The present invention is directed to a method of operating a telecommunications system for providing a message service to a plurality of end users. Existing telecommunications lines in conjunction with a telecommunications network system such as the Internet, Intranet, Extranet or similar environment is utilized. A computerized system can be used to establish a billing system for sponsors and to form an account for each sponsor purchasing subsequent usage relating to a site address. The method also includes distributing a user unit to each of a plurality of end users for accessing the site address. Each user unit is given the site address, and at least one unique personal identification number. In connection with said billing system, the computerized system is programmed to permit a call of a preset message limit to be made by each end user to the site address provided. This is based on the distributed user unit and accessed only by the unique personal identification number provided to the end user. In response to an end user accessing the site address, a predetermined message is provided in accordance with the preset message limit. The messages record of each consumed user unit is captured by the computerized system and can be used by the sponsor for database marketing. The session is terminated and an appropriate amount is charged to the account of the sponsor.

Various systems used for controlling, billing and blocking usage of telecommunications systems have been developed. The following is representative of the prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,155 to Castro discloses a method and apparatus for prepayment of telecommunication connections between two telecommunication devices which involves storing telecommunication-time data representative of a prepurchased amount of telecommunication-time available for payment of telecommunication connections in a switching network. At the initiation of the first telecommunication device, a telecommunication connection is established between the first and second telecommunication devices so that a telecommunication process can be conducted therebetween. The telecommunication connection between the first and second telecommunication devices is terminated in response to termination of the telecommunication process. The time duration of the telecommunication connection is measured. The stored telecommunication-time data is processed to indicate a decrement in the available telecommunication-time, which is essentially equal to the measured time duration of the telecommunication connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,075 to La et al. teaches a telephone set capable of selectively accepting callers and enabling partial recognitions of callers. The telephone set includes tip and ring terminals, a first analogue switch connected to the tip terminal, a first bridge diode connected to the first analogue switch and the ring terminal, a wave rectifying circuit connected to the first bridge diode, a microprocessor connected to the wave rectifying circuit and the first analogue switch, an EEPROM connected to the microprocessor, a hook switch connected to the microprocessor, and a selecting switch connected to the microprocessor. It further includes a second bridge diode connected to the tip and ring terminals, a hybrid IC circuit connected to the second bridge diode, a DTMF decoder connected to the hybrid IC circuit and the microprocessor, a power supply means for supplying the required power to the internal circuits, and a second analogue switch and a microphone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,408 to Greenspan et al. discloses a call processing embodiment where customers are offered a special dialing plan where received numbers are processed such that a query of a database is defined when a prespecified access code e.g., *66, is received, for example followed by a destination number, but where call blocking is defined for a predefined plurality of destination numbers, e.g. all destination numbers beginning with 976 or 1-900 or all destination numbers beginning with 1, when such numbers are received without the prespecified access code. Illustratively, the database query may result in the customer being prompted for a personal identification number and accordingly 976 or 1-900 access is thereby limited to those knowing the personal identification number. The database may perform other call screening and call management operations such as time of day or day of week screening or limiting the number or cost of 976 calls in a given time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,891 to Marshall discloses a method and system wherein the amount of credit available to a telephone travel card holder is determined immediately at the completion of a long distance call and the travel card is invalidated if no credit remains. Capture software captures call ticket data at the completion of a call and the ticket data is transmitted to a monitoring computer without delay. The monitoring computer calculates the amount of credit available to that caller and invalidates the travel card if no credit remains by transmitting a signal to all switching equipment stations throughout the telephone system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,186 to Heberle et al. teaches a method which allows the continued use of a credit card which is expired in terms of time or value units for automatic vendors which are in communication with a central evaluation location. The method allows a continuation of telephone calls, even with an expired telephone credit card. This occurs in that debiting of the fee units used or made to the account of the card owner at the central evaluation location in a chronologically limited transition time after every service performance so that a call is not cut-off in the middle of a call.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,275 to Kamil discloses a telephone system enabling prepayment for telephone calls, wherein special code and credit information is stored in memory in special exchanges and debited as the call progresses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,377 to Mearns teaches a method for automatically processing call data from a TSPS (Traffic Service Position System) over CCIS (Common Channel Interoffice Signaling) facilities to a remotely located database system to verify the entitlement of the caller to bill the call on a credit card, collect and charge-to-a-third number basis. The call data, dialed by the caller and comprises a credit card or station number together with a personal identification number used by authorized callers in placing the special service calls. The database system includes a memory table of authorized numbers to which the calls are charged and billed. The database transmits CCIS direct signaling verification messages through the signal transfer system to the TSPS signifying the entitlement and nonentitlement of the caller to the call service.
Notwithstanding the above prior art, there are no teachings or suggestions that would render the present invention anticipated or obvious. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a method of providing a message service for limited access telecommunications wherein end users are provided a user unit to access a predetermined message through a telecommunications network system such as the Internet, Intranet, and Extranet without the limitations associated with the prior art.

Method of providing message service for limited access telecommunications


Structure and methodology for creating a content-informative audit trail derived from text, vector information and imagery, and taking the form of a reduced-size data extraction from a document-job data-stream, such as a data-stream which exists in the context of a document printing, copying, scanning, e-mailing, and faxing job, etc. Selected, reduced-content components of a subject document data-stream are extracted according to various extraction approaches, and extracted information is stored in a appropriate storage site for later review to give an indication of just what printing, scanning, copying, etc activity has taken place with respect to different identified documents.

This invention pertains to apparatus and a method which are useable, in conjunction with the creation of a document data-stream, derived from the initiation of an imaging job, such as a print, copy, scan, fax or e-mail job, to create a storable and reviewable, content-informative audit trail. This audit trail is based upon extraction from such a data-stream of a small quantity of both text and imagery data that are sufficient to furnish a reviewing party with an understanding of the content of the document to which a selected data-stream relates. Audit-trail material is variously referred to herein also as a data-collection content surrogate, and as a data content sub-collection.
Content extraction can take place with respect to each, or less than all, of the different pages in a document. It can relate to portions only of one or more pages in a document, to sub-portions of text and imagery content, and in fact to any other content feature of an imaging job document data-stream which will be sufficient to inform a later-reviewing party about the nature of the content of the document. Additionally, stored audit-trail content material may be derived from a selective practice of abstracting different kinds of information drawn from pages in a document, and it may also be based upon later-performed content extraction from previously extracted material in order to minimize required storage space.
The present invention does not focus attention on any specific algorithm for performing extraction and/or reduction in storage size of extracted data, nor does it depend upon the specific location in a document data-stream and related system from where content extraction takes place. In general terms, such extraction may take place at any point in a system is functionally downstream from the point at which the relevant data-stream is first created or initiated. Further, and as was just suggested briefly above, the invention contemplates that, while a first-level extraction and storage of reduced-content data may be quite sufficient for initial storage purposes, over time it may be desirable to reduce further the storage space occupied by such extracted material by implementing a practice of time-cyclic re-extraction and further reduction of document data content over time. Thus, as storage files grow large, the invention contemplates that these files may individually and internally be even further reduced, so long as the reduction "product" is still capable of informing a reviewing party about the nature of the document content from which the extracted information was first drawn.
Various illustrations are provided herein, and are discussed to illustrate the breadth of capability offered by the apparatus and method of this invention. These illustrations should be understood to be representative of the practice and the structure of the invention, and not exhaustive or limiting of its scope of implementation.

Thumbnail audit trail in MFP and print processor/spooler-based print-job auditing


The invention relates to a method for removing a positively charged substance from an aqueous liquid (I) by contacting the liquid with a cation-exchanger (1), possibly followed by a subsequent desorption of said substance. The cation-exchanger is selected to be capable of (a) binding to said substance by cation-exchange in an aqueous liquid reference (II) at an ionic strength corresponding to 0.3 M NaCl and (b) permitting a break through capacity for said substance 3200%, such as 3300% or 3500%, of the break-through capacity of said substance for a reference cation-exchanger (2) containing sulphopropyl groups —CH2CH2CH2SO2O—. The cation exchange ligands have an at least bimodal function by comprising a cation exchanging group and a separate hydrogen-bonding atom. The invention also relates to a method for testing the appropriateness of a cation-exchanger for removing a substance from a liquid and novel cation exchangers.

