A system debugs a computer application that employs rights-managed (RM) content. A first, non-isolated process has the application and a shell version of the trusted component, where such shell version receives each request by the application for RM services. The shell version is unconcerned whether a debugger is monitoring the first process. A second, isolated process is separate from the first process and has a debugging version of the trusted component. The shell version in the first process forwards the received request to the debugging version in the second process, and such debugging version acts upon same. The debugging version ensures that the debugger is not monitoring the second process, but is unconcerned whether the debugger is monitoring the first process.

Rights management (RM) and enforcement is highly desirable in connection with digital content such as digital audio, digital video, digital text, digital data, digital multimedia, etc., where such digital content is to be distributed to one or more users. Digital content could be static, such as a text document, for example, or it could be streamed, such as the streamed audio/video of a live event. Typical modes of distribution include tangible devices such as a magnetic (floppy) disk, a magnetic tape, an optical (compact) disk (CD), etc., and intangible media such as an electronic bulletin board, an electronic network, the Internet, etc. Upon being received by the user, such user renders the digital content with the aid of appropriate rendering software such as an audio player, a text displayer, etc. on a personal computer or other hardware.
In one scenario, a content owner or rights-owner such as an author, a publisher, a broadcaster, etc., wishes to distribute such digital content to each of many users or recipients in exchange for a license fee or some other consideration. In such scenario, then, the content may be an audio recording, a multimedia presentation, etc., and the purpose of the distribution is to generate the license fee. Such content owner, given the choice, would likely wish to restrict what the user can do with such distributed digital content. For example, the content owner would like to restrict the user from copying and re-distributing such content to a second user, at least in a manner that denies the content owner a license fee from such second user.
In addition, the content owner may wish to provide the user with the flexibility to purchase different types of use licenses at different license fees, while at the same time holding the user to the terms of whatever type of license is in fact purchased. For example, the content owner may wish to allow distributed digital content to be rendered only a limited number of times, only for a certain total time, only on a certain type of machine, only on a certain type of rendering platform, only by a certain type of user, etc.
In another scenario, a content developer, such as an employee in or member of an organization, wishes to distribute such digital content to one or more other employees or members in the organization or to other individuals outside the organization, but would like to keep others from rendering the content. Here, the distribution of the content is more akin to organization-based content sharing in a confidential or restricted manner, as opposed to broad-based distribution in exchange for a license fee or some other consideration.
In such scenario, then, the content may be a document presentation, spreadsheet, database, email, or the like, such as may be exchanged within an office setting, and the content developer may wish to ensure that the content stays within the organization or office setting and is not rendered by non-authorized individuals, such as for example competitors or adversaries. Again, such content developer wishes to restrict what a recipient can do with such distributed digital content. For example, the content owner would like to restrict the user from copying and re-distributing such content to a second user, at least in a manner that exposes the content outside the bounds of individuals who should be allowed to render the content.
In addition, the content developer may wish to provide various recipients with different levels of rendering rights. For example, the content developer may wish to allow protected digital content to be viewable and not printable with respect to one class of individual, and viewable and printable with respect to another class of individual.
However, and in either scenario, after distribution has occurred, such content owner/developer has very little if any control over the digital content. This is especially problematic in view of the fact that practically every personal computer includes the software and hardware necessary to make an exact digital copy of such digital content, and to download such exact digital copy to a write-able magnetic or optical disk, or to send such exact digital copy over a network such as the Internet to any destination.
Of course, as part of a transaction wherein the content is distributed, the content owner/developer may require the user/recipient of the digital content to promise not to re-distribute such digital content in an unwelcome manner. However, such a promise is easily made and easily broken. A content owner/developer may attempt to prevent such re-distribution through any of several known security devices, usually involving encryption and decryption. However, there is likely very little that prevents a mildly determined user from decrypting encrypted digital content, saving such digital content in an un-encrypted form, and then re-distributing same.
RM and enforcement architectures and methods have thus been provided to allow the controlled rendering of arbitrary forms of digital content, where such control is flexible and definable by the content owner/developer of such digital content. Examples of such architectures are set forth in the related applications set forth above, among, others. Such architectures allow and facilitate such controlled rendering, especially in an office or organization environment or the like where documents are to be shared amongst a defined group of individuals or classes of individuals.
As may be appreciated, central to any RM architecture is one or more applications that produce, consume, or otherwise employ (hereinafter 'employ') rights managed (RM) content. For example, if the RM content is a word processing document, such document may be created by a first word processing application and/or may be consumed by such first word processing application or a second word processing application. Likewise, if the RM content is a multimedia presentation, such presentation may be created by a first presentation application and/or may be consumed by such first presentation application or a second present application.
Each application that employs RM content typically includes or has local access to a RM module or the like, where the RM module performs RM functions on behalf of the application. Typically, the RM functions performed by the RM module include both functions necessary to deal with RM content and functions necessary to ensure that the application and the environment surrounding the application can be trusted to properly handle the RM content.
In the latter case in particular, the RM module may include functionality necessary to ensure that the application is not being monitored by an external element in an attempt to obtain RM content in an unprotected or 'naked' form. Alternatively, the application may be running on a computer as an isolated process to ensure that the application is not being monitored by such an external element. In either case, such external element may be any of several devices, but it has become apparent that a debugger may be employed by a nefarious entity as such an external element.
As should be appreciated, a debugger is a software and/or hardware device that may be set up in connection with an application during development and/or operation thereof, primarily to assist in identifying and solving problems associated with such application. Thus, the debugger includes functionality to monitor an application, to step through the application, to set or alter breakpoints associated with the application, to modify aspects of the application, and the like. Perhaps most significantly, such a debugger can read memory associated with an application, such as memory with the naked content. A nefarious entity employing such a debugger, then, can copy the naked content from the memory without any of the RM protection associated therewith.
An application that employs RM content, then, should not normally be allowed have access to such RM content if a debugger or other external element is monitoring the application. Otherwise, and as set forth above, the debugger can be employed to copy the RM content in a naked form. Accordingly, the RM module typically attempts to detect any such debugger, and if such a debugger is detected the RM module takes appropriate action such as shutting down the application and/or refusing to allow the application to have access to RM content.
An issue arises, however, in that certain instances exist wherein a debugger nevertheless should be allowed to monitor an application that has access to RM content. Most prominently, such certain instances include the instance where the developer of the application is in fact developing and/or debugging the application and as part of such development/debugging legitimately requires use of a debugger. Of course, other similar instances exist. As should be appreciated, though, despite the legitimate need for using a debugger with the application, the RM module associated with the application upon detecting such debugger will take the aforementioned appropriate action and thereby in fact prevent the legitimately debugging application from having access to RM content.
A need exists, then, for a method and mechanism that allows use of a debugger with an application that employs RM content. In particular, a need exists for such a method and mechanism whereby a developer of the application or the like with a legitimate need can debug the application. Even more particularly, a need exists for such a method and mechanism whereby such developer or the like can run the application with the RM module, where the RM module is part of an isolated process but the application is not part of an isolated process. As such a debugger can monitor the application but not the RM module.

Debugging an application that employs rights-managed content


Disclosed herein is an oncolytic recombinant Maraba virus whose genome comprises one or more nucleic acid sequences that, in combination, encode an interleukin-12 (IL12) protein or a functional portion thereof. A method for treating a cancer in a patient using the oncolytic recombinant Maraba virus is also disclosed. The present disclosure also provides a tumour cell infected with an oncolytic rhabdovirus whose genome comprises one or more nucleic acid sequences that, in combination, encode an interleukin-12 (IL12) protein or a functional portion thereof, for use as an infected cell vaccine (ICV) for the treatment of a cancer. A method for treating a cancer in a patient using the infected cell vaccine is also disclosed.

The following paragraphs are not an admission that anything discussed in them is prior art or part of the knowledge of persons skilled in the art.
Oncolytic Viruses (OVs) are promising anti-cancer therapeutics engineered or selected to infect and multiply in tumour cells while having attenuated replication capacity in normal tissues. One feature important to the efficacy of some OVs is the ability to stimulate an anti-tumour immune response.
Vaccination of patients with their own cancer cells (autologous cell vaccine) has been tried in the past with variable success (1, 2). Most have employed mixing the whole cell vaccine with non-specific adjuvants, such as Bacillus Colmette-Guérin (BCG), but difficulties in overcoming immune suppression within the tumour microenvironment have yielded limited results (3). Nonetheless, clinical trials have consistently shown that survival is significantly better in those patients that are able to mount an immune response to the whole cell vaccine, suggesting that when an immune response is generated, prognosis is improved (4).
Cytokines, such as IL-12 have also been used to direct an anti-tumour immune response but the short half-life of these cytokines, when administered as proteins, and the dose-limiting toxicities encountered following systemic administration have diminished their potential effectiveness (5). That said, the strong immunological rationale for cytokine based vaccines continues to drive the development of novel experimental approaches in numerous laboratories world-wide.


