Systems and methods related to the seamless integration of Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) client systems with native data models of repositories that may be utilized with such client systems are disclosed. In particular, certain embodiment of systems and methods for the integration of CMIS compliant client systems with CMIS compliant ECM systems by conforming CMIS secondary types utilized by CMIS clients to the native ECM artifacts utilized by the ECM system are disclosed.

It has been a long standing goal of various entities, including governmental, commercial, vendor and consulting organizations to increase interoperability between computerized information systems. In particular, one goal has been to facilitate interoperability (or more generally information exchange) between Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems or clients of such ECMs. To help achieve such a goal, Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) was developed.
CMIS is an open standard that allows different content management systems to inter-operate over the Internet. CMIS defines an abstraction layer that allows different content management systems and applications/systems that use such content management systems (referred to interchangeably as CMIS clients, applications or client systems) to inter-operate over the Internet using web protocols. Specifically, CMIS provides a data or domain model referred to as the CMIS data model and includes a set of services for adding and retrieving documents or objects according to such a domain model. By providing a simplified and standardized way to access unstructured content across an enterprise environment the integration of disparate client systems and content management systems can be facilitated at least because application or clients can be developed in a repository independent manner.
However, the use of CMIS in such enterprise environments is not without its problems. In particular, in many cases, ECM systems operate according to their own proprietary domain models. In other words, an ECM system may operate based on its own set of artifacts that may or may not be congruous with the CMIS domain model. The ECM may offer increased functionality, solutions or other content services relative to those offered through the CMIS services. The degree of content services offered by an ECM may thus be unavailable in certain instances for objects stored at the ECM in association with a CMIS client application or system. This situation may arise, at least in part, because of the non-conformity between CMIS and the native domain model of the ECM system utilized as a repository by the CMIS client.
It is thus desirable to improved integration of CMIS clients with an associated repository, at least to offer the full suite of content management functionality of an ECM system in association with objects stored using CMIS by a CMIS client.

Systems and methods for enhanced content management interoperability services interfaces and repository integration


An improved flip-chip bond connection and bonding method uses a "press fit" bond between a set of bond pad bumps or projections on a semiconductor chip and corresponding set of substrate bumps or projections on a substrate to self-align the chip with the substrate and enable flip-chips to be inexpensively bonded to substrates or packages with greater accuracy and a smaller pad pitch than previously achieved. In the method after normally one of the sets of bond pad bumps or substrate bumps has been cooled to shrink or contract so that the facing surfaces of each of the pad bumps and substrate bumps can be interdigitated, the chip and substrate are moved together so that the respective bumps are in a substantially common plane. The one cooled set of bumps is then warmed to expand that set of bumps sufficiently to form a lateral press-fit force between the facing surfaces, physically securing and electrically connecting the respective sets of bumps.

An integrated circuit or "chip" is commonly contained in a "package" which provides both physical protection for the chip and electrical connections to connect the chip to external circuitry. Rather than placing individual chips in separate packages, however, it is possible to increase circuit density by using a multichip technology such as "flip-chip" technology to mount multiple chips closely together on a common substrate which interconnects the chips. The substrate may be made, for example, of silicon or of ceramic having a thermal expansion coefficient matching that of silicon, in order to reduce stress-induced breakage caused by the chip and the substrate expanding and contracting at different rates.
In flip-chip technology, an array of raised conductive "bumps" such as small solder balls is first formed on the contact pads ("die bond pads") on the face of a die. The die is then inverted or "flipped" and placed face down on a substrate so that the die bond pads are aligned with corresponding contact pads on the substrate ("substrate bond pads"). The solder is then reflowed to electrically and physically connect ("bond") the chip to the substrate.
A primary advantage of flip-chip technology is that, since no wire leads are required to connect the chips to the substrate, the chips may be placed very close together. This maximizes circuit density and increases the signal speed by minimizing the interconnection delay between the chips. However, a disadvantage of flip-chip technology is that the chip is bonded to the substrate by placing the solder bumps on the chip contact pads directly over the substrate contact pads to which they are to be bonded. Since the chip is placed face down on the substrate, the solder bumps are not visible during the bonding operation and a certain tolerance in the placement of the chip on the underlying substrate is required to ensure proper placement of the solder bumps on the underlying substrate contact pads. This tolerance increases the distance which must be allowed between adjacent chips mounted on the same substrate. In addition, this lack of visibility results in some of the chip solder bumps not being sufficiently in contact with the underlying substrate contact pads, thus decreasing the yield.


A distributed VoIP system includes a first switch coupled to a network and configured to provide voicemail features to a first group of one or more users. The system also includes a voicemail server coupled to the network. The voicemail server is configured to provide voicemail features to a second group of one or more users. The first switch is configured to store voicemail data associated with only the first group, and the voicemail server is configured to store voicemail data associated with both the first and second groups.

The present invention relates in general to distributed telephony and, more particularly, to systems and methods for providing voicemail features in a distributed Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) system.
VoIP systems route voice conversations and other telecommunications over the Internet or other packet switched networks. A distributed VoIP system includes a distributed set of switches and servers that provide applications enabled by the integration of computer systems with telephony services. Computer-integrated features rely not only on a server's application platform, but also on the availability of the network that connects the switches and servers.
In a conventional distributed VoIP system data is stored on hard disk drives. The data may include voicemail messages and other data such as mailbox information, recorded names and greetings of users, system prompts, automated attendant menus and prompts, work group greetings and prompts, music on hold files, video files, and recorded conference call files. As examples, voicemail systems often store the spoken name of each user. The recorded name of a user may be played when a message from that user is listened to. Most voicemail systems also include system prompts, which are pre-recorded prompts that are arranged to guide users and/or callers in accessing and using the features of the voicemail system. Some voicemail systems include hundreds of system prompts, each of which may be stored in as many of fifteen or more different languages.
The performance and reliability of a distributed VoIP system can be increased by keeping a portion of the data consistent across all servers. For example, each server in a conventional distributed VoIP system stores the recorded name of each user in the system as well as the system prompts for the entire system. Each server has access to the data and can backup other servers, thus eliminating single points of failure. Performance is increased by locating servers relatively close geographically to users thus reducing network delays.
Because VoIP systems are highly scalable and can provide communication features to large numbers of users, the resources necessary to provide the required performance and reliability are significant. For example, a large company with thousands of employees scattered across many sites would traditionally have one or more switches and servers at each site, and each server would store at least a portion of the data for the entire VoIP system. Even systems with a relatively small number of users usually have hundreds of system prompts in many different languages stored on each server. The upfront costs and ongoing maintenance costs of providing these resources can be prohibitive.
Thus, there is a general need in the art for improved systems and methods for providing voicemail features in a distributed VoIP system.

Systems and methods for providing voicemail features in a VoIP system


A dialysate extraction apparatus which can reliably perform cleaning and disinfecting on an inside of a collection port without extending a separate flow route from an on-off device. The dialysate extraction apparatus includes a dialysate extraction device having an inlet and an outlet which can circulate a liquid, and having a collection port which can collect the circulating liquid; and a cap which is attachable to and detachable from the collection port of the dialysate extraction device and which can turn on and off the collection port. When the cap is attached, the collection port defines a guide route which guides the liquid introduced from the inlet to a tip a side of the collection port, and a discharge route which discharges the liquid guided by the guide route to the outlet side.

In recent years, in a dialysis apparatus as a blood purification apparatus, a technology has been proposed in which priming, returning blood and substitution (emergency infusion) are performed by using a dialysate to be supplied to a dialyzer during dialysis treatment (in particular, online HDF or online HF), or a technology has been proposed in which the dialysate is used as a substitution solution for the online HDF or the online HF. For example, PTL 1 discloses a dialysis apparatus including a substitution line where one end is connected to a dialysate extraction port (collection port) formed in a predetermined section of a dialysate introduction line and the other end is connected to a blood circuit (artery side blood circuit or vein side blood circuit); and a substitution pump which is arranged in the substitution line. In order for such a dialysis apparatus to perform the priming, the returning blood or the substitution (emergency infusion), the substitution pump is driven to supply the dialysate in the dialysate introduction line to the blood circuit (artery side blood circuit or vein side blood circuit).
In general, a cap (on-off device) is attachable to and detachable from the dialysate extraction port, and the substitution line is connected by detaching the cap and when the substitution line is not connected, the dialysate flowing in the dialysate introduction line is not caused to leak out by attaching the cap. For example, in order to clean and disinfect a pipe for circulating the dialysate, such as the dialysate introduction line and the dialysate discharge line, cleaning water or disinfecting solution is circulated in the pipe in a state where the cap is attached to the collection port. In this manner, the cleaning water or the disinfecting solution is prevented from leaking out.
Thus, if the cap comes into close contact with and seals an inner peripheral surface of the collection port, the cleaning water or the disinfecting solution cannot be circulated with respect to the sealed portion, thereby creating a possibility that the cleaning and the disinfecting may be insufficiently performed. Therefore, in the related art, in order that the cap seals an outer peripheral surface of the collection port, a configuration has been proposed where the cleaning water or the disinfecting solution can reach the inner peripheral surface of the collection port (for example, refer to PTL 2 and PTL 3). Thus, if a flow route is extended to circulate the cleaning water or the disinfecting solution from the cap, the cleaning water or the disinfecting solution is circulated inside the collection port, thereby enabling the cleaning and the disinfecting to be sufficiently performed. Some examples may be found in PTL 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-313522; PTL 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-93501; and PTL 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-207706 all of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.


Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising the step of forming a pad electrode on an insulating film covering a semiconductor substrate, the step of forming a first metal layer on the pad electrode, the first metal layer being capable of forming a strong adhesive bond with the pad layer, followed by forming a second metal layer on the first metal layer, the second metal layer acting as a barrier layer and being capable of forming a strong adhesive bond with a solder, the step of forming a resist pattern on the second metal layer in a manner to cover that region which corresponds to the pad electrode, the step of etching the second metal layer using the resist pattern as a mask, the step of removing the resist pattern, the step of forming a solder layer selectively on the second metal layer, and the step of selectively etching the first metal layer using the solder layer as a mask.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, particularly, to a method of forming a solder bump electrode.
FIGS. 1A to 1D collectively show a conventional method of forming a bump electrode for a semiconductor device. As shown in the drawings, a pad electrode 1 made of, for example, aluminum is formed on an insulating film 12 covering the surface of a semiconductor substrate 3, followed by depositing an insulating protective film 2 on the entire surface. Then, that portion of the insulating protective film 2 which is positioned on the pad electrode 1 is selectively removed to form an opening exposing the pad electrode 1 to the outside.
Then, metal layers 4, which act as current supply layers in the solder plating step and as barrier layers after the solder plating step, are consecutively formed by a sputtering method on the entire surface, as shown in FIG. 1A. In general, the metal layers 4 are of a laminate structure consisting of three layers 4a, 4b and 4c. The lowermost layer 4a, which is made of, for example, Ti, is in direct contact with the pad electrode 1, i.e., Al layer, to form a strong adhesive bond with the Al layer. The intermediate layer 4b, which is made of Ni or Cu, acts as a barrier layer. Further, the uppermost layer 4c, which is made of a noble metal such as Pd or Pt, serves to form a strong adhesive bond with a solder layer which is to be formed thereon in the subsequent step and also acts as an anti-oxidation film.
In the next step, the entire surface is coated with a resist layer 5, followed by patterning the resist layer 5 by means of the ordinary photolithography technology so as to form an opening above the pad electrode 1, as shown in FIG. 1B. Then, an electroplating of solder is applied to form a solder bump 6 in the opening positioned above the pad electrode 1, as shown in FIG. 1C. After formation of the solder bump 6, the resist layer 5 is removed. Then, the metal layers 4 are etched using the solder bump 6 as a mask, as shown in FIG. 1D, thereby to prepare a semiconductor device comprising a solder bump electrode.
In the conventional method outlined above, the semiconductor device including the resist layer 5 is dipped in the plating bath in the step of forming the solder bump by the electroplating method. In general, the plating bath is strongly acidic, with the result that the resist layer 5 is partly dissolved during the plating step into the plating bath to form organic impurities. It follows that it is impossible to maintain as desired the composition of the plating bath. It is most important to control the composition of the plating bath in the electroplating. However, it is very difficult to maintain as desired the composition of the plating bath in the conventional method because organic impurities unavoidably enter the plating bath, as pointed out above.
Further, the uppermost metal layer 4c is made of a noble metal such as Pd or Pt, and the intermediate metal layer 4b is made of, for example, Ni or Cu in the conventional technique as already pointed out. What should be noted is that it is difficult to remove Pd, Pt, Au, Ni, Cu, etc. by a dry etching in the etching step for removing the metal layers 4 after formation of the solder bump 6. Therefore, the metal layers 4 are removed by a wet etching using an etching solution exhibiting an oxidizing power in the conventional method. However, each of Pb and Sn constituting the main components of the solder tend to be corroded easily by the etching solution exhibiting an oxidizing power. It follows that the solder bump 6 is also damaged in the etching step for removing the metal layers 4, leading to a low yield and a low reliability of the resultant semiconductor device.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device


In a coded orthogonal frequency division multiplex (COFDM) system n-bit data words are encoded as 2m-symbol code words, each symbol having 2j possible values (e.g. j=3 for octary). An efficient decoder for these code words is provided by applying j iterations of the fast Hadamard transform, the input vector for the second and subsequent iterations being derived from the result of the immediately preceding iteration.

