A syringe assembly including a syringe and a safety device, the syringe including a barrel of tubular shape, the safety device including a member of tubular shape referred to as a syringe support in which the barrel is arranged such that the syringe support and the barrel are secured on the same axis. The syringe barrel has a flange at a proximal end that is prevented from moving in translation between a peripheral bearing seat and an abutment of the support. Interposed between the seat and the flange, the assembly includes at least one compression pad between the seat and the flange and made of a material presenting a coefficient of friction relative to at least one of the materials of the flange and of the seat that is greater than the coefficient of friction of the materials of the flange and of the seat relative to each other.

In the prior art, and in particular from EP 2 047 879, a liquid-injection syringe is known of the type comprising a barrel of generally tubular shape forming a reservoir for the liquid and having fitted thereon an endpiece of generally annular shape for fastening a needle carrier on the syringe barrel.
The fastener endpiece is sometimes referred to as a "luer lock" and the needle carrier is sometimes referred to as a "luer hub".
The syringe also has a plunger mounted to move axially in the barrel between a ready position and a position at the end of injecting liquid.
Below, an element is referred to as being "proximal" or "distal" depending on whether it is axially close to or far from the end of the plunger that is to be actuated by a user.
EP 2 047 879 also describes a safety device for such a syringe, the safety device comprising:
a first member of generally tubular shape, referred to as a "protective sheath"; and
a second member of generally tubular shape, referred to as a "syringe support", that is received in the sheath, substantially coaxially therewith.
The protective sheath and the syringe support are movable axially relative to each other between two positions that are referred to below as the "disengagement position" and as the "retraction position" of the syringe needle. The syringe barrel is secured axially to the syringe support. For this purpose, a flange situated at the proximal end of the syringe barrel is prevented from moving axially in a housing situated between a bearing seat and retractable abutments of the support, the flange having a small amount of slack due to the dispersion in the dimensions of the syringe barrel.
The safety device enables the needle to be retracted automatically into the sheath so as to avoid a person being accidentally pricked with the needle when handling the syringe assembly after it has been used normally, i.e. after injecting the liquid into the body of a patient.
The fastener endpiece has a proximal end that is generally engaged on a distal end of the syringe barrel that is generally conical in shape.
Furthermore, the fastener endpiece has a distal end for co-operating by screw-fastening with a needle carrier. This needle carrier and the needle it carries are covered by a cap prior to utilization of the syringe. Where applicable, prior to putting the needle carrier into place on the syringe barrel, a plug for closing the syringe barrel is screwed onto the fastener endpiece.
The torque needed for unscrewing the plug or for screwing on the needle carrier can lead to the syringe barrel turning relative to the safety device. It is therefore appropriate to be able to prevent the fastener endpiece from turning, in particular so as to be able to unscrew the plug or to screw on the needle carrier.
Unfortunately, once the syringe has been mounted in the safety device, the fastener endpiece is generally made practically inaccessible by the protective sheath that covers it. The user therefore cannot act directly on the fastener endpiece in order to prevent it from turning, in particular while unscrewing the plug or while screwing on the needle carrier.
For that purpose, the device described in EP 2 047 879 has a syringe support provided with first means for securing it in turning about its axis and comprising at least one pawl urged resiliently into a position in which the pawl co-operates with complementary means carried by the fastener endpiece for securing them in turning.
That enables the endpiece and the syringe support to be prevented from turning relative to each other and thus facilitates the operations of unscrewing the plug and of screwing on the needle carrier.
Nevertheless, the means for securing the syringe support with the endpiece can be activated only when the endpiece placed on the syringe barrel presents a particular shape, and in particular a ribbed shape. It is therefore not possible to use such a device for preventing a syringe from turning if it does not present that specific endpiece.


A heart-type circulation device comprises a power system, a cover plate (16), an elastic plate (5), a pressing contact ring (6), a water inlet (13), a check valve A (9), a self-pressing liquid storage tank (12), a check valve B (10), a water outlet (11), and a pipeline (17). The elastic plate (5) is disposed above the power system, the pressing contact ring (6) is disposed on the periphery of a bottom surface of the elastic plate (5), and the pressing contact ring (6), the elastic plate (5), and the cover plate (16) are fixedly connected in sequence from bottom to top. The water inlet (13) and the water outlet (11) are in communication with each other between the cover plate (16) and the elastic plate (5) via the cover plate (16) respectively. The water inlet (13), the check valve A (9), the self-pressing liquid storage tank (12), the check valve B (10), and the water outlet (11) are connected in sequence via the pipeline (17), wherein the direction of the check valve A (9) is the direction of a fluid flowing to the cover plate (16), and the direction of the check valve B (10) is the direction of the fluid flowing out of the cover plate (16). The space where the whole pipeline (17) is in communication with the self-pressing liquid storage tank (12) is filled up with a liquid. The heart-type circulation device has a simple structure, makes no noise, and has no leakage and a low maintenance rate, and is energy-saving, environment-friendly, green and efficient.

Electric blanket used daily is provided with resistance wire which is distributed in the inside of the blanket uniformly, and generates heat by heating the resistance wire. However, its disadvantage is also obviously, a large number of the resistance wires inside of the electric blanket generate high electromagnetic radiation, which could affect the human health seriously. In addition, the electric blanket further makes the people feel dry easily, and has electric leak risk, and results the fire easily if it has been electrified for a long time.
Even if with a circulation plumbing pad, the existing circulation device also uses the centrifugal pump mainly, that is, an impeller is driven by a pump shaft to rotate, that has an action on the fluid between the blades, and the fluid is thrown to the periphery of the pad under the act of the centrifugal force. This kind of circulation device has the following defects:
1. It has loud noise. When the blade is rotating, it will generate a loud noise which will affect the people's sleeping.
2. It usually has leakage and high repair rate. Because the blade always has been kept rotating in the rotate state, thus the seal of the blade can be damaged by attrition easily, the leaked water would soak the pads and clothing, which might cause a great inconvenience to usage.3. It consumes high energy. Because the motor always drive the blade to rotate, thus it will always consume energy when it is turned on by a long time for warm, the energy saving performance is poor.


The present invention provides a technique for enabling even a person having no expert knowledge to adjust the direction of an optical axis easily with high precision. In a three-dimensional image processing apparatus having plural image capturing apparatuses, optical center of an image from an image capturing apparatus is stored for each of the image capturing apparatuses. A mark indicative of the optical center is superimposed on an image obtained from the image capturing apparatus. By referring to the mark for each of the image capturing apparatuses, the orientation of each of the image capturing apparatuses is adjusted so that all of the marks overlay on the same point on an object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional image processing apparatus for obtaining three-dimensional information of an object from stereoscopic images captured by plural image capturing apparatuses and, more particularly, to a technique for adjusting directions of optical axes of the image capturing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the methods of obtaining three-dimensional information of an object from images is a method of capturing images of a predetermined image capture area by plural image capturing apparatuses disposed at predetermined intervals and obtaining corresponding relations of image formation points of the object on the captured plural images among the image capturing apparatuses. This method is generally called a stereo image process.
In a three-dimensional image processing apparatus using the stereo image process, the optical axes of image capturing apparatuses are set to be parallel with each other, or the optical axes are set so as to cross each other. The latter case has an advantage such that a common visual field of the image capturing apparatuses is easily assured, and is effective, for example, when it is necessary to set the distance between image capturing apparatuses to be smaller than the width of the image capturing apparatus itself, and when the distance between the image capturing apparatus and an object is small. In addition, when the optical axes cross each other, there are advantages such that (1) estimation precision of a parameter describing geometrical arrangement between the image capturing apparatuses is stabilized, (2) since the parallax of an object projected in the vicinity of a center of an image becomes close to zero, the cost of parallax calculation can be reduced, and the like.
Although "crossing" has various advantages as described above, in reality, the optical axes are not seen, so that it is very difficult to adjust the directions of the optical axes of image capturing apparatuses. It is all the more difficult for the user having no expert knowledge of image processing.
The conventional technique has an attempt to perform a method of automatically adjusting an optical axis on the basis of correlation between center portions of images on the assumption that fixation points on the optical axes gather in the center of an image pickup device (that is, the optical axis passes the center of the image pickup device).
In the actual image capturing apparatus, however, there is no guarantee that the optical axis passes the center of the image pickup device due to mount variations of the image pickup device and an optical system (refer to FIG. 13). Moreover, there is also the possibility that a deviation amount between the passing point of the optical axis in the image pickup device (the optical center of the image) and the center of the image pickup device (the center of the image) changes when the focal distance changes. In the case where a center portion of an image does not include a characteristic image point and in the case where a similar pattern repeatedly appears in an image, erroneous correspondence between images may occur. Therefore, the precision of optical axis adjustment in the conventional technique is limited.

