Methods are described for detecting and quantifying occult blood in a biological sample using laser desorption mass spectrometry (LD MS). Biological samples that can be analyzed using various embodiments of the present invention include stool (fecal occult blood, FOB), and any bodily fluid including urine, cerebrospinal fluid and other bodily fluids. If the heme or heme metabolite is bound to protein, the sample is treated with acid before analysis to release the porphyrin. Some of the methods use LD MS with a time of flight analyzer (TOF) to detect and measure unbound heme, other hemoglobin metabolites and other molecules that have a porphyrin-based structure, e.g., bilirubin, biliverdin, protoporphyrin IX, and Zinc protoporphyrin in the biological sample. In other methods, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) is used to detect and quantify the individual α- and β-polypeptide chains of hemoglobin.

1. Field of the Invention
The methods of the present invention are in the field of blood detection using mass spectrometry, especially occult blood in feces (fecal occult blood test, FOB).
2. Description of the Related Art
Cancer is the second most common cause of death, behind cardiovascular disease. Apart from lung cancer in man and breast cancer in woman, intestinal cancer (carcinoma of the colon) is the second most common form of cancer in both sexes causing nearly one third of all malignancy-related deaths in North America. Cancers of the colon and rectum are sometimes referred to collectively as "colorectal cancer" (CRC). The situation is so serious that the American Cancer Society has recommended occult blood testing yearly for all individuals over 50 years of age, regardless of their medical history.
Most CRC cases begin with the development of benign polyps, finger-like growths that protrude into the intestinal cavity. Polyps can become cancerous, and they have the ability to invade normal colon tissue from which point the cancer spreads to other parts of the body (metastasizes). Among those over forty-five, 10% have colorectal polyps of which 1% will become malignant. Intestinal cancer generally develops very slowly and may remain undiagnosed for years, therefore, early detection of these lesions is critical to increase patient survival rates.
Colorectal cancers can usually be completely cured if the tumor is detected early. The initial symptoms are a change in customary bowel movements and gastrointestinal bleeding. Pain and weight loss only occur much later. The exact causes of colon and rectal cancers are not known, but risk appears to be associated with genetic, dietary, and lifestyle factors. Those with a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or polyps are at a higher risk, as are those with ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and immunodeficiency disorders. A rare inherited disease, called familial adenomatosis or polyposis, causes benign polyps to develop early in life and causes cancer in almost all affected persons unless the colon is removed. Risk also increases with age and with the occurrence of cancers in other parts of the body. High fat and meat diets are a risk factor, especially when combined with minimal fruit, vegetable, and fiber intake. Lifestyle factors include cigarette smoking, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.
The most-widely-used current method of colorectal cancer screening in the general population is searching for occult blood in the stool; these tests are called fecal occult blood tests (FOBT). FOBT include a number of different noninvasive tests that detect the presence of hidden (occult) blood in the stool. Occult blood may arise from any point along the digestive tract. Occult blood in stool is often the first, and in many cases the only, warning sign that a person has colorectal disease, including colon cancer. An easy, quick and cost-effective test for the detection of occult blood in stool can also help intestinal cancer detection at an early stage.
Because fecal occult blood (FOB) tests are most frequently used to screen patients for a hidden colonic malignancy before the patient exhibits symptoms, the consequences of missing any bleeding can be very serious. Conversely, FOB tests that are associated with a large number of false positives have consequences that are expensive and uncomfortable for the patient. Moreover, the possible complications of the additional follow-up tests involved are also considerable. FOB tests detect bleeding from almost anywhere along the length of the digestive tract. Therefore, many different diseases could cause a positive test result including colorectal cancer, esophagitis, gastritis, stomach cancer, ulcerative colitis and hemorrhoids. Follow up tests are typically required to identify the source of the occult blood.
The present chemical or immunochemical methods of FOB tests for colorectal cancer screening rely predominantly on the detection of heme or hemoglobin in feces. A well known chemical FOB test, HEMOCCULT™, is based on chemical reactions that detect the pseudoperoxidase property of heme by causing the catalysis of peroxide into oxygen and water, and the subsequent oxidation of a colorless dye into a colored form. HEMOCCULT II™ involves smearing a sample of stool onto guaiac-impregnated paper, which turns blue after treatment with hydrogen peroxide-containing developer if blood (heme) is present. Gum guaiac is the most commonly used color reagent. The HEMOCCULT™ test can detect levels of bleeding from the colon as low as 0.5 mg per day. FOB tests generate many false positives. Factors such as medications, multiple dietary constituents, delays in specimen handling, variability in fecal hydration, and storage of assay materials commonly confound results. A person ingesting peroxidase-containing food may exhibit a positive reaction (false positive). Analysis of one of the three randomized controlled studies assessing the value of HEMOCCULT™ suggests comparable mortality rates in screened and control populations.
Newer methods of detecting occult blood based on porphyrin (heme and protpoporphyrin IX) analysis or immunologic tests using anti-hemoglobin antibodies improve on these results. Immunochemical tests that use anti-hemoglobin antibodies specific for human blood in extracts from stool do not require dietary restrictions and they are highly specific, however, they are more complicated and expensive than peroxidase-based tests. Further, blood in the patient's stool sample may be altered by partial digestion so that the antibodies do not recognize hemoglobin, thereby generating a false negative.
An FOB test called HEMOQUANT™ is an FOBT based on a physical method. It uses optical fluorescence spectroscopy for the indirect measurement of heme. Since heme does not fluoresce (the iron ion quenches the fluorescence), the first step in that method is to release the iron atom from heme to obtain protoporphyrine IX (PPIX), which is a fluorescing molecule. The advantage of the HEMOQUANT™ test is that it is quantitative and relatively specific, but it is expensive and much more cumbersome than the usual screening tests. Like the HEMOCCULT™ test, the HEMOQUANT™ test is also affected by diet. In other tests, fecal occult blood is measured accurately by analyzing chromium levels in fecal samples collected for three to ten days; chromium is present in red blood cells. This test is used in cases where the exact amount of the blood loss is required and it is the only test that can accurately exclude blood loss from the gastrointestinal tract.
Because the available chemical and immunochemical FOB tests are plagued by false positive and/or false negative results, there is a need for a reliable, inexpensive FOB test that could also be used to detect occult blood in urine (hematuria).

Occult blood detection in biological samples by laser desorption and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry for biomedical applications


A skin treatment device includes a handle and a tip, having a skin applying surface, detachably coupled to the handle. A fluid delivery structure is formed at skin applying surface and has an aperture and a vacuum entry port. A fluid detouring path is defined between the aperture and the vacuum entry port for prolonging a traveling path of fluid from the aperture and the vacuum entry port. An abrading structure, an electrode structure, and a micro-needling structure are selectively provided at the skin applying surface with the fluid delivery structure to provide multiple functions of the tip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skin treatment tool. More particularly, the present invention relates to a microdermabrasion device with replaceable tips.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Current techniques for superficial skin resurfacing, known as microdermabrasion, treat the outer epidermal layer of the skin by removing the superficial layer to induce the body's own natural wound healing response. It is known in the art to couple microdermabrasion with fluid delivery to enhance therapeutic effects. However, combined microdermabrasion/fluid delivery treatments are hindered by the protective barrier function of the stratum corneum which limits the depth of penetration and absorption to the surface of the skin when drugs and/or fluids are applied to the skin.
Other techniques for skin enhancing include transversal drug delivery employing an electrical current (e.g., skin electroporation) are known. However, these techniques have limited results based on: 1) the lack of an efficient fluid supply/return system using a vacuum; 2) the impedance of the stratum corneum which limits the efficacy of the current technologies of electrical penetration of drugs and/or fluids; and 3) the optimal permeation structure of the skin occurs during application of an electrical current and only lasts a few seconds after application of the electrical pulse.
Known technologies for delivery of an electro-current to the skin suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies which lead to the limited results, including, lack an efficient fluid supply/return using a vacuum; an inability to simultaneously apply fluid and electro-current to the skin; and means to lower the impedance of the stratum corneum.
Accordingly, there is a need for a skin resurfacing and enhancement system with enhanced fluid delivery/fluid return capacity which also improves the permeation structure of the skin.


An interlock system for signaling a nurse call patient station is disclosed. The interlock system may include a first terminal and a second terminal. The first and second terminals may be configured to be connected to corresponding terminals of a signaling loop of a nurse call patient station. The interlock system may further include a connection circuit. The connection circuit may be configured to electrically connect the first terminal to the second terminal. The interlock system may also include a control circuit in communication with, but isolated from, the connection circuit. The control circuit may include a microcontroller. The control circuit may be isolated from the connection circuit by an isolation circuit. The control circuit may be configured to operate the connection circuit to connect or disconnect the first terminal from the second terminal.