This invention relates to methods and apparatus for decoding data, and to communications systems incorporating such methods and apparatus; in particular, though not exclusively, the invention relates to such methods, apparatus and systems for decoding data transmitted using multi-carrier frequency division multiplexing, such as coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM).
The increasingly widespread use of powerful computer-based equipment and appliances is resulting in rapidly increasing requirements for high-speed, high-capacity communications, based on both wireline and wireless techniques. One way of accommodating this increase is to design communications systems for operation at higher and higher symbol rates. However, an increase in symbol rate typically involves a corresponding decrease in inter-symbol spacing, and this in turn can lead to greater inter-symbol interference (ISI) and consequential errors in symbols as received. In the case of wireline links ISI can arise, for example, from signal reflections at imperfectly matched interfaces between different portions of the communications link. For wireless links a significant source of ISI is multi-path propagation involving signal reflections from objects (such as buildings) in the space traversed by the signals; mobile wireless communications can be especially susceptible to ISI from this source, because movement of a mobile unit using the link can cause continuous and complex variation in the multiple propagation paths extending to the mobile unit.
A technique which is being actively studied and developed to increase communications system capacity and counteract ISI is multi-carrier (or multitone) frequency division multiplex operation, such as COFDM operation. In a COFDM system multiple symbols are transmitted simultaneously, each symbol controlling the modulation (e.g. by phase-shift keying) of a respective one of multiple carrier signals having closely-spaced frequencies. By choosing the carrier-frequency spacing to have an appropriate relationship to the rate at which symbols are transmitted on each carrier, it is possible to ensure that each individual carrier can be demodulated without interference from the carriers adjacent to it (in which case the carriers are said to be orthogonal to one another). The set of symbols transmitted simultaneously on respective carriers during a symbol period (a code word) is chosen to encode a group of data symbols (a data word) and includes redundancy (i.e. the code word has more symbols than the data word); this redundancy is used upon reception for detection of errors in the symbols as received, and, if desired, for correction of those errors.
COFDM systems counteract ISI in part because the transmission of multiple symbols in parallel enables a desired data rate to be attained with a lower symbol rate than would be necessary if a serial system were used to transmit individual symbols in succession. A lower symbol rate implies a longer duration for each symbol and thus a longer period between symbol transitions, which reduces the impact of ISI. The error detection/correction capabilities provided by the inclusion of redundancy enhance the resistance to data corruption, by enabling some errors which occur in received symbols owing to signal fading and other causes to be detected or corrected.
However, present COFDM systems encounter difficulties in obtaining the maximum potential benefit for a particular transmitted signal power, owing to limitations arising from the typical peak-to-mean envelope power ratio (PMEPR) of the complex-valued signal from which the actual transmitted signal is derived. Because this transmitted signal is effectively the sum of several signals at closely spaced frequencies and with respective phases which change at each symbol transition, the overall signal tends to exhibit transient pronounced peaks separated by substantially longer intervals of much lower though still varying amplitude. The transmitting equipment must be adjusted to reproduce the peaks without clipping or other distortion, so for much of the time, in the intervals between peaks, that equipment is operating at a signal level well below its maximum capability. As a result the geographical range of the equipment is significantly lower than would be expected for its nominal power rating, or alternatively a much more powerful equipment must be provided to cover the desired range and then operated inefficiently.
It is known that this problem can in principle be alleviated by careful selection of the code words which encode the possible data words (for example in xe2x80x98Block coding scheme for reduction of peak to mean envelope power ratio of multicarrier transmission schemesxe2x80x99 by A. E. Jones, T. A. Wilkinson and S. K. Barton, Electronics Letters, Dec. 8, 1994, vol.30, no.25, pp. 2098-2099). However, in selecting code words to reduce the PMEPR it is important also to ensure the code has good error correction properties. Furthermore, implementation of a high-throughput communications system desirably involves the use of long code words and of rapid encoding and decoding procedures; the use of simple look-up tables, though readily implemented, does not lend itself to rapid operation using compact (and low-power, inexpensive) circuitry, especially during decoding, if the number of valid code words to be checked is large, as is typically the case with long code words (e.g. more than about 16 symbols). It is therefore preferable for encoding and decoding operations to be definable in terms of some analytical procedure which for example performs combinatorial logic on the data word or code word symbols to convert one to the other, or at least restricts the size of any look-up table which is used.
An additional difficulty is presented by the sheer quantity of possible code words from which a selection may be made to define a code for use in a typical system. As the number of symbols in a code word increases the number of possible code words increases much faster, even for binary symbols; for symbols having just three (ternary) or four (quaternary) possible values, the number of possible codes available becomes so huge even for quite short code words that a simple exhaustive search through all possible code words is not feasible in a realistic time even just to minimize the PMEPR. Attempting to satisfy error correction and implementational requirements as well merely adds to the difficulty of such a search, especially as it will not even be known whether there actually exists a code word set which is of the desired size and which simultaneously satisfies preferred criteria relating to PMEPR, error detection/correction and ease of encoding and decoding. This difficulty is further exacerbated by the desirability of having a large number of code words available for use in the chosen code, in order to be able to encode a large number of different data words (i.e. data words containing relatively many symbols) and thus attain an acceptably high data transfer rate.
It is known that certain kinds of codes may have some desirable properties. Thus the paper xe2x80x98Synthesis of Power Efficient Multitone Signals with Flat Amplitude Spectrumxe2x80x99 by B. M. Popovixc4x87, IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol.39, no.7, July 1991, pp.1031-1033 indicates that any binary or polyphase complementary sequence can be used to construct a multitone signal such that the crest factor of the real-valued signal is less than or equal to 6 dBV (which corresponds to the PMEPR of the complex-valued signal being less than or equal to 3 dB). Examples of these sequences have been described, as in the case of binary Golay complementary sequence pairs (xe2x80x98Complementary seriesxe2x80x99 by M. J. E. Golay, IRE Transactions on Information Theory, vol.IT-7, April 1961, pp. 82-87). However, Popovixc4x87""s paper is directed to situations such as multipath fading measurements and multitone jamming, in which a single code word can be used continuously in generating the required signal. Accordingly Popovixc4x87 gives no guidance on how multiple such sequences could be identified just to attain the 3 dB limit on PMEPR in a practical code for conveying information; and no mention whatsoever is made of the other requirements mentioned above for a code suitable for practical implementation. Indeed Popovixc4x87 states that xe2x80x9cthe construction of multitone signals having minimum peak-to-peak amplitude is an old problem that still has no analytical solutionxe2x80x9d.
It should be noted that Golay complementary sequence pairs and codes defined using them are different from and should not be confused with so-called Golay codes; Golay complementary sequence pairs and Golay codes were first defined, independently of one another, by the same researcher and for that reason alone both are referred to by his name.
Methods and apparatus for encoding and decoding are described in International patent application no. PCT/GB 97/02 464 (WO 98/11 698), in which a substantial number of different code words are identifiable in practice, despite the potentially huge search space of possible code words, and which provide a predictable low limit on PMEPR, have specified error detection/correction properties and are feasible for implementation in high-speed circuitry. In particular codes are described for systems in which each transmitted symbol has 2j different possible values where j is a positive integer, such as binary (j=1), quaternary (j=2), octary (j=3), and higher orders. Techniques are also described for decoding these codes, involving use of the fast Hadamard transform (FHT). These techniques are effective, but they nonetheless entail substantial amounts of processing, and many applications of the fast Hadamard transform, especially in the case of octary and higher-order codes and longer code words (i.e. with more symbols).
It is an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for decoding such codes and which provide a reduction in the amount of processing required.
According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a method of identifying a code word within a predetermined set of code words, the code words containing symbols each having pj different possible values where p is a prime and j is an integer greater than 1, wherein
a plurality of constituents, constituent1 to constituentk, of said code word, each constituent identifying an element of a predetermined subset of a predetermined linear code, are derived in respect of an input word; and
said k constituents are combined to identify said code word according to a relationship
(pb(k)*constituentk+pb(kxe2x88x921)*constituentkxe2x88x921+ . . . +pb(2)*constituent2+pb(1)*constituent1)mod pj
where each b(x) is an integer, j greater than b(k) greater than b(kxe2x88x921) greater than  . . .  greater than b(2) greater than b(1)xe2x89xa70, * indicates symbol-wise multiplication, + indicates symbol-wise addition and mod indicates symbol-wise modular reduction.
According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a method of identifying a code word within a predetermined set of code words, the code words containing symbols each having 2j different possible values where j is an integer greater than 1, comprising the steps of
receiving an input word;
deriving the result of reducing the input word modulo 21;
deriving a first constituent, constituent1, by applying a Hadamard transform operation, or equivalent thereof, in respect of the result of said reduction modulo 21;
setting a modifier equal to constituent1;
for each successive value of a counter x from 2 to j:
deriving the result of symbol-wise subtraction of the current value of the modifier from the input word modulo 2x;
deriving another constituent, constituentx, by applying a Hadamard transform operation, or equivalent thereof, in respect of the result of said subtraction modulo 2x;
setting the modifier equal to the symbol-wise sum modulo 2j of the modifier and the product of 2xxe2x88x921 times constituentx;
and identifying the code word as having the final value of said modifier.
According to a further aspect of this invention there is provided apparatus for identifying a code word within a predetermined set of code words, the code words containing symbols each having pj different possible values where p is a prime and j is an integer greater than 1, comprising:
a decoder for deriving in respect of an input word a plurality of constituents, constituent1 to constituentk, of said code word, each constituent identifying an element of a predetermined subset of a predetermined linear code; and
a combiner for combining said k constituents to identify said code word according to a relationship
(pb(k)*constituentk+pb(kxe2x88x921)*constituentkxe2x88x921+ . . . +pb(2)*constituent2+pb(1)*constituent1)mod pj
where each b(x) is an integer, j greater than b(k) greater than b(kxe2x88x921) greater than  . . .  greater than b(2) greater than b(1)xe2x89xa70, * indicates symbol-wise multiplication, + indicates symbol-wise addition and mod indicates symbol-wise modular reduction.
Decoders implementing this invention enable decoding to be accomplished with relatively few applications of the fast Hadamard transform. For example, a quaternary code word can be decoded with just two successive applications of the FHT, and an octary code word with just three, irrespective of the length of the code word.


A method for use in an electronic switching system (ESS) analyzes M.times.N sets of line signals communicating between itself and at least one other ESS. At a first step, two previous sending and receiving line signals for a voice channel from each of the two ESS's are provided as a first pair of line signals. At a second step, two current sending and receiving line signals from each of the two ESS's form a second pair of line signals. At a third step, each of the line signals in the second pair is compared with its corresponding line signal in the first pair to check whether at least one line signal in the second pair is different from the corresponding line signal in the first pair. At a fourth step, if the checked result is negative, the second and the third steps are repeated for a predetermined duration, and if otherwise, a time interval value between one of the line signals in the second pair and its corresponding different line signal in the first pair is calculated. At a fifth step, it is checked that the calculated time interval value exists within its corresponding range among a predetermined set of ranges of time duration of line signals of the channel to determine the status of the different line signal in the first pair. At a final step, the steps from the second to the fifth are repeated until all of M.times.N sets of line signals of N voice channels are processed.

As is well known, an electronic switching system (ESS) selectively connects two assigned subscribers out of many so as to establish a communications line between them.
Basic components of the ESS include a multiplicity of access switching subsystems, an interconnection network subsystem and a central control subsystem. Each access switching subsystem includes a plurality of subscriber interfacing units and a time division switching unit to communicate information between two selected subscribers. When the two selected subscribers are coupled to an access switching subsystem, they are connected within the same access switching subsystem. On the other hand, when the two selected subscribers are coupled to two different access switching subsystems, they are connected through the interconnection network subsystem. The interconnection network subsystem, coupled with each of the access switching subsystems and the central control subsystem, includes a central data link module and a space division switching unit and connects the two selected subscribers. Finally, the central control subsystem coupled with the access switching subsystems and the interconnection network subsystem controls all the operations and maintenance processes of the ESS.
The ESS further includes a line signal handling device which is coupled to the interconnection network subsystem and used to process a multiplicity of sets of line signals to be communicated between itself and at least one other ESS over designated channels of a plurality of trunks formed therebetween. As is well known, the sets of line signals represent control information employed for a call processing between the ESS and the other ESS.
According to E-1 type issued by a European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), each trunk combines N, e.g., 30, voice channels and P, e.g., 2, common signal channels, wherein N and P are positive integers, respectively. In the E-1 type, each of the thirty sets of line signals is communicated over one of the two common signal channels; and carries corresponding voice channel status information on all actions taken to make a call between the two ESS's. As is well known in the art, each of the line signals in said each set is normally transmitted for a separate predetermined range of time duration which is decided based on one of the conventional protocols, e.g., G. 704 issued by International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT). Through such communications of the multiplicity of sets of line signals, a call processing can be efficiently carried out between the ESS and the other ESS.
However, in such a line signal handling device provided in the ESS, any of the line signals in each set may be communicated between the two ESS's for a shorter or longer time duration than a predetermined range of time duration due to, e.g., a malfunctioning of a device or an error in any of the software programs incorporated in the ESS, thereby failing to provide a normal call processing. Consequently, it is desirable to analyze each of the line signals to be communicated between two ESS's selected from a plurality of ESS's and display information representing the status thereof on a display device.
Hitherto, no prior art ESS is known to have such analyzing and displaying capabilities.

Line signal analyzing method for use in an electronic switching system


A process of making a paint roller with a foldable end comprising the steps of: securing a paint-roller support core to a paint-roller pad and then removing a portion of the core secured to the paint-roller pad. If multiple paint rollers are being made, one cuts the paint-roller pad and support core into multiple segments with the cut ends of the segmented paint-roller pad and core coextensive with each other. Next, one removes a portion of the ends of the support core without removing the paint-roller pad extending over the support core to leave a paint roller with an unsupported free pad end that is folded over the end of the core of the paint roller to provide full corner painting abilities. The paint roller with a covered end can be rotatably mounted on different types of paint-roller frames.