A tracking system and method using the same is disclosed which is capable of minimizing a restriction of surgical space by achieving a lightweight of the system as well as a reduction of a manufacturing cost through calculating a three-dimensional coordinates of each of makers using one image forming unit. In the tracking system and method using the same, lights emitted from the markers are transferred to one image forming unit through two optical paths, an image sensor of the image forming unit forms two images (direct image and reflection image) of the two optical paths of the markers, and therefore, the system and method using the same has an effect of reducing a manufacturing cost of the tracking system with small and lightweight, and relatively low restriction of surgical space comparing with conventional tracking system since it is possible to calculate a spatial position and direction of the markers attached on a target by using one image forming unit.

Recently, a robot surgery have been studied and introduced to reduce pain of patients and to recover faster in an endoscopic surgery or an otolaryngology surgery (ENT surgery).
In such a robot surgery, in order to minimize a risk of the surgery and to operate the surgery more precisely, a navigation system is used to navigate to an exact lesion of a patient by tracking and detecting a spatial position and a direction of a target such as lesion portion or surgical instrument.
The navigation system described above includes a tracking system which is capable of tracking and detecting a spatial position and direction of a target such as lesion or surgical instrument.
The tracking system described above includes a plurality of markers attached on a lesion or a surgical instrument, a first and second image forming units to form images of lights emitted from the markers, and a processor calculating three-dimensional coordinates of the markers which are connected to the first and second image forming units and calculating a spatial position and a direction of the target by comparing pre-stored information of straight lines connecting the markers adjacent to each other and angle information formed by a pair of straight lines adjacent to each other to the three-dimensional coordinates of the markers.
Herein, in order to calculate the three-dimensional coordinates of the markers, conventionally, two detectors are required to calculate the three-dimensional coordinates of each markers through a processor, a trigonometry is used in an assumption that a coordinate of marker which is emitted from one marker and formed image in a first image forming unit and a coordinate of marker which is emitted from one marker and formed image in a second image forming unit are identical.
Conventional tracking system requires two image forming units to form images of lights which are emitted from each markers positioned different to each other, a manufacturing cost increases as well as a whole size also increases, therefore, a restriction of surgical space is generated.

Tracking system and tracking method using the same

KYUNGPOOK NATIONAL UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION


The claimed invention refers to a centrifuge intended for processing blood and blood components and with its function based on the effective utilisation of ring type blood processing bags with associated secondary bags and other accessories. The most outstanding feature of the centrifuge, in accordance with the claimed invention, is that its rotor, at the same intended height of the ring bag (22) inner periphery, shows at least three supports (9–11) arranged along this periphery and intended to locate the ring bag's inner strengthened periphery edge on guide holes at the same time as the centrifuge and its rotor is equipped with a joint rotating inner lid (6) which includes a clamp function (7) that clamps ring bag (22) securely along and between supports (9–11). Furthermore, in the invention these supports (9–11) have, on the one hand, built-in valve functions for communication between the ring bag and the respective secondary bags can be actively controlled and, on the other hand, sterile welding functions for communication between ring bag (22) and the respective secondary bags when interruption and blocking is required.

Different types of centrifuges intended for processing blood and blood components and also several types of ring bags intended for using in these centrifuges are to be found described in, for example, WO 87/06857, U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,396, U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,050, WO 97/30715, WO 98/35757. Of the centrifuges described therein it is primarily those that are included in the two latter-named patent documents that purpose-intended ring bags are utilized combined with standard secondary bags. In the blood processing bags that are stated in WO 87/06857 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,396 instead of purpose-intended ring bags a more complicated type of bag is included, which consists of a ring formed blood processing chamber manufactured as one unit with a centrally arranged secondary bag. In U.S. Fat. No. 5,723,050 a further description is given of a ring bag intended for the same purpose which, in turn, is secured in a central assembly cover which, on the one hand, gives a central control of the ring bag and, on the other hand, to give room internally for the required secondary bags. In WO 97/30715 and WO 98/35757 it is indicated that the ring bags which are used during centrifuging are secured in the centrifuge by a number of holes on their periphery intended to be fitted over the pins secured in the centrifuge and which are intended for that purpose. This is all well and good but is not sufficiently good as has been shown during the course of the years. The stresses on the bags inner periphery edges, especially when it is only thin pins holding them in place, can be so excessive that the edges of the bags rupture.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for processing a blood product with a bag set having a multi-way connector


Methods and systems of providing power to a central processing unit (CPU) provide for enhanced surge protection during CPU current consumption going from high current to low current consumption. In one approach, a circuit as a power output stage with an output node, and a controller circuit coupled to the power output stage. The controller circuit selectively switches the power output stage into a current ramp down mode based on detection of a voltage surge at the output node. The power output stage has an associated current ramp down rate. The CPU is coupled to the output node and a surge notification input of the power output stage, where the power output stage accelerates the current ramp down based on a notification signal from the CPU for a duration proportional to the change in CPU current consumption from high to low current consumption.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the delivery of power to computer processors. More particularly, embodiments relate to the protection of computer processors from voltage surges when the processor changes its current consumption from high current to low current.
2. Discussion
Mobile computing platforms such as laptop computers, or "notebook" computers, have become an integral part of modem society, and continue to grow in popularity. While the trend toward longer battery life, smaller platform size, and enhanced functionality is desirable to the consumer, it presents significant challenges to computer designers as well as manufacturers. A particular area of concern relates to the delivery of power to the central processing unit (CPU) of a mobile computing platform.
The battery life of a notebook computer is quantified as the ratio between the battery capacity and the average platform power consumption. Thus, reducing average platform power consumption increases the battery life and enhances the overall marketability of the mobile computing platform. As a result, an increasing amount of attention has been directed to developing techniques for reducing power consumption. It has been determined that portions of a typical CPU can be inactive for a relatively large percentage of the time, where applying the clock to these portions requires additional power. Typical approaches to reducing power consumption have therefore involved placing the CPU in a low-power state whenever practical by gating off the clock to unused portions of the CPU. Indeed, many notebook computer CPUs are designed with aggressive clock-gating technology.
When the unused portions of the CPU are gated off, the current demand by the CPU transitions from a relatively high value to a relatively low value, causing a condition commonly referred to as a high-to-low current consumption transient. Similarly, when the unused portions of the CPU are gated on, the current demand transitions from a relatively low value to a relatively high value, causing a condition commonly referred to as a low-to-high current consumption transient. The voltage that is supplied to the processor, however, should remain as constant as possible (staying within a tolerance window such as a ±7.5% for example) in order for the CPU to be able to function as designed. Unfortunately, the high-to-low current consumption transient tends to cause the processor voltage to surge and the low-to-high current consumption transient tends to cause the processor voltage to "droop". Furthermore, while the droop usually may result in CPU operation failure if the voltage drops below specified limit, the surge in processor voltage constitutes a reliability degradation risk to the CPU that may manifest itself in CPU failure only after some time of operation under repetitive surges.
FIG. 1 shows one possible implementation of a conventional approach to a circuit 10 that is used to regulate the voltage applied to a CPU 26 (i.e., Vcc), where the circuit 10 uses an hysteric type of switching regulator. During constant current consumption conditions of CPU 26, the voltage at output node 16 is compared to a reference voltage, which is set to the desired voltage level (e.g., 1V) provided by a reference voltage component such as a Zener diode, bandgap reference, etc. When the voltage at output node 16 is lower than the reference voltage by −VH, a comparator 18 generates a logic high signal, causing metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) driver 30 to turn on a switching transistor (Qsw) in the power output stage 14. When Qsw is on, current in the output inductor (L), ramps up. If the voltage at output 16 is greater than the reference voltage by +VH, comparator 18 outputs a logic low signal, causing MOSFET driver 30 to turn off Qsw and turn on a synchronization transistor (QSYNC). When QSYNC is on, the current through the output inductor ramps down toward zero amps from a peak value. It should be noted that voltage regulator 12 has been simplified for discussion purposes and that inductor current ramping is a well-known phenomenon, described with the following equations.
                              v                                (            t            )                          =                  L                                                              ⅆ                                  i                                                        (                    t                    )                                                                              ⅆ                t                                      .                                              Equation                                                  1
According to Equation 1 the inductor ramp up rate is:
                                          ⅆ                          i                                            (                t                )                                                          ⅆ            t                          =                                            V              DC                        -                          V              CC                                L                                    Equation                                                  2            where VDC is the system voltage, and the inductor ramp down rate is:
                                          ⅆ                          i                                            (                t                )                                                          ⅆ            t                          =                                            V              CC                        L                    .                                    Equation                                                  3            Since the system voltage (e.g., VDC) is typically on the order of 8.4-21 volts, and therefore much greater than the processor voltage, there is a much higher voltage across the output inductor during the ramp up mode than during the ramp down mode. As a result, the current ramp up rate through the inductor is substantially faster than that of the ramp down rate. Since the ramp down rate is relatively slow, the voltage surge at the output node 16 is typically greater than the voltage droop associated with the ramp up mode. The voltage surge can be estimated as follows, where VESR is the initial voltage at node 16 (VESR is not shown in the figure), and iL, is the current through inductor L.
                                          v            SURGE                                          (            t            )                          =                                            1              C                                                  ∫                                                (                                                            i                      L                                        -                                          I                      CPU                                                        )                                                                                ⅆ                  t                                                              +                                    V              ESR                        .                                              Equation                                                  4
Due to the tight space limitations associated with mobile computing platforms, a possible output decoupling that will minimize the space of the decoupling solution can achieved by using a multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) 22 connected to the output node 16, where MLCC 22 has a small form factor. Though in real application several MLCCs will be used to achieve the needed minimum total capacitance for simplicity FIG. 1 shows only one capacitor. The MLCC 22 has a relatively small equivalent series resistance (ESR), but unfortunately has a relatively low capacitance. It can be shown from Equation 4 that by using an MLCC 22 for output decoupling, VESR can be quite negligible. Due to the low capacitance, however, the voltage surge for the MLCC 22 can be significantly larger because C appears in the denominator of Equation 4. FIG. 2 shows the estimated voltage surge for a conventional power output stage in plot 24, where a 200 nH output inductor is used. In the illustrated example, the voltage surge threshold (VMAX) is exceeded due to the relatively slow ramp down rate.
One approach to reducing the voltage surge at the output node would be to reduce the inductance of the output inductor in order to increase the inductor ramp down current. There is a penalty to be paid, however, for such an approach. For example, as the inductance is reduced, there will be an increase in ripple current, which can cause an undesirably high output voltage ripple in addition to high magnetic loss in the inductor, which results in lower power-conversion efficiency. There is therefore a need to reduce the voltage surge associated with the current ramp down mode of a power output stage without negatively impacting output voltage ripple.