This invention relates to new kinds of cation-exchangers that adsorb/bind substances at unusually high levels of ionic strengths. These cation-exchangers enable new ways for removing positively charged substances, for instance bioorganic substances, from liquids that preferably are aqueous.
Cation-exchangers comprise a plurality of ligands carrying a net negative charge. These kinds of ligands shall hereinafter be called "cation-exchange ligands". They include a possible spacer between the support matrix and the part of the ligand interacting with the substance to be bound. Cation-exchange ligands as contemplated in the context of the present invention typically have a molecular weight <1000, such as <700 daltons excluding the molecular weight contribution of halo groups that may be present.
The ligands are bound to a suitable carrier material, which typically is insoluble or insolubilizable in aqueous liquid media. Insoluble carrier materials will hereinafter be referred to as matrices and include also insolubilized forms or insolubilzable carrier materials.
The term "bimodal", in the context of this invention, refers to a ligand that is capable of providing at least two different, but co-operative, sites which interact with the substance to be bound. One of these sites gives an attractive type of charge-charge interaction between the ligand and the substance of interest. The second site gives hydrogen-bonding and/or hydrophobic interactions. Other kinds of interactions may also be present, for instance π—π, charger transfer and induced dipole interaction. There may also be present other sites giving rise to interactions with the ligand and the substance of interest.
The term remove/removal or separate/separation in the context of the present invention will encompass removal of a substance for any purpose, thus including adsorption to a cation-exchanger for isolation, purification, concentration, analysis etc. Removal/separation of impurities from a liquid will thus be included. In this case the liquid can be further processed with respect to some other substance(s) that is(are) of interest. The adsorbed substance may also be further processed. In this latter case the substance is typically de-sorbed and collected. If needed the substance is subjected to further purification steps. Good process economics requires that the cation-exchanger is regenerated and re-used after de-sorption.
Disadvantages With Earlier Techniques
Cation-exchange adsorption has for many years been of interest in large scale processing of fermentation broths and the like. These kinds of liquids typically have a high ionic strength making them unsuitable for direct application to conventional ion-exchangers. One reason has been that conventional ion exchangers adsorb proteins and other bio-polymers only at moderate ionic strengths, for instance at 0.1 M or lower in NaCl. This has implied dilution of process liquids giving large volumes to process and heavy investments in process equipment.
Related Publications
WO 9965607 (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech AB) discloses cation-exchangers in which there are linear cation-exchange ligands —A—X—Y(—Z)n where n is an integer ≧1, A is a spacer, X is —O—, —SR′— or —N(R′)(R″) (R′ and R″ are H, a free electron pair and certain groups providing a carbon directly attached to the heteroatom), Y is certain hydrocarbyl groups with the disclaimer that some of them shall not be combined with X being —O— or —S—, and finally Z is a cation-exchange group. The invention described in WO 9965607 is based on the discovery that in the defined group of ligands, there are cation-exchange ligands that, in contrast to conventional cation-exchangers, require elution ionic strengths that are up to 200% compared to a reference sulphopropyl cation-exchanger. It is speculated that there may be found extreme ligands that require ionic strengths more than 200% of the reference cation-exchanger.
WO 9808603 (Upfront Chromatography) discloses separation media of the general structure M-SP1-L in which M is a support matrix that may be hydrophilic, SP1 is a spacer and L comprises a mono- or bicyclic homoaromatic or heteroaromatic moiety that may be substituted (a homoaromatic moiety comprises an aromatic ring formed only by carbon atoms). In one variant L is X—A-SUB where X is —O—, —S— or —NH— and A is the homoaromatic or heteroaromatic moiety that is substituted. The substituent on A may be an acidic group which means that —SP1-X—A-SUB can be a cation-exchange ligand which is linear. The separation medium is suggested for the adsorption of proteins, in particular immunoglobulins, by hydrophobic interactions rather than cation-exchange (salt concentration up to 2 M).
WO 9600735 and WO 9609116 (Burton et al) disclose ion exchange resins in which the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of the resin including the ligand is changed upon changing in pH. The hydrophobicity may also be increased synthetically by the introduction of hydrophobic non-ionizable ligands. Adsorption/desorption is controlled by altering the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of the matrix including the ligand, for instance by changing the pH.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,578 (Burton et al) suggests to immobilise a thiol containing ligand, such as 3-mercaptopropionic acid, by addition of the thiol group over carbon-carbon double bond attached to a support matrix. The inventors in this case neither employ nor suggest the use of the material obtained for cation-exchange adsorptions.
WO 9729825 (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech AB) discloses anion exchangers in which the anion exchanging ligands comprises oxygen and/or nitrogens at a distance of 2–3 carbon atoms from the nitrogen atom of a primary, secondary or tertiary ammonium group (positively charged, cationic).
Dipolar adsorbents prepared by coupling of sulphanilic acid using epichlorohydrin has been described (ligand+spacer=—CH2CHOHCH2N+H2C6H4SO3−) (Porat et al., J. Chromatog. 51 (1970) 479–489; and Ohkubo et al., J. Chromatog. A, 779 (1997), 113–122). The articles do not disclose a method in which the ligand is negatively charged and the substance to be removed is positively charged.
2,4,6-trihalo-1,3,5-triazine has been utilized to bind different compounds RHNR′X to carriers inter alia to cellulose. R has been hydrogen, aryl or alkyl, R′ alkylene or arylene and X carboxy, sulphonyl, phosphate, phosphonate, boronate, etc. (See Behrend et al., WPI Abstract Accession No. 86-312313 (=DD-A-237844). This coupling methodology gives structures that are unstable to hydrolysis.
EP 326233 discloses a cation-exchanger in which there is a hydrophobic support matrix to which cation exchanging groups are attached. The hydrophobicity makes this type of cation-exchangers unsuitable for separation of biomolecules such as proteins.


A method for producing an experimental output satisfying an objective includes conducting an experimental execution process including applying a selection criterion to select an approach to determining a set of parameters for a set of experiments, and determining a first set of parameters for a first experiment according to the selected approach based on one or more of (i) a predicted relationship between a set of parameters and a characteristic of a corresponding experimental output, (ii) the measured characteristic of a second experimental output from a second experiment executed according to a second set of parameters, (iii) the objective, and (iv) a parameter selection rule. Conducting an experimental execution process includes controlling execution of the first set of experiments according to the first set of parameters, where execution of each first experiment includes conducting the experiment according to the first set of parameters to produce a first experimental output; and measuring the characteristic of the first experimental output. The method includes determining whether the objective is satisfied by the experimental execution process, and, when the objective is not satisfied by the experimental execution process, conducting a subsequent experimental execution process.

Experimental design is the process of selecting parameters for an experiment or set of experiments with the goal of achieving a particular objective, e.g., a material with a desired property, a paint with a desired visual appearance, or a structural design with a target strength-to-weight ratio. Searching for the parameters that provide the desired result is an iterative process that can involve multiple experiments or sets of experiments, each with a different parameter set. In the specific example of materials development, a property of a material (e.g., mechanical properties such as hardness or modulus; electrical properties such as conductivity or dielectric constant; or optical properties such as reflectivity or refractive index) can be affected by factors including the composition of the material, the structure of the material, and the process used to produce the material. When developing a material, a series of experiments can be performed in which parameters of the experiments are varied to affect the material composition, material structure, or fabrication process, and properties of the resulting material are measured. The objective of a materials development process can be to identify those parameters that result in a material with a desired property or to optimize a material based on a certain function of one or more of its properties.


A photomask for measuring lens aberration, a method of manufacturing the photomask, and a method of measuring lens aberration using the photomask are provided. In an embodiment, the photomask includes a transparent substrate having first and second surfaces. A reference pattern group and an encoded pattern group are formed on the second surface of the transparent substrate, spaced apart from each other. An aperture that includes a Fresnel zone is formed to face the second surface on the second surface of the transparent substrate. Light throughput and measurement efficiency are improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photomask, and more particularly, to a photomask for measuring lens aberration, a method of manufacturing the photomask, and a method of measuring lens aberration using the photomask.
2. Description of the Related Art
Circuit patterns that constitute a semiconductor device or a display device are formed by photolithography in an exposing apparatus. The exposure apparatus forms a circuit pattern on a wafer by radiating light onto a photomask. The exposure apparatus has an optical system that includes a lens to project the shape of a reduced shielding pattern of the photomask by collecting light on a surface of the wafer.
However, the lens in the optical system generally has an aberration that causes an imperfect focus on the wafer. The lens aberration may change the location of a circuit pattern on a wafer, which may cause various problems, such as a short-circuit on a highly integrated semiconductor device, which may have little or no space margin. Therefore, it is important to measure the lens aberration before performing a photolithography process to form a circuit pattern. Various methods for measuring the lens aberration have been proposed.
The prevailing method of measuring the lens aberration is to measure the magnitude of variation of an overlay value after measuring the overlay values using a lens aberration measuring photomask having a shielding pattern. More specifically, as depicted in FIG. 1, a wafer 40, on which a photoresist film 45 is formed, is loaded into an exposure apparatus (not shown) that includes an optical system composed of lenses 32 and 33 that are to be measured. Next, a reference photoresist pattern 46 is formed on the wafer by radiating light 50 onto a first photomask 10 after aligning the first photomask 10 on which a reference pattern 12 is formed. Afterward, an encoded photoresist pattern 47 is formed on the wafer 40 by irradiating light onto a second photomask 20 after replacing the first photomask 10 with the second photomask 20 on which an encoded pattern 22 is formed.
Next, an overlay value is obtained by measuring the distances ×1 and ×2 between the reference photoresist pattern 46 and the encoded photoresist pattern 47, and the lens aberration is measured based on the overlay value.
At this time, an aperture 15 is included to verify the lens aberration at a specific region of a lens pupil between the photomask 10 or 20 and a lens 30. The aperture 15 includes at least one pin hole 17 for confining the angle of light irradiated onto the lens 30.
Also, the wafer 40 must be located outside the optimal focus F to form a plurality of reference patterns 12 and encoded patterns 22 on predetermined regions on the wafer 40.
However, the above method of measuring lens aberration requires two photomasks 10 and 20. Therefore, it takes time to replace the first photomask 10 with the second photomask 20, thereby increasing the overall process time.
Also, an additional aligning process is required whenever the first photomask 10 is replaced with the second photomask 20. Furthermore, if the second photomask 20 is misaligned, an overlay variation may occur regardless of the lens aberration, which makes the correct measurement of lens aberration difficult.
Also, a high exposure energy of several J/cm2 is required to form the photoresist patterns 46 and 47, using a light source having, for example, a wavelength of 248 nm or 193 nm, since the light irradiated through the photomasks 10 and 20 is transferred to the photoresist film 45 through a small pin hole having a diameter of a few tens of μm in the aperture 15 or 25, thereby reducing the exposure efficiency. For reference, an exposure energy required for forming a photoresist pattern is generally 20-30 mJ/cm2.