Paint rollers are generally well known in the art and comprise a support core with a cylindrical fabric sleeve on the exterior of the support core. A paint roller fabric sleeve extending around the end of the paint roller simplifies rolling paint into corners because it enables the paint roller to simultaneously apply paint to adjacent surfaces of the corner.
One process of making such a corner paint roller involves making an elongated fabric sleeve longer than the rigid support core, and then sliding the sleeve over the core to enable a painter to tuck the ends of the sleeve into the core.
The present process involves an improved process of either individual or mass production of paint rollers with a foldable end or foldable ends by spirally wrapping and adhesively fastening a paint-roller fabric cover around an elongated master support core and then cutting the spirally-wound master paint roller into cylindrical segments. In a variation of the process, one spirally wraps and adhesively fastens or heat bonds a paint-roller fabric cover around an individual support core. The next step of the process entails removing a portion from one or both ends of the support core of the segments; this step results in an unsupported outer end of the paint-roller cover which is then either folded over the edge of the paint-roller support core or tucked into the end of the remaining portion of the support core.


A system includes an interface for receiving a pod having a carrier that receives wafers, and that is initially enclosed within a base and a pod cover. The system also includes a mechanism that transfers an exposed carrier between the interface and a platform of a mass-transfer machine included in the system. The machine includes a gantry arm for transferring the carrier between the platform and a transfer station. A retainer assembly is positionable over the carrier at the transfer station, and over a process carrier that is used in a processing tool. Moveable retainers of the assembly receive and hold wafers. The machine includes an elevator that moves between the transfer station and the process carrier. The elevator extends and retracts for transferring wafers between the retainers and either the carrier or the process carrier. A turntable, that receives the process carrier, permits automatically reorienting wafers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to silicon wafer handling machines, and more particularly to systems adapted for automatically unloading silicon wafers from a Standard Mechanical InterFace ("SMIF") pod and then transferring such wafers to a process carrier, and conversely.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Certain semiconductor wafer processing operations require that a number of disk-shaped silicon wafers be loaded into a process carrier arranged in a vertical orientation. Examples of such processes are "wet bench" processing and horizontal diffusion furnace processing. Presently, silicon wafers are transported between processing tools in a SMIF pod which orients the wafers horizontally. Accordingly, in addition to transferring wafers between the SMIF pod and the process carrier, performing any wafer processing operation in which the wafers must be oriented vertically requires reorienting the wafers from their horizontal orientation in the SMIF pod into a vertical orientation in the process carrier. In addition to reorientation of wafers between the SMIF pod and the process carrier, frequently the process carrier is capable of holding more wafers than the SMIF pod. Accordingly, in general preparing wafers for a process in which they are vertically oriented requires:
1. removing a SMIF pod's wafer carrier from within the protective environment provided by the SMIF pod; PA1 2. removing the wafers from the SMIF pod's wafer carrier; PA1 3. rotating the wafers from a horizontal to a vertical orientation either while they are present in, or after they are removed from, the SMIF pod's wafer carrier; PA1 4. depositing the now vertically oriented wafers into a process carrier; and PA1 5. perhaps performing the preceding operations more than once to combine wafers from more than one SMIF pod's wafer carrier into one process carrier.
To prevent contamination of silicon wafers during processing, present semiconductor processing technology requires that all of the preceding operations be performed automatically by a machine without human intervention in the process. Thus far, automation of this wafer handling process has been achieved by cascading a general purpose SMIF pod-load interface apparatus with a wafer mass-transfer machine with a process tool, e.g. a wet bench or a horizontal diffusion furnace. Assembling an entire apparatus for either of these process tools therefore results in two mechanical interfaces, i.e. the mechanical interface between the SMIF pod-load interface apparatus and the wafer mass-transfer machine, and the mechanical interface between the wafer mass-transfer machine and the process tool. Alignment of a mechanical interface, e.g. the mechanical interface between the SMIF pod-load interface apparatus and the wafer mass-transfer machine, can be so difficult that after the two devices have been disconnected, perhaps for repair or maintenance, several hours may be required to properly realign them.
In addition to the mechanical interfaces, there also exist electrical interfaces between the SMIF pod-load interface apparatus and a wafer mass-transfer machine, and the wafer mass-transfer machine with the process tool. In particular, the electrical interfaces between each of the devices must be arranged so the combined devices operate in a coordinated manner. Interfacing the SMIF pod-load interface apparatus with the wafer mass-transfer machine has proven to be troublesome and particularly annoying for process tool manufacturers desirous of selling an integrated system which includes the SMIF pod-load interface, the wafer mass-transfer machine, and the process tool.
In addition to the difficulties associated with interfacing the SMIF pod-load interface apparatus with the wafer mass-transfer machine, the combined devices occupy more floor space than desirable, and operate comparatively slowly because they are general purpose rather than special purpose devices. For example, a standard pod load interface opens a SMIF pod and transfers the wafer carrier to the process tool. For certain processes, the wafers must also be transferred from the original carrier to a different carrier. Under such circumstances, a wafer transfer machine has to be combined with a pod load interface to translate a carrier from a position within the pod load interface to a position within the wafer mass-transfer machine. For translating the SMIF pod's wafer carrier from one location to another location, generally the pod load interface includes an arm having at least two rotary joints which merely picks up the SMIF pod's wafer carrier, translates the carrier to a new location, and then set the SMIF pod's wafer carrier down. Accordingly, if the pod load interface is to also reorient the wafers from a horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation, an end-effector must be added to the standard pod load interface for performing the prescribed rotation.
In addition, the combined SMIF pod-load interface apparatus and wafer mass-transfer machine unnecessarily replicate certain subsystems. For example, a general purpose SMIF pod-load interface and a wafer mass-transfer machine each includes an environmental control system to prevent wafer contamination. Similarly, the SMIF pod load/unload device and wafer mass-transfer machine each include a separate electronic circuit for controlling their respective operation.
In addition to a horizontal orientation for the silicon wafers within the SMIF pod, it is often desirable to arrange the wafers with the backside of one wafer facing the frontside of the immediately adjacent wafer, or conversely. Generally, the backside of a silicon wafer is more likely to be contaminated than the wafer's frontside. Therefore, during wafer processing in which the wafers retain their SMIF pod's wafer carrier arrangement, contamination of the frontside of a wafer is more likely than if the wafers were arranged backside-to-backside and frontside-to-frontside. Such a rearrangement of the wafers into the more desirable backside-to-backside and frontside-to-frontside orientation is difficult to achieve with the combined SMIF pod-load interface apparatus and wafer mass-transfer machine.

Integrated wafer pod-load/unload and mass-transfer system


A display system includes a building, a wall enclosed within the building, and a light guide directing light from the exterior of the building to the wall within the building. A display is supported proximate the wall where the display includes a liquid crystal layer and not including a backlight. The light guide directing the light to the liquid crystal layer is in such a manner that the combination of the light and the liquid crystal layer results in an image displayed thereon.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display that incorporates solar light.
Liquid crystal panels have been mounted in a picture frame together with a connector. The connector is suitable for a compact flash card to be inserted that includes stored photographs. One or more of the images on the compact flash card are displayed on the liquid crystal panel within the picture frame. In some cases the picture frame includes a battery that powers the liquid crystal material and the backlight of the liquid crystal panel. Unfortunately, the battery tends to be drained relatively quickly by the power requirements of the liquid crystal panel.
Large liquid crystal panels are being used for the presentation of video content and for the presentation of digital photographs. The liquid crystal panels include a layer of liquid crystal material which acts to selectively permit light to be emitted from the panel, and a backlight behind the liquid crystal layer provides the light. Large liquid crystal displays consume a significant amount of energy thereby costing significant amounts of money to operate. In addition, the liquid crystal display heats up the room it is operating in which requires additional energy, at added expense, to adequately cool.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


Apparatus and methods for mechanically cleaving a bonded wafer structure are disclosed. The apparatus and methods involve clamps that grip the bonded wafer structure and are actuated to cause the bonded structure to cleave.

