, and the fluid may be leaked to the worn portion, thereby degrading performance of the water pump.


A portable lighting device includes: a coherent light source; a shaping optical system that shapes coherent light emitted from the coherent light source; and a diffractive optical element that diffracts the coherent light shaped by the shaping optical system to a surface to be irradiated (IP). The diffractive optical element is rotatably supported. The surface to be irradiated is lighted in a pattern depending on a diffraction pattern of the diffractive optical element.

A lighting device using a diffractive optical element is known, as disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP2012-146621A), for example. The use of diffractive optical element makes it possible to light a surface to be irradiated in a desired pattern.
On the other hand, the disclosers are considering applying a lighting device using a diffractive optical element to a portable lighting device. A user can carry a portable lighting device to perform pattern-lighting at a desired place.
However, diffraction pattern by a diffractive optical element is deigned on the assumption that the diffractive optical element and a surface to be irradiated have a constant positional relationship. On the other hand, when a portable lighting device is used, it may be desired to light a wall or a ceiling instead of a ground surface or a floor in a pattern. For example, when an arrow for guiding participants in an event or the like is displayed by pattern-lighting, which of a ground surface or floor, a wall and a ceiling is the most suitable for a surface to be irradiated changes depending on the degree of congestion, etc. In this case, when an orientation of the projection surface changes, an orientation of the pattern to be lighted also changes. When a pattern that displays a direction, such as an arrow, is lighted, there particularly arises a problem in that a different direction is displayed.

Portable lighting device and lighting method


An apparatus and method for enabling a flat panel display terminal to simulate operations of a multifrequency cathode-ray tube monitor. The synchronization signals included in the input analog video signals are analyzed to identify a display protocol. The predetermined parameters for the identified display protocol are used to program the analog liquid crystal display panel and phase-locked loop of the flat panel display terminal.

This invention relates to flat panel display terminals. Examples of flat panel display terminals are electroluminescence, liquid crystal displays ("LCDs") and plasma or gas-discharge displays. More particularly, the invention relates to interfaces of LCDs for simulating the operations of multifrequency cathode-ray tube ("CRT") monitors.
Flat panel technology has been encouraging as of the late 1980s, particularly for buyers not concerned with cost. Many advantages of the flat panel display terminals are known over the CRT type monitors which have enjoyed almost universal application in personal computers. For example, an LCD monitor provides advantages including a flat surface, inherent sharpness, low power consumption, less eye-strain on the user and compact size. The flat surface of an LCD also eliminates problems associated with the convex surface of a CRT screen such as undesirable curved lines and distorted images near the edges of the CRT screen. With their compact size, low-power usage and light weight, LCDs have been used typically in laptop computers and seatback televisions on aircraft.
With the introduction of high-quality and low-price LCD models, the computer industry has taken a closer look at flat panel display terminals for use in desktop computers and workstations. Since most computers produce video signals appropriate for the CRT monitors, attempts have been made to develop controllers or converters to resolve the differences between the CRT monitors and the LCDs. For example, the LCDs are chemically operative systems whereas the CRT monitors are electrically operative systems. The converters, thus, need to address a slower response time of the LCDs. Also, while the CRT monitors can display any number of horizontal and vertical lines, the LCDs have a set number of horizontal and vertical lines. The converters need to deal with such limitations as well.
Additional concern for LCD use in a desktop computer is the physical distance between the LCD panel and the graphic board. Direct connections between the graphic controllers and the LCDs are possible in laptop computers where LCDs are closely positioned to graphic controllers within the same computer chassis. LCDs having parallel RGB interfaces, therefore, can directly receive the RGB signals provided by the graphic controllers.
However, for desktop computers, the graphic controllers are generally located inside the computer chassis while the RGB interfaces are located in separate monitors. The RGB signal outputs from the graphic controllers, therefore, are provided indirectly via video cables connecting the graphic boards of the desktop computers and the LCDs. Since standard desktop computers produce analog RGB signals for cable connections instead of digital video signals, digital LCDs need additional analog to digital converters ("ADCs") to interpret the video signals from the desktop computers. Such conversions negatively effect the resulting screens due to the difficult timing and complications associated with the conversions.
In response to such complications, analog LCDs that are capable of utilizing analog RGB signals have been introduced to the market recently. Although such analog LCDs do not require ADCs, the currently available interfaces either require stacks of boards or are incapable of any high-level functions. For example, even though analog LCDs allow multiple resolutions such as VGA, SVGA, XGA, TEXT 1 and TEXT 2, the currently available interfaces for the analog LCDs cannot compensate for inaccuracies or offsets that accompany the video signals primarily directed for the CRT monitor use.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide simplified, sophisticated, effective and inexpensive apparatus for flat panel display terminals. More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide an interface that allows analog LCDs to simulate the operations of multifrequency CRT monitors having capabilities to adjust to various display protocols.

Flat panel display terminal for receiving multi-frequency and multi-protocol video signals


A golf club grinder including a base frame, a first grinding mechanism and a second grinding mechanism respectively mounted on the base frame for grinding the hosel and the shaft respectively, the first grinding mechanism including an abrasive belt mounted on a wheel and a roller and driven by a motor to grind the hosel of a golf club, the second grinding mechanism including a forwardly tilted motor mounted on a motor carrier and moved relative to the abrasive belt, and a grinding wheel turned by the forwardly tilted motor to grind a shaft for golf club put in between the abrasive belt and the grinding wheel.

The present invention relates to golf club grinders, and more particularly to an automatic golf club grinder which is practical for grinding the hosel of a golf club as well as the shaft for golf club.
Before fastening the shaft to the club head during the fabrication of a golf club, a hosel shall be installed. However, the front end of the shaft must be well ground and then covered with a layer of adhesive before fastening the shaft to the hosel. Further, when a golf club is assembled, the hosel must be well ground so that the hosel, the shaft and the neck of the club head can be maintained in a flush manner. When grinding the hosel or the shaft, the operator must hold the shaft and attach it to the grinding wheel and then turn the shaft when grinding. This grinding procedure is complicated, and the grinding quality is not easy to be controlled.


Techniques that enable printing of multi-frequency RFID label schemes are provided. This may include a device for enabling printing of multi-frequency RFID label schemes, a method for printing multi-frequency RFID label schemes, as well as an article having one or more storage mediums having instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in a process for printing a multi-frequency RFID label scheme.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and, in particular, to techniques that enable printing of multi-frequency RFID label schemes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet and laser printers are common in most workplace and home computing environments. Today, many printers may include multi-functional assemblies capable of printing on a large array of print media including letterhead, paper envelopes and labels. A recent innovation in the printing industry involves the manufacturing of print media with embedded radio frequency signatures in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders or tags. These tags, sometimes called "Smart Labels", may be used with a variety of existing printing methods.
Embedded print media may include a backing material (sometimes referred to as the "web") upon which a label is applied, with a RFID tag sandwiched in between the label and the backing material. There may be one or more labels on the web and the sheet, as presented, may be part label and part plain paper. In some cases there may be more than one tag arrayed across the width and down the length of the media such that multiple columns and/or rows of tags are contained on the print media.
Printing on media with embedded RFID tags is rapidly becoming a growing area of label printing. Each tag on a sheet may be printed with certain data, and the RFID tag embedded within that media may be used to allow individualized processing of user associated data. For example, a shipping label might have the delivery address and a package tracking ID printed on it, while the corresponding tag would be programmed with the same information. The delivery information may then be read from the tag, whether or not the package is positioned so that the tag is visible.
There are several common operating frequencies used in RFID programming, these frequencies may include 13.56 MHz (HF) and 915 MHz (UHF). Each frequency range has a unique set of advantages and disadvantages which makes it uniquely suited to particular applications. For example, 13.56 MHz tags may have a shorter range (˜1 m), lower power, and may be less expensive. Alternatively, 915 MHz tags have a longer range (˜10 m) and a faster data transfer rate.

