In a process for manufacturing a singles ring yarn, firstly a first twist is supplied to a strand of traveling drafted fibers at a false twist device for producing a preliminary singles yarn. The false twist device rotates at a first speed for twisting the fibers. Immediately after the first twisting step, a joint twist of a second twist in the same direction as the first twist and a third twist in a reversed direction is supplied to the preliminary yarn for producing a final singles ring yarn. The second twist is produced by a rotatable take-up package onto which the final singles yarn is drawn. The reversed twist results in correspondence to the first twist, and the take-up package rotates at a second speed. The final singles yarn is then drawn onto the take-up package. Furthermore, a ratio of the first speed to the second speed is controlled for controlling the amount of a residual torque in the final singles ring yarn.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to textile technologies, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for manufacturing singles ring yarns, whose residual torque can be controlled.
2. Background of the Invention
Twisting is an important step of short fiber spinning. In this process, the yarns, are elastically twisted and transformed to attain sufficient strength, wear resistance and smoothness. However, as a negative effect, a large amount of residual torque or twist liveliness is also brought about in the yarns simultaneously. Such twist liveliness of the yarns renders a significant influence on the possessing quality of the latter products. For example, if yarns with twist liveliness are used on knitting, loops of the fabric will lose their balance because of the variation of torsion stress in the yarns. In order to attain the natural structure with the minimum energy condition, the loops tend to rotate to release the internal torsion stress. As a result, one end of the loops will tilt and protrude from the fabric surface, while the other end will stay inside the fabric. Such deformation of the loops will increase the spirality of the fabric, i.e., a deformation similar to the rib effect, which should be prevented to the utmost in the spinning industry. Thus, the balancing of torque inside the yarns is particularly important.
Yarns are made from a large quantity of fibers polymerized by their friction in-between. Hence, the residual torque of the yarns or the spirality of the fabric is mainly affected by said characteristic of the fibers, such as the type and cross sectional shape of the fibers, the polymerizing manner of the fibers and the internal structure of the yarns, etc.
First of all, different types of fibers have a different modulus (i.e. tensile, bending and shear) and cross sectional shape, thus lead to different degree of stress in the yarns. According to the report of Arauj and Smith in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1989, in the cotton/polyester blended yarns, increasing the ratio of polyester will enhance the twist liveliness of rotor and ring yarns, thus improving the spirality of the yarns. This is because polyester has a higher modulus, and said two types of fiber have different cross sectional shapes.
Next, different yarn structures have a different distribution of stress. Experimental results, such as Barella and Manich in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 59, No. 12, 1989, Lord and Mohamed in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 44, No. 7, 1974 and Sengupta, and Sreenivasa in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 64, No 10, 1994 show that, friction yarns (DREF-II) have the largest residual torque and trend of deformation in the priority sequence as ring yarns, rotor yarns and air-jet yarns. The different residual torques of said four types of yarn show the difference among their structures. It is generally agreed that single ring yarns are composed of a plurality of uniformly enveloped concentric helical threads, which fiber migration is a secondary feature. Hence, when the ring yarns are reverse-twisted, their strength will gradually decrease to zero, by then the yarns will be all dispersed. In relation to ring yarns, unconventional spinning systems produce yarns with core-sheath structures, such as rotor spinning yarn, air jet spinning yarn and friction spinning yarns. The packing density of said yarns is uneven, mainly characterized in the partial entanglement and enwrapment of the fibers. As a result, during reverse twisting, the strength of said yarns would not completely disappear, as disclosed in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 58, No. 7, 1988 by Castro etc.
In addition, many factors can affect the degree of movement freedom of the loops of the fabric and also the final spirality of the fabric. Said factors include fabric structure, parameters of the knitting machine, and the fabric relaxation and fabric setting due to finishing. All the aforesaid factors affecting the spirality of fabric are reported in detail as disclosed by Lau and Tao in the Textile Asia, Vol. XXVI, No. 8, 1995.
Same as other materials, the residual torque of the yarns can be reduced or eliminated with different methods. In the past several decades, a variety of torque balancing methods have been developed. According to basic theory, they can generally be split into two categories: permanently processing methods and physical torque balancing methods.
Permanently processing methods mainly accomplish the purpose of releasing residual torque by transforming the elastic torsional deformation into plastic deformation. The method mainly relates to a variety of processing techniques for material, such as thermal processing, chemical processing and wet processing etc. In the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1989, Araujo and Smith have proved that in relative to air-jet and rotor yarns, the heat processing of single cotton/polyester blended yarns can effectively reduce the residual torque of the yarn, However, in relation to natural fibers such as cotton or wool, permanent processing is too complicated. It may involve steam processing, hot water processing and chemical processing (such as mercerization in the case of cotton yarns and treatment with sodium bisulphite in case of the wool yarns). In addition, in relation to natural yarns, permanent processing cannot completely eliminate the residual torque of the single yarns, and it may cause damage and abruption to the yarns.
Compared with permanent processing, physical torque balancing is a pure mechanical processing technique. The main point of the method is fully utilizing the structure of yarns to balance the residual torque generated in different yarns while maintaining the elastic deformation characteristic of the yarns. Currently in the industry, separate machines are required to enforce torque balancing of the yarns hence the cost is higher. The method comprises plying two identical singles yarns with a twist equal in number but in the opposite direction to that in the singles yarns; or feeding two singles yarns with twist of the same magnitude but in opposite direction onto the same feeder.
Recently, some new torque balancing methods for yarns also emerged in the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 65, No. 9, 1995, Sawhney and Kimmel described a series spinning system for processing torque-free yarns. The inner core of said yarns is formed by processing with an airjet system while outside the core is enwrapped with crust fibers similar to DREF-III yarns. In the Textile Research Journal, Vol. 62, No. 1, 1992, Sawhey etc. have suggested a method of processing ring cotton crust/polyester inner core yarns Said yarns accomplish balancing condition by utilizing core yarns with opposite twisting direction from synthetic yarns, or applying heat processing on the polyester portion of said yarns. However, it is readily seen that the machines and processing techniques related to the aforesaid method are generally more complicated. In the Textile Research Journal, Vol, 57, No. 10, 1997, Tao has processed the layer structure of the inner core-crust of rotor yarns to generate torque-free single yarns, yet said technique is not suitable for ring yarns.
In addition, U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0200740, filed by Xiaoming Tao et al. and entitled "Manufacturing Method and Apparatus for Torque-Free Singles Ring Spun Yarns," discloses a method of producing torque-free singles ring yarns. According to this patent application, a draft fiber is divided into a plurality of sub-assemblies of fibers. Each sub-assembly of fibers firstly attains an individual twist value during a false twisting, and then are twisted together to form the final yarns. The false twisting is controlled such that balance of the internal torque of the final yarns is achieved.
The above-mentioned patent application merely teaches how to produce torque-free singles ring yarns. However, in some circumstances, the customer may want to retain in the final yarns a controllable amount of residue torques for various reasons, one of which can be, for example, for the strength of the final yarns. Furthermore, the abovementioned patent application is more appropriate for torque-free singles ring yarn production in the laboratory scale and may not be able to meet the practical requirements of the large-scale production in the textile industry.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing a singles ring yarn


A flip chip package includes a circuit board, a chip and a solder layer. The chip is mounted on an inner bonding area of the circuit board. The solder layer is located between the circuit board and the chip for bonding bumps to inner leads and a T-shaped circuit unit is on the inner bonding area. The T-shaped circuit unit has a main part, a connection part, and a branch part. The connection part is connected to the main and branch parts, respectively. The main part extends along a lateral direction and the branch part extends outwardly along a longitudinal direction. The connection part is narrower than the main part in width so as to inhibit solder shorts caused by solder overflow on the branch part.

Thermal compression is a common flip chip bonding technology, solid solder is heated and turned to softened solder for bonding chip and substrate. The softened solder on inner leads may flow toward bumps during thermal compression, however, solder on wider leads may be softened and flow toward bumps at a rapider speed to cause solder overflow around bump, even cause solder short to reduce product yield.

