A method is provided for calibrating a tilt inspection system and a reference disk assembly for use therein wherein a mirror disk of the assembly is attached to a rotatable member of the system by a beveled washer so that the mirror disk rotates at a predetermined tilt angle with respect to an axis of rotation of the rotatable member. As the reference disk assembly is rotated by the tilt inspection system at a relatively slow and constant angular velocity, a beam of light is reflected off the mirror disk to a position sensitive detector (i.e., PSD) and subscribes a circle on the face of the PSD. The tilt inspection system samples the channels from the PSD throughout one revolution of the mirror disk. Calibration or reference data is calculated in the form of tilt transformations. Four basic steps are involved: 1) acquisition of PSD voltage data when the reference disk assembly is rotated within the tilt inspection system; 2) analysis of the data to determine location of a reference marker formed on the mirror disk; 3) fitting of the data to sine functions; and 4) computing the tilt transformations. This approach provides a simple, highly accurate, calibration procedure that minimizes chances for operator error and the affects of system noise.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,415 discloses an apparatus for inspecting radial skew and tangential skew on the basis of a spatial difference between nearby sensor outputs and a sensor output of a center address position.
Tilt inspection systems may determine tilt by measuring deflection angle of a beam of light reflected from an object as disclosed in the above-noted co-pending patent application.
Such systems may utilize a lateral effect photodiode position sensing detector or device (PSD) which is continuous and allows for greater accuracy than multicell detectors.
Preferably, it is desirable to use a position sensing detector which is small and which is relatively low cost. Such photodiodes are available from On-Trak Photonics, Inc. of Lake Forest, Calif. and have the designation 2L2SP or 2L4SP to indicate that the photodiode is a duo-lateral, two-dimensional position sensing detector.
One problem with use of such a relatively low cost position sensing detector is that slight alignment errors in the photodiode and/or its active area causes undesirable interaction between the X and Y axes of the active area. For example, the detector active area which comprises a thin rectangular slice of silicon may have a two degree rotational error with respect to the rest of the photodiode which results in an unacceptable amount of error in determining deflection angle and thereby tilt.
An object of the invention of the above-noted patent application is to provide a method and system for measuring a deflection angle of a beam of light reflected from a disk to detect tilt of the disk wherein alignment errors are corrected by processing reference data related to a known tilt of a reference disk with at least one electrical signal generated by a photodetector positioned in a detector plane to detect a focused spot of the reflected beam.
One problem of utilizing such a reference disk is that it may be difficult to manufacture such a reference disk that has the same value of tilt for both inner and outer radii. On systems with two or more tilt heads at differing radii, one must enter additional data pairs for each additional head up to a total of 30 entries for a 3 head tilt when using 5 known tilt angles.

Method for calibrating a tilt inspection system and reference disk assembly for use therein


An electronic component module according to the invention includes: a mounting substrate 11 including a shield layer 13 and on which a first cavity 14a and a second cavity 14b are formed; a first electronic component 16a positioned in the first cavity 14a and used in a first frequency band; a second electronic component 16b positioned in the second cavity 14b and used in a second frequency band; lid members 15 which seal the first cavity 14a and the second cavity 14b; and patch antennas 17 which transmit/receive radio waves in the frequency bands, the antennas connected to the electronic components 16; wherein the electronic components 16 are mounted on the mounting substrate 11 via a substrate component 19 having a higher heat resistance than the mounting substrate 11 and that the mounting substrate 11 is composed of a member having a lower dielectric constant that the substrate component 19.

The present invention relates to an electronic component module and in particular to an electronic component module on which electronic components operating in a plurality of frequency bands are mounted.
Recently, there is a growing need for a more compact and higher-performance communications system used in the microwave band or millimeter band with easy broadband applicability and higher resolution. As a solution to satisfy such a need and reduce transmission loss between the electronic components of a communications system, there is known a technology which packs high-frequency devices or electronic components such as an amplifier, a mixer, an oscillator and a multiplier into an electronic component module in the form of a package, as mentioned in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 237867/1997.
The Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 326488/1984 discloses a technology to shield an input/output terminal while keeping out of the way of cable routing in order to avoid the influence of malfunctions caused by an electromagnetic wave in such an electronic component module.
However, the technologies described in these official gazettes require dedicated substrates and cases. Fabricating an electronic component module by using such a substrate and a case requires a complicated manufacturing process and time, thus resulting in higher costs.
Another approach of advancing the feature of the electronic component module which installs electronic components operating in frequency bands different from each other in a single package presents a problem of interference between electronic components operating in frequency bands different from each other according to the aforementioned technology.
In order to suppress propagation loss or improve antenna efficiency, it is preferable to use a member with a low dielectric constant for a mounting substrate on which electronic components are mounted. The problem is that a member with a low dielectric constant is generally made of resin and has low heat resistance. For example, when an electronic component is mounted by way of heat-compression bonding of an Au or Au—Sn alloy which requires heat treatment at some 400 degrees centigrade, the electronic component cannot be mounted on a resin substrate with low heat resistance, so that only limited electronic components can be mounted on such a resin substrate.


A medication delivery pen having a magnifier for sufficiently magnify dosage numerals used by the user to set the desired dose of medication to be dispensed by the medication delivery pen. The magnifier being integral with a pocket clip on the medication delivery pen, such that the magnifier means extends over a window through which the user sees the set desired dose and at a predetermined distance such that the dose is sufficiently magnified for the user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medication delivery pens having integral means for magnifying dosage numerals representing the dose being set by a user and, more specifically, a medication delivery pen having an integral magnifying pocket clip for magnifying the dosage numerals on the pen.
2. Description of Related Art
Hypodermic syringes are used to deliver selected doses of medication to patients. The prior art hypodermic syringe includes a syringe barrel having opposed proximal and distal ends. A cylindrical chamber wall extends between the ends and defines a fluid receiving chamber. The proximal end of the prior art syringe barrel is substantially open and receives a plunger in sliding fluid tight engagement. The distal end of the prior art syringe barrel includes a passage communicating with the chamber. A needle cannula may be mounted to the distal end of the prior art syringe barrel, such that the lumen of the needle cannula communicates with the passage and the chamber of the syringe barrel. Movement of the plunger in a proximal direction draws fluid through the lumen of the needle cannula and into the chamber. Movement of the plunger in a proximal-to-distal direction urges fluid from the chamber and through the lumen of the needle cannula.
Medication to be injected with the prior art hypodermic syringe often is stored in a vial having a pierceable elastomeric seal. Medication in the prior art vial is accessed by piercing the elastomeric seal with the needle cannula. A selected dose of the medication may be drawn into the chamber of the syringe barrel by moving the plunger a selected distance in a proximal direction. The needle cannula may be withdrawn from the vial, and the medication may be injected into a patient by moving the plunger in a distal direction.
Some medication, such as insulin is self-administered. The typical diabetes patient will require injections of insulin several times during the course of the day. The required dose of insulin will vary from patient to patient, and for each patient may vary during the course of the day and from day to day. Each diabetes patient will establish a regimen that is appropriate for his or her own medical condition and for his or her lifestyle. The regimen typically includes some combination of a slow or medium acting insulin and a faster acting insulin. Each of these regimens may require the diabetes patient to periodically self-administer insulin in public locations, such as places of employment or restaurants. The required manipulation of the standard prior art hypodermic syringe and vial can be inconvenient and embarrassing in these public environments.
Medication delivery pens have been developed to facilitate the self-administration of medication. One prior art medication delivery pen includes a vial holder into which a vial of insulin or other medication may be received. The vial holder is an elongate generally tubular structure with proximal and distal ends. The distal end of the prior art vial holder includes mounting means for engaging a double-ended needle cannula. The proximal end also includes mounting means for engaging a driver and dose setting apparatus as explained further below. A disposable vial for use with the prior art vial holder includes a distal end having a pierceable elastomeric seal that can be pierced by one end of a double-ended needle cannula. The proximal end of this prior art vial includes a plunger slidably disposed in fluid tight engagement with the cylindrical wall of the vial. This prior art medication delivery pen is used by inserting the vial of medication into the vial holder. A prior art pen body then is connected to the proximal end of the vial holder. The pen body includes a dose setting apparatus for designating a dose of medication to be delivered by the pen and a driving apparatus for urging the plunger of the vial distally for a distance corresponding to the selected dose.
The user of the pen mounts a prior art double-ended needle cannula to the distal end of the vial holder such that the proximal point of the needle cannula pierces the elastomeric seal on the vial. The patient then selects a dose and operates the pen to urge the plunger distally to deliver the selected dose. The patient then removes and discards the needle cannula, and keeps the prior art medication delivery pen in a convenient location for the next required medication administration. The medication in the vial will become exhausted after several such administrations of medication. The patient then separates the vial holder from the pen body. The empty vial may then be removed and discarded. A new vial can be inserted into the vial holder, and the vial holder and pen body can be reassembled and used as explained above.
The above described reusable medication delivery pen is effective and much more convenient for self-administration of medication than the hypodermic syringes using separate medication vials. However, the move to reduce the size of medication delivery pens has caused similar reduction in the size of dosage numerals used to set the desired dose on such pens. As a result, users with impaired vision have found it difficult to readily set the dose on such pens. Since it is particularly common among patients with diabetes to have complications of the disease causing impaired vision even more of a need has been found to address this problem. Some medication delivery pens have been made with limited magnification of the dosage numerals but the technique currently being used to magnify the dosage numerals leads to a medication delivery pen having an unacceptably large diameter or insufficient magnification. Hence, it is necessary to provides a medication delivery pen having integral magnification of the dosage numerals that provide sufficient magnification without adding an unacceptable increase in the diameter of the medication delivery pen or unnecessary bulk.