Traditional nurse call pillow speaker systems utilize a single communication channel between a patient station and a pillow speaker. The communication channel is typically activated by pressing a physical button on the pillow speaker. FIG. 1 illustrates the prior art to signal an analog nurse call to a patient station activated from a pillow speaker. Two conductors connect to the circuitry of the patient station. These two conductors are connected to the pillow speaker when it is plugged into the patient station interface. The two conductors connect to a switch on the pillow speaker. The switch is often implemented as a dry-contact push button, which may be normally open or normally closed (shown as normally open in FIG. 1). When the button is pressed to change the state of the switch, the circuitry of the patient station detects the change in state as a nurse call signal. However, modern nurse call systems often utilize multiple communication signals, and a simple push button is unable to support more than one communication signal.
FIG. 2 illustrates the prior art for an analog interlock system used by the patient station to determine if a pillow speaker is connected. The patient station uses two conductors that connect to the pillow speaker at an interface of the patient station. When connected to the patient station, the pillow speaker provides a connection circuit to complete the interlock circuit and verify its connection. The pillow speaker circuit may be a wire, zero-ohm resistor, or a resistor value specified by the patient station. When the pillow speaker is disconnected from the patient station, the interlock circuit fails open, which causes the patient station to detect the open and throw a "cord out" alarm condition. However, as modern nurse call systems often utilize multiple communication signals, there is a critical need for such an interlock system capable of handling multiple communication channels.

Nurse call and interlock signaling for pillow speaker communication channels


A processor, integrated with re-configurable logic and memory elements, is disclosed which is to be used as part of a shared memory, multiprocessor computer system. The invention utilizes the re-configurable elements to construct persistent finite state machines based on information decoded by the invention from sequences of CISC or RISC type processor machine instructions residing in memory. The invention implements the same algorithm represented by the sequence of encoded instructions, but executes the algorithm consuming significantly fewer clock cycles than would be consumed by the processor originally targeted to execute the sequence of encoded instructions.

A typical multiprocessing computer system consists of operating system software residing in main memory running on at least one of two or more microprocessors executing code in parallel that share both a common memory access bus as well as an inter-processor communication bus.
Two types of microprocessors are commonly used to implement a multiprocessing computer system: Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processors or Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processors. Both types of processors operate by fetching native machine instructions from memory, decoding them, and then executing those instructions in sequential order. Each step in the process of completing an instruction consumes clock cycles. The same cumulative number of clock cycles will be consumed each time the same sequence of instructions is completed.
Virtually any computer algorithm can be implemented through the correct sequencing of instructions which are encoded in the native machine language of the particular CISC or RISC processor targeted to execute that sequence. This sequence of encoded instructions residing in memory is essentially a representation of the algorithm itself. Therefore, any type of processor having access to the block of memory containing the instruction sequence, and having the capability of decoding the sequence, can potentially implement the algorithm even though it may not have been the original processor targeted to execute the sequence.
Alternatively, a computer algorithm can be implemented by constructing a finite state machine through the correct configuration of one or more re-configurable logic devices. A well known example of a re-configurable logic device is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). A typical re-configurable logic device contains an array of both simple and complex logic elements, as well as, registers. The configuration information is stored in memory in the form of an encoded bit map. This bit map residing in memory essentially represents the finite state machine and therefore the algorithm itself.
A re-configurable logic device only has to fetch and decode the configuration bit map once to construct any finite state machine whose existence will persist until re-programmed. For a given algorithm, a finite state machine typically requires significantly fewer clock cycles to execute as compared to a microprocessor executing a sequence of instructions. The ability of a re-configurable logic device to implement computer algorithms depends on the variety, complexity and quantity of logic elements available to configure.

Integrated circuit microprocessor that constructs, at run time, integrated reconfigurable logic into persistent finite state machines from pre-compiled machine code instruction sequences


A chip antenna includes a main body and a pedestal. The main body is provided with a rectangular-parallelopiped base member with a relative dielectric constant of about 6.0 having barium oxide, aluminum oxide, and silica as main components; a conductor wound helically inside the base member in the longitudinal direction of the base member; a power-feed terminal formed on a surface of the base member, for applying a voltage to the conductor; and an open terminal formed on a surface of the base member. The pedestal is provided with a base member made from a glass epoxy resin having a relative dielectric constant of about 4.8; and external electrodes extending from opposing ends on surfaces of the base member toward adjacent side faces. The power-feed terminal and the open terminal of the main body are electrically and mechanically connected to the external electrodes of the pedestal by soldering, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chip antennas, and more particularly, to a chip antenna used for mobile communications and used in local area network (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
As mobile communication units typical of which is a portable telephone have been made compact and lightweight, a chip antenna has been practically used as a compact antenna substitute for a large antenna such as a whip antenna or an inverted F antenna.
To mount a chip antenna on a unit stably and effectively, as shown in FIG. 7(a), a main body 51 is provided with a protruding section 52 at an end and a circuit board 54 on which a chip antenna 53 is mounted on the unit. The size of the unit, however, is increased by the protruding section.
To solve this problem, a rectangular circuit board 55 on which the chip antenna 53 is mounted in the vicinity of an end of the main body 51 may be used. See FIG. 7(b).
Since a conventional chip antenna is directly mounted on a circuit board of a unit as described above, a capacitance is generated between a conductor of the chip antenna and a ground electrode formed on the rear surface of the circuit board. With this capacitance, the gain of the chip antenna may decrease or the center frequency of the chip antenna may shift.


The present invention relates to a portable recreational cooler in combination with an audio system. The audio system is mounted in the hinged lid and suitable speakers and wiring are located in the cooler sidewalls. Covers are provided to protect the system from the environment.

Portable insulated coolers and portable audio systems are used in the workplace and for recreational activities such as going to the beach. The devices are sometimes used coincidentally, and it is acknowledged that the prior art broadly teaches that the two devices can be combined. However, there are few if any such audio/coolers available in the marketplace that have the advantages of durability and light in weight.
Most such prior art audio/coolers have the audio system mounted into a sidewall of the cooler, causing the cooler to be unbalanced and making carrying the cooler more difficult. Furthermore, because the audio unit in such audio/coolers are usually mounted into a sidewall, a large amount of the audio unit's surface area is exposed to sand, salt-water, and other environmental hazards. Other audio/coolers have means for protecting the audio unit, but such protection means are cumbersome and expensive, don't protect the audio source unit when in use, and have more moving parts subject to breakage. The present invention provides a portable insulated cooler with a built-in audio system mounted so as to provide balance and ease-of-carrying, to provide a simple, practical and inexpensive means of protecting the audio unit from the environment, and to provide additional lighting and storage means.

Portable insulated cooler with built-in audio system


A method of and apparatus for using a device driver, or similarly system dependent software, of an operating system, which is single-tasking, in an operating system environment, which is multi-tasking. Each operating system operates according to known predefined driver models. The invention converts the calls from the multi-tasking system into calls of the single-tasking system by mapping the device driver command codes and entry points in accordance with the driver models of each operating system. The converted calls are provided to state logic, which also receives responses from the device driver. The state logic ensures that calls to the device driver are sequentialized, thus avoiding contention issues that may occur as a consequence of the multi-tasking environment and which the device driver may not have the appropriate functionality to handle. In this fashion, investments in system software, such as device drivers and TSRs, may be extended along the life of a subsequent operating system.