A coupling arrangement for non-axial transfer of light power between a multi-mode light source (LS), having a substantially circular emission with a divergence angle as, and a multi-mode optical fiber (FF) with a cross section Ac, through a length of an intermediate feeding multi-mode optical fiber (IF) having an end with cross section area Af coupled with said light source (LS) and one portion fused to said optical fiber (FF). Said feeding fiber (IF) has a progressively tapered portion and is fused to said multi-mode optical fiber (FF) at a region of the tapered fiber, and in that the relationship between the acceptance angle .alpha.f of the feeding fiber (IF) and the emission angle .alpha.s of the light source (LS) is expressed by: .alpha.f=k . .alpha.s where k is a positive constant greater than 1.

EP-A-0 136 871 discloses a pair of small diameter optical fibers (12, 14) arranged in a side-by-side configuration, the first fiber (12) providing a passive guide for pump light, and the second fiber (14) formed of a material, such as Nd:YAG which has amplifying properties at the signal frequency. The signal to be amplified propagates through the second fiber (14) resulting in amplification of the signal. The first fiber (12) is pumped from one or both ends, utilizing a cone shaped rod (50) which is optically coupled thereto. A plurality of pump light sources (60) are mounted on the end face (58) of the rod (50) to introduce collimated pump light into the large end (52) of the cone shaped rod (50).
It is known to improve the coupling efficiency by locating a cylindrical lens between the laser chip and one end of the pigtail, with the cylindrical lens focusing the transverse component of the laser beam into the fiber core. In this respect reference can be made to EP-A-0 565 843 and also to "Hybrid laser-to-fiber coupler with a cylindrical lens" by Maeda M. et al., Applied Optics, Vol. 16, No. 7, July 1977, pp 1966-1970.
Such cylindrical lens does not modify the divergence of the beam in the plane of the slit axis, so that at a proper distance the beam from the laser chip is substantially reduced to having a circular cross section and can easily be coupled to the core of the optical fiber.
The pigtail is further fused to the final fiber, i.e. in general the fiber to be fed or in particular the fiber carrying the signal to be amplified, either at the other end of the feeding pigtail (Y coupler) or along a portion of the feeding pigtail length (X coupler). The coupling ratio of such coupler is proportional to the ratio of the squared diameter of the receiving fiber core to the squared diameter of the receiving fiber core plus the squared diameter of the feeding fiber core.
By using the SM-DC fiber technique an efficient feeding of a single-mode fiber core through a multi-mode fiber pigtail can be achieved. When the multi-mode core of the SM-DC fiber has the same diameter of the feeding fiber (i.e. 60 .mu.m), the coupling ratio is about 0.5. To further increase the coupling ratio to the SM-DC fiber it is necessary to reduce the feeding fiber core diameter. With a diameter of less than 20 microns the coupling ratio could theoretically reach values greater than 0.9.
However, with a reduced core diameter of the multi-mode feeding fiber to improve the efficiency of the light transfer at the coupler, the efficiency of the light transfer from the laser to the feeding fiber would become very poor even using a cylindrical lens.

Coupling arrangement between a multi-mode light source and an optical fiber through an intermediate optical fiber length


Electronic devices have a PCB with a heat-generating component (e.g., POP or SOC), a heat sink, and an EMI shielding structure. A combination structure can include a top heat spreader/EMI shield located above and in thermal contact with the POP/SOC top, a bottom heat spreader/EMI shield located below and in thermal contact with the POP/SOC bottom, and a heat-directing component located on the PCB, laterally surrounding a majority of the POP/SOC sides, and between and in thermal contact with the top and bottom heat spreaders. Resulting heat paths for the POP/SOC include one through its top to the top heat spreader, another through its bottom to the bottom heat spreader, and others through its sides through the PCB through the heat-directing component to the top and bottom heat spreaders. The heat-directing component can be a metal horseshoe shaped pad integrally formed onto the PCB.

As electronic devices are becoming increasingly faster and more powerful, they are also becoming sleeker and smaller in size. Consumer preferences and demands tend to drive both of these trends toward faster and smaller. Electronic device makers are thus often faced with the challenges of incorporating the latest electronic chips and circuitry in their newest electronic device offerings, while doing so in the smallest volumes possible.
Amongst many factors to consider in this endeavor, electronic devices contain components that produce heat during normal operation. As such, fans, heat sinks, and other heat diversion components are a well-known and common part of the electronics landscape. As might be expected though, increasingly faster and more powerful chips and integrated circuitry can generate more heat than previous generations of electronics. Coupled with the desire to put these components into smaller overall volumes, this can create new challenges. Existing thermal management features and techniques can sometimes be inferior or weak in the face of increasing demands to account for more heat using less volume than before. Even where minimal thermal requirements are met for a given electronic device, the overall performance of the device can be enhanced where its generated heat is well dispersed beyond the minimums that are required.
Electromagnetic interference ("EMI") shielding is also an important consideration for electronic device design. Accounting for this protection for the various electronic components within a device must still typically be made even as device size becomes more compact.
There is a need for improved heat dissipation and/or EMI shielding features and techniques in electronic devices.

Combination parallel path heatsink and EMI shield


A computer-based system and method of viewing an electronic slide show presentation providing three modes for viewing an electronic slide show: a speaker presentation mode, an individual browser mode, and a kiosk browser mode. For each mode, a user interface having features desirable in the corresponding mode is provided. The speaker presentation mode user interface displays slides sized to fill a computer display screen. The individual browser mode user interface displays slides within an application window and provides a navigation scrollbar for navigating the slides. The navigation scrollbar having advance and reverse buttons for controlling the display of builds in the slide, and previous and next slide buttons for controlling the display of slides. The kiosk browser mode user interface displays full screen slides and restricts a viewer's navigational functions. The method also provides a user with the ability to customize the user interface corresponding to a slide presentation.

Slide presentation programs are computer programs that enable a user to create, edit, manage, and perform "presentations" on a computer. One example of a popular slide presentation program is Microsoft PowerPoint.RTM., available from Microsoft Corporation, of Redmond, Wash. A slide presentation includes a set of electronic "slides," each slide corresponding to one screen or page of output. An electronic slide may also be converted to a 35 mm slide or overhead transparency and displayed in a standard slide projector or overhead projector. Each slide contains one or more objects, such as text, graphical images, or graphical animation. A slide may also include a sound object that is played when the slide is displayed during a "slide show" performance.
A slide presentation program "performs" a "slide show" by sequentially displaying a series of slides contained within the slide presentation. The slides are displayed on a display screen, which may be part of a computer monitor or a separate surface onto which an image is projected. During a performance of a slide show, a speaker controls the performance by invoking commands to advance the slide show. A command can be entered using a keyboard, a mouse, or other suitable input device. Alternatively, an author of a slide presentation can include slide "timings" with each slide. A slide timing corresponding to a slide indicates the number of seconds that the slide is displayed before the slide presentation program automatically advances to the next slide. During a performance of a slide show, the slide presentation program automatically advances to the next slide when the existing slide's timing ends.
A slide can include one or more display objects that are incrementally displayed during a slide show. For example, a slide may initially appear with one bullet item. Sequential advancement of the slide show causes additional bullet items to be displayed. Display objects, such as bullet items, that are incrementally displayed are referred to as "builds."
PowerPoint.RTM. 95 provides an author with the ability to create and edit slides. It also provides a speaker with the ability to perform a slide show. During a slide show, a set of slides is sequentially displayed and each slide is enlarged to fill the entire display screen. Clicking a mouse button while a slide is displayed causes PowerPoint.RTM. to present the next slide or build in sequence. A mouse click on the last slide of the presentation causes the slide show to terminate.
It may be inconvenient or uneconomical to have a speaker narrate and perform the slide show every time one or more people desire to view the presentation. In a number of situations, an individual may desire to view a slide show when a speaker is not available. For example, it is desirable to allow workers to view slide presentations containing training information at their convenience, rather than at a fixed time and location when a speaker is available. A slide presentation can also be made available on a large network, such as the Internet, that allows individuals to download the slide presentations and perform slide shows on their local computers.
It is desirable to have a mechanism that allows a slide show viewer to individually browse through the slides of a slide presentation. Preferably, such a mechanism includes a user interface that provides a slide show viewer with mechanisms appropriate to an individual viewer navigating and browsing a slide presentation. The present invention is directed to providing such a mechanism.
It is also desirable to provide a mechanism that allows a "kiosk viewer" to view a slide show on a restricted computer. Preferably, such a mechanism includes a user interface that restricts the operations that the kiosk viewer can perform, and allows limited navigation and functions during a slide show. The present invention is directed to providing such a mechanism.

