The present invention relates to a liquid formulation of long-acting insulin conjugate, comprising a pharmaceutically effective amount of a long-acting insulin conjugate, wherein a physiologically active peptide, which is an insulin, is linked to an immunoglobulin Fc region; and an albumin-free stabilizer, wherein the stabilizer comprises a buffer, a sugar alcohol, a non-ionic surfactant, and an isotonic agent, and a method for preparing the formulation. For preventing microbial contamination in multiple uses, a preservative can be added to the formulation. The liquid formulation of the present invention does not comprise a human serum albumin and potentially hazardous factors to body, and thus it has excellent storage stability for insulin conjugate without a risk of viral infection.

Insulin is a peptide consisting of 51 amino acids having a molecular weight of about 5,800 Da. Insulin is secreted by the human pancreatic beta cells, and plays a central role in the control of blood glucose levels in the body. If the amount of insulin secreted is lacking or the secreted insulin does not function properly in the body, the blood glucose level will be elevated, causing metabolic disease called diabetes. When the insulin is not secreted properly or does not function properly in the body, the blood glucose level cannot be regulated, and this type of diabetes is called type II diabetes. Type I diabetes is caused when the pancreas does not make enough insulin to regulate the increase of blood glucose level. Type II diabetes is usually treated with oral hypoglycemic agents mainly consisting of chemical compounds, and in some cases, the patients are treated by using insulin. Meanwhile, type I diabetes requires administration of insulin.
The currently used insulin treatment is an injection of insulin before and after meals. However, such insulin injection should be done three times a day continuously, which causes severe pain or discomfort to the patients. There have been many attempts to solve these problems, and one of them was the delivering of a peptide drug into the body through oral or nasal inhalation by increasing the biomembrane permeability of the peptide drug. However, this method has significantly low efficiency for delivering the peptide into the body compared to injections. Therefore, there are still many limitations in maintaining the activity of peptide drug in vivo at the required level.
Meanwhile, another method for delivering drug was by delaying a drug absorption after a subcutaneous injection of a large amount of drug, so as to maintain a continuous drug level in blood by doing only a single injection a day. Some of the drugs (e.g. Lantus? Sanofi-aventis) were approved as a drug, and are currently being administered to the patients. In addition, studies have been conducted to extend the in vivo durability through making the bond in insulin conjugate stronger by modifying insulin with fatty acid, and through making the insulin to bind with albumin in administration site and blood, which led to the development of Levemir (NovoNordisk) which is approved as drug. However, these methods have a side effect of causing pain at the site of injection, and the daily injections are still undue burden to the patient.
Meanwhile, there have been continuous attempts to maximize therapeutic effects of a peptide drug by improving the stability thereof in blood and maintaining a high drug level in blood for a long period of time after absorption of the peptide drug into the body. The long-acting formulation of the peptide drugs should promote an increased stability of peptide drug and also maintain a sufficiently high titer of drug itself without inducing immune responses in patients. For the preparation of the long-acting formulations of peptide drugs, a polymer having high solubility, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), has been used to chemically modify the surface of a peptide drug.
PEG binds to a specific site or various sites of a target peptide non-specifically and increases the molecular weight of the peptide, which then prevents the loss of peptide in kidney and hydrolysis of peptide, without causing side effects. For example, International Patent Publication WO2006/076471 discloses that by attaching PEG to a B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), which activates production of cGMP by binding to NPR-A and reduces intra-arterial blood pressure, thereby being effective as therapeutic agent for congestive heart failure, the bioactivity of BNP can be maintained. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,924,264 describes a method for increasing the in vivo durability of exendin-4 by attaching PEG to lysine residue of an exendin-4. However, while these methods can extend the in vivo durability of a peptide drug by increasing the PEG molecular weight, the titer of the peptide drug gets reduced as the PEG molecular weight increases.
As another method for increasing the in vivo stability of physiologically active proteins, a method for preparing a fusion protein has been developed. In this method, the gene for protein having high serum stability and the gene for a physiologically active protein are linked by genetic recombination, and the animal cells transformed with the recombinant gene are cultured to produce a fusion protein. For example, it has been reported that a fusion protein can be prepared by linking an albumin or fragments thereof, which are highly effective in increasing protein stability, to a desired physiologically active protein through genetic recombination (International Patent Publication Nos. WO 93/15199 and WO 93/15200, and European Patent Publication No. EP 413,622).
International Patent Publication No. WO 02/46227 describes a fusion protein prepared by coupling GLP-1, exendin-4, or analog thereof with a human serum albumin or an immunoglobulin fragment (Fc) through genetic recombination. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,480 describes a fusion protein prepared by coupling a parathyroid hormone (PTH) or an analog thereof with an immunoglobulin fragment (Fc). These methods may overcome the problems of low pegylation yield and non-specificity, but they still have a limitation in that it cannot increase the half-life of peptide in blood significantly, and in some cases, the titers are low. In order to maximize the effect of increasing the blood half-life, various types of peptide linkers have been used, but there is a possibility of causing an immune response. Furthermore, if a peptide having disulfide bonds, such as BNP, is used, there is a high possibility of misfolding, and if there is unnatural amino acid residue in a peptide linker, it cannot be produced by genetic recombination.
Recently, as a long-acting protein drug formulation which can promote a minimal reduction in activity and an increased stability, a conjugate generated by combining an immunoglobulin Fc region, a non-peptidyl polymer, and a physiologically active polypeptide is disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0567902 (Physiologically active polypeptide conjugate having improved in vivo durability) and Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0725315 (Protein complex using an immunoglobulin fragment and method for the preparation thereof).
Furthermore, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0134210 (Insulin derivative drug conjugate using immunoglobulin fragment) discloses that an insulin conjugate generated by linking an immunoglobulin Fc region, a non-peptidyl polymer, and a PEG-modified insulin analog site-specifically through covalent bond showed an improved half-life in blood and reduced the risk of having a low blood glucose level in the body. Through the above method, insulin may be applied as a physiologically active polypeptide for preparing a long-acting insulin conjugate. To manufacture the drug comprising long-acting insulin conjugate, it is essential to prevent physiochemical changes such as heat-induced denaturation, aggregation, adsorption, or hydrolysis caused by light, heat, or impurities in additives during storage and delivery processes while maintaining in vivo efficacy. The long-acting insulin conjugate has larger volume and molecular weight compared to the insulin peptide itself, and thus it is hard to stabilize.
Due to their chemical differences, different proteins may be gradually inactivated at different rates under different conditions during storage. That is, the extension of storage term by a stabilizer is not the same for different proteins. For this reason, the suitable ratio, concentration, and type of stabilizers that are used to improve storage stability of proteins vary depending on the physiochemical properties of a target protein. Furthermore, when different stabilizers are used together, they may induce adverse effects different from those desired, due to competitive interaction and side effects. Also, during storage, the property of stored protein or concentration thereof can change, thereby causing different effects. Therefore, a lot of efforts and cautions are needed to stabilize a protein in solution. In particular, as for the long-acting insulin conjugate having improved in vivo durability and stability, it consists of a physiologically active peptide, insulin, linked with an immunoglobulin Fc region, and thus the molecular weight and volume thereof are significantly different from general insulin, thereby requiring a specific composition for stabilizing protein.
Also, a physiologically active peptide, insulin and an immunoglobulin Fc region are physiochemically different peptide or protein, and thus they have to be stabilized concurrently. However, as described above, different peptides or proteins may be gradually inactivated at different rates under different conditions during storage due to the physiochemical difference thereof. Also, when the stabilizers that are suitable for each of peptide or protein are used together, they may induce adverse effects different from desired effects, due to competitive interaction and side effects. Therefore, as for a long-acting insulin conjugate, it is highly difficult to find a stabilizer composition that can stabilize both a physiologically active peptide, insulin, and an immunoglobulin Fc region concurrently.
Recently, a formulation of protein and peptide that can be used repeatedly for the patient's convenience has been developed. However, the multiple-use formulation must contain a preservative to prevent the microbial contamination after repeated administrations and prior to disposal. The multiple-use formulation containing preservative has a few advantages compared to a single-use formulation. For example, as for a single-use formulation, a large amount of drug is wasted depending on the difference in dosage. But by using a multiple-use formulation, the amount of product wasted can be reduced. Furthermore, the multiple-use formulation can be used several times without concerning about microbial growth within certain period, and since it can be supplied in a single container, packing can be minimized, leading to economic benefits. However, use of preservative may affect the protein stability. The most well-known problem in use of preservative is precipitation issue. Precipitation of protein can reduce therapeutic effects of drug and when administered to the body it can induce unexpected immune response. Therefore, it is critical to select an appropriate concentration and type of preservative that maintain the ability to prevent microbial contamination while not affecting protein stability.

