A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor region of a first conductivity type, a drain region of the first conductivity type, an offset region of the first conductivity type, a body region of the second conductivity type, a source region of the first conductivity type, a gate insulating film and a gate electrode. The drain region is provided in a surface of the semiconductor region and is shaped like a stripe. The offset region is provided in the surface of the semiconductor region and surrounds the drain region. The body region is provided in the surface of the semiconductor region and surrounds the offset region. The source region is provided in a surface of the body region and surrounds the offset region. The gate insulating film is provided on a part of the body region. The gate electrode is provided on the gate insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device. More particularly, the invention relates to a technique applied to a power MOS transistor having a high breakdown voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto known is a power IC comprising a semiconductor device having a high breakdown voltage and a semiconductor device having a low breakdown voltage, both provided on the same substrate. The power IC further comprises a power MOS transistor at the output stage. The power MOS transistor needs to have both a high breakdown voltage and a low on-resistance.
A conventional power MOS transistor will be described, with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A is a plan view of the MOS transistor, which is an LDMOS (Lateral Double-Diffused MOS) transistor. FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line 1B—1B shown in FIG. 1A.
As FIGS. 1A and 1B show, an n−-type epitaxial silicon layer 11 is provided in a surface of a p-type silicon substrate 10. An n+-type buried layer 12 is provided in the junction between the substrate 10 and the layer 11. Body regions 13 (p-type impurity-diffused layers), which are shaped like a strip, are provided in the surface of the epitaxial silicon layer 11. In each body region 13, a source region 14 (n+-type impurity-diffused layer) and a contact region 15 (p+-type impurity-diffused layer) are provided. A drain region 16 (n+-type impurity-diffused layer) and an offset region 17 (n−-type impurity-diffused layer) are provided in the surface of the epitaxial silicon layer 11. The drain region 16 surrounds the body region 13. The offset region 17 surrounds the drain region 16. In the epitaxial silicon layer 11, sinker layers 18 extend downwards, from the surface of the layer 11 to the buried layer 12. On the silicon layer 11 there are provided gate insulating films 19 and LOCOS (LOCal Oxidation of Silicon) insulating films 20. Each gate insulating film 19 lies on the body region 13 and is connected to the adjacent LOCOS insulating film 20, which reaches a drain region 16. Gate electrodes 21 are provided, each partly on a gate insulating film 19 and partly on the LOCOS insulating film 20 connected to the film 19. Each gate electrode 21 surrounds one body region 13. Drain electrodes 22 lie on the drain regions 16. Source electrodes 23 are provided, each on one source region 14 and one contact region 15. Thus, LDMOS transistors have been formed.
FIG. 2A is a sectional view of another conventional LDMOS transistor.
As is illustrated in FIG. 2A, a p-type well region 25 is provided in one surface of a silicon substrate 10. A source region 14 (n+-type impurity-diffused layer) and an offset region 17 (n−-type impurity-diffused layer) are provided in the surface of the well region 25 and spaced apart from each other. A contact region 15 (p+-type impurity-diffused layer) is provided in the surface of the well region 25 and contacts the source region 14. A drain region 16 (n+-type impurity-diffused layer) is provided in the surface of the offset region 17 and isolated from the well region 25. A gate insulating film 19 lies on the well region 25 and extends from the source region 14 to the offset region 17. A gate electrode 21 is provided on the gate insulating film 19. An inter-layer insulating film 26 lies on the well region 25 and covers the gate electrode 21. A gate electrode 22 and a drain electrode 23 are provided in the inter-layer insulating film 26. Thus, an LDMOS transistor has been formed.
FIG. 2B represents the impurity-concentration profile in the plane taken along line 2B—2B shown in FIG. 2A. In FIG. 2B, the impurity concentration is plotted on the ordinate, and the depth, measured from the drain region 16, is plotted on the abscissa.
As seen from FIG. 2B, the drain region 16 is about 0.12 μm deep from its upper surface. The offset region 17 is about 0.13 μm deep from the upper surface of the drain region 16. Namely, the offset region 17 is formed to a depth slightly greater than the depth to which the drain region 16 is formed, in the conventional power MOS transistor.