Method and system for controlling the display of objects in a slide show presentation


A pattern forming method using an improved charged particle beam process, and a charged particle beam processing system prevent effectively the corrosion of a workpiece by a reactive gas adsorbed by and adhering to the surface of the workpiece when the workpiece is taken out into the atmosphere after pattern formation. The charged particle beam processing system comprises, as principal components, an ion beam chamber provided with an ion beam optical system, a processing chamber (18) provided with a gas nozzle through which a reactive gas is blown against a workpiece, a load-lock chamber connected through a gate valve to the processing chamber. The load-lock chamber is capable of producing a plasma of an inert gas for processing the surface of the workpiece by sputtering. The workpiece is returned to the load-lock chamber after a pattern has been formed thereon in the processing chamber by reactive processing including irradiating the surface of the workpiece with a charged particle beam in an environment of the reactive gas, and the workpiece is subjected to a plasma process to remove the reactive gas adsorbed by the workpiece during pattern formation and adhering to the workpiece.

The present invention relates to a pattern forming method using a charged particle beam process, and a charged particle beam processing system and, more specifically, to a pattern forming method using a charged particle beam process and suitable for preventing the corrosion of a workpiece by a reactive gas when minutely processing the workpiece by using a charged particle beam and the reactive gas, and improvements in a charged particle beam processing system.
A charged particle beam, such as a focused ion beam or an electron beam, can be focused in a beam of a very small diameter. Fine processing of wiring patterns of semiconductor devices, such as LSI circuit devices, for the correction of the wiring patterns of semiconductor devices and the analysis of defects in semiconductor devices can be achieved by using the energy of a charged particle beam. Since fine processing using a charged particle beam is a sputtering process in which atoms or groups of atoms of the materials of the workpiece are caused to sputter by the impingement of the charged particle beam on the surface of the workpiece, the processing speed of the fine processing is relatively low, the selectivity of the fine processing in terms of the material of the sample, i.e., a workpiece, is relatively low, and it is very difficult to stop processing at a desired layer in a workpiece of a laminated structure having a plurality of layers of different materials.
Active studies have been made in recent years on processing techniques using a reactive gas and a charged particle beam, such as a focused ion beam or an electron beam, in combination. These processing techniques activates a reactive gas by the energy of a charged particle beam to induce a chemical reaction. Therefore, these processing techniques enables the rapid etching of a workpiece, and is capable of stopping processing at a desired layer of a material in a laminated structure by selectively using a reactive gas suitable for processing the layers of different materials of the workpiece.
A technique relating to a processing system using such a processing method is disclosed in JP-A No. 1-169860.
Although a pattern forming method (process) using, in combination, a reactive gas and a charged particle beam is capable of rapid processing, some reactive gases are highly corrosive to metals. For example, if chlorine gas (Cl.sub.2 gas) is employed as a reactive gas in processing a workpiece made of aluminum (Al), Cl.sub.2 gas adsorbed by the workpiece remains on the surface of the workpiece even if the supply of Cl.sub.2 gas is stopped. Therefore, the Cl.sub.2 gas retained on the surface of the workpiece by adsorption reacts with moisture contained in the atmosphere when the workpiece carrying the Cl.sub.2 gas is taken into the atmosphere, corrodes the Al workpiece and damages processed portions of the Al workpiece.
Nothing about the processing of the reactive gas adsorbed by the workpiece is considered by the prior art.

Pattern forming method using charged particle beam process and charged particle beam processing system