Flip chip package and circuit board thereof


UV radiation is applied to a substrate in a deposition chamber to desorb water and other contaminates from it. A liquid precursor is misted, flowed into the deposition chamber and deposited on a substrate while UV radiation is applied to the mist. The film of liquid on the substrate is dried and annealed on the substrate while the UV radiation is applied to form a solid thin film of a metal oxide. The thin film is then incorporated into an electronic device of an integrated circuit fabricated on the substrate. The application of UV radiation to both the mist during deposition and the thin film after deposition significantly increases the quality of the resulting integrated circuits. The process has been found to be particularly excellent for making BST, strontium bismuth tantalate, and strontium bismuth niobate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for fabricating thin films of complex compounds that form part of electrical components in integrated circuits, and more particularly, apparatus for forming such thin films from misted liquid precursors.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well-known in the art, the electrical components in integrated circuits are made up of layers of thin films which are connected by wiring layers and separated by insulating layers. While some of the simple materials and compounds, such as silicon glass, have been formed using a liquid deposition process, thin films of complex compounds, that is, compounds containing more than two elements, in the prior art have always been formed using processes such as vacuum sputtering, (i.e., E-beam, D.C., R.F., ion-beam, etc.); laser ablation, reactive chemical vapor deposition, including metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD); and liquid application methods using sol-gels (alkoxides) or carboxylates. However, none of these known methods have been able to produce metal oxides with properties good enough for use in integrated circuits. In all of the prior art processes, except sputtering, the films produced had significant physical defects, such as cracking, peeling, etc. It was impossible with the prior art processes, particularly sputtering, to reliably and repeatably produce metal oxides with a specific stoichiometry within tolerances required for integrated circuits. Some processes, like CVD, could be dangerous or toxic. Most required high temperatures that were destructive to an integrated circuit, and provided poor "step coverage" of a substrate to be covered; i.e., the prior art techniques resulted in a relatively excessive build-up of deposition of the film at the boundary of any discontinuities on the substrate. In prior art liquid deposition processes, it was impossible to control thickness with the degree of accuracy that is required to manufacture integrated circuits. As a result, up to now, metal oxides and other complex materials have not been used extensively in integrated circuits except for one or two specialty, relatively expensive applications, such as the use of sputtered PZT in ferroelectric integrated circuits that were expected to have short life times.
Ultraviolet radiation has been known to be effective in assisting chemical reactions in forming thin films. For example, see Japanese Patent Application No. 61183921 of Kamei, Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-128264 (NEC Corp), U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,684 issued to Tashiro et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,147 issued to Eguchi et al., Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-22420, and A. Yamada, Y. Jia, M. Konagai, and K. Takahashi, Photochemical Vapor Deposition of Si/Si.sub.l-x Ge.sub.x Strained Layer Superlattices at 250.degree. C., Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 27, No. 11, November 1988, pp. L2174-L2176. However, it has not been known to be useful to apply UV radiation to a mist of a liquid precursor in a non-reactive deposition process.

Misted deposition method with applied UV radiation


A storage or cargo container designed to fit into an air fairing of a ground traveling vehicle having a cab with mounting points with a latching system to which the cargo container is adapted to be attached. Use of the storage or cargo container more efficiently utilizes the space occupied by air fairings on cargo-carrying vehicles currently, and provides for Less Than full-Load capacity.

This invention relates to a storage or cargo caddy system designed to fit into or supplant an air fairing of a ground traveling vehicle. Specifically, it is intended to be compatible with air fairings commonly used on trucks and semi-tractors, which function to present aerodynamic transition between the lesser height of the vehicle cab and the greater height of the cargo body or semi-trailer. The storage or cargo caddy system is modular in design, and is made to be easily inserted into and removed from the space defined by the air fairing.

International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC


The present invention provides an LCD panel and a display method compatible with a 2D and a 3D display mode. The 3D display mode comprises a shutter 3D and a polarized 3D display mode. The LCD panel comprises multiple pixels, and each pixel comprises: a substrate, a data line, scan line, a common electrode line, 2D/3D switching control signal line, and a pixel unit. The pixel unit comprises: a first to a fourth switching elements, a first pixel electrode, and a second pixel electrode. The present invention, through disposing a 2D/3D switching control signal line to achieve switching of every operation mode, improve the color shift issue at the large viewing angle, increase aperture ratio, and reduce energy consumption at the same time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display panel and display method compatible with a 2D and a 3D display mode.
2. Description of Related Art
The liquid crystal display (LCD) device has many advantages of a thin body, energy saving, and no radiation, etc., and has been widely used. Most of the LCD device in the current market is a backlight type LCD device, which includes a liquid crystal panel and a backlight module. The operation principle of the liquid crystal panel is disposing liquid crystal molecules at two parallel glass substrates, and applying a driving voltage on the glass substrates to control the rotation direction of the liquid crystal molecules such that it reflects out the light from the backlight module to generated a picture. Because the liquid crystal panel itself does not emit light, it requires the backlight module to provide a light source to display an image properly. Therefore, the backlight module is one of the key components of the LCD device. According to the light incident position of the light source, the backlight module can be divided into two kinds of the side-light-type backlight module and the direct-light-type backlight module.
The direct-light-type backlight module places the light source such as CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) or LED (Light Emitting Diode) to the back of the liquid crystal panel to form a surface light source directly and proving to the liquid crystal panel. The side-light-type backlight module places the LED light bar for the backlight source at an edge of a backplane at the back of the liquid crystal panel. The light emitted from the LED light bar enters into a light guide plate at a light incident surface of the light guide plate. The light is emit out from the light emitting surface of the light guide plate after reflection and diffusion, and passing through an optical film module to form a surface light source and providing to the liquid crystal panel.
With the development of the display technology, the 3D LCD device has become more and more popular. In the current art, it generally uses two methods to achieve the 3D display: one is the polarized (Film-type Patterned Retarder, FPR) 3D technology and the other is the shutter (Shutter Glass, SG) 3D technology.
Wherein, in the polarized 3D display technology, pixels of two adjacent rows correspond to the viewer's left eye and right eye to respectively generate a left-eye image corresponding to the left eye and a right-eye image corresponding to the right eye. After the left eye and the right eye of the viewer receives the corresponding left-eye image and the right-eye image, through the synthesis of left and right-eye images by the brain so that the viewer can feel a 3D display effect. However, the left and right-eye images are easily to generate the crosstalk such that the viewer sees an overlapping image, which affects the viewing effect. In order to avoid the left-eye image signal and the right-eye image signal to generate the crosstalk, it utilizes a mask method of a black matrix (BM) between the pixels of the two adjacent rows to block the crosstalk signal in order to reduce the crosstalk between the left-eye and right-eye image signals.
The shutter 3D technology does not require the mask of the black matrix between the pixels of the two adjacent rows, and it achieves the 3D effect by mainly increasing the refresh rate of the picture. An image is divided into two by frame to form the corresponding left-eye and right-eye pictures, and they are displayed continuously and alternately, and an infrared signal transmitter will synchronize 3D TV to control the switching of the left and right lens of the shutter 3D glasses such that the left and right eyes can see the corresponding pictures at the right moment.

Liquid crystal display panel and display method compatible with 2D and 3D display mode

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


In an MD schema definition modifying process for specifying tables to be modified in terms of addition of columns or the like when modification such as addition of a dimension is applied to an MD schema in a BI system having a fixed model such as a data model, tables to be modified in terms of addition of columns or the like are specified on the basis of information of modification such as addition of the dimension to the MD schema. In an extraction process of modification candidate tables, all combinations of tables and columns to be modified in terms of addition of columns or the like are output. In a decision process of modification target tables, a combination of tables to be modified can be output.

The present invention relates to a technique for aiding customization of an analysis system. Particularly, it relates to a method for listing tables having columns to be added, deleted or modified from a relational database when a dimension is added, deleted or modified in an analysis schema of a multidimensional database (MDB).
Computer systems, magnetic cards and IC cards have become popular in the general public in recent years, so that information systems (data warehouses) for storing and managing customer's attribute data such as names, addresses, etc. and purchase history have been able to be constructed by house cards in wide business categories such as department stores, specialty stores, household electrical appliances discount stores, supermarkets, etc. Business Intelligence Solutions using the constructed data warehouses for planning corporate strategy have attracted a great deal of public attention recently.
Business Intelligence is a general term of applications and techniques for aiding better decision-making so that collected, stored and analyzed data can be used by business persons. Business Intelligence application software includes decision-making system, inquiry, reporting, on-line analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, prediction, and data mining. OLAP has been described in E. Thomsen et al., Microsoft OLAP solutions, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999, pp. 1–3.
As described in M. Whitehorn et al., Business Intelligence: The IBM Solution, Springer, 1999, pp. 10–11, Business Intelligence application software is known as a combination of a relational database (RDB) and a multidirectional database (MDB) or OLAP. In OLAP, the structure of the multidimensional database (MDB) is described by a multidimensional schema (MD schema).
There is a growing tendency to shorten the periods required for constructing these information systems. To shorten the constructing periods, the following techniques are known.
One is provision of packages classified by industry or business activity. For example, IBM StartNow Solutions for e-business, 2002, pp. 1–3, integrally provide hardware, software, analysis model and introduction-aid service classified by industry, specialized in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). (StartNow Solutions for e-business is a registered trademark of IBM.)
RedBrick Warehouse provided by Infocom is a database exclusively used for constructing a data warehouse. It provides a tool called Red Brick Warehouse Administrator for aiding design and construction of a data warehouse. Red Brick Warehouse Administrator provides GUI for defining the relationship among RDB tables constituting a data warehouse and GUI for making a rough estimate of required disk capacity. (RedBrick Warehouse and Red Brick Warehouse Administrator are registered trademarks of Infocom)
Oracle9i Warehouse Builder iDS 2.0, 2002, pp. 1–5 has disclosed Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) for designing, mounting and managing a data warehouse. Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. When OWB is used, RDB tables, MD schemata, Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) jobs can be designed by GUI.