The principles of the present invention provide for delegating certificate validation. A client computer system sends a certificate validation request to a server computer system over a trusted link. The certificate validation request includes at least enough certificate information for a certificate authority to identify a digital certificate that binds a sending entity to a private key. The server computer system checks a validation path to determine if the digital certificate is valid and at least one certificate revocation list to determine if the certificate has been compromised. The server computer system sends a certificate status indication to the client computer system over the trusted link. Accordingly, the resources of the server computer system, instead of the client computer system, are utilized to validate a digital certificate. Further, digital certificate validation can be delegated to a server computer system that attempts to pre-validate a digital certificate.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic messaging, and more specifically, to delegating certificate validation from an end-user computer system to a trusted intermediary computer system.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Computer systems and related technology affect many aspects of society. Indeed, the computer system's ability to process information has transformed the way we live and work. Computer systems now commonly perform a host of tasks (e.g., word processing, scheduling, and database management) that prior to the advent of the computer system were performed manually. More recently, computer systems have been coupled to one another to form computer networks over which the computer systems can communicate electronically to share data. As a result, many of the tasks performed at a computer system (e.g., accessing electronic mail and web browsing) include electronic communication with one or more other computer systems (e.g., via a local area network, a wide area network, and/or the Internet). For example, the path traveled by an electronic mail message transferred from a sending entity to a receiving entity can include a number of different computer systems connected to a number of different computer networks.
An electronic mail message is typically generated by a sending entity at a sending computer system and includes electronic data that is addressed to one or more recipient entities. When the sending entity is satisfied with the content of the electronic message, the sending entity "sends" the electronic message. Sending an electronic message causes the electronic message to be transferred from the sending computer system (e.g., the sending entity's personal computer) to a sending mail server (e.g., at the sending entity's Internet Service Provider). Subsequently, the electronic mail message is further transferred from the sending mail server (e.g., over the Internet) to one or more receiving mail servers (e.g., at the recipient entities' Internet Service Providers) that correspond to the one or more recipient entities.
From time to time, a recipient entity can use a receiving computer system (e.g., the receiving entity's personal computer) to access electronic mail messages stored at a receiving mail server. A recipient entity enters credentials (e.g., electronic mail address and password) at the receiving computer system that are then transferred from the receiving computer system to the receiving mail server. When appropriate credentials are received at the receiving mail server, the receiving mail server transfers electronic messages corresponding to the recipient entity's electronic mail address to the receiving computer system. The receiving entity can then view the transferred electronic messages at the receiving computer system.
Communication links that connect computer systems involved in the transfer of electronic mail messages often exist in a web configuration (e.g., the Internet), where any one of a number of different combinations of communication links can be used for transferring an electronic mail message between two computer systems. This is beneficial as it provides some level of redundancy. That is, when one communication link fails, a number of other communication links may still provide communication between computer systems. To further facilitate efficient electronic communication between computer systems, many communication links, especially those on the Internet, are made publicly available. That is, if a computer system is able to access such a network, the computer system inherently has access to all the public communication links connected to the network. This promotes free flow of information between computer systems (and their users) without significant restraints of the type of data that can be transferred in an electronic mail message.
Due at least in part to the ease and efficiency of electronic mail, the number and diversity of entities that use electronic mail is quite large. However, the accessibility of public communication links provides a malicious user with an avenue to intercept and alter an electronic mail message as the electronic mail message is transferred between computer systems. In some cases, such as, for example, when transferring news items or other public information, the risk may be tolerable since this type of data is already public and verifiable via other mechanisms. However, in a large number of other cases, such as, for example, when sending financial or sensitive personal information, the risk of unauthorized alteration of an electronic mail message may be unacceptable. Further, there is always some risk of a malicious user impersonating (e.g., by spoofing a domain name) a sending entity to make an electronic mail message appear as if it were sent from the sending entity (when in fact the malicious user sent the electronic mail message).
Accordingly, a sending entity can attach a digital signature to an electronic mail message. A digital signature can be processed by a receiving entity to verify that the contents of an electronic mail message have not been altered and to prove the sending entity M sent the electronic mail message. Digital signatures can be created and verified using public key cryptography, which utilizes mathematically corresponding (but different) keys to create and verify digital signatures. One of the keys, commonly referred to as a "private key", is known only to the signer and is the key used to create a digital signature. The other key, common referred to as a "public key", is more widely known and can be used to verify a digital signature created from a corresponding private key. Although keys of a public/private key pair are mathematically related, it is computationally infeasible to derive a private key from a corresponding public key.
A hash function is also typically used when creating or when verifying a digital signature. A hash function is an algorithm that creates a digital representation or "fingerprint" of an electronic mail message, in the form of a hash value. A hash value is usually much smaller than the electronic mail message but nevertheless is essentially unique to the electronic mail message. Hash functions allow modules that create and verify digital signatures to operate on smaller and predictable amounts of data, while still providing evidentiary correlation to the contents of an electronic mail message.
To generate a digital signature for an electronic mail message, a sending computer system creates a sending side hash value of the electronic mail message. The sending computer system then encrypts the sending side hash value with a sending entity's private key. On the other hand, to verify a digital signature, a receiving computer system creates a receiving side hash value (using the same algorithm used by the sending computer system) of the electronic message. The receiving computer system decrypts the digital signature with the sending entity's public key. This decryption reveals the sending side hash value. When the sending side hash value and the receiving side hash value match, there is a significantly reduced chance that the electronic message was altered during transmission or that the sending entity is being impersonated.
Thus, to verify a digital signature, a receiving entity must have access to a sending entity's public key and have some assurance that it corresponds to the sending entity's private key. However, a public/private key pair has no intrinsic association to a particular entity; it is simply a pair of numbers. Accordingly, a receiving entity must also have access to some reliable information that associates an entity with a public/private key pair. In networks with many-to-many architectures, such as, for example, the Internet, where a significant number of transactions can occur through electronic mail, dissemination of this reliable information can be problematic.
Accordingly, many entities rely on trusted third parties, commonly referred to as "certificate authorities", to issue and associate an entity with a specific public key (and thus, although not divulged to potential recipient entities, also the corresponding private key). To associate an entity with a public/private key pair, a certificate authority issues a certificate, an electronic record that associates an entity with a public key. Thus, a certificate effectively binds a public/private key pair to a particular entity. A recipient of a certificate can use the public key listed in the certificate to verify that a digital signature was created with a corresponding private key (and thus also verify a sending entity). When a public key from a certificate is successfully used to verify a digital signature, a recipient entity has increased assurance that the corresponding private key was held by the entity named in the certificate.
To assure both the integrity and authenticity of a certificate, the issuing certificate authority digitally signs the certificate. The certificate can then be verified using the public key of the certificate authority, as provided in a certificate issued and signed by another certificate authority. When appropriate, the integrity and authenticity of the certificate from the other certificate authority can be verified using the public key of the other certificate authority, as provided in a certificate issued and signed by yet another certificate authority. Accordingly, to verify a digital signature, a recipient entity may verify a number of certificates in a certificate chain, until the recipient entity is satisfied as to the integrity and authenticity of the electronic mail message (e.g., when a root certificate indicates that a certificate can be trusted).
Verifying a digital signature can include verifying certificates in a hierarchical arrangement of certificate authorities (e.g., of an X.500 directory). In such an arrangement, higher level certificate authorities provide certificates that can be used to verify the certificates of lower level certificate authorities. At the top of the hierarchy can be a certificate authority (a root certificate authority) that is explicitly trusted. Accordingly, a verifying entity can "walk a chain" of certificate authorities from a lower level certificate, up a hierarchy, until the verifying entity validates a self-signed certificate (the root certificate).
When issued, a certificate typically includes a period of validity, before and after which the certificate is typically not considered valid by the issuing certificate authority. Thus, a receiving computer system can indicate to a recipient entity when a sending entity's certificate is considered not valid. Before a period of validity begins or after a period of validity expires, a verifier has decreased assurance that a corresponding private key held by the sending entity can be trusted.
Further, before expiration of a certificate, it may be that a corresponding private key is compromised or that a certificate authority decides a corresponding entity can no longer be trusted. For example, a malicious user may gain access to an entity's computer system and access (e.g., export) any private keys stored at the computer system. Thus, there is always some possibility of receiving a digital signature associated with a non-expired but compromised certificate. A malicious user could impersonate an entity using a C compromised private key corresponding to the compromised certificate. Unfortunately, based solely on information contained in a non-expired certificate, a receiving entity has no way to know if the trustworthiness of the non-expired certificate has been compromised.
Accordingly, a certificate authority may maintain a Certificate Revocation List ("CRL") that, depending on the desired configuration, includes non-expired certificates that have been revoked (or suspended) by the certificate authority. A recipient computer system can access a CRL (e.g., by downloading the CRL) for a certificate authority to determine if a certificate issued by the certificate authority has been revoked. Thus, upon receiving a digitally signed electronic mail message, a receiving computer system can check an appropriate CRL to determine if a certificate corresponding to the sending entity has been revoked.
The receiving computer system typically checks an appropriate CRL (as opposed to offloading the checking to an intermediary computer system) so as to mitigate the possibility of CRL data being intercepted and altered. Further, when a certificate issued from an intermediate certificate authority to an issuing certificate authority is compromised; all the certificates issued by the issuing certificate authority are also considered compromised. Thus, similar to validation of a certificate, a receiving entity may have to check a chain of CRLs to determine if a certificate has been compromised. That is, each CRL is signed by an issuer certificate. To check the validity of the issuer certificate, its parent issuing certificate and CRL must be also validated. This continues until a root certificate is reached that is explicitly already trusted by the receiving user.
The list of certificates revoked by a certificate authority can change, such as, for example, when additional certificates are revoked and/or revoked certificates expire. Accordingly, at a specified time interval selected by the certificate authority, the certificate authority can publish a new CRL. However, since new CRLs are published at specified time intervals (as opposed to continuous updates), there is always some chance that a revoked certificate is used after it has been revoked but before the revocation has been published in a CRL. When the specified time interval is large and/or a certificate authority manages a significant number of certificates, the chance of a revoked certificate being used before publication in a CRL increases. Further, even if a certificate authority were to publish a new CRL at the precise time each certificate is revoked, the certificate authority may have no way to control the frequency with which computer systems that use the CRL are updated.
Further, depending in part on the number of certificates issued and the security implemented by a certificate authority, a CRL can become relatively large, for example, in the hundreds of megabytes. Thus, frequently publishing a new CRL can consume a significant amount of computer system and bandwidth resources at a certificate authority. Further, checking a CRL can consume substantial computer system and bandwidth resources of a computer system attempting to validate a digital signature. During validation of a signature, the computer system checks a CRL to determine if a certificate corresponding to a sending entity has been revoked. When a CRL is relatively large, the computer system can spend a significant amount of time and resources accessing and scanning a CRL. Further, the computer system may be required to access and scan a number of CRLs corresponding to various levels of certificate authorities in a hierarchy. To alleviate this issue, newer certificate authorities may issue a smaller "delta" CRL that contains only serial numbers of certificates revoked since the last "full" CRL was issued.
However, even with smaller delta CRLs, the size of CRLs essentially prevents constrained resource devices and devices that operate in low bandwidth environments from verifying digital signatures. For example, a mobile phone or pager may altogether lack the resources needed for downloading and/or a scanning a 7 MB CRL. Further, for a computer system to validate a digital signature, the computer system must be configured with the appropriate modules and protocols (e.g., Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). When an organization includes a number of computer systems, configuration of validation modules and protocols can consume a considerable amount of time. Further, many public computer systems that provide Web based access to electronic mail, such as, for example, at public kiosks, may not include appropriate modules and protocols for validating digital signatures. Even when a public computer system does include appropriate modules and protocols, the public computer system may trust a set of incomplete root certificates or may trust certificate authorities that are otherwise unacceptable to an organization. Accordingly, a user accessing electronic mail through a public computer system may have no way to reliably validate a digital signature. Therefore more efficient systems, methods, computer program products, and data structures for validating a certificate would be advantageous.


The presently disclosed subject matter provides for methods and compositions for treating multiple myeloma. It relates to chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that specifically target B cell maturation antigen (BMCA), and immunoresponsive cells comprising such CARs. The presently disclosed BMCA-specific CARs have enhanced immune-activating properties, including anti-tumor activity.

Cell-based immunotherapy is a therapy with curative potential for the treatment of cancer. T cells and other immune cells may be modified to target tumor antigens through the introduction of genetic material coding for artificial or synthetic receptors for antigen, termed Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs), specific to selected antigens. Targeted T cell therapy using CARs has shown recent clinical success in treating hematologic malignancies.
Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common hematologic malignancy.8 Approximately 25% of patients have high-risk cytogenetics, which portends a median survival of less then 2 years.9,10 While recent strides have been made, regardless of cytogenetics, the disease is still considered incurable outside the immuno-therapeutic graft versus myeloma (GvM) effect of an allogeneic transplant. However, allogeneic transplants are limited by ineligibility and high rates of transplant-associated morbidity and mortality.11 Similar to the GvM effect, a potentially curative T cell effect may be achieved with minimal toxicity through autologous adoptive T cell therapy.
Myeloma may be an ideal disease to test adoptive T cell therapy. First, as indicated above, allogeneic transplants demonstrate that the T cell can be a curative treatment, even with minimal or no concomitant chemotherapy such as after non-myeloablative transplants or post-transplantation donor lymphocyte infusions. Second, conditioning chemotherapy, possibly through the mechanism of depleting regulatory T cells (Tregs), enhances the efficacy of adoptive T cell therapy,4,12 as such, the immediate post-autologous transplant period could be an optimal time to administer T cells, and myeloma is one of the few diseases where autologous stem cell transplantation is the standard of care. Third, the immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide may improve CAR based therapy, as has been shown in mice,13 and lenalidomide is commonly used to treat MM. Fourth, adoptive T cell therapy works best in bone marrow predominant disease such as ALL,6′7 when compared to solid tumors or extra-medullary CLL,4 and similar to ALL, myeloma is a disease of the bone marrow. While there are various reasons to expect that adoptive T cell therapy may work well in MM, expanding adoptive T cell therapy to myeloma also poses unique challenges. Unlike other B-cell malignancies, CD19 expression is seen in only 2% of myeloma patients.14 Furthermore, unlike CD19, the common extracellular immunophenotypic markers in myeloma (CD138, CD38, and CD56) are all co-expressed on other essential cell types, and we predict CARs to any of these targets would lead to unacceptable "off tumor, on target" toxicity6 which can be fatal even in targets where antibodies are well tolerated, as was the case with a HER2 targeted CAR.15 Accordingly, there are needs for novel therapeutic strategies to design CARs targeting antigens that are highly expressed in MM cells and limited expression in normal tissues for treating multiple myeloma, which strategies capable of inducing potent tumor eradication with minimal toxicity and immunogenicity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of using chimeric antigen receptors targeting B-cell maturation antigen and uses thereof


A circuit element comprises an acoustic charge transport device comprising an input, a barrier element and an output. A transistor assembly comprises a source, a gate and a drain. One of the input, output and barrier elements is operably connected with one of the source, drain and gate.