Multi-frequency RFID image forming techniques


A network administration system for triggering commands in response to receipt of error logs, comprising a user interface for programming execution sets of commands in association with predetermined error logs, and means for receiving error logs and for each of the predetermined ones of the error logs triggering execution of the commands in the execution sets.

It is well known in traditional computer and digital communication networks for technicians to respond to the generation of error logs by notifying affected users of system problems, analyzing and then fixing the problems using an assortment of software commands and/or tools. The use of such software commands is often repetitive and requires the technician to manually enter the commands upon each observation of a specific log.


A device for establishing a connection with an electronic device comprises a connection device, a lever and a pedestal having a face comprises a latch having a degree of rotation with the pedestal. The connection device has one degree of rotation according to a first axis parallel to the face of the pedestal, and comprises the electronic connector and a concave relief. The lever is linked to the pedestal by a linkage comprising at least one degree of rotation according to a second axis parallel to the first axis of rotation. The lever comprises a convex relief corresponding to the concave relief of the connection device, and an elastic component adapted to maintain a contact between the lever and the pedestal. The lever is configured to enter in contact with the connection device after a rotation of the connection device enabled by the rotation of the latch.

In the prior art, connections between electronic devices can usually be found by connecting a fixed male connector on one of the devices to a fixed female connector on the other device. However, when an important strain is applied, one of the devices breaks.
Retractable connectors can be found in the prior art, in USB sticks for example. The retraction can be done by translation or rotation and is adapted to put the connector in a position where the connector is protected from abnormal strains. However, when the connector reaches a final position, the connector will break when an abnormal strain is applied. Moreover, both devices can be damaged.

Device comprising an electronic connector to establish a connection with an electronic device


The addition of a salt to an ALA formulation that is dissolved in the mouth unexpectedly significantly reduces the degree of burning or irritation from ALA exposure during administration. This invention is particularly useful for an oral dissolved form of administration due to the extended time of ALA exposure that is possible with such formulations. The salt-inclusive formulations of the invention can increase efficacy of the ALA administration, reduce negative side effects, or both.

Alpha lipoic acid or ALA has two chiral enantiomers. It is found as R-(+)-lipoic acid (RLA) and S-(−)-lipoic acid (SLA). Quite commonly, ALA is found as a racemic mixture of the two R/S-Lipoic acids. Additionally, each of these thioctic acid enantiomers exist in reduced (dihydro-lipoic acid) and oxidized forms. The disclosures herein are generally effective for any and/or all of the above ALA variants. The term thioctic acid, alpha lipoic acid, or ALA refers to all of these various species of lipoic acid, unless specifically referred to otherwise.
ALA is commonly used as a health supplement and also is helpful in treating a variety of diseases, particularly those involving blood sugar problems such as type II diabetes and diabetic neuropathy. The intravenous (I.V.) delivery of ALA has proven to be more effective than the ingested supplement, particularly for diabetic neuropathy. However, on an ongoing basis, particularly weekly or daily, administration is impractical.
Prior application Ser. No. 13/602,093 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 9,265,753) and its related continuation-in-part (CIP), application Ser. No. 15/050,462, have disclosed that a lozenge or tablet that dissolves in the mouth releasing ALA can provide ALA to the bloodstream in quantities more similar to IV than traditional supplements. The problem is that releasing too much ALA at any given time causes oral irritation and burning. To solve this, the Ser. Nos. 13/602,093 and 15/050,462 applications provide for a slow, steady dissolution of the formulation and appropriate, fairly low, concentrations of ALA. The limitation of this solution is that it can take longer than desired to get to a higher dose of ALA, for example 600 mg.


A floor panel including at least one substrate and a top layer, where the substrate includes at least one first layer of a first thermoplastic material and a second layer of a second thermoplastic material. The second layer is adjacent to a first side of the first layer and the second layer provides the floor panel with its underside. The first layer is characterized by a first colour with saturation value S1 in the HSL colour space and the second layer is characterized by a second colour with saturation value S2 in the HSL colour space, where S1 is less than S2.

The invention relates more particularly to a floor panel with a substrate and a decoration applied thereon. Floor panels of this kind are widely known per se for example in the form of MDF or HDF panels with a printed decoration, such as the laminate panels in WO 97/47834, in the form of vinyl panels, such as in WO 2013/026559, or in the form of so-called WPC (Wood Plastic Composite) panels with a vinyl top layer, such as in WO 2014/065953.
In the case of WO 2013/026559 they are waterproof floor panels with a substrate of soft or flexible polyvinyl chloride or PVC. In addition, the decoration and the PVC finishing layer applied on top of it offer pleasant walking comfort without a pronounced tapping noise, such as may certainly be the case with laminate panels. However, with the floor panels from WO'559 there is a risk of "telegraphing" effects. The result is that with the passage of time, irregularities in the substrate become visible on the surface of the floor covering, which is unattractive. Furthermore, floor panels of this kind are relatively difficult to install, because they easily bend or deform, owing to the flexibility of the carrier. The soft substrate is susceptible to dimensional changes with temperature fluctuations. Problems may arise with local warming of the floor covering, for example under direct sunlight near a window. Expansion of the elements may occur at these points. The limited stiffness of the floor panels means that the floor covering may camber locally. Any coupling means that are present, such as a locking tongue-and-groove, display only limited strength. The soft finishing layer is susceptible to scratching and staining, even when a UV-cured varnish surface coat is also applied on top of the PVC finishing layer. A varnish surface coat of this kind is of limited effectiveness, since it might well have already worn away in the initial years of use.
WO 2013/026559 to some extent offers a solution for the problems with the dimensional stability of a substrate of flexible PVC. By using a reinforcing layer impregnated with PVC, more particularly a glass-fibre mat impregnated with flexible PVC, with a weight of 65 grams per square metre, improved interaction is obtained between the substrate and the glass-fibre layer, as well as a limited improvement in dimensional stability with temperature fluctuations.
WO 2014/006593 relates to floor panels with a substrate of extruded plastic composite with a finishing layer, for example a vinyl top layer, as decoration. The plastic composite may for example be obtained from on the one hand high-density polyethylene (HDPE), or PVC, and on the other hand bamboo, wood and/or cork material. The substrate is rigid and gives a reduced risk of the aforementioned telegraphing effects. In addition, optional coupling parts may be provided in this stronger substrate. However, extruded substrates of this kind tend to deform or bend and the dimensional stability is at the same level as the vinyl panels from the aforementioned WO'559.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Floor panel and method for manufacturing a floor panel


