Provided is an interior trim for an automobile which facilitates adjustment of an anisotropic structure of an armrest. The interior trim for an automobile is provided with an armrest projecting from a trim body which supports the armrest on a surface side of the trim body disposed on a cabin side of a car body. The armrest includes a core member, and multiple pad layers stacked on the core member, and boundary surfaces of the pad layers are made separable by external force applied from a side.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interior trim for an automobile which is disposed on a cabin side of a car body, with an armrest provided as projecting from the interior trim.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, interior trims including a door trim, a rear side trim, a luggage side trim and the like, are provided on a cabin side of a car body panel of an automobile. These trim bodies are sometimes provided with projecting armrests which can support elbows of passengers. (Refer to Japanese Application Publication No. 2005-67526A)
Such an armrest is designed to have sufficient rigidity against downward load applied with an elbow of a passenger, and also to have deformability or fragility upon load applied from a side.
However, the structure configured to be deformable or fragile against load applied from a side while maintaining rigidity against the downward load, is equivalent to an anisotropic structure configured to exhibit incompatible characteristics depending on the direction of load application. Accordingly, it is difficult to adjust the structure properly to obtain an optimal structure.


In general, a comparator compares the magnitude of a signal to a reference voltage, and changes its output when the latter exceeds the former. The invention concerns a reference voltage for the comparator. The reference voltage remains stable, even when the power supply voltage changes, thus keeping the switching point of the comparator constant. This constant switching point is useful in TTL logic circuits.

It is common to use a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) inverter, such as that shown in FIG. 1, as a TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) input buffer. In the general case, if both transistors in FIG. 1a are sized correctly, the voltage characteristic of the inverter resembles that shown in FIG. 2. The switching point is halfway between zero and V.sub.DD, namely, at V.sub.DD /2.
If V.sub.DD changes (for example, from 5 volts to 10 volts), the switching point also changes, because the voltage characteristic changes, as indicated approximately by the phantom line 4. After the change, the switching point remains at the halfway point, at V.sub.DD /2, but its absolute value changes, from 2.5 volts to 5 volts in this example.
This change in absolute value can cause a problem when the inverter of FIG. 1a is used as an input buffer for TTL levels. For TTL levels, the transistors are constructed so that the switching point is at 1.4 volts when V.sub.DD equals 5 volts. If V.sub.DD changes, the switching point changes, as illustrated in FIG. 2. For small changes in V.sub.DD, the switching point remains close enough to 1.4 volts to be satisfactory. But if V.sub.DD changes by a large amount, such as from 5 to 10 volts as in the example above, the switching point deviates significantly from the normal TTL switching point of 1.4 volts.
Therefore, the switching point of this type of buffer is not independent of supply voltage.


A pyrimidone derivative represented by the formula (I) or a salts thereof:

Alzheimer disease is progressive senile dementia, in which marked cerebral cortical atrophy is observed due to degeneration of nerve cells and decrease of nerve cell number. Pathologically, numerous senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are observed in brain. The number of patients has been increased with the increment of aged population, and the disease arises a serious social problem. Although various theories have been proposed, a cause of the disease has not yet been elucidated. Early resolution of the cause has been desired.
It has been known that the degree of appearance of two characteristic pathological changes of Alzheimer disease well correlates to the degree of intellectual dysfunction. Therefore, researches have been conducted from early 1980's to reveal the cause of the disease through molecular level investigations of components of the two pathological changes. Senile plaques accumulate extracellularly, and amyloid β protein has been elucidated as their main component (abbreviated as "Aβ" hereinafter in the specification: Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 120, 885 (1984): EMBO J., 4, 2757 (1985); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 82, 4245 (1985)). In the other pathological change, i.e., the neurofibrillary tangles, a double-helical filamentous substance called paired helical filament (abbreviated as "PHF" hereinafter in the specification) accumulate intracellularly, and tau protein, which is a kind of microtubule-associated protein specific for brain, has been revealed as its main component (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85, 4506 (1988); Neuron, 1, 827 (1988)).
Furthermore, on the basis of genetic investigations, presenilins 1 and 2 were found as causative genes of familial Alzheimer disease (Nature, 375, 754 (1995); Science, 269, 973 (1995); Nature, 376, 775 (1995)), and it has been revealed that presence of mutants of presenilins 1 and 2 promotes the secretion of Aβ (Neuron, 17, 1005 (1996); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94, 2025 (1997)). From these results, it is considered that, in Alzheimer disease, Aβ abnormally accumulates and agglomerates due to a certain reason, which engages with the formation of PHF to cause death of nerve cells. It is also expected that extracellular outflow of glutamic acid and activation of glutamate receptor responding to the outflow may possibly be important factors in an early process of the nerve cell death caused by ischemic cerebrovascular accidents (Sai-shin Igaku [Latest Medicine], 49, 1506 (1994)).
It has been reported that kainic acid treatment that stimulates the AMPA receptor, one of glutamate receptor, increases mRNA of the amyloid precursor protein (abbreviated as "APP" hereinafter in the specification) as a precursor of Aβ (Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 17, 1445 (1991)), and also promotes metabolism of APP (The Journal of Neuroscience, 10, 2400 (1990)). Therefore, it has been strongly suggested that the accumulation of Aβ is involved in cellular death due to ischemic cerebrovascular disorders. Other diseases in which abnormal accumulation and agglomeration of Aβ are observed include, for example, Down syndrome, cerebral bleeding due to solitary cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Lewy body disease (Shin-kei Shinpo [Nerve Advance], 34, 343 (1990); Tanpaku-shitu Kaku-san Koso [Protein, Nucleic Acid, Enzyme], 41, 1476 (1996)) and the like. Furthermore, as diseases showing neurofibrillary tangles due to the PHF accumulation, examples include progressive supranuclear palsy, subacute sclerosing panencephalitic parkinsonism, postencephalitic parkinsonism, pugilistic encephalitis, Guam parkinsonism-dementia complex, Lewy body disease and the like (Tanpakushitu Kakusan Koso [Protein, Nucleic Acid, Enzyme], 36, 2 (1991); Igaku no Ayumi [Progress of Medicine], 158, 511 (1991); Tanpakushitu Kakusan Koso [Protein, Nucleic Acid, Enzyme], 41, 1476 (1996)).
The tau protein is generally composed of a group of related proteins that forms several bands at molecular weights of 48–65 kDa in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and it promotes the formation of microtubules. It has been verified that tau protein incorporated in the PHF in the brain suffering from Alzheimer disease is abnormally phosphorylated compared with usual tau protein (J. Biochem., 99, 1807 (1986); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 4913 (1986)). An enzyme catalyzing the abnormal phosphorylation has been isolated. The protein was named as tau protein kinase 1 (abbreviated as "TPK1" hereinafter in the specification), and its physicochemical properties have been elucidated (Seikagaku [Biochemistry], 64, 308 (1992); J. Biol. Chem., 267, 10897 (1992)). Moreover, cDNA of rat TPK1 was cloned from a rat cerebral cortex cDNA library based on a partial amino acid sequence of TPK1, and its nucleotide sequence was determined and an amino acid sequence was deduced (Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication [Kokai] No. 6-239893/1994). As a result, it has been revealed that the primary structure of the rat TPK1 corresponds to that of the enzyme known as rat GSK-3 β (glycogen synthase kinase 3β, FEBS Lett., 325, 167 (1993)).
It has been reported that Aβ, the main component of senile plaques, is neurotoxic (Science, 250, 279 (1990)). However, various theories have been proposed as for the reason why Aβ causes the cell death, and any authentic theory has not yet been established. Takashima et al. observed that the cell death was caused by Aβ treatment of fetal rat hippocampus primary culture system, and then found that the TPK1 activity was increased by Aβ treatment and the cell death by Aβ was inhibited by antisense of TPK1 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90, 7789 (1993); Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication [Kokai] No. 6-329551/1994).
In view of the foregoing, compounds which inhibit the TPK1 activity may possibly suppress the neurotoxicity of Aβ and the formation of PHF and inhibit the nerve cell death in the Alzheimer disease, thereby cease or defer the progress of the disease. The compounds may also be possibly used as a medicament for therapeutic treatment of ischemic cerebrovascular disorder, Down syndrome, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, cerebral bleeding due to Lewy body disease and the like by suppressing the cytotoxicity of Aβ. Furthermore, the compounds may possibly be used as a medicament for therapeutic treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as progressive supranuclear palsy, subacute sclerosing panencephalitic parkinsonism, postencephalitic parkinsonism, pugilistic encephalitis, Guam parkinsonism-dementia complex, Lewy body disease, Pick's disease, corticobasal degeneration and frontotemporal dementia.
As structurally similar compounds to the compounds of the present invention represented by formula (I) described later, compounds represented by the following formula (A) are known:
wherein R represents 2,6-dichlorobenzyl group, 2-(2-chlorophenyl)ethylamino group, 3-phenylpropylamino group, or 1-methyl-3-phenylpropylamino group (WO98/24782). The compounds represented by formula (A) are characterized to have 4-fluorophenyl group at the 5-position of the pyrimidine ring, and not falling within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, main pharmacological activity of the compounds represented by formula (A) is anti-inflammatory effect, whereas the compounds of the present invention represented by formula (I) are useful as a TPK1 inhibitor or a medicament for therapeutic treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and therefore, their pharmacological activities are totally different to each other.