Method and system for detecting tables to be modified


A novel gene defining a novel enzyme UDP-Galactose: β-D-Galactose-R 4-α-D-galactosyltransferase, termed α4Gal-T1, with unique enzymatic properties is disclosed. The invention discloses isolated DNA molecules and DNA constructs encoding α4Gal-T1 and derivatives thereof by way of amino acid deletion, substitution or insertion exhibiting α4Gal-T1 activity, as well as cloning and expression vectors including such DNA, cells transfected with vectors, and recombinant methods for providing α4Gal-T1. The enzyme α4Gal-T1 and α4Gal-active derivatives thereof are disclosed. Further, the invention discloses methods of obtaining α1, 4galactosyl glycosylated glycosphingolipids by use of an enzymatically active α4Gal-T1 protein thereof or by using cells stably transfected with a vector including DNA encoding an enzymatically active α4Gal-T1 protein as an expression system for recombinant production of such glycosphingolipids. Also a method for the identification of DNA sequence variations in the α4Gal-T1-coding exon by PCR, and detecting the presence of DNA sequence variation, are disclosed.

The P histo-blood group system is the last of the known carbohydrate defined blood group systems for which the molecular genetic basis has not yet been clarified. The P blood group system involves two major blood group phenotypes, P1+ and P1− with approximate frequencies of 80 and 20%, respectively (Landsteiner and Levine, 1927; Daniels et al., 1999). P1− individuals normally express the P antigen (P1− is designated P2 when P antigen expression is demonstrated), but the rare Pk phenotype lacks the P antigen, while the rare p phenotype lack both P and Pk antigens (for reviews see (Watkins, 1980; Marcus, 1989; Marcus and Kundu, 1980; Issitt and Anstee, 1998; Bailly and Bouhors, 1995)). The P1+ phenotype is defined by expression of the neolacto-series glycosphingolipid P1 (for structures see Table I) (Naiki et al., 1975).
TABLE IStructures of glycosphingolipids referred to inthis studyaP blood groupStructureantigenCDH, LacCerGalβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerpCTH, Gb3Galα1-4Gaβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerpkGlobosideGalNAcβ1-3Gabα1-4Galβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerPSialyl-Gal-GlobosideNeuAcα2-3Galβ1-3GalNAcβ1-3Galα1-4Galβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerLKEParagloboside, PGGalβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-3Galβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerP1Galα1-4Galβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-3Galβ1-4Glcβ1-1CerP1aKey: CDH, ceramide dihexoside (lactosylceramide, LacCer);CTH, ceramide trihexoside (Gb3, globotriaosylceramide);globoside, Gb4 (globotetraosylcerarnide);Cer, ceramide;Gal, D-galactose;Glc, D-glucose;GalNAc, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine;GlcNAc, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine;NeuAc, N-acetylneuraminic acid.
In contrast, the P, Pk, and p antigens constitute intermediate steps in biosynthesis of globo-series glycolipids and give rise to P1k, P2k, and p phenotypes (Naiki and Marcus, 1974). While the rare Pk phenotype show the same frequency of P1 antigen expression as individuals expressing the P antigen, the p phenotype is always associated with lack of P1 antigen expression. Extensive studies of the chemistry, biosynthesis, and genetics of the P blood group system identified the antigens as being exclusively found on glycolipids, with the blood group specificity being synthesized by at least two distinct glycosyltransferase activities; UDP-galactose: β-D-galactosyl-β1-R 4-α-D-galactosyltransferase (α4Gal-T) activity(ies) for Pk and P1 syntheses and UDP-GalNAc: Gb3 3-β-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase activity (EC 188.8.131.52) for P synthesis [for reviews see (Issitt and Anstee, 1998; Bailly and Bouhors, 1995)]. At least two independent gene loci, P and P1Pk, are involved in defining these antigens. The P blood group associated LKE antigen shown to be the extended sialylated Gal-globoside structure (Tippett et al., 1986), may involve polymorphism in an α2,3sialyltransferase activity.
A longstanding controversy has been whether a single or two independent α1,4galactosyltransferases catalyze the synthesis of the P1 neolacto-series glycolipid antigen and the Pk globo-series structure (Watkins, 1980; Marcus, 1989; Marcus and Kundu, 1980; Issitt and Anstee, 1998; Bailly and Bouhors, 1995). Several hypotheses have been proposed, including: i) a model with two distinct functional genes being allelic or non-allelic, where the P1 gene encodes a broadly active α4Gal-T, the Pk gene encodes a restricted α4Gal-T, and a null allele encodes a non-functional protein; ii) a model with two distinct non-allelic genes, where P1 encodes an α4Gal-T that can only synthesize P1 structures and the Pk encodes an α4Gal-T that only synthesize the Pk structure; and iii) a model where one gene locus encodes an α4Gal-T that is modulated by an independent polymorphic gene product to synthesize both P1 and Pk structures. Bailly et al. (Bailly et al., 1992) reported that kidney microsomal α4Gal-T activity from P1 individuals does not compete for the two substrates used by P1 and Pk α4Gal-T activities, and no accumulative effect in P1 synthase activity was observed when mixing microsomal fractions from individuals of P1 and pk groups. Based on this Bailly and colleagues suggested the existence of two distinct genes, coding for one P1 α4Gal-T with exclusive activity for neolacto-series substrates and one Pk α4Gal-T with exclusive activity for the globo-series substrate. Since p individuals lack the P1 antigen this model inferred that two independent genetic events inactivating both genes was responsible for the p phenotype.
Several approaches to gain insight into the P blood group α4Gal-T gene(s) have been attempted. Purification of the mammalian enzymes has not been successful, but identification and cloning of a bacterial α4Gal-T involved in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis (Gotschlich, 1994; Wakarchuk et al., 1998) potentially provided a strategy to clone the mammalian genes using sequence similarity. Previously, a bacterial α3fucosyltransferase was identified in helicobactor pylori using a short sequence motif conserved among mammalian α3fucosyltransferases (Martin et al., 1997). BLAST analysis of gene databases with the coding region of the α4Gal-T gene from Neisseria Meningo-coccae resulted in identification of two human genes encoding putative type II transmembrane proteins with low sequence similarity to the bacterial gene1. The genes have open reading frames encoding 349 (EST cluster Hs.251809) and 371 (EST cluster Hs.82837) amino acid residues, and are located at 8q24 and 3p21.1, respectively. Previously, we established Epstein-Barr virus transformed B cells from two p individuals (Wiels et al., 1996). Only the gene at 3p21.1 was found to be expressed in the EBV-transformed p cells, as well as in Ramos cells known to have high Pk α4Gal-T activity. Sequencing of the coding region of the gene showed no mutations in p cells. Finally, expression of full coding or truncated, secreted constructs of either gene in insect cells failed to demonstrate glycosyltransferase activity with a large panel of substrates, including lactosylceramide, for Pk α4Gal-T activity. 1 R. Steffensen, J. Wiels, E. P. Bennett, and H. Clausen, unpublished observation.
Access to the Pk α4Gal-transferase gene would allow production of efficient enzymes for use in galactosylation of glycosphingolipids, oligosaccharides, and glycoproteins. Such enzymes could be used, for example, in pharmaceutical or other commercial applications that require enzymatic galactosylation of these or other substrates in order to produce appropriately glycosylated glycoconjugates having particular enzymatic, immunogenic, or other biological and/or physical properties. The P blood group system is implicated in important biological phenomena. Blood group p individuals have strong anti-P1PPk IgG antibodies and these are implicated in high incidence of spontaneous abortions (Yoshida et al., 1994). The globoseries glycolipid antigens constitute major receptors for microbial pathogens with the Galα1-4Gal linkage being an essential part of the receptor site (for a review see (Karlsson, 1998)). The Pk glycolipid is the CD77 antigen, a B cell differentiation antigen, which is able to transduce a signal leading to apoptosis of the cells (Mangeney et al., 1993). Furthermore, the association of this glycolipid with the type I interferon receptor or with the HIV-1 co-receptor, CXCR4, seems to be crucial for the functions of these receptors (Taga et al., 1997; Puri et al., 1999). Cloning of the Pk synthase is an important step toward understanding the biological roles of the globo-series class of glycolipids, and a first step in elucidating the molecular genetics of the P blood group system. Availability of the Pk synthase gene is important for elucidating the many biological roles of the globo-series class of glycolipids, and may offer new avenues for diagnostic and therapeutic measures.
Consequently, there exists a need in the art for UDP-galactose: β-D-galactose-R 4-α-D-galactosyltransferase and the primary structure of the gene encoding this enzyme. The present invention meets this need, and further presents other related advantages, as described in detail below.