An improved concurrency control system for application to a distributed concurrent transaction and query processing system using multi-version database records to overcome delays arising from lock conflicts. Read-only queries are afforded a consistent "stable state" of the database during the life of the query. Updating transactions requiring locks can proceed without waiting for the termination of long queries. At least two database versions are necessary, although availability of more versions permits long read-only queries to phase-out over time without forcing new queries to use aged "stable-state" data and without roll-back. Read-only queries can be terminated and converted to locking transactions to permit an update of the "stable state" database version before the queries would normally terminate. A novel record key structure having a plurality of substructures corresponding to the several database versions is used to access database records. Rapid selection of proper record version and efficient version tracking and updating is effected using several bit-mapped transaction index tables.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods for concurrent database access by multiple transactions and queries in general, and more specifically, to techniques for eliminating transaction waiting during read-only queries by maintaining multiple versions of records.
Description of the Related Art
The simultaneous or concurrent execution of transactions that update a few data more or less randomly and transactions that access large numbers of data is a well-known problem in the database systems art. A transaction may read from the database, write to the database, or both. Because accessing transactions must lock records to ensure consistency, locking conflicts can arise between concurrent transactions. Upon such a conflict, one of the transactions must wait. The locking conflict is logical and the database management system solution is limited to serializing the transactions. However, other solutions to the wait-on-conflict problem are possible if the extensive transaction is limited to a read-only transaction or query.
When several transactions execute concurrently in the same database, the consistency of data may no longer be preserved. Thus, the system must control the interaction among the concurrent transactions. This control is achieved through a concurrency control procedure that exploits and guarantees transactional consistency. Because a transaction is a unit that preserves consistency, any schedule produced by a concurrency control scheme for processing a set of transactions concurrently must be computationally equivalent to a schedule produced by executing the same transactions serially in some order. This property is usually guaranteed by maintaining serializability in a manner known in the art.
To ensure serializability, any of a variety of different concurrency control methods may be used. In general, the concurrency control methods known in the art ensure serializability by either delaying an operation or aborting the transaction that issued the operation. The classes of methods well-known in the art include "locking protocols", "timestamp ordering" schemes, "validation" techniques, and "multi-version" schemes. For a survey of the related art, reference is made, for example, to H. F. Korth, et al, "Database System Concepts", Chapter 11, Concurrency Control, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986.
Selection of a concurrency control scheme should reflect consideration of the desired balance of several conflicting criteria. The selected method must guard against cascading rollbacks during recovery without reducing system parallelism more than absolutely necessary. For instance, a typical multi-version concurrency control scheme assumes that each "write" operation creates a new version of the updated record. When a "read" operation is issued to the updated record, the system selects one of the record versions to be read. The concurrency control scheme must ensure that the version selection is made in a manner that guarantees serializability. This can be accomplished through the use of timestamps, for instance. In such a system, a read operation always succeeds while a write operation may result in transaction rollbacks.
The application of such multi-version techniques is useful for reducing the locking required to ensure serializability of concurrent transactions. Any locking reduction will beneficially reduce transaction wait states and thereby increase system parallelism. Thus, the art is replete with techniques for locking reduction, including other multi-version approaches.
R. Bayer, et al disclose a complex multi-version support mechanism (Bayer, R., Heller, H., and Reiser, A.,
"Parallelism and Recovery in Database Systems", Transactions on Database Systems, Vol. 5, No. 2, Jun. 1980). Bayer, et al require a continuous and costly maintenance of a graph that tracks the inter-transaction dependencies to avoid both non-serializable transaction executions and deadlocks. Bayer, et al require even read-only transactions or queries to lock the data objects being read, although the read-locks are granted without wait states. Query transactions also incur the cost of analyzing the dependency graph to locate the object version that must be read. Sometimes non-query updating transactions may be rolled back to preserve data atomicity. Read-only queries are never rolled back.
Because only two versions of any data item are maintained by Bayer, et al, the commit of an updating transaction may be delayed by a read-only query that is actively reading the earlier record version targeted for update. The Bayer, et al approach also incurs additional lock-related overhead for updating transactions compared to the overhead required in non-multi-version concurrency control schemes. They do not consider space management, structures required to track locations of different object versions, partial rollbacks, and incremental versioning, which are all problematic issues known for multi-versioning concurrency control schemes.
D. Reed proposes the use of timestamps for synchronization (Reed, D., "Naming and Synchronization in a Decentralized Computer System", PhD Thesis, Technical Report MIT/LTS/TR-205, MIT, Sept. 1978). Reed's method requires all read-only queries to update the timestamp control information associated with the data objects being read. His method permits creation of an unlimited number of object versions, thereby raising potential space management problems. Reed does not consider the garbage collection problem. Reading of records may be delayed and updating transactions may be aborted to avoid serializability violations.
Stearns, et al propose a similar method that may block or abort read-only queries under some circumstances and may delay the committing of updating transactions until termination of read-only queries accessing previous object versions (Stearns, R. E., Rosenkrantz, D. J., "Distributed Database Concurrency Controls Using Before-Values, Proc. SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Ann Arbor, Apr. 1981).
A. Chan, et al propose a method that permits creation of any number of object versions, thereby raising potential space management problems (Chan, A., Fox, S., Lin, W-T., Nori, A., and Ries, D., "The Implementation of an Integrated Concurrency Control and Recovery Scheme", Proc. SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Orlando, Jun. 1982.). Chan, et al provide versioning at the page level, thus requiring the transfer of an entire page to a slot in their "version pool" even if only a small part of the page is changed. Besides the path length overhead, this approach unnecessarily consumes buffer and disk space. Moreover, if a read-only query accesses a logical page having an uncommitted version, then the query must search at least one additional page before locating the committed page version needed, thereby increasing I/0 overhead. This occurs because their different page versions are backchained and each version is labelled with the identifier code of the creating transaction. A read-only query is required to read the most recent version of the page created by an updating transaction that is committed at the time the read-only query has begun. Because of this, every new read-only query must be associated with a Committed Transaction List ("CTL").
This Chan, et al page level versioning method uses a "version pool", guaranteeing that clustered access to physically contiguous pages for read-only queries, especially long ones, is not possible. Their garbage collection method may waste space in "version pool" and every updating transaction must track the slots used in the "version pool". Chan, et al clearly support only page level locking in their versioning scheme. Page level locking, especially for index data, normally leads to an intolerably low level of concurrency. Chan, et al do not actually discuss how their versioning is done for index data. Their method requires all modifications made by an updating transaction to be forced to disk at commit time. Because versioning is being done at the page level and because the before images of modified records are not logged, the previous version of the modified page must also be forced to disk before the modified version of the page with uncommitted changes is put on disk. These are a costly operations.
Chan and Gray later extend the Chan, et al scheme to the case of distributed read-only queries (Chan, A., and Gray, R., "Implementing Distributed Read-Only Transactions", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. SE-11, No. 2, 1985). The Chan and Gray algorithm causes the CTL of a given site to be transmitted in all precommit and commit messages sent by that site. Thus, read votes cannot be used to avoid the second phase of commit processing as is possible in other distributed database management systems known in the art (e.g., R* DDBMS). Sites that receive CTLs from other sites merge them with their own CTLs to create new versions of their own CTLs. To avoid aborting a read-only query because of premature garbage collection of the data needed by the query at the remote site, the set of retrieval sites that the ready-only query will visit must be known in advance and each of those sites must first be queried for its CTL before the query transaction starts. The union of the received CTLs must then be transmitted to all retrieval sites for use by the query to determine the data object versions to be read. Once the retrieval sites communicate their CTLs, they must be somehow prevented from garbage-collecting the data snapshot defined by the CTLs. This Chan and Gray algorithm incurs additional overhead to maintain CTLs in stable storage. These CTLs could become quite large. Chan and Gray do not suggest how premature garbage collection can be prevented or even detected.
Reference is also made to the disclosure by J. Robinson, et al of a technique for concurrency control using on-demand versioning to eliminate lock contention when an updating transaction must lock a record in a page required by a read-only query (Robinson, J., Thomasian, A., and Yu, P.S., "Elimination of Lock Contention in Relational Databases Accessed by Read-Only Queries and On-Line Update Transaction", I.B.M. Technical Bulletin 06-88, p. 180-85, Jun. 1988). Robinson, et al disclose a method wherein a page version containing the record accessed by a read-only query is prepared for the query and the global copy of the page is made available to the updating transaction. Versioning granularity can be varied and the version pages may be stored in a shared buffer pool along with other data. Different versions of the same page may co-exist in the buffer for queries started at different times. Robinson, et al do not consider the problems of efficiently controlling the various versions or of the efficient garbage collection of version data following read-only query termination.
S. Todd discloses a concurrency system that provides a deadlock-free environment for use in a distributed database system that tracks multiple versions of data pages (Todd S., "Concurrency System Suitable for Distributed Databases", I.B.M. Technical Disclosure Bulletin, 06-78, p. 383-386, Jun. 1978). Todd describes a method for labeling various page versions to indicate version status as replacement, lock or current. His method replaces the use of read locks with version control and permits all read-only queries to access the database without wait states.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,019, Fred K. Ng discloses a versioning technique that stores an array of access blocks, each block defining the database location of a version of a relation, only one of which is defined as current. However, his technique requires a new access block in the access dictionary (defining a new database location) for every update transaction. Database access by each of a plurality of database transactions is permitted only through the relation block associated with that particular transaction. Ng's technique appears to be intended for use in systems with few updating transactions and many read-only queries.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,843, Denise J. Ecklund discloses a system for merging virtual partitions of a distributed database where various database versions exist among the partitions. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,159, Richard W. Cary, et al disclose a version management system for synchronizing two versions in a multi-processor system. Both the Ecklund and Cary, et al techniques are intended for coordinating versioning control among independent processors in a distributed data processing system.
There is a clearly-felt need in the art to improve the optimization of tradeoffs between transaction concurrency and the delays arising from lock conflicts in concurrent processing systems. The related unresolved problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by the present invention in the manner described below.

Multiple version database concurrency control system

International Business Machines Corporation


A universal sign holder for mounting and supporting a display sign on a sign supporting base. The universal sign holder is configured for direct connection to a conventional sign supporting base which has a plurality of outwardly extending support legs. The universal sign holder includes a mast which has a lower section and an upper section. A support platform is attached to the mast for retaining a lower edge of the display sign. An alignment bracket is provided above the support platform and is also secured to the mast. The alignment bracket is used to prevent lateral movement and rotation of the display sign relative to the mast. A retaining device is used to secure the vertical frame member against the mast and within the alignment bracket such that the display sign is secured and maintained in proper display position.

Signs and message display devices for displaying messages, warnings and other information are well known in the art. In particular, signs utilized for highway safety and construction related applications are in widespread use to advise motorists and others of temporary or emergency conditions along roadways and other locations. These signs are usually intended for relatively temporary placement at particular locations where repair or rebuilding of the roadway is taking place, or where other safety conditions arise. Such signs are preferably portable, so that they can easily be removed or relocated as the temporary traffic or other conditions change.
Highway and construction related signs intended for temporary use typically comprise a message panel bearing an appropriate warning or other message and a separate sign supporting base or stand for supporting and displaying the message panel. A sign holding device is used to support or hold the message panel relative to the sign supporting base. The message panels may be of the rigid type, constructed of a metal, a plywood, or the like, or may be of the flexible type, constructed of a fabric, a plastic, or other flexible material, and designed to roll up, fold or otherwise break down for transportation and storage when not in use. The use of flexible message panels has greatly increased in recent years due to their increased portability and simplified handling demands.
These flexible message panels typically include a more rigid frame, such as a frame having a plurality of frame members which extend from one edge of the message panel across to an opposing edge. In particular, the frame may consist of a pair of crossed, horizontal and vertical frame members or battens, which are usually made from a fiberglass or other similar material. The battens may be of various sizes, depending upon the size of the message panel, but the horizontal batten typically has a standard width of approximately 1.25 inches and a standard thickness of approximately 0.375 inches or less. The combination of the message panel and the frame are commonly referred to as the sign.
The signs may be of any shape such as diamond, square, rectangular, octagonal, triangular or circular, and may be of varying sizes, generally depending upon the distance from which the signs must generally be viewed. Regardless of the shape and size, each sign conventionally includes a vertical frame member or batten as previously described.
The sign supporting base upon which the sign is mounted is typically a standardized or conventional supporting base. These support bases are designed and constructed so that one person can readily move them from a truck or other supply vehicle to a particular location. Commonly, these support bases are collapsible or foldable such that they occupy less space when stored or handled. In this configuration, the support base may include a number of individual ground engaging legs to support a central base and which are foldable to reduce the overall storage and transportation space required.
A sign post or upright portion usually extends upwardly from the lower portion of the supporting base. This upright portion is used to actually support the sign. Alternatively, some sign supporting bases include a central base for attachment of a separate upright portion. The upright portions may be of various cross-sectional sizes, shapes and lengths. The most common cross-section is square, though other cross-sections, such as round, may occasionally be used. They are often telescopic in nature, being of different sizes at vertical locations.
A typical sign supporting base is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,509 to Kulp et al., issued Mar. 18, 1997, and expressly incorporated herein by reference. The present invention is adaptable to function in conjunction with any conventional sign supporting base, but is preferably used with a supporting base having a relatively short upright portion.
The attachment of the sign to the upright portion of the sign supporting base requires the use of a sign holder or other mounting bracket. Because of the multitude of different sign types and sizes, as well as the number of various different sign supporting bases, a unique sign holder is often required for each sign or alternatively, each sign supporting base.
In an effort to reduce the number of differing sign holders, adjustable sign holders have recently become available. These adjustable sign holders facilitate the adaptation of most any sign to a single type of sign supporting base. This reduces the number of components necessary at a particular location while increasing the available sign and message options. Several different types of these adjustable sign holders are currently available for use with flexible and roll-up signs.
For example, one prior art adjustable sign holder for use with flexible signs, comprises an integral one-piece unit having a square tube mounting portion which is adapted to slide over and be secured on the upright portion of the sign supporting base. Extending forwardly from the mounting portion is a sign receiving portion, comprising a pair of arms with slots for receiving the sign's horizontal frame member. A latching member in conjunction with a biasing spring is used to retain the horizontal batten which is inserted into the slots.
This adjustable sign holder functions adequately, but is awkward to manipulate and not very adaptable to different types of signs and sign supporting bases. The number of springs and pivoting elements are susceptible to failure and the loss of the otherwise secured sign. Furthermore, the sign receiving portion is also awkward and difficult to operate, requiring one to manually pivot the latching member rearwardly and hold it there, with one hand, against the spring bias, while using the other hand to manipulate the sign's horizontal batten into the two corresponding receiving slots. This difficulty is increased in windy or other adverse conditions. Other prior art sign holders have similar problems.
What is needed, therefore, is a universal sign holder for use with a wide variety of different signs, message display devices, and the like. Ideally, the universal sign holder will require little or no adjustments, should be easy to install and operate and should provide secure attachment to a conventional sign supporting base. The universal sign holder should also be inexpensive to manufacture. Furthermore, the universal sign holder should be simple and quick to install in the field, by one person, and should be capable of positively securing the sign in position, in any reasonable environmental condition.