Abstract: wherein R1 represents an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group and the like; R2 represents a hydrogen atom, hydroxyl group, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group and the like, R3 represents a pyridyl group, and a medicament comprising said derivative or a salt thereof as an active ingredient which is used for preventive and/or therapeutic treatment of a disease caused by tau protein kinase 1 hyperactivity such as Alzheimer disease.


A semiconductor memory device is provided having a read out gate for detecting and providing to a main I/O line pair the potential difference of a sub-data input/output line pair, and a write gate for transferring data of the main I/O line pair to the sub-data input/output line pair in an empty region surrounded by a sense amplifier region and a word line coupling region. By providing the read out gate and the write gate in the empty region which was not conventionally used, the access operation can be carried out at high speed without increasing the chip area of the semiconductor memory device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device including a plurality of memory cell regions, and more particularly, to improvement of a read/write gate of a semiconductor memory device and a high speed access operation.
2. Description of the Background Art
The semiconductor memory device industry is moving rapidly towards a larger storage capacity and a higher operation speed. This trend is particularly significant in the field of a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) where a memory cell is formed of one capacitor and one MOS transistor in a compact structure.
FIG. 8 shows a structure of such a semiconductor memory device. Referring to FIG. 8, a semiconductor memory device includes a sense amplifier region 1, a plurality of memory cell regions 2 arranged in a matrix of rows and columns, four row decoders 3, four column decoders 4, a word line coupling region 5 provided parallel to the memory cell regions in the row direction, an empty region 6, a read/write circuit 7, and a control circuit 66.
The plurality of memory cell regions 2 are symmetrized about the dot dash line in FIG. 8. The memory cell regions 2 at the left and right sides of the dot dash line are further symmetrized about the sense amplifier region 1.
The sense amplifier region 1 is located between a pair of memory cell regions 2 provided in the column direction. This sense amplifier region 1 is provided with a sense amplifier, an input/output gate and the like as will be described afterwards.
The control circuit 66 generates various signals for controlling the semiconductor memory device according to a row address strobe signal /RAS, a column address strobe signal /CAS, a write signal /WE, and an address signal Add. The generated signals include a block selecting signal .phi. indicated by a hollow arrow in the figure, an internal address signal (merely referred to as an "address signal" hereinafter) applied to the row decoder 3 and the column decoder 4, and an internal read/write signal for controlling the read/write circuit 7.
The row decoder 3 selects a word line WL in response to an address signal to pull the selected word line WL to a H level (logical high). The sense amplifier provided in the sense amplifier region 1 amplifies the data of a memory cell connected to the selected word line WL. The column decoder 4 selects a desired bit from the memory cells of one row of the selected word line WL in response to an address signal.
The word line coupling region 5 serves to reduce the impedance of a word line WL.
FIG. 9 shows a structure of the word line WL indicated by the broken line in FIG. 8. Because the word line WL has a high resistance due to the fact that it is generally formed of a polysilicon layer, the time constant takes a high value when the word line rises. The resistance of a word line is reduced by short-circuiting the aluminum interconnection and the polysilicon interconnection in the word line coupling region 5 provided parallel to the memory cell regions 2 in the column direction. As a result, the time constant at the time of the rise of the word line is reduced to allow a higher speed of operation of the semiconductor memory device.
As an alternative of connecting the aluminum interconnection and the polysilicon interconnection, a buffer circuit formed of two stages of inverters may be provided in the word line coupling region 5, as shown in FIG. 10. This gives the advantage of preventing delay in the word line selecting signal. The word line coupling method and the method of providing a buffer circuit both have the impedance of the word line reduced.
FIG. 11 schematically shows a layout of the portion surrounded by the chain line with one dot in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 11, the portion surrounded by a chain line with one dot B includes a word line 40, bit lines BL and /BL, and a contact hole 41. Contact holes 41 are arranged in upper and lower stages so as not to form a contact with each other. The polysilicon layer and the aluminum interconnection are overlayed as shown in FIG. 9 to be connected by the contact hole 41 in the word line coupling region 5.
The empty region 6 is a region surrounded by the word line coupling regions 5 and the sense amplifier regions 1, establishing a margin in the layout. Although two MOS transistors 42 and 43 are provided in this region 6 as will be described afterwards with reference to FIG. 12, it is considered substantially as an empty region.
FIG. 12 is a circuit diagram showing the portion surrounded by a chain line with two dots A in FIG. 8 showing a structure of a conventional semiconductor memory device. Referring to FIG. 12, the sense amplifier region 1 to the left of the dot dash line includes NMOSFETs 7, 8, 11 and 12 serving as memory cell region selecting gates, NMOSFETs 9 and 10 serving as input/output gates, a circuit 39 including a sense amplifier and a bit line equalize circuit, and a sub-I/O line pair of SIO1 and /SIO1. The sense amplifier region 1 located at the right hand side of the dot dash line is similar to the sense amplifier region 1 located at the left hand side of the dot dash line, and includes NMOSFETs 25, 26, 29, and 30 serving as memory cell region selecting gates, NMOS transistors 27 and 28 serving as input/output gates, a circuit 39 including a sense amplifier and an equalize circuit, and a sub-I/O line pair of SIO3 and /SIO3.
The empty region 6 located at the left hand side of the dot dash line includes NMOSFETs 42 and 43 serving as block selecting gates. The empty region 6 located at the right hand side of the dot dash line includes NMOSFETs 44 and 45 serving as block selecting gates. The signal .phi.1 in FIG. 12 is a signal for selecting the block to the left of the dot dash line when attaining a high level. The signal .phi.2 is a signal for selecting the block to the right of the dot dash line. The signal .phi.S1 selects the memory cell regions located at the left-hand side of the sense amplifier region 1 in the region to the left of the dot dash line. The signal .phi.S2 selects the memory cell regions located at the right-hand side of the sense amplifier region 1 in the region to the left of the dot dash line. Similarly, signals .phi.S3 and .phi.S4 are signals for selecting the memory cell regions at the left-hand side and the right-hand side, respectively, of the sense amplifier region 1 in the region to the right of the dot dash line.
Signal BLEQ serves to equalize the potential of the bit line pair.
The circuit 39 equalizes the potential of the bit lines BL and /BL and detects the potential difference of bit lines BL and /BL. The details of this circuit 39 are shown in FIG. 13. Referring to FIG. 13, the circuit 39 includes a sense amplifier 39S responsive to sense amplifier driving signals .phi.P and .phi.N for detect-amplifying the potential difference of bit lines BL and /BL, and an equalize circuit 39E responsive to a bit line equalize signal BLEQ for equalizing the potential of bit lines BL and /BL to a half of the power supply potential Vcc. Sense amplifier driving signals .phi.P and .phi.N are complementary to each other.
FIG. 14 is a timing chart of the semiconductor memory device of FIG. 12.
The reading and writing operation of the data of memory cell 21 in FIG. 12 will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG. 14.
At time t1, a row address signal is latched when the row address strobe signal /RAS attains a L level (logical low). At time t2, the signal .phi.S1 for selecting a memory cell region attains a L level and the word line WL1 connected to the access gate of the memory cell 21 attains a H level according to the row address signal. The signal .phi.S2 for selecting the memory cell regions of the righthand side maintains a H level. In response to signal .phi.S2, the memory cell region selecting gates 7 and 8 are turned off and the memory cell region selecting gates 11 and 12 are turned on. Thus, the data of the memory cell 21 is read out to the bit line BL2, whereby a potential difference is generated between the bit line pair BL2 and /BL2.
At time t3, when the sense amplifier 39S is activated, the potential difference of the bit line pair BL2 and /BL2 is amplified. At time t4, the column decoder 4 pulls the column selecting signal Yi to a H level according to a column address signal. The block selecting signal .phi.1 attains a H level and the block selecting gates 42 and 43 are turned on. As a result, the bit line pair BL2 and /BL2, the sub-I/O line pair SIO2 and /SIO2, and the main I/O line pair GIO2 and /GIO2 are connected, whereby the potentials of the bit line pair BL2 and /BL2 are transmitted to the main I/O line pair GIO2 and /GIO2. The read/write circuit 7 shown in FIG. 8 detects the potential difference of the main I/O line pair GIO2 and /GIO2 to identify the data maintained in the memory cell 21. The data held in the memory cell 21 is logical high when the potential of the main I/O line GIO2 is higher than that of /GIO2, and is logical low when the potential of the main I/O line GIO2 is lower than that of /GIO2.
At time t5 when the write signal /WE attains a L level, the write data applied to the main I/O lines GIO2 and /GIO2 is supplied to bit lines BL2 and /BL2 via the sub-I/O lines SIO2 and /SIO2, whereby data is written into the memory cell 21.
Because the structure of FIG. 12 has the sub-I/O line pair and the main I/O line pair connected to the bit line pair when the column selecting signal Yi attains a H level, the column selecting signal Yi must be pulled up to the H level after the potential difference is amplified by the sense amplifier 39S.
This is because the sub-I/O lines and main I/O lines having a great parasitic capacitance will be connected to the bit line when the column selecting signal Yi is brought to a H level prior to a sense amplifying operation to result in a small potential difference between the bit lines BL2 and /BL2, leading to a possibility of erroneous operation caused by the sense amplifier failing to amplify the small potential difference.
There is a conventional circuit shown in FIG. 15 for solving such a problem. FIG. 15 is a circuit diagram showing an example of structure of a conventional semiconductor memory device. The semiconductor memory device of FIG. 15 differs from the semiconductor memory device of FIG. 12 in that NMOSFETs 46-49 serving as read out gates in the sense amplifier region located at the left side of the dot dash line, and NMOSFETs 52 and 53 for selecting a read out block in the empty region 6 located below the sense amplifier region 1 are added. Similarly, NMOSFETs 56-59 serving as read out gates in the sense amplifier region 1 located at the right-hand side of the dot dash line and NMOSFETs 62 and 63 for selecting a read out block in the empty region 6 provided beneath the sense amplifier region 1 are added. A sub-output line pair of SO1 and /SO1 exclusively for reading and a sub-input line pair of SI1 and /SI1 exclusively for writing are provided.
FIG. 16 is a timing chart for showing the operation of the semiconductor memory device of FIG. 15.
The operation of reading out data from the memory cell 21 of FIG. 15 and writing an inverted data will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG. 16.
At time t1 where the row address strobe signal /RAS attains a L level, a row address signal is latched. The row decoder 3 pulls the word line WL1 to a H level according to the row address signal. In response, the address gate of the memory cell 21 is turned on, whereby the data in memory cell 21 is read out to the bit line pair BL and /BL. At time t3, the column selecting signal YRi is brought to a H level to conduct NMOSFETs 48 and 49, and the block selecting signal .phi.1 is brought to a H level to conduct NMOSFETs 52 and 53. Because the potential of bit line BL2 is higher than that of the bit line /BL2, NMOSFET 46 is turned on more heavily than NMOSFET 47. Therefore, the potentials of the sub-output line SO1 and the main I/O line GIO2 become lower than the respective potentials of the sub output line /SO1 and the main I/O line GIO2. The read/write circuit 7 detects the potential difference between main I/O lines GIO and /GIO to identify the data held in the memory cell 21. When the potential of the main I/O line GIO is lower than that of /GIO, the memory cell data is logical high. When the potential of the main I/O line GIO is higher than that of /GIO, the memory cell data is logical low.
As described above, the semiconductor memory device of FIG. 15 differs from the semiconductor memory device of FIG. 12 in that the column selecting signal YRi is brought to a H level before the sense amplifying operation and reads out the memory cell data to main I/O line pair GIO2 and /GIO2. This offers an advantage of a faster read out operation of the memory cell data to the main I/O line pair of GIO2 and /GIO2.
At time t4 when the write signal /WE is brought to a L level, the column selecting signal YWi attains a H level, whereby the data in the main I/O line is applied to the bit line. Then, the potential of the bit line BL2 is written to the memory cell 21.
The conventional semiconductor memory device of the above-described structure has the width W2 of the sense amplifier region 1 in the column direction of FIG. 15 increased in comparison with the width W1 of the sense amplifier region in the column direction of FIG. 12 for increasing the read out speed of data when the structure of FIG. 12 is implemented as shown in FIG. 15. This results in a problem of increase in the chip area.