Disclosed is an apparatus for washing treatment which comprises a washing solution supply source filled with a washing solution required for chemical washing of a wafer, a spin chuck for rotatably holding a wafer to be treated, a nozzle communicating with the washing solution supply source, for supplying a washing solution from the washing solution supply source onto the wafer held on the spin chuck, temperature controlling device for controlling the temperature of the washing solution to be supplied to the wafer from the nozzle, and a temperature controlled cover closely provided so as to cover the wafer held on the spin chuck, for preventing a substantial temperature variation of the washing solution present on the wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for washing substrates such as semiconductor wafers and glass substrates for LCDs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, a washing treatment apparatus is employed for removing particles, organic contaminants, metallic impurities and the like from the surfaces of semiconductor wafers by using ammonia, hydrofluoric acid, pure water and the like. In a one-by-one washing treatment apparatus, for example, the surface of a wafer is washed with chemical solutions such as an aqueous ammonia solution and an aqueous hydrofluoric acid solution, and then washed with pure water. In the one-by-one washing treatment apparatus, a wafer is horizontally held by a spin chuck and an aqueous ammonia solution or an aqueous hydrofluoric acid is supplied to a wafer for a predetermined time so as to cover it up.
However, in conventional washing treatment apparatuses, as the temperature of the chemical solution decreases, the reaction rate of the chemical washing (chemical cleaning) reduces. As a result, in some cases, sufficient washing performance is not obtained. To circumvent this, it is conceivable that the supply amount of the chemical solution is increased to make up for the insufficient washing performance. However, the large consumption of the chemical solution required in this method offers a problem in that a treatment cost is inevitably increased.
Furthermore, in the case where an alkaline solution is used together with an acidic solution in the conventional washing treatment apparatuses, the alkaline washing component used in a previous step is brought into the next acidic washing step, together with a wafer. As a result, the washing efficiency decreases.

Apparatus and method for washing treatment


The invention relates to DNA from fowlpox virus (FPV) providing a non-essential region for the insertion of foreign genes thereinto and thence the construction of a vector for homologous recombination with a wild type FPV, whereby the resulting recombinant FPV can be used for vaccination of animals, especially chickens. In this invention, the non-essential region consists substantially of a length of DNA from the long unique sequence of the terminal inverted repeat (TIR) of FPV or from the region at FPV which corresponds approximately to the HindIII D fragment genes D8 and D9 in vaccinia virus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of recombinant DNA technology and relates to fowlpox virus as a vector for foreign DNA.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several viruses with DNA genomes have been used to carry and express genes from other viruses or other species. Viruses used in such a way are known as `vectors` and genes, other than their own, expressed in such a way are referred to as `foreign genes`. One of the primary requirements for a virus to be used as a vector in this manner is a suitable site for insertion of the foreign gene. If insertion of a gene into a site in the virus causes disruption of some function essential for growth, then such a site could not be used. Suitable sites are those at which an insertion does not disrupt any functions or those whose functions are not essential for viral growth and therefore can be disrupted with impunity. Such sites are known as `non-essential regions`. The phrase `non-essential` in this context means non-essential for growth under at least some conditions in which the virus can be grown in vitro and under at least some conditions in which it survives in vivo.
Examples of viruses which have been used as vectors by virtue of the fact that they contain non-essential regions are orthopoxviruses, adenoviruses and herpesviruses, although the regions used may be different in each case. Vaccinia virus (VV), which has been used as a vector, is an orthopoxvirus, a member of the pox virus family. Fowlpoxvirus (FPV), the subject of this patent application, is also a pox virus, but is a member of a different genus, the avipoxviruses. VV can be grown in tissue culture, and foreign genes can be inserted into the viral genome during this process. Several regions of VV have been found to be non-essential in vitro in more than one tissue-culture system. These include: large regions towards the left hand end, B. Moss et al., J. Virology 40, 387-395, (1981) who describe a mutant VV having a deletion 6.4 megaDaltons from the left-hand end; D. Panicali et al., J. Virology 37 1000-1010, 1981) who describe a mutant VV having a deletion starting 6.85 megaDaltons from the left-hand end; the thymidine kinase (TK) gene, D. Panicali and E. Paoletti, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 4927-4931 (1982); M. Mackett et al., J. Gen. Virol. 45, 683-701, (1982); and the vaccinia growth factor (VGF) gene, R. M. L. Buller it al., J. Virology 62, 866-974 (1988). Sites such as these might also be non-essential for growth in vivo. However in the case of both the TK and VGF gene, it has been found that although growth in tissue culture is unaffected or only slightly affected by insertion into the gene, growth and virulence in vivo are markedly affected, R. M. L. Buller el al., Nature 317, 813-815 (1985) and loc. cit. (1988), showing that these genes are not completely non-essential for growth of the virus in vivo. This in vivo attenuation may however be useful if it reduces unwanted pathogenic effects of the virus and accordingly growth in vivo with accompanying attenuation is a valid growth condition for the purpose of this invention.
Some sites are essential in some tissue culture systems and non-essential in others. For example there is a gene in VV which is essential for replication in human cells but which is non-essential in chicken embryo fibroblast cells, S. Gillard et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83, 5573-5577 (1986). Another gene in the related orthopoxvirus cowpox virus is essential for growth in chinese hamster ovary cells but not for growth in chicken embryo fibroblast cells, D. Spehner et al., J. Virology 62, 1297-1304 (1988). These examples show that differences in the tissue culture systems can affect which regions are non-essential.
The VV genome is far from being completely mapped and relatively little has been published about the FPV genome. It is known that FPV has a TK gene which has about 60% homology with the VV TK gene at the amino acid level , D. B. Boyle et al., Virology 156, 355-365 (1987). Like the VV TK gene, it serves as a non-essential region for homologous recombination under at least some conditions: see PCT Application WO 88/02022 (CSIRO). Using the E. coli xanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (Ecogpt) gene as a dominant selectable marker, in conjunction with the VV "7.5" promoter, the influenza haemagglutinin (HA) gene was inserted into a TK region of FPV and the FPV grown in chicken embryo skin cells. Expression of the HA gene was demonstrated by the binding of HA antibodies and labelled protein A to plaques of recombinant FPV.
The genome of FPV is known to have other similarities to VV in some regions. For example the DNA polymerase genes are closely related, having 42% homology at the amino acid level, M. M. Binns et al., Nucleic Acids Research 15, 6563-6573 (1987). On the other hand, F. M. Tomley, in a talk at the 6th Workshop on Poxvirus/Iridovirus, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., Sep. 24-28, 1986, described an attempted correlation of an 11.2 kb fragment of FPV DNA, located near one end of the genome, with VV DNA. While she reported 25% amino acid homology between a gene predicting a 48 kd polypeptide in FPV and a gene in VV coding for a 42 kd polypeptide, no other match of any significance was found. More detail of this work is given in F. M. Tomley et al., J. Gen. Virol. 69, 1025-1040 (1988).
F. M. Tomley et al, quoting M. Mackett and L. C. Archard, J. General Virology 45, 683-701 (1979), also state at page 1038 that the terminal portions of orthopoxvirus genomes are less well conserved than the central region and also say that the terminal regions, of around 30 to 35 kb in length, are thought to encode genes which determine specific virus characteristics such as host range, virulence, tissue tropism and cytopathogenicity and are thus less likely to be conserved.
The terminal region of VV is known to be of possible interest in relation to non-essential regions. Thus, M. E. Perkus et al., Virology 152, 285-297 (1986), have found that deletions in the VV genome occur in the presence of bromoxydeuridine, one of which extended from about nucleotides 2700 to 24100 from the left-hand end and that the deletion mutant virus is viable in tissue culture (cell type not clearly stated). Some information has been released about the very terminal region of FPV, in a poster by J. I. A. Campbell displayed at the International Poxvirus Workshop, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., Sep. 9-13, 1987. (The poster gives more information than does the abstract published in "Modern Approaches to New Vaccines including Prevention of AIDS", CSH 1987, page 45). Like VV and cowpox virus, FPV has terminal sequences which are inverted repeats of each other and are covalently cross-linked together. A part of the terminal inverted repeat (TIR) sequence was digested with BamHI and cloned. The BamHI fragment was described as having a length of 6.3 kb. The poster describes the general layout of the sequences, which from left to right comprise a short unique region, a set of tandemly repeated sequences and then a long unique region containing three possible open reading frames. The summary notes that this FPV terminal fragment shares the general pattern of nucleotide sequence with the terminal fragments of VV and cowpoxvirus, but also notes some marked differences. The sequence of part of the VV TIR, namely from approximately nucleotides 6800 to 9000 from the left-hand end, VV i s reported by S. Venkatesan et al., J. Virology 44, 637-646 (1982).
Large differences between the DNA sequence of VV and FPV are to be expected, since the FPV genome is estimated to be at least one third longer than that of VV. It seems likely, from the present knowledge as cited above, that many of the differences between the genomes of FPV and VV will be nearer to the termini than to the center of the genome. Thus, information about the terminal region of VV is of limited interest in relation to FPV.
It has been a problem to locate a well-defined non-essential region other than the TK gene, in fowlpox virus. Very recently (Apr. 20, 1989), in PCT application publication No. WO89/03429 (Health Research Inc.), FPV recombinants have been described, but the non-essential regions mentioned therein are not all well defined. The recombinants were generated merely by cleaving the FPV gene into fragments and trying the fragments with test constructs to see whether the foreign gene under test was expressed.
The VV HindIII-D fragment is one of the best characterised regions of the virus. The sequence of this 16060bp fragment has been determined, Niles et al., Virology 153, 96-112 (1986), and thirteen genes (D1-D13) have been identified.
Several temperature-sensitive mutants have been mapped to genes within HindIII-D and fine mapping has assigned these to D2, D3, D5, D6, D7, D11 and D13, Seto it al., Virology 160 110-119 (1987). These genes are therefore essential for virus replication. It is not known whether the remaining genes within the VV HindIII-D fragment are essential or non-essential for virus growth. Recent experiments have suggested (though not proved) that D8, which encodes a transmembrane protein, might be non-essential for propagation of vaccinia virus in tissue culture, Niles and Seto, Journal of Virology 62 3772-3778 (1988). In these experiments, a frameshift mutation was introduced into the carboxy-end of D8 which removed the carboxy-terminal 56 amino acids of D8. Virus containing this mutation had growth rates indistinguishable from those of wild type virus.
It was not predictable, however, whether the D8 gene would occur in fowlpox virus and if so whether it would be non-essential. Moreover, there was the problem of how to locate the D8 gene in the FPV genome which is relatively unmapped and is much larger than that of VV. Consequently, examination of the vaccinia Virus HindIII-D fragment did not indicate how to find further non-essential regions within FPV.