Semiconductor wafers are generally prepared from a single crystal ingot (e.g., a silicon ingot) which is sliced into wafers. The wafers are ground and/or polished to produce product wafers. While reference will be made herein to semiconductor wafers constructed from silicon, other materials may be used as well, such as germanium or gallium arsenide.
One type of wafer is a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. An SOI wafer includes a thin layer of silicon atop an insulating layer (e.g., an oxide layer), which is in turn disposed on a silicon substrate.
An exemplary process of making an SOI wafer includes depositing a layer of oxide on a polished front surface of a donor wafer and/or a handle wafer. Particles (e.g., hydrogen atoms or a combination of hydrogen and helium atoms) are implanted at a specified depth beneath the front surface of the donor wafer. The implanted particles form a cleave plane in the donor wafer at the specified depth at which they were implanted. The surface of the donor wafer is cleaned to remove organic compounds deposited on the wafer during the implantation process.
The front surface of the donor wafer is then bonded to a handle wafer to form a bonded wafer pair through a hydrophilic bonding process. The donor wafer and handle wafer are bonded together by exposing the surfaces of the wafers to plasma containing, for example, oxygen or nitrogen. Exposure to the plasma modifies the structure of the surfaces in a process often referred to as surface activation. The wafers are then pressed together and a bond is formed therebetween. This bond is relatively weak, and must be strengthened before further processing can occur.
In some processes, the hydrophilic bond between the donor wafer and handle wafer (i.e., a bonded wafer) is strengthened by heating or annealing the bonded wafer pair at temperatures between approximately 300° C. and 500° C. The elevated temperatures cause the formation of covalent bonds between the adjoining surfaces of the donor wafer and the handle wafer, thus solidifying the bond between the donor wafer and the handle wafer. Concurrently with the heating or annealing of the bonded wafer, the particles earlier implanted in the donor wafer weaken the cleave plane. A portion of the donor wafer is then separated (i.e., cleaved) along the cleave plane from the bonded wafer pair to form the SOI wafer.
The bonded wafer is first placed in a fixture in which mechanical force is applied perpendicular to the opposing sides of the bonded wafer in order to pull a portion of the donor wafer apart from the bonded wafer. According to some methods, suction cups are utilized to apply the mechanical force. The separation of the portion of the donor wafer is initiated by applying a mechanical wedge at the edge of the bonded wafer at the interface between the donor wafer and the handle wafer. The application of the mechanical force initiates propagation of a cleave along the cleave plane. The mechanical force applied by the suction cups then pulls a portion of the donor wafer away from the bonded wafer, thus forming an SOI wafer.
The resulting SOI wafer thus comprises a thin layer of silicon disposed atop the oxide layer and the handle wafer. The thickness of the layer may be non-uniform. The layer may also have a non-uniform roughness. This non-uniform thickness and roughness of the layer may be the result of the cleave propagating at varying speeds and/or the mechanical force applied by the suction cups. Additional processing is thus required to reduce the variation in thickness of the layer and/or smooth this layer. These additional processing steps are both time consuming and costly.
Thus, there remains a continuing need for a system and method for cleaving a bonded wafer structure that results in the structure having a layer with a relatively uniform thickness and roughness.
This Background section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods for cleaving a bonded wafer structure

SunEdison Semiconductor Limited (UEN201334164H)


Apparatus and methods for a storm drain grate guard are provided. An apparatus may include an annular apex support member, an apex member affixed to the apex support member, and an annular intermediate support member having a circumference larger than the apex support member. The apparatus may further include a first portion forming a conical frustum between the apex support member and the intermediate support. The apparatus may additionally include an annular base support member having a circumference equal to or larger than the intermediate support. The apparatus may still further include a second portion between the intermediate support member and the base support member. The apparatus may also further include at least three vertical members each peripherally connected to the apex support member, the first portion, the intermediate support member, the second portion, and base support member such that the vertical members surround a longitudinal axis.

One of the major issues on commercial and residential developments is keeping storm drain grates clear during rain events. A significant challenge is keeping storm water runoff from a construction site directed toward the storm water drop inlets engineered to receive it, and keeping the grates on those storm water drop inlets clear. There is often a significant amount of debris that runs off of a fresh construction site during a rain event toward the storm water drop inlets. Even a single grocery bag or clump of leaves may clog a storm drain grate and begin the negative effects of flooding.
During high flow events, a vortex forms naturally over storm drain grates. However, when a board, grocery bag, or other obstructive debris enters the flow, the vortex may be interrupted such that the debris in the water column surrounding that vortex gets sucked into the storm drain grate and causing it to clog. Once the vortex is interrupted by larger debris and the storm drain grate clogs, flooding often begins, which can then cause significant economic damage downslope on commercial and residential development construction projects and/or onto other private or public properties downslope.
Accordingly, a need exists for apparatuses and methods to safeguard the drainage flow of storm drain grates.

Apparatuses and methods for a storm drain grate guard


A body-supporting couch and a radiation system incorporating such a couch are disclosed. The couch comprises a first and second couch unit, respectively. The first couch unit comprises a first table top support and a first elongated table top portion extending horizontally from the first support. The first table top portion is provided with a first docking element arranged in an end. Element for moving the first table top portion relative the first table top support along its longitudinal axis is arranged in the first couch unit. The second couch unit comprises a second table top support, which supports a second table top portion, provided with a second docking element in an end facing the first couch unit. Upon contact, the first docking element engages with the second docking element and the first table top portion connects with the second table top portion forming a stable continuous table top.

During the past decades there have been considerable developments within the field of radiation therapy and diagnostics. The performance of external beam radiation accelerators, brachytherapy and other specialized radiation equipment has improved rapidly. Developments taking place in the quality and adaptability of radiation beams have included new targets and filters, improved accelerators, increased flexibility in beam-shaping through new applicators, collimator and scanning systems and beam compensation techniques, and improved dosimetric and geometric treatment verification methods have been introduced.
Furthermore, a number of powerful 3-dimensional diagnostic techniques have been developed, ranging from computed tomography (CT), positron and single photon emission computed tomography (PET and SPECT) to ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy and spectroscopy imaging (MRI, MRS and MRSI). Equally important is the increased knowledge of the biological effect of fractionated uniform and non-uniform dose delivery to tumors and normal tissues and new assay techniques, including the determination of effective cell doubling times and individual tissue sensitives, allowing optimization of the dose delivery to tumors of complex shape and advanced stages.
Also new and improved designs of the constituent parts of a radiation therapy or diagnostic system, such as more stable and faster revolving gantries, have been developed. However, the body-supporting couches or tables of today, onto which a patient is positioned in a radiation therapy or diagnostic machine, are far from ideal, considering stability and user-friendliness issues.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a typical prior art body-supporting couch in a radiation therapy or diagnostic system. The couch is supported at one end by a couch support, situated at one side of a gantry of a radiation therapy or diagnostic machine. During treatment or diagnostic work up, a patient is positioned on the couch where a radiation source of the gantry irradiates a target volume in the patient. For radiation therapy, high-energy beams irradiate the target volume, typically including all tumor tissues to be eradicated. In diagnosing, diagnostic beams, most often with a lower photon energy, are incident on the patient and a dedicated detector, arranged in the gantry, captures radiation passing through the patient and provides anatomical information, typically an image of the irradiated target volume.
However, it is rather complicated for the patient to get onto a couch designed according to FIG. 1. This is basically a twofold problem. Firstly, since the couch is arranged extending through the gantry, the accessible free space of the couch is limited to its ends. The patient therefore, more or less, has to crawl into correct couch position starting from one end. Secondly, the smallest possible height of the couch is limited by the height of the opening through the gantry. In most gantry designs today, this height is about 70 cm or sometimes even higher, which is far too large for a comfortable getting onto/off the couch. In addition, once on the couch, medical personnel typically have to reposition the patient slightly to align with a predetermined position, e.g. according to a dose or treatment plan. The large height of the couch makes this procedure cumbersome and hard, possibly leading to strain injuries of the personnel.
In order to increase accessibility of the couch, a swingable patient couch or table may be used. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,292 an X-ray examination apparatus is described. The apparatus comprises a base assembly, including a pivotally and vertically displaceable frame, a first actuating means for pivotal movement of the frame about a horizontal axis and a second actuating means for vertical movement of the frame, two parallel rail systems supported by the frame and having two carriages mounted respectively thereon. One of the carriages supports a C- or U-shaped carriage for supporting an X-ray source and image receptor and the other carriage has an overhanging support secured thereto. This support in turn includes a dual action mechanism for supporting a patient table in an arrangement providing its vertical movement relative the frame and its pivoting movement about an axis parallel to its longitudinal axis.
The couch design described above may be rotated away from the gantry to facilitate getting onto/off the couch. However, since only one couch support, arranged at one end of the table top, is used (as for the couch in FIG. 1) once the patient is positioned on the couch it bends slightly due to the patient's weight. This bending depends on the actual position of the patient and is therefore complex to calculate in advance and compensate for. In radiation diagnoses and especially in radiation therapy, the actual position of the patient has to be accurately known to safely deliver the radiation dose correctly to the target volume. Any such significant bending of the couch makes a correct dose delivery very hard and in some applications practically impossible.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,600 a height-adjustable patient support couch for use with an X-ray camera apparatus is disclosed. The couch includes a hydraulic multi-stage piston-cylinder, of which a top piston is driven in a vertical direction, a drive unit for driving the pistons in an axial direction and a multi-stage supporting device for supporting an overhanging load exerted by a patient on a couch or table top.
The patient support couch in U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,600 suffers from similar stability problem as U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,292 due to only one couch support, which was discussed above. In addition, if used with a radiation therapy or diagnostic machine with a circular gantry, the free accessible space of the couch is limited to its ends. This makes getting onto/off the couch very troublesome for the patient.