Medication delivery pen with an integral magnifying pocket clip


A locking bracket for securing virtually any commercial grade hand truck to the cargo bed of a delivery truck or any other surface for safety and security. The locking bracket generally comprises a flat mounting plate, a kick-lever pivotally attached to the mounting plate for kick-release, and a push rod attached to the other end of the lever. The push rod extends to a clamping mechanism including two upwardly protruding spaced blocks housing opposed laterally-closing clamping teeth. In operation, a hand truck is locked in place overtop in a standing position with the center strut of its nose plate clamped between the teeth. Urging the lever forward with one's foot drives the push rod which opens the clamping teeth for quick-kick release of the hand truck.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting brackets and, more particularly, to a mounting bracket for constraining a hand truck inside the cargo bay of a delivery truck and for allowing a quick kick-release of the hand truck when needed.
2. Description of the Background
Professional movers and logistics companies invariably use hand trucks to move boxes, appliances, furniture, vending items and more. Hand trucks are so essential to smooth distribution that significant research and development goes into making better hand trucks.
For example, UPS™ has a long history of supporting design improvements to further the comfort and safety of all its employees. The company has invested more than $180 million during the past five years on safety-related initiatives. These include small changes such as reducing the rear door step height of delivery trucks from ten inches to six inches to enable drivers and loaders easier access with less effort. They also include significant design efforts for the hand trucks used by their drivers. UPS purchases an average of 13,000 new hand trucks every year. Their vendors tend to listen, so UPS requires hand trucks to be constructed of aluminum instead of steel to minimize weight. They also specify an additional handle for more control and maneuverability, and larger wheels to make for easier maneuvering.
Unfortunately, there is one problem as yet unaddressed by UPS, as well as other logistics carriers, movers and freight companies. When the moving is complete the hand truck is thrown into the cargo bay of the truck and the truck heads home. During transit hand trucks tend to bang and bounce around in the truck. Indeed, a few have caused significant injury to drivers.
It would, therefore, be greatly advantageous to provide a locking bracket for securing hand trucks to any surface, and especially to the floor of the cargo bay of a delivery truck. This presents a number of challenges. For one, commercial hand trucks are unwieldy and any containment bracket must of necessity be very sturdy. Also, any locking bracket must be equipped with a quick-release for easy detachment of the hand truck. In addition, there are scarce few ways of securing a hand truck to begin with. Commercial hand trucks comprise a tubular aluminum frame with two pneumatic wheels. The total hand truck height typically ranges from 40-60″, and frame width from 10-16″. The frame extends down to a cast aluminum "nose plate" typically 10-16″ wide and 4-8″ deep. The axle bearing the wheels is raised a few inches off the ground, and when laid on its back the frame remains raised off the ground. Consequently, there is not much opportunity for a locking bracket to latch onto anything. Fortunately, the vast majority of professional grade hand trucks employ nose plates in the form of a "figure 8", such that the flat rectangular nose plate is defined by two opposing rectangular apertures separated by a central strut. The present inventor views this central strut as an excellent anchor point for a locking bracket.

Quick-release mounting bracket for a hand truck


A power supply device comprises a first boost converter configured to transmit electric power with conversion of a voltage between an electric load side and a power storage device side; a second boost converter connected in parallel to the first boost converter relative to an electric load and configured to transmit electric power with conversion of a voltage between the electric load side and the power storage side; and a control device configured to control the first boost converter and the second boost converter. At a predetermined time, the control device performs a loop current control that controls the first boost converter and the second boost converter such that a loop current flows in a closed circuit including the first boost converter and the second boost converter.

A proposed configuration of a power supply device includes a plurality of converters that are connected in parallel to each other and that serve to transmit electric power with conversion of a voltage between an electric load side and a power storage device side (as described in, for example, JP 2017-79558A). When the electric current generated in the process of a boosting operation using a first boost converter alone is higher than a limit value of the first boost converter, this power supply device performs a boosting operation by using both the first boost converter and a second boost converter. When the electric current generated in the process of the boosting operation using the first boost converter alone is lower than the limit value of the first boost converter, on the other hand, this power supply device performs a boosting operation such as to provide the smaller loss between a loss in the case of a boosting operation that is performed by using the first boost converter alone and a loss in the case of a boosting operation that is performed by using both the first boost converter and the second boost converter at a power distribution ratio that is based on a ratio of circuit resistance values of the first boost converter and the second boost converter.


A rule based system and method interacts with a user to provide the user a series of interim results. The system has a set of one or more operations. Each of these operations in turn has a set of one or more choices, called a choice set, associated with an operation. Rule based intelligence is applied to the operations set and/or one or more operation choice set by a set of rules associated with its respective operation and/or choice set. When one or more rules in a rule set are applied to the operation set, an offered operation set is created which is a subset of the operation set. Only the operations in the offered operation set are offered to the user. When one or more rules in a rule set are applied to a choice set, an offered choice set is created which is a subset of the choice set. Only those operation choices in the offered choice set are offered to the user. The operations (operation choices) that are in the offered operation set (offered choice set) are those that conform to the constraints of the rules that are applied. The user selects operations (operation choices) from the offered operation set (offered choice set). Information about the user selections feeds back to the rules and is used to constrain the next offered operations and operation choices. The user is also permitted to change rules, rule specific metadata, and rule specific metadata algorithms as well as the data in the system. Interacting with the system this way, the user preference, knowledge, and judgment is incorporated in each of a series of interim results and is used to further develop the next interim result in the series of iterations.