Photomask for measuring lens aberration, method of its manufacture, and method of its use


An analog to digital conversion device with DC offset mismatch compensation comprises a composite analog to digital converter (ADC) consisting of N interleaved sub-ADCs, a DC offset accumulator, an averaging unit, a subtraction unit, and a compensation unit. The ADC generates a stream of digital samples corresponding to signal values at an analog input to the ADC. The digital stream is a combination of N partial signals produced by the respective sub-ADCs. The DC offset accumulator measures and stores DC offsets of the respective partial signals. The averaging unit calculates an average value of DC offsets of the respective N partial signals. The subtraction unit is responsive to the DC offsets of the respective partial signals and the average value of the DC offsets, to produce a signal representative of the differences between the values arriving at a DC offset input and the value arriving at an average value input. The subtraction unit is responsive to the DC offsets of the respective partial signals and the average value of the DC offsets, to produce a signal representative of the differences between the values arriving at the DC offset input and the value arriving at the average value input. The compensation unit corrects the digital stream from the ADC by subtracting the differences from the stream from the ADC.

High speed ADCs are widely used in data processing, in communication systems, in digital oscilloscopes and in other applications. One way to provide for high speed analog to digital conversion in such devices is to use a composite ADC that consists of a number of interleaved sub-ADCs with a common input and sequential timing. In such a case, each sub-ADC generates a partial signal that has a lower data rate than the data rate of the ADC as a whole. All the partial signals are combined into one high speed digital signal that is produced at the output of the composite ADC.
The construction of a high speed ADC comprising a set of interleaved sub-ADCs has a drawback. The signal processing associated with different paths through the various sub-ADCs differs slightly from one sub-ADC to the next. The slight differences occur principally because of variations of the manufacturing processes and the distinctions between hardware components. As a result, each of the partial signals experiences a distinct processing variation and hence, certain aspects of the signals vary across the sub-ADCs.
In particular, each of the partial signals may acquire in the course of conversion, a different DC offset. This mismatch of DC offsets in different sub-ADCs causes specific distortions in the digital signal produced by a composite ADC, the most significant being an appearance of spurious frequency components.
A number of prior art patents propose different ways to eliminate or to reduce DC offsets in composite ADCs, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,477,885, U.S. Pat. No. 7,894,561, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,036,622. However, the proposed devices of those patents correct DC offset of a composite ADC as a whole, while mismatch of DC offsets between different sub-ADCs of the respective prior art composite ADCs remains unchanged.
A method and apparatus for compensating mismatch of DC offsets in parallel processing of digital signals is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 8,294,606. In that patent, it is proposed to process each partial signal that is produced by a sub-ADC of a composite ADC, in a device of a type shown in FIG. 1. The part of the block diagram within dashed line 14 functions as an accumulator. Samples that are applied to an input of the accumulator from block 11, are added in an adder 13 to a value that has been stored in a delay unit 12. A sum that is produced at an output of the adder 13 is loaded into the delay unit 12 as a new accumulated value. In that way, the accumulator 14 compiles a mean value of a sequence of samples that are applied from an output of an adder 10. In adder 10, the accumulated mean value is subtracted from an applied input signal.
The above-described operation of the device in FIG. 1 reduces practically to zero, any DC component in each partial signal of the there-disclosed composite ADC. In that way, the DC offset is removed in each partial signal, eliminating mismatch of DC offsets that existed in the combined signal. However, that proposed procedure for DC offset mismatch compensation of U.S. Pat. No. 8,294,606 has a substantial drawback. Namely, in the frequency domain, the device of the block diagram in FIG. 1 is equivalent to a high pass filter. As a consequence, relatively low frequency components of an input signal are subject to relatively high attenuation compared to attenuation of relatively high frequency components, while a DC component of the input signal does not pass through the proposed device at all. Because of that blocking of DC components, the procedure for DC offset mismatch compensation of U.S. Pat. No. 8,294,606 is problematic for applications of composite ADCs where the DC component of the processed signal carries essential information, as is the case in digital measuring instruments, such as digital oscilloscopes and other similar devices. The method of U.S. Pat. No. 8,294,606 cannot be used in such applications, as well as in applications, where the frequency distortions of processed signal are intolerable
The present technology provides a device that removes DC offset mismatches in a composite ADC, while passing the DC component, without distortions of processed signal properties.

High speed interleaved ADC with compensation for DC offset mismatch


A system is provided for preventing a push-pull circuit breaker from being inadvertently depressed. The system may include a clip member having a generally C-shaped collar defining a cylindrical recess therein. The clip member is configured to resiliently expand to be positioned over and receive a cylindrical portion of the circuit breaker knob in a manner that prevents the circuit breaker knob from being depressed to close the circuit breaker. The system further includes first and second tabs depending from ends of the clip member. A cable tie may be positioned through openings formed in the first and second tabs to secure the first and second ends to each other, thereby locking the clip member in position on the push-pull circuit breaker knob and preventing the circuit breaker knob from being depressed.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to safety devices for electrical circuit breakers and, more particularly, to a system and device for preventing the inadvertent engagement of a push-pull circuit-breaker.
2. Background of the Invention
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administrations' ("OSHA") Control of Hazardous Energy (Lock-Out/Tag-Out) ("LOTO") standards, Title 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Parts 1910.147, 1019.333, require employees that perform work inside of an electrical panel to de-energize live parts of a circuit to which an employee may be exposed before the employee works on or near them. This standard applies to employees that service machines and equipment in which an unexpected energization or start-up of the machines or equipment, or release of stored energy, could harm the employee.
Under the standard, a person servicing, for example, electrically-powered machines or equipment is required to disengage a circuit breaker coupled to the component and apply a locking or "lock-out" device to the breaker to prevent the circuit breaker from inadvertently engaging while the component is being serviced. In addition to being de-energized and locked-out, such equipment or and circuits must be tagged at all points of work where the equipment or circuits can be energized. Such tags must be attached to the inoperative equipment and circuits such that the tags may be seen in plain sight. The tags must also identify the equipment or circuits currently being serviced. Further, in order to comply with LOTO standards, the lock-out device must not be capable of being removed from the circuit breaker by hand—the lock-out device must be removed by some sort of equipment or tool.
In applying the LOTO standards to, for example, circuit panels 100 in aircraft structures, push-pull actuated circuit breakers 102 commonly used in these types of applications must be disengaged from the circuit panel 100 before a technician may service equipment or circuits coupled to the breaker 102. Once the circuit breaker 102 is disengaged, a lock-out device 104 must be secured to the circuit breaker knob to prevent the circuit breaker from being depressed. One example of a commonly used lock-out device is the multipart Skykit® system (which includes the Skylox®, Skyvault®, Skytag®, and Skyclip®), sold by Kascar, LLC, One Kascar Plaza, Greenville, S.C. 29605. Such lock-out devices, while effective, carry a host of undesirable characteristics.
First, as best shown in FIG. 1a, existing lock-out devices 104 are bulky and often protrude out from the circuit panel 100. In some instances, the lock-out devices 104 may protrude from the circuit panel 100 more than an inch or so. This protrusion reduces the useable workspace of a technician because, as shown in FIG. 1b, the passageways in electrical bays ("E-bay") of aircraft structures are very tight and, as such, technicians 106 frequently snag or bump into the lock-out device 104 while passing through the E-bay. Because circuit breaker knobs are not intended to be loaded, only to be pushed in or pulled out, the breaker knobs 102 upon which the lock-out devices 104 are applied may be sheared or snapped-off when the lock-out devices 104 are inadvertently engaged by a technician 106 passing through the E-bay.
The replacement of one damaged circuit breaker may cost several thousand dollars. Thus, the replacement of several damaged breakers during the service or maintenance of an aircraft structure can be very costly.
A second characteristic of existing lock-out devices is that they generally comprise several parts. For example, the commonly used Skykit® system comprises six separate parts: the Skylox® (which comprises two half-shells and an O-ring), the Skyvault®, the Skytag®, and the Skyclip®. In the aviation industry, in particular, objects laying around an aircraft that are not part of the operation are referred to as FOD. FOD, which stand for foreign object debris, refers to any substance, debris or article alien to a vehicle or system which would potentially cause damage. FOD often migrate around aircraft structures and the use of existing multi-part lock-out devices increases FOD risk. As such, there is a need for a low profile lock-out system comprising a minimal number of parts.