Three-dimensional image processing apparatus, optical axis adjusting method, and optical axis adjustment supporting method


A hinge has a pivot assembly and a holding assembly. The pivot assembly has a securing panel, a connecting seat, a pivot shaft, and two positioning sets. Each of the positioning sets has a positioning ball and a silencing positioning element filled with lubricating grease. The holding assembly has two holding sheets holding the pivot shaft. With the holding sheets and the pivot shaft abutting each other with tooth or embossed surfaces, friction between the holding sheets and the pivot shaft is increased. Thus, the pivot shaft and the holding sheets do not pivot relative to each other easily. The lubricating grease in the silencing positioning elements can be smeared on the positioning balls, such that the positioning balls can smoothly roll on the pivot shaft without abrasion and no noise will occur.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge, especially to a hinge for a glass door, such that the glass door can quietly and exactly return to a closed position.
2. Description of the Prior Art(s)
A hinge is used for mounting a glass panel on a doorframe of a building. With reference to FIG. 7, a conventional hinge comprises a pivot assembly 40 and a holding assembly 30. The pivot assembly 40 has a positioning set. The holding assembly 30 is connected to the pivot assembly 40 via a pivot shaft. The pivot shaft has two ends. One of the ends of the pivot shaft is held by the holding assembly 30. The other end of the pivot shaft is rotatably mounted in the pivot assembly 40 and selectively engages with the positioning set, so as to hold the pivot shaft and the holding assembly 30 in a closed position.
Two of the conventional hinges can be respectively mounted on an upper edge and a lower edge of a glass panel 70 and disposed adjacent to a side edge of the glass panel 70. The holding assemblies 30 securely hold the glass panel 70. The pivot assemblies 40 are respectively attached to a ceiling and a ground. The pivot shafts of the two conventional hinges align with each other and form a pivot axis. Thus, as the glass panel 70 rotates, the glass panel 70, the holding assemblies 30, and the pivot shafts pivot around the pivot axis accordingly.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 7, in some places, such as a bathroom, the pivot assembly 40 of one of the two conventional hinges may be attached to a wall 60 via a bracket 50. Thus, a gap is formed between the ceiling and the upper edge of the glass panel or between the ground and the lower edge of the glass panel. Accordingly, the bathroom can be properly ventilated.
With further reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, however, the wall 60 may be uneven or inclined, causing declination of the brackets 50 and the conventional hinges. Therefore, the holding assemblies 30 of the conventional hinges are supposed to be adjustable, so as to allow the holding assemblies 30 of the conventional hinges to hold the glass panel 70 at the same time. However, in the conventional hinge, the holding assembly and the pivot shaft abut each other with smooth surfaces, and the positioning set of the pivot assembly applies torque on the pivot shaft. Thus, the holding assembly 30 and the pivot shaft slide and rotate relative to each other easily. Accordingly, the glass panel is unable to return to the closed position accurately. Moreover, in the conventional hinge, the positioning set is directly in contact with the pivot shaft without any lubricant. Therefore, as the pivot shaft pivots, the pivot shaft and the positioning set abrade and noise occurs.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a hinge to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


A method for overmolding a thermoplastic tip onto a hollow profile member made of thermosetting composite and to an assembly including a thermosetting profile member and a thermoplastic tip, wherein it includes machining the shape of the profile member made of thermosetting composite on the injection region; positioning a cap in the profile member; thermally conditioning the profile assembly and the cap; and injecting the tip with thermoplastic composite in order to create the junction of the profile member, the cap and the tip.

Some embodiments relate to a hollow profile member such as a tube produced from thermosetting composite materials possibly including or consisting of carbon fibers, over which is overmolded an end-fitting produced from thermoplastic materials or from thermoplastic composite material to produce a piece such as a connecting rod, and in this case the two ends will be overmolded.
This type of piece is subject to significant forces both in terms of traction and compression, but also in terms of torsional vibration and temperature, particularly in the case of the connecting rods used for the industrial and aeronautical sectors. It is therefore desired in this embodiment for the link between the profile member and the overmolded end-fitting to be sufficiently strong. The traction force that it must or should withstand is greater than 1 tonne with a temperature gradient up to 140° for a profile member section with a maximum diameter or width of 15 mm. The two materials (thermosetting carbon and thermoplastic plug and end-fitting) have different expansion coefficients and the temperature differences induce risks of separation of the two materials and therefore a risk of accident.
A method is known for chemically welding two thermoplastic pieces as described in the patent DE 10 2012 021 493, in which the thermoplastic pieces are heated up and pressed together so as to create a chemical weld zone between the two pieces, even to hot-reshape the pieces in order to produce a relief that makes it possible to increase the strength of the two pieces together. However, this method is not applicable to a thermosetting tube which cannot be reshaped and cannot be mixed with a thermoplastic to produce a chemical weld.

Hollow profile member such as a tube made of thermosetting composite materials and corresponding method


A method of measuring a quality of a test video stream, the method comprising measuring a content richness fidelity feature of the test video stream based on occurrences of color values in image frames of the test video stream; measuring a block-fidelity feature of the test video stream based on distortion at block-boundaries in the image frames of the test video stream; measuring a distortion-invisibility feature of the test video stream based on distortion at pixels of the image frames of the test video stream; and determining a quality rating for the test video stream based on the content richness fidelity feature, the block-fidelity feature and the distortion-invisibility feature measured.

In image and video manipulations, apart from on-line and off-line visual quality evaluation, how to gauge distortion also plays a determinative role in shaping most algorithms, such as enhancement, reconstruction, data hiding, compression, and joint source/channel coding. Visual quality control within an encoder and distortion assessment for the decoded signal are particularly of interest due to the widespread applications of H.26x/MPEG-x compression and coding. Since human eyes are the end receiver of most decoded images and video, it is desirable to develop visual quality metrics that correlate better with human eyes' perception than the conventional pixel-wise error (e.g., mean-squared-error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR)) measures.
Perceptual models based upon human vision characteristics have been proposed. In one such metric proposal the colour-transformed original and decoded sequences are subjected to blocking and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and the resultant DCT coefficients are then converted to the local contrast, which is defined as the ratio of the AC amplitude to the temporally low-pass filtered DC amplitude. A temporal recursive discrete second-order IIR filtering operation follows to implement the temporal part of the contrast sensitivity function (CSF). The results are then converted to measures of visibility by dividing each coefficient by its respective visual spatial threshold. The difference of two sequences is subjected to a contrast masking operation, and finally the masked difference is pooled over various dimensions to illustrate perceptual error.
With the same paradigm, another approach termed Winkler's metric consists of colour conversion, temporal filters, spatial subband filters, contrast control, and pooling for various channels, which are based on the spatio-temporal mechanisms in the human visual system. The difference of original and decoded video is evaluated to give an estimate of visual quality of the decoded signal. The metric's parameters are determined by fitting the metric's output to the experimental data on human eyes.
Prevalent visual coding schemes (e.g., DCT- or wavelet-based) introduce specific types of artefacts such as blockiness, ringing and blurring. The metrics in such coding may evaluate blocking artefacts as the distortion measure. Other metrics measure five types of error (i.e., low-pass filtered error, Weber's law and CSF corrected error, blocking error, correlated error, and high contrast transitional error), and use Principal Component Analysis to decide the compound effect on visual quality.
Switching between a perceptual model and a blockiness detector depending on the video under test has also been suggested.
Another proposed perceptual distortion metric architecture consists of opponent colour conversion, perceptual decomposition, masking, followed by pooling. In his method, the spatial frequency and orientation-selective filtering and temporal filtering are performed in the frequency (spectral) domain. The behaviour of the human vision system is modelled by cascading a 3-D filter bank and the non-linear transducer that models masking. The filter bank used in one proposed model is separable in spatial and temporal directions. The model features 17 Gabor spatial filters and 2 temporal filters. A non-linear transducer modelling of masking has been utilized. In a simplified version, the perceptual model is applied to blockiness dominant regions.
A software tool for measuring the perceptual quality of digital still images has been provided in the market. Five proprietary full reference perceptual metrics, namely blockiness, blurriness, noise, colourfulness and a mean opinion score have been developed. However, since these methods are proprietary, there are no descriptions available of how these metrics' outputs are being calculated.
A full reference video quality metric has also been proposed. For each frame, corresponding local areas are extracted from both the original and test video sequences respectively. For each selected local area, statistical features such as mean and variance are calculated and used to classify the local area into smooth, edge, or texture region. Next a local correlation quality index value is calculated and these local measures are averaged to give a quality value of the entire frame. The frame quality value is adjusted by two factors: the blockiness factor and motion factor. The blockiness measurement is evaluated in the power spectrum of the image signal. This blockiness measure is used to adjust the overall quality value only if the frame has relatively high quality index value but severe blockiness. The motion measurement is obtained by a simple block-based motion estimation algorithm. This motion adjustment is applied only if a frame simultaneously satisfies the conditions of low quality index value, high blurriness and low blockiness. Finally, all frame quality index values are averaged to a single overall quality value of the test sequence.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for video quality measurements

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


A user-friendly ice scraper is provided to chop and scrape ice. The sturdy ice scraper has a blade housing which holds an ice scraper blade. The blade housing can comprise a plastic blade holder with flared ribs. Advantageously, the ice scraper has a high strength composite handle with a metal core and plastic sleeve. The handle preferably includes a cap or other handgrip at its upper end.