Liquid formulation of long-acting insulin conjugate


A method, processing system, and computer readable storage medium, reduce heap memory used by an application, where unused memory in the heap memory is reclaimed by a garbage collector. A processor periodically monitors the application's memory usage including maximum heap memory size, committed heap memory size, in use heap memory size, and a garbage collection activity level. The processor, based on determining that the monitored garbage collection activity level is below a threshold, releases unused heap memory from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

Memory management is a process of managing computer memory, including mechanisms to dynamically allocate portions of memory to programs upon request and freeing the portions of memory for reuse when no longer needed.
Programming languages such as Java, C++, Lisp, Smalltalk, and several scripting languages allocate memory from such an area known as the heap (or heap memory). At any given time, some parts of the heap may be in use while parts may be "free" (i.e., unused) and thus available for future allocations. In order to free memory from the heap, garbage collection is needed. A key problem with such environments is that memory overhead is a significant factor. Programmers cannot manually allocate or deallocate memory objects. They need to rely on garbage collectors (i.e., one or more garbage collectors are normally available in the operating system) to free up memory which is no longer being used. In many cases, this can result in excess memory being allocated to the heap.
Such excess heap memory being allocated to one or more applications operating in a computer system environment can create serious memory management problems for the computer system. These problems are particularly difficult to deal with in situations in which multiple applications are running on the same computer system, and the applications are all competing for memory. For example, one or more Java virtual machines (JVM) might be running on an information processing system (computer system) with other applications, and the objective is to allocate memory efficiently across all applications, including the Java virtual machines. The JVM should not take up more memory than it needs. Java allocates memory from an area known as the heap. In order to free memory from the heap, garbage collection is needed.
A key problem is that while garbage collection might free up a considerable amount of memory, the JVM might not give up the free memory to the operating system. Instead, the JVM might keep the free memory for itself in case the memory requirements for the JVM increase.
Garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management that attempts to reclaim "garbage", as referring to memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use by a program. Garbage collection is often portrayed as the opposite of manual memory management, a mechanism in which the programmer specifies which objects to deallocate and return to the memory system. Many computer languages, such as Java, C++, and several scripting languages, require garbage collection either as part of the language specification or effectively for practical implementation, while other languages, such as C, C++, were designed for use with manual memory management but have garbage collected implementations available. Still others, such as Ada, Modula-3, and C++/CLI allow both garbage collection and manual memory management to co-exist in the same application by using separate heaps, and others, such as D, are garbage collected while allowing the user to manually delete objects and disable garbage collection when speed is required.
The entity that performs garbage collection is known as the garbage collector. Garbage collectors are typically implemented in software running on a computer system. They can also be implemented using special hardware that supports the garbage collector software to aid garbage collection.
In certain information processing systems, a user can manually force a JVM to give up memory (i.e., back to the operating system) that was freed during a garbage collection by adjusting a parameter known as softmx. By adjusting the value of system parameter softmx, a JVM can be forced to give up memory which has been freed by a garbage collector back to the operating system for other applications to use. A problem with this technology is that the user has to manually adjust the value of the parameter softmx to determine the right value for it so that the JVM gives memory back to the operating system. Determining the right amount of memory to give back is difficult. If too little is given back, the system will use up excess memory. If too much memory is given back, then excess CPU (processor) cycles may be consumed for giving back the memory as well as requesting additional memory later. Garbage collection overhead may also rise. In the worst case, the JVM may crash due to an out of memory error.

Memory use for garbage collected computer environments


The present invention provides high purity trifluoromethylacetophenones of the general formula: EQU F.sub.3 C--(C.sub.6 H.sub.4)-(C.dbd.O)--CH.sub.3. wherein the position of the CF.sub.3 -- group on the aromatic ring may be in the 2-, 3-, or 4- position relative to the acetyl, --(C.dbd.O)--CH.sub.3, group, said trifluoromethylacetophenone being substantially free of other organic or inorganic materials, wherein said trifluoromethylacetophenones are produced by a novel high yield process.

Several processes have been used to produce 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone in the past; however, in all cases the yields have been low (70% or less), the volume efficiency of the processes have been low, and in some cases the product quality has been poor.
Examples include, U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,266, which teaches the reaction of 3-trifluoromethylbenzoyl chloride with the ethoxymagnesium derivative of diethyl malonate to form 3-trifluoromethylbenzoylmalonate. 3-Trifluoromethylbenzoylmalonate is then treated with aqueous acid to produce 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone in 60-70% yield.
Another example is set forth in CA 43:3361e-f, which discloses the addition of methyl Grignard reagent to 3-trifluoromethylphenyl cyanide, followed by acidification with aqueous acetic acid to form 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone in both poor quality and low yield.
A third example is described in Research Disclosure (1997), 402 (Oct) P706 (No. 40221), (CA 127:294925h). This reference teaches the multi-step reaction of 3-trifluoromethylaniline sequentially with a) aqueous sulfuric acid, b) aqueous sodium nitrite, c) aqueous acetaldoxime, d) cuprous sulfate and sodium bicarbonate and e) hydrochloric acid to form 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone in 70% yield. However, the overall volume efficiency of this process scheme is very low.
A fourth reference, Research Disclosure (1996), 386, 348 (CA 125:114257), teaches the reaction of 3-trifluoromethylbromobenzene with magnesium to produce the corresponding Grignard reagent followed by reaction with acetic anhydride and finally with aqueous acetic acid to form 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone. The yield of product from this reaction is about 60%; however, this Grignard reaction is known to be unstable and can decompose explosively. In addition, the reaction with acetic anhydride has to be run very cold, at about 0.degree. C., thus making this route not commercially appealing.
In summary, all of the prior art processes for producing 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone have significant drawbacks. Accordingly, it would represent a notable advance in the state of the art if a simple and efficient process to provide 3-trifluoromethylacetophenone in high yield and high purity starting with readily commercially available reagents were provided.

Process for producing trifluoromethylacetophenones


An adhesive sheet which can actualize a high package reliability wherein there is no separation at the adhesive interface and no package cracking, in a package in which a semiconductor chip being reduced in thickness is mounted under severe reflow conditions after exposure to a hot and humid environment. The adhesive sheet includes a base material and, formed thereon, an adhesive layer having an adhesive composition including an acrylic copolymer (A) containing 20 to 95% by weight of a structural unit derived from a benzyl (meth)acrylate, an epoxy thermosetting resin (B), and a thermosetting agent (C).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adhesive composition which is particularly suited for using at a step of die-bonding a semiconductor device (semiconductor chip) on an organic substrate or a lead frame and a step of dicing a silicon wafer and the like and die-bonding a semiconductor chip on an organic substrate or a lead frame, an adhesive sheet having an adhesive layer comprising the above adhesive composition and a production process for a semiconductor device using the above adhesive sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor wafer of silicon, gallium arsenide or the like is cut and separated (dicing) into small pieces (IC chips) of devices and then transferred to a bonding step which is a subsequent step. In this case, the semiconductor wafer is subjected to the respective steps of dicing, washing, drying, expanding and picking-up in the state that it is adhered in advance on an adhesive sheet, and then it is transferred to a bonding step which is a subsequent step. Furthermore, for such purposes as protecting a semiconductor chip from the surrounding environment and making it into a shape easily mountable on a print board, a semiconductor package is produced, in some cases, by sealing a substrate on which an IC chip is bonded with a mold resin after the bonding step.
In order to simplify the picking-up step and the bonding step among the above steps, for example, adhesive sheets for dicing and die-bonding which are described in patent documents 1 to 4 and which are provided with both a wafer-fixing function and a die-adhering function are proposed.
Adhesive sheets comprising an adhesive layer comprising a specific composition and a base material are disclosed in the patent documents 1 to 4. The above adhesive layer has a function of fixing a wafer in dicing the wafer, and irradiation thereof with an energy beam reduces an adhesive strength thereof and makes it possible to control the adhesive strength between the adhesive layer and the base material, so that when picking up the chip after finishing dicing, the adhesive layer is peeled off together with the chip. When the IC chip provided with the adhesive layer is mounted on a substrate and heated, an adhesive strength of a thermosetting resin contained in the adhesive layer is revealed to complete adhesion between the IC chip and the substrate.
The adhesive sheets disclosed in the patent documents described above enables so-called direct die-bonding and makes it possible to omit a step of coating an adhesive for adhering a die.
On the other hand, very severe physical properties are required to semiconductor devices in recent years. For example, package reliability under severe hot and humid environment is required in an examination of a term of quality assurance. However, a reduction in a thickness of a semiconductor chip itself results in a reduction in a strength of the chip, and the package reliability under severe hot and humid environment has not necessarily been satisfactory.
In a surface mounting carried out in connection of electronic parts in recent years, a surface mounting method in which the whole part of a package is exposed to high temperature of not lower than a melting point of a solder is carried out(reflow process). In recent years, a mounting temperature is elevated from 240° C. which has so far been carried out to 26° C. due to transfer to a solder containing no lead from the viewpoint of attentions to the environment to increase a stress produced in the inside of a semiconductor package, and the risk of producing peeling of adhesive interface between a semiconductor chip and an adhesive sheet and package crack is further elevated.
In other words, an adhesive sheet is required whose quality such as an adhesive strength does not deteriorate even exposed to severe hot and humid environment and which does not cause package crack and the like even exposed to a high temperature condition of 260° C. after that, that is, can achieve high package reliability, as well as enables the so-called direct die-bonding as aforementioned.
As a technology to meet the tough requirements for physical properties, especially requirements for resistance to hot and humid environment, for example, Patent Document 3 discloses an adhesive tape having an adhesive layer formed from an energy beam-curable adhesive component, an epoxy resin and a phenol resin.
In Patent Document 3, the energy beam-curable adhesive component mentioned above is exemplified by a (meth)acrylate copolymer comprising such a constitutional unit derived from a (meth)acrylate monomer and the like and there is described that the epoxy resin acquires a property of firmly adhering an adherend upon heating and that the phenol resin reacts with the epoxy resin upon heating to form a cured product.
Furthermore, Example 5 of Patent Document 5 discloses an adhesive composition containing an acrylic copolymer, an epoxy resin and a heat-activatable latent epoxy resin curing agent (phenol resin). On the other hand, Patent Documents 2, 4, 5 and the like disclose a benzyl(meth)acrylate as an example of a (meth)acrylate monomer used for constituting an adhesive component.
However, there are no specific descriptions about the amount of benzyl(meth)acrylate to be used and the like in these documents.
Patent document 1: JP-A-1990-32181
Patent document 2: JP-A-1996-239636
Patent document 3: JP-A-1998-8001
Patent document 4: JP-A-2000-17246
Patent document 5: JP-A-2006-335860