UDP-galactose: β-D-galactose-R 4-α-D-galac-tosyltransferase, α4Gal-T1


A method of providing uninterrupted playback of content being rendered by a media rendering device (102a) in a home network (100) is disclosed. The method comprises retaining (202) the media rendering device (102a) within the home network and checking whether the media rendering device is rendering content and if so checking (204) whether the media rendering device wants to continue its current ongoing rendering of content uninterruptedly and if so configuring (206) the media rendering device to notify the plurality of controller devices not to subscribe and invoke rendering service request thereby suspending the processing of rendering service request. The rendering devices could be connected televisions, streamium devices, connected photo frames, set-top-boxes, mobile phones and personal computers/laptops within the home network. The disclosed method could help the media rendering device and controller devices to save on power and network traffic.

Patent application US2008/0235620 discloses a control device for control of a system with a renderer and multiple sources supplying content to the renderer. The control device controls switching the system from a first activity to a second activity upon detecting a validating user interaction with the user interface to validate the switching. This could result in interruption of the current ongoing playback at the renderer.
As an exemplary situation, a renderer device such as a television could be rendering audio/video content either from Internet source or USB source or DLNA media server. A controller device could interrupt the television's playback requesting to play content from other content source (e.g., from Blu-ray Disc player or from Personal Comptuer (PC) present in the home network). This could force the television to stop the playback of the current content and switch to the controller device's instructed content source (e.g., from Blu-ray Disc player or from PC present in the home network). This could result in interruption of the current ongoing playback at the television. This problem could be much more when the home network has multiple controllers to control the television.

Media rendering device providing uninterrupted playback of content


Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to manage care pathways and associated resources. An example apparatus includes a system monitor to coordinate a patient data analyzer and a care pathway processor to at least: identify a first patient record associated with a first care pathway; and identify a second patient record that is not on the first care pathway but should be on the first care pathway. The example apparatus includes a graphical user interface including information regarding, in a first area, the first patient record associated with the first care pathway and, in a second area, the second patient record that should be associated with the first care pathway.

Patient care can be organized according to one or more care pathways including milestones, tasks, resources, and personnel to care for the patient. Certain care pathways are known, along with associated clinical metrics which indicate a patient's health state. Such clinical metrics can be monitored by care providers to help ensure they are stable. When stable, the care providers are able to handle a clinical workflow and a hospital's physical resources have capacity. However, when care pathways are uncertain, the care providers may not have capacity to serve at any instant and the states of the patients being cared for may be either unstable or evolving in a way that is not readily detected.
Ongoing and evolving care delivery protocols vary in response to changes in managed clinical measures over time, and their clinical effects are influenced by the accumulated interactions of a patient with the hospital's physical environment as well as dissociated routine actions of a plurality of care providers, staff, and visitors. Such protocols are difficult to optimally manage. These protocols are not well bounded by a singular event or alarm level. Their incremental change effects may be difficult to measure. Further, existing physical and care delivery protocols are under-developed to sense, design and deliver in response to change, given that their delivery occurs via a plurality of providers and that the underlying clinical state evolves or changes over time. As a result, clinical degradation can occur, and a response to intervene and prevent the degradation is too slow to have an effect. Further complicating this class of care are compound detection and conditional diagnostic steps which yield interim probabilities as to the specific care pathway and protocols that should be executed in the current time and/or planned for future.
The figures are not scale. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.

Integrated systems and methods for evolving state protocols and decision support


Even if an object to be detected is not remarkable in images, and the input includes images including regions that are not the object to be detected and have a common appearance on the images, a region indicating the object to be detected is accurately detected. A local feature extraction unit 20 extracts a local feature of a feature point from each image included in an input image set. An image-pair common pattern extraction unit 30 extracts, from each image pair selected from images included in the image set, a common pattern constituted by a set of feature point pairs that have similar local features extracted by the local feature extraction unit 20 in images constituting the image pair, the set of feature point pairs being geometrically similar to each other. A region detection unit 50 detects, as a region indicating an object to be detected in each image included in the image set, a region that is based on a common pattern that is omnipresent in the image set, of common patterns extracted by the image-pair common pattern extraction unit 30.

To understand the situation in the real world and perform advanced analysis, it is very important to automatically detect an object such as a product or a logo that appears in an image or a video, or more specifically to grasp the type of the object and the position of the object in an image. If, for example, a specific product can be automatically detected in an image posted on an SNS, the situation where this product is used and a product that is purchased at the same time become apparent, which leads to realization of a more detailed marketing research. Also, if a company logo can be automatically detected in a television picture, the time at which the logo is displayed and the position at which the logo is displayed in the television screen are quantified, making it possible to measure promotion effects and flexibly set an advertisement rate, for example. Thus, object detection can be considered as an underlying technology with broad industrial applicability.
Many of the known object detection technologies are based on the premise that an object detector model is learnt from a large amount of labeled training data related to an object. Here, "label" refers to information indicating the type of an object that appears in each of the images, which are training data, and position information regarding the object in the images. Position information is, for example, information regarding coordinate positions at four corners of a rectangle that exactly surrounds a region indicating an object appearing in an image. Commonly, it takes a huge cost to manually construct such training data.
A technology for automatically detecting, to solve the above problem, an object appearing a plurality of image sets to which the same label is attached, while taking notice of the fact that it is relatively easy to only obtain a label indicating the type of the object appearing in an image, or such a label can be attached at low cost, is called "weakly supervised object detection".
In conventional weakly supervised object detection technologies, for example, there are many cases where a region indicating an object to be detected (hereinafter referred to as a "target object region") is specified by estimating a highly-remarkable region in each image, associating obtained regions with each other in an image set, and evaluating the ease of reconstruction thereof. For example, a method has been proposed in which, first, close association on a pixel basis is estimated in an image pair in which highly remarkable regions are similar to each other, and a target object region is specified based on an error that occurs when each pixel of each image is reconstructed with a similar image using the estimation results (e.g. see NPL 1).
In the technology proposed in NPL 1, close association needs to be calculated for many image pairs, which increases the processing cost. Taking notice of this point, a method has also been proposed in which a target object region is rapidly specified by evaluating the ease of reconstruction per feature value that is extracted from a highly remarkable region (e.g. NPL 2).

Object detection device, method, and program

NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION


A low-stretch and dimensionally stable floor covering (1) comprising polymer-containing pile material (2) which is retained to a polymer-containing primary backing (3), to the back of which an underlying secondary backing layer (5) is retained by means of an interleafing adhesive layer (4). The secondary backing layer (5) comprises a needled fibre structure of thermoplastic, polymer-containing, continuous or staple fibres being inter-fixated by heating. The adhesive layer (4) comprises an organic, polymer-containing binder which is activated by heat application. According to the invention, at least the secondary backing layer and/or the binder layer comprise a substantially re-usable material. After being formed, the carpet is wound onto so-called broadloom rollers and can, if desired, be cut partially into carpet tiles. Thus, carpet tiles and broadloom carpets can be manufactured in the same production process.