This invention pertains to snow tools and, more particularly, to ice scrapers.
Handheld portable snow tools, typically referred to as manual snow tools, are useful to remove snow, ice and slush from sidewalks and driveways. Over the years, various types of manual snow tools have been developed, such as snow shovels, snow pushers and ice scrapers.
Ice scrapers are useful to scrape, cut and chop ice from sidewalks, stairways, driveways and pavement. Smaller scrapers are useful to scrape ice from vehicle windows and windshields. Ice can accumulate on sidewalks, stairs, driveways and pavement from ice storms or from snow which has melted during the day and freezes at night when the temperature drops. Icy sidewalks, stairs, driveways and pavement can be very dangerous and slippery. It is often difficult to walk and safely drive with full control on icy sidewalks, stairs, driveways and pavements. If snow falls and accumulates on the ice, the underlying layer of ice can be treacherous.
Small amounts of snow can be readily removed from sidewalks, stairs and driveways with a snow shovel. Snow shovels are good all around snow tools. Typically, snow shovels have a generally flat blade with a very slight curvature. Snow shovels are useful to shovel, lift, raise and throw light snow away from the sidewalk, stairs or driveway. If the snow is deep, heavy, or slushy, other types of snow tools are better, safer and more productive than standard snow shovels.
Snow pushers have a rounded or curved blade which are useful to push heavy or deep snow and slush away from sidewalks and drivers. Snow pushers can be very heavy. The deep curvature of pusher blades, however, is not generally useful to lift (raise) and throw snow and slush, which remain after the bulk of the snow and slush has been pushed away.
A concern with snow shovels and ice scrapers is the strength to weight ratio. In the past, the stronger a shovel and ice scraper, the heavier it was, due to the amount of material mass required for rigidity. Previously, conventional manual snow tools were constructed with a wooden handle and a steel or iron blade or scoop. Conventional snow tools are often bulky, heavy and cumbersome to use. It has been common practice to make the shaft from wood and to rivet a section of wood to the handgrip. However, a problem with wood is that unless properly treated, water can rot the wood. Furthermore, wood can splinter and crack. While it is possible to replace the wood, it is more likely that the snow tool will be discarded.
Metal handles comprising metal shafts and/or metal handgrips, made of iron or steel have also be used. In an effort to improve the ease of use and decrease the weight of snow tools, snow tools have been made with aluminum, steel and iron handles and/or aluminum blades. Aluminum handles can be very slippery, cold and difficult to hold when wet, such as when it snows or sleets.
In modern times, part of the snow tools have been fabricated of plastic. Early snow tools with plastic blades were somewhat flimsy and did not wear well. Furthermore, snow tools with smooth, plastic rounded handles can also be slippery and difficult to hold when wet.
If the snow shovel blade or ice scraper blade is made too thin, it will bend under load and may not be suitable to adequately remove snow and ice. Furthermore, snow shovel blades and ice scraper blades are usually subjected to impact forces and abrasion during use from ice, impacted snow, the underlying pavement, salt, etc which can pit, corrode, or otherwise damage the snow shovel blade and ice scraper blade. Moreover, salt used to melt ice and water from slush and melting snow can accelerate rust and degradation of conventional iron snow shovels. Consumer often seek a large, but light weight, snow blade. For these reasons, in place of an iron or steel snow blade, some snow tools are manufactured with aluminum or plastic snow blades. While aluminum and plastic snow blades do not rust, they are much weaker and flimsier than iron and steel and often require greater thickness or metal reinforcement for greater strength to withstand the loads, forces and stresses of shoveling snow and chopping ice.
The blade, shaft and handgrip of a snow shovel and ice scraper can be constructed from plastic which does not rot, rust, or retain cold as its wood and metal counterparts. However, a problem with plastic is strength. A plastic shaft may flex causing the shaft to bend since the shaft can become a fulcrum point during use. A blade made of plastic further presents a number of problems including control of flexing and wear.
In order to manually remove snow from sidewalks, driveways and pavements, different amounts of effort are often required to remove the snow, depending on the depth, temperature, fluffiness, amounts of slush, water, ice and texture of the snow to be removed. Sometimes, women, children and older men can become overburdened and frustrated by the weight and bulkiness of a conventional ice scraper when chopping ice. Also, conventional ice scrapers can be too heavy, awkward and cumbersome to scrape ice for some women, children and older men.
It is, therefore, desirable to develop an improved ice scraper which overcomes most, if not all, of the preceding problems.

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An integrated circuit designing support apparatus includes a storage unit and a processing unit. The storage unit stores an RTL (Register Transfer Level) description with description of structurization for structurizing an RTL description model for an integrated circuit into modules, and a correspondence table which shows correspondence relation of each of output ports of a first module of the modules and a corresponding one of output ports of a second module of the modules. The processing unit structurizes the RTL description model into the modules, generates output port data indicating the output ports of each of the first and second modules, generates the correspondence table from the output port data to store in the storage unit, carries out a tracing operation on a signal route from each of the output ports of each of the first and second modules toward an input port side by using the correspondence table, and determines whether the first and second modules have an overlapping portion, based on the tracing operation results.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit designing support apparatus and a method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rapid increase of personal computers and cellular phones leads increase of demand of semiconductor devices, together with higher reliability of the semiconductor device. A defect in an operation circuit such as ALU (Arithmetic and Logical Unit) is important since it causes a fatal problem in the semiconductor device.
Recently, design and manufacturing technique of a semiconductor device, especially LSI (Large-Scale Integrated circuit), has been remarkably and rapidly advanced. In a design stage of LSI, duplication of a circuit portion is carried out to produce a dual circuit of a first circuit and a second circuit so as to improve the reliability of the device. For example, in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 11-102386), outputs of the first circuit and outputs of the second circuit are compared, and the design is changed when a difference is detected between the outputs
Such a method of duplicating the circuit portion is effective to improve the reliability of LSI. In this method, there is a case that the first circuit and the second circuit are integrated into one circuit in a process of a logical synthesis in the design stage. The logic of the second circuit is basically same as that of the first circuit. For this reason, the first circuit and the second circuit are integrated erroneously when the circuit is optimized in the process of the logical synthesis in the design stage. FIG. 1 shows a state that the first circuit and the second circuit are integrated.
In conjunction with the above description, an integrated circuit designing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 9-204460). In this conventional example, the integrated circuit designing support apparatus is used to support the designing of an integrated circuit by using a hardware description language. First and second circuit design data are divided in units of modules to generate a plurality of first and second module design data. Specified one or more of the plurality of first and second module design data are extracted and the extracted first and second module design data are compared with each other between corresponding modules to check whether the corresponding modules are logically same. In the other modules, it is checked whether cells and signal lines are completely same between the modules.

Integrated circuit designing support apparatus and method for the same


The present inventors discovered that the PepT-binding antibodies have the ability to inhibit the transport activity of peptide transporters, as a result of dedicated research. These antibodies may be utilized as cell growth inhibitors, for example, for treating and preventing cancer.

Mammalian animals need to incorporate nutrients from an external source, and many transport proteins are known to exist in cells. Peptide transporters (peptide transport proteins) transport peptides, and many have been found to date (for example, Non-Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3; and Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3). Peptide transporters can be classified into proteins that import peptides into cells, and proteins that export peptides from cells. They can also be classified by the difference of the energy sources used in transport. Proton-driven peptide transporters, which carry out transport by utilizing the difference in proton concentrations between the inside and outside of a cell, belong to the PTR family (Non-Patent Document 3). Peptide transporters that carry out transport using ATP in the body belong to the ABC family (Non-Patent Document 4).
It has been reported that peptide transporters are involved in the transport of not only small-molecule peptides such as dipeptides and tripeptides, but also pharmaceutical agents such as β-lactam antibiotics and ACE inhibitors (Non-Patent Documents 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10).
PepT1 and PepT2 are proton-driven peptide transporters which contribute to the absorption of proteins and the maintenance of peptidic nitrogen sources through uptake of small-molecule peptides into cells. PepT1 and PepT2 are 12-transmembrane proteins, consisting of 708 and 729 amino acids, respectively (Non-Patent Documents 1, 2, and 11).
PepT1 and PepT2 have also been reported to transport pharmaceuticals such as β-lactam antibiotics and bestatin (Non-Patent Documents 12, 13, and 14).
PepT1 is mainly expressed in the small intestine, and its expression in kidney and pancreas has also been confirmed. PepT2 expression has been confirmed in kidney, brain, lung, and spleen. PepT1 and PepT2 have been reported to be localized in the small intestine, as well as in the brush border membrane of renal tubular epithelial cells (Non-Patent Documents 15, 16, 17, and 11).
Furthermore, overexpression of PepT1 in the cell membranes of human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cell lines (Non-Patent Document 18), and PepT2 mRNA expression in human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cell lines (Non-Patent Document 19) have been reported. However, the involvement of PepT1 and PepT2 in cancer cell growth is not clear, and the question of whether inhibiting the functions of PepT1 and PepT2 will affect cancer cell proliferation has never been discussed.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. (JP-A) H6-261761 (unexamined, published Japanese patent application)    [Patent Document 2] JP-A H11-172    [Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,525    [Non-Patent Document 1] J. Biol. Chem., 270(12):6456-6463, (1995)    [Non-Patent Document 2] Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1235:461-466, (1995)    [Non-Patent Document 3] Mol. Microbiol., Vol. 16, p825, (1995)    [Non-Patent Document 4] Annu. Rev. Cell. Biol., Vol. 8, p67, (1992)    [Non-Patent Document 5] Ganaphthy, Leibach., Curr. Biol. 3, 695-701, (1991)    [Non-Patent Document 6] Nakashima et al., Biochem. Pharm. 33, 3345-3352, (1984)    [Non-Patent Document 7] Friedman, Amidon., Pharm. Res., 6, 1043-1047, (1989)    [Non-Patent Document 8] Okano et al., J. Biol. Chem., 261, 14130-14134, (1986)    [Non-Patent Document 9] Muranushi et al., Pharm. Res., 6, 308-312, (1989)    [Non-Patent Document 10] Friedman, Amidon., J. Control. Rel., 13, 141-146, (1990)    [Non-Patent Document 11] Terada, Inui, Tanpakusitsu Kakusan Kouso (Proteins, Nucleic acids, Enzymes), Vol. 46, No. 5, (2001)    [Non-Patent Document 12] Saito, H. et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 275, 1631-1637, (1995)    [Non-Patent Document 13] Saito, H. et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1280, 173-177, (1996)    [Non-Patent Document 14] Terada, T. et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 281, 1415-1421 (1997)    [Non-Patent Document 15] Ogihara, H. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 220, 848-852, (1996)    [Non-Patent Document 16] Takahashi, K. et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 286, 1037-1042 (1998)    [Non-Patent Document 17] Hong, S. et al., Am. J. Physiol. Renal. Physiol., 276, F658-F665 (1999)    [Non-Patent Document 18] Cancer Res., 58, 519-525, (1998)    [Non-Patent Document 19] Millennium World Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences, (2000)