The turbine housing 1 is formed by sheet metal scroll members 5 and 7 butted opposite each other and welded together. A center core part 9 arranged in a central part of the scroll part 3 is integrally formed in one piece from a steel pipe member such as to include a housing portion 93 surrounding a turbine wheel 24, a bearing receiving portion 91 axially supporting the turbine wheel 24, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced supports 92 bridging a gap between the housing portion 93 and the bearing receiving portion 91.

A conventional turbine housing 001 includes, as shown in FIG. 9, a scroll part 002, a core part 003 surrounding the outer circumference of a turbine wheel 004, and an outlet part 005 leading to an exhaust gas flow passage, these being formed integrally by casting. As it is made by casting, the turbine housing is thick in various parts and has high heat capacity, because of which, when disposed upstream of an exhaust gas purification catalyst, the housing impedes the warming of the catalyst. In view of more stringent exhaust gas regulations in recent years, it is important to reduce the heat capacity of the housing by making it from sheet metal so that it is thinner and lighter, so as to improve the purification performance of the catalyst by speeding up the warming and activation of the catalyst.
Since sheet metal parts are thin and less strong, a turbine housing made of sheet metal requires a coupling portion for coupling a part on the side of a bearing housing in which a bearing that supports a rotating shaft of the turbine blade is fitted and a part on the side of the outlet leading to the exhaust gas flow passage.
FIG. 10 shows a conventional technique regarding this coupling portion described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-106667).
A coupling ring 08 having a plurality of circumferentially arranged columnar coupling portions 081 is disclosed, as shown in FIG. 10. A flange 03 on the bearing housing side, a flange 05 on the nozzle wall surface, and the coupling ring 08 are fabricated as separate components. The coupling ring 08 and the flange 05 on the nozzle wall surface are welded together all around (W6), and the coupling ring 08 and the flange 03 on the bearing housing side are welded together all around (W7).
As the flange 03 on the bearing housing side, the flange 05 on the nozzle wall surface, and the coupling ring 08 are fabricated as separate components and welded together all around, the cost is increased because of the increased number of components. Moreover, an ample clearance needs to be formed between the housing portion and the turbine, in consideration of the amount of thermal strain that accompanies the welding of the entire circumference. A large clearance is problematic because it lowers the driving performance of the turbine, and results in poorer turbocharger performance.
Another problem is that, while the turbine housing can be made more lightweight by making it from sheet metal, a sheet metal housing will likely have lower strength. Therefore, the turbine housing needs a structure that provides impact resistance so that, in the event of a burst following an excessively high-speed rotation of the turbine rotor under some circumstances, fractured pieces will not fly off.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-106667

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention provides systems and methods for the mitigation of PMD impairments in fiber optic links. The present invention utilizes synchronous polarization modulation and digital control of polarization modulation, instead of independent polarization modulators and analog control used in the current state of art. Also, the present invention utilizes a feedback loop to avoid identified bad polarization states instead of a random open loop operation. Further, the present invention includes a mechanism to continually update polarization states based on pre-corrected FEC error analysis from data receivers. Additionally, the present invention includes a mechanism for collecting and correlating error feedback signals from multiple geographically-diverse network nodes. Advantageously, the present invention provides a cost-effective and efficient way to implement mitigation of PMD impairments, while using only a small fraction of the FEC error correction capability.

Optical networks are continuously evolving in order to meet ever-increasing voice and data traffic demands. There is a need for increased multi-channel capacity in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) and dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) systems, increased reliability, and reduced cost. Conventional optical networks can utilize forward error correction (FEC) in order to improve system margins, to lower overall network costs, to improve optical layer operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM), and to improve network reliability.
FEC is a methodology that enables bits that have been received but improperly decoded to be detected and corrected. Each frame of working data includes corresponding error-check data. Among other things, FEC allows a system to utilize a decreased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while maintaining a fixed error probability. Advantageously, FEC is able to correct a specific fraction of the errored data completely, regardless of the source of the errors. For example, decreased SNR means that optical amplifiers can be spaced at longer distances, reducing cost, and that a faster signal may be used, for example. A further advantage is optical component performance can be lowered with a corresponding cost decrease, while still maintaining error free data transmission after the FEC. One of such optical impairments can be Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD), which generally arises in older, lower quality transmission fiber. Disadvantageously, the inclusion of error-check data means that increased bandwidth, as well as increased transmitter and receiver complexity, are required. A further disadvantage is FEC's limited ability to deal with error bursts, i.e. with a long sequence of errored bits.
PMD is an increasing concern for modern fiber-optic networks. The increased requirements for capacity are continually driving channel data rates up from predominantly 2.5 Gb/s several years ago, to more recent 10 Gb/s, to a current transition to 40 Gb/s rates with 100 Gb/s rates being actively studied for next generation systems. PMD results as light travels down a single-mode fiber in two inherent polarization modes. When the core of the fiber is asymmetric, the light traveling along one polarization mode faster or slower than the light traveling along the other polarization mode, resulting in a pulse overlapping with others, or distorting the pulse to such a degree that it is undetectable by a receiver. PMD concerns are compounded in today's high-speed transmission optical networks, since PMD impairment scales linearly with data rate. For example, a 100 Gb/s signal is 10 times more susceptible to PMD than a similarly modulated 10 Gb/s signal. Further, PMD varies dynamically with temperature changes, infinitesimal asymmetries in the fiber core, etc., and impacts diverse wavelength channels differently. Thus, it is a wavelength and time-dependent impairment. The time constant of the PMD impairment is related to the mechanic and thermal perturbations associated with the optical transmission path.
Rapid mechanical changes can result in sub-millisecond changes, while buried fiber-optic cable can be quite stable for months. A typical time constant is in the range of 100 ms to many minutes, with the data errors being produced within the corresponding time periods. Thus, PMD-induced errors tend to be bursty, generally exceed the FEC correction capability, and present a significant challenge. Several recent investigations have shown that a typical fiber-optic transmission system with buried fiber cable segments can be represented as stable on very long time scales and to have a finite PMD value. These PMD-causing segments are separated by small fiber lengths that correspond to optical amplifier locations, and are responsible for fast polarization rotation. This representation is frequently referred to as a "hinge model", with polarization rotation inducing exposed hinges separated by substantially stable PMD-causing cable segments.
The mitigation of PMD-induced impairments can be divided into two general categories. First, channel-based PMD compensators are used at receivers. This approach requires a single expensive device for each WDM channel. Attempts have been made to reduce the number of required compensators by sharing a single unit for several channels, but this approach is still expensive and control is cumbersome. A second approach uses the natural error correction property associated with FEC. Since PMD impairments tend to have intrinsic long time constants, an additional external mechanism is introduced to rapidly and continuously perturb optical signal polarization. Such rapid polarization rotation distributes PMD errors more randomly, and makes FEC algorithms more effective in correcting them if randomization occurs within the FEC code block length.
The primary limitation of the present state of the art is the focus on complete randomization of the polarization states. Thus, the performance of each wavelength channel rapidly covers a large fraction of the possible performance states, including ones that induce low penalties and ones that induce high penalties. A channel experiences high penalties for at least a fraction of the FEC block length, and some of the FEC correction capability is thus spent on the PMD problem. Less FEC error correction capability is available for other impairments, such as optical noise, nonlinear effects, linear cross talk effects, etc. What we desire is a mechanism that would still mitigate PMD impairment, while minimizing the amount of FEC capability allocated to this particular impairment.
S. P. Jung, et al. describe the use of in-line polarization controllers between fiber-optic segments to controllably realign polarizations to improve the performance of worst-case PMD channel. S. P. Jung, et al. "Multi-channel PMD compensation based on distributed polarization control," OFC 2005, vol. 3, March 2005, paper JWA18. The paper suggests the use of dither of polarization control stages with feedback from PMD monitoring of an aggregate sum PMD impairment for all WDM signals. This approach suffers from several limitations, as follows: aggregate PMD monitoring for all WDM signals relying on RF spectrum is not applicable to a number of channels over ˜4, aggregate PMD monitoring is not applicable when channels use different modulation formats or data rates. Further, the feedback loop takes too long to close, as there is intrinsic fiber delay of ˜10 ms associated with a round trip time over 1000 km of a typical fiber link, and the paper does not discuss a mechanism for dealing with highly meshed networks with many optical add/drop multiplexers, where WDM channels may traverse many different overlapping fiber segments.
Thus, present state of the art has numerous performance, cost and control algorithm limitation which the present invention proposes to overcome.