The present disclosure describes systems and methods for performing multi-level reservoir history matching. At least some illustrative embodiments include a method that includes generating a first history-matched model using at least one updated model parameter derived from one or more existing model parameters, generating a set of second history-matched models by applying a probabilistic inversion to the first history-matched model, and deriving a set of third history-matched models from the set of second history-matched models. The method further includes generating dynamic simulation realization sets using each of the set of third history-matched models, ranking each of the set of third history-matched models based at least in part on the dynamic simulation realization sets, and presenting a production forecast to a user based on the highest ranked third history-matched models.

Oil field operators dedicate significant resources to develop tools that help improve the overall production of oil and gas wells. Among such tools are computer-based models used to simulate the behavior of the fluids within a reservoir (e.g., water, oil and natural gas). These models enable operators to predict future production of the field as fluids are extracted and the field is depleted. To help ensure the accuracy of such predictions, the wells are periodically logged using production logging tools to update and maintain a historical database of relevant metrics for the wells within a field. Simulation model results may then be regularly correlated against the updated historical data, with modeling parameters being adjusted as needed to reduce the error between simulated and actual values.
Accurately matching a simulation to historical data, however, can be a challenging task given the number of modeling parameters, the complexity of their interactions, the uncertainty in the values of the parameters, and the non-uniqueness of model realizations that may match a given set of historical data. The process of history matching a simulation model may involve the execution of thousands of simulations, which can be computationally demanding for large fields with a large number of wells. While a number of stochastic techniques such as Bayesian sampling and Monte Carlo methods may be used to reduce the computational burden incurred to achieve a given level of accuracy, the continually increasing amount of data being sampled in the field and stored on historical databases, as well as the increasing complexity of the simulations themselves, continue to fuel the demand for systems and methods that decrease the number of simulation realizations needed to achieve a meaningful history match of a simulation model.
It should be understood that the drawings and corresponding detailed description do not limit the disclosure, but on the contrary, they provide the foundation for understanding all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims.


A transistor includes one or more channel taps containing a stack consisting at least in part of a semiconductor an interfacial III-VI layered compound and a conductor. The III-VI compound consists primarily of atoms from Groups IIIA-B and from Group VIA of the Periodic Table of the Elements in an approximate 1:1 ratio. These materials may be formed as layers of covalently bonded elements from Groups IIIA-B and covalently bonded Group VIA elements, adjacent and respective planes of which may be bonded by Van der Waals forces (e.g., to form a single bilayer consisting of a single plane of atoms from Groups IIIA-B and a single plane of Group VIA atoms). One particular III-VI material from which the interfacial layer is made, especially for p-channel transistors, is GaSe. Other III-VI compounds, whether pure compounds or alloys of pure compounds, may also be used.