Antibodies that inhibit transport activity of peptide transporters


A silicon wafer is provided having controlled distribution of defects, in which denuded zones having a sufficient depth inward from the surface of the wafer are combined with a high gettering effect in a bulk region of the wafer. In the silicon wafer, oxygen precipitates, which act as intrinsic gettering sites, show vertical distribution. The oxygen precipitate concentration profile from the top to the bottom surfaces of the wafer includes first and second peaks at first and second predetermined depths from the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer, denuded zones between the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer and each of the first and second peaks, and a concave region between the first and second peaks, which corresponds to a bulk region of the wafer. For such an oxygen precipitate concentration profile, the wafer is exposed to a rapid thermal annealing process in a gas mixture atmosphere containing nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar) or N2 and hydrogen (H2), in a donor killing step during a wafering process.

This invention relates to microelectronic manufacturing methods and devices, and more particularly to silicon ingot manufacturing methods and silicon ingots and wafers manufactured thereby.
Monocrystalline silicon, which is the starting material in fabricating semiconductor devices, is grown into a cylindrical ingot by a crystal growth technique, which is referred to as the Czochralski (CZ) technique. The ingot of monocrystalline silicon is processed into wafers via a series of wafering processes such as slicing, etching, cleaning, polishing and the like. According to the CZ technique, a seed crystal of monocrystalline silicon is immersed into molten silicon and pulled upwards, and the molten silicon is then grown into a monocrystalline ingot by slow extraction. The molten silicon is contained in a quartz crucible, and is contaminated with a variety of impurities, one of which is oxygen. At the melting temperature of silicon, the oxygen permeates the crystal lattice until it reaches a predetermined concentration which generally is determined by the solubility of oxygen in silicon at the melting temperature of silicon and by the actual segregation coefficient of oxygen in solidified silicon. The concentration of oxygen, which permeates the silicon ingot during crystal growth, is greater than the solubility of oxygen in solidified silicon at typical temperatures used in semiconductor device manufacture. As the crystal grows from the molten silicon and cools, the solubility of oxygen therein rapidly decreases, whereby oxygen is saturated in the cooled ingot.
The ingot is sliced into wafers. The remaining interstitial oxygen in the wafers is grown to oxygen precipitates during subsequent thermal processes. The presence of oxygen precipitates in the device active region may degrade the gate oxide integrity and/or may cause undesirable substrate leakage current. However, if they are present outside the device active region (i.e. in the bulk region), they can getter metallic impurities that arise from device processing. This desirable function is referred to as gettering.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistor. Referring to FIG. 1, when the oxygen precipitates at the wafer surface exist in a channel region, which is located in an active region of the semiconductor device between a source region 12 and a drain region 14 which are formed near the surface of a silicon substrate 10, a gate insulation layer 16, for electrically insulating a gate electrode 18 and the silicon substrate 10, may break down. In addition, the refresh characteristics of a memory device that uses the MOSFET may degrade.
Also, oxygen precipitates formed in the bulk region 10a of the wafer, which are produced by subsequent heat treatment, can act as a leakage source and can act as intrinsic gettering sites, which are capable of trapping unfavorable metal contaminants during subsequent semiconductor device manufacturing. Thus, if the concentration of oxygen in the ingot is high, the concentration of oxygen precipitates which act as the intrinsic gettering sites can increase, so that the gettering capability increases. However, if the concentration of oxygen is not sufficient, oxygen precipitates may not be produced in the bulk region, so that the gettering capability may be reduced or may not be present at all. Thus, it may be desirable to properly control the amount of oxygen precipitates distributed in the bulk region of the wafer.
In a wafer which is obtained by a conventional crystal growth and wafering process, oxygen precipitates distribute through the wafer, from the top (front side) surface of the bottom (back side) surface. In general, a Denuded Zone (DZ) 10b should be provided from the top surface to a predetermined depth, which is devoid of D-defects (vacancy agglomerates), dislocations, stacking faults and oxygen precipitates. However, wafers fabricated by conventional methods may produce oxygen precipitates near the surface of the wafer, which can act as a source of leakage current.
Thus, in order to form intrinsic gettering sites in the bulk region of the wafer with a sufficient DZ near the surface of the wafer, a wafer containing a high concentration of oxygen, for example, at an initial oxygen concentration of 13 parts per million atoms (ppma) or more may be thermally processed for a long period of time by alternating the temperature between low and high levels, such that oxygen precipitates may be generated in the bulk region of the wafer. However, it may be difficult to obtain sufficient DZ because the DZ may strongly depend on the out-diffusion of interstitial oxygen. In a semiconductor wafer thermally processed by this conventional technique, the oxygen precipitate concentration profile through the wafer, from the top surface to the bottom surface of the wafer, may be as illustrated in FIG. 2.
Particularly, conventional techniques in which an additional high-temperature thermal process is performed for a long period of time may degrade the device characteristics. For example, slippage or warpage may occur in the wafer. Moreover, the manufacturing cost may increase. Also, in such a case, metal contaminants, and particularly iron (Fe), which are trapped by the oxygen precipitates in the bulk region, may be released into the DZ by a subsequent process, so that the released contaminants can act as a leakage source.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a redrawn oxygen precipitate concentration profile of a wafer fabricated by another conventional method, which is disclosed in FIG. 1A of U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,669. In particular, FIG. 3 is the oxygen precipitate concentration profile of a wafer with respect to the depth of the wafer, resulting from a rapid thermal annealing process on a wafer carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere, and subjecting the wafer to subsequent heat treatment. However, as can be seen from FIG. 3, neither the DZ near the surface of the wafer nor sufficient oxygen precipitates in the bulk region may be obtained by this conventional method.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a silicon wafer having a controlled vertical distribution of oxygen precipitates which can act as intrinsic gettering sites. In particular, the oxygen precipitate concentration profile from the top surface, in which an active region of a semiconductor device may be formed, to the bottom surface of the silicon wafer, comprises first and second peaks at first and second predetermined depths from the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer, respectively. Also, a Denuded Zone (DZ) is included between the top surface of the wafer and the first peak and between the bottom surface of the wafer and the second peak. The oxygen precipitate concentration profile also has a concave region between the first and second peaks, which can correspond to a bulk region of the wafer.
In embodiments of the invention, the oxygen precipitate concentration profile is symmetrical with respect to a central surface of the silicon wafer that is centrally located between the top and bottom surfaces. Thus, for example, the first and second predetermined depths are the same. However, in other embodiments, the profile need not be symmetrical, such that, for example, different depths may be provided for the first and second peaks. Also, in some embodiments of the invention, the depth of the denuded zones is in the range of about 10 xcexcm to about 40 xcexcm from each surface of the silicon wafer, such that the active region of the semiconductor device is formed to a sufficient depth. In other embodiments, crystalline defects relating to oxygen do not exist in the DZs, while D-defects in the form of voids, having a predetermined size, as well as the oxygen precipitates, may be further present in the bulk region of the wafer at a predetermined concentration.
In other embodiments of the invention, the oxygen precipitate concentrations at the first and second peaks are at least about 1xc3x97109 cmxe2x88x923, and oxygen precipitate concentration in the bulk region between the first and second peaks is at least about 1xc3x97108 cmxe2x88x923.
Silicon wafers according to other embodiments of the present invention include a controlled distribution of oxygen precipitate nucleation centers, for example vacancies, which can produce oxygen precipitate concentration profiles described above through subsequent thermal treatment. The vacancy concentration profile comprises first and second peaks at first and second predetermined depths from the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer, respectively. Also, the vacancy concentration remains at a predetermined concentration, which is lower than a critical concentration to make the DZ, between the top surface of the wafer and the first peak and between the bottom surface of the wafer and the second peak. Finally, the vacancy concentration profile has a concave region between the first and second peaks. Symmetrical or asymmetrical profiles may be provided.
According to method embodiments of the present invention, Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) is performed on a silicon wafer in an atmosphere of a gas mixture comprising a gas which has a vacancy injection effect and a gas which has an interstitial silicon injection effect on the top and bottom surfaces of the silicon wafer, to generate nucleation centers, which act as oxygen precipitate growth sites during subsequent heat treatment, such that the nucleation center concentration profile from the top surface to the bottom surface of the wafer comprises first and second peaks at first and second predetermined depths from the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer, respectively. Also, the nucleation center concentration remains at a predetermined concentration, which is lower than a critical concentration to make the DZ, between the top surface of the wafer and the first peak and between the bottom surfaces of the wafer and the second peak. Finally, the nucleation center profile has a concave region between the first and second peaks, which corresponds to a bulk region of the wafer. Symmetrical or asymmetrical profiles may be provided.
According to other method embodiments, heat treatment is performed after the RTA to produce an oxygen precipitate concentration profile from the top surface to the bottom surface of the wafer, which comprises first and second peaks at first and second predetermined depths from the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer, respectively, a DZ between the top surfaces of the wafer and the first peak and between the bottom surface of the wafer and the second peak, and a concave region between the first and second peaks. Symmetrical or asymmetrical profiles may be provided.
In other embodiments of the invention, the gas mixture comprises nitrogen (N2) gas and argon (Ar) gas, or nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen (H2) gas. Also, in embodiments of the invention, the oxygen precipitate concentrations in the first and second peaks and in the bulk region, and/or the depths of the denuded zones may be controlled by adjusting at least one of the mixing ratio, the flow rate of the gas mixture, the ramp-up rate, the annealing temperature, the annealing time and the ramp-down rate of the RTA process.
In embodiments of the invention, a silicon wafer that is subject to an RTA process according to embodiments of the present invention may be manufactured from an ingot which is pulled from molten silicon in a hot zone furnace according to an ingot pulling rate profile where the pulling rate of the ingot is high enough so that formation of interstitial agglomerates is prevented, but low enough so that formation of vacancy agglomerates is limited to within a vacancy-rich region around the central axis of the ingot.
In other embodiments of the invention, a silicon wafer that is subject to an RTA process according to embodiments of the present invention may be manufactured from an ingot which is pulled from molten silicon in a hot zone furnace according to an ingot pulling rate profile where the pulling rate of the ingot is high enough so that formation of interstitial agglomerates is prevented, but low enough so that formation of interstitial agglomerates is prevented, and the formation of vacancy agglomerates is prevented.
In still other embodiments of the invention, a silicon wafer that is subject to an RTA process according to embodiments of the present invention may be manufactured from an ingot which is pulled from a molten silicon in a hot zone furnace according to an ingot pulling rate profile, where the pulling rate of the ingot is high enough so that vacancy agglomerates are formed through the diameter of the ingot without forming interstitial agglomerates.
According to other embodiments of the invention, a Czochralski puller for growing a monocrystalline silicon ingot includes a chamber enclosure, a crucible in the chamber enclosure that holds molten silicon, a seed holder in the chamber enclosure adjacent the crucible to hold a seed crystal, and a heater in the chamber enclosure surrounding the crucible. A ring-shaped heat shield housing also is provided in the chamber enclosure including inner and outer heat shield housing walls that are separated from each other, and a heat shield housing top and a heat shield housing bottom which connect the inner and outer heat shield housing walls, the heat shield housing top sloping upwards from the inner heat shield housing wall to the outer heat shield housing wall, and the heat shield housing bottom sloping downwards from the inner heat shield housing wall to the outer heat shield housing wall. A support member supports the heat shield housing within the crucible.
Czochralski pullers according to embodiments of the invention also pull the seed holder from the crucible to grow the molten silicon into the cylindrical monocrystalline silicon ingot, which grows along and around its central axis in a cylindrical shape and forms an ingot-molten silicon interface with the molten silicon. At least one of the lengths of the inner and outer heat shield housing walls of the heat shield housing, the slope angles of the heat shield housing top and bottom, the distance between the ingot and the inner heat shield housing wall, the distance between the crucible and the outer heat shield housing wall, the distance between the molten silicon and the inner heat shield housing wall and the location of the heat shield plate are selected such that the pulled ingot is cooled at a rate of at least 1.4xc2x0 K/min based on the temperature of the ingot at the center thereof, from the temperature at the ingot-molten silicon interface to a predetermined temperature of the ingot.
Thus, according to embodiments of the present invention, a wafer is exposed to RTA in an atmosphere of a gas mixture comprising a gas which provides an interstitial injection effect and a gas which provides a vacancy injection effect on the wafer, resulting in the profile of oxygen precipitate nucleation centers which has two peaks at predetermined depths from each of the surfaces of the wafer.
Also, embodiments of RTA processes according to the present invention are performed in an atmosphere of a gas which provides the interstitial injection effect to the wafer surface, so that although voids such as D-defects may exist in the wafer, the D-defects can be dissolved within the depths of the DZs, to allow a clear active region to be provided in a semiconductor device.
In addition, embodiments of Czochralski pullers according to the present invention can rapidly cool the pulled ingot, so that the size of voids, which may be formed during ingot growth, can be made smaller. Such small voids, which are present in the DZs, can be dissolved via the RTA process according to embodiments of the present invention, while voids remain in the bulk region of the wafer.