The present invention concerns a low-stretch floor covering material applicable both as wall to wall (broadloom) carpets and as carpet tiles, said material exhibiting both a dimensional stability under climatic changes in accordance with the specifications for carpet tiles, especially for contract carpeting and the ability to be wound onto broadloom rollers. The invention further concerns a method of manufacturing a floor covering of the kind stated in the introduction and in which in an initial production step a web-formed semi-manufactured material is produced which comprises pile material being retained to a primary backing layer.
Low-stretch and dimensionally stable floor coverings include wall-to-wall (also often called broadloom) carpets and carpet tiles exhibiting a low degree of shrinkage and/or expansion lengthwise and/or widthwise, and consequently being highly capable of resisting varying moisture and heat impacts in use. Especially within the field of contract applications the dimensional stability of carpet tiles is to-day--due to their construction--considerably higher than that of broadloom carpets. To compensate for the lower dimensional stability of broadloom carpets they are for contract applications to-day glued down to sub-floors by means of a permanent glue. Carpet tiles are only installed and glued down by means of tackifier or are simply meant to be held in place by their high weight.
The known low-stretch and dimensionally stable floor coverings when used as wall-to-wall carpets comprise a semi-manufactured material with pile material which is retained to a primary backing layer having a secondary backing layer which e.g. may consist of a coating of natural rubber, chalk-filled (calciumcarbonate-filled) SBR-latex foam or polyurethane foam or the like. These backing layers are normally applied in a thickness of 2-8 mm. Because of their elastomeric properties foamed backing layers contribute significantly to the walking comfort. Additionally, the foamed backing layers also provide good temperature and sound insulation.
These known foamed backing layers, however, entail significant adverse environmental impacts, which are undesired in particular in the light of the present strict demands on environmentally friendly and re-usable products. By re-usable products are meant products containing components which can be melted down and again enter into a production process, or components which by incineration give approximately nul residual ash percentage. The foamed backing layers often give off residual gases for prolonged periods after production entailing risk of nuisance to the indoor climate in the room where the carpet has been laid out. At the same time it is a problem that the foamed backing layers after use for some length of time of the floor covering stick so well to the underlying floor that the foamed backing layer often in very large areas is separated from the floor covering when worn-out floor covering is to be removed. The large areas with attaching remains of foamed backing layers must then be removed in a time-consuming working operation before a new floor covering can be laid on the floor.
The most significant disadvantage of the known floor coverings with foamed backing layer, however, consists in the limited possibilities of disposing of the used carpet coverings and the related unfortunate environmental impacts. In case of e.g. foamed chalk-filled SBR-latex backing coatings on worn out wall-to-wall carpets it is in practice at disposal only possible to achieve the level "incineration without energy recovery". Chalk-filled foam backing layer contain a high concentration of inorganic materials which are left as ash after incineration.
The generally known carpet tiles are widely used in particular as so-called project carpeting, that is, carpet especially for contract areas and for industrial use. Understood herein by carpet tile is a regularly formed piece of carpet which (measured according to specifications formulated for this purpose by national inspection agencies such as for instance TNO) has a shape and dimension stability under climatic changes sufficient to form a continuous floor covering under all conditions. A representative standard used in many countries at the time the present invention was made is DIN 66095 Teil 2 according to which the extension under specified climatic changes must not exceed +0.2%, and the shrinkage must not exceed -0.4%. Test methods for extension and shrinkage are e.g. ISO 2551 and DIN 54318.
In such applications carpet tiles have great advantages compared with conventional broadloom carpets. The tiles are for instance easy to take up, whereby easy access can be obtained to the space under the floor for (re)positioning for instance computer and electricity cables. Carpet tiles can also be easily laid without unnecessary disruption of the normal activities in a room area. In addition, carpet tiles can be replaced locally in simple manner, which is advantageous when particular parts of a room area are used more intensively than others. They are also compact and therefore simple to transport, particularly in high-rise office buildings where rolls of carpet can cause great transport problems.
The known carpet tiles are usually provided with a relatively heavy secondary backing layer and binder layer in order to ensure their shape and dimension stability. The secondary backing layer is generally made of a strong coating of glass-reinforced bitumen or glass-reinforced PVC coating. The specific weight of a conventional carpet tile therefore amounts to roughly 5 kilograms per square meter.
A representative example of such carpet tiles is described in EP 0278690 A2. In order to provide a carpet tile with good dimensional stability, good lay flat characteristics, and which may be produced by an in-line production method, a carpet tile is suggested, which comprises a fibrous face wear surface secured to a primary backing sheet,
a first precoat layer on the primary backing surface and comprising a hotmelt bitumen or petroleum resin composition, PA1 a second precoat layer secured to the first coating layer and which second coating layer comprises a bitumen hotmelt composition, PA1 a third coat backing layer which comprises a bitumen hotmelt composition, and PA1 a secondary backing sheet material to provide dimensional stability to the carpet and secured to the third coating backing layer. Dimensional stability is achieved by the secondary backing comprising a woven or non-woven glass fibre scrim and by the high total weight of the tile. PA1 initially producing a web-formed semi-manufactured material comprising a pile material retained to a primary backing layer, PA1 heating a web-formed secondary backing layer having a specific weight of 70-1000 g/m.sup.2 and comprising a needled fibre structure of essentially non-moisture absorbing thermoplastic, polymer-containing, continuous or staple fibres to a temperature at least corresponding to the lowest softening temperature for the fibre materials in the fibre structure so as to provide an interfixation of the fibres, PA1 joining the back side of the web-formed semi-manufactured material with the web-formed backing layer by interleafing an adhesive layer preferably in an amount, so that the specific weight of the secondary backing and the adhesive does not exceed 1800 g/m.sup.2, said adhesive layer comprising an organic polymer-containing binder having a reaction temperature which is lower than the melting temperature for the majority of the fibre material content in the fibre structure and activating the binder by heat application, PA1 cooling the formed floor covering material so as to provide an essentially non-moisture absorbing bonded adhesive layer, PA1 winding the material onto broadloom rollers and optionally cutting the material wholly or partially into carpet tiles. PA1 that during extrusion on the semi-manufactured material they are sufficiently flowable to be able to penetrate into the primary backing forming part of the semi-manufactured material without soaking through pile to the top of the carpet. PA1 that sufficiently open-time is available--the hot-melt binder must stay liquid for sufficiently long so as to allow adhesion of the secondary backing thereto. PA1 A totally recyclable system with almost no residue. PA1 Reduced environmental costs. PA1 A product based on environmentally up-to date, non-toxic materials. PA1 Improved production stability and control of the product quality. PA1 Lower energy consumption and production costs. PA1 Much higher production speeds than conventional backing plants. More than 3-4 times the speed when manufacturing and backing carpets with light-weight secondary backings. PA1 Reduced physical space, since no drying ovens are needed. PA1 Possibility of exploiting advantages of large scale production and improved logistics.
In order to further improve the dimensional stability EP 0420661 A2 describes a carpet tile comprising a wear surface and a primary backing comprising a solid, hotmelt composition and a secondary backing composed of adjacent layers of a porous, glass fibre sheet material e.g. tissue, non-woven glass fibre and a porous, fibrous sheet material with a fibrous sheet material as the exterior surface of the secondary backing layer, and wherein the hotmelt composition has penetrated and saturated the glass fibre material but has only partially penetrated the fibrous sheet material sufficiently to bond the fibrous sheet material. Typically, the carpet tile comprises a fibrous carpet material wherein the primary backing is a bitumen or a bitumen modified hotmelt composition. The secondary backing comprises separate, adjacent layers of a porous, lightweight glass fibre tissue sheet material which in itself gives the carpet tile the improved dimensional stability. However, in EP 0420661 polypropylene, non-woven sheet material is characterized as not in itself being a satisfactory material as a secondary backing carrier sheet.
EP 0590189 A1 was filed on Dec. 30, 1992 and published on Apr. 6, 1994 (Art.54(3)EPC) for DE, FR, GB, and NL. It confirms the disadvantages of prior art carpet tiles comprising bitumen/asphalt backing members or PVC-backings.
According to one embodiment of this invention a tile-shaped carpet is provided which comprises a backing member and an upper layer formed on the backing member, both of which are made of a propylene resin. Preferably the upper layer includes a base fabric sublayer and a pile sublayer, both of which are made of propylene resin.
While reference is made to polypropylene fibres as part of the upper layer, the backing member is only described as being made of either propylene, monopolymer or copolymers of propylene and ethylene butene-1 and the like, which may comprise a regenerated product of the propylene resin. It is preferred to use an amorphous alpha-olefincoplymer and in fact the only embodiment specifically described is extrusion-moulded back-up members. The document comprises no reference to needled and textiled back-up members.
The known carpet tiles have a large number of drawbacks, however. The disposal and processing of the tiles at the end of their useful life thus causes great problems due to the nature and quantity of the materials used. When they are burned a significant portion, up to about 60% by weight, of the bitumen-containing tiles is left over in the form of ash.
Incineration of products such as tiles with PVC backing layers demands high energy supply during incineration, because PVC contains chlorine which uses energy during incineration instead of generating energy. Chlorine is also a toxic and etching gas which easily reacts with other inorganic and organic substances, wherefore incineration of floor coverings with PVC backing layer calls for special environmental measures during the incineration process.
It is moreover expected that the problems associated with the processing of waste tiles will become more pressing in the future since, with regard to the large numbers of carpet tiles laid and replaced annually (in Europe more than 40 million square meters with a weight of about 200,000 tons), legal requirements relating to the environmentally friendly processing thereof can be anticipated in the short term.
In addition, due to their comparatively heavy weight the known carpet tiles can only be simultaneously transported and laid in relatively small quantities. Moreover there is a considerable danger of back disorders for the carpet installers.
As previously mentioned the construction of carpet tiles and broadloom carpets is totally different. Therefore, carpet tiles and broadloom carpet have conventionally been produced by different processes and on different types of manufacturing equipment. This has been due to the mentioned different materials which the carpet industry has had to use until now for meeting the application requirements for these two different products. For manufacturing carpet tiles the relatively stiff, heavy weight backing of bitumen or PVC with glass have been used, or for broadloom carpets the backing has conventionally been relatively flexible, been consisting of calcium carbonate filled foam or equivalent materials. So far it was therefore not possible to integrate the manufacture of these two types of carpets in one and the same process.
From EP 0547533 A1 a stretchable floor covering is known which when being laid out are often stretched by many percent lengthwise and widthwise, whereafter the edges of the stretchable floor covering are secured to adjoining panels by means of nail lists or the like. The secondary backing layer is instead of the previously known foamed coatings constituted by a backing layer with a fibre structure being embedded in or encompassed by a textile bonding so as to impart acceptable strength properties to the secondary backing layer for use as a stretchable floor covering. By the textile bonding is meant that the fibre structure may e.g. be needlepunched to an underlying strength imparting web, or that the fibre structure is provided with stitches or loops in the longitudinal and cross-sectional directions, e.g. according to the known Maliwatt or Kettenwirk principles. The specification, however, provides no directions for a backing layer with a fibre structure being sufficiently dimensionally stable in the longitudinal and cross-sectional directions for enabling production of a low-stretch and dimensionally stable floor covering possessing the same strength and dimensional stability properties and walking comfort as the known floor coverings with foamed backing layers and the same dimensional stability as the known carpet tiles.