Disclosed is a computer-implemented method of finding, troubleshooting and auto-remediating problems in storage environments. The method includes guiding a user, by a data processing system of an active storage environment, to select an applicable playbook of troubleshooting logic from among playbooks of different troubleshooting logic to address problem(s) with infrastructure device(s) of the active storage environment, asking the user, by the data processing system, questions from the applicable playbook to identify a possible resolution path for the problem(s), resulting in an identified resolution path, receiving, by the data processing system, answers to the questions from the user, obtaining, by the data processing system, cross-domain information regarding infrastructure device(s) potentially relevant to the problem(s), resulting in obtained cross-domain information, cognitively determining, by the data processing system, possible resolution(s) based on the answers and the obtained cross-domain information, and auto-remediating, by the data processing system, the problem(s).

One or more aspects of this disclosure relate, in general, to troubleshooting problems in computer environments. In particular, one or more aspects of the disclosure relate to finding, troubleshooting and auto-remediating problems with infrastructure devices in active storage environments.
Storage virtualization engines are complex devices with both many internal components and many external relationships. These are all subject to failure. When the device is not performing as expected (or at all), resolving problems, in a timely manner, with the device can be difficult.
Also, problems can happen at any time of the day or night. The best expert may not be available to solve the problem or may not be at his or her best when it happens due to sleep, illness, or vacation.

Finding, troubleshooting and auto-remediating problems in active storage environments

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A detection and recovery mechanism is herein disclosed for soft errors corrupting TLB data. The mechanism works with a hardware page walker (HPW) and instruction steering control mechanisms in a processor to provide soft error recovery in the TLB arrays and latches. Through use of the disclosed detection and recovery mechanism, efficient and robust protection from silent data corruption is provided without requiring more expensive built-in redundancy.

As fabrication processes improve over time, the size of storage elements decreases making them more susceptible to soft errors. Soft errors occur when incident radiation changes the electrical charge being held by a storage element, thereby changing its binary state. As the statistical significance of soft errors has been increasing, storage structures such as latches that were previously less prone to soft errors are now in need of protection.
Soft errors, if undetected, can silently corrupt data for a program during its execution. If the program continues to execute incorrect results may be generated. This type of silent data corruption (SDC) is especially undesirable in mission critical applications, such as for commercial transaction server applications, where wrong results can have broad-reaching implications.
Translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) have used parity checking and functional redundancy in their arrays to check for soft errors in virtual page numbers, physical frame numbers, etc. However, redundancy requires significant additional circuitry to provide error correction, and parity alone provides a detection mechanism but not a correction mechanism. Furthermore, detecting and correcting soft errors in the latches that receive output data when the array is read have not previously been addressed.

Method and apparatus for preventing and recovering from TLB corruption by soft error


A composition contains (A) a silicone component which is an aqueous oil-in-water microemulsion containing a polysiloxane stabilized in the microemulsion by a cationic surfactant, and (B) a inorganic salt or an organic salt. The polysiloxane in the cationic microemulsion has a particle diameter of less than about 100 nanometer, preferably less than about 40 nanometer. The polysiloxane is a polydimethylsiloxane or an amine functional polysiloxane, preferably prepared by emulsion polymerization. The composition preferably contains at least about twenty percent by weight of the salt.

Breaking is a term applied to the irreversible coalescence of the individual emulsion or microemulsion droplets to form a continuous phase. To break an emulsion or microemulsion, the stabilizing forces must be weakened or eliminated.
The addition of electrolytes, i.e., salts for example, often causes an emulsion or microemulsion to break, since the electric charge of a boundary layer is very sensitive to the addition of foreign ions. The effectiveness of the added electrolyte increases with its valence. Thus, aluminum sulfate or iron sulfate are more effective than sodium sulfate, and sodium sulfate is in turn more effective than sodium chloride, i.e., see Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Volume A9, Page 311, VCH, Weinheim, Germany (1987).
In view of the above, to provide a microemulsion that was stable in the presence of salts would be unexpected, and contrary to conventional wisdom.
The need and usefulness of such a microemulsion in textile applications, for example, is evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,746 (Nov. 14, 1995), in which an alkyl polyglycoside, which is a nonionic surfactant, is used to prepare mechanical microemulsions possessing some degree of stability with respect to the presence of foreign electrolytes such as sodium chloride. This is not totally unexpected, however, as nonionic surfactants carry no charge.
What is unexpected, and what has been discovered according to the present invention, is that microemulsions stable to the presence of foreign electrolytes can be prepared using cationic surfactants, which contain positively charged polar groups, especially if the microemulsion is prepared using an emulsion polymerization technique, rather than prepared mechanically as in the '746 patent.

Salt stable cationic silicone oil-in-water microemulsion


Provided is a toner having excellent long-term storage stability and exhibiting both low-temperature fixability and uniform gloss in high-speed printing. A toner has a toner particle that contains a crystalline polyester resin A, an amorphous polyester resin B and a colorant, wherein the crystalline polyester resin A has a polyester molecular chain having a nucleating agent segment at the terminal end thereof, and an SP value Sa ((cal/cm3)1/2) of the crystalline polyester resin A ranges from 9.00 to 11.50, and the amorphous polyester resin B has a specific functional group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for use in electrophotography and in toner jetting and image forming methods for visualizing electrostatic images.
2. Description of the Related Art
The requirements of higher speeds and higher reliably placed on electrophotographic image-forming apparatuses have become more demanding in recent years. Requirements concerning, for instance, power saving and shorter wait times have become likewise more demanding. To meet these demands, toners are required to afford low-temperature fixability in high-speed developing systems.
Fixing performance is ordinarily correlated with toner viscosity, but in high-speed developing systems, in particular, the conventional requirement of fixing performance is compounded with the need for quick melting with a small amount of heat during fixing (so-called sharp melt property).
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-58135 proposes a toner having improved low-temperature fixability, obtained by bonding, to an amorphous polyester resin, at least one monovalent aliphatic compound selected from the group consisting of monovalent aliphatic carboxylic acid compounds having 10 to 24 carbon atoms and monovalent aliphatic alcohols having 10 to 24 carbon atoms.
When bonded to the amorphous polyester resin, the resulting aliphatic hydrocarbon segment plasticizes the resin, whereby low-temperature fixability is enhanced.
When the toner is stored at high temperature, however, the amorphous polyester segments are gradually plasticized by the aliphatic hydrocarbon segments of high molecular mobility, and heat-resistant storability is impaired as a result. Further, the difference in viscosity between the portions plasticized by the aliphatic hydrocarbon segments and other portions of the amorphous polyester resin increases during hot melting, and gloss unevenness may consequently arise in fixed images. Although the above feature is effective as regards low-temperature fixability, there is thus still significant room from improvement in terms of heat-resistant storability and other properties.
There are numerous reports (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-337443) on the use of a binder in the form of a crystalline resin instead of an amorphous resin, with a view to imparting a sharp melt property.
As is known, crystalline resins melt rapidly, at about the glass transition temperature, and thus low-temperature fixability can be improved on account of higher compatibility with the amorphous resin.
If the compatibility between the crystalline resin and the amorphous resin is excessively high, however, the heat-resistant storability of the toner becomes poorer and the sharp melt property of the crystalline resin is lost, as a result of which the fixing performance may be impaired in the high-speed developing system.
Accordingly, toners have been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Publications No. 2010-107673 and 2008-203779) which, in terms of controlling compatibility, rely on a combination of a crystalline polyester resin and an amorphous polyester resin having bonded thereto an aliphatic hydrocarbon segment of a certain number of carbon atoms. It has been suggested that a toner having superior fixing performance, storage stability, developing characteristics and so forth can be achieved by virtue of that feature.
Although a certain effect on fixing performance is found to be elicited in all the above instances, it is difficult to reliably avoid a state where the amorphous polyester resin is readily plasticized by the aliphatic hydrocarbon segment that is bonded to the latter. In particular, the heat-resistant storability of the toner may decrease when the toner is left to stand at high temperature over long periods of time.
Thus, no toner has been provided thus far that is sufficiently satisfactory as regards fixing performance during high-speed development, long-term storage stability, high-temperature high-humidity storage stability, and, in addition, gloss uniformity.


A power supply and method of operating the same. The method includes the steps of: operating first and second switches to an “On” position; operating said first switch to a “Off” position, causing a flow of a first free-wheeling current through a first free-wheeling current path; measuring a value of said free-wheeling current; controlling the switching of said second switch responsive to said value of said free-wheeling current; and regulating power from said power supply unit. The power supply includes: an inductive converter; a first free-wheeling current path comprising: a first switch connected in series with said inductive converter and a first means for measuring a first free-wheeling current flowing through said first free-wheeling current path; and a second free-wheeling current path comprising: a second switch connected in series with said inductive converter and a second means for measuring a second free-wheeling current flowing through said second free-wheeling current path.