Silicon wafers having controlled distribution of defects, and methods of preparing the same


Aqueous, nitrogen-free cleaning composition, preparation and use thereof are provided. The composition having a pH of from 5 to 8 comprises (A) an amphiphilic nonionic, water-soluble or water-dispersible surfactant and (B) a metal chelating agent selected from polycarboxylic acids having at least 3 carboxylic acid groups. The composition is used for removing residues and contaminants from semiconductor substrates.

As semiconductor device geometries continue to shrink, more emphasis has to be placed on improved, interconnect structures to minimize resistance-capacitance (RC) delays. Strategies to minimize interconnect delays include improving the conductivity of the interconnect metal and lowering the dielectric constant k value of the insulating dielectric layers. For example, copper has emerged as a replacement for conventional aluminum as the interconnect metal in advanced devices down to the 20 nm or even lower node. Copper is more conductive than aluminum (thus reducing resistance-capacitance time delays) and is also less subject to electromigration when compared to conventional aluminum metallization.
In the manufacture of deep submicron semiconductor devices comprising large-scale (LSI), very-large-scale (VLSI) or ultra-large-scale (ULSI) integration, the copper damascene process is used to form conductive copper lines and vias in the low-k or ultra-low-k dielectric layer. One important step of the damascene process is the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of copper for the removal of excess copper above the dielectric layer surface. Customarily, barrier layers containing or consisting of tantalum, tantalum nitride, titanium nitride or ruthenium are located between the copper metal and the dielectric layer materials in order to prevent the diffusion of copper into the dielectric material.
The CMP process itself involves holding and rotating a thin, flat substrate of the semiconductor device against a wetted polishing pad under controlled pressure and temperature in the presence of CMP slurries. The CMP slurries contain abrasive materials and various chemical additives as appropriate to the specific CMP process and requirements. Following the CMP process, contaminants and residues consisting of particles from the CMP slurries, added chemicals, and reaction byproducts are left behind on the polished substrate surface. In addition, the polishing of a substrate surface having copper/low-k or ultra-low-k dielectric materials often generates carbon-rich particles that settle onto the surface after CMP.
However, all residues and contaminants must be removed prior to any further steps in the microelectronic device fabrication process to avoid degradation of the device reliability and introduction of defects into the microelectronic devices.
Various alkaline and acidic chemistries have been proposed in the past for the removal of such residues and contaminants from the surface of the polished semiconductor substrates.
Thus, the international patent application WO 2006/127885 A1 or the American application US 2008/0076688 A1 both disclose an aqueous alkaline cleaning composition for post-CMP cleaning comprising at least one amine, at least one passivating agent such as benzotriazole (BTA), optionally at least one quaternary ammonium hydroxide such as TMAH and optionally at least one reducing agent. It is believed that the passivating agent forms a layer consisting of a passivating-copper complex on top of the copper/copper (I) oxide surface such that solid particles can be easily removed by the cleaning composition. This strategy is also termed "displacement cleaning".
The American patent application US 2009/0239777 A1 discloses an aqueous alkaline post-CMP cleaning composition comprising at least one corrosion inhibitor and at least one amine wherein the corrosion inhibitor is selected from the group inter alia consisting of glucuronic acid, squaric acid, ascorbic acid, flavonols, and anthocyanins. The composition may contain reducing agents such as gallic acid, polyols such as diols and triols, amphiphilic nonionic surfactants such as polyethylene glycols, polypropylene glycols, polyethylene or polypropylene glycol ethers or dinonylphenyl polyoxyethylene, dispersing agents such as acrylic acid-containing polymers, and complexing agents such as formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, acetone, 2,4-pentanedione, acrylic acid, adipic acid, fumaric acid acid, gluconic acid, glucuronic acid, glyoxylic acid, maleic acid, malic acid, malonic acid, mandelic acid, phenylacetic acid, phthalic acid, isophthalic acid, terephthalic acid, pyromellitic acid, succinic acid, pyrocatechol, trimellitic acid, trimesic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, sorbitol and xylitol.
The alkaline amine-containing post-CMP cleaning compositions exhibit various disadvantages. Thus, smell and release amine vapors into the fab which can poison the photoresists.
Therefore, aqueous, acidic post-CMP cleaning compositions have been developed, as for example, the composition disclosed in the American patent application US 2010/0286014 A1 which comprises at least one surfactant, at least one dispersing agent, and at least one sulfonic acid-containing hydrocarbon. Suitable surfactants are amphiphilic nonionic surfactants such as polyethylene glycols, polypropylene glycols, polyethylene or polypropylene glycol ethers or dinonylphenyl polyoxyethylene. Suitable dispersing agents are acrylic acid-containing polymers. Optionally, complexing agents such as formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, acetone, 2,4-pentanedione, acrylic acid, adipic acid, fumaric acid and itaconic acid, gluconic acid, glucuronic acid, glyoxylic acid, maleic acid, malic acid, malonic acid, mandelic acid, phenylacetic acid, phthalic acid, isophthalic acid, terephthalic acid, pyromellitic acid, succinic acid, pyrocatechol, pyrogallol, trimellitic acid, trimesic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, sorbitol and xylitol can be used.
Moreover, the American patent application US2009/291873 A1 discloses an aqueous post-CMP cleaning composition having a pH in the range of from 2 to 11 obligatorily comprising a compound containing an amino acid group and/or a betain group. The composition optionally contains a pH modifier chosen from an organic acid and/or an organic base, a surfactant and a chelating agent. Amphiphilic nonionic surfactants such as polyalkylene oxide surfactants can also be used. Suitable amphiphilc nonionic surfactants include octyl and nonyl phenol ethoxylates such as Triton™ X-114, X-102, X-45 and X-15 and ethoxylated alcohols such as BRIJ™ 56 (C16H33(OCH2CH2)100OH or BRIJ™ 58 (C16H33(OCH2CH2)20OH), alkyloxylated acetylenic diol surfactants, glucosides, polyethylene glycols and polyethylene-polypropylene glycols. Additionally, corrosion inhibitors may also be added. Suitable corrosion inhibitors are anthranilic acid, gallic acid, benzoic acid, isophthalic acid, fumaric acid, phthalic acid, maleic anhydride, phthalic anhydride, fructose, lactic acid, dihydroxy benzene and trihydroxy benzene.
However, both, the alkaline and the acidic post-CMP cleaning compositions have their drawbacks. Thus, they increase the surface roughness of the polished copper surfaces due to redox reactions which cause etching, corrosion and pitting. The etching components of the compositions can chemically undercut the particles on top of the polished surfaces thus creating additional defects such as voids. The surfactants used in the prior art compositions are frequently not able to remove the abrasive particles efficiently. This necessitates strong etchants for undercutting the abrasive particles. However, such strong etchants can increase corrosion. The presence of barrier metals such as tantalum, tantalum nitride, titanium nitride or ruthenium can lead to an increased galvanic corrosion. Therefore, the strong acidic or alkaline process conditions require strong copper inhibitors such as BTA in order to avoid copper damage by high local or global static etch rates. However, strong copper inhibitors such as BTA are water-insoluble hydrophobic compounds and, therefore, are easily absorbed by the polished copper surfaces to form a passivation film which requires solvents such as amines for its removal. Last but not least, the cleaning compositions are capable of attacking the low-k and ultra-low-k dielectric materials surrounding the copper wirings and vias.