Systems and methods for the mitigation of polarization mode dispersion impairments in fiber optic links


A golf ball pickup has a pickup tube consisting of an inner tube, an outer tube, a constrictor fixed on the inner tube, and a locking mechanism with an eccentric shaft. The outer tube has an engage mouth for the eccentric shaft to fit in. When the locking mechanism is swung from an unlocking condition to a locking condition, the eccentric shaft may press the inner tube immovable. The eccentric shaft has one end functioning to stop the constrictor and then the inner tube in telescoping in the outer tube, without possibility of the inner tube completely sliding out of the outer tube. Thus the golf ball pickup has function of lengthening and shortening with non-stage to collapse to a small dimension for saving cost of package and transportation, and of suitting to golfers of different height to use.

This invention relates to a golf ball pickup, particularly to one having a pickup tube adjustable non-stage in its length to be collapsed to a small dimension to save expenditure for its package and transportation and to suit to golfers of different height.
A known conventional golf ball pickup shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, includes a pickup tube 1 and a ball bag 2 as main components.
The pickup tube 1 has a sleeve 10 fixed with a lower end of the tube body, a plurality of elastic hooks 11 fixed spaced apart on a lower inner end surface of the sleeve 10, and an upper portion extending in the ball bag 2. Further, two fixing members 12 are fixed between an upper end of the pickup tube 1 and a grip 20 located outside of an upper side of the ball bag 2.
The ball bag 2 has a zipper mouth 21 in one side for taking out golf balls stored therein, an upper side board 22 and a lower side board 23 for expanding an inner space of the ball bag 2.
In picking up a golf ball from the ground with the conventional golf ball pickup, a user holds the grip 20 and pushes on a golf ball with the lower end of the sleeve 10 of pickup tube 1, with the ball to be pinched by the elastic hooks 11 to stay in the sleeve 10. Then the user picks up another golf ball to push up the lowest ball in the sleeve 10 one by one to finally enter the ball bag 2, and to be stored therein.
However, though the known conventional golf ball pickup has function of picking up and storing golf balls, it has the pickup tube 1 of a definite length, unable to be collapsed and thus also unable to suit to golfers of different height, inconvenient for package or transportation, resulting in not competitive in market.


Microelectronics wafer substrate surfaces are cleaned to remove metal contamination while maintaining wafer substrate surface smoothness by contacting the wafer substrate surfaces with an aqueous cleaning solution of an alkaline, metal ion-free base and a polyhydroxy compound containing from two to ten --OH groups and having the formula: ##STR1## wherein or in which --R--, --R.sup.1 --, --R.sup.2 -- and --R.sup.3 -- are alkylene radicals containing two to ten carbon atoms, x is a whole integer of from 1 to 4 and y is a whole integer of from 1 to 8, with the proviso that the number of carbon atoms in the polyhydroxy compound does not exceed ten, and wherein the water present in the aqueous cleaning solution is at least about 40% by weight of the cleaning composition.

The cleaning of integrated circuit (IC) substrates, such as silicon wafers, with metal-free alkaline solutions to remove organic and metal contamination is widely practiced. One commonly used alkaline solution of this type is known as SC-1 or RCA-1 and comprises a hot aqueous mixture of ammonium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, and water (1:1:5 of 30% H.sub.2 O.sub.2, 28% NH.sub.4 OH and H.sub.2 O) to remove organic impurities and copper contamination from a wafer surface. Various cleaning tasks can be accomplished with SC-1, among these, the cleaning of silicon wafers immediately after their fabrication, the cleaning of such wafers immediately prior to gate oxide growth, the removal of oxide etch residues later in the IC processing sequence, and selective etching and resist particulate removal.
Treatment of the wafer surfaces with the hot SC-1 or RCA-1 solution is generally followed by a hot acid solution known as SC-2 or RCA-2 to remove metals untouched by the SC-1 or RCA-1 solution. This hot acid solution SC-2 comprises hydrogen peroxide, hydrochloric acid and water (1:1:5 of 30% H.sub.2 O.sub.2, 37% HCl and H.sub.2 O).
Both solutions, SC-1 and SC-2 contain hydrogen peroxide. The purpose of the hydrogen peroxide is to protect the silicon metal from exposure to strong acids or bases by continuously forming a protective oxide layer in order to prevent etching or roughening of the silicon surface.
It is, however, necessary for the wafer surfaces to be oxide-free to be suitable for further processing where an oxide surface is not wanted. Usually, it is then necessary to remove the protective oxide layer formed by the hydrogen peroxide in the cleaning solutions. As an example of a material commonly used to remove such protective oxide layer, there may be mentioned HF.
The presence of hydrogen peroxide in the formulations imparts an inherent instability to these solutions. Such solutions typically exhibit peroxide half-lives of less than one hour at 70.degree. C. The hydrogen peroxide in the SC-1 solution in the presence of certain metals, particularly copper and iron, becomes unstable and decomposes in rapid exothermic fashion leading to potentially dangerous conditions. The hydrogen peroxide has a low tolerance for metal contamination. Additionally, the decomposed hydrogen peroxide drops the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide leading to the possibility of silicon etching producing wafers that are not acceptable for IC manufacture. Thus, the decomposed hydrogen peroxide needs to be replenished and this changes the solution composition thereby varying the cleaning properties of the solution. In addition, the inherently high pH of the hydrogen peroxide solution presents undesirable safety and environmental concerns.
Since the introduction of the SC-1 or RCA-1 solution, there have been proposals for using basic materials other than ammonium hydroxide to clean wafer surfaces. For example, quaternary ammonium hydroxide compounds, such as tetramethyl-ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) or trimethyl-2-hydroxyethyl ammonium hydroxide (choline) have been reported in Japanese Patent Publications No. 3-93229 and 63-114132; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,661; 4,964,919 and 5,259,888 and European Patent Publication No. 496605, for example. It is to be noted that the wafer roughness values mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,919 are unacceptable for high density integrated circuit manufacture. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,866 describes a case where a quaternary amine without hydrogen peroxide present is used to anisotropically etch the silicon 100 face of wafers.
Without hydrogen peroxide present, none of the above mentioned alkaline or quaternary ammonium hydroxide-based cleaners can produce the wafer smoothness levels necessary for high density integrated circuit manufacture. Recently two technologies have been disclosed that permit cleaning without the use of hydrogen peroxide while maintaining acceptable roughness levels. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,389, the cleaning compositions contain a nonionic surfactant and a component to reduce or control the pH within the range of about pH 8 to about pH 10. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,293, the cleaning compositions contain an amphoteric surfactant. In both cases, wafer smoothness is maintained without the use of hydrogen peroxide.
While these new technologies can be used to clean wafer substrates without the use of hydrogen peroxide, both methods involve the introduction of organic surfactants to the cleaner formulation. These organic components could ultimately be absorbed onto or left on the wafer surface as residual matter. Organic contamination is a serious issue in the manufacture of a semiconductor device. The presence of organic contaminants on the surface of a silicon wafer can lead to the formation of silicon carbide when a thermal treatment, such as the growth of a thermal oxide, is carried out on a wafer. Silicon carbide may then be incorporated into the crystal substrate and cause defects in the crystal lattice. These crystal defects act as carrier (electron) traps that cause premature breakdown of the gate oxide and therefore cause the failure of the semiconductor device. Inorganic contaminates can also be deposited along with the organic contaminates on the surface, which also leads to the premature breakdown of the dielectric gate oxide. Organic contamination also prevents the removal of any underlying native oxide. This leads to incomplete oxide removal during a subsequent treatment to remove the oxide and would lead to an increase in microroughness and uneven gate oxide regrowth. Any increase in microroughness causes an uneven interface to result when a thin oxide or some other layer is formed in contact with the substrate and may result in decreased film integrity. Deviations in the thickness of these layers can seriously affect device performance or even lead to the failure of the device. Other negative effects associated with organic contamination that have been reported are; unintended hydrophobization, increased deposition of particles, unintended counterdoping, prevention of silicon wafer bonding, prevention of classical bonding, decreased metal pad adhesion, corrosion, chemical carryover, and image formation on wafers.
Several methods have been used to remove such residual organic contamination. One method uses ozonized ultra-pure water but this involves additional steps and requires special equipment to generate the ozonized water (S. Yasui, et. al., Semiconductor Pure Water and Chemicals Conference Proceedings, pp 64-74, 1994). Clearly, it would be advantageous to avoid use of organic surfactants during the initial "front end" cleaning of semiconductor wafer surfaces.
Surfactants and other alkaline organic solutions containing alkane diols have been used for stripping photoresists in the past. Photoresist stripping involves the removal of various residues from metal or dielectric integrated circuit elements. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,834 (N-methylpyrrolidone derivative or glycol ether required), U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,103 (N-methylpyrrolidone required), U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,713 (amide solvent required), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,607 (cosolvents required), various additional solvents are required to produce the desired stripping action. In the case involving cleaning of silicon wafers, the potential organic contamination by these cosolvents would be highly undesirable.
Surfactants and other organics are used in strippers and cleaners designed to remove photoresist from wafers. Photoresist is used in generating patterned metal features needed in a functional integrated circuit (IC) and is considered to be part of the "back end" processing of the wafer. Since photoresist is a polymeric organic material, it is apparent that organic contamination is less critical at this stage in the processing of the IC.
Photoresist stripping almost always involves contacting a corrosion sensitive metal circuit component with the stripper. For this reason the water content of photoresist strippers is kept to a minimum (less than 20%) to avoid corrosion. In the glycol containing formulations described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,844 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,777, no water is specified.
Several stripper formulations that have been disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,566 , U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,771 , U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,807 , and U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,332) that require the presence of hydroxylamine. This component is included to reduce the corrosive action of the highly alkaline formulations that are claimed. The use of strongly reducing media for this purpose has been published (Schwartzkopf, et. al., EP Patent Application 647,884, Apr. 12, 1995). The use of hydroxylamine for cleaning wafer substrates would be detrimental since the highly reducing medium would convert the metal impurities D to less soluble reduced forms which may in turn be deposited onto the silicon surface as elemental metals.
It is an object of this invention to provide a cleaning solution for cleaning wafer substrates of metal contamination without increasing surface microroughness, which cleaner composition does not require the use of hydrogen peroxide to provide a protective oxide layer, or the use of organic surfactants. A further object of this invention is to provide a cleaner composition for cleaning wafer substrates of metal contamination without increasing surface microroughness and leaving an essentially oxide-free wafer surface, making the surface suitable for further processing where an oxide surface is not wanted. A still further object of this invention is to clean such wafer surfaces of metal contamination without requiring an acid treatment step or the use of materials, such as HF, used to remove oxide surfaces. An additional aspect of this invention is to provide a process for cleaning such wafer surfaces of metal contamination by using only a single cleaning solution without increasing wafer surface microroughness. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a process and composition for cleaning such wafer surfaces of metal contamination without increasing wafer surface microroughness using an aqueous alkaline solution, and more particularly, using an aqueous quaternary ammonium hydroxide solution free of both hydrogen peroxide or other oxidizing agents and organic surfactants. Yet another object of this invention is to provide such a process and alkaline cleaning composition for cleaning wafers and producing a roughness of less than about 25 Angstroms as the average distance in the Z direction between wafer peak heights and valleys.