An aerial message system uses a plurality of aircraft flying in formation to form a visible message in the sky. A lead or master aircraft carries a small computer which may be programmed with the message(s) to be formed, as well as other factors such as the true airspeed of the aircraft and the configuration of the formation. An interface and encoder are placed between the computer and a transmitter aboard the lead aircraft, with the interface and encoder serving to accept a signal from the computer which is compatible with a dot matrix printer, and reformatting the signal to output to the transmitter. The transmitter transmits a plurality of discrete pulses or signals to the receiving or slave aircraft, with each of the slave aircraft receivers being tuned or adjusted to receive a signal corresponding to the position of that aircraft in the formation. The receivers may be readjusted in the air to allow aircraft to exchange positions in the formation, in order to maximize efficiency of the smoke or vapor material being carried on each aircraft. The signals received by each aircraft (including the lead aircraft with its hard wired output) control solenoids which operate injector nozzles within the engine exhaust system for each aircraft. Thus, a formation flight of aircraft equipped with the present system may form an aerial advertising or display message quickly and efficiently, with the computer adjusting output signals in other than real time to adjust for different formations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to aerial message and display means using visible vapor distributed from one or more aircraft (e. g., "skywriting"), and more specifically to a system wherein a plurality of aircraft fly in formation, with each aircraft producing a relatively short puff of vapor controlled by a computer in a master aircraft. The master aircraft transmits an appropriate signal to a receiver in each of the other aircraft, according to the message to be displayed. A specially adapted interface and encoder device is placed between the computer and the transmitter in the master aircraft, enabling the computer to communicate with the transmitter in the same manner used in controlling a dot matrix printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The concept of "skywriting," i. e., maneuvering a single aircraft to produce one or more words using a visible vapor emanating from the engine exhaust or other source, has been known since shortly after the development of the first practical powered aircraft. Such displays always attract attention, as a pattern of smoke or vapor which forms words or designs in the sky is most unusual, and its location enables it to be seen for miles.
The basic concept utilizes only a single aircraft to produce one or more words or designs, which leads to several problems. First, any skywriting procedure requires that the aircraft fly relatively high (generally on the order of two miles above the surface), to avoid turbulent air at lower altitudes which would quickly break up any message or display, most likely before its completion. This leads to a second problem, in that the single aircraft must produce the entire message, a relatively slow procedure in which the first portion of the message often dissipates before the message is completed, even in stable air. A third problem with this technique is that the single aircraft must produce a prodigious amount of vapor or smoke, in order for the strokes formed to be seen clearly from such a high altitude. This leads to rapid depletion of the supply of oil or other material carried in the aircraft and used to produce the vapor or smoke.
Accordingly, as radio technology advanced, a system was devised wherein a single master aircraft would carry a transmitter and a program to transmit the message, with several receiving aircraft carrying receivers each receiving a discrete signal from the master aircraft to cause each receiving aircraft to produce a pulse of smoke or vapor automatically at the proper time. By flying the aircraft in a proper formation, each aircraft can simultaneously produce a portion of a message, thereby enabling the entire message to be completed much more quickly than by a single aircraft to reduce the effects of dissipation of the message and also allowing each aircraft to carry a smaller supply of vapor producing oil.
This basic concept of using several aircraft in formation is known as "Skytyping" .TM.. However, it is not widely used, as it also has certain disadvantages. For one thing, the transmission and reception system used, along with the message program, results in the individual message units or "smoke puffs" being produced in real time. This requires the aircraft to fly in a line abreast formation, i. e., spread laterally across the flight path. This type of formation flying is most difficult to perform, as each of the following pilots must focus and maintain their entire concentration upon the lead aircraft, ninety degrees to the direction of flight. Each pilot must have his/her head and neck turned in the direction of the lead aircraft during at least the entire message writing portion of the flight. This is not only tiring, but somewhat hazardous, as the aircraft are spread laterally on the order of two hundred feet apart, resulting in a spread of on the order of eight hundred feet between the aircraft at the extreme ends of the formation. With the pilots' attention being diverted from the direction of flight, the possibility of midair collision is relatively high.
The present invention overcomes these difficulties with a system which allows the aircraft to fly in a V or other formation, by adjusting the time for the transmission of the message signals according to the position of the individual aircraft in the formation. A discussion of the prior art known to the present inventor, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided below.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,426,413 issued on Aug. 22, 1922 to John C. Savage describes an Aerial Craft including a pair of tanks or hoppers each containing a substance which, when mixed together, will produce a visible vapor or smoke. The materials may be injected into the exhaust of the aircraft for distribution and further effect. Savage states that the use of a single material did not produce a sufficiently dense cloud of smoke, but the injection of a single material (i. e., oil) into the aircraft exhaust is commonly used today for such purposes. Savage is silent regarding the use of multiple aircraft in formation to produce an aerial message with the vapor output being controlled by a single aircraft in the formation, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,850,635 issued on Mar. 22, 1932 to Willard Reed, Jr. describes a Method Of Forming Designs In The Sky. Reed, Jr. recognizes the difficulty in forming a legible word using a single aircraft, and the problems inherent in the use of one aircraft for such skywriting. Reed, Jr. thus uses a plurality of aircraft, each of which forms a single letter or a portion of a letter, in accordance with a predetermined pattern depending upon the specific word(s) or design(s) to be formed. The Reed, Jr. method differs from the present invention in that no communication is disclosed between aircraft or pilots while the aircraft are in flight, as provided by the present invention. The Reed, Jr. technique, while theoretically workable, is also potentially quite hazardous, with the aircraft involved crossing each others' flight paths several times during the forming of a single word or design.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,986,942 issued on Jan. 8, 1935 to John T. Remey describes an Apparatus For Sky Writing, comprising a perforated message sheet passing over a perforated track bar. The bar communicates pneumatically or optically with a series of relays activated when specific sheet and bar perforations are momentarily aligned as the sheet scrolls across the bar. The pneumatic portion of the system is similar to that used in the operation of a player piano or band organ. The relays each operate a valve, which emits a puff of smoke or vapor. The valves are all installed on a single tube trailed downwardly below a single aircraft in flight. Remey is silent regarding the use of multiple aircraft, or any means of display message communication between multiple aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,345,152 issued on Mar. 28, 1944 to John T. Remey describes Sky Writing With A Plurality Of Airplanes, wherein several slave aircraft each have a receiver which in turn selectively operates a smoke or vapor valve in that aircraft when a signal is received. Alternatively, the master signals may be transmitted by an aircraft in the formation, or by a transmitter on the ground, and the signal may be direct or may be an audio or visual signal to an operator in the aircraft. The automatic reception of transmitted signals by a master aircraft in the formation is loosely similar to the general procedure used in the present invention and is the foundation of the present "Skytyping" .TM. technique, but Remey provides no delay means to allow any other type of formation than line abreast or a single echelon, which would result in a swept or italicized font for the message.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,674,820 issued on Apr. 13, 1954 to Rolf K. Hansen et al. describes the Production Of Smoke Signs In The Air. The system uses a plurality of identical perforated panels, but each panel is modified according to the position of the aircraft to use that panel, within the aircraft formation. This allows the master aircraft to transmit unmodulated signals using only a single frequency, with each of the slave aircraft receiving identical signals to advance the message panels identically. However, since each of the panels is modified according to the position of the aircraft carrying that panel, those aircraft having panel positions which have been blocked out at any specific point will not produce a smoke puff at that radio transmission. While the present invention may make use of a single radio frequency, the modulation of that frequency allows only the master aircraft to carry the message means, with the slave aircraft each having only a receiver and smoke generating means. This allows any aircraft using the present invention to transfer to any part of the formation, by switching the specific modulated signal received by the aircraft to receive a signal appropriate to another point in the formation. The transmitting aircraft does not alter the transmitted signal in any way for this change. This is advantageous in that some portions of Roman letters (e. g., top and bottom strokes) require more oil vapor than other portions. Thus, the present invention allows aircraft to change positions, so aircraft using more oil may switch with those using less oil, to prolong the flight and messages formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,410 issued on Oct. 6, 1964 to Anthony Stinis describes a Sky Writing Apparatus wherein a master aircraft carries at least one message scroll and transmitter, with each slave aircraft having a receiver tuned to receive only a single one of the transmitted frequencies (or specific modulations of a single frequency) of the master aircraft. This system differs from the Hansen et al. system discussed immediately above, in that Hansen et al. functions more like a synchronizing signal for the messages carried in each of the aircraft, rather than actually transmitting the message, as is done by Stinis and also in the present invention. However, Stinis provides no means for different aircraft to change relative positions in the formation during flight, as provided by the present invention. Stinis does not provide any alteration of the message unit transmissions from real time, thus requiring all aircraft to fly in a line abreast formation, unlike the present invention. Stinis provides for up to two different messages to be formed in a single flight. The present system is also capable of being used to form multiple messages in a single flight, and in fact can form any number of different messages, limited only by the amount of smoke or vapor producing agent aboard each aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,201 issued on Dec. 31, 1985 to George A. Sanborn describes a Method And Apparatus For Sky Typing, comprising a string of vapor producing canisters which are trailed below a single aircraft. Sanborn mentions a computer, but provides no specific information or disclosure of the hardware and programming.
Finally, British Patent Publication No. 2,191,319 published on Dec. 9, 1987 to David J. G. Martin describes A Sky Graphics System, wherein a single aircraft carries a manifold having a plurality of nozzles for the dispersion of visible vapor therefrom. Each nozzle is controlled by an electronic valve, with a portable computer controlling the apparatus. No preferred method of carrying out the invention, or reduction to practice, is disclosed in the British publication.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