FIG. 1 illustrates the system architecture for a conventional computer system, such as an IBM PS/2.RTM. personal computer ("PC"). The exemplary computer system of FIG. 1 is for descriptive purposes only. Though the description below may refer to terms commonly used in describing particular computer systems, such as an IBM PS/2.RTM. PC, the concepts equally apply to other systems, including those having dissimilar architectures.
The exemplary computer 100 includes a central processing unit ("CPU") 105, which may include a conventional microprocessor; a random access memory ("RAM") 110 for temporary storage of information; a read only memory ("ROM") 115 for permanent storage of information; a diskette controller 140 for controlling a diskette 142 that may be inserted into computer 100; a disk controller 150 for controlling a hard disk 152 that is local to the computer 100; a keyboard and mouse controller 155 for controlling a keyboard input device 156 and a mouse input device 157; a DMA controller 160 for performing direct memory access to RAM 110; a video controller 165 for controlling a video output display 170; a memory controller 120 for controlling RAM 110; a bus controller 125 for controlling bus 130; and an interrupt controller 135 for receiving and processing various interrupt signals. Communication controller 145 communicates via medium 147 to a network. Controller 145 may correspond to a local area network communication controller, for example, or a modem controller. Similarly, medium 147 may correspond to a tangible medium, such as local area network cable or a telephone link. Or, medium 147 may use wireless techniques, such as microwave or infrared transmission techniques.
The computer 100 is generally controlled and coordinated by operating system software, such as the OS/2.RTM. or DOS operating systems, developed and sold by the International Business Machines Corporation ("IBM"), Boca Raton, Fla. Conventional operating systems perform memory management, provide file system services, provide networking and I/O services, provide a user interface, such as a graphical user interface ("GUI"), and the like. User applications, such as editors and spread sheets, directly or indirectly, rely on these and other capabilities.
As is known in the art, operating systems often include most, if not all, of the above functionality; some provide more; some provide less. To better understand the system structure of two conventional operating systems, the following sections are provided.
1. Review of the DOS Operating System
FIG. 2 illustrates the DOS system structure 200. A user shell 201a, utilities 201b, application programs 201c, and terminate-and-stay-resident ("TSR") modules 201d generally form an outermost layer of the DOS operating system 200. The user shell 201a provides a user environment, including a prompt, and a command interpreter so that the computer may receive and process user commands. The outer layer of the operating system may directly use the inner layers, as well as the functionality of the other portions of the outer layer 201.
The next inner layer is the application-program interface ("API") layer 202, which provides an interface between the DOS kernel 203 and the outer layer 201. Consequently, the outer layers need understand only the level of abstraction defined by the API interface 202. Thus, application programs and the like may be developed without any regard as to the actual implementation of the kernel and other inner layers.
The next inner layer 203 is the DOS kernel. The DOS kernel provides known system supervisor functions.
The next inner layer 204 corresponds to the device drivers. Device drivers communicate with I/O devices and the like. As is known in the art, device drivers are highly hardware specific. The DOS operating system mandates a particular corresponding "device driver model." The device driver model defines a method of communication between the device driver and the DOS kernel. In some instances the device driver will communicate directly with the hardware. In other instances, device drivers may communicate with a ROM BIOS layer 205, which provides a layer of abstraction to the device driver. Among other things, the driver model defines the driver entry points that must be supported by a device driver to operate in the system and also defines the "calling conventions" for entering a driver.
As is known, DOS is a single-user, single-task system. Consequently, once a task gains control of the system, the task retains control until it has completed execution. Many system components, such as device drivers, rely upon this single-tasking paradigm of operation. For example, a DOS device driver may be constructed without functionality to handle contention issues. Under DOS, this is acceptable because the DOS operating system ensures that multiple processes will not run concurrently, and thus, multiple tasks cannot "contend" for a resource.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above explanation is for descriptive purposes only and that the description of certain components has been simplified or omitted. Only those aspects that are material to understanding the invention are described. If a more detailed explanation is necessary, reference may be made to the numerous available materials that describe the DOS operating system in significant detail.
2. Review of the OS/2 operating system
The OS/2 operating system, unlike the DOS operating system, is a multi-tasking operating system. Under the OS/2 operating system, an application may request substantially more memory than under the DOS operating system. Moreover, multiple processes may concurrently execute and interact.
FIG. 3 illustrates the system structure 300 of the OS/2 operating system. As is readily seen, FIG. 3 is fairly similar construction to FIG. 2. A person skilled in the art, however, will appreciate that FIGS. 2 and 3 are at a high level of abstraction and that the implementations of the two systems are vastly dissimilar. For present purposes, this level of abstraction suffices, and the description of similar layers to those outlined above will not be repeated here, for the sake of brevity.
For purposes of understanding the invention, the principal difference between the DOS operating system and the OS/2 operating system is that the OS/2 operating system includes a layer 302a for dynamic link libraries "(DLLs)". DLLs are known and allow the binding of code and data in the DLL to be delayed, until the program or data of the DLL is actually loaded or until the program using the DLL specifically requests the operating system to dynamically link to the DLL.
3. Customer Investment and Compatability Issues
Over time, customers may make a substantial investment in a particular operating system. For example, customers may purchase various hardware devices, e.g., a magnetic tape reader, that are supported by device drivers of a particular operating system, such as DOS.
When a new operating system succeeds a prior operating system, often applications and other software are "ported" to the new operating system. "Porting" generally refers to the process of migrating the code to run under a new operating system. Sometimes this only involves recompiling source code; other times the code needs to be modified.
It is not uncommon for certain software--especially device drivers and other highly machine and/or operating system dependent software--to never be ported to a new operating system. This is so, because device drivers and the like are often written in lower level assembler code. As is known, low level code is more difficult to understand than higher level code. Consequently, software developers have difficulty deciphering the code, and this increases the porting cost. Further complicating the effort, device drivers and the like are usually constructed according to a device driver model that may be significantly different than that of the new operating system. Consequently, the porting effort will require developers who are proficient in both operating systems driver models, thus further encumbering the porting effort.
Other reasons may also affect the unavailability of a device driver and other software in a new operating system. For example, the company that originally provided the hardware and associated device driver may be out of business, or the company may have changed its product strategy to discontinue support for the device.
Consequently, users sometimes want to upgrade their computer system to use a new operating system, but are faced with the dilemma of losing a significant investment in their hardware and/or software. To this end, certain operating systems provide known compatibility functions to alleviate the loss.
For example, the OS/2 operating system allows the user to invoke a so-called "DOS session" through OS/2's multiple virtual DOS machine ("MVDM") facility. The MVDM feature is known and provides the user with a DOS environment, even though the OS/2 operating system is executing.
Theoretically, under MVDM, a DOS device driver may be installed into and used by a single DOS session. However, if two DOS sessions attempt to install and use the device driver, problems may likely result. This is so, not because of MVDM, but because the different sessions may contend for resources associated with the driver. As outlined above, the DOS driver was likely constructed for a single user, single tasking system in which such contention is not possible. Consequently, if two DOS sessions attempt to use the DOS driver contention may result, but the driver will have no mechanism to handle the contention. Data incoherency and other fatal errors, such as deadlock, may result.
Moreover, even if a user somehow ensures that a device driver will be installed and used by a single session only, the MVDM facility provides visibility to the device driver from a DOS emulated session. Consequently, though the user is able to use the driver, he or she is deprived of the full power of the OS/2 operating system because of the DOS emulation; for example, he or she is prevented from running large memory space multi-tasking, applications due to the DOS inherent constraints.
The description above made particular reference to DOS device drivers. The same concerns and problems are implicated for other DOS specific code, such as DOS network redirectors and terminate and stay resident modules ("TSRs") .
Consequently, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus that allows users to use device drivers and other operating system specific code constructed for use in an operating system environment in an operating system environment of a different type.
It is another object of the present invention to provide compatibility to device drivers and the like of a first single-tasking operating system to applications running in a second multi-tasking operating system.

Method and apparatus for using device drivers of a first operating system, under the control of a second operating system


A negative electrode material for lithium ion batteries is obtained by a method which includes: mixing carbon particles (B) such as graphite particles, particles (A), such as Si particles, containing an element capable of occluding and releasing lithium ions, a carbon precursor such as sucrose, a carboxylic acid compound such as acetic acid, and a liquid medium such as water or isopropyl alcohol to prepare a slurry; drying and solidifying the slurry; and heat-treating the resulting solidified material to carbonize the carbon precursor. A lithium ion battery is obtained using this negative electrode material.

As the trend of portable electronics toward multifunctionality has been outpacing the trend toward reduction in power requirements for electronic components, power consumption of portable electronics has been on the rise. Because of this, lithium-ion batteries, which are the primary power sources in portable electronics, are in demand more strongly than ever to have larger capacities and be smaller in size. In addition, with the growing demand for electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries for use in such vehicles are strongly demanded to have larger capacities.
Graphite is mainly used as a negative electrode material for the conventional lithium ion batteries. Graphite can occlude Li only up to the stoichiometric ratio of LiC6. Therefore, the theoretical capacity of a lithium ion battery in which graphite is used as a negative electrode is 372 mAh/g.
In order to achieve a high capacity of a lithium ion battery, particles comprising a metal element, such as Si, Sn or the like, having a large theoretical capacity are considered to use for a negative electrode material. For example, the theoretical capacity of a lithium ion battery in which Si-containing particles are used for a negative electrode material is 4200 mAh/g. In contrast, the theoretical capacity of a lithium battery in which metal lithium is used is 3900 mAh/g. Therefore, if Si and the like can be used for a negative electrode material, a lithium ion battery which is smaller and of a higher capacity than a lithium battery is expected to be obtained. However, a negative electrode material such as Si or the like has a large expansion and contraction associated with intercalation and deintercalation (occlusion and release) of lithium ions. This may result in gaps between particles, and a capacity as good as expected can not be obtained. Further, since particles crack into fine powders due to repeated large expansion and contraction, electric contacts may break to increase internal resistance. Therefore, the resulting lithium ion battery may have a short charge and discharge cycle life.
Accordingly, the followings have been proposed such as a negative electrode material comprising Si and/or Sn-containing particles and fibrous carbon (Patent Document 1); a negative electrode material comprising a graphite particle and a carbonaceous material attached to the surface of the graphite particle, the carbonaceous material containing a Si-containing particle and fibrous carbon (Patent Document 2); a negative electrode material comprising a mixture of metal-based particles such as Si, Sn, Ge or the like and graphite particles in which d002 is not less than 0.3354 nm and not more than 0.338 nm and the area ratio of the G peak and the D peak by the Raman spectroscopy is G/D≧9 (Patent Document 3); a negative electrode material comprising a solid solution comprising an element such as Si, Ge or the like capable of occluding and releasing lithium ions and an element such as Cu or the like incapable of occluding and releasing lithium ions (Patent Document 4); a negative electrode material in which Si particles are attached to the surface of a graphite particle, and a carbon coating is covered on at least a portion of the surface of the graphite particle (Patent Document 5); an electrode structure in which a metal powder and a supporting powder are compounded with a binding material serving to form chemical bonds (Patent Document 6).