An acoustic charge transport device ("ACT device") is a semiconductor device utilizing improved surface acoustic wave principles for transporting charge in a buried channel between an input and an output. An exemplary ACT device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,285, issued to B. Hunsinger, et al for ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT DEVICE AND METHOD, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The ACT device is a high performance circuit element which is fabricated on a thick, lightly doped gallium arsenide epitaxial substrate. The ACT device suffers from large insertion loss caused by high terminal impedance which complicates the difficulty of integrating ACT devices with other signal processing components.
A field-effect transistor ("FET") is a circuit component in which the resistance of the current path between the source and the drain is modulated by applying a transverse electric field through utilization of a gate. A metal semiconductor field-effect transistor ("MESFET") is normally fabricated through ion implantation of a p-type layer having doping density and layer thickness between the thin, highly doped n-type implanted layer used for the active MESFET channel, and the thick, lightly doped n-type epitaxial layer used for charge transport in an ACT device.
As noted, the ACT device and MESFET device are customarily fabricated with differing channel thicknesses and doping densities, and integration of them into a usable circuit element therefore presents a number of complicating factors.
The disclosed invention is a circuit element comprised of an ACT device which is operably connected with a MESFET device in a manner which overcomes the high insertion loss of the ACT device, thereby permitting additional signal processing components to be configured that extend the application areas for ACT device technology. MESFET performance is improved by the design of the invention and may be integrated directly onto the thick epitaxial layer. The incorporation of a p-type well implant provides improved MESFET reproducibility, particularly when compared to conventional MESFET devices fabricated through ion implantation into semi-insulating substrates.

Integrated circuit element, methods of fabrication and utilization


To provide an embroidery data creation apparatus, an embroidery data creation program, and a recording medium that records the embroidery data creation program, which create embroidery data for embroidery that is clear and sharp even when the tint or output size of an image is changed. The number of pixels necessary to create embroidery data is determined from thread density, size of the embroidery, and copied color data. Initial angle information is created from angle data and the angle information having necessary pixel configuration is re-computed from the initial angle information. Then, line segment data is created from the re-computed angle information, color data is created from the size adjusted color data and the line segment data, and the embroidery data is created from the line segment data and the color data.

The present disclosure relates to an embroidery data creation apparatus and an embroidery data creation program recorded in a computer-readable recording medium.
Conventionally, photograph embroidery has been done wherein images of photographs taken by a digital camera or those printed from films are embroidered. In this photograph embroidery, image data of photographs taken by a digital camera or image data of photographs printed from films that is captured by a scanner is used. Then, line segment data showing a shape of stitches of a thread and color data showing a stitch color is created from the image data, and embroidery data showing stitches of each thread color is thus created. In an embroidery data creation apparatus that creates such embroidery data, line segment data showing a shape of stitches of a thread is created to bring a result of an embroidery closer to photographic images. When creating the line segment data, like that disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-259268, rather than embroidering such that all stitches have the same angle on a cloth, an embroidery data creation apparatus that is capable of stitching in various angles in all 360 degrees has been proposed. To be specific, for each pixel composing image data, a direction of stitches (angle characteristic) to be arranged on the pixel based on a relationship with surrounding pixels and strength thereof (strength of the angle characteristic) is computed. The angle characteristics and the strength of the angle characteristic are used to create the line segment data. The strength of angle characteristic is computed based on luminance of the surrounding pixels of the watched pixel, and the bigger the difference in luminance from the surrounding is, the greater the value of the strength of the angle characteristic. In addition, an embroidery data creation apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-154181 creates line segment data that assigns a thickness of one stitch (one thread) to one pixel and shows a shape of the stitch.

Embroidery data creation apparatus and embroidery data creation program recorded in computer-readable recording medium


An air bag inflator (10) comprises a vessel (12) having a chamber (30). An air bag inflation gas (32) is stored in the chamber (3). A fill passage (38) is provided in the vessel (12) for directing the air bag inflation gas (32) into the chamber (30). Blocking means (60) is provided in the fill passage (38) for blocking flow of the air bag inflation gas (32) from the chamber (30) through the fill passage. A closure (70) is welded to the vessel (12) and blocks gas flow past the closure. A detectable gas (84), different than the air bag inflation gas (30), is stored in the fill passage (38) between the blocking means (60) and the closure (70). The presence of the detectable gas in the fill passage (38) is checked to determine whether the closure (70) is properly sealed.

An inflator for inflating a vehicle occupant protection device, such as an air bag, includes a gas stored in a chamber of a vessel. The vessel has a fill passage for directing the air bag inflation gas into the chamber. A check valve is located in the fill passage to block flow of the air bag inflation gas from the chamber through the fill passage. A closure is welded to the vessel to block gas flow past the closure.

Technique for detecting a leak of air bag inflation gas from a storage chamber


An embodiment of a RF identification device is formed by a tag and by a reader. The tag is formed by a processing circuit and a first antenna, which has the function both of transmitting and of receiving data. The reader is formed by a control circuit and by a second antenna, which has the function both of transmitting and of receiving data. The processing circuit is formed by a resonance capacitor, a modulator, a rectifier circuit, a charge-pump circuit and a detection circuit. The antenna of the tag and the processing circuit are integrated in a single structure in completely monolithic form. The first antenna has terminals connected to the input of the rectifier circuit, the output of which is connected to the charge-pump circuit. The charge-pump circuit has an output connected to the detection circuit.

RF identification, known by the acronym RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification), is a technology for automatic identification of objects, animals, or persons. RFID systems are based upon remote reading/writing of information contained in a tag via RFID readers.
For a better understanding of these systems, reference may be made to FIG. 1, which shows the principle diagram of a wireless data-read system using a tag. As is shown, RFID tags 1 are formed by two main components: a first antenna 2 (which is both a receiving and a transmitting antenna) and a processing circuit 3. The manufacture of an RFID tag 1 currently available on the market typically requires two distinct manufacturing steps for providing the processing circuit 3, encapsulated in a purposely provided package, and for providing the first antenna 2. Then, the first antenna 2 is mounted on the processing circuit 3, and finally these are inserted in a containment structure designed to protect the first antenna 2 and the processing circuit 3 from the outside environment. Reading of the signal sent by the first antenna 2 of the RFID tag 1 is performed via a reader 4.
Typically the RFID tags/can operate in the HF or UHF bands. The RFID tags 1 operating in the HF band (typically at the standard frequency of 13.56 MHz) communicate with the respective reader 4 in near-field-coupling conditions, i.e., principally via magnetic coupling over very small distances, in the region of approximately ten centimeters. The antenna is in this case formed by a coil of conductor material enclosing an area equal to about ten square centimeters (FIG. 2).
FIG. 2 shows in greater detail the components of the processing circuit 3 of the RFID tag 1. The processing circuit 3 comprises, cascade-connected, a resonance capacitor 5, a modulator 6, a rectifier stage 7, a booster stage 8, and a detection circuit 9. The reader 4 comprises, instead, a second antenna 10 and a control circuit 11.
FIG. 3 shows an RFID tag 1, wherein the first antenna 2 is coupled in the UHF band with the second antenna 10 of the reader 4. Usually, this type of coupling is performed in far-field conditions so as to enable the reader 4 to detect the presence of the RFID tag 1 even at a large distance. Thus, the antennas used have linear dimensions at least on the order of centimeters.
The RFID tag 1 shown in FIG. 3 moreover has an adaptation network 12, arranged on the outside of the processing circuit 3.
In the devices of FIGS. 2 and 3, the rectifier stage 7 can be of any type, for example, of the PMOS-NMOS type with cross-connected gates shown in FIG. 4, which has been implemented in the solution proposed. In detail, the rectifier stage 7 is formed by a pair of PMOS transistors M2, M4 and a pair of NMOS transistors M1, M3, with cross-connected gates, operating as switches.
A voltage generator Vs is coupled, at input terminals A, B, to the rectifier stage 7 and supplies an input square-wave signal Vs having an amplitude such as to bring the transistors M1, M2, M3, M4 into a low-resistance "on" state (sometimes called the triode region) in the high condition of the wave and to inhibit them when the voltage is zero. In detail, during the half-period when the potential of the terminal A is positive with respect to the terminal B, M1 and M2 are on, while M3 and M4 are off. In this situation, a current Ic flows from a ground node GND through M1 to the voltage generator Vs and then through M2 to a load represented in FIG. 4 by a resistor R0 and a capacitor C0.
During the half-period when the potential of the terminal A is negative with respect to the terminal B, the transistors M3 and M4 are on, while the transistors M1 and M2 are off. In this situation, the current Ic flows from ground through the transistor M3 to the voltage generator Vs and then through the transistor M4 to the load R0, C0, and then recloses to ground. Consequently, in each of the two half-periods, the current Ic that flows in the load C0, R0 always has a same direction. The current Ic charges the capacitor C0, which functions as a battery for the circuits downstream. The rectifier stage 7 generates a d.c. voltage on the capacitor C0, given by the following equation:VDC=Vs−2Von  (1)
where Vs is the amplitude of the voltage input to the rectifier stage 7, and Von is the voltage across the drain and source of the MOS transistors M1-M4 due to the resistance of their respective channels, in a triode condition. When the current Ic increases, Von increases and VDC decreases for a given Vs and a given channel resistance. The behavior of the rectifier stage 7 in the case of an input voltage Vs of a sinusoidal type is similar to the one described above, but the d.c. voltage on the load R0, C0 as well as the electrical efficiency of the rectifier circuit 7 have a lower value, since the transistors affected (M1-M2 or M3-M4) remain on in the triode condition for a time shorter than a half-period of an input square wave at the same frequency.
Given the dimensions of the transmitting antennas 2, these often cannot be integrated in the processing circuit 3 in either of the devices shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, thus leading to a high production cost, represented by the large number of manufacturing steps, and large overall dimensions of the final device.