System performance may be optimized, and extraneous audit noise reduced, by providing the capability of exercising a fine degree of control over individual audit events. A user such as an auditor interested in an individual audit event can obtain desired results without also obtaining results of all other individual audit events in the category containing the individual audit event. Additionally, audits may be obtained on either a per-user basis or on a system-wide basis. In this way, the auditor may tailor auditing events without regard to the auditing events established for other users of the system. Thus, there is a capability of establishing auditing policies for the entire system, in which case all users of the system may obtain results of the system-wide auditing.

Computer systems may implement security policies to protect their information and service resources from unauthorized accesses. Such systems may audit, for example, directory and file accesses or server events and record such events in security logs. The logs may be reviewed to help flag security breaches. Users of such systems may configure the security audits to track certain events and may decide to forego tracking other events.
Security policies may be divided into groups, and each group is hereinafter referred to as a "category." Each category of security policies includes individual audit events. For example, one category of security policies may be an object access audit category. The object access audit category may include individual security audits of accesses to, for example, the file system, the registry, and the kernel objects. In such a system, if a user wants the results of an individual audit event, then the computer system may be directed to perform an audit of an entire category, resulting in an audit of each security event in the category. For example, if a user would like to audit accesses to the file system, then the user instigates an audit of the object access category and obtains results of accesses to the file system as well as to the registry and the kernel.
Such a system prevents users from exercising a fine degree of control over security audits. That is, users may be unable to instigate a security audit of only the file system even though they may be uninterested in the results of the security audit of the registry or kernel accesses. This extraneous noise in the form of undesired security audits of the registry and kernel accesses unnecessarily consumes system resources and inhibits optimal system performance.

Per-user and system granular audit policy implementation


A semiconductor surface cleaning agent containing a compound the molecule of which has a nitrogen atom having an unshared electron pair and used for cleaning the surface of a semiconductor on which copper wiring is provided, and a method for cleaning the surface of a semiconductor characterized by treating the surface of a semiconductor on which copper wiring is provided with such a cleaning agent. The cleaning agent does not corrode the copper wiring (copper thin film) on the semiconductor and SiO2 of the interlayer insulating film, does not impair the flatness of the surface, and is effective in removing CuO and particles adhering to the surface of the Cu-CMP step.

A structure of LSI has been recently getting finer along with larger scale integration and has become a multilayer structure where metal wirings are stacked in several layers on the surface of a semiconductor. And also, copper (Cu) which has lower electric resistance has been proposed to be used for the metal wiring, replacing conventional aluminum.
A process to form a multilayer structure using Cu wiring comprises forming grooves on an insulating film such as silicon oxide, then depositing metal copper on the whole surface of a semiconductor by a method such as plating and sputtering, subsequently polishing excess metal Cu by means of so-called chemical mechanical polishing technology (CMP), which is a technique to flatten a semiconductor substrate surface by mechanical polishing while oxidizing metal Cu with supply of slurry, which is dispersion of fine particles of metal oxide such as alumina and silica in aqueous solution, and oxidizing agent at the same time on a wafer surface, forming Cu wiring by planarization of the surface with Cu remained only in the grooves to complete wiring (Cu-CMP step), and repeating said process with planarization of each layer.
On the other hand, since the surface of a semiconductor after the Cu-CMP step is contaminated with impurities such as iron oxide and copper oxide (CuO) coming from Cu used for the wiring by oxidation, which may affect electrical properties of a semiconductor and destroy a device, and also particles derived from the slurry used, it is required to remove these impurities by cleaning without impairing metal Cu of wiring exposed on the same plane as the surface of a semiconductor after the Cu-CMP step, and silicon dioxide (SiO2) of interlayer dielectrics by introducing a cleaning step (post Cu-CMP cleaning) after the Cu-CMP step.
This post Cu-CMP cleaning is conventionally performed by chemical cleaning using an acidic cleaning agent such as HPM (hydrochloric acid-hydrogen peroxide type), DHF (diluted hydrofluoric acid type), a neutral cleaning agent such as buffered hydrofluoric acid, an alkaline cleaning agent such as APM (ammonia-hydrogen peroxide type), an organic acid type cleaning agent represented by citric acid, or the like, or physical cleaning using, for example, high-speed rotation brush made of polyvinylalcohol or high frequency or the like, or combination thereof.
However, in chemical cleaning, an acid type cleaning agent is insufficient in removing particles, although it has high ability to remove CuO, and highly acidic solution corrodes even Cu wiring. In addition, hydrofluoric acid type cleaning agent etches even SiO2 of interlayer dielectrics because the agent has characteristics to dissolve SiO2. Further, neutral and alkaline cleaning agent are generally insufficient in removing CuO due to their low ability to dissolve CuO, although they have high ability to remove particles without corroding Cu wiring.
On the other hand, physical cleaning is insufficient in removing CuO, while it can remove particles physically and does not corrode Cu wiring. Therefore, physical cleaning is generally used together with the above acid type cleaning agents. However, since the above problems caused by the acid type cleaning agent can not be avoided even in a combined use of physical cleaning and chemical cleaning agents, it is required to manage to use as weak as possible acid and to shorten cleaning period, and sometimes sufficient removal of CuO, particles can not be expected.
Thus, an effective mean is not presently available by which both CuO and particles remaining on the surface of a semiconductor on which Cu wiring is provided can be removed at the same time by easy operation.
The present invention is completed considering such situations, and provides a cleaning agent and a method for cleaning the surface of a semiconductor on which copper wiring is provided.