Low-stretch and dimension stable floor covering


This invention describes a method for improving the test time for hot carrier injection effects in CMOS transistors. In conventional testing of hot carrier effects a stress voltage is applied between the drain and the source of a transistor. This stress voltage is limited by the drain to source punch-through voltage. In the enhance method described within, a substrate back bias is applied that extends the punch-through voltage and allows a higher drain to source stress voltage. With the higher stress voltage the amount of time needed to test parameter degradation caused by hot carrier injection is substantially reduced.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to testing of semiconductor integrated circuits and in particular testing of parameter degradation caused by hot carrier injection.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional methods of testing for hot carrier effects on semiconductor transistor parameters are limited by the drain to source punch-through voltage. The effect on transistor parameters is a degradation over time, and the testing is required to assure the parameters meet a certain criteria throughout the specified life of the product. As semiconductor devices are scaled to be smaller for density and performance reasons, punch-through can be more restrictive forcing a lower stress voltage and requiring longer testing time.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,009 (Bui) is described a CMOS transistor design for optimal hot carrier testing. In this scheme is a transistor designed to have multiple common gate areas. There is an adjustment of the pad area to the gate area to minimize deleterious plasma currents. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,665 (Jiang) is disclosed a special test circuit for determining performance degradation resulting from hot carrier stress. The test circuit is formed by a string of inverters connected in series. Every other inverter in the series connection is designed to not be sensitive to hot carriers. Thus a signal transition delay is amplified by every other inverter that is sensitive to hot carrier effects on delay. In reference to "ULSI Technology" edited by C. Y Chang and S. M. Sze, McGraw Hill 1996, pp 657-662 is described the reliability effect of hot carrier injection. The fundamental mechanism and equations of the hot carrier effects are described.
In the conventional method of testing reliability of a semiconductor product for hot carrier effects, a drain to source stress voltage is applied for a period of time and parameters are measured for degradation. The time that is required by the test samples under test can be of considerable length. This time can be reduced by increasing the drain to source stress voltage. The magnitude of the stress voltage is limited by the source to drain punch-through of the transistors under test, and limits the reduction in test time for obtaining a reasonable lifetime prediction of the hot carrier effect.

Method of fast testing of hot carrier effects

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company


Manufacturing equipment performs different processes, including a first process that produces a reaction products and a second process that removes the reaction products, in a same chamber. The amount of reaction products in the chamber is monitored, and a priority order between the first and the second processes is set based on the monitored amount of the reaction products. The order of the first and the second processes is determined based on the set priority order. The amount of reaction products can be kept within an acceptable range without performing a long-period lot-to-lot cleaning, and a high manufacturing efficiency is realized.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a method for management of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and particularly to a method for managing semiconductor manufacturing equipment that performs different processes. This invention also relates to a system for managing semiconductor manufacturing lines including manufacturing equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor devices are manufactured by processing semiconductor substrates (wafers), which are usually grouped in lots, in a manufacturing line. The manufacturing line includes a plurality of manufacturing equipments to perform a plurality of processes.
In conventional semiconductor manufacturing lines, dedicated manufacturing equipment is assigned for each process to prevent cross-contamination between different processes. For example, a gate etching process for forming gate electrodes, and an active etching step for forming LOCOS (Local Oxidation of Silicon) structures, are respectively performed by dedicated etching equipment.
During plasma processes such as plasma etching, reaction products are produced in the plasma and are deposited within the processing chamber of the apparatus. Because different processes utilize different process gases and different plasma conditions, amounts and chemical compositions of the reaction products vary depending on the process. By assigning dedicated equipment to each process, it is possible to fix the compositions and rate of deposition of the reaction products within the chamber. Thereby, for instance, wet cleaning using various kinds of solvents, and maintenance for replacement parts can be performed at a fixed interval, e.g., after processing of predetermined number of wafers.
Thus, assigning dedicated equipment for each process enables planned maintenance, and accordingly, is more effective. Unfortunately, however, operating rates of different equipment cannot be equalized.
For example, gate etching equipment for etching polysilicon films can continuously process 5,000 wafers or more without wet cleaning. On the other hand, a shallow trench etching equipment for etching silicon substrates with an etching gas containing a high flow rate HBr gas requires a wet cleaning upon processing of 3,000 wafers or less. This is because shallow trench etching produces a large amount of reaction products within the etching chamber.
The difference in operation rates has led to a problem of increased costs due to ineffective equipment investment and increased personnel load for maintenance. Consequently, various methods and equipment for reducing amount of reaction products within processing chambers of manufacturing equipment have been proposed so as to improve the manufacturing efficiency.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-11-214356 (first reference) discloses a dry etching method for forming trenches in a silicon substrate. According to the etching method disclosed in the first reference, the trenches are formed using a silicon nitride film pattern as an etching mask by performing the following steps in a single etching chamber. At first, a natural oxide film formed on the surface of the silicon substrate, on which trenches are to be formed, is removed using a fluorine-based etching gas, and then a silicon etching using a chlorine- or bromine-based etching gas is performed, thereby forming trenches in the silicon substrate.
According to this first reference, continuously performing plasma etching with a fluorine-based etching gas and then with a chlorine- or bromine-based etching gas in a single etching chamber markedly reduces the amount of reaction products deposited on the inner wall of the chamber. Thereby, the process may be performed with excellent repeatability, and consequently, the frequency of dry cleaning may be reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,211 (second reference) discloses a method of cleaning an etching chamber while a substrate is being etched, or a self-cleaning etching process. With this etching method, a process gas including etchant gas is used to etch the substrate thereby depositing etch residue inside the chamber. Cleaning gas is added to the process gas for a sufficient time and in a volumetric flow ratio that is sufficiently high, to react with and remove substantially all the etch residue deposited by the process gas.
The etching methods disclosed in these references are both aimed at reducing the amount of reaction products in the etching chamber during a single process. These references are not intended to perform different processes in the production of semiconductor devices within a single etching chamber. For example, in the method of the first reference, the etching of natural oxide film and the etching of silicon substrate are both performed within a single etching chamber. However, the etchings of these different materials are performed during a single process of trench formation.
In addition, etching conditions disclosed in these references, which are optimized to reduce the reaction products, are not always suitable for realizing desirable etching properties such as, for instance, high processing accuracy.
On the other hand, different processes are sometimes needed to be performed in a same etching chamber due to, for instance, shortage of manufacturing equipment. In this case, it has been thought that cleaning of the chamber is required between different processes in order to prevent contamination by the reaction products deposited in another process (cross-contamination). Obviously, necessity of such cleaning between different processes reduces the manufacturing efficiency. Therefore, the use of a single chamber for different processes is not considered to be efficient or desirable.
Even if the methods of reducing the amount of residues proposed in the first and the second references are used, it is difficult to completely eliminate the deposition of reaction products in the chamber. Furthermore, such methods of reducing residue are not applicable to all the processes involved in semiconductor device manufacturing. For example, the first reference proposes a combination of etching gases to reduce the amount of residue in trench etching process. However, the combination of the etching gases proposed in the first reference is not applicable to other processes.
Therefore, it is still necessary to clean the chamber between different processes, when different processes are performed in a single chamber.