One of the most basic electrical junctions used in modern electronic devices is the conductor-semiconductor junction. In some cases, depending on the materials used, the junction may be ohmic in nature (i.e., the junction may have negligible resistance regardless of the direction of current flow). However in other cases the junction is inherently rectifying; that is, the junction tends to conduct current in one direction more favorably than in the other direction.
By 1938, Schottky had developed a theoretical explanation for such rectification; explaining that a barrier in electrical potentials at the surface of contact between the conductor and the semiconductor was responsible. In order for electrons or holes to pass between the conductor and the semiconductor, the charge carriers had to overcome this "Schottky barrier". The height of the barrier is determined by the difference in potentials between the carriers in the metal and those at the conduction band states of minimum energy (relevant to electrons) or valence band states of maximum energy (relevant to holes) of the semiconductor.
Metal/semiconductor junctions are fundamental components of field-effect transistors (FETs). With a FET device in the "on" state (in which charge is induced in a channel region by a gate electrode), carriers must relatively freely travel from one or more source(s), through the channel, and into one or more drains, where whether a given channel tap is better identified as a "source" or as a "drain" depends on the relative potential applied to the channel tap. Two types of channel taps are commonly used: "doped" semiconductor regions and metals.
With a doped source or drain, primarily substitutional impurities (dopants) yield a local reservoir of charge carriers (typically electrons for an n-channel transistor and holes for a p-channel transistor). To connect the transistor to other elements within the circuit, or to external connections of the circuit, metal is placed in electrical contact with the impurity-rich region. The critical parameter in a doped source or drain is how effectively the carriers can be exchanged with the reservoir (electrons for an n-type reservoir or holes for a p-type reservoir). A variety of junction characteristics contribute to a free exchange of these carriers, including:                1. A low Schottky barrier height due to an effective metal workfunction that is sufficiently low (for an n-type reservoir) or sufficiently high (for a p-type reservoir).        2. A high electric field at the interface, thinning the Schottky barrier and facilitating the tunneling of carriers through it. For example, higher concentrations of ionized impurities in the semiconductor near the metal/semiconductor interface tend to result in higher electric fields at that interface.        3. A shift in the effective band edges of the semiconductor, for example by "band gap narrowing" due to high concentrations of ionized impurities.        4. An increase in the rate of carrier generation/recombination processes in the vicinity of the barrier, facilitating the exchange of electrons and holes there, contributing to the flow of carriers between the contact and the channel when the channel is "on".
Metal or "Schottky" channel taps do not use impurity-rich regions between the contact and the channel(s), instead placing a metal conductor in direct contact with the region in which the channel is formed. The requirements on the Schottky barrier height at Schottky channel taps tend to be stricter than those for doped channel taps. There are several reasons that Schottky channel taps have stricter requirements. One is that Schottky channel taps tend to have a smaller metal/semiconductor interface area over which carriers can cross the interface; carriers must cross a Schottky contact in close proximity to the channel, where the channel is typically only a few nanometers thick, while with a doped channel tap carriers may be able to spread over a much broader area, traveling through the conductive impurity-rich region before or after crossing the metal/semiconductor boundary. Another reason is that a higher electric field at the contact (item 2 in the preceding list), impurity-induced band edge shifts (item 3 in the preceding list), and enhanced generation/recombination (item 4 in the preceding list) are less available to Schottky channel taps. Regions of high concentrations of ionized impurities (dopants) are unavailable, and substantially enhanced generation/recombination processes would increase the "off-state" leakage current.
So for both types of source or drain, doped or Schottky, but especially Schottky, reducing the Schottky barrier height is beneficial for the efficient transfer of current between the source(s) and drain(s) when the channel is in the "on" state. The most straightforward approach to reducing the Schottky barrier height is to choose a metal with a lower (for an n-channel transistor) or higher (for a p-channel transistor) workfunction. However, metal/semiconductor interactions reduce the efficacy of this approach.
The Schottky barrier is affected by a chemical and/or electrical interaction between the metal and the semiconductor with which it is in contact. The result of the interaction may be a charge dipole layer at the interface, which is affected by the potential energy of carriers in the metal, the energy levels of the available semiconductor conduction or valence band states, and possibly energy levels induced in the semiconductor gap due to proximity with the metal. The charge dipole may be "extrinsic", due to imperfections in the crystal structure at or in the vicinity of the interface, or "intrinsic", a fundamental consequence of the proximity and/or local bonding of the different materials. This dipole tends to have a polarity and strength such that it causes the Fermi level of the metal to be roughly aligned with an energy level in the semiconductor (at the metal/semiconductor interface) associated with the "forbidden gap" of the semiconductor: an energy at which there are essentially no "free" electron or hole states. With this alignment, there are Schottky barriers to the conduction and valence bands. Among the approaches to describing this "intrinsic" interaction are those of R. Tung, Phys. Rev. B, vol. 45, no. 23, pp. 13509-13523 (1992), and W. Mönch, Surface Science, vol. 300, pp. 928-944 (1994).
In either case, an approach to reducing the intrinsic interaction (as described by Grupp and Connelly in the above-cited patent applications) is to impose an interfacial layer between the semiconductor forming the channel and the metal. If this material can be formed with a low defect density, minimizing "extrinsic" states, while reducing the intrinsic states arising from the proximity of the metal to the semiconductor, the magnitude of the charge dipole can be reduced, allowing for a reduced or even eliminated Schottky barrier between the metal and the semiconductor in the channel region. The key is that the material be sufficiently thin so that, even if there is a Schottky barrier between the metal and the interfacial layer, free carriers of the appropriate type (electrons or holes) can be readily exchanged between the channel region semiconductor and the metal. The carriers may, for example, tunnel through the barrier associated with the thin interfacial layer.
Thus, Grupp and Connelly demonstrated that controlling or adjusting the barrier height of a metal/semiconductor junction could produce electrical devices of desired characteristics. For example, using the methods described in the above-cited patent applications one can tune MOSFETs to address issues of on-resistance and off-state leakage currents, as well as control short-channel effects. However, certain challenges must be overcome to achieve these advantages; among them, the ability to control the thickness of the interface layer between the metal and the semiconductor.
Controlling the thickness of interfacial layers or films of the types described in the above-cited patent applications (e.g., materials which, in their bulk form, are insulators, such as silicon nitride, Si3N4, or oxides of semiconductors, such as SiO2, or of metals, such as ZrO2) may not be easy. The film needs to be sufficiently thin that the tunneling of free electrons and holes through the resulting potential barrier is sufficiently probable that the peak available current in the device is not substantially diminished. Achievement of this needed tunneling probability, while maintaining the needed reduction in the metal/semiconductor interaction, may require near-monolayer control of the interfacial layer thickness.
Additionally, the present inventors have recognized that the interfacial material's interface with the channel region semiconductor should have a low defect density, avoiding "extrinsic" states and/or other deleterious effects associated with a high defect density. And, to facilitate the tunneling of free carriers through the interfacial layer, the material used for that layer should have sufficiently small potential barriers at the conduction and valence band, combined with suitably low "tunneling effective masses" for electrons and holes, where the "tunneling effective mass" describes how readily, for a given potential barrier height, carriers tunnel. Conversely, since material with weaker intrinsic interactions with metals tend to have wider band gaps, an interfacial layer in a preferred embodiment will not in general be one with a minimum barrier height to the conduction or valence band of the semiconductor with which it is in contact. Finally, if the interfacial layer does tend to "pin" the Fermi level towards a given value (a value at which the dipole at the interface between the interfacial layer and the metal becomes small), that value should preferably be closer to the band edge associated with the channel carrier (the conduction band for n-channel transistors, the valence band for p-channel transistors), of the material forming the channel region, resulting in a reduced tendency for the "pinning" to increase the Schottky barrier height between the metal and the channel region semiconductor for the carrier type of the channel.