RF identification device with near-field-coupled antenna


A system for controlling turbocharger compressor surge includes a turbocharger compressor fluidly coupled to an engine intake manifold, an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve disposed in-line with an EGR conduit fluidly coupled between the engine intake and exhaust manifolds, means for determining a mass flow parameter, a speed sensor producing a speed signal indicative of turbocharger speed, and a control computer configured to determine a mass flow rate surge value, corresponding to a fresh air mass flow rate above which turbocharger compressor surge is avoided, as a function of the speed signal, and to limit the EGR valve position and VGT position as a function of the mass flow parameter and the mass flow rate surge value to maintain exhaust gas flow through the EGR valve at a flow rate below which turbocharger compressor surge is avoided.

Turbocharging machinery is well-known and commonly used in the internal combustion engine industry to pressurize intake air entering the engine combustion chambers and thereby increase the efficiency and power output of the engine. In general, pressurizing the intake air increases the quantity of air entering the engine cylinders during the intake stroke, and this allows more fuel to be utilized in establishing a desired air/fuel ratio. Increased available engine output torque and power thereby results.
Conventional turbochargers for internal combustion engines include a turbine disposed in the path of exhaust gas exiting the engine exhaust manifold, wherein the turbine typically includes a wheel that is rotated via the flow of exhaust gas thereby. The turbine wheel is rotatably coupled to a wheel of a compressor disposed in-line with the air intake system of the engine. Rotation of the turbine by the exhaust gas flow causes the compressor wheel to likewise rotate, wherein rotation of the compressor wheel acts to increase the flow of fresh air to, and consequently the air pressure within, the air intake system. Generally, the rotational speed of the turbocharger turbine and compressor wheels, and hence the air pressure within the air intake system, is proportional to the flow rate of exhaust gas, which is itself proportional to engine speed.
In the operation of turbochargers of the type just described, a condition known as turbocharger compressor surge is known to occur under certain engine and air handling system operation. Generally, turbocharger compressor surge occurs when the accumulated pressure in the intake manifold exceeds the ability of the compressor to sustain positive air movement. When this occurs, intake manifold air pressure decreases by an amount generally proportional to the intensity of the surge condition.
A number of engine and air handling system conditions contribute to, and define, turbocharger compressor surge including, for example, engine speed, engine fueling rate, turbocharger speed, mass flow rate of intake air, intake manifold pressure, intake manifold volume, intake manifold temperature, and the like. In engines including exhaust gas recirculation systems, another engine operating parameter that impacts and defines turbocharger compressor surge is the flow rate of exhaust gas recirculated to the intake manifold, which affects the mass flow rate of intake air and intake manifold pressure. What is therefore needed is a system for monitoring EGR flow rate, or alternatively the EGR fraction, which is the fraction of recirculated exhaust gas relative to the total air charge entering the intake manifold, and to control such EGR flow rate or EGR fraction in a manner that avoids turbocharger compressor surge.

System for controlling turbocharger compressor surge


The color of vegetables and fruits which contain carotenoids is stabilized by adding to water particles of tea, by-products of tea extraction, a spice, rice bran, tomato skins, tomato seeds and/or paprika seeds so that the particulate material is contained in the water in an amount of at least 0.5 g per liter water, and vegetables or fruits which contain carotenoids are blanched in the particulate-containing water having a temperature between 70.degree. C. and 100.degree. C. for a time for stabilizing their color, and after which, blanch water is separated from the treated vegetables and/or fruits. Further, the particulate-containing water and the fruits or vegetables may be placed in and blanched in a pouch, particularly a water-permeable pouch so that blanch water may be separated from the pouch and so that particulate material is retained in the pouch.

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of fruits and vegetables containing carotenoids.
Carotenoids are a class of pigments whose colour varies between yellow, red and orange, according to the fruit or vegetable considered and the concentration in the said fruit or vegetable. They comprise lycopene, carotenes and xanthophyll. These carotenoids are present naturally in certain food compounds, such as carrots, tomatoes and various other yellow and orange-coloured fruits. It is known that they can be degraded over time under the effect of light and oxygen as well as following treatments at high temperature.
Various methods for preserving products based on fruits and vegetables manufactured industrially have been commonly used for a long time, but use of chemical preservatives, which are poorly accepted by consumers at the present time. It also is already known to protect carotenoid-type colourings with a tea extract. Japanese Patent Document No. JP- A 62-126953 in the name of Hasegawa KK relates to a protection of carotenoids by a tea extract and a mixture of this extract with the pigments to be protected. This method is intended for the stabilization of carotenoid colourings and exhibits various disadvantages for application to food products, the first being that if an extraction of tea is carried out, only certain protective and stabilizing compounds are removed from it and a considerable part of the active ingredients are still lost during processing into a marketable product. It may therefore happen that some compounds which may be beneficial for the protection of the said carotenoids are not present. Moreover, the extraction of the tea, its mixing with the carotenoids extracted, the concentration and the drying are additional stages which increase the cost of the finished product. Finally, when the extract is mixed with the product to be protected, there will be an immediate consumption of the protective compound, such that there will be no protection over a long period.

Process to improve color stability of fruits and vegetables containing carotenoids