Semiconductor wafer cleaning agent and cleaning method


The invention provides methods for the preparation of multiblock copolymers, dispersions of multiblock copolymers, vesicles and micelles containing multiblock copolymers, and oxidative degradation products of multiblock copolymers.

Colloidal particles such as nanospheres, liposomes, and micelles have been studied extensively for site-specific drug delivery. Generally, such particles must escape capture by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) of the liver and the great filtration activity of the lungs if they are to deliver drugs to other tissues. In recent years, survival of colloidal systems in the blood has been improved by the use of PEG-containing amhiphiles (Lasic et al., Ed. Stealth Liposomes; CRC Press: Boca Raton, Fla., 1995). As a result of the PEG, macrophage clearance of PEG-based liposomes has been drastically reduced by decreasing opsonization by plasma proteins (Torchilin et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1994, 1195, 11–20). Furthermore, a variety of ligands, such as antibodies, growth factors, and cytokines, have served to enhance the delivery capabilities of PEG-coated liposomes, and it has been demonstrated that the maximal activity is shown by ligands tethered to the distal end of PEG chains (Blume et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1993, 1149, 180–184; Zalipsky et al., Bioconjugate Chem. 1995, 6, 705–708; Zalipsky, J. Controlled Release 1996, 39, 153–161; Gabizon, Bioconjugate Chem. 1999, 10, 289–298). Some of these ligands can lead to very efficient cellular uptake, such as the use of growth factors, for example, fibroblast growth factor to effect cellular uptake of DNA formulations.

Block copolymers for multifunctional self-assembled systems

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne


A four-stroke reciprocating piston internal combustion engine with an intake valve an exhaust valve and a valve drive assembly (18) driven by the crankshaft (4) for actuating the intake valve (8) and the exhaust valve (10) A mixture-preparation device (15) supplies an air/fuel-lubricant mixture to the crankcase, which together with the piston functions as a pump for the mixture charge. A valve drive assembly housing (19, 20, 21, 22) comprising one or more sections (19, 20, 21, 22) and the intake channel (16) is supplied with a connecting duct (17) communicating with the crankcase volume (12) either by being connected to the crankcase or the cylinder, or by being connected to the valve drive assembly housing (19, 20, 21, 22), which communicates with the crankcase volume (12), and the communication from the intake channel (16) to the crankcase volume is arranged through at least one valve.

Portable tools such as chain saws or power cutters are used in many different handling positions, even upside down. They are therefore usually crankcase scavenged and lubricant, e.g. oil is supplied to the crankcase. This lubrication system works in every handling position. These engines are usually of two-stroke type, but also four-stroke engines have been suggested.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,708,107, 5,347,967, 5,579,735 and 6,145,484 and DE 30 22 901 show crankcase scavenged oil in fuel four-stroke engines. A flow is arranged via the valve drive assembly housing into the combustion chamber via the intake valve. This system provides good lubrication but gives a strong heating of the intake air being in contact with very hot engine parts, e.g. valve stems. This reduces the power output. This applies also for a part flow in U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,701, see FIGS. 3 and 6 and DE 34 38 031. This reduces the power loss but it requires a complex structure of the intake system.
There are also designs that are not crankcase scavenged and lubricated. In these designs an oil sump or tank is filled with oil to a recommended oil level. Therefore there is no need to supply oil to the fuel. But instead they need an oil tank or oil sump of considerable size. This tank or sump usually reaches well below the level of the crankcase. Therefore the size and the weight of the engine is increased considerably. Examples are EP 1 134 365 and EP 1 136 665. They also use special extra parts for creating oil mist.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,098 shows a design with an oil sump of considerable size reaching down well below the crankcase. It is to be filled with oil to a prescribed level. Weight and size is somewhat reduced compared to the EP application-designs above, but is still a problem. The engine is crankcase scavenged using pure fuel, i.e. not mixed with oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,484 shows some versions (see FIGS. 6 and 7) that are not crankcase scavenged but have ducts leading from the intake duct both to the crankcase and to the valve drive assembly in a complex manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,532 shows an engine wherein a connecting channel is arranged between the top section of the valve drive housing and the intake duct. The flow connections from the crankcase to the intake channel are free from valves and control elements. This system is simple but vulnerable to pumping in the crankcase making fuel and lubricant flow back to the carburettor and air filter, a so called back spit.


The water-treating apparatus includes a membrane filter, which at its inlet end is adapted to be connected by a prefiltering filter to a water supply line and serves to treat water by reverse osmosis and at its outlet end is connected to a waste water line and a pure water line, which opens into a drinking water tank, which is constituted by a diaphragmless container, which is connected to an air supply system for supplying compressed air to the tank driven by waste water in the waste line and from which a rising line extends to a dispenser for drinking water.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for treating water, comprising a membrane filter, which at its inlet end is adapted to be connected by a prefiltering filter to a water supply line and serves to treat water by reverse osmosis and at its outlet end is connected to a waste water line and a pure water line, which opens into a drinking water tank, which is constituted by a diaphragmless container, which is connected to air supply means for supplying compressed air to said tank and from which a rising line extends to a dispenser for drinking water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Owing to the progressively increasing pollution of the groundwater, many waterworks can no longer supply water having the quality of true drinking water and it is hardly possible still to comply with legally prescribed limits for the contents of pollutants in the water. As a result, water from the main may adversely affect the health. Apparatuses for treating water are mounted in most cases under a washbasin and are intended to purify tap water in order to prepare healthy drinking water. Membrane filters for a reverse osmosis have proved most satisfactory for that purpose. Reverse osmosis is a naturally performed method of treating water without heating or chemically changing the water. In that method, water under line pressure is forced against a semipermeable membrane, which has microscopically small pores, by which the water molecules are separated from the pollutant molecules. This is due to the fact that the water molecules can penetrate through the membrane whereas the larger pollutant molecules are rejected by the pores and are enriched in the waste water. As a result, the permeate delivered by the membrane filter is pure and healthy water and the waste water is discharged as a pollutant concentrate through the waste water line. Most of the known water-treating apparatuses of that kind comprise a drinking water tank, which constitutes a pressure accumulator, which contains a rubber diaphragm to provide the water pressure that is required for a tapping of drinking water. But that rubber diaphragm deteriorates the taste of the water and for this reason the tank must be succeeded by an active carbon filter, which adds to the cost of the apparatus. Besides, bacteria may accumulate on the rubber diaphragm and also in the active carbon filter and will inevitably introduce germs into the water. That risk is further increased by the fact that the pressure accumulator is permanently sealed at its top so that it is virtually impossible to clean the interior of the drinking water tank and the rubber diaphragm and an accumulation of bacteria cannot be prevented in the long run. A further disadvantage of the known diaphragm pressure accumulators resides in that they apply to the membrane filter a considerable backpressure by which the rejection of pollutants in the reverse osmosis is adversely affected.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,953 discloses a water-treating apparatus in which the drinking water tank does not contain a diaphragm and a tapping of water is permitted by means for supplying compressed air to said tank and a rising line. For that purpose a cushion of compressed air introduced through an inlet valve is permanently maintained above the water level in the tank and is utilized to force water through the rising line to the drinking water dispenser as required. In that case a special control valve is required to prevent an escape of the compressed air as the tank is being exhausted. This requirement may give rise to malfunction. Besides, the pressure conditions change in dependence on the level of the water in the tank and on temperature so that the tapping conditions are not uniform. The tank must consist of a pressure container, and the high backpressure also adversely affects the reverse osmosis.

Membrane system for treating water using compressed air to pressurize reservoir


A sensor having a mass that moves relative to a structure is disclosed. The mass is attached to the structure by a rigid member such that the mass moves around a pivot point on the structure, the pivot point remaining fixed with respect to the structure as the mass moves. A code scale is attached to the mass. An imaging system that is fixed with respect to the structure forms an image of the code scale. A controller provides an indication of a position of the mass relative to the structure using the code scale image. The rigid member can include a surface having the code scale thereon, the surface rotating about the pivot point as the mass moves such that the surface remains at a fixed distance from the pivot point as the mass moves.