Method for producing negative electrode material for lithium ion batteries


Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described that indicate an amount at which various gas flow rates should be manually adjusted in order to achieve targeted total flow rates and concentration levels.

Patients with respiratory ailments may be treated with respiratory assist devices, for example devices that deliver supplemental breathing gas to a patient. Ideally gas lowers respiration rate, improves secretion clearance, and reduces the work of breathing, which allows patients to comfortably eat, speak, and sleep, while receiving a high level of respiratory support.
Unfortunately, many patients may desire to receive this type of treatment in the comfort of their home or in non-clinical settings. In such settings, access to the high pressure gas needed for many respiratory assist devices to function may not be readily available. For example, many devices that automatically blend gas (e.g., oxygen) to a desired concentration require a gas source capable of producing pressure at at least fifty psi. In many cases, this amount of pressure is only available via specialized gas sources, which may dampen accessibility, reduce the portability, and completely preclude the use of auto-blending devices in many hospital units, step-down units, long-term care units, the home, and any place without an access to a source of high pressure gas.

Methods and systems for obtaining desired oxygen concentrations and air flows during respiratory therapy


A manual shift control system for automatic transmissions is so constructed as to carry out automatic shift control when a motor vehicle is found in the operation area where selection of a manual speed ratio is not allowed. Acceptance of the manual upshift or downshift command is prohibited until a predetermined time elapses after occurrence of automatic shift.

The present invention relates generally to an automatic transmission of a motor vehicle that allows manual shift and more particularly, to a manual shift control system for use therein.
With the automatic transmission that allows manual shift, if shifting to a speed ratio corresponding to a manual shift command is carried out without taking account of the vehicle cruising state, the following problem arises. When providing a manual shift command to a low speed ratio at high vehicle speed, the engine falls in over-rotation, whereas, when providing a manual shift command to a high speed ratio at low vehicle speed, engine vibrations are transmitted to a vehicle body.
Generally, as disclosed, for example, in JP-A 7-83327, a shift pattern for each speed ratio corresponding to a manual shift command is determined with the operation area wherein selection of a corresponding speed ratio is not allowed. In this operation area, automatic shift is carried out instead of manual shift so as not to produce the above problem.
With the known structure, however, since a upshift or downshift manual shift command is accepted even during execution of automatic shift in the manual range, manual shift corresponding thereto is carried out besides automatic shift, causing the following problem:
By way of example, if automatic shift in the manual range aims to prevent over-rotation at high vehicle speed, it naturally concerns upshift transmission for decreasing the engine speed. When a driver, who does not know this automatic shift, wants shifting to one-stage higher speed, he carries out an operation to provide a upshift manual shift command. At that time, the known structure ensures shifting of upshift transmission due to automatic shift plus upshift transmission corresponding to a upshift manual shift command. As a result, though the driver wants shifting to one-stage higher speed, shifting to two-stage higher speed is carried out. The driver has to then carry out an operation to provide a downshift manual shift command, resulting in a troublesome operation.
The foregoing is an inconvenience in the operation area wherein selection of a corresponding speed ratio is not allowed in the manual range. With the known structure, even in the operation area wherein selection of a corresponding speed ratio should be allowed, the following problem arises when upshift manual shift commands are provided consecutively:
If upshift manual shift commands are provided consecutively, the automatic transmission cannot ensure shifting to a final speed ratio through sequential progress of speed ratios corresponding thereto due to a shift response lag, but substantially so-called jump shifting that a current speed ratio abruptly proceeds to a final speed ratio. This jump shifting accompanies a great variation in the engine speed, so that friction elements such as clutch put in engagement upon shifting should absorb corresponding rotational energy, increasing the heat amount of the friction elements, causing overheat thereof. This inconvenience is remarkable as the vehicle speed is higher.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a manual shift control system for use in automatic transmissions, which is free from the above problems, and enables easy and excellent manual shift.

Control system prohibiting a manual shift for use in automatic transmissions


An optical resonator, a photonic system and a method of optical resonance employ optical waveguide segments connected together with total internal reflection (TIR) mirrors to form a closed loop. The optical resonator includes the optical waveguide segments, an intracavity active element coupled to a designated one of the optical waveguide segments, the TIR mirrors and a photo-tunneling input/output (I/O) port. The photo-tunneling I/O port includes one of the TIR mirrors. The method includes propagating and reflecting the optical signal, or a portion thereof, in the optical resonator, transmitting a portion of the optical signal through the I/O port, and influencing the optical signal. The photonic system includes the optical resonator with optical gain and a source of an optical signal.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to optical waveguides and photonic circuits. In particular, the invention relates to optical waveguide resonators used in photonic devices and systems.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical ring resonator generally comprises a segment or segments of optical waveguide arranged as a closed loop or ring. The closed loop forms a resonant cavity. Such ring resonators have a variety of important uses in photonic devices and systems. In particular, the optical ring resonator may serve as an active photonic device having one or more active optical components or elements integrated within the resonant cavity of the ring resonator (i.e., an 'intracavity' active element(s)). The intracavity active element(s) integrated with the ring resonator may result in 'cavity enhancement' of a functionality of the active elements, for example. Such intracavity active elements may be employed to one or more of generate, amplify, and modulate an optical signal of the ring resonator.
The intracavity active elements that are integrated with a ring resonator may be generally classified as either saturable active elements or unsaturable active elements. Saturable active elements include, but are not limited to saturable absorbers, laser and other optical amplifiers. For example, the saturable active element may be a continuous-wave laser amplifier or a directly-modulated laser amplifier that is modulated by an applied electric current. In another example, the intracavity active elements may comprise a laser amplifier in combination with a saturable absorber. The saturable absorber may assist in mode-locking the laser within the resonant cavity (i.e., laser cavity) formed by the ring resonator, for example. An example of an unsaturable active element is an electro-absorption modulator (EAM). Incorporated into the resonant cavity of the ring resonator, the EAM becomes a 'cavity enhanced' EAM.
Among the challenges of integrating an intracavity active element into an optical ring resonator is providing sufficient coupling between the intracavity active optical element and a mode or modes of the optical signal propagating in the optical waveguide of the ring resonator. Generally, the coupling must be sufficient to provide for proper and/or efficient operation of the intracavity active optical element. For example, a modulation depth or ratio of an EAM is directly dependent on a percentage of the optical signal that is coupled into the EAM. Sufficient coupling may be difficult to achieve in many cases.
Another challenge of integrating an intracavity active optical element into an optical ring resonator is choosing appropriate materials for the integrated structure. Specifically, an ideal or highly desirable material for realizing the optical waveguide may be less than ideal for or even incompatible with an implementation of the intracavity active element. For example, while silicon may be a relatively attractive material (e.g., low cost) for realizing and implementing the optical waveguide of the optical resonator, silicon is an indirect band gap material and, as such, is not particularly well-suited for constructing active optical elements.

Optical waveguide ring resonator with an intracavity active element

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An ink separation device for a printing press ink feed control having a device for printing a color chart having randomly distributed color patches, and recording the cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink dot sizes (CMYK) for each color patch, a device for measuring the red, green, blue and infrared reflection value (RGBI) from each color patch, and recording the RGBI value for each of the color patches, a device for defining a transfer function which maps a four-dimensional RGBI vector into a four-dimensional CMYK vector, a device for forming RGBI measurements over a reference copy, and transferring each of the RGBI measurements into the corresponding CMYK ink dot size value, a device for forming RGBI measurements over a production copy, and transferring each of the RGBI measurements into the corresponding CMYK ink dot Size value, a device for forming the dot size ratio between the production copy and the reference copy to form the ink volume ratio between the reference and production copies and a device for adjusting and ink feed rate of the press.