Insulated gate field-effect transistor having III-VI source/drain layer(s)


The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising of proline or proline derivatives or their salts, esters, isomers, racemates, enantiomeres or prodrugs together with an anti-cancer ligand, preferably an antibody directed to a tumour antigen. The invention is also directed to the use of proline or proline derivatives or their salts, esters, isomers or prodrugs for the manufacture of a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer and to a method of cancer treatment by administering said composition.

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising of proline or proline derivatives or their salts, esters, isomers or prodrugs together with an anti-cancer ligand, preferably an antibody directed to a tumour antigen. The invention is also directed to the use of proline or proline derivatives or their salts, esters, isomers or prodrugs for the manufacture of a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer and to a method of cancer treatment by administering said composition.
Cancer is a significant health problem in the world. Although advances have been made in cancer detection and treatment, no vaccine or other universally successful preventive or therapeutic method is currently available. Management of the disease currently relies on a combination of early diagnosis and aggressive treatment, which may include one or more of a variety of therapies such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. While such therapies provide benefit to many patients, a high mortality continues to be observed for many cancers. The development of improved anti-tumour agents would facilitate cancer prevention and treatment.
Unfortunately, cancer is the second leading cause of death, behind heart disease, in both men and women. In the fight against cancer, numerous techniques have been developed and are the subject of current research directed to understanding the nature and cause of the disease and to providing methods for the control or cure thereof.
Although thousands of potential anti-cancer agents have been evaluated, the treatment of human cancer remains fraught with complications which often present an array of suboptimal treatment choices. As such, chemotherapeutic agents which possess little or no toxicity, which are inexpensive to obtain or manufacture, which are well tolerated by the patient, and which are easily administered would be a desirable addition to the therapeutic modalities currently available to the oncologist. Agents that will selectively sensitize malignant tissue to allow lower doses of radiation or therapy to achieve the same therapeutic effect with less damage to healthy tissues are also desirable.
Similarly, agents which prevent cancer from occurring or reoccurring are also desirable. The present invention remedies these needs by providing such chemotherapeutic and sensitizing agents.

Anti-cancer composition comprising proline or its derivatives and an anti-tumour antibody


A current transformer (4) detects the output currents of a voltage-type inverter (INV), and comparators (6) check whether the outputs from the current transformer exceed a predetermined limit value. The detected output currents are fed to a vector analyzer (8) to determine the location of the output current vector. A zone determining circuit (9) determines the location of the current vector in the zones. An output pattern generating circuit (10) responds to the output from the zone determining circuit (9) and provides a switching pattern corresponding to the voltage vector nearest to a vector having the direction opposite to that of the output current vector. A selector (2), being controlled by the comparator (6), selects a switching pattern from the output pattern generating circuit and provides it to the inverter (INV), when the comparator (6) detects that the magnitude of the current vector exceeds the predetermined limit value. The rate of change of the output current vector works so as to reduce the current regardless of whether the motor (IM) (a load of the inverter) is to be driven or braked, regardless of the location of the counter-electromotive force vector or the location of the voltage vector selected at that timing when the current limit enters into action. This ensures that the output current of the inverter (INV) will be reduced.

The inventors of the present application proposed, in their earlier Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open No. 62-123965, a current-limit system that can be used in voltage-type PWM (pulse-width modulation) control inverters. An example of the principal circuit of a PWM control inverter to which the current-limit system may be applied is shown in FIG. 22. In FIG. 22, E.sub.1 designates a dc (direct current) power supply, INV, an inverter, Tr.sub.1 to Tr.sub.6, transistors, D.sub.1 to D.sub.6, feedback diodes that have inverse-parallel connections across the transistors Tr.sub.1 to Tr.sub.6, and IM denotes a three-phase induction motor (which will be simply referred to "motor") that serves as a load.
The inverter INV provides the constant V/f (voltage/frequency) control in the known manner: the appropriate command value for the output voltage of the inverter INV is generated based on the frequency set value for the output voltage; this command value is compared with a carrier waveform so that a PWM signal may be produced; and this PWM signal enables the transistors Tr.sub.1 to Tr.sub.6 to provide the output voltage of the inverter INV that meets the requirements specified by the output voltage command value mentioned above.
The output current limit system for the inverter INV is provided with a current transformer or the like to measure the magnitude of currents iu, iv, and iw of respective phases (u, v, w), in order to determined that any of the currents exceed their specific limit value. If one of the phase currents iu, iv, and iw exceeds its positive limit value, the transistor in the upper arm for that phase is turned off, whereas if one of the currents exceeds its negative limit value, the transistor in the lower arm for the phase is turned off. This current-limit system will be described more specifically below.
First, it is assumed that respective phase currents are positive when they flow in the direction shown in FIG. 22, in the case where the motor IM is driven by the inverter INV. Then, it is also assumed that each pair of transistors Tr.sub.1 and Tr.sub.4, transistors Tr.sub.2 and Tr.sub.5, and transistors Tr.sub.3 and Tr.sub.6 in the upper and lower arms that forms a phase u, a phase v, and a phase w, respectively, has a switching pattern represented by (Su, Sv, Sw). It is noted that the corresponding transistors in the upper arm are in the ON state when Su, Sv and Sw assume the value of "1", respectively, whereas the corresponding transistors in the lower arm are in the ON state when Su, Sv and Sw assume the value of "0" respectively.
If the current of the phase u exceeds its positive limit value when the switching pattern is (1 0 0) (which means that transistors Tr.sub.1, Tr.sub.5 and Tr.sub.6 are in the ON state), the switching pattern for the phase u will be forced to change from "1" to "0". Changing the switching pattern to (0 0 0) causes the transistor Tr.sub.1 in the upper arm for the phase u to turn off, decreasing the u-phase current flow. Changing the switching pattern from "1" to "0" with regard to u-phase means to turn off the transistor Tr.sub.1 in the upper arm while turning on the transistor Tr.sub.4 in the lower arm. Turning the transistor Tr.sub.1 off when the current flows in the positive direction makes the current to flow through the transistors in the lower arms of the other phases and through the diode D.sub.4 in the lower arm of the unphase. Therefore, the fact that the transistor Tr.sub.4 is turned on has no significant meaning. Rather, turning off the transistor Tr.sub.1 of the upper arm makes the current flow decrease.
If the u-phase current flow exceeds its negative limit value, the transistor Tr.sub.4 is turned off, thus decreasing the current flow.
The rate of change of the current vector i flowing through the motor IM can be obtained from the output voltage vector V of the inverter INV, the counter electromotive force vector e of the motor IM, and the motor leakage inductance l, and is approximately expressed by the following equation. EQU l.multidot.di/dt=(V-e) (1)
The output voltage of the inverter INV shown in FIG. 22 can provide eight types of voltage vectors because there are eight (2.sup.3) switching patterns. Those switching patterns can be represented by the respective voltage vectors consisting of the voltage vectors V.sub.1 to V.sub.6 and the zero voltage vectors V.sub.O, V.sub.7, which are spaced by every .pi./3 (rad) as shown in FIG. 23. Respective phase currents iu, iv and iw shown in FIG. 22 are also shown in FIG. 23.
To produce a desired voltage vector V, the PWM inverter INV described above forms an equivalent voltage vector V having the desired magnitude and angle: the voltage vectors adjacent to the voltage vector V and the zero voltage vectors V.sub.0, V.sub.7 (when the voltage vector V is located as indicated in FIG. 23, for example, the voltage vectors V.sub.3, V.sub.4 are adjacent to the vector V) are selected from the it eight voltage vectors V.sub.0 to V.sub.7 in a time division manner within a specific time interval so as to produce the desired voltage vector V. Thus, the inverter INV may be controlled according to the switching patterns which correspond to the voltage vectors V.sub.3, V.sub.4, V.sub.0 and V.sub.7.
Referring now to the vector diagram in FIG. 24, let us consider the way the output current of the inverter is limited when the motor IM in FIG. 22 is driven by the inverter.
Let us suppose that the inverter selects the voltage vector V.sub.1 (switching pattern of (1 0 0)) in a time division manner so as to produce output voltage Va in FIG. 24 while driving the motor IM, and that the u-phase current iu exceeds its positive limit value during this phase. In this case, the voltage vector V.sub.0 corresponding to the switching pattern (0 0 0) in which Su is set to "0" is selected. As a result, the direction of di/dt will be that of (l.multidot.di/dt).sub.1, being determined by the above equation (1), the counter-electromotive forces el and V.sub.0. This will decrease the u-phase current iu.
On the other hand, let us suppose that the inverter INV selects the voltage vector V.sub.3 (the switching pattern (0 1 0)) in a time division manner to produce output voltage V.sub.b while braking the motor IM, and that the u-phase current iu exceeds its positive limit value at that time. In this case, the conventional system changes the u-phase Su of the switching pattern to "0". However, the Su in this pattern is originally "0", and so the switching pattern remains (0 1 0). In other words, this switching pattern continues to provide output voltage V.sub.3. The direction of di/dt, in this case, will be that of (l.multidot.di/dt).sub.2, being determined by the above equation (1), the counter electromotive force e.sub.2 and V.sub.3. This direction possesses the positive component of the u-phase current iu. This presents a problem that the current iu cannot be limited (or decreased) by the above method.