Method for managing semiconductor manufacturing equipment and system for managing semiconductor manufacturing line


A laser system support structure is provided having an independent, kinematically mounted chamber and optics platform. Swivel-type mounts are used to couple the platform at three points to the laser support frame, thereby allowing the platform to remain static while the support frame, via the swivel mounts, deflects around the platform in response to external forces. The independent platform design provides secondary benefits of creating a compartmentalization of laser system components, leading to a modular type design. Each laser system module is mounted to the support structure on an extension rail, to allow removal of the module from the support frame for easy access during servicing.

The speed of today's high-speed performance digital computers is dependent both on the speed of the IC chip and the compactness of the package on which the chip is mounted. The package connects the signals between the chips, provides power and cooling capability, as well as providing interconnects to other parts of the computer. By making the packaging circuits smaller, the signals have less distance to travel which translates into reduced processing time. As circuits get smaller, the way they are fabricated and the accuracy with which they have to be positioned becomes more challenging. Micro lithography for advanced ULSI fabrication is currently making a transition from using an i-line (365 nm) mercury lamp to a deep-UV excimer laser, primarily krypton fluoride (KrF), having a wavelength of 248 nm, as the illumination source. The KrF excimer laser is expected to become the primary exposure tool for printing sub-0.4 .mu.m design rule features in IC manufacturing, while Argon fluoride (ArF) with its 193 nm wavelength, is expected for use in sub-0.25 .mu.m design features.
In the micro lithography process, wafer steppers utilize precision positioning tables with interferometers and CCD optical recognition to provide accurate placement of design patterns in silicon wafers. The wafer is generally automatically loaded from a cassette into a wafer holder where it is automatically leveled, focused, and aligned to the mask. Each pattern on the part has to be overlaid with a defined accuracy on a previously-defined pattern. One pattern may be used as the mask for each part, wherein the excimer laser acts as a projection ablation tool to form the vias which interconnect the wiring levels of the circuit As the pattern changes, the mask is changed as the step-and-repeat process continues. These vias must be placed precisely on the features defined at the previous level, making the accuracy of the laser system critical. This accuracy can be affected by lens distortion, tool-to-tool errors, and particularly by alignment mark errors. Because of the increasingly smaller design rule features being required in the industry, changes in beam profile and direction cannot be tolerated as the result of misalignment or external forces acting to destabilize the alignment accuracy of the laser-stepper system.
Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a laser system support structure 10 of conventional design is shown, having a horizontal support frame 20 and rail cross members 30. The optical platform (not shown) and the laser system components mounted thereon are typically mounted on rail cross members 30 and supported equally by internal panel 35 and vertical frame members 40, which are tied into support frame 20 by brackets 45, shown in the closeup labeled A. Beam delivery interface mount 50, used to couple and hold the laser system to the wafer stepper's beam delivery equipment in a precise and stable manner, is generally mounted to frame 20 since, in this conventional design, this member is the most robust and will provide the most rigid support However, if a force F is applied to vertical frame member 40, a deflection in the frame occurs so that members AB and CD are biased in the direction of the acting force. As a result, interface mount 50 is likewise deflected due to its dependent mounting relationship with vertical frame members 40 via horizontal support frame 20 and brace 45. Because of the required alignment precision, even small vibrational forces acting on structure 10 in a manner as previously described, can adversely affect beam accuracy.

Stabilized laser platform and module interface


A method for fabricating a monolithic color wheel. The method includes (a) preparing a square transparent substrate; (b) forming a plurality of color filters on the square transparent substrate; and (c) cutting the square transparent substrate and the color filters together along a circular path, to form a color filter disk. Through these steps, a color filter disk of color wheel can be produced with better dynamic equilibrium quality, and will run more quietly and smoothly.

At present, there are two methods for fabricating a filter disk for a color wheel. The first method includes a step of bonding a set of fan-shaped substrates which is coated with color filtering thin films to form a filter disk. The second method includes a step of patching a set of fan-shaped colors onto a round substrate, so as to fabricate a filter disk of color wheel.
For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,482, a color wheel includes a plurality of fan-shaped substrates which are coated with color filtering thin films respectively, and are connected to a metal ring which is connected to a motor.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,543, the color wheel includes a set of fan-shaped filtering thin films which are coated on a preformed round substrate to obtain a filter disk. The filter disk is driven by a motor to rotate at high speed.
The cutting process according to the prior art for preparation of the fan-shaped substrate and thin filtering films always suffers from unavoidable deviation and deficiencies that reduce the quality of the color filter. Furthermore, the deviation and deficiencies affect the appearance of the filter disk of the color wheel while the fan-shaped elements are glued together to form a filter disk, and thus also causing loss of dynamic balance, and induce a wind cutting noise when rotating at high speed and lower the service life of the color wheel.

Monolithic color wheel and process for fabrication of the same


On the basis of information indicating a recommended print setting that corresponds to a content, a display device is controlled to display, in a distinguishable manner, the recommended print setting that corresponds to a content to be printed and a print setting different from the recommended print setting. Also, according to the print setting designated by the user, an image based on the content is printed by a printing device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that causes a printing device to print an image, a method, and a storage medium for storing a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multifunctional peripheral (hereinafter, referred to as an MFP) that is provided with a printer function, a scanning function, a card slot function, a fax function, and a network function is generally known. As one function of an MFP, there is a function of obtaining various contents (for example, writing paper, graph paper, check list, staff notation, manuscript paper, and seasonal contents suitable for Halloween, Christmas and the like) via a network and printing the contents. This function enables a user, with respect to a content obtained by the MFP via a network, to set on a user interface screen of the MFP the size, the type, and the like of paper on which the content is to be printed, and to print the content. At this time, print setting options available to the user may include many print settings that are hardly likely to be used, causing a reduction in user-friendliness. Here, "print settings that are hardly likely to be used" refer to printing of split memos with frames on L size paper, printing of contents with ruled lines on premium photo paper, and the like. That is, it is desirable to be able to restrict display of print settings that are hardly likely to be used.
As a method for providing a user with recommended print settings intended by a content creator, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-235466 teaches having a database in which a print purpose (presentation, handout, a support documentation, and the like) is set for each content and a database in which the print purposes are associated with recommended print settings. It is also disclosed that when a user prints a content, a print purpose of the content and recommended print settings associated with the print purpose are acquired from the databases, and are displayed on a user interface screen.
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-235466, since the recommended print settings that correspond to each content are not displayed, it may not be possible to perform printing with appropriate print settings for the content.

Apparatus, method and storage medium for storing program for printing an image according to an appropriate print setting


To obtain a wide passenger compartment space, the thickness of a heat insulating acoustical layer is reduced, and for this purpose, a comfortable in-car environment is obtained by using a vacuum insulating panel which combines high heat insulating performance and sound insulating performance. A heat insulating acoustical layer 20 is formed on one surface of a lightweight alloy structure 10 of double skin construction by using a vacuum insulating panel 21 as a middle member and sandwiching two surfaces of the panel with elastic sound absorbing materials 22, 23 made of a nonwoven fabric or a foamed body, and the heat insulating acoustical layer is covered with an interior material 24. Owing to this construction, the transmission loss of a noise which transmits from the double skin structure side is improved by the mutual actions of the elasticity of the sound absorbing material and the rigidity of the vacuum heat insulating panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a railway car or a monorail car in which a vacuum insulating material and a sound absorbing material are used.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, car bodies using large-size hollow molded materials made of light metal (of double skin construction) have been fabricated from the standpoint of weight saving and pressure tightness improvement which result from the rationalization of fabrication and high speed design. In order to save weight and improve pressure tightness, these car bodies are constructed so that their side portions and roof shell structures have curved surfaces. For example, such a shell structure is observed in a car described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-258736.
The current mainstream of a heat insulating structure used in such a carbody shell structure is such that the entry of heat from outside a carbody is prevented by sticking a fibrous heat insulating material, such as glass wool, between the in-car side of a carbody shell structure and an outfitting lining. However, if such a structure is applied to a double skin shell structure, the thickness of a wall increases and especially in railroad cars, it is required to reduce the thickness as far as possible from the standpoint of ensuring an in-car space. For this reason, materials excellent in heat insulating performance have been used. To meet these requirements, carbody structures using vacuum insulating materials as those described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-258736 and the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-100915 have been investigated.
A method of reducing in-car noise by imparting vibration damping performance to a structure of railroad car is described in "Vehicular Technology," December 2001/9, No. 222, pp. 22-31. Although it can be expected that this method is effective in reducing noise, the thickness of a heat insulating material for obtaining heat insulating properties becomes large and this poses a problem in ensuring a wide in-car space.
In the above-described conventional technique, in attaching a vacuum insulating material to a carbody shell structure, a large force is locally applied to a core material of the vacuum insulating material when the vacuum insulating material is directly pressed against the surface of the carbody shell structure, with the result that the core material is deformed and that an outer container of the heat insulating material is broken. This poses the problem that airtightness is lost and heat insulating performance decreases.
There has been proposed a method in which by use of a rail portion on the in-car side, the surface of a vacuum insulating material is pressed and fixed by a spring material of steel sheet. However, because the vacuum insulating material is pressed for a long period, the outer container and the core material are deformed and sink down, and it is feared that eventually cracks would occur.
In the method of reducing in-car noise by sticking a vibration damping material to a double skin shell structure, a weight increase of the shell structure and the thickness of the heat insulating material pose a problem, and thin wall design of the heat insulating acoustical function is demanded.