Electrical circuit breaker safety system


A system includes a particulate matter (PM) filter with multiple zones. An electrical heater includes heater segments that are associated with respective ones of the zones. The electrical heater is arranged upstream from and proximate with the PM filter. A post fuel injection system injects fuel into at least one of a cylinder of an engine and an exhaust system. A control module selects one of the zones, adjusts post fuel injection based on the selected one of the zones, and electrically heats the one of the zones via a respective one of the heater segments.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Engines such as diesel engines produce particulate matter (PM) that is filtered from exhaust gas by a PM filter, such as a wall-flow PM filter. The PM filter is disposed in an exhaust system of the engine. The PM filter reduces emission of PM that is generated during combustion.
Over time, the PM filter becomes full. During regeneration, the PM may be burned within the PM filter. Regeneration may involve heating the PM filter to a combustion temperature of the PM. There are various ways to perform regeneration including modifying engine management, using a fuel burner, using a catalytic oxidizer to increase the exhaust temperature with after injection of fuel, using resistive heating coils, and/or using microwave energy. The resistive heating coils are typically arranged in contact with the PM filter to allow heating by both conduction and convection.
Regeneration may be performed using an exhaust heating technique or using an electrical heating technique. An exhaust heating technique refers to the heating of an exhaust gas, for example, by post injection of fuel. During a combustion cycle of an engine, an air/fuel mixture is compressed and ignited within a cylinder of the engine. For robustness and to facilitate regeneration, fuel may be injected into the cylinder during the combustion cycle and after ignition of the air/fuel mixture or into the exhaust stream. The fuel may in addition to or alternatively be injected into the exhaust stream or exhaust system. When introduced during or after ignition and/or exhaust strokes of the combustion cycle, the injected fuel, referred to as post-injected (PI) fuel, mixes with the exhaust gas and is oxidized by an oxidation catalyst disposed in the exhaust system. The heat released from the oxidation reaction in the catalyst increases the temperature of the exhaust system, which facilitates the ignition of the particulates in the PM filter.
The electrical heating technique refers to the electrical heating of an exhaust gas entering a PM filter. One or more electrical coils may be disposed upstream from the PM filter and may be activated to heat the exhaust gas. This provides a quick heating and light off of the PM.
PM reduction systems that use fuel tend to decrease fuel economy. For example, many fuel-based PM reduction systems decrease fuel economy by 5%. To improve fuel economy, electrically heated PM reduction systems are used. When electrically heated PM reduction systems are used in combination with fuel-based PM reduction systems, expansion and compression forces can occur within the PM filter. The expansion and compression forces are due to temperature differentials between, for example, an electrically heated zone(s) and a non-electrically heated area(s) of the PM filter. The expansion and compression forces cause stress on the PM filter, which can result in fractures, for example, in the corderite substrate of the PM filter.

Electrically heated particulate filter zone-based post fuel injection system


An optical device manufacturing method including the steps of: forming a groove with a depth corresponding to a finish thickness of the heat sink in a heat sink material at a position corresponding to an associated one of the streets sectioning the plurality of optical devices; joining the optical device layer of the optical device wafer to the heat sink material via a joining metal layer; cutting and dividing the optical device wafer along the streets into individual optical devices; sticking a protection member to the rear surface of the substrate of the optical device wafer; and grinding the rear surface of the heat sink material to expose the grooves to the rear surface to thereby divide the heat sink material into heat sinks corresponding to associated individual optical devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical device manufacturing method of dividing an optical device wafer into a plurality of optical devices sectioned along streets and joining a heat sink to each of the optical devices, the optical device wafer being formed with the optical devices in an optical device layer lying on the front surface of a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the optical device manufacturing step, a plurality of optical devices are formed in an optical device layer made of a gallium nitride-based compound semiconductor or the like on the front surface of a sapphire substrate, a silicon carbide substrate or the like. An optical device wafer formed with the optical devices in the optical device layer as mentioned above is divided into the individual optical devices sectioned along streets for manufacture.
As a method of dividing an optical device wafer along streets, a method is proposed in which a laser beam capable of passing through an optical device wafer is directed along a street to form a laser-processed groove and external force is applied along the laser-processed groove to split the wafer. See e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 10-305420. On the other hand, since an optical device produces heat, a heat sink member is joined to the optical device in order to dissipate the heat. See e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 60-92686.
An optical device is formed e.g. 0.3×0.3 mm square. It is troublesome to join each heat sink to such a small optical device, which poses a problem of poor productivity. It may be intended that a heat sink material having a size corresponding to that of an optical device wafer is joined to the front surface of an optical device layer and a laser beam is directed along a street formed on the optical device wafer to cut the heat sink material along with an optical device wafer. However, since the heat resulting from the energy of the laser beam escapes through the heat sink material made of metal such as copper, the heat sink material cannot be cut.
Alternatively, it may be intended that a heat sink material having a size corresponding to an optical device wafer is joined to the front surface of an optical device layer and the heat sink material together with the optical device wafer is cut along streets formed on the optical device wafer by a cutting blade. Even such a case, it is difficult to simultaneously cut the high-brittle optical device wafer and the heat sink material made of metal such as high-ductile copper.