The present invention relates to control systems for a printing press.
The mainstream of color printing encompasses the use of four printing inks (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). These inks are printed on paper one at a time to form a four color image. The printer will also print a series of single ink control targets in the page margin to aid in the control of the ink feed rate. Densitometers are commonly used to measure the cyan, magenta, yellow and visual densities from these areas. Conversions may exist to convert these corresponding density values to estimates of the ink present. However, when measurements are taken from a single ink control target, image quality cannot be inferred since differences in dot gain will not contribute to the solid ink densities measured by such a device. Other image quality variances caused by press behaviors such as ghosting, will not be detected in the densities measured from the control target. In addition, it is undesirable to use a control target due to the extra paper required for its printing and the effort needed to remove it from the final product.
Color monitor systems exist that measure the image area, where multiple inks are present. These systems use three channel sensors such as a color camera. These systems generally provide an overall score indicating the quality of color match between reference and production copies. The quality of match is generally presented as the difference in sensor space of red, green, blue or cyan, magenta and yellow between these two copies. When an operator is presented with this information, human judgment is involved in translating this information to the control of a specific ink on the printing press. Automated translations from the color difference to the ink content do not exist. This occurs because the working range of the device is limited to the visible region of the spectrum where the black ink and three color process black are indistinguishable. Since the relationship between the color separation and the quantity of ink being printed is not known, systems of this type provide little aid to the operator for control purposes. Monitor systems such as this do not provide closed loop color control.
The technology used in prepress color separation cannot be used in color control of a printing press. In a prepress color separation, an original image is scanned with a three channel color sensor providing reflection values in the red, green and blue spectral regions. The color separation process also determines the amount of cyan, magenta and yellow ink that would be needed to reproduce this original image on a printing press. Knowing that the combinations of these three inks ideally produce black, an algorithm in the color separation system will substitute black for the three inks of cyan, magenta and yellow. This process is usually called Gray Component Removal (GCR). The magnitude of each of the three inks that are subtracted as black is added varies depending on the impurities in the process inks. There are therefore many different combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and black that can be used to reproduce the original. The task of this prepress color separation is to find one of the color combinations that will reproduce the original image. This can be accomplished by operator preference or other factors. The output of the process does not imply the amount of ink (if any) used on the original scanned image, nor does it imply the amount of ink that has been applied to the paper in an actual printing condition.
Since three channel sensors have posed a problem in determining the quantity of four inks on a printed page, some have devised a four channel sensor in anticipation of overcoming the problem. U.S. Pat. No. 3,376,426 to Frommer (1968) discloses a density monitor system which includes an infrared sensor for detecting the presence of black ink and a linear 4-by-4 subtractive suppression matrix for reducing a secondary affect caused by the impurities of the inks. It is suggested by Frommer that the linear matrix is adjusted for a correct response at one maximum level of density. Since neither the dot gain, the trapping nor the relation between the ink volume and the light reflectance is in a linear form, the output of Frommer's suppression matrix does not represent the amount of ink present on the paper, nor is it his intention. When one or more color inks are mixed with the black ink, the output of this suppression matrix for color inks will exhibit a large degree of error. This large error can cause an ink control system to make adjustments to inks which are not requiring adjustment, or to move inks in the wrong direction, resulting in an unstable system. For this reason, Frommer's system cannot be used to control a printing process in a stable and accurate manner, nor preset the printing press based on a given reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,502 to Keller (1987) discloses a demask process to determine the surface coverage for each ink by solving extended Neugebauer equations iteratively. The extended Neugebauer equations used in Keller's processing are pure stochastic models which give no consideration to dot gain (called "point increment" by Keller) and trapping factors for different dot sizes. Thus, Neugebauer equations become less accurate, especially when the dot size of one or more inks is in the vicinity of 50 percent, or one ink has a low dot size while the other three inks have high dot sizes. Therefore, Keller's process must further include weighting matrices G1 and G3 to compensate for errors caused by the dot gain and the over-printed colors, respectively. However, these two compensation functions are only used for assigning lower weighting factors to data with lower confidence levels, but not for eliminating the existing errors. Thus, the error produced by the demask process will propagate into the ink feed rate calculation step making the color adjustment processing less accurate. Furthermore, Neugebauer equations describe light reflectance as a function of the ink coverage values, which are independent variables in Neugebauer equations. There is no easy way to reverse the Neugebauer equations so those ink coverage values, which we want to know, can be described explicitly as dependent variables. To find these surface coverage values, a long and complicated iterative process has to be used to solve these multi-variable non-linear simultaneous equations. This process is very time consuming and has to be performed for a large number of measurement elements. This process is also risky since the coefficient matrices of these equations may be singular or ill-conditioned for certain reflectance combinations resulting a very poor solution, or none at all.
In order to adjust the color of currently printing copies on the press so they look substantially like a reference, information should be known about the ink content of the reference and that of the currently printed copy. Adjustments could then be made in the ink feed rate based on this difference. An ink separation process is able to take the sensor data presented when viewing an area with multiple inks and convert it into actual ink content on the page.

Ink separation device for printing press ink feed control


A fibrous material reprocessing apparatus separates a cellulose pulp material into a fibrous material stream and a remainder stream. The fibrous material stream is treated in a grinder to reduce the size of the fibrous material. The reduced size fibrous material is then recombined with the remainder stream.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for the processing of a cellulose pulp mixture as part of a process of treating and reusing waste material such as municipal garbage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The assignee of the present invention has previously developed methods and apparatus for treating municipal waste materials to produce a cellulose pulp mixture which may then be used for various purposes including pelletizing of the cellulose pulp mixture, burning the cellulose pulp mixture to recover energy therefrom, use of the cellulose pulp mixture as a soil amendment, formation of the cellulose pulp mixture into rigid extruded articles, and other uses. The cellulose pulp mixture is created by hydrolyzing a waste mixture which has previously been shredded and had some undesirable material such as metals removed therefrom. The hydrolyzing technique involves applying heat and pressure to the waste mixture in the presence of water to convert the waste mixture into the cellulose pulp mixture. Examples of that process are found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,331; U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,475; and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0008474.


The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical or cosmetic composition and a method for promoting eyelash growth, wherein nipradilol or pharmaceutically or cosmetically acceptable salts thereof are used as active ingredients. The composition of the invention may comprise prostaglandin F2α analogs.

Generally, a healthy individual has about two hundred eyelashes, with women having more than men. Eyelashes grow to be about 1 cm, and vary in direction and angle.
With social and economic development, many people are taking an interest in appearance, with the interest extending towards the appearance of eyelashes. That is, as society is paying more attention to physical appearance, particular focus is put towards accentuating the eyes and extending and volumizing eyelashes and eyebrows for a fuller effect and a good impression. Also, some people simply have sparse hair by nature, or lose eyelashes due to a burn, car accident, disease, infection, continuous makeup, tattoos, stress, and the like. Under these circumstances, an individual experiences great inconvenience as the eyelashes cannot perform its functional feature of protecting the sweat from entering the eye or shielding the eyes from sunlight, dust and the like.
To increase eyelashes, a transplant surgery involving extraction of the hair and hair follicles from the back of the head to the balding spot may be a solution, but this transplant surgery becomes a burden on an individual, both economically and mentally.
Meanwhile, an evaluation index of eyelash increase may include number, thickness, and length of eyelashes, a survey, and the like.


A protection circuit of an LCD panel. The LCD panel includes a display cell coupled between a data electrode, a gate electrode and a common electrode. A switch includes a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal is coupled to the data electrode, the gate electrode or both. The switch is turned on when a voltage level of the first terminal or the second terminal exceeds a threshold voltage. An ESD protection circuit includes a capacitive load and a resistive load, coupled between the second terminal and the common electrode.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates in general to a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a protection circuit thereof. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an LCD comprising an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional LCDs comprise a plurality of pixels arranged in arrays. Transmittance of the liquid crystal of each pixel is adjusted by applied voltage thereon. Thus, a desired gray level is presented on the screen.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional liquid crystal display panel and the peripheral driving circuits thereof. As shown in the figure, an LCD panel 1 is formed by interlacing data electrodes (represented by D1, D2, D3, . . . , Dm) and gate electrodes (represented by G1, G2, G3, . . . , Gm), each of the interlaced data electrodes and gate electrodes control a display cell. As an example, interlacing data electrode D1 and gate electrode G1 control the display cell 100. The equivalent circuit of each display cell comprises thin film transistors (TFTs) (Q11-Q1m, Q21-Q2m, . . . , Qn1-Qnm) and storage capacitors (C11-C1m, C21-C2m, . . . , Cn1-Cnm). The gates and drains of the TFTs are respectively connected to gate electrodes (G1-Gn) and data electrodes (D1-Dm). Such a connection can turn on/off all TFTs on the same line (i.e. positioned on the same scan line) using a scan signal of gate electrodes (G1-Gn), thereby controlling the video signals of the data electrodes to be written into the corresponding display cell. In addition, the storage capacitor is connected between the corresponding thin film transistor and a common electrode 14 with voltage VCOM.
In addition, FIG. 1 additionally shows a portion of the driving circuit of the LCD panel 1. The gate driver 10 outputs one or more scan signals (also referred to as scan pulses) from each of the gate electrodes G1, G2, . . . , Gn according to a predetermined sequence. When a scan signal is carried on one gate electrode, the TFTs within all display cells on the same row or scan line are turned on while the TFTs within all display cells on other rows or scan lines are turned off. When a scan line is selected, data driver 12 outputs a video signal (gray value) to the m display cells of the respective rows through data electrodes D1, D2, . . . , Dm according to the image data to be displayed. After gate driver 10 scans n rows continuously, the display of a single frame is completed. Thus, repeated scans of each scan line can achieve the purpose of continuously displaying an image. As shown in FIG. 1, signal CTR indicates the scan control signal received by the gate driver 10, signal LD indicates a data latch signal of the data driver 12, and signal DATA indicates the image signal received by the data driver 12.
Typically, a video signal, which is transferred by the data electrodes D1, D2, . . . , Dm, is divided into a positive video signal and a negative video signal based on the relationship with the common electrode voltage VCOM. The positive video signal indicates a signal having a voltage level higher than the voltage VCOM, and based on the gray value represented, the actual produced potential of the signal ranges between voltages Vp1 and Vp2. In general, a gray value is lower if it is closer to the common electrode voltage VCOM. Conversely, the negative video signal indicates that the signal has a voltage level lower than the voltage VCOM, and based on the gray value represented, the actual produced potential of the signal ranges between voltages Vn1 and Vn2. Additionally, the gray value is lower if it is closer to the common electrode voltage VCOM. When a gray value is represented, whether in a positive or negative video signal, the display effect is substantially the same.
In order to prevent the liquid crystal molecule from continuously receiving a single-polar bias voltage, thus reducing the life span of the liquid crystal molecules, a display cell alternately receives positive and negative polar video signals corresponding to odd and even frames.
During manufacture of LCD panels, ESD frequently occurs on the isolated glass substrate and damages the LCD circuit. Thus, an ESD protection circuit is designed to buffer the ESD stress.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,394 discloses an LCD comprising an ESD protection circuit. The ESD protection circuit is connected between a guard ring and a gate electrode or a data electrode, which is a thin film transistor with a floating gate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,047 discloses an LCD comprising an ESD protection circuit. The ESD protection circuit comprises a switch having a control terminal. The ESD protection circuit is connected between a common electrode and a gate electrode or a data electrode.
Conventional methods add a short ring 15 between common electrode 14 and a gate electrode or a data electrode to release ESD current to common electrode 14 through short ring 15.
FIG. 2 shows a circuit of a conventional short ring 15. Short ring 15 comprises diodes 16 and 18. The anode of diode 16 is connected to the cathode of diode 18, and the cathode of diode 16 is connected to the anode of diode 18. Conversely, the anode of diode 18 is connected to the cathode of diode 16, and the cathode of diode 18 is connected to the anode of diode 16. The connection point of the anode of diode 16 and the cathode of diode 18 is connected to a gate electrode (G1˜Gn) or a data electrode (D1˜Dm) connected to the display cell 100, and the connection point of the anode of diode 18 and the cathode of diode 16 is connected to the common electrode 14. When the voltage level of the gate electrode (G1˜Gn) or the data electrode (D1˜Dm) is raised by ESD stress exceeding the threshold voltage of the diode 16, diode 16 is turned on, such that ESD stress is released to common electrode 14 through the turned-on diode 16. The size of common electrode 14 is large enough to sustain the ESD stress, such that damage to the display cell 100 by ESD stress is prevented.
During manufacture of LCD panels, however, ESD may occur on the common electrode 14 and damage the display cell 100 through the turned-on diode 18. Thus, the conventional short ring cannot prevent the occurrence of ESD on the common electrode 14 and resulting damage to the display cell 100. Additionally, the common electrode 14 is not grounded, and ESD protection provided thereby is limited. Thus, ESD stress may flow to other signal lines from the ungrounded common electrode.