An appliance located states accumulating method includes the steps of, receiving state information indicating operating state changes of the appliances constituted of a distributed computer through a network, calculating an occurrence time difference from the state changes occurred in the appliances in accordance with occurrence time information indicative of occurrence times of the state changes included in the state information, and calculating the positional relation of the positions, where the appliances occur the state changes, from the calculated occurrence time difference, thereby accumulating the positional relation of the installed appliances.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of accumulating located states of appliances in a distributed computer system in which a plurality of appliances are mutually connected through a network and to an apparatus using such a method. More particularly, the invention relates to household appliances and facility appliances which are connected to a home network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the number of kinds and the number of appliances connected to a home network system have been increased. There are cases where the appliances are installed at positions where the resident (user) is not aware of, the user himself directly connects the appliances to the network, and the like. It is becoming difficult to grasp which kinds of appliances are installed at which places. If the installing positions are found, for example, in the case where a sensor fails, it is possible to rapidly and easily find a place of the failed sensor among a number of sensors installed in a house. If the appliances can be classified every room from the installing positions, for instance, it is possible to utilize the system for an energy saving control such that the presence or absence of a person is detected by a human body sensor and a set temperature of an air conditioner which is performing the cooling operation is raised or illumination is turned off in a room where there is no person.
Hitherto, in the home network system, since only the limited appliances are connected to the network and the number, the kinds, and the installing places of the connected appliances are known upon construction, which appliances have been installed at which places in the house can be easily grasped without an aid of a computer system technique. In recent years, however, as the number of appliances installed in the house increases gradually, a technique for managing the installing positions is necessary. With such a background, how to set the installing positions of the appliances, such as on which floor, at which places, and in which room in the house they are set, is important. The following methods are used as methods of setting them by a computer system.    (1) In the home network system, installing positions information of the appliances which are installed in the house is set into each appliance by the construction trader or the user or set into an appliance for concentratedly managing those information. As setting methods, there are a method of setting them in a hardware manner like a dip switch, a method of setting them into software, and the like. However, according to all of those methods, they have to be manually set each time.    (2) In a radio network which is used in the home network system, for example, communication among the appliances is made via an access point which is installed every room and communication between the appliances located in the different rooms is made via a plurality of access points. Therefore, by examining via which access point the appliance is communicating, the installing position can be easily judged, regarding that the installing position of each appliance has been set in the same room as that of the access point.    (3) The method of calculating a distance between the appliances from a time difference that is caused until a response is made after a transmission message is transmitted has been disclosed in JP-A-5-48623.
However, according to the technique described in the above method (1), it is very troublesome for the user to execute the setting by himself. That is, it is needless to say that it is troublesome to set the installing position into each appliance. With respect to the technique described in the above method (2), as a medium of the network which is used in the home network system, it is not limited to a radio wave but an indoor wire, infrared rays, a telephone line, a twisted pair line, or the like is often used. There is, further, a case of forming one system by combining those plurality of media. It is insufficient according to the installing position obtaining method of appliances mainly using access points of the radio network. Even if appliances connected to different media exist, respectively, in the same room, it is difficult to recognize them. According to the example of the above method (3), although a length of transmission path of a physical network can be recognized, since it is not a physical straight line distance between the appliances, even if the transmission path length is known, it is difficult to discriminate an actual positional relation of the appliances. For example, in a detached house in which the appliances are connected by the indoor wire network, in most of the cases, the appliances in a plurality of rooms are connected by a single indoor wire in most of the cases. Even if the above technique is used, the room where the appliances have been installed cannot be discriminated on a room unit basis. According to such a technique, a network construction by a single transmission medium is considered as a prerequisite, and it cannot be used in a network construction environment comprising a plurality of transmission media.
That is, there is a problem such that it is difficult to automatically discriminate the installing positions of each appliance and obtain the position information irrespective of the network construction.
It is more difficult to discriminate the installing positions of each appliance by a remote control via the wide area network.

Method of accumulating appliance located states and apparatus using the same


Wireless microphones are used in a plurality of applications, such as concerts, discussions, theater performances, operas, etc. The wireless microphones are normally connected to a transmitter which transmits the audio signals captured by the microphone to a base station via a transmitting frequency. The invention relates to a microphone system (1) having a base station (3) and having a microphone module (2) wherein the base station (3) is designed to wirelessly receive audio information and/or test information transmitted from the microphone module (2) on an operating frequency, wherein the base station (3) has a receiving analysis module (14) and/or is coupled thereto, which is designed to analyze the reception quality of the audio information and/or the test information on a plurality of possible transmitting frequencies, wherein the receiving analysis module (4) is designed to select the operating frequency from the plurality of possible transmitting frequencies.

The invention relates to a microphone system having a base station and having a microphone module, wherein the base station is designed to receive audio information and/or test information, transmitted on an operating frequency, wirelessly from the microphone module, wherein the base station has a reception analysis module and/or is coupled to the latter which is designed for analyzing the quality of reception of the audio information and/or of the test information at a number of possible transmitting frequencies. The invention also relates to a method for selecting an operating frequency for such a microphone system and a computer program.
Wireless microphones are used in a plurality of applications such as concerts, discussions, theater performances, operas etc. The wireless microphones are usually connected to a transmitter which transmits the audio signals captured by the microphone to a base station via a transmitting frequency. Starting from the base station, the audio signals are then forwarded to recording devices, amplifiers etc. In the case of larger events, it is quite normal that a multiplicity of such wireless microphones are used. Considering, for example, a concert, more than 40 or 50 wireless microphones are often used in parallel operation. Due to this parallel operation, the necessity arises to match the transmitting frequencies of the individual wireless microphones to one another in such a manner that a separate channel is allocated to each wireless microphone. The installation of the wireless microphones is thus involved and complicated.
In printed document DE 10035824 A1 which may well form the nearest prior art, a system for controlling mobile transmitting and/or receiving devices connected wirelessly to a central processing unit is described. The central processing unit and the transmitting and/or receiving devices are connected via means for bidirectional communication providing for a simple configuration of the transmitting and/or receiving devices. By means of the system, a higher-level administration, selection and control of the operating parameters of the wireless transmission links is possible.

Microphone system and method for selecting an operating frequency for a or said microphone system and computer program


A cooling system (11) is provided for electrical components (10, 90) in which passageways (21) are inserted in non-magnetic cores of the electrical components, and in which the passageways (21) provide both inflow and outflow of a cooling medium. The passageways (21) can be formed by drilling holes in a core of an electrical component or by mounting closed-end tubes (16–19) on a base plate-cooling manifold (20) or can be part of a conduit assembly (70). The tubes (16–19, 71) are split-flow closed-end tubes inserted from one end of the electrical component (10, 90). The tubes and passageways (16–19, 21, 71) may be partitioned into two halves or into two concentric portions. O-ring seals (28) are provided around the base of the tubes to seal the areas where the passageways communicate with hollow portions of base plates for supplying the cooling medium.

Recent developments in hybrid vehicles and defense applications have increased the demand for cooling systems for electrical control equipment and components.
The cooling of electrical components lowers their temperature of operation and increases their electrical efficiency and power output per unit size. Electrical resistance, for example, increases with heating and causes the equipment to be less efficient. The size and weight of electrical components can be reduced for a given power rating, provided that operating temperatures are kept within a certain range of ambient temperature by the use of cooling systems.
It is typical to mount electrical controls in enclosures. Cooling of the electrical equipment is also beneficial in that removes heat from such enclosures and in some cases allows for sealed enclosures.
One category of electrical components includes inductors which are electromagnetic devices having an electromagnetic core, often made of ferromagnetic metal, and coils with many turns of electrical wire. These include transformers, choke coil assemblies and many other devices using such electromagnetic components. Other components, such as capacitors, can also be cooled.
In the prior art, many solutions to cooling such devices have included air cooling with radiating fins attached to the components. Traditional, air-cooled inductors are volumetrically inefficient. Large surface areas are required to reject the heat. The large size of these components has significant weight. Sealed boxes containing inductors of considerable size cannot be adequately air-cooled.
In liquid cooled devices, several approaches have been used. Sometimes tubes have been wrapped around the cores with the wiring for the coils. In some cases, the coils have been immersed in liquids within their enclosures.
When conventional plumbing is added to a choke coil assembly, the plumbing must be assembled after winding the choke coils, pressure tested and then returned to the choke coil manufacturing area to be impregnated with resin.
It is an object of the invention to provide a cooling system that can be separately manufactured, tested and then easily assembled to the choke coil or other electrical component.

Cooling of electrical components with split-flow closed-end devices


An inductive detection type rotary encoder comprises: a stator; and a rotor that is engaged with a rotation shaft to rotate along with the rotation shaft and faces the stator in an axial direction. The stator comprises at least two transmission windings and reception windings that are disposed from an inner peripheral side to an outer peripheral side, and the rotor comprises at least two magnetic flux coupling bodies that are respectively magnetic flux coupled with these at least two transmission windings and reception windings to configure angle detection tracks. Furthermore, inner peripheral side reception windings and outer peripheral side reception windings are connected in series, and are led out by lead-out wirings commonly used in the inner peripheral side reception windings and the outer peripheral side reception windings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary encoder that detects a change in a physical quantity accompanying rotation of a rotor with respect to a stator and measures a rotation angle of an object based on that change.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inductive detection type rotary encoder comprises: a stator having disposed therein a transmission winding and a reception winding; and a rotor having disposed therein a magnetic flux coupling winding that is magnetic flux coupled with the transmission winding and reception winding (for example, JP 2011-085504 A). In the rotary encoder, it is required that a pitch of the reception winding be further refined, due to a request for miniaturization of a micrometer, or the like, in which the rotary encoder is mounted, and due to a request for increased accuracy.
When configuring a rotary encoder of absolute position detection type, at least two reception windings are required. The reception winding includes a plurality of wirings that detect signals of different phases. Therefore, when the number of reception windings increases, a wiring pattern becomes proportionately more complex and, furthermore, a circuit scale ends up increasing.