A frame-shaped sidewall is provided on a metallic base plate surrounding a semiconductor element arranged on the metallic base plate, which is provided with a stepped surface positioned at lower level at a portion of the base plate than a main surface of the base plate. A first dielectric plate is arranged on one side of the semiconductor element and a first circuit pattern is formed on its surface, a second dielectric plate is arranged on another side of the semiconductor element and a second circuit pattern is formed on the first and the second dielectric plate. An insulator is mounted on the stepped surface of the base plate, which forms a part of the sidewall. Power supply portions are provided including a band-shaped conductor. An interconnection is provided which connects the band-shaped conductor to the circuit pattern.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device used, for example, in a high frequency band.
A microwave power amplifier using semiconductor device for the high frequency (hereinafter referred to as HF) band, using a gallium arsenide field effect transistor (hereinafter referred as GaAsFET), for example, is assembled in a package which is so constructed that a frame-shaped metallic sidewall is provided on a base plate, an opening formed by the sidewall on an upper portion is covered with a metallic lid. In this package, an input matching circuit is arranged on an input side of the GaAs FET and an output matching circuit is arranged on an output side of the GaAs FET. These matching circuits are formed on a dielectric plate fixed on the base plate.
A part of the metallic sidewall adjacent to the input matching circuit is composed of an insulator such as ceramic and a band-shaped conductor for an input signal is provided penetrating through the sidewall formed by the insulator. One end of an input lead wire, which is lead out from the package, is connected with one end of the band-shaped conductor. A wire, which is connected with an input end of the input matching circuit in the package, is connected with the other end of the input band-shaped conductor by bonding.
A part of the metallic sidewall adjacent to the output matching circuit is similarly composed of an insulator and a band-shaped conductor for an output signal is provided penetrating through the sidewall formed by the insulator. One end of an output lead wire, which is lead out from the package, is connected with one end of the band-shaped conductor for an output signal. A wire, which is connected with an input end of the input matching circuit in the package, is connected with the other end of the input band-shaped conductor by bonding.
The output end of the input matching circuit is connected to the input end of the GaAs FET by wire bonding and the output end of the GaAsFET is connected to the input end of the output matching circuit by wire bonding. In the microwave power amplifier thus composed, input signals received by the input lead wire is supplied to the input end of the input matching circuit inside the package via input band-shaped conductor. Input signals, converted by the input matching circuit are supplied to the input end of the GaAsFET to be amplified. Output signals from the GaAsFET are lead out of the package via output matching circuit and the output band-shaped conductor, and are outputted through the output lead wire.
Such microwave power amplifier is disclosed, for example, in Japanese patent disclosure H9-153839.
Recently, a demand is arising for a high output power for such conventional semiconductor device as disclosed above. Consequently, durability of the band-shaped conductor, which penetrates through the sidewall portion of the package, against interrupting with a high current is required. Namely capability to a high current interrupting is required. To achieve the tolerance to a high current interrupting, there is a method for increasing a thickness of the band-shaped conductor, for example. However, if the thickness of the band-shaped conductor is increased, following problems arise.
The band-shaped conductor penetrating through the sidewall portion is sealed by a pair of insulator members such as ceramic members, for example, provided on and under the band-shaped conductor jointly forming a portion of the sidewall. Therefore, joining of the pair of ceramic members becomes difficult and hermetic seal of the portion where the band-shaped conductor is penetrating is degraded, if the thickness of the band-shaped conductor is increased. As the result, it becomes difficult to keep air tightness of the package in which the semiconductor elements and other elements are sealed. For the above reasons, there exists a limit in the thickness of the band-shaped conductor.
There is another method to achieve the capability to a high current interrupting, in which a width of the band-shaped conductor, namely a width of a pattern is broadened, for example. To make the width of the pattern broad, the thickness of the sidewall portion between the band-shaped conductor and the surface of the baseboard, made of the ceramic, for example, should be made thicker in order to keep predetermined impedance. When the ceramic is made thicker, difference in the height becomes great between the circuit pattern composing the input matching circuit or output matching circuit and the band-shaped conductor. As the result, wires connecting circuit pattern and band-shaped conductor become long in vertical direction, for example, radiation loss increases. Further, if difference in the height becomes large between circuit pattern and band-shaped conductor, problems arise that a discontinuity arises in the path of HF current and reflection occurs at the portion.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for producing microcapsules in which various coats can be applied to various cores at any desired but uniformly controllable thickness comprises the steps of:. (a) providing microcapsule cores, PA1 (b) depositing resin particles uniformly onto the surfaces of the microcapsule cores to form resin particle-deposited-onto-cores, PA1 (c) putting the resin particle-deposited-onto-cores in a monodisperse state, PA1 (d) bringing the resin particle-deposited-onto-cores in the monodisperse state into contact with a solvent in which the resin of the resin particles can dissolve, and PA1 (e) drying the resin particle-deposited-onto-cores which has been brought into contact with the solvent, while kept in the monodisperse state and, then, recovering the dried cores.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of preparing microcapsules and, more specifically, to a method of preparing toners of a multilayered structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In numerous technical fields, attention is now being paid to using microcapsules as functional particles.
For instance, imaging toners are required to serve high-performance functions. Thus various techniques for producing microcapsules of a multilayered structure have been proposed to this end, including, e.g. methods for producing microcapsule toners by polymerization with a view to fixing them with low energy (U.S. Pat. No. 3,080,250, Japanese Patent Publication No. 31066/1984 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 36934/1989); a method for producing toners having electrification-controlling resin films around them using a dry high speed impact technique with electrification control in mind (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 62666/1988); and a method for producing toners by treating their surfaces with finely divided resin powders for the purpose of imparting blocking resistance to them (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 105261/1989).
Problems with the toners obtained by fixing coats to them with the aid of a high speed impinge or impact force (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 62666/1988 and 105261/1989), however, are that the coats are so much less adhesive to the toner surfaces and undergo such large variations in thickness or adhesion that they degrade during use, separating off the toner surfaces or undergoing changes in their surface shapes, etc., thus resulting in a drop of the quality of the resulting images. The microcapsule-coating methods (Japanese Patent Nos. 310666/1984 and 61141/1987) also involve similar problems or offer difficulties in connection with toners' durability and coagulation stability due to the coats being thin and varying largely in thickness or for other reasons.
In most of the conventional methods, the toners' cores and coats must stand up to the heat or pressure which are used to deposit and fix the coats to the toners' cores. For that reason, there is another problem that some limitation is placed on the materials of which the toners' cores and coats are made.
Generally speaking, it is thus desired to develop a method for producing microcapsules well adapted for various technical fields, in which various coats can be formed on various cores at any desired but uniformly controlled coat thickness.


An integrated circuit card includes a plurality of electrical contacts; and a memory to store information, the memory being allowed to communicate with a processor via the plurality of electrical contacts. One set of electrical contacts are allowed to be allocated by the processor to support an operation in at least one mode depending on a presence of a certain protocol mode detected by the processor. The integrated circuit card is operable in various modes including both contactless and high speed protocols, a contactless only without the high speed protocol and the high speed protocol only without the contactless protocol.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a smart card (SC) or an integrated circuit (IC) card which may be based on a standard such as Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) or the like or has compatibility with those standards; and more particularly relates to a mobile communications terminal that may accommodate the IC card.
2. Description of Related Art
An integrated circuit (IC) card has an embedded integrated circuit (IC) that may be a logic circuit and be typically coupled to physical interfaces, which allow the IC card to communicate with external devices to perform various functions. The external devices may include a mobile communications terminal, a personal computer, an IC card adapter-writer/reader, and so on.
Most IC cards or UICC are likely to support, in addition to a historical International Standard Organization (ISO) protocol (e.g., ISO 7816), a high speed protocol that can be based on MultiMediaCard (MMC) or Universal Serial Bus (USB). When the UICC or IC card is engaged with the SC writer/reader or the terminal, which may have an IC card adapter, connected to a computer via a high speed protocol interface such as the USB standard, the IC card may provide a user with a low-cost, high-speed serial interface that can be easy to use and support a "plug and play" function to the devices external to the computer. In addition, a single mode IC card may separately support a contactless protocol. In addition, a dual mode IC card may possibly switch from the historical ISO 7816 protocol to the high speed protocol or vice versa.
The integrated circuit (IC) card typically includes eight electrical contacts. However, not all eight electrical contacts are electrically engaged with an embedded processor and some of them are unused. These unused contacts can either be allocated to a specific technology. It can be a significant drawback that if only unused electrical contacts of the IC card can be allocated for the high speed protocol, this allocation of the contacts may be in conflict with the need for contactless protocol because the contactless protocol should be enabled on at least one unused electrical contact as well.
In addition, the issue is that the number of electrical contacts available on the UICC or IC card is typically limited to eight. As the functions and capabilities of wireless communications devices continue to develop, increasing the total number of electrical contacts may be one way to support such developments. However, adding new physical electrical contacts on the UICC can require the significant modifications for both UICC and any external device that needs to communicate with it.

Method and apparatus for contactless interface on ICC supporting high speed interface


The program for a numerical control device for controlling a numerically controlled lathe includes translation commands for translating the tool and the machining mode switching commands for switching between the normal mode by which only the tool is translated and the Swiss mode by which both the tool and the work are translated. A machining program analyzer unit analyses the program commands into translation commands and the machining mode switching commands. In response to the machining mode switching commands, the interpolation data generator unit converts the commands for translating the tool two-dimensionally into translation data for the tool along a first axis and a translation data for the work along a second axis. Thus, the programming for the machine tool capable of operating both in the normal and the Swiss mode is made easier.