A typical prior art rule based, e.g. an "expert system," is shown in FIG. 1. A rule based system 100 has a storage location for data 120. Data is typically raw data 122 that is normally provided by the user 110 of the system 100. Some rule based systems also have metadata 124 which is data about the raw data 122. The metadata 124 is determined from the raw data 122 by using a raw data algorithm 126.
Rules 130 and rule based operations 135 are programmed into the system 100 by a system designer. Ordinarily, the rules 130 and operations 135 are intermingled 134 and inaccessible 134 to the user 110. The system designer pre-defines and pre-installs the rules 130 and rule based operations 135 in the system 100 without input from the user 110. The system designer can also design the rules 130 to contain parameters that determine whether and how a rule 130 will be applied in a rule based operation 135. Typically, these operations 135 are associated with a predetermined and unchangeable system 100 structure, like a network of branching choices. The rule based operations 135 operate on the raw data 122 and/or metadata 124 to produce a final result that is displayed as output 140. These rule based operations 135 are typically done in the batch mode (one time for each raw data/metadata set 122 and set of selection parameters provided by the user 110.) This output display 140 is the single optimal result for the given data 120 being constrained by the rule-based operations 135. Only a completed result is presented as output 140 for each run of the system 100.
After the output is presented, the user 110 evaluates 113 the output 140 and determines whether or not the complete output 140 is satisfactory. If not, the user is sometimes permitted to modify 155 a set of parameters 150. Parameters 150 are variables that the user is permitted to change before running the system 100. Parameter changes are changes that may select which of the set of pre-determined rules are applied and/or how a predetermined rule is applied. However, parameter changes do not add new rules nor do they change how the rules relate to one another, i.e., the user 110 is not allowed to change the system 100 structure (e.g. network) itself. The user can also change the raw data 122. After these changes are completed, the user 110 runs the system again to obtain another output 140 based on the data 120 and/or rules 130 with the new parameters 150.
Rule based systems 100 are used in many areas including machine part ordering, inventory control systems, elevator controls, medical diagnosis, color correction, and design of many various other systems. Rule based systems tend to be effective if the area of application is well defined, i.e., there is a known and complete set of data 120, rules 130, and rule based operations 135 that are applied to the data 122 to obtain a single optimal and complete output 140. Rule based systems 100 tend to be unsuccessfully used in areas where there is a need for the user to control or influence the final result in ways other than by defining the input data 120 and the pre-determined and changeable parameters 150. Typically in the prior art, the user can not create, delete or add rules or rule based operations 135. Prior art rule based systems 100 also do not present the user 110 with a plurality of alternative selections for system operations 135 that the user 110 can interactively analyze, select, and constrain to produce alternative results. Outside of some parameter 150 definition and choices at the outset, there is no opportunity for the user to "explore" alternatives or for the user to use personal preferences, subjective opinion, or intuition to influence the final output 140 of running the rule based system. That is, in prior art rule based systems the user does not influence the development of the completed result. For each run of the system 100, the output 140 is a completely determined by the initial data (and sometimes by parameters) provided by the user. The user has no input during the development of the completed output 140.
FIG. 2 shows a typical prior art interactive system 200. In contrast to rule based systems 100, interactive systems 200 give the user 110 access to the individual system operations 230 and the user 110 selects 260 choices 250 associated with a given operation 240. Each choice (typically 251) for each operation (typically 241) contributes to an interim result 270. However, it is the user 110, not the system 200, who decides (typically 261) which operations 241 and which choice(s) 251 for each operation 241 to use. The user 110 can select 235 any of the n operations 235 offered by the system 200. Each selected operation and operation choice changes the system output. Thus the results of interactive systems are interim results 270 that are modified and remodified by the user selections until the user decides when and if the interim result is final. Therefore, a series of interim results 270 is used to "build" or "develop" each of the interim result 270 over a number of iterations. Contrary to prior art rule based systems 100 that run just once with no user intervention (interaction) to produce a completed result/output 140, interactive systems 200 run a plurality of times with user interaction producing a series of interim results 270. These interactive systems allow the user to define parameters and give the user a large amount of control to affect and develop the output of the interactive system. However, prior art interactive systems do not offer the user any guidance or assistance for "developing" the interim result(s) 270. These prior art interactive systems tend to be less useful in problems where there are many possible operations and where each operation has many possible choices. In these situations, there are a large number of ways the interim result can be "developed".
An example of a prior art interactive system is a typical spread sheet program. These systems typically have data 220. As with the rule based system 100, the data may comprise metadata 224, and algorithms 226 for generating the metadata 224 from the raw data 222. The system 200 has a set of predefined operations 230, e.g., "access files, input data, create graphs," etc. The user 110 chooses one (or more, see below) operations. For each operation 230 (or set of operations, see below) the user 110 selects 235, the system 200 presents the user with a set of choices. For instance, if the user 110 selects 235 an operation 1 (241) like "access files", the system 200 presents the user 110 with a set of choices 251 associated with the chosen 235 operation 241. An operation like "access files" might have a fixed set of selections 251 including: "get a file", "store a file", "erase a file", "copy a file", "move a file", etc. Mathematical operations 241 to be applied to data 220 (i.e., element(s) of the spread sheet) may have an infinite set of choices 251. Presentation (workstation display screen or printed page) operations 241 may have a large set of choices 251 with respect to, for example, alphanumeric font, size and color, or column width and row height for the entries in each row and column. For any of the operations the user 110 selects 261 one of these choices. The system 200 then applies the selected operation(s) 241 with the selected operation choice(s) 261 to the data 220 to create the next iteration of the interim result 270. There can be any number of operations selected 235 and selected choices 261 for each operation. Also, any given operation/choice may only affect a part of the result 270. A mathematical operation may affect a single element, a collection of elements or all of the spread sheet data 220 to affect part or all of the interim result 270. The choice selected for the the "access files" operation, affects the whole result. In all cases there are no concurrent operations possible. For example, the interim results of different presentation operations affect each other. If the user 110 selects a large font size for the presentation of 12-digit numbers, the presentation of the entire number may not fit within the defined presentation element size (row height and column width). This would only be apparent in viewing the interim result 270. Since such a prior art interactive system does not have guidance in the selection of choices for operations nor feedback among operations and selection of choices, the user must then iteratively invoke an operation 241 to change the column width and/or height with specific choices 251 to get the presentation correct, which is only apparent via the interim result 270. Therefore, each iteration is only one step in developing the interim result 270 of that series of the interim results 270.
Further note, as shown in FIG. 2, that prior art interactive systems 200 can have a set of operations 240 and a set of choices 260 for each operation 241. Some of these systems, e.g., IBM Visualization Data Explorer (a trademark of the IBM corporation) allow the user 110 to select one or more operations (235) and/or to select one or more choices (261). The effects of these multiple selections are then reflected in the interim result 270.
In the prior art interactive systems 200, the user 110 is offered no rule based assistance in making these selections (235 and 260). Accordingly, the user 110 may be presented many interim results 270 that may not meet the user's requirements 215. A large number of operations 230 and choices 250 can make selecting operations 235 and operation choices 260 confusing.

Interactive rule based system with selection feedback that parameterizes rules to constrain choices for multiple operations

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical pulse train generator 10 includes beat light generation means 11 for generating a beat light 21 having a predetermined repeated frequency, a highly nonlinear fiber 12 for generating a pulse train 22 formed by adding a side mode to the beat light 21 by a four-wave mixing (FWM), and a band pass filter (BPF) 13 for adjusting a power balance of the side mode of the pulse train 22 so as to shape the frequency spectrum.