Aqueous, nitrogen-free cleaning composition and its use for removing residues and contaminants from semiconductor substrates suitable for manufacturing microelectronic devices


Methods, systems and computer program products for intra-footprint computing cluster bring-up within a virtual private cloud. A network connection is established between an initiating module and a virtual private cloud (VPC). An initiating module allocates resources of the virtual private cloud including a plurality of nodes that correspond to members of a to-be-configured computing cluster. A cluster management module having coded therein an intended computing cluster configuration is configured into at least one of the plurality of nodes. The members of the to-be-configured computing cluster interoperate from within the VPC to accomplish a set of computing cluster bring-up operations that configure the plurality of members into the intended computing cluster configuration. Execution of bring-up instructions of the management module serve to allocate networking IP addresses of the virtual private cloud. The allocated networking IP addresses of the virtual private cloud are assigned to networking interfaces of the plurality of nodes.

When bringing up a new cluster, many computing and networking resources are needed. The problem addressed here is how to perform all the needed cluster bring-up operations without requiring resources other than those resources provided by the cluster itself. In other words, the problem addressed here is how to perform all the needed cluster bring-up operations using only the footprint of resources provided by the cluster itself. This footprint refers to hardware resources as well as software resources as well as licenses pertaining to the hardware and/or software.
Furthermore, in public cloud computing scenarios where only a particular extent of software and hardware might be licensed by a customer, the new cluster must be brought up and be configurable to operate on an ongoing basis using only resources that are within the bounds of the customer's account (e.g., within the bounds of the customer's subscription to the public cloud service). This is because customers do not want to have to expand their subscription (e.g., pay for more resources) merely for the purpose of bringing up and maintaining a cluster. As such, performing all the needed cluster bring-up operations need to be accomplished without requiring resources other than those that are within the bounds of the customer's subscription to the public cloud service.
The problem becomes complicated when characteristics of the public cloud resources are considered. For example, many public cloud purveyors allocate "bare metal" nodes on demand, however these "bare metal" nodes are often initially pre-configured with a particular operating system that is intended to be a standalone node (i.e., not a node that is a member of a computing cluster). This introduces a need to re-image the bare metal. However doing so from a node that lies outside of the customer's public cloud subscription footprint is fraught with challenges—such as a high network latency, reliance on Internet access, and reliance on health of the outside node. Moreover, configuring a cluster from a node that lies outside of the customer's public cloud subscription footprint introduces additional failure domains and additional failure scenarios that would need to be addressed, thus leading to sub-optimal availability profiles.
As another example of complexities introduced by the context of a public cloud purveyor's infrastructure configuration, consider that public cloud purveyors offer their own networking infrastructure that would need to be configured in a particular manner so as to be able to provide networking routing capabilities that underlie node-to-node network routes between members of a computing cluster. Determining the characteristics of the public cloud purveyor's networking infrastructure is difficult and sometimes impossible to do from a node that lies outside of the customer's public cloud subscription footprint.
The problem becomes still further complicated when customer requirements such as a replication factor, high-availability metrics, headroom minimums, etc. have to be honored. These types of cluster-wide requirements are difficult and sometimes impossible to do from a node that lies outside of the customer's public cloud subscription footprint.
Still additional problems emerge when considering that virtual networking mechanisms need to be constantly maintained to be used with the underlying public cloud purveyor's networking infrastructure. Maintaining these virtual networking mechanisms to be in synch with the underlying physical networking infrastructure introduces networking latency, and thus is extremely sub-optimal to do from a node that lies outside of the customer's public cloud subscription footprint.
Therefore, what is needed is a technique or techniques that accomplish cluster bring-up without requiring resources beyond those resources provided by the subscription footprint of the customer.

Intra-footprint computing cluster bring-up


A method of isolating RNA from a biological specimen is provided, whereby a biological specimen is contacted with an admixture of (i) a mono-phasic solution of phenol and guanidine isothiocyanate and (ii) a lysis buffer under conditions and for a time appropriate to form a homogenate. Next, the homogenate is admixed with a water-immiscible organic solvent under conditions and for a time appropriate to form an aqueous phase and an organic phase. The aqueous phase is then contacted with a C1-C4 lower alcohol under conditions and for a time to form a precipitated RNA. The precipitated RNA is then recovered by centrifugation and decanting of the aqueous phase. The method can also be used to isolate total RNA. In an alternative embodiment, the biological sample is contacted with (i) a lysis buffer, and (ii) a mono-phasic solution of phenol and guanidine isothiocyanate under conditions and for a time appropriate to form a homogenate. The remaining steps of this embodiment are the same as above.

Living cells contain various types of RNA, although three particular types make up the predominant proportion, namely ribosomal RNA (rRNA, approximately 80 percent of all RNAs in a cell), transfer RNA (tRNA, approximately 5 percent of all RNAs in a cell) and messenger RNA (mRNA, approximately 2-4 percent of all RNAs in a cell). A variety of other RNA types are known, including heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA), small cytoplasmic RNA (scRNA), small nuclear RNA (snRNA), small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA), regulatory RNAs, guide RNAs, telomerase RNA and small regulatory RNAs. Isolation of total RNA is typically designed to isolate substantially all of the three predominate types of RNA, that is rRNA, tRNA and mRNA, although minor amounts of the remaining RNA types can be present in the total RNA isolation.
High quality RNA is a prerequisite for various gene expression assays such as reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR, primer extension and Southern or Northern blotting techniques, as well as for preparation of RNA probes for these and similar techniques. In addition novel drug therapies require examining high quality RNA from many species of microbial pathogens. Methods of extracting RNA are known, but those methods have various undesirable characteristics.
Guanidinium thiocyanate and guanidinium chloride are known as effective protein denaturants, and the chloride salt has been employed as a deproteinization agent for isolating total RNA, see Cox, R. A.: Methods in Enzymology, 12(B): 120-129 (1968). In the Cox procedure, a suspension of ribosomes in a buffer is added to 6 molar guanidinium chloride. The RNA is precipitated by adding alcohol to the solution and the precipitate is recovered by centrifugation. At this point, the precipitate is not free of RNase (a contaminating enzyme that causes RNA degradation) and is purified by dissolution in 4 molar guanidinium chloride and re-precipitation by adding ethanol. The precipitate is again separated by centrifugation. If further purification is necessary, the precipitate is redissolved in guanidinium chloride and re-precipitated with ethanol. This procedure takes approximately two days to complete.
Another method for isolating total RNA is disclosed in Chirgwin, J. M. et al: Biochem, 18:5294-5299 (1979). In that procedure, RNA-containing tissue is homogenized in a solution containing guanidinium thiocyanate, sodium citrate and 2-mercaptoethanol, with the solution pH adjusted to 7 by adding sodium hydroxide. The homogenate is then centrifuged and the supernatant decanted and mixed with acetic acid (to lower the pH value to 5) and absolute ethanol. Overnight storage at −20° C. precipitates the RNA and it is recovered in pellet form after centrifugation. The pellet is redissolved in a buffered guanidine hydrochloride solution and reprecipitated by adding acetic acid and ethanol. The last step is repeated and the isolated RNA is recovered in pellet form.
Alternatively, the RNA can be separated from the guanidinium thiocyanate homogenate by ultracentrifugation through a dense cushion of cesium chloride. This method is disadvantageous in that it can take up to 2 days to obtain results and it can require the use of expensive ultracentrifugation equipment which reduces the total amount of RNA recoverable because of the limited number of samples that can be simultaneously processed.
Yet another RNA-isolating procedure is shown in Feramisco, J. R. et al: Molecular Cloning, 194-195, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1982), in which RNA-containing tissue is homogenized in a solution of 4M guanidinium isothiocyanate, 20% Sarkosyl™ (sodium lauryl sarkosinate) and 2-mercaptoethanol. An equal volume of heated phenol (approximately 60° C.) is added to the homogenate along with a sodium acetate solution of pH 5.2. Then an equal volume of chloroform is added and the mixture is cooled and centrifuged. The aqueous phase is recovered and reextracted with phenol and/or chloroform about seven more times before the final product is recovered. This procedure is slow and cumbersome in that multiple extractions are required and it takes approximately two days to recover the available RNA.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,155, phenol and guanidine procedures were combined, resulting in a method of total RNA isolation that can be completed in 3 hours. The method of that patent was further improved upon in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,994, which allows for completion of the RNA isolation in about 1 hour. Those methods involve the use of a mono-phasic solution of phenol and guanidine isothiocyanate, commercially available as the reagent Trizol® (Invitrogen Corp., Carlsbad, Calif.).
It has been found that total RNA samples extracted from clinical isolates using Trizol® or hot phenol methods can experience unacceptable levels of high molecular weight DNA contamination, as determined by ethidium bromide gel electrophoresis. That DNA contamination compromises the purity of the isolated RNA, making subsequent use of the RNA difficult or impossible. Unexpectedly, the methods and compositions of the present invention permit the easy preparation of highly pure RNA samples from clinical isolates with a minimum amount of contaminating genomic DNA. In addition, the methods and compositions of the present invention provide for higher yields and higher purity of total RNA isolated, when compared to other methods.