Inertial force sensors are used in numerous consumer products. For example, various occupant protection systems in automobiles utilize such sensors to trigger actions designed to protect the vehicle occupant when the automobile is involved in a collision or the system senses that a collision is imminent. Such systems are used to actuate air bags in the event of a collision and to pretension seatbelts when sensors indicate that a collision is about to occur. Sensors that provide signals indicative of the tilt angle of one component relative to the earth are also used in a wide range of equipment from components for use in artificial reality systems to surveying equipment and robotics.
These sensors typically utilize a weight and spring arrangement in which a moveable weight is fixed to a stationary component by a spring. When the apparatus is accelerated or decelerated, the weight moves relative to the stationary component. Similarly, in a tilt sensor, the gravitational forces on the weight change with the angle of inclination of the apparatus relative to the Earth. The change in force on the weight causes the weight to move relative to the stationary portion of the apparatus. Such sensors typically include a transducer that converts the position of the weight relative to the fixed component, or the rate of change in that position, into an electrical signal representing the displacement or rate of change of the position, respectively.
The transducers rely on a variety of techniques to convert the motion of the mass into an electrical signal. In the simplest schemes, the mass is mounted on a cantilever that provides the spring function. A contact on the cantilever makes an electrical connection with a contact on the stationary component when the mass moves a predetermined distance. Systems in which the cantilever includes a piezoelectric element that generates a current in response to the bending of the element are also known.
The accuracy with which the force on the mass can be measured depends on the reproducibility of the spring constant and mass from device to device. In addition, the accuracy depends on the sensitivity of the transducer. Low cost sensors are often fabricated using micro-machining techniques. If a simple threshold measurement is all that is required, the reproducibility limitations can be easily met with such techniques. Such sensors are sufficient for use in triggering airbag deployment in an automobile. However, if a more accurate analog measurement is needed, the device may need to be individually calibrated leading to increased cost.
In addition, the amount of motion that must be sensed in these miniature devices requires a transducer that has high sensitivity, particularly if an analog measurement of the displacement is needed. The cost of such transducers can limit the applications in which such analog sensors can be utilized.
In addition, these sensors must often operate in a hostile environment in which the temperature varies over a large range and in which dirt and other contamination can buildup leading to device failure. Hence, the devices must typically be sealed in a manner that keeps out the contamination while still allowing the sensor to function properly.
Finally, these sensors are subject to oscillations resulting from resonances in the spring-mass system. Hence, some means for damping such oscillation is often required. The damping mechanism must not interfere with the transducer mechanism, and hence, there are constraints on the damping mechanism that further increase the cost of the sensor.

Opto-mechanical tilt and inertial force sensor

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


The present invention provides a heat-sensitive recording material comprising a substrate; and at least two heat-sensitive recording layers provided on the substrate, the heat-sensitive recording layers including microcapsules encapsulating an electron-donating dye precursor, and an electron-accepting compound, which reacts with the electron-donating dye precursor to develop a color and is disposed outside of the microcapsules, wherein the microcapsules include at least two kinds of microcapsules having different glass transition temperatures. A difference between each of the glass transition temperatures of the at least two microcapsules having different glass transition temperatures is preferably in a range from 20° C. to 70° C. According to the invention, a heat-sensitive recording material, which is superior in the reproduction of the gradation of an image and enables recording at high density, is obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-sensitive recording material, and, particularly, to a heat-sensitive recording material which is superior in the reproduction of gradation and enables recording at high density.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heat-sensitive recording method has the following advantages: (1) developing is unnecessary; (2) when the substrate is paper, paper quality is close to that of general paper; (3) the handling thereof is easy; (4) developed color density is high; (5) the recording device is simple and inexpensive; and (6) this method is free from noises when recording. Therefore, the application of the heat-sensitive recording has spread to the fields of facsimiles and printers and the fields of labels such as POS.
With this background, transparent heat-sensitive recording materials enabling direct recording using a thermal head have been recently developed for the purposes of coping with a trend toward multi-coloration and projecting an image by using an overhead projector (OHP) and observing an image directly on a light table, and demands with respect to the quality of an image are increasing on one hand. On the other hand, a rise in color development against printing energy tends to be acute as a progress in the high-sensitization of heat-sensitive recording materials is made corresponding to high speed recording, giving an impression that the gradation of an image has been sacrificed.
In view of this, in order to attain the compatibility of sensitivity with gradation, a heat-sensitive recording material has been developed in which a second color developing layer and a first color developing layer having the same developed color tone as the second color developing layer and laminated on the second color developing layer are laminated on a substrate and the first color developing layer is made to develop a color at a lower temperature than the second color developing layer (Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-B) No.6-30953). This invention gives priority to the color development of the first layer in low temperature printing and makes use of color development of the second color developing layer in high temperature printing; however, it possesses the problem that only insufficient image density can be obtained.


A computer graphics system and method for automatically defining a multi-block grid in a three dimensional space region which has a plurality of finite 4-sided surfaces arranged so that the space region is divided into a plurality of substantially hexahedral adjacent blocks.

In the field of the computer graphics, three-dimensional space representation is an increasingly felt problem. The multi-block approach for grid generation assumes that the computational domain is divided into a finite number of subdomains, called blocks, each one topologically equivalent to a cube, i.e. it is formed of six faces, twelve edges and eight corners. These blocks are also defined as hexahedral blocks. The computational grid is therefore created in every block obtaining a final multi-block grid which covers the whole computational domain.
It is known to handle such three-dimensional space representation with CAD systems such as CATIA of Dassault Systemes. With these systems is possible to ideally divide the three-dimensional space into a number of hexahedral blocks by defining the surfaces which delimite such blocks. What is obtained is a plurality of four-sided finite surfaces defined by three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates.
The next step is to define the topology of the three-dimensional domain, i.e. to create a correlation among the surfaces in order to make the system recognize which surfaces form an hexahedral block.
None of the known systems is able to do this topology definition and a user should define each block by manually indicating the six surfaces "belonging" to that block. This is a very time consuming process which heavily affect the performance of the system.

International Business Machines Corporation


An image recording/reproducing apparatus includes a first device for reproducing data from a recording medium, a second device for recording the data reproduced by the first device, a data maintenance unit for controlling the operation of the first and the second devices, a power supply unit for supplying a power to the first and the second devices, a power control unit for controlling operation of the power supply unit, an error data detecting unit for detecting an error data among the data recorded in the second device, and a main control unit, which, upon receiving a power cut-off command, controls the data maintenance unit to stop the operation of the second device and delete the error data detected by the error data detecting unit. Then, with the deletion of the error data, the main control unit controls power control unit so that the power supply unit cuts off the power supply. With the input of the power-off command, error data is detected among the data recorded in the recording space of the hard disc drive and deleted. Accordingly, the system is always maintained at an optimum state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image recording/reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, it relates to an image recording/reproducing apparatus having a first and second devices located in one casing and wherein, the image recording/reproducing apparatus is capable of maintaining the system in stable state in the event of power loss, by searching and removing the data abnormally recorded in the second device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of technologies of broadcasting signal digitalization and compression, image recording/reproducing apparatuses that record broadcasting signals on a recording medium and also reproduces such recorded data from the recording medium, are being designed with more functions.
Among such image recording/reproducing apparatuses, a combination type having a first and second device for performing independent functions has been marketed and is, provided with the function of reproducing audio/video (A/V) signals. For the purpose of present description, the combination type of image recording/reproducing apparatus having first and second devices therein will be referred to an image recording/reproducing apparatus.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus having a DVD-ROM and a hard disc drive (HDD) in one casing.
As shown in FIG. 1, the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 includes a DVD-ROM 12 and a hard disc drive (HDD) 14 combined in one casing. The DVD-ROM 12 reproduces data from a recording medium, and HDD 14 records data and reproduces recorded data. While the DVD-ROM 12 and the HDD 14 function independently, they also communicate via an interface which is capable of transmitting and receiving data of both DVD-ROM 12, and HDD 14. Generally, the DVD-ROM 12 reproduces data of optical disc recording medium such as a digital video disk (DVD), audio compact disk (CD), video CD and MP3 CD.
The DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 can receive external broadcasting signals, and record the received data on the HDD 14 and output the recorded data externally. Further, the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 can output to external devices data such as externally-received broadcasting signals, data reproduced from the DVD-ROM 12, and data reproduced from the HDD 14. The DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 outputs the broadcasting signals and data to corresponding devices such as audio amp 15, TV 17 and camcorder 19 in accordance with the characteristics of the output. Further, the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 can record on the HDD 14 the data reproduced from the audio amp 15, the TV 17 and the camcorder 19.
The DVD/HDD image (or feature) recording/reproducing apparatus 10 is additionally provided with the function of recording externally-input data on the HDD 14, in addition to the data reproduced from the DVD-ROM 12.
However, in recording the data on the HDD 14 of the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10, there are instances in which unnecessary or abnormally-recorded data are recorded. For example, the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10 cannot process data in a format which is different than the formats acceptable to the HDD 14. Accordingly, such data in the unacceptable format occupies space on the HDD 14, minimizing efficient space utilization of storage capacity. This is an example of unnecessary data.
In another instances, data may be missing from the HDD 14 even while there is a list of the data in the recording space of HDD 14. In this situation, as reproducing is performed with respect to the HDD 14 to reproduce the list of data, error occurs in the DVD/HDD image recording/reproducing apparatus 10, causing the system to stop the entire operation.
Furthermore, deleting data that unnecessarily occupies recording space on the HDD 14, causes great inconvenience to the user because he/she is required to search the recording space of HDD 14 and check the data as searched.