To realize an ultrahigh-speed and high-capacity optical transmission system, development of a technology that can realize a high repetition/ultrashort pulse train with a high quality has been strongly demanded. In regard to a repetition frequency, development of an optical pulse light source of 100 GHz or above exceeding a limit of electrical control has been already advanced, and a development result of an optical pulse light source of 1 tera Hz (THz) order has been reported in recent years. By way of example, conventional technologies disclosed in Non-patent Literatures 1 to 4 will be explained below.
In Non-patent Literature 1, there is reported a technology that generates a beat light obtained by combining lights subjected to sinusoidal modulation, e.g., two continuous lights having the same power and different frequencies and performs adiabatic compression by using an optical fiber to produce a high repetition optical pulse train having a high quality.
Further, In Non-patent Literature 2, there is reported a technology that generates an optical pulse train having a repetition frequency 125 GHz by using the method disclosed in Non-patent Literature 1 and repeating OTDM with respect to the obtained optical pulse train three times to generate an optical pulse train of 1 THz having an eightfold repetition frequency.
Furthermore, in Non-patent Literature 3, there is reported a technology that compresses a beat light having a repetition frequency of 160 GHz by using a comb-like profiled fiber (CPF) to generate a sub-picosecond optical pulse train. The CPF used in this technology is formed by alternately combining a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and a single-mode fiber (SMF).
Moreover, in Non-patent Literature 4, there is reported a technology that compresses a beat light having a repetition frequency of 1 THz by using the same CPF as that in Non-patent Literature 3 to generate an optical pulse train having a pulse width of 100 femtoseconds.
As can be seen in Non-patent Literatures 1 to 4, it can be considered that utilizing the beat light as a seed pulse that is required to generate a high repetition optical pulse train exceeding 100 GHz is effective. The beat light can be generated by combining, e.g., continuous lights output from two DFB-LDs (distributed feedback laser diodes) having different oscillating frequencies.
Since the repetition frequency of the beat light is equal to a frequency difference of the two continuous lights to be combined, adjusting this frequency difference facilitates generating a beat light having a repetition frequency exceeding 100 GHz and enables producing a beat light having a repetition frequency of 1 THz.
Non-patent Literature 1: E. M. Dianov et al., "Generation of a train of fundamental solitons at a high repetition rate in optical fibers", Opt. Lett., vol. 14, p. 1008 (1989).
Non-patent Literature 2: S. V. Chernikov et al., "1-THz optical pulse train generation at 1.5 μm" CLEO '94, CTuH3, p. 73 (1994).
Non-patent Literature 3: K. Igarashi et al., "Comb-like profiled fiber for efficient generation of high quality 160 GHz sub-picosecond soliton train", Electron. Lett., vol, p. 688 (2005).
Non-patent Literature 4: Y. Ozeki et al., "Generation of 1 THz repetition rate, 97 fs optical pulse train based on comb-like profiled fiber", Electron. Lett., vol. 41, p. 1048 (2005).


A digital imager apparatus uses the differences in absorption length in silicon of light of different wavelengths for color separation. A preferred imaging array is based upon a three-color pixel sensor using a triple-well structure. The array results in elimination of color aliasing by measuring each of the three primary colors (RGB) in each pixel in the same location.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to color imaging and, more particularly, to color separation in an active pixel MOS imaging array using the differences in absorption length in silicon of light of different wavelengths. An active pixel imaging array in accordance with the present invention reduces color aliasing artifacts in digital images by using a triple-well structure to ensure that each pixel sensor in the array measures each of the three primary colors (R-G-B) in the same location.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relevant prior art of which the inventor is aware may be generally categorized as follows: stacked photodiodes as color sensors, imaging arrays with stacked sensors, and other color imaging array approaches.
The first category includes non-imaging devices for measuring the color of light. These devices have been built with a variety of technologies that depend upon the variation of photon absorption depth with wavelength. Examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,016, titled "Semiconductor Radiation Wavelength Detector" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,604, titled "Apparatus for Sensing the Wavelength and Intensity of Light." Neither patent discloses either a structure for a three-color integrated circuit color sensor or an imaging array.
The second category includes CCD devices with multiple buried channels for accumulating and shifting photocharges. These devices are difficult and expensive to manufacture and have not been practical for three-color applications. U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,895, titled "Color Responsive Imaging Device Employing Wavelength Dependent Semiconductor Optical Absorption" discloses an example. This category also includes devices that use layers of thin-film photosensitive materials applied on top of an imager integrated circuit. Examples of this technology are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,289, titled "Color Sensor" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,001, titled "Visible/Infrared Imaging Device with Stacked Cell Structure." These structures are also difficult and expensive to make, and have not become practical.
The third category includes color imaging integrated circuits that use a color filter mosaic to select different wavelength bands at different photosensor locations. U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,065, titled "Color Imaging Array", discloses an example of this technology.
As discussed by Parulski et al., "Enabling Technologies for Family of Digital Cameras", 156/SPIE Vo. 2654, 1996, one pixel mosaic pattern commonly utilized in digital cameras is the Bayer color filter array (CFA) pattern. Shown in FIG. 1, the Bayer CFA has 50% green pixels arranged in a checkerboard and alternating lines of red and blue pixels to fill in the remainder of the pattern.
As shown in FIG. 2, the Bayer CFA pattern results in a diamond-shaped Nyquist domain for green and smaller, rectangular-shaped Nyquist domains for red and blue. The human eye is more sensitive to high spatial frequencies in luminance than in chrominance, and luminance is composed primarily of green light. Therefore, since the Bayer CFA provides the same Nyquist frequency for the horizontal and vertical spatial frequencies as a monochrome imager, it improves the perceived sharpness of the digital image.
These mosaic approaches are known in the art to be associated with severe color aliasing problems due to the fact that the sensors are small compared to their spacing, so that they locally sample the image signal, and that the sensors for the different colors are in different locations, so that the samples do not align between colors. Image frequency components outside of the Nyquist domain are aliased into the sampled image with little attenuation and with little correlation between the colors.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a color imaging array in which three color bands are measured with detectors each in the same location, with sensitive areas that are not very small compared to their spacing, such that aliased image components are attenuated, and such that the color samples are aligned between colors.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an active pixel color imaging array that can be fabricated in a standard modern CMOS memory process.
Referring to FIG. 3, many modern CMOS integrated circuit fabrication processes use a "twin well" or "twin tub" structure in which a P well region 10 and an N well region 12 of doping density approximately 10.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.2 are used as regions within which to make N-channel and P-channel transistors, respectively. The substrate material 14 is typically a more lightly doped P-type silicon (10.sup.15 atoms/cm.sup.2), so the P well 10 is not isolated from the substrate 14. The N-channel FET 16 formed in the P well 10 includes N+ normal source/drain diffusions 18 at a dopant concentration of >10.sup.18 atoms/cm.sup.2 and N-type shallow lightly doped drain (LDD) regions 20 at a concentration of approximately 10.sup.18 atoms/cm.sup.2. The P-channel FET 22 formed in the N well region 12 is similarly constructed using normal P+ source/drain regions 24 and shallow LDD regions 26 of similar dopant concentrations.
Referring to FIG. 4, in improved modern processes, known as "triple well", an additional deep N isolation well 28 is used to provide junction isolation of the P well 10 from the P substrate 14. The N isolation well 28 dopant density (10.sup.16 atoms/cc) is intermediate between the P substrate 14 and P well 10 dopant densities (10.sup.15 atoms/cc and 10.sup.17 atoms/cc, respectively). U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,734, titled "Method of Fabricating a Semiconductor Device Having a Triple Well Structure", discloses an example of triple well technology.
Triple well processes are becoming popular and economical for manufacturing MOS memory (DRAM) devices, since they provide effective isolation of dynamic charge storage nodes from stray minority carriers that may be diffusing through the substrate.

Color separation in an active pixel cell imaging array using a triple-well structure


A method of producing carbon fibers includes the step of providing polyacrylonitrile precursor polymer fiber filaments. The polyacrylonitrile precursor filaments include from 87-97 mole % acrylonitrile, and less than 0.5 mole % of accelerant functional groups. The filaments are no more than 3 deniers per filament. The polyacrylonitrile precursor fiber filaments can be arranged into tows of at least 150,000 deniers per inch width. The arranged polyacrylonitrile precursor fiber tows are stabilized by heating the tows in at least one oxidation zone containing oxygen gas and maintained at a first temperature T1 while stretching the tows at least 10% to yield a stabilized precursor fiber tow. The stabilized precursor fiber tows are carbonized by passing the stabilized precursor fiber tows through a carbonization zone. Carbon fibers produced by the process are also disclosed.