Rapid nucleic acid isolation method and compositions


A print holder has two molded transparent plastic pieces united together each with an upright portion and a base having an inclined flank extending downwardly outwardly from a lower portion of the upright portion. A central portion of the upright portion of one or both pieces is recessed inwardly to define a pocket having an upper opening, for holding print material. The base portions together form a hollow base for capturing an inverted V-shaped printed information carrier that has wings extending adjacent the inclining flanks of the base. This allows display of information through the inclined flanks without requiring printing on the plastic.

Known print holders for holding a sheet in an upright position often include an auxiliary downwardly outwardly inclined display portion adjacent the base. This portion can often be more easily viewed from certain angles, for example by those seated at a table or adjacent a counter on which the print holder rests.
Known print holders of which the applicant is aware have required printing, for example screen printing, directly on portions of the plastic that are to be formed into an inclined base portion, and this printing operation is time consuming and expensive.


A printhead IC for an inkjet printer that mounts the printhead IC together with at least one other like printhead IC to provide a pagewidth printhead for printing onto a media substrate fed past the printhead in a feed direction, the printhead IC comprising: an elongate array of nozzles, the nozzles arranged into rows, at least one of the rows having a first section positioned on a line extending perpendicular to the feed direction, a second section positioned along a parallel line displaced from the first section, and an intermediate section of nozzles extending between the first section and the second section; and a supply conduit for providing printing fluid to the first section, the second section and the intermediate section, the supply conduit having a first portion extending perpendicular to the feed direction for supplying the first section of nozzles, a second portion extending perpendicular to the feed direction for supplying the second section of nozzles and an inclined portion for supplying the intermediate section of nozzles.

Inkjet printers eject drops of ink through an array of nozzles to effect printing on a media substrate. The nozzles are typically formed on a silicon wafer substrate using semiconductor fabrication techniques. Each nozzle is a MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) device driven by associated drive circuitry formed on the same silicon wafer substrate. The MEMS nozzle devices and associated drive circuitry formed on a single nozzle is commonly referred to as a printhead integrated circuit (IC).
Some inkjet printheads have a single printhead IC. These are scanning type printheads that traverse back and forth across the width of a page as the printer indexes the length of the page past the printhead. The Applicant has developed a range of pagewidth printheads that have a nozzle array as long as the printing width of the page. These printheads remain stationary in the printer as the page is fed past. This allows much higher print speeds but is more complicated in terms of controlling the operation of a much larger array of nozzles.
The pagewidth array of nozzles is made up of a series of separate printhead IC's placed end to end. Skilled workers in this field will appreciate that more printhead IC's can be fabricated on the unprocessed circular silicon wafers if each IC is short rather than long. Furthermore, localized fabrication defects can render an entire printhead IC defective. Hence there is less chance that each individual IC will be defective if they are shorter.
Unfortunately, the array of nozzles in one printhead IC can not simply abut the array of nozzles on an adjacent printhead IC. The sides of the printhead IC's can not be manufactured accurately enough to position the end nozzles of one IC close enough to the nozzles of the next IC without visible artifacts in the printed image. To ensure a seamless transition between the printing from adjacent IC's, the end portion of the nozzle array in one IC needs to overlap a portion of the nozzle array in the adjacent IC in a direction transverse to the paper feed direction. To do this, the overlapping portions need to be offset from each other along the paper feed path. In other words, the end nozzles in one array print to the media earlier in the paper path than the overlapping end nozzles of the adjacent nozzle array. This can be done by simply fabricating a triangular shaped end section of each nozzle array such that it is displaced further along the paper feed path than the remainder of the array (see FIG. 6A).
While this eliminates artifacts in the printing from the junction between adjacent IC's, it introduces a sharply angled section into the ink supply conduits for each nozzle row of each IC (see FIG. 6B). The sharp cornered supply conduits are prone to collect 'outgassing' bubbles (discussed in more detail below) and create additional resistance to the flow of supply ink to the displaced triangular section (which, for convenience the Applicant has termed 'the drop triangle').

Printhead IC with nozzle array for linking with adjacent printhead IC's


A data stream and data packet transmission method and device are described, relating to the field of interface data transmission technologies. The method includes: a home end detects whether data to be transmitted is a data stream or a data packet; when it is detected that the data stream and the data packet exist simultaneously, the data stream is preferentially transmitted; and upon completion of transmission of the data stream, then the data packet is transmitted. According to the embodiments of the disclosure, when the data stream and the data packet exist simultaneously, high efficiency transmission of the data stream may be achieved with no need of extra external time for scheduling operations, effectiveness of transmission of the data stream is enhanced, and data transmission efficiency through the interface is improved.

With the continuous development of technologies, users impose higher and higher requirements on high rate and high bandwidth, which has higher and higher requirements on stability and effectiveness of end-to-end data transmission. There are generally two manners for transmitting data. One is transmitting data in the form of data stream, i.e., constantly transmitting data to an opposite end in a timing manner. Even if no valid data exist, invalid data is constantly transmitted. To be specific, data is transmitted in the timing manner and the data may not be interrupted or stopped. The other one is transmitting data in the form of data packet, i.e., not transmitting data in the timing manner but transmitting data if available, wherein such transmission is not subject to timing.
Under most circumstances, in end-to-end interface-based data transmission, it is common that a data packet and a data stream need to be simultaneously transmitted through one interface. Particularly in the communications field, uplink or downlink real-time IQ data is transmitted in the form of data stream, and other control signals are transmitted in the form of data packet. If the data stream and the data packet, as two types of data, are transmitted through one interface, high reliability is needed for simultaneous transmission, which causes a great challenge to the interface designer.

Data stream and data packet transmission method and device


A multimedia content retrieving device for retrieving multimedia content stored in a terminal through a network includes a memory that stores a terminal ID of a managing terminal that stores meta information. The meta information includes information relating to the multimedia content including a content ID and a terminal ID of a terminal that stores the content. A the multimedia content retrieving device also includes a retrieving device that inputs a retrieving condition that specifies information relating to the content, an obtaining device that obtains the meta information, a specifying device that specifies the content ID based on the meta information obtained by the obtaining device, and the terminal ID of the terminal storing the content, and a transmitting device that transmits a request for obtaining the content relating to the content ID through the network to the terminal specified by the specifying device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia content retrieving device and a multimedia content retrieving method for retrieving content stored in a terminal.
2. Discussion of the Background
There is a technique for connecting a terminal such as a personal computer (hereinafter called a PC), a portable telephone, a portable terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), or an information terminal such as a TV with a program recorder, etc. to a server by a wired or wireless network, and transferring multimedia content data (hereinafter called content) such as video, music and still images to the terminal via the server. Thus, this technique allows the content such as a program, a photograph, music, etc. to be audio-visualized irrespective of location.
A home server is an example of a server that may be used to provide such a function, and includes a large capacity storage device such as a HDD, or a DVD, etc. and accumulates and manages the content.
The home server controls and manages a terminal device connected to a network constituting a home network.
For example, content such as video or music stored within the home server can be transferred to a PC located in a study, a kitchen and a bedroom using wired or wireless communication by arranging the home server in a sitting room, for example, with a wired or wireless LAN function.
Further, the home server has the role of, so to speak, a control tower for accumulating content and transmitting and receiving content to and from terminals located within the home.
Further, the home server has a function for retrieving and displaying predetermined desirable content among the content accumulated in a memory medium within the terminal connected to the network and a memory medium within the home server.
Meta information describing additional information related to the content is managed by the home server to manage the content accumulated in the memory media and the terminal.
Here, there is a possibility that the amount of meta information for managing the content within each terminal connected by the network may become very large.
As the functions of devices such as digital cameras and portable telephones with camera functions are improved, increased amounts of digital photographs can be stored daily on the home server or the PC terminal.
For example, each member of a family may have a portable telephone with a camera function, and all managing information (i.e., meta information) related to the resulting photo content is managed by the home server. In this case, all the meta information relating to that content is registered and managed within the home server. The home server must update pertinent meta information every time content is added, moved, deleted or copied within the terminal connected by the network or between the terminals. Therefore, there is a problem of an increase in the processing amount of the server.