A shaper (2) is arranged within a shaping vessel (1). A raw material for a crystal is inserted into the shaping vessel (1) and a crystal melt (5) is formed by setting it in a predetermined atmosphere and heating it. A mechanical force F1 is applied to the crystal melt (5), which is present on the upper surface of the shaper (2), by a pressuring member (4) from above. The crystal melt (5) has nowhere to escape but a gap (3) formed by the shaper(2), so it is injected into that gap (3) as shown by the arrow. This method of fabricating a shaped crystal is suitable for fabricating a monocrystal or multicrystal semiconductor from a material such as silicon, germanium, or bismuth telluride.

A method of fabricating a large number of cube-shaped monocrystal pieces with sides on the order of 1 to 3 mm is known in the prior art as a method of fabricating pieces of a semiconductor crystal, such as a monocrystal or multicrystal semiconductor of a bismuth/tellurium compound; which involves slicing an ingot of monocrystal or multicrystal grown in an a-axial direction by a downward-drawing method to form circular plates, then dicing these circular plates.
Other methods, such as Edge-defined Film-fed Growth (EFG) and crosscut methods, are also known in the prior art as methods of fabricating sheets of semiconductor crystal such as silicon ribbon crystals.
However, the above method of fabricating monocrystal or multicrystal semiconductor pieces of a bismuth/tellurium compound necessitates a cutting process of one slicing step and two dicing steps, so it is expensive.
Furthermore, the silicon melt solidifies at a speed of ten to several hundred mm/minute with the above EFG and crosscut methods, so the grain size of the completed crystals is small and thermal stresses still remain therein, and thus quality is poor.
The present invention was devised in the light of the above problems and has as an objective thereof the provision of an inexpensive method of fabricating shaped crystals of a needle shape (diameter: approximately 0.5 mm to 3 mm) or sheet shape (thickness: approximately 0.5 mm) from a high-quality bismuth/tellurium compound or other semiconductor.

Method of fabricating shaped crystals by overhead-pressure liquid injection


A packet processing device has an on-board match engine memory. Actions to be taken on a packet can be looked up in the match engine memory using a key comprising a match engine index and a protocol field from the packet. The match engine index is obtained from either a relatively small on-board parser memory or a larger context memory. The parser memory contains match engine indices for sparse protocols. Performance approaching that of hard-wired packet processors can be obtained. New protocols or changes in protocols can be accommodated by writing new values into the match engine, parser and context memories. The packet processing device can be provided in a pipelined architecture.

Modem telecommunication systems exchange data in packets. A typical packet has a header and a data payload. An Internet Protocol (IP) packet is an example of such a packet. An individual packet may have a number of different protocols. There are many circumstances in which it is desirable to process packets. In general, packet processing involves retrieving information from a packet and then performing some action on a packet. As a trivial example, packet processing might involve looking up the destination IP address in an IP packet and using the IP address to identify a port via which the packet should be forwarded to reach the destination IP address.
Packet processing systems typically must be fast enough to process packets in real time as they are received at a device. As a result, high-speed packet processors are most typically implemented in hardware. A typical packet processor comprises an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is hardwired to determine values at specific offsets within received packets and to perform certain actions on the basis of those values. ASICs can handle very large packet rates but are not very flexible. If a protocol is changed, for example, by changing the offset within a packet at which certain information is located, then the ASIC will no longer work properly. Programmable network processors are much more flexible than ASICs but lack in performance.
Programmable network processors are much more flexible than ASICs but lack in performance. Some network processors use a tree-search methodology to determine what action(s) to perform on a packet. In such a network processor, a first bit field, which typically comprises a few bits, is retrieved from the packet and used as an index to access a memory. The memory contains a value which indicates a next bit field to take (and may also specify an action to be applied to the packet). A sequence of one or memory accesses is required to identify a final action to apply to the packet. The final action might, for example, specify whether or not the packet should be dropped, forwarded to a specific port, have a certain quality of service provided to it, and so on.
Some widely-used protocols are characterized by protocol header fields which are sparse. Such protocols are specified, at least in part, by a parameter which has a large valid range but only a few specific values of the parameter are significant. An example of such a protocol is internet protocol version 4 (IP v.4). In this widely-used protocol, packet destinations are specified by 32-bit numbers. Valid IP addresses can have any of nearly 232 different values. In most real world packet processing situations, however, particular actions need to be taken only for a few specific IP addresses or subnets.
Each bit field retrieved from a packet being processed is typically used as an address to access a memory directly. Where the bit field contains a value of a parameter in a sparse protocol header field, (such as an IP address) then a large memory is typically required to accommodate the valid range of possible values that the parameter could have in packets being processed.
Often a device cannot accommodate a large memory internally and so the large memories must be external to the packet processing device. This slows memory access and decreases the number of memory accesses that can be made in the time allowed for processing each packet. This is a problem because it is generally necessary to make several memory accesses to arrive at the final action for a particular packet. The packet may have a protocol stack containing information regarding several protocols.
There is a need for packet processing devices and methods which can provide high throughput and yet are more flexible than hard-wired ASICs.


A filter for a smoking article has improved biodegradability and improved taste during smoking of the smoking article. The filter includes a segment having a filtration substrate including natural cellulose fibres, and a wrapper at least partly surrounding the segment. The filtration substrate contains a composition including an additive for reducing phenols.

The present invention relates to a filter for a smoking article with improved biodegradability and improved taste during smoking of the smoking article.
Filters for smoking articles are typically made of cellulose acetate tow, which is particularly selective to filter phenols, but is slow to degrade, unless specially treated. Therefore, different materials have been tested as a replacement for cellulose acetate in filters for smoking articles.
For example, WO2015124242 shows a filter having a filtration material comprising polylactic acid. However, the present inventor found that also polylactic acid is not sufficiently biodegradable.
A further alternative filtration material that is biodegradable is paper. For example, WO2012012053 shows a filter with a paper substrate. However, this document teaches that the taste profile of a smoking article comprising a filter having a paper substrate is different to that of a smoking article with a cellulose acetate based filter.
Therefore there exists a need to provide a biodegradable filter for a smoking article with a good taste profile.

Biodegradable filter with improved taste


A magnetically shape-anisotropic material is made by providing a matrix with a plurality of elongated holes, and depositing first and second magnetic materials in each hole so as to form elongated particles including the first material adjacent one end and the second material adjacent the opposite end. One of the materials is a magnetically soft material having relatively low coercivity whereas the other material is a magnetically hard material having relatively high coercivity. The particles have dimensions transverse to their axes of elongation smaller than the magnetic domain size of the magnetically soft material.