Liquid crystal display and ESD protection circuit thereof


A container (1) made of flexible material (2) is, suitable for either vacuum-packed or nonvacuum-packed products and/or sterilizable products, or for containing liquid products, having stiffening plates as a cover (3) and as a base plate (4) and a system of folds which involves a horizontal folding edge (22) and two opposed vertical folding edges (23). In a first embodiment, the cover plate (3) has a lid (6), for example opening on a hinge, and the base plate (4) contains an expansion chamber (21), which communicates with the outside in order to compensate for any possible variation in the volume of the product inside the container (1), at the moment of packing. In another embodiment of the container (1), the cover plate (3) is provided with a dispenser spout (25), and the base plate is joined to the cover (3), in such a way as to allow the containers (1) to be stacked on top of each other, being used inside the plates (3, 4), which hold the plates (3,4) together after the axial crushing of the empty container.

1. Field of the Invention
The object of the present invention is a container, made of flexible material, and a method of production thereof.
The container according to the invention, in its different embodiments, is particularly suitable for vacuum-packet or non vacuum-packet powder products, and also for containing liquid or powdery products and for sterilizable products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of containers are in existence on the market.
For example, flexible containers are used for conserving products in powder form, such as coffee, under vacuum; these containers do not keep their shape after opening (they collapse), with the obvious drawbacks this entails, or rigid metallic containers are used (for example tins) which, however, tend to be expensive and retain their original bulk after use.
The latter type of container is widely used also for liquids and sterilizable products.
Semi-rigid cardboard containers are also in use for liquid products, such as fruit juices and the like, usually having a layer of aluminum interposed between an outer cardboard and an inner plastic film. These containers have a cost midway between the ones previously described, and although they are sufficiently rigid, they cannot be completely recycled becaused of the non-homogeneous nature of the materials making up the various layers, which is a problem also found usually with the flexible containers first described.
A semi-rigid container of the type just mentioned is described, for example, in Swiss Patent Application Serial No. 385,100, which comprises a bottom lid, a top lid and a skirt presenting an external layer made of cardboard material and an inner layer made of polyethylene. The jointing of the skirt takes place along a vertical strip, by overlapping its two adjacent edges after having removed a cardboard strip on the internal edge, and by heat welding the polyethylene sheets which come in contact. The jointing between the edges and the lids, which are made of plastic material, takes place by inserting the skirt edges into corresponding external peripherical foldings of the lids and by effecting a welding.


An echo processor includes an echo suppression amount decider which compares a state of an outgoing input signal to be sent including an echo with a state of an incoming input signal and calculates an echo suppression amount based on the comparison, a time-frequency transformer which transforms the outgoing input signal in the time domain into the frequency domain, thereby generating an amplitude spectrum and a phase spectrum, a noise-spectrum estimator which estimates a noise spectrum from the amplitude spectrum, a mixer which mixes an amount of the noise spectrum based on the echo suppression amount with the amplitude spectrum, and a frequency-time transformer which generates an outgoing output signal including a noise in the time domain on the basis of the amplitude spectrum, with which an amount of the noise spectrum is mixed by the mixer, and the phase spectrum, and outputs the outgoing output signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an echo processor for reducing echoes generated in communication wires or generated by an echogenic environment between a speaker and microphone in a voice telecommunication system, a television conference system, and so on.
2. Description of Background Art
Echo processors (echo cancelers) are widely used for canceling acoustic echoes or electrical echoes generated in television conference systems, handsfree car telephones, or telecommunication lines. A typical echo canceler includes an adaptive filter for canceling echoes and an echo suppressor for suppressing the amplitudes of residual echoes that the adaptive filter cannot cancel out. However, typical echo suppressors suppress acoustic background noises in addition to residual echoes, thereby accentuating a sense of interruptions of background noise and deteriorating the communication quality. In order to mitigate a sense of discontinuity, an echo canceler generates pseudo background noise components and mixes them with output signals.
An example of such echo processors is disclosed in JP-A-2000-224081 entitled "Echo Canceler Device."
FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional echo processor disclosed in JP-A-2000-224081. As shown in FIG. 12, the echo processor includes an adaptive filter 100, a pseudo background noise generator 120, an AFB (Analysis Filter Bank) 131, a first suppressor 132, an adder 133, an SFB (Synthesis Filter Bank) 134, a second suppressor 135, a first level estimator 136, a second level estimator 137, and a detector 138.
Operations of the echo processor will be described next. The adaptive filter 100 partially cancels out an echo in an input signal S[t] and outputs an echo-canceled input signal U[t]. The echo-canceled input signal U[t] still includes residual echoes since the adaptive filter 100 cannot remove all echo components.
The AFB 131 divides the input signal U[t] according to frequency bands, whereby generates frequency-divided input signal U[t,j]. The AFB 131 supplies the input signals U[t,j] to the first suppressor 132 and the pseudo background noise generator 120. The suffix j means the number given to each frequency band. The first suppressor 132 gives a loss Loss1 to the residual echo components at each band to attenuate, suppress, or remove the echo. The loss Loss1 is calculated as follows:
First, the first suppressor 132 compares an average power Pow(Rin) of the far-end speech signal Rin with an average power Pow(S[j]) of the input signals U[t,j]. If the former is greater than the latter, the first suppressor 132 subtracts a constant μ from a previous loss component Loss1[j], whereby a new loss component Loss1[j] is obtained in accordance with formula (1).Loss1[j]=Loss1[j]−μ  (1)
where μ is a constant, i.e., a step value of suppression amount (loss) Loss1.
On the contrary, if the average power Pow(Rin) is equal to or less than the average power Pow(S[j]), the first suppressor 132 adds the constant μ to the previous loss component Loss1[j], whereby a new loss component Loss1[j] is obtained in accordance with formula (2).Loss1[j]=Loss1[j]+μ  (2)
In either event, the first suppressor 132 adjusts the loss component Loss1[j] to fall into a range represented in formula (3).Loss(max)≦Loss1[j]≦0(dB)  (3)
where Loss(max) is the maximum loss that the first suppressor 132 can give to residual echo components.
Repetitions of the comparison and adjustment may control to converge the loss Loss1 depending upon the level of the residual echo. During the process of applying the loss Loss1 to the residual echo, the first suppressor 132 not only suppresses or removes most of the residual echo components, but also suppresses acoustic background noise components mixed with the echo components, accentuating a sense of speech interruptions for the far-end talker if no additional proceeding is applied.
The pseudo background noise generator 120 estimates the levels of the background noises of the frequency-divided input signals U[t,j] and generates pseudo background noises N[t,j] of which the levels are the same as that of the background noise. The pseudo background noises N[t,j] are supplied to the adder 133, which adds the pseudo background noises N[t,j] to the input signals U[t,j] in which the echo components have been reduced by the first suppressor 132. The background noise levels after the addition may be adjusted to be equal to the pseudo background noise level.
The output signals O[t,j] from the adder 133 divided in accordance with frequencies are supplied to the SFB 134 that synthesizes them into an output signal O[t]. The SFB 134 supplies the output signal O[t] to the second suppressor 135.
The second level estimator 137 measures the instantaneous levels of the frequency-divided output signals O[t,j]. The first level estimator 136 measures the instantaneous level of the pseudo background noises N[t,j] at respective frequency bands. Comparing the measurements by the level estimators 136 and 137 leads a decision as to whether there is a near-end speech actually as will be described next.
The measurements by both level estimators 136 and 137 are supplied to the detector 138 that detects sounding or silence (decides whether or not there is a near-end speech actually) on the basis of the measurements. The detector 138 synthesizes the sounding/silent detection results at respective frequency bands. If it is decided that there is a near-end speech at one or more frequency bands, the detector 138 outputs a digital signal "1" that means sounding. If it is decided that there is no near-end speech at all frequency bands, the detector 138 outputs a digital signal "0" that means silence.
The digital signal output from the detector 138 is supplied to the second suppressor 135 that decides a suppression amount Loss2 on the basis of the output signal of the detector 138 in accordance with the manner that will be described next, and gives the loss Loss2 to the signal O[t] for attenuating it.
If the decision by the detector 138 is zero (silence), the detector 138 adds the constant μ′ to a previous loss Loss2, whereby a new loss Loss2 is obtained in accordance with formula (4).Loss2=Loss2+μ′  (4)
where μ′ is a step value of suppression amount (loss) Loss2. μ′ is a positive constant of which the absolute value is sufficiently small, e.g., 0.1 through 0.01 dB.
On the contrary, if the decision by the detector 138 is one (sounding), the detector 138 sets the loss Loss2 at zero in accordance with formula (5).Loss2=0(dB)  (5)
As will be understood from formula (4), when there is no actual sound, the second suppressor 135 increases the suppression amount Loss2 stepwise, so as to suppress the background noise only. On the contrary, when there is any speech component, the suppression amount Loss2 is set at 0 (dB) instantly in accordance with formula (5), thereby preventing the actual speech component from being suppressed.
As described above, the conventional echo processor divides the echo-canceled input signal into input signals at respective frequency bands by means of a band division filter, estimates the levels of background noises at respective bands, generates pseudo background noise components having an amplitude spectrum resembling that of the background noise, and mixes the pseudo background noise components with the signal suppressed by an NLP (non-linear process), thereby attempting to mitigate a sense of interruptions of background noise.
In the conventional echo processor, the amplitude spectrum of the pseudo background noise components to be mixed may be similar to that of the background noise within the input signal since the levels of the background noise components within the input signal are estimated at respective bands. However, the phase spectrum of the pseudo background noise components is different from that of the background noise within the input signal. Accordingly, although the pseudo background noise components are included in the final output signal, the final output signal still causes a sense of unnaturalness or strangeness.