Conventional carbon fiber processing methods use small untwisted bundles of filaments, or "tows," and low volumes of pre-stretched, fast-oxidizing polymer (with accelerants) or fibers that are composed with or incorporate an accelerant. The carbon fiber precursor materials for such processing methods are often specialty products intended specifically for carbon fiber production.
The automotive industry has not adopted widespread use of carbon fiber materials primarily because the cost of the carbon fiber material remains at relatively high specialty material prices, while widespread usage in automobile manufacturing would require relatively lower commodity pricing. While attaining such pricing, the material must meet the performance criteria required by the auto industry. The performance criteria prescribed by some automotive manufacturers for carbon fiber materials is that the material meet or exceed 400 ksi tensile strength and 40 Msi tensile modulus with at least 1% strain as minimum properties to encompass the automotive carbon fiber uses. In some semi-structural automotive composite applications carbon fibers with 250 ksi tensile strength and 25 Msi tensile modulus with at least 1% strain are sought.
Carbon fiber production begins with a carbonaceous precursor fiber material. A common carbonaceous precursor material is polyacrylonitrile (PAN). Specialty PAN precursor fibers are available with a variety of comonomers and accelerants. The comonomers are provided to impart desired properties to the precursor fiber and to the finished carbon fiber product. Commercial grade specialty acrylic fibers consist of a copolymer of acrylonitrile in combination with comonomers from various choices. The statistical copolymers usually contain 2-5 mol % comonomers. The comonomers are usually vinyl compounds with carboxylic acid (acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid) or their esters (methyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate) or their amides (acrylamide). These polymers are usually designed to have high molecular weight and narrow molecular weight distribution. These compositions are polymerized and solution spun into fiber form with significant draw down ratio (stretching), usually 14× or higher, achieved by steam stretching or other methods known in the art. Increased comonomer content helps to stretch and align the molecules along the fiber axis direction; however, that also increases the probability of chain scission during subsequent thermal processing of the carbon precursor fiber. Thus an optimally low comonomoner content is used. The fibers usually undergo thermal cyclization and oxidative crosslinking reaction at temperatures ranging from 180° C. to 300° C. These reactions are exothermic in nature and conventional art prefers to avoid overheating of the precursor fiber to control the chain scission reaction and melting of the fiber prior to rendering it to crosslinked intractable fiber. Overheating also causes thermal relaxation of the fiber and occasional ignition of the filaments. Thus keeping sufficient heat transfer in mind these specialty acrylic fibers are made of tow (bundle of filaments) of less than 80,000 filament counts.
Textile grade acrylic fibers are used in staple yarn form for clothing application. These fibers are also used in hand crafting (knitting and crochet), synthetic wool and flame resistant fabric applications. Because of its apparel usage, dying of the fiber is an important aspect. Thus chemical compositions mainly focus on comonomers that allow significant dye adsorption on the fiber surface. Vinyl acetate and methyl acrylate are commonly used comonomers with optional loading of vinyl chloride or vinylidene chloride for induction of flame retardant properties. Textile fibers are produced in large tow size (approx. 500,000 filament per tow or higher) and usually have lower molecular weight than the specialty acrylic carbon precursor fibers.
Textile PAN polymers are statistical copolymers of acrylonitrile polymerized in solvents such as dimethylformadide, dimethylsulfoxide, dimethylacetamide to produce a PAN solution that are processed directly to produce fiber without removal of the low-molecular weight oligomeric product. The presence of these low-molecular weight products in textile PAN fiber causes a broad molecular weight distribution in the commodity product, compared to the standard specialty acrylic PAN carbon precursor fibers (also known as specialty acrylic fibers or SAF). These textile fibers are not significantly stretched (3-5× draw-down ratio); rather at the end of a moderate degree of stretching the fibers are molecularly relaxed to obtain fiber with an unstrained amorphous phase where dye molecules can migrate to form colored textiles.
An important component of the carbon fiber production process is the oxidation/stabilization stage of the process. Accelerants are provided to accelerate the oxidation/stabilization process so as to reduce the time requirements for oxidation, which can be substantial and a time and production volume limiting factor of the carbon fiber production process.
The oxidation/stabilization process is complex and exothermic. In the case of PAN precursor fibers, upon heating the cyano side groups form cyclic rings with each other (cyclization reaction), and upon further heating in air these rings become aromatic pyridine. Oxygen molecules present in the air allows thermal dehydrogenation in cyclized rings to form the aromatic pyridine structures. Upon further heating adjacent chains join together to form ribbons, expelling hydrogen cyanide gas. Oxygen is also used to crosslink the ribbon structures through formation of ether linkages; oxidation is also known to form carbonyl and nitrone (nitrogen in cyclic structure bonds to atomic oxygen through dative bonding) structures. The stabilization process is highly exothermic and care must be taken to control or dissipate the generated heat.
During thermal oxidation the precursor polymer changes its structure in each oxidation zone due to cyclization and crosslinking reactions. The actual melt temperature of the polymer in fibers varies depending on the process conditions, and thermal history of the composition; however, in general the fusing temperature is higher after each pass in oxidation and the density of the fiber increases. To accomplish a higher rate of oxidation, temperatures in subsequent oxidation zones are gradually increased.
During the oxidation process the temperature of the fiber is required to maintain below its softening temperature to avoid inter-filament fusion. Sudden increases in the temperature of the filament lowers filament mechanical strength and often causes breakage of filaments that undergo mechanical stretch against extreme shrinkage force caused by cyclization and oxidative crosslinking reaction.
Stabilized PAN fibers with a high degree of oxygen uptake, to accomplish a high degree of crosslinking reactions, usually demonstrate increased fiber density. PAN precursor fibers have density of 1.18-1.20 g/cc; whereas oxidized PAN fibers can have densities in the range of 1.25-1.45 g/cc. Oxidized fibers with a high density range (>1.40 g/cc) exhibit significant flame retardancy.
After stabilization of the fibers, further heating in furnaces under inert (N2) atmosphere (a process called carbonization) expels nitrogen gas along with oxygen containing compounds, and other volatile organic tar forming compounds to form the carbon fibers with a higher degree of aromatic chemical structures.
The desire to increase production volumes has led to the widespread use of pre-stretched, specialty precursor fibers which include accelerants for accelerating the oxidation reaction. The presence of accelerant functionalities enhances the kinetics of thermal cyclization reaction of PAN. The precursor fibers are arranged into tows of about 100,000 deniers less and are passed rapidly through the oxidation oven usually maintained in a hot air atmosphere. Heating is applied and controlled to also enable the oxidation reaction to proceed. The application of such external heat results in an energy cost to the process. The stored heat in these tows (i.e. the heat that evolves during cyclization and oxidation reactions) require the fiber to be spread thinly to a fiber loading concentration of 100,000 deniers or less per inch of width in the stabilization ovens. This low fiber loading concentration requirement in oxidation, to avoid inter-filament fusion caused by heat evolved during precursor fiber oxidation, is at least partially responsible for the high cost of carbon fiber.