Although static magnetic computer memories have been proposed since at least the 1960's, none have satisfactorily answered the need to provide a large amount of fast, inexpensive and reliable memory.
Today, the predominant use of magnetic memory is in connection with magnetic disks, tapes, drums and the like. For example, the disk drives in personal computers store large quantities of information on magnetic disks. However, all of these devices require an electromagnetic read/write head to be moved relative to the magnetic medium. Thus, although these magnetic media can store large amounts of information at relatively low cost, they are bulky, require maintenance, are very slow compared to other technologies such as random-access-memory (RAM) and consume substantial power to operate the motors.
Other magnetic memories include static magnetic memories such as core memory, magnetoresistive memory, inductive memory, bubble memory and Hall effect memory. Static magnetic memories do not use the relative movement of a magnetic medium and electomagnetic head. Instead, static magnetic memories use electrical current to change the information stored in the discrete magnetic elements. However, each of the aforementioned devices has its disadvantages. When information is read from most core memories, the data stored in the memory is destroyed. Accordingly, the information must be restored or refreshed every time it is read, which slows down the speed of the memory. In addition, core memory has a relatively large physical size and cost compared to the amount of information it can store, and a large amount of power is required to operate the memory. Inductive memory and bubble memory are also bulky and have large power consumptions. Bubble memory further suffers from being quite slow. Although magnetoresistive memory is very fast, it is rather difficult to measure the small change in resistance associated with stored data. In addition, most previous attempts at magnetoresistive memory yielded devices capable of storing only small amounts of data.
Other attempts have been made to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art. Dimyan, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,899, discloses a magnetic domain random-access-memory (RAM) which has magnetic storage elements disposed at the intersections of X and Y conductors. The X and Y conductors are perpendicular to one another but are essentially in the same plane. The magnetic element for each cell has a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to the plane of the read and write conductors. In operation, the value of a particular cell is set by passing current through the X and Y conductors which intersect at the cell. Depending on the direction of the current, the polarity of the magnetic element will either be up or down and perpendicular to the substrate. Detection is made in any manner readily known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Dimyan does not describe the exact magnetic material used in the cell element. Instead, the magnetic element is generally stated as having "uniaxial magnetic anisotropy perpendicular" to the substrate. Dimyan does refer to two patent applications as possible methods of manufacture, and one of those applications matured into U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,843. The '843 patent discloses growing magnetic garnet on selectively damaged portions of a substrate. The anisotropy presumably results from the crystal structure of the garnet.
Matthews, U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,247, discloses a method of making a Hall effect semiconductor memory cell. A grid of conductor lines overlie a substrate and magnetic patches are disposed in the squares defined by the grid. The planes formed by the conductors are usually above the magnetic patches. The polarity of the magnetic patches are perpendicular to the surface of the substrate. To write to the magnetic patch, current is passed in opposite directions through the four conductors surrounding the particular patch. This in turn sets the polarity of the patch to the desired orientation. The polarity of the patch is read by complicated non-destructive means integral with the device. Although various types of magnetic material are suggested, the reference does not appear to contemplate single domain magnetic materials because the magnetic patches can store domains other than up or down for analog data.
Kump et al., IBM Technical Disclosure Vol. 13, No. 7 at 2110 (December 1970) discloses a coupled NDRO magnetic film memory. The memory has word and bit-sense lines, a soft magnetic film layer exhibiting uniaxial anisotropy in the plane of the layer, a hard magnetic film layer also exhibiting uniaxial anisotropy, and a layer of insulation between the hard and soft layer. In operation, information is written to the film by applying current to the word and bit-sense lines which orients the magnetization in the films in one of two opposite directions. The memory is read out non-destructively by sending a pulse which is sufficient to rotate the magnetization in the soft layer, but not the hard layer.
Terman et al., IBM Technical Disclosure Vol. 8, No. 11 at 1598 (April 1966) discloses a non-destructive readout memory cell. The apparatus includes two magnetic films, one designated the read film and the other designated the storage film. When the storage film is magnetized in the 0 direction, the magnetization vector of the read film is bent in the same direction as the magnetic field used to read the film. Thus, during a read, no sense signal is received when the storage field is set to 0. When the storage field is magnetized in the 1 direction, the magnetization vector of the read film is bent at a right angle to the magnetic field used to read the film, thus inducing a sense signal. After the read pulse ends, the bias furnished by the storage film restores the read film magnetization angularity to its 1 position.
Tsuya et al., "Aluminate disc using oxidation", IEEE Transactions on Magnetic, Vol. MAG-22, No. 5 (September 1986) discloses filling a plurality of long and thin pores perpendicular to the planar surface of a disc with magnetic material for storing information. The magnetic properties of the disc are such that the hysteresis loop is tight and the magnetization vectors are perpendicular to the surface. The disk is apparently intended for use with standard magnetic disk reading apparatus.
Despite these prior attempts, there is still a need for a magnetic memory which is integrated (no moving parts), easily manufactured, fast, has a large storage capacity but small physical size and consumes only modest amounts of power. Although previous technologies may have incorporated each of these properties individually, none of the above-identified devices include all of these properties.

Magnetic memory having shape anisotropic magnetic elements


Techniques are provided for adjusting a portfolio of financial assets in order to properly track the performance of a desired index. The techniques generally involve calculating a correlative value for the portfolio, and obtaining a correlative value for the index, relative to each of a number of different factors having data values that are likely to be correlated with an aggregate market value for the portfolio, where the correlative value for an item relative to a given factor is a measure of a tendency of the aggregate market value of the item to change based on a change in the data value for such factor (e.g., in the nature of a sensitivity or elasticity). Then, the portfolio is adjusted in an attempt to move its correlative profile closer to the correlative profile of the index.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to techniques for tracking an index or other portfolio and is particularly applicable to automated techniques for facilitating the management of an index fund or similar stock portfolio where the investment strategy is to emulate a widely followed index.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many conventional mutual fund companies have at least one mutual fund that attempts to track or emulate the performance of a widely followed index, such as the S&P 500. While such an investment strategy may seem straightforward on its face, there often are many practical problems in actively managing a fund (or other portfolio) so as to properly track a broad index.
For instance, mutual funds typically are open-ended funds that must contend with the individual investors purchasing and selling their interests in the fund. By maintaining a certain amount of cash on hand, the fund often may be able to accommodate such exits and entries. However, in cases where the total amount invested is increasing or decreasing in significant amounts, the fund manager often will be required to purchase additional stocks or sell some of the stocks from the portfolio in response to the corresponding inflow or outflow of cash. While the amounts of such cash often will be sufficient to necessitate the purchasing or selling assets, such amounts rarely will be significant enough to warrant a proportionate purchase or sale of all of the stocks in the tracked index, across the board. Accordingly, the fund manager must identify a subset of the index stocks to buy or sell. Until now, no adequate conventional technique has existed for systematically identifying such an appropriate subset of stocks (or other assets).
The foregoing situation is even further exacerbated in a situation where a manager is given the task of tracking such a broad index while managing a fund that is not sufficiently large to justify maintaining proportionate holdings of all assets in the subject index. In this case, a smaller set of assets must be selected, even at the outset, to simulate the index. Often, this set of assets then must be adjusted over time to reflect changes in: the value of the fund, the composition of the index itself, and the variations in the values of the individual assets in both the fund and the index.


Methods are provided for determining whether a subject animal has an increased risk of cardiovascular or related disorder. The level of serum campesterol and beta-sitosterol are determined and a campesterol/beta-sitosterol ratio obtained. The ratio determined for the subject animal is compared with that of a normal control animal and correlated with the risk of cardiovascular or a related disorder.