Echo processor generating pseudo background noise with high naturalness


A light source device includes a plurality of light sources arranged in a matrix, a substrate, and a reflective member. The reflective member includes first walls defining a first region entirely surrounded by the first walls in a plan view, and second walls located on an outer side of the first walls, the second walls defining a second region and a third region each only partially surrounded by the second walls in the plan view such that an area of the second region is equal to or greater than a half of an area of the first region and an area of the third region is less than the half of the area of the first region in the plan view. The light sources are disposed respectively in the first region and in the second region while none of the light sources is disposed in the third region.

The present disclosure relates to a light source device.
Surface-emitting light source device are known as a direct-illumination backlight used in liquid crystal televisions, in-vehicle instruments, or the like. An example of the surface-emitting light source devices is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2013-25945. Such a light source device has frames arranged in a matrix shape, each of the frames having a reflective peripheral wall around a corresponding one of light sources. This structure provides divided light-emitting regions and prevents light leakage to the outside of the regions.


This invention provides a current control semiconductor element that can detect a current with high accuracy in a single IC chip by dynamically correcting changes in a gain a and an offset b, and a control device that uses the current control semiconductor element,                the current control semiconductor element has a transistor 4, a current-to-voltage conversion circuit 22 and an AD converter 23 on the same semiconductor chip. A reference current generation circuit 6 superimposes a current pulse Ic on a current of a load 2 and changes a voltage digital value to be output from the AD converter. A gain/offset corrector 8 executes signal processing on change in the voltage digital value caused by the reference current generation circuit 6 to dynamically acquire the gain a and the offset b that are used in an equation that indicates a linear relationship between the voltage digital value output from the AD converter 23 and the current digital value of the load. A current digital value calculator 12 uses the gain and the offset acquired by the gain/offset corrector 8 to correct the voltage value output from the AD converter.

Electric actuators such as motors and solenoids have been widely used for conversion of electric signals to mechanical motions or hydraulic pressure as various control targets are electrically controlled. It is essential to control a current with high accuracy to sophisticate the electric actuators. In recent years, digital feedback control has been generally used for high-accuracy current control.
To execute digital feedback control of a current, it is necessary to acquire a digital value ioutd of a load current value Iout to be controlled. For this purpose, an output Vout of a current-to-voltage conversion circuit is converted into a digital value by an AD converter. Then, a relative digital value Voutd(=Vout/Vref) with a reference voltage Vref of the AD converter is acquired. Next, the output Voutd of the AD converter is corrected according to input and output characteristics of a current detection circuit that includes the current-to-voltage conversion circuit and the AD converter, thereby acquiring the digital value Ioutd of a current.
Although the current detection circuit has a variety of configurations, it is preferable that the input and output characteristics of the current detection circuit be linear from the perspective of simplifying a control algorithm. In this case, the current digital value Ioutd can be calculated using a gain a and an offset b as expressed by Equation (1).Ioutd=a·Voutd+b  (1)
When the current value is measured according to Equation (1), it is important how the gain a and the offset b match with actual characteristics of the current detection circuit with high accuracy in improving the accuracy of current measurement.
There is a great need to not only provide the high-accuracy current control but also to downsize a control device and reduce the price. Such need is met by incorporating a current detection circuit in an IC chip. To incorporate the current detection circuit in the IC chip, an IC chip that incorporates a resistor for current detection is known (refer to, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Current control semiconductor element and control device using the same


A shank that has one end adapted to be connected to a chuck of a rotary tool. The opposite end of the shank supports a cutting head having a series of teeth formed on the edge thereof for cutting the periphery of the hole. A screw tip may be provided for feeding the bit into and through the wood. A plurality of cutting blades are provided for boring the interior of the hole. The cutting blades define a plurality of cutting edges that are disposed at different angles to a plan perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

Self feed bits for cutting large diameter holes in wood for pipe, conduit and other applications are known. These types of bits include a shank that has one end adapted to be connected to a chuck of a rotary tool such as a drill or power driver. The opposite end of the shank supports a cutting head having an annular cutting edge. A screw tip is provided for feeding the cutting member into and through the wood. A cutting member is disposed between the cutting edge and the tip. The bit is rotated at high speed such that the teeth score the edge of the hole and the cutting member bores the interior of the hole.
An improved self-feed bit is desired.