A third-order nonlinear optical material having a metal oxide contained in a transparent polymer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a third-order nonlinear optical material excelling in third-order nonlinear optical properties characterized in terms of conversion of wavelength, phenomenon of optical bistability, and generation of phase-conjugated wavefront, and to a method for the production thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the feasibility of utilizing a second-order nonlinear optical material for such optical devices as, for example, wavelength-converting elements has been under study. Such inorganic crystals as potassium dihydrogen phosphate and lithium niobate have been heretofore used as a second-order nonlinear optical material. Since these substances are used more often than not in the form of single crystals, they are deficient in processability and consequently are not easily fabricated into elements.
The feasibility of using a third-order nonlinear optical material for such optical devices as extremely high-speed optical switches, optical bistable elements, phase-correcting elements, and wavelength-converting elements is being studied. As concerns third-order nonlinear optical materials using fine metal particles such as of gold and silver, semiconducting nonoxide fine particles such as of CdS, and organic compounds exhibiting a third-order nonlinear optical effect, development of materials which satisfy such high qualities as, for example, (1) high third-order nonlinear susceptibility, (2) high transparency (small absorption) in the operating wavelength range, and (3) high response speed has been under way. The term "response speed" used herein refers to a time required for one operation in the repeated operations with the above optical device. Therefore, the smaller the response speed is, the larger the number of operations per one second can be performed. Since the time until the generated effect is vanished completely (or to such a extent as that the influence by the accumulation of effects can be neglected) is generally longer than that until the effect is manifested, the development for the latter material having a short relaxation time must be important.
As conventional technical achievements in this field, a glass having fine gold particles dispersed therein by the technique of fusion disclosed in Applied Physics A, Vol. 47, p.347 (1988) and a glass having fine gold particles dispersed therein by the technique of ion implantation disclosed in Material Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 283, p.903 (1993) may be cited. When the technique of fusion is adopted, it is at a disadvantage in limiting the species of metals usable therein by reason of fusibility and also limiting the solubility of a selected metal in glass. Since the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the relevant material are in direct proportion to the concentration of a metal contained in glass, the limitation of the solubility implies the limitation of the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the material. Even when the technique of ion implantation which allows an addition to the concentration of metal is adopted, it is still difficult to enable the glass to contain a metal at a ratio of not less than approximately 6.3 atomic percentage. As stated in Material Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 283, p.903 (1993), the glass having fine gold particles dispersed therein is observed to contain a slow relaxation component in third-order nonlinear optical effects. According to M. J. Bloemer et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 7, p.790 (1990), this phenomenon is interpreted as arising from the slow relaxation of lattice vibration of fine gold particles. Further, this technique does not deserve to be called a perfect process because it requires heat-treatment for enabling a metal ion dispersed in glass to be precipitated as the fine metal particle and consequently complicates the process.
As mentioned above, in the case of glass having fine gold particles dispersed therein as a conductive material, it is difficult to increase the concentration of the metal and consequently the heat-treatment at an elevated temperature is needed. As stated in Applied Physics Letter, Vol. 64, No. 25, p.20 (1994), there is a problem in disorder of interface because of difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between glass matrix and fine gold particle.
In J. Opt. Soc. Am., 73, p.647 (1983), it has been proposed to use a cutoff filter having fine particles of CdS.sub.x Se.sub.1-x dispersed in borosilicate glass as a third-order nonlinear optical thin film. This cutoff filter glass is manufactured by placing the raw materials for borosilicate glass and CdS.sub.x Se.sub.1-x in a platinum crucible and fusing them at a temperature of about 1000.degree. C. This manufacture, however, entails the problem that a part of semiconductor components is vaporized with variation of composition during the course of the fusion. Further, as stated in Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 4 (1993), pp.59-61, the fine semiconducting particles such as of CdS are subjected to degradation of the third-order nonlinear optical effect and induction of the phenomenon of blackening and have dubious stability as evinced by precipitation of sulfur due to oxidative decomposition. Further, the filter glass warrants no perfect safety because it contains cadmium, a substance harmful to a human body, and the process used for the production thereof hardly deserves to be called satisfactory in terms of processability because it requires the raw materials to be fused at an elevated temperature.
On the other hand, techniques which comprise dispersing fine CdS particles in a polymer in order to avoid harmful effects generated by the heat-treatment at an elevated temperature have been disclosed in JP-A-04-189801 and JP-A-05-184913. In these publications, techniques which comprise forming CdS by the light irradiation to obtain CdS particles having its surface coated with a polymer, and forming the particles into a film have been disclosed.
These publications, however, have defects in that the stability of these fine particles is degraded with the elapse of time because of easy oxidative decomposition of CdS itself.
In the dispersions of these fine particles, the conducting particles of gold or the semiconducting particles of CdS which are dispersed in an insulating medium can be expected to manifest prominent third-order nonlinear optical properties, ultraradiation of excitons, and specificity of crystal interface reaction by the fact that electrons and positive holes, or excitons are confined three-dimensionally. In order to ensure thorough derivation of this quantum size effect, the fine particles dispersed are required to possess a size small enough to manifest the quantum size effect, i.e., a size of not more than 500 nm, preferably not more than 100 nm, exhibit a narrow particle diameter distribution, and assume the best possible state of dispersion.
Further, Nature, Vol. 374, No. 6523, pp.625-627 discloses that an oxide thin film which is formed by the thermal decomposition of alkyl carboxylate of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, and Ni can manifest large third-order nonlinear optical effects.
As stated in JP-A-07-284516, a thin film formed of an oxide of a transition metal selected from the group consisting of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu and containing an additive component selected from the group consisting of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, ZnO, and ZrO.sub.2 has been proposed. The manufacture of this thin film can hardly be called easy because it necessitates a heat treatment at an elevated temperature in spite of the addition of A1.sub.2 O.sub.3, ZnO, or ZrO.sub.2. Further, the additive component is only effective in improving the thin film instructural stability and mechanical strength and is not particularly effective in enhancing the third-order nonlinear optical property of the thin film.
Polymer, Vol. 34, No. 6 (1993), pp.1174-1178 discloses such data as the structures and the characteristics (such as third-order nonlinear susceptibility coefficient) of a poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV)/silica composite and a PPV/V.sub.2 O.sub.5 composite. The section "INTRODUCTION" of the literature has a mention to the effect that when the PPV, a substance which inherently manifests a third-order nonlinear optical effect, incorporates silica or V.sub.2 O.sub.5 therein, it enjoys an improvement in the third-order nonlinear optical effect thereof. It, however, has absolutely no mention of the fact that silica or V.sub.2 O.sub.5 itself manifests a third-order nonlinear optical effect. Further, the PPV itself is deficient in manufacture of a film because it is insoluble and infusible. PPV, therefore, must be obtained by previously forming a film using a water-soluble sulfonate thereof as the precursor and thermally decomposing the film.
This invention aims to solve the problems of processability attendant on the conventional techniques and also improve the speed of relaxation. To be specific, it aims to provide a material which excels in processability and has a higher relaxation speed as compared with the conventional material by introducing an oxide of a transition metal into a transparent polymer.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide a novel third-order nonlinear optical material and a method for the production thereof.
A further object of this invention is to provide a third-order nonlinear optical material satisfying the requirements, i.e. (1) large third-order nonlinear susceptibility; (2) high transparency (small absorption) in the operating wavelength range; and (3) high relaxation speed, and being excellent in weatherability to withstand the deterioration with the elapse of time such as due to the decomposition through oxidation, heat resistance to withstand the thermal deterioration such as the alteration of composition, chemical and thermal stability (lightfastness) to withstand the laser beam, safety to a human body, and processability manifested during the course of manufacture.
Another object of this invention is to provide a third-order nonlinear optical material which is capable of fully manifesting a quantum size effect.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a third-order nonlinear optical material which abounds in species of substances usable (or fit for arbitrary selection) for raw material components, prevents restrictions on manufacture from affecting the properties of raw materials, and enjoys high relaxation speed.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a method for the production of a third-order nonlinear optical material which satisfies the objects mentioned above and requires no complicate treatment or process, avoids necessity of such a heat treatment as by heating at an elevated temperature or fusion, and excels in processability.

Third-order nonlinear optical material and method for production thereof


An integrated circuit (IC) that includes content addressable memories (CAM) is described. A CAM receives a key and searches through entries stored in the CAM for one or more entries that match the key. If a matching entry is found, the IC returns a storage address indicating a memory location at which the matching was found.

Unlike standard computer memory (random access memory or RAM) in which the user supplies a memory address and the RAM returns the data word stored at that address, a content addressable memory (CAM) is designed such that the user supplies a data word and the CAM searches its entire memory to see if that data word is stored anywhere in it. If the data word is found, the CAM returns a list of one or more storage addresses where the word was found.
Because a CAM is designed to search its entire memory in a single operation, it is much faster than RAM in virtually all search applications. However, there are cost disadvantages to CAM. Unlike a RAM chip, which has simple storage cells, each individual memory bit in a fully parallel CAM must have its own associated comparison circuit to detect a match between the stored bit and the input bit. Additionally, match outputs from each cell in the data word must be combined to yield a complete data word match signal. The additional circuitry increases the physical size of the CAM chip which increases manufacturing cost. The extra circuitry also increases power dissipation since every comparison circuit is active on every clock cycle. Consequently, CAMs are only used in specialized applications where searching speed cannot be accomplished using a less costly method.
Despite the cost disadvantages associated with CAMs, attempts have been made to integrate CAM functionality within general purpose programmable logic devices. However, previous such attempts have not been commercially successful. One reason this is so is because usage of CAMs varies widely in the width of the comparison field. Different CAM applications can require widths from 16 bits up to 360 bits. Memories and hence hard CAMs offered by these FPGAs have very limited variation in width, usually only up to 36 bits wide. This limitation is at odds with a FPGA's goal of handling a wide variety of applications, such as supporting exact and associative look-ups with a very wide variety of widths.
A real-time reconfigurable device reconfigures to execute each portion of a design in an automatically defined sequence of steps. Such a programmable device can reconfigure on the fly at multi-GHz rates to support higher density memories and routing resources. There is therefore a need for integrating CAM functionalities into a real-time reconfigurable device such that the speed advantages of CAM functionality can be realized at minimal additional cost. There is also a need for such a real-time reconfigurable device to support a wide range of applications, including exact and associative look-ups at a very wide variety of widths.