This invention relates to numerically controlled machine tools and numerical control devices, and more particularly to those by which the work is machined by moving the tool and the work in accordance with the machining programs for controlling the movement of the tool with respect to the work.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing schematically the organization of a conventional numerically controlled lathe. The numerically controlled lathe 51 consists of a lathe device 20 and a numerical control device 60. The tool 32 of the lathe device 20 can be translated along the X-axis and the Z-axis running perpendicular to each other. In FIG. 7, the arrows at reference characters X and Z represent the positive directions of the X-axis and Z-axis, respectively. The work W is held by a main spindle 33 and/or an auxiliary spindle 36. The work W can be translated along the B-axis running parallel to the Z-axis. The arrow at reference character B represents the positive direction of the B-axis.
The translation along the X-axis is effected by an amplifier 21x and a motor 22x. The translation along the Z-axis is effected by an amplifier 21z and a motor 22z. The translation along the C-axis (not shown) is effected by an amplifier 21c and a motor 22c. The translation along the B-axis is effected by an amplifier 21b and a motor 22b.
The numerical control device 60 includes: a machining program analyzer unit 61 for reading thereinto a machining program Q prepared by an operator and then analyzing the commands thereof; a interpolation data generator unit 62 for generating the interpolation data which is necessary for translating the respective axes of the lathe device 20 in accordance with the commands of the machining program Q analyzed by the machining program analyzer unit 61; and an interpolator unit 63 which translates the axes of the lathe device 20 in accordance with the interpolation data obtained by the interpolation data generator unit 62.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the interpolation data generation executed by the interpolation data generator unit. At step S51, the interpolation data generator unit 62 judges whether or not the command obtained by an analysis of the machining program Q is a translation command. If the judgment is affirmative, the interpolation vector is calculated at step S52 in accordance with the command; if the judgment is negative, nothing is done. Next, at step S53, judgment is made whether or not the command is an arc command. If the judgment is affirmative, the arc length and the initial machining angle is calculated in accordance with the command at step S54. After the arc length and the initial machining angle is calculated--or immediately after step S53 if the judgment is negative thereat--the magnitudes of translations are calculated at step S58. Further, at step S59, the distribution ratio (described below) for the respective axes are calculated.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the interpolation data in the case where a linear translation command is given. The command is that the tool 32 be translated linearly from an initial point S (Xs, Zs) to an end point E (Xe, Ze). The interpolation vector is represented by V, while the amounts of translations along the X-axis and the Z-axis are represented by .DELTA.X and .DELTA.Z, respectively. Thus, EQU .DELTA.X=Xe-Xs EQU .DELTA.Z=Ze-Zs
On the other hand, the amounts of translation along the B-axis, .DELTA.B, is null: EQU .DELTA.B=0
Thus, the distribution ratios: Sx, Sz, and Sb, for the X-axis, Z-axis, and B-axis are: EQU Sx=.DELTA.X/Lv EQU Sz=.DELTA.Z/Lv EQU Sb=0
where Lv is the length of the interpolation vector V: EQU Lv.sup.2 =(Xe-Xs).sup.2 +(Ze-Zs).sup.2
Under the above circumstance, the machining program Q is given, for example, by: EQU G00XXsZZs; EQU G01XXeZZeFf;
FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the interpolation data in the case where an arc translation command is given. The command is that the tool 32 be translated along an arc from an initial point S (Xs, Zs) to an end point E (Xe, Ze), where: Lz is an arc length; .theta.z is the initial angle; Rs is the initial radius; Re the end (final) radius; and .DELTA.R is the difference between the initial and the final radii. Thus, the amounts of translations .DELTA.X, .DELTA.Z, and .DELTA.B along the X-axis, Z-axis, and B-axis, are the same as in the case of the linear translation: EQU .DELTA.X=Xe-Xs EQU .DELTA.Z=Ze-Zs EQU .DELTA.B=0
Thus, the distribution ratios: Sx, Sz, and Sb, along the X-axis, Z-axis, and B-axis are: EQU Sx=.DELTA.X/Lv EQU Sz=.DELTA.Z/Lv EQU Sb=0
where the length Lv of the interpolation vector V is given by: EQU Lv.sup.2 =Lz.sup.2 +.DELTA.R.sup.2
The distribution ratios Sl and Sr for the arc length Lz and the radial difference .DELTA.R are given by: EQU Sl=Lz/Lv EQU Sr=.DELTA.R/Lv
Under the above circumstance, the machining program Q is given, for example, by: EQU G00XXsZZs; EQU G01XXeZZeIXoKZoFf;
Usually, the numerically controlled lathe 51 effects machining by translating the tool 32 along the X-axis and the Z-axis. It is exceptional that the work W is translated along the B-axis. Thus, the arc movement commands can be executed by means of the former method of operation (i.e., the translation of the tool 32), but not by means of the latter method of operation (i.e., the translation of the work W).
FIG. 11 shows schematically another conventional numerically controlled lathe. In the case of this numerically controlled lathe 71, the machining program is prepared as though the tool 42 were moved along the X-axis and the Z-axis. Actually, however, the tool 42 is moved along the X-axis only, the work W being translated along the Z-axis by means of the spindle 43.
Another related prior art is a machining center provided with a machining unit which is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent (Kokai) No. 62-176733. In the case of this machining center, two tools are utilized in machining. A first tool moves along mutually perpendicular first and second axes, and a second tool moves along a third axis parallel to the second axis. It is possible to machine the work by translating the second tool along the third axis in accordance with the translation command for translating the first tool along the first axis.
The conventional numerically controlled lathe 51 of FIG. 7 has the following disadvantage. When the tool 32 is translated along the X-axis and the work W is translated along the B-axis in order to machine the work W, the operator must prepare the program by calculating the amounts of translations via the X-axis/B-axis system, which involves the movements of both the tool 32 and the main spindle 33 and thus is burdensome for the operator. Further, arc commands cannot be used.
The conventional numerically controlled lathe 71 of FIG. 11 has the following disadvantage. Since it is not possible to machine the work W by solely translating the tool 42 two-dimensionally without translating the work W, some kinds of works W cannot be machined in accordance with their dimensional specifications.
Further, the machining center disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent (Kokai) No. 62-176733 has the following disadvantage. The tool utilized in machining changes from the first to the second tool during the machining operation. Thus, when it is desirable to machine the work by a single tool, this machining center cannot be used.

Numerical controlled device and numerically controlled machine tool


Embodiments are directed towards automatically learning user behavioral patterns when interacting with messages and based on the learned patterns, suggesting one or more predicted actions that a user might take in response to receiving subsequent message. One or more classifiers are trained and employed to predict one or more actions that a user might take in response to receiving the message. In one embodiment, the one or more predicted actions are provided suggested to the user as an action the user might take on the message. Messages may be rank ordered within a given suggested action based on a confidence level of the prediction.

Email messages are a central means of communication between users over the Internet, partly because a user can maintain the messages over an extended period of time. Therefore, many email applications devote a significant part of their real estate on a computer display screen to offer users with various organizational mechanisms. For example, today, some messaging applications allow users to create and use folders, labels, or other various organizational tools. Yet, as of today in spite of numerous efforts, many people still find it tedious and/or complicated to use many of the organizational mechanisms provided to them. Moreover, even after such organizational mechanisms are applied, it may remain difficult for people to determine what to do with the messages. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

Mining email inboxes for suggesting actions


A correction jig is used when installing a resin combustion gas seal in an annular installation groove of a nozzle portion of an injector. The installation groove has an increased diameter portion in a section closer to a body of the injector. When the nozzle portion is caused to pass through the combustion gas seal from a distal end of the nozzle portion to arrange the combustion gas seal at the installation groove, the correction jig receives the combustion gas seal so that the combustion gas seal is prevented from interfering with the increased diameter portion. Thereafter, the correction jig is moved relative to the injector to correct an outer diameter of the combustion gas seal. As a result, the combustion gas seal is optimally installed in the installation groove.

The present invention relates to combustion gas seals for injectors.
As an example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-364494 describes a conventional installation procedure for a combustion gas seal for injectors. More specifically, the publication discloses an installation procedure for a resin combustion gas seal for an injector and a correction jig used for the gas seal. The gas seal is installed in an annular installation groove defined in a nozzle portion of the injector for sealing an annular space defined between the injector and a recess in which the injector is installed. When fitted into the installation groove, the gas seal is temporarily radially expanded such that the outer diameter of the gas seal is increased. The correction jig is used for correcting the outer diameter of the gas seal. The procedure in the aforementioned publication includes the following steps.    Step A: A cylindrical correction jig is attached to a portion of the injector closer to the injector body than the installation groove of the injector.    Step B: A combustion gas seal is fitted into the installation groove.    Step C: The correction jig is moved toward the nozzle distal end and relative to the injector. The outer circumferential surface of the gas seal is thus pressed by the inner circumferential surface of the correction jig. Accordingly, the correction jig corrects the increased outer diameter of the deformed gas seal.
However, with reference to FIG. 21, if the fitting step is performed from the side corresponding to the nozzle distal end, the gas seal 100 may be interfered with a slanted surface 102, which is formed in a portion of the installation groove of the injector with a diameter that gradually increases toward the injector body.
As has been described, the gas seal is radially expanded when fitted into the installation groove. Once reaching the installation groove, the gas seal starts to restore to the original shape, or the original diameter, by its elastic shape-restoring force. However, such restoration is hampered by the interference between the gas seal and the slanted surface, such that the gas seal is shaped in correspondence with the shape of the slanted surface. The shape of the gas seal thus may be varied among different products prior to the correction with the correction jig, and correction accuracy is lowered.
The same disadvantage is presented in the installation of the gas seal in an installation groove having a non-uniform diameter.
Further, in order to improve the sealing performance of the injector, the injector may include two gas seals installed in respective annular installation grooves, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-294302. The grooves are defined in the nozzle portion of the injector as spaced from each other at an appropriate interval. If the aforementioned procedure of the publication No. 2002-364494 is employed for installation of such gas seals, the steps A to C must be repeated, which complicates the procedure.

Installation procedure and correction jig for a combustion gas seal for an injector


Technologies described herein relate to receiving data from a social networking application, wherein the data is generated by a first individual, and executing an entity extraction algorithm to extract at least one entity from the received data. A hyperlink is displayed on a computing device utilized by a second individual, wherein the hyperlink is based at least in part upon the at least one entity, and the hyperlink is configured to direct the first individual to a search engine and is further configured to cause the search engine to execute a search that pertains to the at least one entity.

Online social networking applications are becoming increasingly popular. People rely on such applications to keep in touch/interact with friends and family. Typically, to utilize such an online social networking application, an individual that logs into a web site that corresponds to the application will be provided a visual depiction of messages sent to the individual as well as status updates of contacts (friends) of the individual. Other mechanisms for sharing information with contacts, such as photographs and video, are also available on many online social networking applications.
While these online social networking applications are useful tools that allow people to interact with their contacts, oftentimes messages transmitted using social networking applications are relatively short with little context associated therewith. Thus, an assumption exists that an individual receiving a relatively short message will have some knowledge of what the sender of the message is referring to in the message. In some cases, however, without context a message may be difficult to comprehend by a reviewer of the message.