Cleaning wafer substrates of metal contamination while maintaining wafer smoothness


Disclosed is a system, method, and computer program product that allows multiple partition schemes to be applied to a single object. Each scheme represents the same set of partitions, but the schemes may have different partition methods, different partition keys, and/or different partition bounds.

Many databases utilize partitioning to stored objects in the database system. Partitioning in a database system generally refers to the process of decomposing an object into a greater number of relatively smaller objects. Smaller objects are often easier to manage and more efficient to search than larger objects. Thus, database systems utilize partitioning to decompose objects such as tables and indexes into smaller and more manageable pieces or "partitions."
The specific manner in which partitioning is implemented is generally referred to as a "partition scheme". A partition scheme is described by (a) a partition method (e.g. RANGE, LIST, or HASH), (b) a partition key column, and (c) a set of partition bounds. It is this combination of a method, key, and bounds that defines a partition scheme. Therefore, modification of at least one of these items creates a distinct and separate partition scheme.
Several advantages exist once a data object has been partitioned. As just one example, "partition pruning" can be used to more efficiently execute a query upon a partitioned table. If a database query is issued against a table and the query contains a search term that is limited by a certain range or value corresponding to a partitioning criteria, then only partitions having the desired range or value are searched; all other partitions outside the desired range are "pruned" from the search. Compared to non-partitioned tables, partition pruning significantly reduces the volume of data that must be searched, thereby decreasing the response time and reducing the expense/overhead of responding to the query.
Conventionally, a database object typically has only a single type of partition scheme that is applied to partition that object, which means that the partitioned object has only one partition scheme that is used for performance optimizations such as partition pruning. If the predicate of a query has a condition which corresponds to the partitioning scheme, then it is possible that a database optimizer may identify one or more partitions that can be pruned to optimize the execution of the query.
The problem is that a query may be received which does not have a predicate that corresponds to the one partitioning scheme that was applied to the partitioned object. Even if some or all of the partitions do not usefully contain content that corresponds to the expected query result, they cannot be pruned. This is very inefficient since the computing system will need to load unneeded content and consume excess memory resources to hold the unnecessary content, as well using excess processor resources to process the unnecessary content.
What is needed, therefore, is a method and/or system that overcomes these problems, and which more efficiently implements partitioning in a database system.

Multiple partitioning schemes for partitioned database objects


A range switching device includes: a range switching portion having an output shaft rotatably supported inside a housing and switchable to ranges corresponding to output shaft turning positions; a motor attached with its motor shaft spaced apart from a shaft center of the output shaft; a reducer mechanism linked to the motor and the range switching portion; and a control board controlling rotation of the motor. The reducer mechanism has a planetary gear reducer mechanism formed of a sun gear, planetary gears, an internal gear, and a carrier supporting the planetary gears, and a spur gear reducer mechanism formed of a pinion and a main gear linked to the pinion. The control board is installed oppositely to the output shaft and the motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a range switching device including so-called a shift-by-wire system that sets a shift range selected by a driver using, for example, a shift lever, via an electrical signal.
2. Description of the Background Art
There is a range switching device including a motor, a cycloidal reducer portion, a parallel-shaft gear reducer portion, and an output shaft inside an outer-frame member as disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1.
The range switching device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is configured as follows. That is, an electronic control unit is installed on the outside of the outer-frame member and a housing main body of the range switching device is provided with a connector protruding radially outward. The range switching device and the electronic control unit are electrically connected to each other by coupling a connector storing wirings from the electronic control unit to the connector of the housing main body.
[Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2012-219871
According to the range switching device disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a wiring member from a motor and an encoder is insert-molded in the housing main body of the range switching device and the wiring member extends into the connector by passing an interior of the housing main body. This configuration, however, raises a problem that not only an extremely long wiring member to connect the motor and the encoder all the way to the connector is required, but also a layout of the wiring member and respective components inside the housing becomes highly complex.
Also, the range switching device and the electronic control unit controlling the driving of the range switching device are present separately. This configuration raises another problem that restrictions imposed on the layout around a transmission become stricter to the extent that attachment becomes difficult.
Further, a cycloidal reducer is used to increase a torque generated by the motor to as high a torque as required for shift range switching. Accordingly, an extremely high degree of accuracy is required for components and during assembly and such a requirement raises still another problem that manufacturing during component fabrication and assembly becomes extremely difficult.


Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for remediating suspected attempted security breaches. For example, a method is provided that includes receiving information regarding at least one authentication attempt and determining, based at least in part on the information regarding the at least one authentication attempt, whether the at least one authentication attempt comprises a suspected attempted security breach. The method further includes causing, in an instance in which it is determined that the at least one authentication attempt comprises a suspected attempted security breach, at least one recording to be captured via at least one recording device communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and causing at least a portion of the at least one recording to be compared against at least one database.

Various authentication schemes are used to restrict access to electronic devices and ensure that only authorized users may gain access to sensitive resources. Any authentication scheme, however, may be susceptible to being breached. For example, common authentication schemes such as password or PIN challenges may be defeated by simple brute force attacks, i.e., attempting various passwords or PINs until one works.
Regardless of the authorization scheme being used, a need exists for detecting attempted security breaches and for responding with appropriate remediation measures.


A storage module stores electrical energy. The storage module has a first storage cell and a second storage cell, each having a positive terminal and a negative terminal. The storage module includes a contact bridge, which connects one terminal of the first storage cell to one terminal of the second storage cell in an electrically conductive manner. The contact bridge is designed to reduce an electrical resistance between the electrically connected terminals of the first storage cell and of the second storage cell with rising temperature.