Current-limit system for voltage-type inverter


The present invention features a novel design for a bolometric infrared detector focused on LWIR range for human body high-resolution temperature sensing. The present invention incorporates an efficient plasmonic absorber and VO2 nanobeam to facilitate improvement in both aspects—thermal resolution and spatial resolution. The present invention significantly improves the detectivity, NETD, and responsivity for a smaller form-factor detector active area.

The two main types of infrared (IR) detectors are thermal detectors and photon detectors. The thermal detectors function based on the principles of temperature dependent phenomena—change in resistance, voltage generation injunction, change in polarization, thermal expansion of gas, etc. On the other hand, photon detectors function by converting IR radiation into photo generated free carriers. At present, high-performance infrared imaging technology is mainly based on epitaxially grown structures of the small-bandgap bulk alloy mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT). Quantum-well infrared photodetectors based on indium antimonide (InSb), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), and others are also available.
However, these technologies require extremely low operating temperature (<240K) increasing the bulkiness and cost of the system. The need for increased performance of the infrared detectors has driven extensive research towards the improvement in current IR detection technology as well as spurred novel techniques and sensors. The advancement of integrated optics and photonic integrated circuits has brought forward both IR detection and readout capability in the same chip. However, there is still a requirement for higher sensitivity for critical applications and high-resolution thermal imaging and sensing for medical and military purposes.
Phase-changing materials (PCM) hold significant potential in optical and thermal sensing and switching due to their sharp temperature dependent characteristics. Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is the most utilitarian PCM because of its close-to-room-temperature transition point. The most commonly reported value for this semiconductor-to-metal transition temperature of VO2 films is 68° C. However, the film and deposition technique can be engineered to further lower the transition even closer to the room temperature with a narrower hysteresis. At the transition point, the resistivity of VO2 material undergoes over three to four orders of change in magnitude. VO2-based bolometers utilize the material's large temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) to detect infrared radiation.
However, to achieve high sensitivity, the active radiation absorption area needs to be large enough that allows sufficient temperature buildup from incident radiation absorbed by VO2, thus requiring a large pixel dimension, and degrading the spatial resolution of bolometric sensing. The close co-existence of different oxides of deposited vanadium films in most detectors degrades the TCR of the material. Moreover, the absorption by the VO2 material is not optimized for a specific frequency band in most of the applications. On the other hand, plasmonic micro- and nanostructures can be tuned and designed to selectively and efficiently absorb a specific band of the incident radiation for local heating and thermal imaging. The prevalent design dilemma between the obtained thermal resolution and spatial resolution, bolometric bandwidth and performance, sensitivity, and noise need to be analyzed in order to achieve an optimized detector.
The present invention features a novel infrared detector architecture that integrates an efficient, selective, and scalable plasmonic absorber with a high-sensitivity VO2 nanobeam transducer. The goal of such design is to improve both—thermal resolution as well as spatial resolution and to address the challenge of low thermal contrast at a longer wavelength (LWIR). To achieve maximum sensitivity, the present invention operates the detector at the transition temperature to exploit the high TCR of VO2. The use of VO2 nanobeam instead of a thin film allows amplified TCR and a larger slope of impedance variation in response to local heating by radiation absorption. The performance, bandwidth, and noise analysis of the integrated detector designed for LWIR detection for the human body as the radiation-emitting object (310K or ˜10 μm wavelength) are also presented.

Plasmonically enhanced, ultra-sensitive bolometric mid-infrared detector

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


A cleaning apparatus includes a tank housing and a partition disposed in the tank housing so as to divide the interior thereof into pumping and cleaning chambers as the only chambers within the tank housing adapted to contain cleaning liquid. A submersible pump mounted inside the pumping chamber has an outlet connected to a first end of at least one tubular member, which defines a flow path extending from the first end and through an opening in the partition to an opposing second end inside the cleaning chamber and connected to a respiratory device for cleaning thereof. Cleaning liquid is pumped from the pumping chamber along the flow path, through the device for interior cleaning, and into the cleaning chamber to fill such chamber to an upper end portion of the partition defining an overflow weir, thereby immersing ad the device for exterior cleaning and allowing overflow into the pumping chamber.