Generating activities based upon social data


An automatic flushing actuator that mounts to an overflow pipe in a tank style toilet includes a proximity sensor, a housing enclosing a motor mount and gear assembly, and a rotatably mounted lever on top of the housing. A clamp is adapted to be affixed to the side of the housing and secure the actuator to the overflow pipe. When installing the actuator, the clamp is affixed to the overflow pipe before the housing is mounted onto the clamp. The clamp allows the housing to be removably mounted or locked in position on the clamp. The lever coupled to the top of the housing is rotated to a desired position, and a chain is connected to a handle of the toilet opens the flush valve.

Public awareness of personal hygiene and water conservation issues over the last several years has caused manufacturers of sanitary facility and hygiene devices to develop automatic actuators for sanitary facilities such as toilets and urinals. One purpose of such devices is to eliminate human contact with the surfaces that may contain disease spreading bacteria, and to automatically control the amount of flush water used to eliminate waste.
Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,879, titled "Automatic Flush Valve Actuation Apparatus For Replacing Manual Flush Handles." In particular, the apparatus includes an enclosure containing a drive mechanism, which actuates a plunger pin and a self-contained power source for the drive mechanism. The drive mechanism and power source are connected to a sensor which senses the use of the facility and actuates the drive mechanism to move the plunger pin. The plunger pin pushes the valve stem and the toilet is flushed. The apparatus may be easily installed on a non-tank style toilet by removing the manual flush handle assembly from the toilet valve and securing the apparatus in place of the handle assembly.
Another such device is disclosed in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/032,442 entitled "Flushing Actuator With Handle." The disclosed flushing actuator also includes an enclosure containing a drive mechanism and a self-contained power source. The drive mechanism is connected to a sensor, which senses the use of the facility and actuates the drive mechanism, which in turn, pushes down on the handle to flush a toilet. One advantage of this flushing actuator is that it may be installed directly to an existing toilet valve without removing the handle or any other components of the toilet valve.
Both of these automatic flushing actuators are compact, easily installed, and work well on non-tank style toilets. However, neither of these automatic flushing actuators can be used with a tank style toilet. Accordingly, there is a need for an automatic flushing actuator for tank style toilets.
Automatic flushing actuators for tank style toilets are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,127 entitled "Auto Flush For Tank Toilet" and U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,864 entitled "Automatic Flushing And Seat Raising Arrangements For Toilets," both of which are incorporated herein by reference. While these automatic flushing actuators are suitable for their intended use, there remains a need for an automatic flushing apparatus for tank style toilets which is compact, easily installed, adaptable to fit all models of tank style toilets, and vandal proof.

Automatic flushing actuator for tank style toilet


A method for the watermarking of a sequence of video images implements a step for the insertion of at least one watermarking bit into at least one motion vector obtained by motion estimation between two images of said sequence, so as to obtain at least one watermarked motion vector. The motion vector is identified by its coordinates in a reference space, partitioned into two types of complementary zones, each having a distinct binary value associated with it. The insertion step implements, if necessary, a modification of the coordinates of said motion vector so that it is located in a binary value zone corresponding to said watermarking bit to be inserted. During said modification, at least two potential watermarked motion vectors are determined and, from among said potential watermarked motion vectors, an optimal watermarked motion vector is selected according to at least one predetermined criterion, so that the modified coordinates of said motion vector are those of said optimal watermarked motion vector.

There are several known techniques to date for the watermarking of video sequences.
One of these techniques consists of the application, to the video sequences, of watermarking methods similar to those used for the watermarking of still images. Indeed, it can be assumed that a video stream consists of a sequence of still images and that the "intra" images of the sequence can therefore be watermarked according to a scheme conventionally applied to the still images.
However, video sequences have many properties that can be advantageously exploited to develop a watermarking technique that is proper to them.
These properties include the following aspects:                the rough size of a video sequence is far greater than that of a still image, so that the insertion space of a mark is far greater in a video sequence;        as compared with still images, video sequences have a time dimension, which can be used for the insertion of the mark.
Furthermore, video sequences have constraints different from those of still images. Thus:                the complexity of the watermarking scheme of a video sequence must be low enough to enable the insertion and detection of a mark to be done on the fly;        the mark of a video sequence must be less visible than in the case of a still image, because the motion of the objects often increases its perceptibility to the user;        the video streams are often compressed in order to reduce the rough size of the sequences. The compression standard most commonly used is the MPEG2 standard, and the mark can be inserted directly into the format itself. However, insertion into the decompressed format should not result in an increase in file size after compression;        video sequences can undergo more attacks than still images, and this often leads to the insertion of the mark or watermark redundantly so as to reduce the chances of success of these attacks, and make the watermark more robust. When the watermark is inserted redundantly in the sequence, it may be estimated through a computation of an average value on all the images of the sequence. An additional constraint therefore is that it should be possible to detect the watermark or signature even after a loss of synchronization produced by the selection of a precise sub-sequence of the video sequence considered, or by the loss of images of the sequence.
In addition to watermarking techniques from the field of still images, watermarking techniques proper to video have also been developed. These techniques make use of the advantageous properties of video sequences, in taking account of the constraints associated with them.
Among watermarking techniques specific to video, several approaches relying on the insertion of a mark into motion vectors have been proposed, especially by F. Jordan, M. Kutter, T. Ebrahimi in "Proposal of a watermarking technique for hiding/retrieving data in compressed and decompressed video", ISO/IEC document JTC1/SC29/WG11/MPEG97/M2281, July 1997, and by J. Zhang, J. Li, L. Zhang in "Video watermarking technique in motion vector", Proc. XIV Brazilian symposium on computer graphics and image processing, 15-18.10.2001, pp 179-182.
F. Jordan et al. have proposed a marking algorithm in which the mark is inserted into the motion vectors of a video. This technique relies on the implementation of the following steps:                a first step for the generation of the mark, which is a binary sequence having a length of 16 bits or 32 bits;        a second step for the insertion of the mark. To do this, the motion vectors are extracted from the compressed video stream, obtained by an MPEG4 codec (or coder-decoder). If the video stream is decompressed, there is a preliminary step of compression of this stream. The different marking steps are applied to one of the two components of the motion vectors. One block of pixels per image is selected randomly and its motion vector is computed. Two bits of the mark are inserted into each component of the motion vector.        If V denotes the vertical component of a motion vector, and if b={0,1} is the value of the bit to be concealed, then the following is the algorithm for the insertion of b into V:if ((V*q+T)mod [2]≠b
then V′=V+δ
else V′=V
with T=2*dim
dim=size of the search window for the motion estimationδ=(2·n+1)/q
n=1 if the motion vector is the null vector.
n=0 else
q=factor of modulation of the amplitude of the motion vector
V′ is the marked motion vector.                In other words, as many motion vectors are selected as there are bits in the mark, namely 16 or 32. Then, for each of the 16 or 32 vectors selected, the corresponding bit of the mark is inserted into one of the components of the motion vector, for example the vertical component, in modifying its parity.        a third step for the extraction of the mark, during which the motion vector marked V′ is extracted from the compressed stream. The mark is then extracted as follows:b=(V′*q+T)mod [2]
J. Zhang et al. propose an improvement of the above method proposed by F. Jordan et al., but their approach nevertheless remains the same.
These two techniques therefore rely on the implementation of a watermarking algorithm, based on the insertion of a mark within the motion vectors of a video.
However, a major drawback of these prior art techniques is that they do not have sufficient robustness with respect to possible attacks against video sequences. In particular, such methods are not sufficiently robust against non-malicious attacks such as compression or (spatial or temporal) changes in the format of the video signal.
Indeed, the above techniques proposed by F. Jordan and al. or by J. Zhang et al. rely on the implementation of a watermarking algorithm, based on the insertion of a mark into the motion vectors of a video sequence, using the notion of parity for the ordinate value of these motion vectors.
This approach is by definition not robust since the smallest attack can convert an even-parity ordinate value into an odd-parity ordinate value and vice versa.
Furthermore, according to these techniques, it is generally always the same predetermined component of the selected motion vectors (for example the vertical component) that is modified. This has the effect of increasing the visibility of the mark in the video sequence. The visibility of the mark is of course disagreeable to the user who perceives a deformation of the image.
In order to overcome these different drawbacks, the inventors of the present patent application have developed a new more robust technique for the watermarking of a video sequence described in the French patent application No. FR 02 13660 dated 31 Oct. 2002, filed by the present applicant and entitled "Procédé de tatouage d'un signal vidéo, système, support de données pour la mise en œuvre de ce procédé, procédé d'extraction du tatouage d'un signal vidéo, système pour la mise en œuvre de ce procédé" (Method for the watermarking of a video signal, system, data carrier for the implementation of this method, method for the extraction, from the watermark, of a video signal, system for the implementation of this method)
According to this technique, a motion vector that will carry the watermark is selected. The coordinates of the selected motion vector are identified in a space comprising a first plurality of zones associated with the binary value 1 and a second plurality of zones associated with the binary value 0. Then, if necessary, the coordinates of the selected motion vector are modified so that it is located in the zone in which the binary value corresponds to the value of the mark to be inserted into the selected motion vector.
Thus, if it is desired to insert a mark with a value 0, and if the selected motion vector is located in a zone associated with the binary value 1, the coordinates of the motion vector are modified by obtaining a weighted central or axial symmetry relative to the edges of the zone.
This technique proves to be therefore more robust than the methods proposed by F. Jordan and al. or by J. Zhang et al., because it defines the limited space in which the end of the motion vectors is located (zones with a binary value 1 or 0). The watermarking made therefore no longer relies solely on a change in parity of the component of a motion vector but on the shift of the vector to be watermarked over a relatively large zone.
As a consequence, even in the case of the filtering or light conversion of the image, leading to a modification of the coordinates of the watermarked motion vector, the end of this vector remains within the zone of the binary value chosen as a function of the mark. The mark is therefore robust against such attacks. However, although it is more robust, this technique is not optimal in terms of the invisibility of the mark. Indeed, the marked motion vectors cause deformation in the image which is sometimes troublesome for the user.
Furthermore, the robustness of this technique against more common attacks such as compression, cropping or mirror type attacks for example is not sufficient or could be improved.