Image recording/reproducing apparatus for system optimization


Devices for the generation of inhalable aerosols by extrusion through a porous membrane by a motor-driven cam assembly are disclosed. The device holds a drug formulation container in a drug release position. The package is comprised of a collapsible wall with an opening and a cover for the opening that includes a porous membrane having a plurality of pores therein with a diameter in the range of 0.5 to 6.0 microns. An electric motor in the device is powered by a battery to rotate a cam assembly having three cams. The first cam forces a clamping member (configured to correspond to the outer periphery of the container) against the periphery of the collapsible wall of the container, sealing the jointure of the collapsible wall to the cover of the container along the entire periphery, except for a small unsealed portion thereof. The second cam crushes the collapsible wall, forcing the contents of the container through the unsealed portion of the jointure. The third cam operates to move the empty container out of the drug release position, while moving a new container into position.

It has been known for some time that aerosolized formulations of drugs can be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs. The formulation can treat lung tissue topically and/or be absorbed into the circulatory system to have a systemic effect. In general, aerosolized particles must have a diameter of 12 microns or less. Topical lung treatment can be carried out using particles having a diameter in the range of 8.0 to 12.0 microns. However, these particles are generally too large to carry out affective systemic treatment which generally uses particles having a diameter in the range of 0.5 to 6.0 microns.
It is difficult to produce particles which are sufficiently small inhalation i.e., particles having a diameter of less than 12 microns. There are several different types of devices which allow for the production of these small particles. In one method referred to as a "dry powder inhaler" or DPI the particles are dispensed by means of bursts of large volumes of compressed air which entrain small amounts of the particulate to form a dust cloud or atomize some of a fluid to form a spray of fine droplets. However, this method results in losses of medicament and requires that the user have a source of large volumes of compressed air available. A more commonly used device is a "metered dose inhaler" or MDI which uses a low boiling point propellant in a pressurized canister. By releasing a valve on the canister a metered amount of formulation and propellant are released. The propellant "flashes" or quickly evaporates away leaving small particles of drug for inhalation. Although an MDI provides a self-contained and readily portable device to be constructed, the use of liquefied propellants is increasingly unacceptable from environmental and other grounds.


An oral composition effective in whitening teeth comprising an amount of peroxyacetic acid effective to effect improved whitening of teeth.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an oral composition which when applied onto the surface of teeth acts to whiten teeth and more particularly to an oral composition for whitening teeth that is more effective than existing products available to the consumer.
2. The Prior Art
A tooth is comprised of an inner dentin layer and an outer hard enamel layer that is the protective layer of the tooth. The enamel layer of a tooth is naturally an opaque white or slightly off-white color. It is this enamel layer that can become stained or discolored. The enamel layer of a tooth is composed of hydroxyapatite mineral crystals that create a somewhat porous surface. It is believed that this porous nature of the enamel layer is what allows staining agents and discoloring substances to permeate the enamel and discolor the tooth.
Many substances that a person confronts or comes in contact with on a daily basis can "stain" or reduce the "whiteness" of one's teeth. In particular, the foods, tobacco products and fluids such as tea and coffee that one consumes tend to stain one's teeth. These products or substances tend to accumulate on the enamel layer of the tooth and form a pellicle film over the teeth. These staining and discoloring substances can then permeate the enamel layer.
This problem occurs gradually over many years, but imparts a noticeable discoloration of the enamel of one's teeth.
One method for whitening teeth used by dental professionals involves the use of 30% hydrogen peroxide in combination with heat and light to promote the oxidation reaction. This method, although fast, is losing favor with dentists because clinical and scientific evidence shows that an effective whitening process without heat and light is desired.
Another professional method for bleaching teeth involves the use of hydrogen peroxide generating compounds such as urea peroxide (carbamide peroxide) at concentrations of 10% to achieve the desired whitening effect. Urea peroxide rapidly breaks down into hydrogen peroxide due to the water present in saliva. This method is known as an office-monitored at-home bleaching system and involves the use of a mouth guard or tray within which the bleaching agent is placed. The tray is then placed upon the teeth of the patient and bleaching is allowed to take place. This method of treatment has drawbacks including tooth sensitivity, possibly due to demineralization and irritation of oral tissues. An additional disadvantage of the tray application method is that the bleaching effect is very slow.
There is a demand in the marketplace for a tooth whitening product that can be used at home or in private by the consumer and is safe and easy to use. A product for home use cannot utilize the compositions or products for whitening teeth that are available for use by a trained dental professional. For example, the 30% hydrogen peroxide bleaching agent utilized by many dental practitioners to bleach teeth is sufficiently concentrated to be irritating and potentially dangerous for home use by the consumer.
There are available in the marketplace dentifrice compositions for home use which contain 1-3% by weight concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and when applied on the teeth using a mouth guard or tray, effect whitening of stains. However, these compositions are considered to have slow bleaching effect.
Illustrative of oral compositions containing peroxide compounds include U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,450; U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,152, U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,156, U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,805, U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,036, U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,599 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,417.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,450 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,417 disclose formulating oxygen liberating compositions for the whitening of teeth utilizing anhydrous powders or water-free pastes or gels.
U.S. Pat No. 4,980,152 discloses an aqueous oral gel composition comprising about 0.5 to about 10% by weight urea peroxide and 0.01 to 2% by weight of a fluoride providing compound. The composition further includes a thickening agent such as carboxy polymethylene, a non-ionic surfactant such as Pluronic F127, alkali soluble cellulose ethers as viscosity increasing agents, potassium phosphate as a buffering agent and glycerine as a carrier and flavoring and sweetening agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,156 discloses a water containing hydrogen peroxide-Pluronic thickener oral gel composition. The composition, although effective at bleaching teeth and avoiding tissue damage, exhibits relatively slow whitening action.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,522,805 and 4,567,036 disclose a stable toothpaste for controlling periodontal disease, containing an oxidizing agent such as urea peroxide in a paste carrier comprising an anionic detergent, sorbitol and glycerin humectant and a thickening agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,599 discloses a toothpaste consisting essentially of a combination of calcium peroxide and sodium perborate oxidizing agents, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate cleaning agents, sorbitol humectant, cornstarch and cellulose gum thickening agents, and an anionic detergent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,433 discloses oral compositions containing specific organic peroxyacids which remove stain from teeth. The specific peroxyacids disclosed are aryl peroxyacids and alkyl diperoxy acids having alkylene groups containing 5-11 carbon atoms. The patentee teaches that it is surprising that these specific organic peroxyacids are effective against stain as most other organic peroxyacids are relatively ineffective except when used at elevated temperatures and/or for long exposure times.
European Patent Application 0 400 858 discloses a denture cleaning composition comprising an inorganic persalt bleaching agent, an organic peroxy bleach precursor and an effervescence generator.

Oral composition having improved tooth whitening effect


An abrasive grain is disclosed and may include a body. The body may define a length (l), a height (h), and a width (w). In a particular aspect, the length is greater than or equal to the height and the height is greater than or equal to the width. Further, in a particular aspect, the body may include a primary aspect ratio defined by the ratio of length:height of at least about 2:1. The body may also include an upright orientation probability of at least about 50%.

Abrasive articles, such as coated abrasives and bonded abrasives, are used in various industries to machine workpieces, such as by lapping, grinding, or polishing. Machining utilizing abrasive articles spans a wide industrial scope from optics industries, automotive paint repair industries, to metal fabrication industries. In each of these examples, manufacturing facilities use abrasives to remove bulk material or affect surface characteristics of products.
Surface characteristics include shine, texture, and uniformity. For example, manufacturers of metal components use abrasive articles to fine and polish surfaces, and oftentimes desire a uniformly smooth surface. Similarly, optics manufacturers desire abrasive articles that produce defect free surfaces to prevent light diffraction and scattering.
Manufactures also desire abrasive articles that have a high stock removal rate for certain applications. However, there is often a trade-off between removal rate and surface quality. Finer grain abrasive articles typically produce smoother surfaces, yet have lower stock removal rates. Lower stock removal rates lead to slower production and increased cost.
Particularly in the context of coated abrasive articles, manufactures of abrasive articles have introduced surface structures to improve stock removal rate, while maintaining surface quality. Coated abrasive articles having surface structures or patterns of raised abrasive layers, often called engineered or structured abrasives, typically exhibit improved useful life.
However, typical techniques for forming structured abrasive articles are unreliable and suffer from performance limitations. A typical process for forming a structured abrasive article includes coating a backing with a viscous binder, coating the viscous binder with a functional powder, and stamping or rolling structure patterns into the viscous binder. The functional powder prevents the binder from sticking to patterning tools. The binder is subsequently cured.
Imperfect coating of the viscous binder with functional powder leads to binder sticking on patterning tools. Binder sticking produces poor structures, leading to poor product performance and wasted product.
Selection of binders appropriate for typical structured abrasive formation techniques is limited by the process. Typical binders include high loading of traditional fillers that increase the viscosity of the binder. Such traditional fillers affect the mechanical characteristics of the binder. For example, high loading of traditional fillers may adversely affect tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break characteristics of the binder. Poor mechanical characteristics of the binder allow for loss of abrasive grains, leading to scratching and haze on surfaces and reducing abrasive article life.
Loss of grains also degrades the performance of abrasive articles, leading to frequent replacement. Frequent abrasive article replacement is costly to manufacturers. As such, improved abrasive articles and methods for manufacturing abrasive articles would be desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Abrasive particles having complex shapes and methods of forming same


This document discusses, among other things, a connector for an optical imaging probe that includes one or more optical fibers communicating light along the catheter. The device may use multiple sections for simpler manufacturing and ease of assembly during a medical procedure. Light energy to and from a distal minimally-invasive portion of the probe is coupled by the connector to external diagnostic or analytical instrumentation through an external instrumentation lead. Certain examples provide a self-aligning two-section optical catheter with beveled ends, which is formed by separating an optical cable assembly. Techniques for improving light coupling include using a lens between instrumentation lead and probe portions. Techniques for improving the mechanical alignment of a multi-optical fiber catheter include using a stop or a guide.