Heat insulating acoustical structure and carbody shell structure using the same


The present invention relates to a build-up suppressant used for suppressing the formation of a build-up during the polymerization reaction and to a process for the preparation thereof. The present invention also relates to a method for suppressing the build-up formation by forming a coating film on the reactor internal surface with the build-up suppressant and to a method for polymerization of vinyl halide or vinyl monomers having aromatic group(s) in the above reactor internally coated.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a build-up suppressant having the following formula (I) used for suppressing the formation of a build-up during the polymerization reaction of vinyl halide or vinyl monomers having aromatic group(s) and causes many serious problems: ##STR1## in which, p denotes 1 or 2,
X and Y independently of one another represent hydrogen, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl or C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy, PA1 M represents hydrogen, or alkali metal or alkaline earth metal ion, PA1 R represents hydrogen or C.sub.1 -C.sub.3 alkyl, and PA1 X and Y independently of one another represent hydrogen, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl or C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy, PA1 M represents hydrogen, or alkali metal or alkaline earth metal ion, PA1 R represents hydrogen or C.sub.1 -C.sub.3 alkyl, and PA1 M' represents alkali metal or alkaline earth metal ion,
the number average molecular weight (M.sub.n) of the above build-up suppresant is 1000 or more.
The present invention also relates to a process for preparing the build-up suppressant of the above formula (I), a method for suppressing the build-up formation by coating the internal surface of a polymerization reactor with the build-up suppressant and to a method for polymerization of vinyl halide or vinyl monomers having aromatic group(s) in the above reactor internally coated.
2. Background Art
When vinyl chloride is homo- or copolymerized in aqueous suspension in a reactor, it has been well known that a problem arises in that metallic surface inside the polymerization reactor becomes coated with tenaciously adhering polymeric material known as build-up. The formation of tenaciously adhering build-up is undesirable from the view point of achieving efficient heat transfer and of lowering the stability of the processes. In addition, the build-up is causative of impurities or fish eye formation and thus lowers the polymer quality.
Hitherto, in order to solve such problems as mentioned above, the polymerization reactor has been cleaned between each polymerization cycle wherein the deposited materials are removed by hand cleaning or by pressurized water-washing. However, these methods are wasteful because they may induce an increment of cost and loss of productivity.
Therefore, many products having build-up suppressant activity have been studied from the view point of inhibiting the formation of the build-up itself (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication cation No. 56-78388 and European Patent Publication No. 52,421).
The Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 56-78388 discloses a product having build-up suppressant activity produced by the condensation of aromatic aldehyde and phenol. But, since this build-up suppressant has a high solubility in monomer phase or medium phase, it may be solubilized into the reaction solution during polymerization and as a result, not only does not satisfactorily perform its function but also may act as an, impurity. Further, lowering of the build-up suppressant activity can occur in case where alkaline or aqueous mediums, or aqueous initiators are used during the reaction. Even though the cross-link was introduced therein, the build-up suppressant has not been improved in its activity. Moreover, it may cause a problem of environmental contamination due to an increment of the COD (chemical oxygen demand) in discharged waste water, and it may also worsen the working conditions because organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, dimethylformamide (DMF) or ethyl acetate are used for preparing the build-up suppressant coating solution.
On the other hand, the European Patent Publication No. 52,421 discloses an aqueous product having good build-up suppressant activity formable by the condensation of 1-naphthol and formaldehyde, and a process for the preparation thereof. However, since this condensate is a low polymer such as cyclic trimer or tetramer, effect therefrom becomes unsatisfactory as may be solubilized into the reaction medium during polymerization reaction.
Accordingly, the present inventors have been extensively studied to develop a new build-up suppressant having much more effective suppressing activity than the earlier ones. The present inventors have focussed their attention on the chemical structure and molecular weight of the build-up suppressant, and consequently found an astonishing fact that such purpose can be satisfied by applying the condensate of formula (I) as a build-up suppressant to the reactor internal surfaces in the polymerization reaction of vinyl monomer, and thus completed the present invention.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel build-up suppressant having the above formula (I) and a process for preparing the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for suppressing the build-up formation by coating the reactor internal surface with the build-up suppressant and a method for polymerization of vinyl halide or vinyl monomers having aromatic group(s) in the above reactor internally coated.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more pertinent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a more thorough understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the disclosure of invention, in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims.

Build-up suppressant in the polymerization reactor and process for the preparation thereof


A process for the production of expanded beads, including kneading a base resin containing a polypropylene resin and having a tensile modulus of at least 1,200 MPa together with a mixture of a coloring agent and a thermoplastic polymer having a tensile modulus lower than that of the base resin to form a kneaded mixture including a matrix of the base resin and a multiplicity of domains dispersed in the matrix and each containing the thermoplastic polymer and the coloring agent. The kneaded mixture is formed into resin particles, then treated with an organic peroxide to modify surfaces of the resin particles therewith. Foaming and expanding of the surface-modified resin particles gives expanded beads having an inside region surrounded by a surface region. The heat of fusion of a high temperature peak of the surface region is lower than that of the inside region.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to expanded beads of a base resin containing polypropylene resin and a process for the production thereof. The present invention also pertains to a foamed molding obtained from such expanded polypropylene-based resin beads.
2. Description of Prior Art
A polypropylene resin is now increasingly utilized in various fields because of excellent mechanical strength, heat resistance and recyclability thereof. Foamed moldings of a base resin including a polypropylene resin (such a propylene resin-containing base resin will be hereinafter sometimes referred to simply as "polypropylene-based resin"), which retain the above excellent properties of the polypropylene resin and which have excellent additional characteristics such as cushioning property and heat resistance, are thus utilized for various applications such as packaging materials, construction materials, etc. In particular, foamed moldings obtained by heating expanded beads of a base resin including a polypropylene resin in a mold with steam (such foamed moldings will be hereinafter sometimes referred to simply as "PP moldings") are utilized as various parts such as bumper cores and door parts of automobiles.
Recently, there is an increasing demand for PP moldings having higher rigidity and lighter weight than the conventional ones in view of severe standard for collision safety and saving of energy consumption. Generally, however, the melting point of a polypropylene resin increases with an increase of the rigidity. In order to obtain PP moldings having high rigidity, therefore, it is necessary to use a high steam pressure in a large amount and to use a special molding device having a high pressure resistance.
To cope with this problem, International Publication WO 02/24794 proposes a process for the preparation of expanded polypropylene-based resin beads, in which particles of a base resin including a polypropylene resin are dispersed in a dispersing medium containing an organic peroxide. The dispersion is heated to decompose the organic peroxide, thereby obtaining organic peroxide-treated resin particles. The treated resin particles are foamed and expanded using a blowing agent to obtain the expanded polypropylene-based resin beads which permit the production of PP moldings using relatively low temperature steam.
There is also an increasing demand for PP moldings colored with a coloring agent. Japanese Kokai Publication No. H07-300537 discloses a method in which a polypropylene-based resin is previously kneaded with a coloring agent to obtain a master batch. A portion of the master batch and the polypropylene-based resin are then kneaded and formed into particles. The particles are then foamed and expanded using a blowing agent to obtain expanded polypropylene-based resin beads useful for producing colored PP moldings.

Expanded polypropylene resin beads and process for the production thereof