Electrical driver units generally comprise an electric motor and a power electronics circuit. The power electronics circuit draws power from a supply system at a fixed frequency and voltage and converts this power to produce a rotating field in a motor. The speed and torque of the motor are regulated by the power electronics circuit. The power electronics circuit generally comprises a servo amplifier or, in an unregulated drive system, a frequency converter. The servo amplifier and the frequency converter are normally together called an inverter and are actuated by means of the driver circuit provided in the power electronics circuit.
When electric drive units are being used, it is necessary for them to be immediately turned off and safely stopped in the event of faults or risks. That is to say that the motor must under no circumstances move on account of electrical actuation.
Normally, this is done by turning off the power supply for the power electronics circuit, as is known, by way of example, from the document BIA Report May 2003 "Sichere Antriebssteuerung mit Frequenzumrichtern" [Safe drive control using frequency converters], ISBN 3-88383-645-1 or from the document Antriebstechnik 33 (1994), No. 10, "Vermeidung von unerwartetem Anlauf bei stromrichtergespeisten Antrieben" [Avoiding unexpected starting in inverter-powered drives], Erwin Zinken, BIA St Augustin. This allows the motor to be reliably stopped, since no further power is supplied to the motor. However, when it is started again the entire power electronics circuit needs to be turned on again, which takes a considerable amount of time.
A further option is to isolate the motor from the power electronics circuit using an electromechanical switch, e.g. a contactor. However, the sudden switching can easily damage the power electronics circuit on account of overvoltages. In addition, the loading is also very high for the contactor, since high current levels need to be switched.
A further solution for safely turning off the rotating field is to suppress the ignition pulse. Ignition pulses are equivalent to control signals generated by the driver circuit in the power electronics circuit, which actuates the power stage in the power electronics circuit. The power stage has six electronic switches which are controlled by means of control signals, so that the internal DC voltage is converted into a three-phase alternating current. The ignition pulse can be suppressed in various ways. It is usual—as known from the aforementioned document BIA Report May 2003—to interrupt the supply voltage at the driver circuit. The voltage is usually turned off by a relay in the event of a fault. Safe stopping through ignition pulse suppression, i.e. by not producing the control signals, leaves all the other components in the power electronics circuits in a full standby state. For the ongoing application, it is thus possible to put the electrical drive system into the safe state and to activate it again without this being noticed. Delays when the driver circuit is turned on again do not arise in essence.
The switching of the supply voltage at the driver circuit has to date been effected by a mechanical relay, which is subject to wear. Such a mechanical switching relay does not allow the power electronics circuit to be designed for "single-fault safety". "Single-fault safety" means that if a fault occurs in one of the safety-related components used the actuation of the motor is stopped immediately.

Supply unit for a driver circuit and method for operating same


A method for forming a periodic structure is disclosed. A structural layer and an optical modulation element are provided. A light is emitted to pass through the optical modulation element to irradiate interference strips on the structural layer. A photoelectrochemical etching (PEC) is performed to form the periodic structure according the interference strips irradiated on the structural layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for forming a periodic structure, such as photonic crystal, and more particularly relates a method for forming a periodic structure in a light-emitting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optoelectronic technology has rapidly developed, and is currently in wide usage, thus improving the wellbeing of mankind.
In recent years, due to structure and process development of photonic crystals, application potential for photonic crystals has increased. Basically, photonic crystal is a structure with a periodic varying refractive index or dielectric constant and simulates arrangement of atoms in a solid crystal. Photonic crystals are similar to the energy gap of electrons in solid crystals and generates energy gap of photons therein. Hence, transmissive characteristics of electromagnetic waves, such as amplitude, phase, polarization or wavelength, can be changed by adjusting characteristics of photonic crystals.
Some research has shown that lighting efficiency of a light-emitting diode can be greatly increased by applying photonic-crystal technology to the light-emitting diode. However, fabrication of photonic crystals must use patterning technologies with very small sizes, wherein the size of a photonic crystal is about ¼ that of a wavelength of a light signal in a material, Note that the size for patterning technologies for most optoelectronic applications is about 25 nm˜100 nm. Photonic crystals are mainly fabricated by an electron-beam lithography (EBL) and dry etching process to form air holes in a III-V semiconductor. The equipment for forming photonic crystals are very expensive and have low production rates, such that photonic crystals are yet to be mass produced and applied.


One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing a method for compressing page table entries (PTEs) prior to storing the PTEs in a translation look-aside buffer (TLB). A page table entry (PTE) request is received for a PTE that is not stored in the TLB. The PTE as well as a plurality of PTEs that are adjacent to the PTE are retrieved from a memory. The PTE and the plurality of PTEs are compressed and then stored in the TLB.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the compression of page table entries (PTEs) as they are read from a memory and stored into a translation lookaside buffer (TLB).
Description of the Related Art
Modern graphics processing units (GPU), central processing units (CPU), and operating systems (OS) manage memory using virtual addressing. Application programs and the engines within the GPU and CPU use virtual addresses. The operating system and/or driver allocate physical memory for ranges of virtual addresses and specify the mapping between virtual and physical addresses using page tables. A page table entry (PTE) describes the mapping for a range of virtual addresses to a range of physical addresses. The translation from virtual addresses to physical addresses is performed by a memory management unit (MMU) that may be configured to cache PTEs in order to improve the performance by eliminating the need to read PTEs for every translation.
The efficiency of caching the PTEs improves as the number of PTEs capable of being stored in the cache increases. This may be accomplished through physically increasing the size or storage capacity of the cache. However, such physical changes are often costly and undesirable.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method for increasing the storage capacity of a cache without modifying the physical attributes of the cache.

Method for automatic page table compression


A plant which expresses a large amount of ubiquinone-10 and a method for producing ubiquinone-10 using the plant are provided. A dietary supplement, a food and a food additive which contains ubiquinone-10 produced by the plant or the method are provided. The plant is produced by transformation using an expression cassette in which a decaprenyl diphosphate synthase gene is operatively linked with a mitochondrial targeting sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing ubiquinone-10 using a plant, a transgenic plant for use in the production method, and an expression cassette for use in the production of the transgenic plant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ubiquinone is a component of the electron transfer system and is a compound which has a quinone backbone with an isoprenoid (a naturally-occurring organic compound whose basic unit is isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) having 5 carbon atoms). Ubiquinone is a biological component which has a structure of 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-6-polyprenyl-1,4-benzoquinone and plays an important role, which is called a coenzyme Q (CoQ). Naturally-occurring ubiquinones include homologs: ubiquinone-5 to ubiquinone-12, depending on the number of side-chain isoprenoid units.
Ubiquinone is present in animal and plant tissue, and microorganisms, in which it plays a physiological and biochemical important role. Ubiquinone is a vitamin-like substance which is also known as an antioxidant substance, and is conformed to have a pharmacological effect for skin aging, immunodeficiency, heart disease, periodontal disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, retrograde brain, neural motor function disorder, diabetes, stroke, arteriosclerosis, cancer, hypertension, hypotension, cerebral infarction, allergic disease and the like. Ubiquinone also has a pharmacological effect to enhance the ability of the heart, and specifically, has a beneficial effect for congestive cardiac failure, and in addition, palpitation/shortness of breath, foot or face swelling, oversensitivity to cold and the like (see Makoto Kawamukai, "Yubikinon no seigosei to atarashii seirikinou [Biosynthesis of ubiquinone and its new physiological function]", Kagaku to Seibutsu [Chemistry and biology], 40 (5); 172-178; Makoto Kawamukai, J. Biosci. Bioeng. 94, 511-517 (2002); and Okada et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 255, 52-59 (1998) for reviews of ubiquinone).
Among the ubiquinones, only ubiquinone-10 (UQ-10) has been confirmed to have a pharmaceutical effect. Ubiquinone-10 is synthesized in the body, however, its amount is decreased due to aging, fatigue, stress or the like, and therefore, needs to be often supplied. Therefore, at present time, ubiquinone-10 is contained in not only medicaments but also cosmetics and sports drinks, and is also sold as an ingredient of health food and dietary supplement.
Ubiquinone-10 is currently extracted and purified from plants in the family Solanaceae, yeast or microorganisms. However, the production does not keep up with demand. There is a need for a production method in addition to the conventional techniques.
Isoprenoid which forms a side-chain of ubiquinone is a naturally-occurring organic compound whose basic unit is isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) having 5 carbon atoms. A large amount of isoprenoid is present in nature. In addition to that, isoprenoid is used as a side-chain of ubiquinone, isoprenoid is known as a part of carotenoids, natural rubbers, or prenylated proteins. Isoprenoid is gradually synthesized into a long chain by binding a new IPP to a basic IPP or FPP (farnesyl diphosphate) during biosynthesis in organisms.
It is known that a decaprenyl diphosphate synthase gene (SEQ ID NO. 5), which is cloned from a bacterium Gluconobacter suboxydans, produces ubiquinone-10 when expressed in E. coli (Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 10-57072; and Okada et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 255, 52-59 (1998)). However, when ubiquinone-10 is produced in a bacterium, such as E. coli, production of dietary supplements, foods, beverages, food additives and the like which contain ubiquinone-10, requires enormous cost and effort to purify ubiquinone-10. In contrast, when ubiquinone-10 is expressed in an edible plant, the cost and effort for the purification can be reduced. However, there has been no report that the above-described bacterial gene is expressed in plants to produce ubiquinone-10.
On the other hand, an attempt has been made to use a eukaryote (recombinant fission yeast) to produce ubiquinone-10 (Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 9-173076). In Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 9-173076, the decaprenyl synthase gene of the fission yeast S. pombe was cloned and sequenced, and a fusion gene linked with a mitchondrial targeting signal was used to transform the budding yeast S. cerevisiae. However, production of ubiquinone-10 in the recombinant yeast cell has not been confirmed. Moreover, it is suggested that enzyme activity is low in the recombinant yeast cell. In contrast, yeast expressing ddsA gene from Gluconobacter produced ubiquinone-10. Therefore, no technique of producing ubiquinone-10 using a recombinant cell except for E. coli and yeast has been established to date.
Therefore, there is a demand for a method of enhancing production of ubiquinone-10 using a transformed plant, and a plant having an enhanced amount of ubiquinone-10 production.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing ubiquinone-10 in a transgenic plant, and a transgenic plant for producing ubiquinone-10. Another object of the present invention is to provide an expression cassette for use in preparation of the transgenic plant of the present invention. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a composition, a food additive, a supplement and a pharmaceutical composition which contain ubiquinone-10 produced by the plant.