Bates et al. United States Published Patent Application US 2004/0067000 discusses a minimally-invasive optical-acoustic device for vascular and non-vascular imaging. It discloses an elongated optical imaging guidewire, catheter, or like probe with one or more ultrasound transducers at its distal end to provide ultrasound energy to nearby tissue or the like. Light energy produced at the external instrumentation is transmitted to the distal end of the implanted instrument, where it is converted to sound energy that is directed at nearby tissue or the like. Sound energy returned by such tissue modulates light energy at the distal end of the implanted section of the instrument. Such modulated light is then communicated to back to the proximal end of the instrument, and then to externally located diagnostic instrumentation.


A wireless communications device includes an antenna that receives a first signal at a first frequency and a second signal at a second frequency and converts the first and second signals into a composite signal. A first oscillator outputs a first oscillator signal at a first frequency and a second oscillator outputs a second oscillator signal at a second frequency. A demodulator receives the composite signal and the first and second oscillator signals. The oscillator signals are selected so that the demodulator generates a low frequency signal with components of the first and second signals occupying a common frequency band. The wireless communications device allows executing a “Soft Handoff” even when the first and second frequencies are different.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a communications system. More particularly, the invention relates to a wireless communications device and a method of receiving radio frequency signals within a communications system.
2. Description of the Related Art
One example of a communications system is a wireless communications system which can be a cellular mobile communications system. The cellular mobile communications system is implemented in a geographical area and logically divided into individual service cells. A fixed transceiver station such as a base station defines at least one cell and is connected to a base station controller. Mobile stations, such as hand-held or car-based cellular phones, move freely within the geographical area covered by a cell. The mobile stations not only move within a single cell, but also from one cell to a neighboring cell.
The base station handles all telephone traffic to and from those cellular phones which are currently located in the cell. The base station that serves a cellular phone is typically the one which is closest to the cellular phones and, thus, provides in many cases the best radio communications path to the cellular phones.
The cellular phones and the serving base station exchange radio signals in accordance with a communications protocol defined for a given communications system. The radio signals have frequencies within frequency bands that are assigned to the cells. In one example of a communications protocol, the radio signals can be structured in frames and channels.
In conventional Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, a pilot channel is defined for communications between the base stations and the cellular phones. The pilot channel carries no information, but provides the cellular phone, for example, with a reference for time, phase, and signal strength. The cellular phone constantly evaluates the strengths of the pilot channels of the serving and neighboring base stations to determine potential base stations. When the strength of the pilot channel of the serving base station falls below a predetermined threshold and the strength of the pilot channel of the neighboring base station exceeds a predetermined threshold, a handoff procedure is initiated. The procedure that transfers the mobile station from one cell to another cell, without dropping a call or losing information, is often called "Soft Handoff."
In many conventional Soft Handoff procedures, the base stations of neighboring cells use the same frequencies. This requirement, however, limits the number of mobile stations that can be served by one base station. For example, if two neighboring base stations operate at different frequencies, a so-called "Hard Handoff" procedure typically takes place which causes a break in an existing connection and may result in a loss of information.

Wireless communications device allowing a soft handoff procedure in a mobile communications system


The disclosure describes a display system with at least one interchangeable substantially planar display, a resilient support made of resilient sheet material to support the planar display, and a support for holding the resilient support against a support surface. A resilient rod is preferably used with the system. The resilient rod can be used to cooperate with the resilient support to allow mounting of the planar display at a distance from the rod.

(a) Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method and a system for creating and displaying a message, but not by way of limitation, to a system for creating and supporting messages from a substantially flat surface.
(b) Discussion of Known Art
The need and desire to display a printed message as a form of expression has long been recognized. Particularly, it has long been recognized that while it is desirable to be able to display messages to other individuals, it is also very important to be able to draw or capture the attention of the people for whom the message is directed. Moreover, since different individuals or entities may want to display or draw attention to drastically different messages and subject matter. Thus, there is a need for a system that allows personal expression in the creation and display of messages. To cater to these needs several examples of the known prior art have contributed different approaches at solving some of the problems associated with creating, displaying, and conveying written or message indicia to others.
For example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,643 to Powell et al. a system for creating custom imprinted articles is taught. The Powell system uses an interactive design terminal for using stored designs and using these designs as part of custom designs to be printed on garments.
In another example found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,461 to Orta et al. a hand signal and air freshener device is taught. The Orta device, which primarily serves as an air freshener, advantageously uses the weight of a freshener container to impart a rocking motion to a container mounted on a flexible rod to dispense air freshener.
Yet another example of a display system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,276 to Schneider. The Schneider device includes a recipe card holder which allows the variation of the recipe cards to be held by a cantilevered support. The Schneider device offers the versatility of allowing the user to vary the card displayed, but is not particularly well suited for mounting in a variety of areas, such as to the interior of a car, for example.
An example of a signal system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,435 to Peterson. The Peterson device includes a suction cup and a display that can be used to signal one of two messages to oncoming motorists. The Peterson device is of limited versatility since it is not readily modifiable so as to allow users to create a variety of displays. The Peterson device allows the display of a single card or color, and depends primarily on the color being displayed to communicate a message.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,277,981 to Horton a display device for attachment to a vehicle head lamp is taught. The Horton device includes a support portion that can include a light reflecting device in order to use the light from the headlight to illuminate the display. The Horton device also suffers from a lack of versatility, since it is designed to carry a single display. Moreover, the Horton device does not lend itself to positioning and display on a variety of surfaces.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,434 to Pratt et al. teaches the use of a suction cup to support a telephone sign, the suction cup also providing the appearance of a mouthpiece on the sign. The Pratt device serves the purpose of announcing that a telephone may be found on the premises, but does not allow the user to vary the message to be displayed.
Thus, from the above discussion it becomes clear that there remains a need for an easy to use, versatile, and highly impactful system that allows the user to develop personalized messages. The known prior art provides systems that allow a single sign or message to be placed on some sort of support, but that do not allow the user to customize or vary the message sent. The known prior art fails to provide placement versatility, including allowing the user the option to present a display from positions on the inside or on the outside of a window glass or any other flat or transparent surface. The ability to place the display on the inside of a vehicle extends the useful life of the display by preventing deterioration of the display by the elements.
Still further, it is recognized that a flag or banner is particularly useful in drawing the attention of a passer-by since it is understood, by cultural convention, that the flag or banner will include some sort of message. Thus the flag or banner arouses the curiosity of the passer-by who wants to and expects to find a message on the flag or banner. However, to date the versatility and ease of varying the message on the flag or banner has been limited, since these flags or banners can only carry a single, unmodifiable, display.
Also, the known prior art provides devices that allow the user to place the signs or displays at a single, pre-determined location. For example, with the Peterson or Horton devices, the user must place the display device at a specific location on a vehicle.
Other known display devices, such as bumper stickers or decals, must be placed on surfaces which can tolerate scratching in case the user wants to remove the sticker or decal. Alternatively, the stickers or decals must be placed on a surface which is not aesthetically important where scraping or glue residue may be tolerated. A limitation to the use of these locations or surfaces is that they are typically out of the way or not directly on the normal line of sight of the observer. Thus, these stick on, or adhesive supported displays, suffer from the limitation that they cannot be conveniently placed on surfaces that must hold high quality finishes without negatively impacting the surface finish quality.
Still further, the use of displays that are secured by an adhesive creates problems such as unsightly weathering and aging of the sticker itself. Thus, there remains a need for a device that can be easily replaced or removed and stored away from the elements in order to protect the display from weathering.
There remains a need for a system that can be placed at eye level, without harming the mounting surface and which allows variation of the message to be displayed. Still further, there remains a need for a system that is light weight and can be easily assembled to produce a consistent, impactful and professional appearance as to alignment and presentation.