Content addressable memory in integrated circuit


Oligomeric compounds including oligoribonucleotides and oligoribonucleosides are provided that have subsequences of 2-pentoribofuranosyl nucleosides that activate dsRNase. The oligoribonucleotides and oligoribonucleosides can include substituent groups for increasing binding affinity to complementary nucleic acid strand as well as substituent groups for increasing nuclease resistance. The oligomeric compounds are useful for diagnostics and other research purposes, for modulating the expression of a protein in organisms, and for the diagnosis, detection and treatment of other conditions susceptible to oligonucleotide therapeutics.

Oligonucleotides are known to hybridize to single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules. Hybridization is the sequence-specific base pair hydrogen bonding of nucleobases of the oligonucleotides to nucleobases of target DNA or RNA. Such nucleobase pairs are said to be complementary to one another.
The complementarity of oligonucleotides has been used for inhibition of a number of cellular targets. Such complementary oligonucleotides are commonly described as being antisense oligonucleotides. Various reviews describing the results of these studies have been published including Progress In Antisense Oligonucleotide Therapeutics, Crooke, S. T. and Bennett, C. F., Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 1996, 36, 107-129. These oligonucleotides have proven to be very powerful research tools and diagnostic agents. Further, certain oligonucleotides that have been shown to be efficacious are currently in human clinical trials.
To date most oligonucleotides studied have been oligodeoxynucleotides. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides are believed to cause a reduction in target RNA levels principally through the action of RNase H, an endonuclease that cleaves the RNA strand of DNA:RNA duplexes. This enzyme, thought to play a role in DNA replication, has been shown to be capable of cleaving the RNA component of the DNA:RNA duplexes in cell free systems as well as in Xenopus oocytes. Rnase H is very sensitive to structural alterations in antisense oligonucleotides. This sensitivity is such that prior attempts to increase the potency of oligonucleotides by increasing affinity, stability, lipophilicity and other characteristics by chemical modifications of the oligonucleotide have often resulted in oligonucleotides that are no longer substrates for Rnase H. In addition, Rnase H activity is quite variable. Thus a given disease state may not be a candidate for antisense therapy only because the target tissue has insufficient Rnase H activity. Therefore it is clear that effective terminating mechanisms in addition to Rnase H are of great value to the development of therapeutic and other agents.
Several publications describe the interaction of Rnase H and oligonucleotides. A recently publication is: Crooke, et. al., Biochem. J., 1995, 312, 599-608. Other earlier papers are: (1) Dagle et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 1990, 18, 4751; (2) Dagle et al., Antisense Research And Development, 1991, 1, 11; (3) Eder et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1991, 266, 6472; and (4) Dagle et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 1991, 19, 1805. According to these publications, DNA oligonucleotides having both unmodified phosphodiester internucleoside linkages and modified phosphorothioate internucleoside linkages are substrates for cellular RNase H. Since they are substrates, they activate the cleavage of target RNA by RNase H. However, these authors further noted that in Xenopus embryos, both phosphodiester linkages and phosphorothioate linkages are also subject to exonuclease degradation. Nuclease degradation is detrimental since it rapidly depletes the oligonucleotide.
As described in references (1), (2) and (4), to stabilize oligonucleotides against nuclease degradation while still providing for RNase H activation, 2'-deoxy oligonucleotides having a short section of phosphodiester linked nucleosides positioned between sections of phosphoramidate, alkyl phosphonate or phosphotriester linkages were constructed. While the phosphoramidate-containing oligonucleotides were stabilized against exonucleases, in reference (4) the authors noted that each phosphoramidate linkage resulted in a loss of 1.6.degree. C. in the measured T.sub.m value of the phosphoramidate-containing oligonucleotides. Such a decrease in the T.sub.m value is indicative of a decrease in hybridization between the oligonucleotide and its target strand.
Other authors have commented on the effect such a loss of hybridization between an oligonucleotide and its target strand can have. Saison-Behmoaras et al. (EMBO Journal, 1991, 10, 1111) observed that even though an oligonucleotide could be a substrate for Rnase H, cleavage efficiency by Rnase H was low because of weak hybridization to the MRNA. The authors also noted that the inclusion of an acridine substitution at the 3' end of the oligonucleotide protected the oligonucleotide from exonucleases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,830, issued May 7, 1991, discloses mixed oligomers comprising an RNA oligomer, or a derivative thereof, conjugated to a DNA oligomer via a phosphodiester linkage. The RNA oligomers also bear 2'-O-alkyl substituents. However, being phosphodiesters, the oligomers are susceptible to nuclease cleavage.
European Patent application 339,842, published Nov. 2, 1989, discloses 2'-O-substituted phosphorothioate oligonucleotides, including 2'-O-methylribooligonucleotide phosphorothioate derivatives. The above-mentioned application also discloses 2'-O-methyl phosphodiester oligonucleotides which lack nuclease resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,797, issued Sep. 22, 1992, discloses mixed phosphate backbone oligonucleotides which include an internal portion of deoxynucleotides linked by phosphodiester linkages, and flanked on each side by a portion of modified DNA or RNA sequences. The flanking sequences include methyl phosphonate, phosphoromorpholidate, phosphoropiperazidate or phosphoramidate linkages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,775, issued Oct. 26, 1993, describes mixed oligonucleotides that incorporate phosphoramidate linkages and phosphorothioate or phosphorodithioate linkages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,711, issued Apr. 4, 1995, describes RNA:DNA probes targeted to DNA. The probes are labeled and are used in a system that includes RNase H. The RNase H enzyme cleaves those probes that bind to DNA targets. The probes can include modified phosphate groups. Mentioned are phosphotriester, hydrogen phosphonates, alkyl or aryl phosphonates, alkyl or aryl phosphoramidates, phosphorothioates or phosphoroselenates.
In contrast to the pharmacological inhibition of gene expression via the RNase H enzyme, it is becoming clear that organisms from bacteria to humans use endogenous antisense RNA transcripts to alter the stability of some target MRNAS and regulate gene expression, see Nellen, W., and Lichtenstein, C., Curr.Opin.Cell.Biol., 1993, 18, 419-424 and Nellen, W., et al, Biochem. Soc.Trans. 1992, 20, 750-754. Perhaps one of the best examples comes from certain bacteria where an antisense RNA regulates the expression of mok MRNA, which is required for the translation of the cytotoxic hok protein. Thus as the antisense level drops, mok mRNA levels and consequently hok protein levels rise and the cells die, see Gerdes, K. et al., J.Mol.Biol., 1992, 226, 637-649. Other systems regulated by such mechanisms in bacteria include the RNA I-RNA II hybrid of the ColE1 plasmid, see Haeuptle, M. T., Frank, R., and Dobberstein, B., Nucleic Acids Res. 1986, 14, 1427, Knecht, D., Cell Motil.Cytoskel., 1989, 14, 92-102; and Maniak, M., and Nellen, W., Nucleic Acids Res., 1990, 18, 5375-5380; OOP-cII RNA regulation in bacteriophage Lambda, see Krinke, L., and Wulff, D. L. (1990) Genes Dev., 1990, 4, 2223-2233; and the copA-copT hybrids in E.coli. See Blomberg, P., Wagner, E. G., and Nordstrom, K., EMBO J. , 1990, 9, 2331-2340. In E.coli the RNA:RNA duplexes formed have been shown to be substrates for regulated degradation by the endoribonuclease RNase III. Duplex dependent degradation has also been observed in the archaebacterium, Halobacterium salinarium, where the antisense transcript reduces expression of the early (T1) transcript of the phage gene phiH, see Stolt, P., and Zillig, W., Mol. Microbiol., 1993, 7, 875-882. In several eukaryotic organisms endogenous antisense transcripts have also been observed. These include p53, see Khochbin and Lawrence, EMBO, 1989, 8, 4107-4114; basic fibroblast growth factor, see Volk et al, EMBO, 1989, 8, 69, 2983-2988; N-myc, see Krystal, G. W., Armstrong, B. C., and Battey, J. F., Mol. Cell. Biol., 1990, 10, 4180-4191; eIF-2.alpha., see Noguchi et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1994, 269, 29161-29167. The conservation of endogenously expressed antisense transcripts across evolutionary lines suggests that their biological roles and molecular mechanisms of action may be similar.
In bacteria, RNase III is the double stranded endoribonuclease (dsRNase) activity responsible for the degradation of some antisense:sense RNA duplexes. RNase III carries out site-specific cleavage of dsRNA-containing structures, see Saito, H. and Richardson, C. C., Cell, 1981, 27, 533-540. The RNase III also plays an important role in mRNA processing and in the processing of rRNA precursors into 16S, 23S and 5S ribosomal RNAs, see Dunn, J. J. and Studier, F. W. J. Mol. Biol., 1975, 99, 487. In eukaryotes, a yeast gene (RNT1) has recently been cloned that codes for a protein that has homology to E.coli RNase III and shows dsRNase activity in ribosomal RNA processing, see Elela, S. A., Igel, H. and Ares, M. Cell, 1996, 85, 115-124. Avian cells treated with interferon produce and secrete a soluble nuclease capable of degrading dsRNA, see Meegan, J. and Marcus, P. I., Science, 1989, 244, 1089-1091. However such a secreted dsRNA activity is not a likely candidate to be involved in cytoplasmic degradation of antisense:sense RNA duplexes. Despite these findings almost nothing is known about human or mammalian dsRNAse activities. While it has been recognized that regulation (via any mechanism) of a target RNA strand would be useful, to date only two mechanisms for eliciting such an effect are known. These are hybridization arrest and use of an oligodeoxynucleotide to effect RNase H cleavage of the RNA target. Accordingly, there remains a continuing long-felt need for methods and compounds for regulation of target RNA. Such regulation of target RNA would be useful for therapeutic purposes both in vivo and ex vivo and, as well as, for diagnostic reagents and as research reagents including reagents for the study of both cellular and in vitro events.