Method of producing carbon fibers from multipurpose commercial fibers


The present invention relates to methods of treating bacterial infections and cancer in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of Formula I. Also provided are methods of inhibiting dolichyl-phosphate N-acetylglucosaminephosphotransferase (DPAGT1) in an individual in need thereof, comprising administering to the individual a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of Formula I:

A biological target of current interest is dolichyl-phosphate N-acetylglucosamine-phosphotransferase (DPAGT1). DPAGT1 is the first committed enzyme for glycoprotein biosynthesis. Cell surface polysaccharides play important roles in numerous biological processes in living organisms, and abnormal glycosylation of cell surface proteins takes place during which normal cells progress to a malignant neoplastic state. Thus, the modification of cell surface glycosylation is a characteristic of many cancer cells. Many of the recently developed tumor markers are carbohydrate antigens. Although it is an extremely challenging subject to discover drug-like glycosyltransferases to block the biosynthesis of specific branching processes in cancer cells, N-glycan biosynthesis can be terminated by inhibition of the first committed enzyme, DPAGT1. Selective DPAGT1 inhibitors have the promising therapeutic potential for certain solid cancers that require increased branching of N-linked glycans in their growth progressions. Because strong inhibition of DPAGT1 may cause cytotoxicity, DPAGT1 inhibitors also have promising therapeutic potential as antibacterial agents.
There remains a need for preparing structurally diverse DPAGT1 inhibitors, particularly ones that are potent and/or selective for the treatment of bacterial infections and cancer.

Glycosyltransferase inhibitors for treatment of solid tumors

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE RESEARCH FOUNDATION


A speech coder comprises a first speech enhancement module receiving a digitized speech signal and producing a first enhanced speech signal, a second speech enhancement module receiving the digitized speech signal and producing a second enhanced speech signal, an analysis module that receives the second enhanced speech signal and produces an analyzed speech signal, a first weighting filter that receives the second enhanced speech signal and the analyzed speech signal and produces a second weighted enhanced signal, a quantizer module that receives the analyzed speech signal and produces a quantized speech signal, a synthesizer module that receives the quantized speech signal and an error signal to produce a synthesized speech output signal and a second weighting filter that receives the synthesized speech output signal to produce a first weighted enhanced signal. A subtraction module calculates a difference between the first weighted enhanced signal and the second weighted enhanced signal which difference is utilized to calculate the error signal.

There are many environments where noisy conditions interfere with speech, such as the inside of a car, a street or a busy office. The severity of background noise varies from the gentle hum of a fan inside of computer to a cacophonous babble in a crowded cafe. This background noise not only directly interferes with a listener's ability to understand a speaker's speech, but can cause further unwanted distortions if the speech is encoded or otherwise processed. Speech enhancement is an effort to process the noisy speech for the benefit of the intended listener, be it a human, speech recognition module, or anything else. For a human listener, it is desirable to increase the perceptual quality and intelligibility of the perceived speech, so that the listener understands the communication with minimal effort and fatigue.
It is usually the case that for a given speech enhancement scheme, a tradeoff must be made between the amount of noise removed and the distortion introduced as a side effect. If too much noise is removed, the resulting distortion can result in listeners preferring the original noise scenario to the enhanced speech. Preferences are based on more than just the energy of the noise and distortion: unnatural sounding distortions become annoying to humans when just audible, while a certain elevated level of "natural sounding" background noise is well tolerated. Residual background noise also serves to perceptually mask slight distortions, making its removal even more troublesome.
Speech enhancement can be broadly defined as the removal of additive noise from a corrupted speech signal in an attempt to increase the intelligibility or quality of speech. In most speech enhancement techniques, the noise and speech are generally assumed to be uncorrelated. Single channel speech enhancement is the simplest scenario, where only one version of the noisy speech is available, which is typically the result of recording someone speaking in a noisy environment with a single microphone.
FIG. 1 illustrates a speech enhancement setup for N noise sources for a single-channel system. For the single channel case illustrated in FIG. 1, exact reconstruction of the clean speech signal is usually impossible in practice. So speech enhancement algorithms must strike a balance between the amount of noise they attempt to remove and the degree of distortion that is introduced as a side effect. Since any noise component at the microphone cannot in general be distinguished as coming from a specific noise source, the sum of the responses at the microphone from each noise source is denoted as a single additive noise term.
Speech enhancement has a number of potential applications. In some cases, a human listener observes the output of the speech enhancement directly, while in others speech enhancement is merely the first stage in an communications channel and might be used as a preprocessor for a speech coder or speech recognition module. Such a variety of different application scenarios places very different demands on the performance of the speech enhancement module, so any speech enhancement scheme ought to be developed with the intended application in mind. Additionally, many well-known speech enhancement processes perform very differently with different speakers and noise conditions, making robustness in design a primary concern. Implementation issues such as delay and computational complexity are also considered.
Speech can be modeled as the output of an acoustic filter (i.e., the vocal tract) where the frequency response of the filter carries the message. Humans constantly change properties of the vocal tract to convey messages by changing the frequency response of the vocal tract.
The input signal to the vocal tract is a mixture of harmonically related sinusoids and noise. "Pitch" is the fundamental frequency of the sinusoids. "Formants" correspond to the resonant frequency(ies) of the vocal tract.
A speech coder works in the digital domain, typically deployed after an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, to process a digitized speech input to the speech coder. The speech coder breaks the speech into constituent parts on an interval-by-interval basis. Intervals are chosen based on the amount of compression or complexity of the digitized speech. The intervals are commonly referred to as frames or sub-frames. The constituent parts include (a) gain components to indicate the loudness of the speech; (b) spectrum components to indicate the frequency response of the vocal tract, where the spectrum components are typically represented by linear prediction coefficients ("LPCs") and/or cepstral coefficients; and (c) excitation signal components, which include a sinusoidal or periodic part, from which pitch is captured, and a noise-like part.
To make the gain components, gain is measured for an internal to normalize speech into a typical range. This is important to be able to run a fixed point processor on the speech.
In the time domain, linear prediction coefficients (LPCs) area weighted linear sum of previous data used to predict the next datum. Cepstral coefficients can be determined from the LPCs, and vice versa. Cepstral coefficients can also be determined using a fast Fourier transform (FFT).
The bandwidth of a telephone channel is limited to 3.5 kHz. Upper (higher-frequency) formants can be lost in coding.
Noise affects speech coding, and the spectrum analysis can be adversely affected. The speech spectrum is flattened out by noise, and formants can be lost in coding. Calculation of the LPC and the cepstral coefficients can be affected.
The excitation signal (or "residual signal") components are determined after or separate from the gain components and the spectrum components by breaking the speech into a periodic part (the fundamental frequency) and a noise part. The processor looks back one (pitch) period (1/F) of the fundamental frequency (F) of the vocal tract to take the pitch, and makes the noise part from white noise. A sinusoidal or periodic part and a noise-like part are thus obtained.
Speech enhancement is needed because the more the speech coder is based on a speech production model, the less able, it is to render faithful reproductions of non-speech sounds that are passed through the speech coder. Noise does not fit traditional speech production models. Non-speech sounds sound peculiar and annoying. The noise itself may be considered annoying by many people. Speech enhancement has never been shown to improve intelligibility but has often been shown to improve the quality of uncoded speech.
According to previous practice, speech enhancement was performed prior to speech coding, in a speech enhancement system separated from a speech coder/decoder, as shown in FIG. 2. With reference to FIG. 2, the speech enhancement module 6 is separated from the speech coder/decoder 8. The speech enhancement module 6 receives input speech. The speech enhancement module 6 enhances (e.g., removes noise from) the input speech and produces enhanced speech.
The speech coder/decoder 8 receives the already enhanced speech from the speech enhancement module 6. The speech coder/decoder 8 generates output speech based on the already-enhanced speech. The speech enhancement module 6 is not integral with the speech coder/decoder 8.
Previous attempts at speech enhancement and coding first cleaned up the speech as a whole, and then coded it, setting the amount of enhancement via "tuning".

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of coding sound signals using sound enhancement


A process for preparing indanylamine and aminotetralin derivatives from indanone or tetralone oximes by acylating the oximes with an organic anhydride, followed by catalytic hydrogenation in the presence of an organic anhydride with subsequent hydrolysis is described. The process is commercially feasible providing indanylamine and aminotetralin derivatives in high yield that are useful as intermediates in the production of therapeutically active compounds. Also described are novel intermediates, 1-indanone O-acetyl oximes and 1-tetralone O-acetyl oximes.