Method for the watermarking of a video sequence with adaptive selection of the watermark insertion zone, corresponding detection method, devices, data carrier and computer program


An etch process for increasing the alignment tolerances between capacitor components and an adjacent contact corridor in Dynamic Random Access Memories. The etch process is implemented in a capacitor structure formed over a semiconductor substrate. The capacitor structure includes a first conductor, a dielectric layer on the first conductor and a second conductor on the dielectric layer. The second conductor has a horizontal region laterally adjacent to and extending away from the first conductor. The etch process comprises the steps of: (a) forming a layer of patterned photoresist over the second conductor, the photoresist being patterned to expose a portion of the horizontal region of the second conductor at a desired location of a contact corridor above a source/drain region in the substrate; (b) using the photoresist as an etch mask, anisotropically etching away the exposed portions of the horizontal region of the second conductor; and (c) using the photoresist again as an etch mask, isotropically etching away substantially all of the remaining portions of the horizontal region of the second conductor and thereby enlarging the area available for locating the contact corridor. Alternatively, the horizontal region of the second conductor is removed using a single isotropic etch.

Generally, integrated circuits are mass produced by forming many identical circuit patterns on a single silicon wafer. Integrated circuits, also commonly referred to as semiconductor devices, are made by stacking various materials over a silicon substrate. These materials may be electrically conductive, electrically nonconductive (insulators) or electrically semiconductive. Silicon, in single crystal or polycrystalline form, is the most commonly used semiconductor material. Both forms of silicon can be made electrically conductive by adding impurities, commonly referred to as doping. Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAMs) are integrated circuit devices comprising arrays of memory cells which contain two basic components--a field effect access transistor and a capacitor. Typically, one side of the transistor is connected to one side of the capacitor. The other side of the transistor and the transistor gate electrode are connected to external connection lines called a bit line and a word line, respectively. The other side of the capacitor is connected to a reference voltage. Therefore, the formation of the DRAM memory cell comprises the formation of a transistor, a capacitor and contacts to external circuits.
It is advantageous to form integrated circuits with smaller individual elements so that as many elements as possible may be formed in a single chip. In this way, electronic equipment becomes smaller and more reliable, assembly and packaging costs are minimized and circuit performance is improved. The capacitor is usually the largest element of a DRAM. Consequently, the development of smaller DRAMs focuses in large part on the capacitor. Three basic types of capacitors are used in DRAMs--planar capacitors, trench capacitors and stacked capacitors. Most large capacity DRAMs use stacked capacitors because of their greater capacitance, reliability and ease of formation. For stacked capacitors, the side of the capacitor connected to the transistor is commonly referred to as the "storage node" or "storage poly" and the side of the capacitor connected to the reference voltage is called the "cell poly."
The areas in a DRAM to which electrical connections are made are generally referred to as active areas. Active areas, which serve as source and drain regions for transistors, consist of discrete specially doped regions in the surface of the silicon substrate. As the size of the DRAM is reduced, the size of the active areas and the corridors available for contacts to reach the active areas are also reduced. The bit line contacts are typically formed between adjacent capacitor structures. Therefore, the chances for leakage or short circuits between the bit line contacts and the capacitor components increases as the cell spacing, and corresponding space available for the bit line contact, decreases. It is desirable to effectively isolate the bit line contacts from the capacitor components while optimizing the space available to make the contacts. The present invention addresses some of the problems associated with forming a contact corridor, typically for the contact between a bit line and an active area in the substrate, and properly aligning this contact corridor with, and isolating it from, adjacent capacitor components.

Etch process for aligning a capacitor structure and an adjacent contact corridor


Novel squaraine dyes and compositions of matter containing such dyes are disclosed. The novel squaraine dyes have an absorption maximum greater than 600 nanometers and are particularly useful in conjunction with a helium/neon (He/Ne) laser. Some of the squaraine dyes are hydrophilic and are therefore water soluble or water compatible and others of the squaraine dyes are lipophilic.

This invention relates to squaraine dyes and compositions of matter containing such squaraine dyes. Squaraine dyes have a structural element of cyclobutenolate, generally being a condensation product of squaric acid (dihydroxycyclobutenedione) and an active compound such as a pyrrole or an aniline. Squaraine dyes have been found to have a number of uses based on their unique properties. One such use involves layered photo responsive imaging devices. Such devices are responsive to visible light and intrared illumination needed for laser printing.
Many of the known squaraine dyes are fluorescent compounds absorbing light in the wavelength region of from about 400 to about 1000 nanometers. Consequently, another use that has been proposed for squaraine dyes is in the area of assays. Fluorescent compounds have achieved wide application in assays because of their ability to emit light upon excitation with energy within certain energy ranges. By virtue of this ability, fluorescers have found employment as labels in chemical or biological processes. Various compounds can be conjugated to fluorescent compounds, the conjugate subjected to some type of partitioning, and the fate of the conjugate determined by irradiating the sample with light and detecting the zone in which the conjugate exists. Fluorescent labels find use in immunoassays, involving specific binding pairs, such as ligands and receptors, for example, antigens and antibodies. For such use, the fluorescent compounds preferably are soluble in an aqueous medium or at least water compatible.
Another use of fluorescent compounds is to incorporate such compound into a cell wall or a liposome. The cell or the liposome with the fluorescent compound incorporated therein can also be employed in assays. For example, dyes incorporated into cell membranes are useful in the area of blood typing where a change in fluorescence as a result of agglutination of cells is determined. Liposomes containing fluorescent dyes also find use in the assay area, particularly in immunoassays. For this purpose it is desirable that the fluorescent dyes be lipophilic.
Laser beams find use in the assay area as means for irradiating a fluorescent compound. In the field of assays it is important to avoid contributions to a signal produced in relation to the amount of analytep which contributions result from other than the analyte. For example, serum or plasma from a patient is often used to conduct the assay. Serum is itself fluorescent. The materials that cause fluorescence in serum or plasma normally absorb light at a wavelength below 600 nanometers. Therefore, it is desirable to employ fluorescent dyes in fluorescent assays that have an absorption maximum greater than 600 nanometers. It is also desirable to employ a laser beam to provide the source of energy for activation of the fluorescent dye. One such laser is the helium/neon laser which emits light at 633 nanometers.


Methods and systems for three-dimensional texture reprojection are provided herein. The method includes calculating an initial distance vector from a vertex within a 3D mesh of an object to each of a plurality of texture images. For each texture image, the method also includes determining coordinates of an intersection point of the initial distance vector with the texture image, determining a number of neighboring points within a specified distance from the intersection point, and calculating an overall distance vector from the neighboring points to any of the points within the 3D mesh. Furthermore, the method includes determining a number of texture images with a lowest difference between the initial distance vector and the overall distance vector.

According to current imaging techniques, depth cameras and RGB cameras may be used in conjunction with one another for capturing and recreating images of three-dimensional (3D) objects. For example, the depth cameras and RGB cameras may be included within some sort of depth sensing device. Data obtained by the depth sensing device may be used to create 3D meshes of objects in a scene. Moreover, in order to recreate the appropriate textures or colors of the objects, texture reprojection techniques may be used to lay textures registered by the cameras onto the 3D meshes.
However, such texture reprojection techniques may often have significant sources of imprecision. Specifically, there may be errors from inaccurate camera position calibration, errors from the intrinsic properties of the depth sensing devices themselves, or errors from 3D mesh surface generation and approximation, among others. Furthermore, in some cases, a surface patch, or triangle, may be in an improper location due to such errors, and a reprojection algorithm may assign a texture to the surface patch that is not present in the actual scene. Moreover, in some cases, the surface patch may not be present in the appropriate place and, as a result, texture that belongs to that surface patch may be assigned to an inappropriate surface patch. Such errors and miscalculations may result in disturbing artifacts, or undesirable data alterations, within the recreated 3D images. For example, recreated 3D objects may have inappropriate textures assigned to some of the parts of the 3D surfaces, particularly at the edges where significant depth discontinuities exist.