An electroencephalography (EEG) headset can include an arrangement of straps that provides the ability to adjust the size and shape of the headset once disposed on a user's head. In some implementations, the headset can include a first elastic strap extending from a first side of the headset to a second side of the headset along a topside of the headset. The headset can also include a second strap including at least one inelastic portion and at least one elastic portion, at least one EEG electrode coupled to the second strap, a third elastic strap extending from the first side of the headset to the second side of the headset along an underside of the headset, and a plurality of connectors that couple the elastic first strap, the second strap, or the third elastic strap.

Electroencephalography is an electrophysiological monitoring method to record electrical activity of the brain. Electrical activity can be monitored using a headset that is positioned on a user's head so that electrodes are placed along the scalp. The electrodes measure voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current within the neurons of the brain.


Embodiments of particle protection headwear apparatuses and use thereof are detailed herein. In general, embodiments of the present invention include a shield and a shroud which couple to, or are partially or wholly integral with, a hat. The shield extends downwardly from the hat and is typically embodied as part of the hat. Further, the shield is designed for a user to be able to look through it. The shroud is coupled to and extends downwardly from the shield and the hat. The shroud extends entirely around a perimeter of the hat to form a breathable barrier between particles and the user's head. The shroud may be removeable from the shield and washable.

The present invention relates to personal protective equipment (PPE), and more particularly to a virus protection headwear apparatus. Whenever used herein, virus may also be understood to apply to bacteria or any other potentially infectious or injurious particles that may be inhaled, or that may be introduced by a hand touching eyes, nose, or mouth.
Transmission of viral and bacterial infection in high exposure environments is a problem for which a solution is desperately needed. Current face masks and face shields leave gaps to allow virus-sized airborne particles in and out around the sides of the face mask. Face masks do not protect eyes from airborne particles. Face masks do not offer meaningful barrier to finger rubbing of eyes, nose, and mouth, and indeed may actually increase finger-touching to the face to constantly adjust the uncomfortable placement of the face mask. Face masks also exacerbate penetration of virus with significant negative air pressure (breathing in effectively "sucks" or pulls particles on the front of the face mask or in the air near the mask directly through the mask fabric) and positive air pressure (breathing or coughing or sneezing out that forcefully propels particles through the mask fabric).
Put more simply, face masks positioned directly over mouths force the wearer to suck virus in through the fabric by inhalation or expel it out forcefully by exhaling or coughing or sneezing. Clear face shields alone block little or no air flow—and therefore virus-sized particles—to mouth and nose, and also still allow fingers to rub eyes and nose and mouth under and around the shield. Also, face masks are nasty and unpleasant (they accumulate mucus and spit and moisture), are uncomfortable and even painful (they often hurt the ears) to wear over long periods, may actually impair breathing for some individuals, and are very, very easy to pull down and defeat, even subconsciously. Therefore, compliance levels for face masks are sub-optimal.
As can be seen, there is a need for a solution to one or more of these problems.


Offset cancelling circuitry for cancelling offsets among the reference levels of a plurality of video signals each being associated with a particular color. The video signals are each applied to a particular differential amplifier. A multiplexer and a sample and hold circuit multiplex the video signals so as to output the video signal through a single circuit. An analog-to-digital converter converts the multiplexed video signals to corresponding digital data. The color-by-color digital data are each averaged and the resulting mean values are used as correction data. Alternatively, the digital data from the analog-to-digital converter may be transformed to analog data and then fed back to the differential amplifiers as detected and integrated correction data. Further, the multiplexed video signals may be clamped by a clamp buffer circuit and fed back to the differential amplifiers. As a result, offsets among the video signals are cancelled via the sample and hold circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to offset cancelling circuitry for correcting deviations, or offsets, in reference level among a plurality of video signals each being associated with a particular color and, more particularly, to offset cancelling circuitry advantageously applicable to a digital electronic still camera or similar video equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital electronic still camera or similar video equipment capable of converting an image to electric signals by, for example, solid state image sensors and storing them in a memory card is a recent achievement in the imaging art. The video signals to be applied from the image sensors to processing circuitry may be implemented as analog red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color signals each being derived from a particular color filter provided on an image pick-up cell array. The R, G and B signals are dot sequentially inputted to respective channels of the processing circuitry, subjected to level adjustment and other various kinds of signal processing including clamping, and then transformed to digital data by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Since circuitry with a highly accurate ADC is expensive, it has been customary to sequentially convert the color signals to digital data by a single line having a multiplexer and an ADC. The digital data are subjected to various kinds of digital processing including gamma correction and then written into a memory card. The gamma correction corrects a difference between the input characteristic of an image input system and the display characteristic of a cathode ray tube or similar display device, as well known in the art. The gamma correction is executed by the equipment which shoots a scene. A gamma curve representative of a correction characteristic is such that the amplification factor or gamma gain is high in a range where the input signal of the equipment is low, i.e., in a low luminance range.
However, the problem with the conventional circuitry built in digital electronic still camera is that there occurs deviations or offsets between the reference level and the R, G and B signals due to irregularities among the elements constituting the R, G and B channels of the circuitry. Then, the R, G and B signals sharing a single multiplexer and a single ADC are digitized by the ADC without having their offsets in reference level corrected and then the digitized signals undergo gamma correction. As a result, the offsets among the color signals are also amplified and superposed on the expected color signals as undesirable color deviation data. The color deviation data is especially serious when it involves data lying in a comparatively low luminance range where the gamma gain is high. As a result, an image with a low luminance cannot be accurately reproduced in respect of colors. To eliminate this problem, offset adjustment is effected channel by channel such that the R, G and B signals match one another with respect to the reference level. However, the conventional offset adjustment should be extremely accurate and should not change over a long period of time. Moreover, such offset adjustment is done by hand.

Circuitry for cancelling offsets of multiplexed color video signals


This application provides a data transmission method and apparatus. The method includes: determining a first sending rate based on a network performance objective of first data and a network status of a first transmission control protocol (TCP) connection of a transport layer protocol, where the first TCP connection is used to send the first data; and sending the first data based on the first sending rate. In this way, network congestion control is more flexible, and TCP-based data transmission efficiency is improved.

An increasing quantity of Internet users is accompanied with increasingly serious network congestion. In 1988, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the University of California proposed a congestion avoidance mechanism in which transmission control is performed by using a sliding window model. A size of a sliding window is a size of a buffer used by a receiver to receive data. A sender may determine, based on the size of the sliding window, a maximum amount of data that can be sent. In addition, congestion occurs when a load loaded into a network exceeds a processing capability of the network. As shown in FIG. 1, a capacity of the network limits a maximum amount of data that can be sent by the sender. Therefore, the sender always maintains sizes of two windows: an acknowledgment window and a congestion window of the receiver, and selects a smaller size of the two windows as a quantity of bytes that can be sent.
With development of Internet, a backbone network, a satellite communications network, and a wireless network with a high bandwidth become common network scenarios. These network scenarios are all characterized by a high bandwidth-delay product, a dynamic network status, and the like, and therefore pose a new challenge to a transmission control protocol (TCP). For a dynamic network scenario having a high bandwidth and a high delay, a congestion control mechanism policy of a conventional TCP protocol is fixed and applicable only to a specific network scenario or traffic distribution. Consequently, a size of a sending window cannot be dynamically adjusted based on a relatively high idle bandwidth. In addition, common indicators for measuring network performance, for example, an available bandwidth, a goodput, a delay, and a packet loss rate dynamically vary with a network status. Especially when a round trip time (RTT) is relatively long, network status information that can be obtained is limited, and a path congestion status and available bandwidth information cannot be obtained in time. Consequently, it is difficult to accurately perform modeling and determine an optimal sending rate.