Indanylamine and aminotetralin derivative compounds, such as those of Formula I below, are useful to treat depression, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Tourett's Syndrome, Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias as described in PCT application publication 98/27055. The indanylamine derivatives disclosed have been shown to have biological effects in animal models of neurological disease.
Formula I is:
wherein b is 1 or 2; m is from 0-3, Y is O or S, X is halo, R4 is hydrogen or C1-4 alkyl, R5 is hydrogen, C1-4 alkyl, or optionally substituted propargyl and R6 and R7 are each independently hydrogen, C1-8 alkyl, C6-12 aryl, C6-12 aralkyl, each optionally halo substituted.
PCT application publication 98/27055 further discloses methods for the preparation of indanylamine and aminotetralin derivatives of Formula I using, for example, as starting materials 3-amino-indan-5-ol or 6-methoxy-1-aminoindan. Methods of preparation of the starting materials are also disclosed. 6-Methoxy-indan-1-ylamine is prepared by conversion of 6-methoxy-indan-1-one to 6-methoxy-indan-1-one oxime followed by reduction to 6-methoxy-indan-1-ylamine. Alternatively 6-methoxy-1-aminoindan can be prepared by reductive amination (NaCNBH3 and NH4OAc) of 6-methoxy-indan-1-one to 6-methoxy-indan-1-ylamine. 3-Amino-indan-5-ol can be prepared by using a Friedel-Crafts acylation of an N-protected 3-aminoindan, followed by a Baeyer-Villiger oxidation with subsequent hydrolysis.
These methods for producing starting materials such as 3-amino-indan-5-ol and 6-methoxy-indan-1-ylamine are accompanied by low yields and low reproducibility. Thus, there is a need for reliable processes to produce indanylamine and aminotetralin derivatives in high yields as intermediates to prepare compounds of Formula I, wherein the processes are suitable for industrial production.

Process for the synthesis of indanylamine or aminotetralin derivatives and novel intermediates


A method and device for a hair enhancement device. The device may include a peripheral member sized to fit a rear portion of a human head and comprised of a flexible, non-elastic material. The periphery may include a longitudinal member coupled thereto to bisect the periphery and define an upper portion and lower portion of the hair enhancement device. Diagonal members may be coupled between the longitudinal member and the circular member distal from the longitudinal member to subdivide the device into geometric regions. Wefts of hair may be connected to the longitudinal and/or diagonal members and, possibly the peripheral member. A protective sleeve may be sewn over a foundation of the device. The hair of a wearer is drawn through the geometric regions for blending with the wefts of hair.

Wigs, as well as other hair replacement devices are typically used as a remedy for pattern baldness or to change a complete look (e.g., color) or style of an individual's hair. Conversely, hair enhancement devices are typically constructed to augment an individual's hair and therefore do not provide a remedy for pattern baldness or completely change a look or style. Examples of hair enhancement devices include, but are not limited to, adding volume and/or length to an individual's existing hair.
Hair replacement devices, such as wigs are typically constructed for replacement of an individual's remaining hair and therefore obscure the individual's remaining hair or lack thereof. As a result, wigs generally require a relatively tight fit on the scalp, particularly around the periphery of the individual wearer to provide stability. Generally, wigs are constructed from material simulating skin from mesh or net-like materials or from plastic frameworks.
Unfortunately, various problems arise to the individual wearer of a wig when a wig is worn for more than a brief period of time. For example, wigs may provide pressure or pinching on the individual wearer's scalp as a result of the relatively tight fit associated with wigs. Furthermore, the material used to form the inner portion of the wig excessively heats the scalp of the individual wearer. As a result, more open framework designs, including mesh or net wigs were developed to resolved these problems. Unfortunately, such designs are unable to meet general requirements of the wigs. For example, such wigs may lack stability or may include undesirable bulk, as well as discomfort to the individual wearer.
Variations of hair replacement devices may be constructed to augment the hair of an individual wearer, such as thinning hair and provide an alternative to the full wig. For example, such hair replacement devices may be constructed with an open framework of hair dyed, glued or sewn thereto. Representatively, an individual's hair is drawn through open areas of the framework and inner-mixed with the hair of the device.
Generally, such hair replacement devices must closely fit the contours of the individual's scalp to allow the hair to be inner-mixed, typically by combining. Furthermore, such devices must be constructed from materials that retain their shape over time to prevent sagging from the weight of the attached hair and from incidental tugging or snagging as the hair is blended. Additionally, connections between segments of the opening framework should be relatively strong, without providing bulk, to withstand incidental tugging or snagging as the hair is blended.
Hair replacement devices such as describe above generally enclose the entire head or scalp of an individual. As a result, placement of such hair replacement devices of an individual may require assistance, especially with regards to blending of the individual's hair with that of these hair replacement devices. As a result, such hair replacement devices may be successful for individuals with thinning hair. However, for individuals that desire hair enhancement by, for example, a means of additional volume or length, can generally not receive such benefits from these hair replacement devices. Therefore, there remains a need to overcome one or more of the limitations in the above-described existing.

Apparatus and method for hair enhancement


Provided is a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, which includes the following steps. A substrate having a plurality of pillars is provided, wherein a plurality of trenches are formed around each pillar, and a doped region is disposed at a bottom of each pillar. An insulation layer is formed below each doped region. In addition, a gate and a gate dielectric are formed on the sidewalls of each pillar.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating an electronic device, more particularly, to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to accelerate operating speed of integrated circuit and to meet customers' demands on miniaturizing electronic devices, physical dimensions of transistors in a semiconductor device are continuously shrunk. However, as the dimension of the transistor is reduced, its channel length will also decrease with ease leading to problems such as short channel effect and decrease in turn-on current. A conventional solution to said issue is to enhance the dopant concentration in the channel region. Nevertheless, this method causes an increase in a leakage current and therefore affects the reliability of devices.
To resolve said issue, the conventional horizontal transistor structure is recently replaced by a vertical transistor structure in the industry. For example, the vertical transistor structure is formed in a deep trench of the substrate. Alternatively, the vertical transistor structure may be formed on each pillar of a silicon pillar array. Hence, the operating speed and integration level of integrated circuits are enhanced and problems such as short channel effect are avoided. Currently, improvements in structural design and channel control of the existing vertical transistors are studied aggressively in this field.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device