The invention relates to a storage module having a plurality of storage cells, and having measures for heating said storage cells.
Storage modules are employed e.g. in vehicles, in order to store electrical energy for the propulsion of said vehicles. A storage module typically comprises a plurality of storage cells (e.g. lithium-ion-based storage cells) which, depending upon voltage and/or capacity requirements, are mutually coupled in parallel and/or in series.
The electric power which can be taken up or delivered by a storage module typically decreases in accordance with the temperature of the storage module. In the event of a cold start-up of a vehicle in winter, for example, this can result in restrictions with respect to the available drive power of the vehicle.
Consequently, as described e.g. in US2013/0323548A1, a storage module can incorporate a dedicated heating system in order to raise the temperature of the storage module. Thus, even at low external temperatures, the take-up or delivery of relatively high electrical power is possible. However, the provision of a dedicated heating system requires a relatively large structural space in a storage module, and is associated with additional costs and with additional weight. Moreover, the operation of a dedicated heating system results in electrical energy losses, and a consequent reduction in the range of an electrically-propelled vehicle.
The present document addresses the technical object of the provision of a storage module having energy-, space-, weight- and cost-efficient measures for heating the storage cells of the storage module.
According to one aspect, a storage module for the storage of electrical energy is described. The storage module can be designed to deliver electrical energy for the propulsion of an electrically-propelled motor road vehicle. For example, a module voltage of 400 V or higher can be present on terminals of the storage module.
The storage module includes a first storage cell and a second storage cell, each having a positive terminal and a negative terminal. A storage cell can be e.g. a lithium-ion-based storage cell. The storage module typically includes a plurality of storage cells which, depending upon requirements for storage capacity, for the module current of the storage module and/or for the module voltage of the storage module, can be at least partially mutually connected in parallel and/or at least partially mutually connected in series.
The storage module can include a housing, in which the first storage cell and the second storage cell (or the plurality of storage cells) are arranged. The storage module can have a positive terminal and a negative terminal, which are constituted by a positive terminal of one storage cell or by a negative terminal of one storage cell.
The storage module further includes a contact bridge, which connects one terminal of the first storage cell to one terminal of the second storage cell in an electrically conductive manner. The contact bridge is designed herein to reduce the electrical resistance between the electrically connected terminals of the first storage cell and the second storage cell, as the temperature rises. Specifically, at relatively low temperatures (e.g. in the region of −30° C. to −10° C.), the contact bridge can provide relatively high electrical resistance. Conversely, at relatively high temperatures (e.g. in the region of 10° C. to 30° C.), the contact bridge can provide relatively low electrical resistance.
By providing a contact bridge having temperature-dependent electrical resistance, the storage cells of the storage module, at low temperatures, can automatically be heated by the currents between the storage cells. Conversely, at relatively high temperatures (specifically at typical operating temperatures of the storage module), internal losses in the storage module can be restricted. Space-, cost-, weight- and energy-efficient heating for the storage module can be provided accordingly.
The (at least one) contact bridge can connect the positive terminal of the first storage cell to the negative terminal of the second storage cell in an electrically conductive manner. Conversely, the (at least one) contact bridge can connect the negative terminal of the first storage cell to the positive terminal of the second storage cell in an electrically conductive manner. By way of the contact bridge, a series circuit arrangement of storage cells can thus be provided, such that at least a proportion of the module current flows via the contact bridge and thus (at relatively low temperatures) generates a thermal power loss which can be employed for the heat-up of the storage cells. Exceptionally efficient heating can be provided accordingly.
Specifically, the storage module can include a plurality of groups of one or more storage cells. The one or more storage cells in a group can be herein configured in a mutually parallel arrangement. The groups can be respectively mutually coupled by a contact bridge (having temperature-dependent resistance), in order to constitute a series circuit arrangement of the groups of one or more storage cells. Accordingly, a plurality of contact bridges can be provided for heating the storage cells of a storage module.
The storage module can be designed to deliver a module current on the terminals of the storage module. The one or more contact bridges are typically arranged such that at least a proportion of the module current, or the entire module current, flows via the one or more contact bridges. Heating capacity within the storage module can be increased, specifically maximized, accordingly.
A contact bridge can be designed to reduce the electrical resistance between a first temperature and a second temperature by a factor of 2, 3, 4 or more. The first temperature herein preferably lies between −30° C. and −10° C. and/or the second temperature lies between 10° C. and 30° C. High heating capacities firstly (at low temperatures) and low power losses (at high temperatures) can be delivered accordingly.
A contact bridge can comprise one or more materials having specific electrical resistance, which shows a negative temperature coefficient. Exemplary materials are as follows: a metal oxide, specifically of manganese, nickel, cobalt, iron, copper and/or titanium; a semiconductor material, specifically silicon, germanium, boron, selenium and/or tellurium; and/or a bonding semiconductor, specifically gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, indium antimonide, indium arsenide, etc.
Alternatively or additionally, the contact bridge can be designed to reduce contact resistance between one terminal of a storage cell and the contact bridge as the temperature rises. To this end, the contact bridge can comprise a contact part and compression devices, wherein the compression devices are designed such that a force with which the contact part is compressed against one terminal of a storage cell rises as the temperature rises (thereby reducing the contact resistance between terminal and contact part). For example, the compression device can comprise a bimetallic strip in or on the contact part. Alternatively or additionally, the compression device can comprise a compression spring having temperature-dependent expansion, which compression spring is designed to compress the contact part against one terminal of a storage cell.
The storage cells can respectively include a cell winding, which is directly connected to the positive and the negative terminal, and which is at least partially enclosed by an insulating layer and/or a cell container. The direct connection between the terminals and the cell winding permits exceptionally efficient transmission of thermal energy from the contact bridge to the interior of the storage cells, for the heat-up of said storage cells.
According to a further aspect, a vehicle (specifically a motor road vehicle, e.g. a private car, a heavy goods vehicle or a motorcycle) is described, which vehicle incorporates the storage module described in the present document. The vehicle can have an electric drive, which is operated by electrical energy from the storage module.
It should be observed that the devices and systems described in the present document can be employed in isolation, or in combination with other devices and systems described in the present document. Moreover, any aspects of the devices and systems described in the present document can be mutually combined in a variety of ways. Specifically, the characteristics of the claims can be mutually combined in a variety of ways.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A floating spacer assembly for a gear mounted on a shaft, such as a planet gear mounted to a planet carrier, is disclosed. The gear may be mounted on the shaft with a pair of roller bearings with inner races and bearing rollers, and a gear bore having a gear groove defined therein functioning as the outer races of the roller bearings. The floating spacer assembly may include an annular spacer ring having one or more sector slots circumferentially spaced around the spacer ring, and a spacer sector disposed within each of the sector slots and extending radially outward from the spacer ring and into the gear groove when the floating spacer assembly is installed between the roller bearings. The spacer sectors may engage surfaces of the gear groove and the spacer ring may engage the bearing rollers to limit axial movement of the gear relative to the shaft.

Planetary gear sets are gear systems that provide rotational speed and torque variations between input shafts and output shafts. A planetary gear set typically consists of a central sun gear, one or more outer or planet gears or pinions mounted on a movable arm or carrier and meshing with and revolving about the sun gear. The planet carrier may also rotate relative to the sun gear. The planetary gear set may also typically include an annulus or outer ring gear that also meshes with the planet gears. The rotational axes of all gears are usually parallel, though the axes can be placed at angles in applications such as pencil sharpeners and differentials, and the sun gear, the planet carrier and the ring gear are usually coaxial. Typically, rotational speed and torque are transferred by connecting the input shaft to one of the sun gear, the planet carrier and the ring gear, connecting the output shaft to a different one of the sun gear, the planet carrier and the ring gear, and holding the other of the sun gear, the planet carrier and the ring gear stationary.
The sun gear, the planet gears and the planet carrier are mounted on corresponding shafts or pins that define the rotational axes. Bearings are provided between outer surfaces of the shafts or pins and inner surfaces of the gears. One arrangement of planet gears and bearings is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. 2006/0293142 A1, that was filed on Jun. 24, 2005 by Torres et al. The Torres et al. publication discloses a planetary gear assembly having planetary pinion gears mounted on pinion shafts of a planetary gear carrier. Tapered roller bearings are mounted on a portion of an external surface of the pinion shaft, and a planetary pinion gear is mounted on the tapered roller bearings. Snap rings are installed in a groove in a surface of an inner bore of the planetary pinion gear, and bearing cups of the roller bearings are pressed into the inner bore on either side of the snap rings. Roller assemblies and bearing races are installed on the external surface of the pinion shaft with a spacer disposed between the roller bearings. Each roller assembly is disposed between the corresponding bearing race and bearing cup to support rotation of the planetary pinion gear.