While recent advances in science and technology are helping to improve quality and add years to human lives, the prevention of atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of cardiovascular disease ("CVD"), has not been properly addressed and remains the leading cause of disability and death among middle-aged men. Cardiovascular disease is the leading contributor towards spiralling health care costs, estimated at approximately $17 billion in Canada and remains the most common single cause of death in both men and women. Each year, more than 1,000,000 coronary angiography procedures, approximately 400,000 angioplasties and 400,000 coronary artery bypass operations are performed in the United States alone. The 1992 statistics in Washington State indicate that CVD mortality accounts for 40% of all mortality with overall CVD death slightly more common in women than in men. By the age of 60, one in five men in the United States had experienced a coronary event compared to only one in 17 women. After the age of 60, death from coronary heart disease is one in four for both men and women.
Research to date suggests that cholesterol may play a primary role in atherosclerosis by forming a atherosclerotic plaques in blood vessels, ultimately cutting off blood supply to the heat muscle or alternatively to the brain or legs, depending on the location of the plaque in the arterial tree.sup.1,2. Recent overviews have indicated that a 1% reduction in a person's total serum cholesterol level yields a 2-3% reduction in risk of coronary artery disease.sup.3. Statistically, a 10% decrease in average serum cholesterol (e.g. from 6.0 mmol/L to 5.4 mmol/L) may result in the prevention of 100,000 deaths in the United States annually.sup.4. FNT 1. Law M. R., Wald N. J., Wu T., Hackshaw A., Bailey A.; Systemic underestimation of association between serum cholesterol concentration and ischemic heart disease in observational studies: Dam from BUPA Study; Br. Med. J.,1994; 308: 363-366. FNT 2. Law M. R., Wald N. J., Thompson S. G.; By how much and how quickly does reduction in serum cholesterol concentration lower risk of ischemic heat disease?; Br. Med. J., 1994; 308: 367-373. FNT 3. La Rosa J. C., Hunninghake D., Bush D., et al.; The cholesterol facts: a summary of the evidence relating dierary fats, serum cholesterol and coronary heart disease: a joint statement by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Circulation 1990; 81: 1721-33. FNT 4. Havel R. J., Rapaport E.; Drug Therapy: Management of Primary Hyperlipidemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 1995; 332: 1491-1498.
Sterols are important cyclized triterpenoids that perform many critical functions in cells. Phytosterols such as campesterol, stigmasterol and beta-sitosterol in plants, ergosterol in fungi and cholesterol in animals are each primary components of the cellular and sub-cellular membranes in their respective cell types. The dietary source of phytosterols in humans comes from vegetables and plant oils. The estimated daily phytosterol content in the conventional western-type diet is approximately 250 milligrams in contrast to a vegetable diet which would provide double that amount.
Although having no nutritional value to humans, phytosterols have recently received a great deal of attention due to their possible anti-cancer properties and their ability to decrease cholesterol levels when fed to a number of mammalian species, including humans. Phytosterols aid in limiting cholesterol absorption.sup.5, enhance biliary cholesterol excretion.sup.6 and shift cholesterol from atherosclerotic plaque.sup.7. While many of the mechanisms of action remain unknown, the relationship between cholesterol and phytosterols is apparent. This is perhaps not surprising given that chemically, phytosterols closely resemble cholesterol in structure. The major phytosterols are beta-sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol. Others include stigmastanol (beta-sitostanol), sitostanol, desmosterol, chalinasterol, poriferasterol, clionasterol and brassicasterol. FNT 5. Gould R. G., Jones R. J., LeRoyu G. V., Wissler R. W., Taylor C. B.; Absorbability of B-sitosterol in humans; Metabolism, (August) 1969; 18(8): 652-662. FNT 6. Tabata T., Tanaka M., Lio T.; Hypocholesterolemic activity of phytosterol. II (author's transl.); Yakugaku Zasshi, 1980; 100(5): 546-552. FNT 7. Hepistall R. H., Porter K. A.; The effect of B-sitosterol on cholesterol-induced atheroma in rabbits with high blood pressure; Br. J. Experimental Pathology, 1957; 38: 49-54.
While there is data indicating that one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis or CVD is the level of blood cholesterol, this risk factor cannot be considered conclusive. It has been found that individuals having serum cholesterol levels within the normal, acceptable range may still be at risk- and do develop atherosclerosis and CVD. For this reason, a more reliable risk factor or indicator is required.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages and limitations regarding CVD risk assessment, treatment and dietary monitoring for those at risk for CVD.

Method of assessing risk for cardiovascular disease and other disorders and phytosterol-based compositions useful in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease and other disorders


A sense amplifier is provided with a trimming capability to provide a semiconductor memory device capable of a reading operation at higher speeds than related-art technology. A trimming means (8) is provided for controlling a trimming block (7) in a sense amplifier (5) to perform a trimming operation. A fuse is used for the trimming means (8). The fuse is cut at a necessary position at any given time after fabrication, thereby allowing initialization for reducing the input offset of the sense amplifier (5).

The present invention generally relates to the access speed of a semiconductor memory device, typically an SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) device, capable of high-speed reading and, more particularly, to the operational speed of a sense amplifier.
Conventional sense amplifiers use a MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor constitution by taking low power consumption characteristic into consideration. One example of such a constitution was reported by Yoshiyuki Haraguchi, et al. in "1997 Symposium on VLSI Circuits Digest of Technical Papers," p. 80.
However, the semiconductor memory device having a MOS transistor based sense amplifier has a defect of a large (about 20 mV) sense amplifier input offset. In such a constitution, therefore, an operation is kept in a wait state until the signal level on a bit line is raised above that input offset, thereby preventing high-speed reading.
For example, for a sense amplifier having an input offset (20 mV) at which data Q (1 for example) is outputted with ease to output data NQ (0 for example), a read operation must be kept in a wait state until an input signal ND having at least 20 mV appears on the bit line. Therefore, the above-mentioned constitution requires an excess read time as compared with the constitution having an input offset of 0 mV, presenting a problem of being disadvantageous in high-speed reading.

Semiconductor memory device provided with a sense amplifier having a trimming capability


The present application discloses a micro-valve comprising: a first valve body and a second valve body, at least one of the first and second valve bodies defining a valve chamber and a valve seat, the first valve body having a liquid outlet and the second valve body having a liquid inlet; a valve plug disposed and movable within the valve chamber; and an elastic member disposed within the valve chamber and positioned closer to the liquid inlet than the valve plug. The elastic member has a liquid-inflow position and a liquid-outflow position, and in the liquid-inflow position, the elastic member enables liquid to flow from the liquid inlet through the elastic member to the liquid outlet, in the liquid-outflow position, the valve plug compresses the elastic member, such that the compressed elastic member seals the valve seat, or the compressed elastic member together with the valve plug seals the valve seat, so as to prevent liquid from flowing back from the liquid outlet to the liquid inlet through the valve seat.

A micro-valve is suitable for dispensing very small amounts of liquid (e.g. in milliliter, microliter). For example, in a drug-delivery atomizer, certain amount of drug is extracted into a nozzle of the atomizer at first. The amount of drug being dispensed each time is typically 15 microliters to 2 milliliters, depending on the type of drug. For such drug-delivery atomizer, a micro-valve is desirably disposed at one end of a suction tube, for controlling the amount of fluid supplied to the drug-delivery atomizer. In clinical medicine, an intravenous injection amount per unit time for some drugs is more important than a total amount of the drugs being injected. In terms of pharmacokinetics, the shorter an interval of drug administration is, the smaller the blood concentration fluctuates. In clinical practice, constant-rate intravenous infusion is most effective. Table 1 below illustrates some commonly used drugs of intravenous general anesthesia, as well as their requirements of volume flow for the constant-rate intravenous infusion.
TABLE 1Commonly used drugs of intravenous general anesthesia, and theirrequirements of volume flow for the constant-rate intravenous infusionFlow rate ofVolume flowName ofintravenousrequirementsdruginfusion (mg/min)Form of drug liquid(ml/min)Thiopental501.0 g of each power-0.5Sodiuminjection being dilutedinto 10 mlMethohexital2-5500 mg/5 ml of injection0.02-0.05Ketamin0.5-1.5100 mg/10 ml of0.05-0.15injectionPropofol2.5-5  200 mg/ml of injective0.25-0.5emulsion
If a precise syringe is not available, an intravenous drip can be used after the drug is diluted by a 5% glucose solution. The volume flow rate of intravenous drip is generally 2-4 ml/min.
If a precise syringe is manufactured using a glass needle tube and a stainless steel push rod, the requirements on the manufacturing are high, and the volume flow of injection might be significantly affected by the environment. Therefore, there is a need for a precise syringe with a micro-valve.
An existing micro-valve structure typically comprises a valve body, a valve plug, a spring and a positioner. The valve body, which is a tube-like shape, has at its one end a liquid inlet with a smaller diameter, and an inner side of the liquid inlet forms a valve seat. The valve plug is typically a valve ball, which is put into the valve seat along with the spring through the other end of the valve body. The valve ball is sealingly mated with the valve seat. The positioner is tightly mated with the other end of the valve body to position the spring and valve ball.
When the size of an exterior profile of the valve body is less than 3 mm, metallic materials e.g. stainless steel, may be used preferably. The reason for this is, for example, the difficulty of injection molding because of the small size of the parts, different situations of shrink of plastic parts for each batch of injection molding, or the difficulty in adjusting the parts from different batches. Furthermore, an existing small size metallic one-way valve is not detachable once assembled, which means that the parts cannot be detached for reuse as long as they are assembled together. Thus, the valve may not be used once any part thereof has defects. In practical production stage, each one-way valve being assembled can be put into use only after it passes a leak-checking test. An undetachable one-way valve is scrapped if it fails in the leak-checking test. In use stage, due to the corrosion and oxidation of metallic materials, materials and parts with better properties are desired for increasing service lifetime. However, liquid leakage is still inevitable for a valve after a period of time, and then the valve as a whole has to be scrapped.
In addition, because the liquid being delivered is thick, the residual liquid is easily cured into crystal within the valve body, or the elongated tube is easily blocked, the valve is disposable or has to be cleaned carefully before and after each usage. In order to make sure that no rust stain or liquid remains within the tube, a cleaning process is added, which adversely affects the service lifetime of the valve, and costs including manpower, time and resource.
Furthermore, the flow cannot be adjusted for the existing micro-valve by itself. If it is desired to adjust the flow, an additional rate control valve or other flow control valves are required mounted to the tube, or other type of one-way valve with a more complicated structure is required.
In order to solve at least one of the problems discussed above, there is a need for a new micro-valve structure.

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