The invention relates to an apparatus and method for cleaning a respiratory device, particularly of the type comprising a mask and associated hose for conveying an oxygen-containing gas (i.e. air) to and through the mask.
Such a respiratory device is used with a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition that occurs when a person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep because his or her airway collapses and prevents air from reaching the lungs. The CPAP machine delivers air at a continuous pressure through a hose to a mask as worn by the patient over the nose and/or mouth. The resulting application of continuous air pressure inside the airway of the patient prevents the airway from collapsing and restores normal breathing during sleep.
The CPAP mask and associated hose must be cleaned regularly to minimize the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. The CPAP mask, hose, and usually also a swivel adapter between the mask and hose are conventionally disassembled and then manually cleaned in a solution of water and mild detergent. Such a cleaning process is time consuming, inconvenient, and does not adequately clean interior surfaces. The cleaned components of the respiratory device must, of course, be reassembled after rinsing with water and drying.

Apparatus and use thereof in cleaning a respiratory device


The zoom lens includes at least, in order from an object side: a first lens group G1 having positive refractive power; a second lens group G2 having negative refractive power; a third lens group G3 having positive refractive power; a fourth lens group G4 having negative refractive power; and a fifth lens group G5 having negative refractive power. In the zoom lens, focusing from infinity to a proximity of object is achieved by movement of just fourth lens group toward an image focusing side and is characterized in Satisfaction of expressions below:[Expression 1]2.1<βrt<3.5  (1)−1.80<β2t<−0.94  (2)where “βrt” is composite lateral magnification at a telephoto end of lens groups locating closer to the image focusing side than the third lens group at infinity focusing, and “β2t” is lateral magnification at a telephoto end of the second lens group at infinity focusing.

Imaging apparatuses using solid state image sensors, such as a digital still camera, have become widespread. In recent years, miniature imaging apparatus systems using miniature solid state image sensors has been rapidly developing. Accordingly, requirement on a miniature zoom lens having high imaging performance have increased depending on market needs for a zoom lens adjusting a focal length depending on an object as an optical systems in the imaging systems. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-251462 proposes a miniature zoom lens that achieves high imaging performance all over a zooming range by increasing the number of movable lens groups during zooming to increase degrees of freedom of aberration correction.


An apparatus relates generally to multi-path digital predistortion. In this apparatus, a single-band digital predistorter engine has first and second sample paths. An input stage is coupled to receive input samples and configured to separate them into first samples and second samples. The input stage provides first and second magnitudes for the first and second samples, respectively. A first set of digital predistorters receives the first samples, the first magnitudes and the second magnitudes. A second set of digital predistorters receives the second samples, the second magnitudes and the first magnitudes. An output stage is coupled to receive predistorted outputs from the first set of digital predistorters and the second set of digital predistorters and is configured to provide a digital predistorted composite signal from the first set of digital predistorters and the second set of digital predistorters.

Digital predistortion is used to enhance linearity of output of a power amplifier, conventionally for transmission of a wireless signal from a base station. Multiband or Multi-Radio Access Technology ("Multi-RAT") conventionally involves a same power amplifier capable of supporting transmission for at least two bands with a single carry type in each band. These bands may be widely separated from one another as compared with bandwidth of each of such operating bands.
Hence, it is desirable and useful to provide improved digital predistortion for input to a power amplifier for transmission of a signal.


An apparatus comprises a host device configured to communicate over a network with a storage system. The host device comprises a multipath input-output driver configured to control delivery of input-output operations from the host device to the storage system over selected ones of a plurality of paths through the network. The input-output operations being generated by a plurality of applications of the host device and the multipath input-output driver having a plurality of dispatch resources. The host device is further configured to establish a plurality of application buckets for respective different application priority levels; and to allocate one or more dispatch resources to one or more of the plurality of applications depending upon the respective different application priority levels. In addition, the host device is configured to assign different ones of the applications of the host device to different ones of the application buckets. For a given one of the input-output operations, the host device is further configured to identify its corresponding one of the application buckets and utilize one or more of the allocated dispatch resources of the corresponding application bucket to control delivery of the given input-output operation to the storage system.

Storage arrays and other types of storage systems are often shared by multiple host devices over a network. However, it can be difficult in these and other situations to satisfy the particular input-output (IO) processing performance requirements of the potentially large numbers of distinct applications that may execute at different times on one or more host devices. As a result, the overall IO processing performance across the multiple distinct applications can be substantially less than optimal under certain conditions. Accordingly, a need exists for improved techniques for processing IO operations from multiple distinct applications sharing a storage system over a network.

Application input-output workload prioritization


A method of automatic and user intuitive cataloging of removable media on a computer. The method does not require the user to launch an application to catalog because it operates within the existing system software and does not require a user to learn to operate a separate cataloging program. This applies to cataloging as well as searching entries. The method presents the data in the catalog in the same way that actual files on the computers hard disk or start up volume are presented. The method includes modifying and/or creating pointer files so that when activated it can remember where the original file is located, even the file is on a volume that is not accessible to the computer when the pointer file is activated. The pointer file created by this method can be resolved when accessed through the operating system interface or from within an application, just like actual files.

FIG. 1 shows a typical computer configuration. The basic computer is comprised of electronics 1, display 2 and keyboard 3. The electronics component will typically contain storage devices, such as hard drive 4, floppy drive 6, and optional cartridge drive 8, and other similar storage devices.
These computers use a variety of electronic storage media like hard disks 4, floppy disks 7, cartridge disks 9, tapes, CD's and more. Typically a user will have a primary drive 4 from which the computer boots. A "Boot" volume will have a form of system code stored on it which gives the computer critical information that the computer needs to operate. In most cases the system code is located on hard disk 4 that is kept with the computer along with other important files and applications the user wants immediate access to.
Consumers have a wide variety of choices for storing files on other media. Often additional storage space is needed for additional files, archiving old files or backing up the software from their primary disk. These forms include non removable type media like other hard disks and networked volumes or removable media like floppies, cartridges, tapes and CD's. With removable media, the user has many removable disks or cartridges. Only one such disk can be inserted and be on-line at any given time. The remaining disks are all off-line and thus not directly accessible to the computer. With the typical users' storage space requirements increasing, people need to use cataloging programs on their computer to help keep track the location files on various forms of removable media.
Traditional methods for tracking files located off the main volume of a computer has been to obtain a stand-alone cataloging program. First one launches the program and sets up the catalog format. Then each piece of off-line media is cataloged one at a time. When the cataloging is complete the the user exits the program.
To search the entries in the catalog one launches the cataloging program and starts the search. Once the desired file is located, the user notes the location and quits the program. The user locates and inserts the proper disk into the computer. Once attached the user finds the file and loads it. With this traditional method of cataloging, a user must be familiar with the cataloging program and the interface in which the entries in the catalog are kept. Because the cataloging programing is a separate program, it has an interface with commands that are different from the computer's operating system and there is a learning a curve associated with using it. Most people require a more convenient mechanism for finding and accessing off-line material.
With the traditional method of cataloging the catalog is only as current as the last time the program was launched and all media recataloged manually. A user must dedicate a certain amount of time periodically to maintain the catalog.
It is desirable, therefore, that off-line cataloging be more convenient and operate in transparent fashion for the user with little or no direct interaction between the use and the cataloging program. The subject matter of the present invention provides such a cataloging function.

Method of cataloging removable media on a computer