Floating spacer for the restriction of planetary gears axial movement


A mapping application relies on a modified affine transformation algorithm to provide near real-time navigation of imagery, track-up capability and integration of segment and picture data. The affine transformation is modified to map a “world space” comprised of a plurality of pixel maps onto a view port. The pixel data for the maps is preferably stored in vertical strips of memory to reduce the likelihood of cache misses. The mapping application is most useful for rendering pixel imagery on a platform with limited processing power, limited memory and small display sizes, e.g., “hand held devices” such as a GPS handset, or Pocket PC.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mapping applications, and more specifically to a mapping application for rendering pixel imagery on platforms with limited processing power and memory and small display sizes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hand held devices are rapidly evolving beyond their use as an address book, calendar, note pad, etc. They are merging with other technologies to provide cellular telephone service, email, wireless internet and other applications. Continuing improvements in processor speed, memory, displays and battery power are making the hand held devices a powerful and ubiquitous tool for consumers, business, and the military.
Mapping applications allow users to display and navigate maps on a hand held display using GPS technology. Mapping application software should support the ability to pan around a map, zoom in and out, manipulate navigation objects, and view a tracked position relative to displayed maps in near real-time, e.g. at least 10 frames per second. Military handsets usually have additional direction-finding hardware such as digital compass and accelerometers, which make the application feature of "track-up" (the ability to rotate the map relative to user orientation) desirable for that market. These requirements have to be implemented on a battery-powered handheld device with limited processing power, memory and display size. Therefore, the application software must be very efficient.
Most consumer GPS mapping applications utilize line segment data to represent roads, land-masses, and other boundaries. Consumer applications such as those seen on Garmin, Magellan, or standalone Pocket PC suites are capable of displaying line segment data. However, their frame-rate is limited by the need to redraw all of the line segments on-screen every time the view of the map is changed. These applications alleviate the problem somewhat by preprocessing the line segment data into spatial data structures to skip the clipping step. They also employ several drawing tricks such as only drawing certain line segment data at particular zoom levels, e.g., only draw freeways at distant zoom levels, and only drawing all of the line segment data when the user "stays still", i.e. doesn't pan or zoom the screen rapidly. Such optimizations allow these applications to achieve a moderate performance level of a few frames per second at best. However, some of the drawing tricks employed can have the effect of temporarily disorienting the user when they are rapidly panning or zooming. Most of these applications do not support rotation.
Military applications and certain consumer applications use detailed imagery, like topographic maps or pictures taken from satellites or surveillance aircraft. These maps typically take the form of large picture imagery, composed of pixel data rather than line segment data. The application software that supports these types of maps must process a lot more data to perform the same display and navigation tasks. Applications such as ESRI's ArcPad and MapServer CE support displaying these types of maps. However, on a platform such as a PDA having limited memory and processing power, the supported frame rate is very slow, a slide show at best. These applications use rendering algorithms that are more efficient at panning than zooming, so they typically limit zoom capability to a "step" zoom between a few constant defined zoom levels so that the slow update rate is less noticeable. This can have the effect of temporarily disorienting the user when "jumping" from one zoom level to the other. In addition, rotating picture maps is a feature that is completely unsupported by any existing PDA mapping tools.
A new approach to the PDA mapping application problem for pixel imagery is needed, especially in the military mapping space. The performance of panning and zooming, particularly important because of the small PDA display size, needs to be increased by at least an order of magnitude to provide near real-time response. Ideally, this would be done without the limitations that the known approaches impose upon the user. A real-time "smooth-zoom" feature is desirable in situations where the user cannot afford to temporarily lose track of their location, such as when driving or operating within a military environment. The desire for a "track-up" feature creates an unmet need to rotate maps, preferably with the same performance as zooming and panning. Finally, there is a need to create an application that supports both line segment data and picture data, and still maintains good performance with both—particularly for the military whose theatres include both natural and urban environments.

Mapping application for rendering pixel imagery


A lubricating oil composition for internal combustion engines which comprises a base oil, (a) an ashless dispersant containing boron, (b) a metallic detergent, and optionally (c) at least one selected from a group consisting of esters of aromatic carboxylic acids having hydroxyl group and hydroxy compounds and compounds containing boron which are derived from the esters, wherein a ratio [B]/[M] of a content of boron [B] in the composition in % by weight to a total content of metals [M] derived from the detergent in the composition in % by weight is not less than 0.15, and a sulfated ash content in the composition is not more than 1.5% by weight. The lubricating oil composition has a low ash content, does not show adverse effects on the performance of apparatuses for exhaust gas treatment, and exhibits excellent resistance to coking and oxidation stability.

In recent years, environmental pollution caused by nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x gases) and particulate materials (PM) which are discharged from internal combustion engines, particularly Diesel engines, is an important problem, and decreasing nitrogen oxides and particulate materials in exhaust gas is urgently required.
For overcoming the problem, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and lowering of the peak temperature of combustion by delaying time of fuel injection are examined for decreasing NO.sub.x gases.
However, when the peak temperature of combustion is lowered, black smoke and PM are increased, and attaching an apparatus for exhaust gas treatment becomes necessary. As the apparatus for exhaust gas treatment, PM traps or oxidation catalysts are examined. Because these apparatuses have a structure of a filter, clogging by metal components in oil causes a problem when conventional Diesel engine oil is used.
In lubricating oil compositions for internal combustion engines, an ashless dispersant and a metallic detergent are generally contained as the essential components. However, decrease in metallic components is desired because of the problem of clogging, as described above. This causes another problem in that excellent effects of keeping an engine clean and preventing formation of deposit become difficult to be obtained when metallic detergent is not used or used in a small amount.

Lubricating oil composition for internal combustion engines


Provided is a computer system having a host computer that requests the input and output of data in and from an actual storage volume, and a plurality of storage subsystems respectively having at least one or more virtual storage volumes. The virtual storage volumes of each of the plurality of storage subsystems are virtualizations of a common external volume. The host computer sets a certain logical path among a plurality of logical paths to be respectively connected to a plurality of virtual storage volumes formed by virtualizing the common external volume as an alternate path of another logical path.

The present invention relates to storage subsystems (storage controller) with a function of virtualizing a common storage volume from them, and to a load balancing method thereof.
In a database system handling large amount of data in a data center or the like, data is stored in a storage subsystem such as a disk array system. A disk array system has a plurality of storage devices disposed in an array, and provides its storage volumes configured in RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Inexpensive Disks) to a host system. The host system and the storage subsystem are mutually connected via a device sharing network such as a SAN (Storage Area Network). Regarding a functionality of such a storage subsystem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-165444 proposes a method of virtualizing a storage volume in an external storage subsystem as its storage volume and making it assignable to a host computer. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-316522 proposes a method of absorbing the difference in functions or specification of a plurality of storage subsystems, and comprehensively utilizing the functions of the plurality of storage subsystems.

Storage system and load balancing method thereof


A lift system for elevation of a load bed of a vehicle is disclosed. The lift system contains at least two pair of vehicle supports, each vehicle support comprising at least one extensible ground support stabilizer leg. The at least one extensible ground support stabilizer leg comprises a top portion coupled to an air bladder. The at least one extensible ground support stabilizer leg is configured to move along a vertical traction during movement from a fully retracted position to a fully extended position. A biasing element having at least one coil spring enclosed within the vertical housing of the extensible ground support stabilizer leg, configured to compress under tension when the extensible ground support stabilizer leg is extended and expand to release tension when the extensible ground support stabilizer leg is retracted.

The subject matter discussed in this background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention herein. Similarly, any problems mentioned in this background section or associated with the subject matter of this background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter as disclosed in this background section merely represents different approaches related to assemblies for lifting truck load beds, wherein such assemblies themselves may also correspond to implementations of the claimed technology.
In today's era, truck trailers may vary significantly depending on manufacturer and load requirements. The truck trailers are designed to transport international cargo containers that may vary in terms of the size of the load and length of the cargo containers. These truck trailers are designed to accommodate oversize cargo that would not normally fit into standard-sized freight trailers. The truck trailers are designed according to parameters such as, but not limited to, load-carrying capacity and dimensions of freights. Some examples of truck trailers may include but not limited to, platform trailers, gooseneck trailers, tanker trailers. The platform trailers are designed for transporting materials that must be loaded or unloaded from the top or side of the platform trailers. The gooseneck trailers are designed to accommodate oversized or special cargo much the same as the platform trailers. The tanker trailers are designed to carry fluid cargo. The cargos to be transported used in these trailers are specially designed and painted to withstand the effects of corrosive fluids.
Various systems for transporting loads with trucks have been known in the art. Specifically, load carriers with various truck trailers are tiltable in order to receive and discharge the load from the ground or platforms of various heights. A truck bed may be adjusted to the height of the ground or of a loading dock.
Current landing gear may include gear-driven devices manually operated by hand cranks requiring a certain level of operator physical strength to raise and lower the rear load bed, especially when the load bed of the vehicle is fully loaded. By removing the reliance on physical strength, the demographic for vehicle operators is greatly expanded and the risk of injury is reduced. Furthermore, reducing the time and increasing the ease of operation contributes to a safer, more efficient task in raising and/or lowering the load bed of a vehicle in order to match the coupler height of the tow vehicle and to provide a level load bed for forklift operators at a loading dock, given a forklift operator driving a forklift from/to a loading dock onto/from an unlevel load bed is extremely hazardous, and further reducing the risk of injury and increasing the speed and efficiency of loading and unloading a load bed of a vehicle from a loading dock.
The current market solutions for elevating the load bed of the vehicle, especially truck trailers or beds, all involve the use of the landing gear assembly. The landing gear assemblies are manually operated gear-driven devices operated by hand cranks that require a certain level of physical strength to raise the load bed, especially when the vehicle is fully loaded. Therefore, in light of the above discussion and given the deficiencies of the prior art, there is a need for a lifting system for the load bed of the vehicle that removes the reliance on the physical strength, contribute to the safer and more efficient task of raising or lowering the load bed to match the coupler height of the vehicle and provide the level load bed for the truck operators, thereby reducing the risk of injury and increasing the speed and the efficiency of the loading and the unloading of the vehicle.

Lift system for elevating a load bed of a vehicle


Coated abrasive materials can be made from a substrate and, adhered to the substrate by a maker coat, weak shaped abrasive grits with, interspersed between the abrasive grits, a plurality of non-abrasive particles that are smaller than the abrasive grits which serve to raise the level of a size coat applied over the maker coat and abrasive grits such that the abrasive grits are anchored over a greater part of their length without the need for the application of a large volume of size coat and such that a grinding adjuvant included in the topmost coat is located adjacent the tips of the abrasive grits which perform the grinding when the coated abrasive is in use.