Method for producing ubiquinone-10 in plant

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences

National University Corporation Shimane University


A surge blocking inductor. In one embodiment, the surge blocking inductor includes a core; a first winding wound about the core in a first direction; and a second winding wound about the core in a second direction, wherein the first winding and the second winding are magnetically independent when the core is in a non-saturated state, and wherein the first winding and the second winding are coupled magnetically when the core is in a saturated state.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to power conversion and, more particularly, to power converter surge protection.
Description of the Related Art
Power converters connected to an AC power grid are required via government standards to survive power surges from the grid-side and thus must survive both simulated lightning strikes as well as real ones. A typical standard that must be met by such power converters is ANS1 C62.41. To meet the standard, a power converter must handle a voltage amplitude as high as 6000 v, open circuit, and a current amplitude as high as 3000 A on a short circuit. In order to survive these simulated surges, power converters must either survive the 6000 v (which is rarely feasible) or dissipate the energy while clamping the voltage to a survivable value.
Typical voltage protection networks used in power conversion involve clamps such as, for example, metal oxide varistor (MOV), Zener and other solid state devices.
FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of a background art ladder network 100 used for surge protection. The ladder network 100 comprises inductors 102 and 104, and Zener diodes 106 and 108, using the Zener diodes 106 and 108 to form a clamp. The inductor 102 is coupled across first terminals of the Zener diodes 106 and 108, and the inductor 104 is coupled across second terminals of the Zener diodes. The Zener diode 106 is coupled across a circuit, such as a power converter, and the Zener diode 108 is coupled to a power grid.
FIG. 2 depicts a schematic diagram of a background art multistage ladder network 200 used for surge protection. The multistage ladder network 200 is a protection network having multiple stages and additional filtering capacitors with respect to the ladder network 100. The protection network 200 comprises inductors 202, 204, 206, and 208; capacitors 212, 214, and 218; and Zener diodes 210, 216, and 220. The inductor 202 is coupled across first terminals of the Zener diodes 210 and 216, and the inductor 204 is coupled across second terminals of the Zener diodes 210 and 216. The inductor 206 is coupled across first terminals of the Zener diodes 216 and 220, and the inductor 208 is coupled across second terminals of the Zener diodes 216 and 220. The capacitors 212, 214, and 218 are coupled in parallel across the Zener diodes 210, 216, and 220, respectively. The Zener diode 210 is coupled across a circuit, such as a power converter, and the Zener diode 220 is coupled to a power grid. The inductors in each of FIGS. 1 and 2 (i.e., inductors 102, 104, 202, 204, 206, and 208) can be common mode, differential mode or a mix. They help reduce the stress on the clamps by reducing the flow of energy. However, these inductors are generally wound on a core such as ferrite, powdered magnetic iron, and the like that cannot possibly handle the surge current and saturate quickly, thereby reducing their effectiveness.
In addition, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filtering often requires surge protection in the form of clamping devices (voltage clamping diodes, gas discharge tubes (GDTs), metal oxide varistors (MOVs), and the like). Such clamping devices drive up production costs and increased components mean less reliability with more points of circuit failure.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved surge blocking inductor for use in power converters.


The invention relates to a method of recognizing a code which is encoded inside an image data set which contains a piece of respective information on a gray scale value for each of a plurality of picture elements. At least one dilation operation and/or erosion operation is carried out on the image data set.

The invention relates to a method of recognizing a code which is encoded inside an image data set which contains a respective piece of information on a gray scale value for each of a plurality of picture elements.
Such codes exist as two-dimensional codes, for example of the kind Maxicode, Datamatrix, QR, PDF 417 or MicroPDF 417. One-dimensional codes, in particular so-called barcodes, have been known for quite some time.
These codes serve, for example, as visual data carriers on objects which should be identified or distinguished from one another. Such a code is usually detected by means of an optoelectronic sensor, for example a CCD or CMOS receiver, with a linear- or matrix-shaped arrangement of picture elements and converted into a piece of electronic image information which is available as an image data set. The gray scale value data which were determined for the individual picture elements of the sensor are listed in a tabular list in the image data set.
The image data set is initially examined as to the presence of a reference pattern which characterizes the arrangement of the code in question within the image information as well as the kind of code. The individual code elements of which the code is made up are identified on the basis of the identification of this reference pattern. A binarization then takes place for these code elements using a threshold formation; i.e. the gray scale value determined for a code element is allocated to the category "white" or to the category "black". The actual decoding takes place subsequent to these steps, and indeed using an algorithm corresponding to the identified code type.
For certain products, it is known to apply the code directly to the product by means of a stamping process as part of the so-called direct marking process. For this purpose, stamped openings, so-called dots, are introduced into a single color area, the dots contrasting with the single color background and thereby being intended to serve as code elements.
With poorly represented codes, in particular with codes which have been produced using the direct marking process, the risk can exist of a non-recognition or a defective recognition of the code.


The present invention relates to oligonucleotides for modulation of target RNA activity. Thus, the invention provides oligonucleotides that bind to microRNA binding sites of target RNA. The oligonucleotides may activate RNase H or RNAi. In a preferred embodiment, the oligonucleotides prevents a micro RNA from binding to its binding site of the target RNA and thereby prevent the microRNA from regulating the target RNA. Such oligonucleotides have uses in research and development of new therapeutics.

The present invention relates to oligonucleotides that can be used to affect the activity of target RNAs.
The first generation of such oligonucleotides were antisense oligonucleotides that were intended to affect the activity of target mRNAs. One reason for interest in such oligonucleotides is the potential for exquisite and predictable specificity that can be achieved because of specific base pairing. In other words, it is in theory very simple to design an oligonucleotide that is highly specific for a given nucleic acid, such as an mRNA.
However, it has turned out simple base pairing is often not enough to achieve regulation of a given target mRNA, i.e. an oligonucleotide complementary to a given target mRNA does not necessarily affect the activity of the target mRNA. If the oligonucleotide targets the open reading frame of an mRNA, it may e.g. be that the translational apparatus simply displaces the oligonucleotide during translation. Therefore, means where developed that would improve the regulatory activity of the oligonucleotide.
E.g. oligonucleotides that can activate RNase H cleavage of the target mRNA were developed. One potential disadvantage of such oligonucleotides is that they may mediate cleavage of other RNAs than the intended target mRNA, i.e. giving rise to off-target effects. Still, such oligonucleotides acting through RNase H cleavage are in clinical trials for treatment of various diseases.
Recently, research has shown that eukaryotic cells, including mammalian cells, comprise a complex gene regulatory system (herein also termed RNAi machinery) that uses RNA as specificity determinants. This system can be triggered by so called siRNAs that may be introduced into a cell of interest to regulate the activity of a target mRNA. Currently, massive efforts go into triggering the RNAi machinery with siRNAs for specific regulation of target RNAs, in particular target mRNAs. This approach is widely regarded as having great promise for the development of new therapeutics. As will also be outlined below, a major advantage of this approach is that specificity of the siRNA lies in the degree of complementarity between the guide strand of the siRNA and the target RNA, i.e. target specificity can be controlled. However, it has turned out that siRNAs may be less specific than initially thought. Initially, it was believed that only target RNAs that harboured stretches of complete complementarity to the guide strand of the siRNA would be affected, i.e. targeted by the RNAi machinery. New research indicates that siRNAs indeed do result in significant off-target effects, i.e. regulation of non-intended targets. It is now believed that these off-targets stem from the siRNAs, or rather the guide strand of the siRNAs, acting as microRNAs.
MicroRNAs are a class of endogenous RNA molecules that has recently been discovered and that, as siRNA, function via the RNAi machinery. Currently, about 500 human microRNAs have been discovered and the number is rapidly increasing. It is now believed that more than one third of all human genes may be regulated by microRNAs. Therefore, microRNAs themselves may be used to regulate the activity of target RNAs, and consequently e.g. be used as therapeutics.
However, microRNAs generally act at more than one target RNA, i.e. they are promiscuous. Thus, introduction of a microRNA into the cell or regulating the level of a microRNA will affect the activity of more than one target mRNA and consequently often give rise to undesired off-target effects or unintended effects.
A recent approach has been put forward, wherein the activity of a target RNA is regulated by inhibiting the activity of a microRNA. The microRNA can be inhibited using complementary oligonucleotides that have been termed antimirs and antagomirs. Since the microRNA is itself promiscuous, the antimir or antagomir will affect the activity of more than one target RNA.

Oligonucleotides for modulation of target RNA activity