A method includes forming a plurality of fins above a substrate. A first mask layer is formed above a first subset of the fins. First portions of the fins in the first subset exposed by a first opening in the first mask layer are removed to define, for each of the fins, a first fin segment and a second fin segment, each having a cut end surface. A first liner layer is formed on at least the cut end surface of the first fin segment for each of the fins in the first subset. A second mask layer having a second opening is formed above a second subset of the plurality of fins. An etching process removes second portions of the second subset of fins exposed by the second opening. The first liner layer protects the cut end surface of at least the first fin segment during the removing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to various methods of performing fin cut etch processes for FinFET semiconductor devices and the resulting devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern integrated circuits, such as microprocessors, storage devices and the like, a very large number of circuit elements, especially transistors, are provided on a restricted chip area. Transistors come in a variety of shapes and forms, e.g., planar transistors, FinFET transistors, nanowire devices, etc. The transistors are typically either NMOS (NFET) or PMOS (PFET) type devices wherein the "N" and "P" designation is based upon the type of dopants used to create the source/drain regions of the devices. So-called CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology or products refers to integrated circuit products that are manufactured using both NMOS and PMOS transistor devices. Irrespective of the physical configuration of the transistor device, each device comprises drain and source regions and a gate electrode structure positioned above and between the source/drain regions. Upon application of an appropriate control voltage to the gate electrode, a conductive channel region forms between the drain region and the source region.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative prior art integrated circuit product 100 that is formed above a semiconductor substrate 105. In this example, the product 100 includes five illustrative fins 110, 115, a shared gate structure 120, a sidewall spacer 125, and a gate cap 130. The product 100 implements two different FinFET transistor devices (N-type and P-type) with a shared gate structure. The gate structure 120 is typically comprised of a layer of insulating material (not separately shown), e.g., a layer of high-k insulating material or silicon dioxide, and one or more conductive material layers (e.g., metal and/or polysilicon) that serve as the gate electrode for the transistors on the product 100. The fins 110, 115 have a three-dimensional configuration. The portions of the fins 110, 115 covered by the gate structure 120 define the channel regions of the FinFET transistor devices on the product 100. An isolation structure 135 is formed between the fins 110, 115. The fins 110 are associated with a transistor device of a first type (e.g., N-type), and the fins 115 are associated with a transistor device of a complementary type (e.g., P-type). The gate structure 120 is shared by the N-type and P-type transistors, a common configuration for memory products, such as static random access memory (SRAM) cells.
Typically, fins are formed in a regular array. To define separate transistor devices, the length of the fins may be adjusted and some fins or portions of fins may be removed. For example, a fin cut or "FC cut" process cuts fins in the cross direction by removing fin portions inside the FC cut mask. An active region cut process, or "RX cut" process removes one or more of the fin segments in the parallel direction by removing fin portions located outside the RX cut mask. The FC cut mask exposes portions of the fins and the dielectric material disposed above and between the fin portions. An etch process forms a trench that removes the dielectric material and the fin portions. The FC cut process exposes end surfaces of the fins where the FC cuts are performed. The RX cut mask covers fin portions that are to be retained and exposes other fin portions that are to be removed. The dielectric material above the fin portions to be removed is removed to expose the underlying fin portions. A subsequent etch process removes the exposed fin portions. However, because some of the end surfaces of the fin portions that were previously exposed during the FC cut are still exposed during the fin removal etch, the end surfaces can be eroded or undercut by the RX cut, thereby damaging the associated fins or segments.
After performing the RX cut, the recesses created by removing the fins are typically filled with a liner material. This liner material also covers the exposed end surfaces, so that a low-k dielectric material can be formed and densified in the regions between the fins to create isolation regions without damaging the fins. The isolation regions are etched back to expose portions of the fins, however, due to the high aspect ratio of the recesses and the different material of the liner layer, the liner material is not easily removed. Typically, the liner layer has a higher dielectric constant than the isolation regions. The remaining portions of the liner layer increase the capacitance of the device, thereby reducing performance.
FIGS. 2A-2B are cross-section views of a device 200 showing a first fin segment 205A and a second fin segment 205B defined above a substrate 210. In FIGS. 2A-2B, the cross-section is taken through the long axis of the fin segments 205A, 205B. The fin segments 205A, 205B were formed by performing an FC cut to remove a portion of the longer fin 205, as described above, to define a trench 212. An oxide cap layer 215 and a nitride cap layer 220 (previously used as hard mask layers to pattern the fin 205 in the substrate 210) are present above the fin segment 205A. Liners 225, 230 are formed on ends and the sidewalls of the fin 205 prior to forming the trench 212 that separates the fin 205 into the fin segments 205A, 205B. After formation of the trench 212, the cap layers 215, 220 were selectively removed from the fin segment 205B so that the fin segment 205B can be removed during a subsequent RX cut process. The cap layers 215, 220 remain positioned above the fin segment 205A.
FIG. 2B illustrates the device 200 after the RX cut process was performed. Because the cut end surface 205E of the fin segment 205A is exposed, the isotropic RX cut etch process erodes the end surface 205E, thereby damaging the fin segment 205A.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods and resulting devices that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Methods of performing fin cut etch processes for FinFET semiconductor devices and the resulting devices


A semiconductor memory includes a memory cell region that includes multiple memory cells stacked above a semiconductor substrate, first and second dummy regions on opposite sides of the memory cell region, each dummy region including multiple dummy cells stacked above the semiconductor substrate, and a wiring that electrically connects dummy cells of the first and second dummy regions that are at a same level above the semiconductor substrate.

In the recent years, a stack type flash memory that has a structure in which a memory cell is stacked is proposed as an approach to improving the bit density of flash memory. With the adoption of the stack type flash memory, the high capacity semiconductor memory may be realized at a low cost.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor memory having first and second memory cell regions separated by a third region along a bit line direction


The present invention provides the fluorine-containing elastic copolymer which is excellent in molding processability, particularly molding stability and further vulcanization properties, flowability at molding and compression set of a vulcanized rubber. The copolymer is prepared through emulsion polymerization of vinylidene fluoride and at least one of other monomers in two polymerization stages by using a water-soluble radical polymerization initiator in a very small amount of 0.001 to 0.03% by weight based on the total weight of copolymers prepared in the two stages and an oil-soluble radical polymerization initiator. The present invention also provides a process for preparation thereof and a vulcanizable composition containing the same.

The present applicant has developed, prior to the present invention, a process for preparing a fluorine-containing elastic copolymer having remarkably improved vulcanization reactivity and compression set of the vulcanized rubber and a vulcanizable composition made from the copolymer. Namely, the process for preparing the fluorine-containing elastic copolymer is a process for preparing a copolymer of vinylidene fluoride containing 28 to 92% by mole of vinylidene fluoride unit and at least one other monomer comprising (a) polymerizing vinylidene fluoride and at least one other monomer by the use of a water-soluble radical polymerization initiator in the first stage to produce a copolymer and (b) then polymerizing in the second stage of the polymerization by the use of an oil-soluble radical polymerization initiator in the presence of the copolymer prepared in the first stage to produce a copolymer, and the vulcanizable composition of the fluorine-containing elastic copolymer is a composition prepared from the copolymer (JP-A-62391/1977 and JP-A-76359/1977). However, in all of their experimental examples thereof, an amount of the water-soluble polymerization initiators is as large as about 0.08 to 0.6% by weight, and the obtained fluorine-containing elastic copolymer is not enough for recent strict requirements with respect to improvement of processability of fluorine-containing rubbers.
One of particular requirements regarding the fluorine-containing rubbers is improvement of molding processability thereof. Since the fluorine-containing rubber is high in material cost as compared with other rubber materials, when the vulcanization speed is fast and its flowability is good, such a rubber makes it possible to produce a molded article of the fluorine-containing rubber having complicated shape effectively and to lower a total production cost. Particularly, in order to conduct injection molding which is more effective as compared with compression molding, it is required to exhibit more excellent flowability, rapid vulcanization and effective crosslinking, namely it is required that irrespective of a low viscous polymer, vulcanization can be conducted in a short period of time and yet sufficient physical properties at normal state are exhibited. On the other hand, the vulcanization accelerator comprising a quaternary phosphonium salt which is often used when the polyhydroxy aromatic compound is used as the vulcanizing agent provides a molded article exhibiting excellent compression set and large elongation at breakage. However, there are disadvantages that fine voids appear by foaming particularly when molding at a high temperature for a short period of time, which results in high percentage of defective molded articles and further that there is a possibility of causing contamination of a die due to occurrence of unvulcanized parts because of non-uniform vulcanization. Thus, there was a case where the use of such a vulcanization accelerator was restricted. The present invention provides the process for preparing a fluorine-containing elastic copolymer at a cost nearly the same as before, the fluorine-containing elastic copolymer which is prepared by the process, has highly balanced good flowability, rapid vulcanization and necessary and enough physical properties and also has molding stability which has not been obtained in conventional fluorine-containing elastic copolymers, and a vulcanizable composition which is prepared from the copolymer.

Flourine-containing elastic copolymer excellent in molding processability, preparation process thereof and vulcanizable composition excellent in molding processability


The present invention may be used for detecting sound frequency signals emitted by warning devices of emergency vehicles. A sensor may sense a selected frequency signal spectrum and may be in communication with an initial detection stage to detect a frequency of approximately 600 Hz and approximately 1400 Hz within a specific time interval. A signal identification stage may be in communication with said initial detection stage and may have a digital signal processor programmed to identify a wail and yelp warning signal to compare said warning signal to a histogram stored in a memory to estimate the distance from the sound frequency signal. The signal identification stage may be maintained in a power save mode until activated by said initial detection stage upon detection of a warning signal.

This invention relates to apparatus for detection of selected sound frequency signals emitted by sirens of emergency vehicles. The new apparatus may detect a selected sound frequency signal spectrum emitted by various siren or warning sound sources in an initial detection stage. When a warning sound may be detected, a signal identification stage may determine the sound signal characteristics and estimate the distance to the warning sound source.
Various types of emergency vehicle siren detection systems may be currently known that may tend to be complicated, overly elaborate or use a lot of electric power. Less complicated devices, for example, that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,245,232, issued on Jun. 17, 2007, and herein incorporated by reference, may be known. However, this type of apparatus may be susceptible to false detection of sounds thought to be warning signals. To achieve a balance for a lower power system that may not be overly complicated, a system may be needed that uses a lower power, simple warning signal detection stage with a power save signal identification stage that only has full power applied once a sound warning signal has been detected.