This invention relates to abrasive products and specifically to coated abrasives and a process for making such products.
In the production of coated abrasives the conventional technique employed is to coat a substrate with a curable maker coat and then to apply abrasive grits to the maker coat before it has become cured such that the grits are retained by the maker coat and are thereby anchored to the substrate. A size coat is conventionally applied over the grits to provide secure anchorage while the coated abrasive is actually in use. To enhance the performance of the abrasive grits, especially in the grinding of metals such as steels, it is often conventional to apply over the size coat a supersize coat comprising a binder and a grinding adjuvant. This adjuvant can be a lubricant or an antistatic additive to reduce loading of the coated abrasive during use. More commonly however the grinding adjuvant is a "grinding aid" which decomposes during use and the decomposition products of which facilitate removal of metal from the workpiece. The grinding adjuvant, to be most effective, should generally be located at the point of grinding, as close as possible to the point at which the abrasive grit contacts the metal workpiece.
The abrasive grits are conventionally applied to the maker coat using an electrostatic technique in which the grits are projected towards the maker coat. This application technique tends to align the grits such the longest dimension is perpendicular to the plane of the backing when the grit is anchored in place. This arrangement is very advantageous to the finished coated abrasive since it presents the smallest surface area of grit to the workpiece and maximizes the applied force per grit and therefore the effectiveness of the abrading process at a given power output.
In some respects however this can be a disadvantage since, if the grits have a weak shape, (defined as having a ratio of the longest dimension to the largest dimension perpendicular to the longest dimension, or "aspect ratio",) greater than about 1.5 the supersize layer tends to collect in the spaces between the grits and thus be removed from the grit tips, unless unusually large amounts of size coat and/or supersize coat are used.
In a conventional process for the manufacture of coated abrasives, a substrate or backing layer is prepared and then treated with a coat of a maker resin and a layer of abrasive grits is deposited thereon. The maker coat is then at least partially cured and a further binder coat, referred to as a size coat, is applied over the abrasive grits. With radiation cured binders, the cure of the maker coat is typically completed before application of the size coat.
The abrasive grits are applied either by gravity coating or by an electrostatic process in which the grits are impelled towards the surface to be coated by electrostatic forces. This electrostatic coating technique is referred to as the UP coating technique.
It has been discovered that, with premium aggressively cutting grits particularly, a closed coat, (that is a coat with the maximum amount of grit that can be deposited on a surface in a single layer), can lead to burning of the surface of the workpiece. Maximum efficiency is obtained when the load per active abrading grit is maximized during grinding and the cutting grits are spaced to give the workpiece an opportunity to cool between abrading events. One solution to this problem is proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,512 which teaches the incorporation of non-abrasive particles with a Knoop hardness less than about 200 along with the abrasive grits. The abrasive grits and non-abrasive particles were of the same size and the non-abrasive particles appear to space the abrasive grits allowing them to cut more efficiently. The "spacing" concept is often described in terms of "percent closed coat". This is calculated by measuring the amount of abrasive grits required to provide a monolayer coverage of a unit amount of the substrate and expressing the actual amount of abrasive particles applied per unit area as a percentage of the amount required to deposit a monolayer. Very similar teaching regarding spacing of abrasive grits using friable fillers is found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,830,757; U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,537; and EP 0 494,435-A1.
Efficiency of cutting is conventionally enhanced by the use of a supersize additive in the last applied layer of a coated abrasive. However a problem is encountered with abrasive grits of a weak shape. All grits with an aspect ratio greater than about 1.5 are described generically as having a "weak" shape. If these stand perpendicular to the surface to which they are bonded, (as is generally preferred), the cutting surface is far removed from the bulk of the supersize-containing layer. This problem can be solved by addition of very large amounts of size and supersize such that the spaces between the grits is filled up by the supersize formulation. However as the shapes get "weaker", this approach becomes much more expensive.
Weak shaped abrasive grits are obtainable by crushing larger particles using a rolls crusher. These however, while predominantly "weaker" in shape than impact crushed abrasive grain, do not in general have more than about 20% of the particles with an aspect ratio of more than 2:1.
In recent years a new form of grit has been developed that has a filamentary particle form with a substantially uniform cross-sectional shape and a length dimension perpendicular to that cross-section that is at least equal to, and more usually much larger than, the greatest dimension of the cross-section. Such grits will have the appearance of rods or cones or square-based pyramids for example.
One form of such grits is made from a sol-gel alumina that has been shaped into a filamentary particle shape before it is dried and fired to produce a remarkably effective abrasive grit. Such grits are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,676 and coated abrasives made using them are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,598. Another form of grits that is particularly well suited for use in the present invention are grits with a very weak shape but not necessarily having a uniform cross-sectional shape. "Weak" but non-uniform shapes are conventionally produced using a roll-crushing comminution technique. These have an aspect ratio somewhat greater than 1 but have very few grits with aspect ratios greater than 2:1, (usually less than 20%). However it has been found that explosive comminution of materials containing volatilizable material that form ceramics when fired yields much weaker shapes than are achievable using the conventional roll-grinding techniques. The production of such grits is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,162. To the extent that they share the problems described above, these weak-shaped abrasive grits can also be used in the present invention.
With very weak-shaped grits, a very significant moment is developed, (which increases with the "weakness"), upon contact with a workpiece under abrading conditions. This can lead to premature fracture of the grit or even displacement from the backing of the whole grit. This could be cured by addition of a thicker size coat which would also solve the issue of the location of the supersize additive in the coating. However, as indicated above, this becomes very expensive and can also result in delays in curing and perhaps differences in extent of cure throughout the thickness of the size layer.
The present invention provides a novel way of overcoming the problem of grinding aid efficiency by permitting the placing of the grinding aid formulations at the point of maximum utility without the use of excessive amounts of the size or supersize formulations.
The problem also provides a way of ensuring that very weak shaped grits wear at a more uniform rate by ensuring that they are more securely anchored without the use of greater volumes of size coat than would be economic.


A method detecting a rectangle enclosed by a pair of parallel horizontal lines that are demarcation lines between the palm pattern impression and the background in wrist-side and fingertip-side, and a pair of parallel vertical lines are orthogonal to the horizontal lines and are demarcation lines between the palm pattern impression and the background in thumb-side and little-finger-side. The method splits the rectangle into, three segments horizontally by four segments vertically, and then splits the palm pattern impression into three regions, the first being a combination of three segments horizontally by two segments vertically located toward the fingertip among the segments, the second being a combination of two segments horizontally by three segments vertically located toward the thumb and the wrist among the segments, and the third region being a combination of two segments horizontally by three segments vertically located toward the little finger and the wrist among the segments.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for registering palm pattern impression impressed by each of different individuals who are subject to personal identification by use of a computer system, for the purpose of personal identification. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for registering palm pattern impressions through simplified means that does not rely on human hands, thereby reducing the time required for the registration process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fingerprints are said to be the physical feature information most commonly used in personal identification and personal authentication for the purpose of verifying that an individual is really the person whom he or she claims to be. Features that can be obtained from fingerprint ridges (bifurcations and endpoints) vary from person to person and do not change for life.
Because of these characteristics, a number of apparatuses have been disclosed that utilize features obtained from fingerprint ridges to conduct personal authentication. Also known are other apparatuses based on a similar concept that utilize features obtained from ridges of palm patterns existing in palms for personal authentication.
To date, several methods and apparatuses that split and register palm pattern impressions have been proposed with the aim of reducing the time required for matching palm pattern data by limiting the search area to deal with when collating palm pattern impressions.
One of these arts is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 002944602, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Registering Palm Pattern Impression." As shown in FIG. 8, this art splits a palm pattern impression into three regions for more efficient registration, using a pad split line that connects the impression end point 86 between the middle finger and the ring finger with the point of intersection (arm trident) 87 between the Life line 85 and the wrist-side impression end, and a base split line that is orthogonal to the pad split line and that runs through the point of intersection 88 between the Heart line 84 and the impression end. These regions are called interdigital region 81, which is the area around the roots of the four fingers; thenar region 82, which is the area around the root of the thumb; and hypothenar region 83, which is the remaining area.
The above-described conventional methods and apparatuses for registering palm pattern impressions, however, hold several problems, as described below.
The first problem is that the points to serve as reference points, e.g., the middle point between the middle finger and the ring finger, the arm trident, the point of intersection between the Life line and the impression end, and the point of intersection between the Heart line and the impression end, do not appear clearly in some palm pattern impression images with lower image quality. On these images, only experts who are familiar with the characteristics of palm patterns can infer the coordinates of these points correctly.
The second problem is that the process of splitting a palm pattern impression into regions relies on visual inspection. In other words, these arts require the intervention of human hands during the region splitting process for the registration of the images of impressed palm patterns, requiring an enormous number of man-hours by experts to build a large-scale palm pattern database.
The third problem is that the need to utilize the data registered in this palm pattern database may very often arise when palm pattern data are re-registered using a new region splitting method. Since the palm pattern database has already been built using the above-mentioned art, difficulties should be encountered in meeting such need. In order for this need to be met easily, it is necessary to limit the search areas to those that are equivalent to the three regions used in the conventional arts, i.e., interdigital region, thenar region, and hypothenar region, thereby eliminating the necessity to newly execute the region splitting process.

Method and apparatus for registering palm pattern impression