Content retrieving device and content retrieving method


A device for pruning plant material includes a frame, a vertical arm extending from the frame, and an angled pruning head extending from the vertical arm. The angled pruning head includes at least one cutting disk attached to a first shaft, and an anvil assembly having at least one anvil pair attached to a second shaft. The first and second shafts are substantially parallel to one another. The at least one cutting disk is aligned to be selectively positionable between the anvils of the at least one anvil pair.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an agricultural device for pruning plant growth, and specifically to a device for pruning grapes.
2. Background
Grapes have been grown by mankind for thousands of years, producing fresh fruit as well as preservable products such as raisins, wine and distilled spirits. Early vineyardists discovered that by removing a measured amount of seasonal growth during dormancy, a more predictable quantity of fruit would be produced during the following growing season. These pruned vines consistently bore more fruit, of higher quality, than vines that did not have this seasonal growth removed.
Pruning practices specific to vines producing fruit for the fresh market, (such as table grapes), are especially important because they allow growers to maintain the critical balance between foliar growth and fruit growth required to produce grapes of consistent yield and quality.
Traditionally, pruning is performed by hand crews working in the vines during the winter dormant season (December-February). Hand-pruning of smaller vineyards is still a common practice, but many modern vineyards have grown very large requiring many pruning crews to complete the process during the optimal pruning window. The high cost and uncertain supply of people to do this work has forced viticulturalists to seek more cost effective and reliable means of pruning their vines.
One proven method that reduces pruning time, lowers overall cost and increases field capacity, is a two-step process that utilizes a combination of powered machinery and hand labor. A typical system will include a mechanical pruner mounted on, and powered by, a field tractor that will carry it over or alongside the vine row. The device will employ some type of cutter(s) that can remove a portion of the seasonal growth (sometimes in excess of ninety percent). This rough pruning is the first step of the process and can typically remove a large portion of the seasonal growth. This allows the second step of the operation, hand pruning the vine to the desired shape and bud count. Because the pruning process removes the majority of canes, hand crews move through the field much more rapidly than in situations where no pruning has taken place. This "mechanically assisted" hand pruning is safer and less fatiguing to workers since hand crews are no longer required to pull canes through the trellis wires as they work their way through the field. This two step process requires fewer people and less time than employing a hand crew to prune all the seasonal growth down to the final finishing cut.
To date, attempts to produce machines for pruning vines trained to produce table grapes have not met with success. This lack of success has much to do with how table grapevines are trained. Most pruning machines are designed to work on vines that have been pruned and trained in a way that forces seasonal growth upwards within a vertical plane directly above the vine arms (cordons). With the trunk of the vine supported by a stake and with a multitude of wires running the full length of the vinerow, above and on either side of the cordons, seasonal growth is constrained within a vertical plane growing upwards from the vine's arms. Having the canes (the vine's seasonal growth) oriented in this manner allows the cutter blades of a pruner to pass through these vertically oriented canes and cut them. By using several blades aligned on a common shaft making simultaneous cuts along the length of the canes, long canes are reduced to small cane sections that fall away and through the training wires, leaving shorter canes protruding from the cordons that are later finish pruned by hand.
Table grapes present additional challenges in terms of pruning. Due to the table grape's unique growing requirements, its seasonal growth may be oriented horizontally, reaching upwards and outward, supported by horizontal arms and trellising wire. Creating this horizontal canopy of leaves maximizes the photosynthesis capacity of the vine and provides a shaded environment for the fruit growing beneath the canopy.
To mechanically prune vines trained using the horizontal training system employed with table grapes, a pruning machine should have the ability to 1) position the cane cutting portions of the machine along a horizontal plane, enabling them to cross-cut the canes laying on the trellis wires; 2) cut canes while allowing the trellis wires and their associated support arms to pass through the cutting devices without being damaged; and 3) allow the operator to effectively control cut location, machine height, and alignment down the vine row.
Many existing pruning devices use a cutting system that relies on multiple rotating and/or non-rotating blades to sever the canes at multiple locations to reduce the quantity of seasonal growth. Some such devices utilize saw blades rotating at high speed and protective disks that rotate at the tractor's ground speed, creating a non-moving (relative to the canes being cut) series of guides that hold and feed the canes through the rotating blades. Other devices use non-moving blades aligned vertically. Between each set of blades is a rotating disk with protruding fingers that push the vertical canes through the blades, severing the canes.
What is needed is a device for pruning table grapes that has the ability to pre-prune horizontally trained vines, has no high-speed components such as circular saw blades, and has reduced maintenance and parts costs.


A data store system may include an array of persistent storage devices configured to store a plurality of data store tables. The data store system may further include a processor in communication with the storage device. The processor may receive a query containing a non-equality join condition on a first column from a first data store table and a second column on a second data store table. The processor may generate a bitmap based on the join condition. The bitmap indicate respective matches between the first column and second column in accordance with the non-equality join condition. The bitmap may also be used each time the non-equality join condition is present in another received query. A method and computer-readable medium may also be implemented.

Data store systems, such as database and file systems, store vast amounts of logically related data in the form of data tables. Queries may be used to perform various utilities and analytics on the data tables to generate desired results. These queries may include conditions to be evaluated based on independent data tables, which require table joins to be performed. Conditions of equality, such as column values from columns of independent tables, are typically manageable conditions for a data store system and may allow a join index to be created. The join index may be used again if the equality conditions are expressed in a subsequent query. Join indices remove computational overhead that would otherwise be required each time the equality condition was expressed in a query. However, in instances involving non-equality join conditions, standard join indices are not as manageable or possible. For example, a query may contain the following statement:
SELECT STORED, CUST.ID
FROM STORE, CUST
WHERE
DISTANCE(STORE.LOCATION,
CUST.LOCATION)
<5.
This query includes a function "distance" that may determine the distance between stores and customers and identify those that are within 5 miles of one another. The stores and customers are maintained in independent tables "store" and "cust", respectively, which requires a "geographic join". Traditionally, in order to perform this query, we need to do a product join and evaluate the condition for all (e.g., number of stores×number of customers=1 billion) combinations to determine the matching combinations. Without a structure to capture this relationship, subsequent queries would also need to perform a Cartesian product of evaluations. Other non-equality conditions may be similarly cumbersome to evaluate using traditional techniques, such as non-equality conditions involving similarity searching (e.g., customers, documents, images, etc.), unstructured data comparisons (e.g., XML and JSON data columns of different tables), temporal comparisons (e.g., period defined by a temporal column in one table exhibits some relationship with a period defined by some period or another temporal column), and anomaly detection (e.g., queries designed to search/detect rare cases would result in few matches and the index would be very small size, where new matches are detected in real time). Thus, it would be desirable to maintain relationships for non-quality join conditions for subsequent use.

Join index bitmap for non-equality query conditions


A system for collecting, transporting and preparing a fecal specimen for examination includes a container, a closure selectively secured over an open end of the container, and a sample collection member coupled to the closure and extending into the container when the closure is secured thereto. In one embodiment, the closure includes a base and a cap that are hingedly coupled together. The cap is selectively moveable between a closed position that seals an aperture in the base, and an open position wherein the aperture is exposed to permit expelling contents of the container through the aperture. In another embodiment, the closure comprises a base having a spout and an aperture, and a cap coupled to the base for axial movement along the spout between open and closed positions. The system may further include a deodorant to mask or absorb odors.

Many devices are available for collecting, transporting and preparing specimens for examination. For example, during the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and illnesses in humans and animals, it is often necessary to collect and analyze fecal specimens. Prior fecal specimen collection devices typically include a container with a screw-type lid or other closure that requires manipulation by both hands of a user to open and close the container. Many such collection devices also include a spoon or similar implement to facilitate separating a portion of the fecal matter and placing it within the container. Some of these prior collection spoons are prone to allowing some of the collected specimen to inadvertently contact the user if the user is not careful during the handling and placement of the fecal specimen within the container.
The container usually contains a fixative to reduce the effects of delay between the collection and subsequent analysis of the fecal specimen. After collection, reagents may be added to the container to facilitate preparation of the specimen for examination. As a consequence of containing fecal matter and various chemicals mentioned above to preserve and prepare the fecal specimen, technicians and others who process the fecal specimen are often exposed to objectionable odors.
It is often necessary to transfer at least some of the contents of the container to another container or vial for further processes. During such handling, it is desired to avoid or minimize exposure of the specimen to technicians or others handling the collection device. Accordingly, closures for fecal collection devices are typically configured to seal contents placed within their containers in a leak-free manner. While they may be effective in providing leak-free seals, these prior closures are typically cumbersome for technicians to handle, often requiring both hands to manipulate the closure. Moreover, these prior closures are unwieldy to manipulate while wearing protective gloves. A need therefore exists for a fecal specimen collection and transport system that overcomes these and other drawbacks.