A TCP/IP-based application system includes an application module that performs predetermined functions based on external requests received from an external queue. The external queue is external to the application system and stores the external requests before the requests are fetched into the application system. A network interaction module is coupled to the application module and the external queue (1) to fetch the external requests from the external queue into the application system and (2) to determine which, if any, of the fetched requests will not be processed by the application module based on the processing capacity of the application module and the rate of the external requests arriving at the external queue such that when the application module is overloaded, TCP timeouts for requests stored in the external queue are minimized and the chance of those requests stored in the external queue from being dropped is also minimized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the Internet. More particularly, this invention relates to a traffic-aware request processing scheme for TCP/IP-based network applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid growth of the Internet, more and more business and residential users are beginning to rely on the Internet for their mainstream and mission-critical activities. As is known, the Internet typically refers to a number of data service systems connected together via a high speed interconnect network (see FIG. 1). Each data service system typically includes Internet server applications that host contents for various customers. The Internet server applications can also host applications. Remote user terminals (e.g., terminals 11a–11n in FIG. 1) may be connected to a data service system (e.g., the data service system 20 in FIG. 1) via an interconnect network. Each user terminal is equipped with a web browser (or other software such as an e-mail software) that allows the user terminal to access the contents and/or applications hosted in various data service systems.
Popular Internet applications include World Wide Web (WWW), E-mail, news, and FTP applications. Other emerging applications such as E-commerce payment processing, content distribution allow various data service systems (e.g., data service systems 20 and 13 in FIG. 1) to interact with one another. All of these applications follow the client-server model and rely on the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for reliable delivery of information/applications between severs and clients. New connection requests received by a data service system (e.g., the system 20 in FIG. 2) are first processed by a TCP/IP stack which is part of the data service system's kernel (i.e., operating system). FIG. 2 shows that the kernel 21 is external to the server application 25 that processes the new connection requests received. The TCP/IP stack in the kernel 21 holds the new connection requests in TCP listen queues, one queue per port. The maximum number of requests that can be held in a listen queue is a configurable parameter. When a server application is ready to process a new request, the server application accepts a new request from its associated listen queue. At this time, the new request is removed from the listen queue.
Such a prior art scheme, however, bears a number of disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the scheme only processes the queued requests sequentially. This means that the server application first accepts a connection request from the external listen queue, processes the accepted connection request, and then proceeds to pick up the next connection request. Even when the server application has multiple processing threads, each thread accepts and processes connection requests from the listen queue sequentially. This sequential feature, although simple to implement, has two key drawbacks. The first one is the long response time of the server application to the connection requests when the server application is overloaded. Since a server application processes incoming requests in sequence, it is typically unaware of the number of requests that are awaiting processing in the listen queue at any given time. When the server application is overloaded (i.e., the rate of incoming requests exceeds the processing rate of the application server), more and more requests accumulate in the listen queue. When the listen queue is full, new requests are dropped from listen queue while the server application is totally unaware of such drops. Dropped connection requests typically cause timeouts at the TCP layer of the client. Since a TCP timeout typically lasts for several seconds, dropped connection requests result in very poor response time for the user/client applications accessing the server.
The second drawback is that a request may be dropped without being first considered by the server application to determine whether the request should be serviced or not. This drawback is particularly evident when the server application is capable of classifying the incoming connection requests into basic and premium classes and offering different treatment to requests in each class. For example, requests of the premium class could be handled at higher priority. The classification, however, is typically done in the server application and TCP/IP stack is not aware of the classification. When overflows happens in the listen queue, both basic and premium requests are dropped out of the listen queue. In this case, premium users do not receive the expected level of performance.

Apparatus and method for processing requests from an external queue in a TCP/IP-based application system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A reciprocating tool comprising a drive shaft and a motor, a plunger for reciprocating motion, the plunger being driven by a wobble plate and pivotally supported in a front bushing and in a manner not prohibiting the plunger to rotate about a longitudinal axis of rotation, the plunger has a rear spherical end, a movable counterweight and a drive arm for moving the counterweight, the counterweight having an opening for receiving the plunger, the opening has side walls that support the rear spherical end of the plunger as it moves relative to the counterweight, a first wobble plate assembly connected to the drive shaft and having a first wobble plate interface engaging and reciprocating the plunger in the front bushing and the counterweight; and a second wobble plate assembly operatively connected to the drive shaft and having a second wobble plate interface engaging the drive arm of the counterweight.

The present invention generally relates to power hand tools, and more particularly, to power reciprocating tools.
Reciprocating tools that are motor driven, such as saber saws, larger reciprocating saws and the like are usually driven by electric motors that have a rotating output shaft. The rotating motion must be translated into reciprocating motion for moving a saw blade or the like in a reciprocating manner. While various types of mechanisms have been known in the art for translating the rotation motion into reciprocating motion, one common type of motion conversation mechanism is known as a wobble plate drive. A wobble plate drive shaft is typically connected to the motor through a gear arrangement to reduce the speed of rotation of the motor output shaft and the wobble plate drive causes a wobble arm to reciprocate in a path that is parallel to the motion of the saw blade or the like. The blade of a reciprocating saw is mounted in a blade clamping mechanism that is located at the end of a plunger, the other end of which is operatively connected to a wobble arm.

Drive mechanism for a reciprocating tool


An apparatus is provided for minimizing the peak power demand on an inverter in a power supply with one or more switched reactive loads comprising an AC semiconductor bypass switch connected in parallel with the inverter and a bypass control device. The bypass control device includes filters for selecting load current signals with specific frequencies of interest from the switched reactive loads; a signal processor for sampling and transforming the selected load current signals into frequency domain to identify frequency components of the selected load current signal; an amplitude detector for detecting peak current amplitudes of the identified frequency components of the selected load current signal; and a bypass driver.

AC voltage regulators are used to closely control and regulate the AC voltage level being delivered to a load connected to the output of the AC voltage regulator, regardless of the AC voltage variation at the input of the AC voltage regulator. The electronic AC-AC series voltage regulation topology, can be either any "direct" topology such that the inverter power semiconductors have to handle the total peak power to the load, or any "indirect" electronic AC-AC series voltage regulation topology that utilizes a low frequency transformer (the low frequency transformer may be one selected from those disclosed in PCT Application No. PCT/IB2017/055260, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein) that only processes a proportion of the total output power. In general, AC voltage regulators utilize inverter power semiconductor devices to handle the total peak power to the load. However, the inherent limited power handling capability of inverter power semiconductor devices may cause problems in the electronic AC-AC series voltage regulation. It is well-known that small semiconductor dies can only handle current transients of limited peak amplitudes from switched reactive loads owning to the limited critical thermal dissipation of the small power semiconductor die. When the inverter power semiconductor devices are connected to switched reactive loads, in particular, with high and very high momentary peak power currents, unnecessary and troublesome nuisance bypass operations can be triggered. Therefore, inverter power semiconductor devices have to be designed and specified with larger power handling capability, or even over specified, to handle high peak power transients, and generally larger power semiconductor devices are used than would otherwise be necessary to handle the more desirable lower average RMS or average power to the load.
FIG. 1 shows a general electronic AC-AC series voltage regulator with a standard legacy-bypass consisting typically of a semiconductor bypass switch, a mechanical relay or contactor bypass for protecting the inverter power semiconductor devices undergoing high peak currents and in accordance with a prior art example. The semiconductor bypass switch may be fast switching AC semiconductor devices such as TRIACS, or SCRs, either back-to-back, or with a rectifier bridge connected in parallel with the contacts of the slower mechanical relay or contactor. As such, the legacy-bypass may function as fast protective bypass with fast AC power semiconductors together with the slower mechanical relay or contactor. A current amplitude detector is used for detecting transient peak current amplitudes from the load current sensor and bypass drivers are used for triggering the legacy-bypass.
The switched loads may include resistive (R) loads and reactive loads which can include capacitive (C) and/or inductive (L) elements. FIG. 5 shows an inverter current waveform after implementing the apparatus as shown in FIG. 1. When reactive loads are switched to the inverter, momentary high peaks of the load current, which last only for microseconds or milliseconds, may induce a very high transient inverter current peak, up to 115.1 Amps, which exceeds the pre-set protective current level of the current amplitude detector such that the legacy-bypass is unnecessarily triggered. This may lead to disturbing bypasses that may cause annoying lighting flicker or even destructive voltage fluctuations. Therefore, the power demand on the inverter power semiconductor devices is to handle not only the average or RMS power dissipated by the resistive loads, but also the high amplitude momentary current peaks induced by the reactive loads. Therefore, inverter power semiconductors devices are usually sized, or even over specified, so as to maintain voltage regulation output without triggering the bypass.

Apparatus for minimizing peak power demand on inverter in power supply with one or more switched reactive loads


DNA is extracted from epithelial cells and other cells without cell walls, by use of a DNA extraction buffer that contains a C1-C4 alcohol, a cell lysis detergent, and a buffering agent maintained at a slightly basic pH. The cells are immersed in the buffer and gently agitated at ambient temperature, and DNA extraction and precipitation occur in thirty minutes or less, and often in five minutes or less.

With the proliferation of studies involving DNA, laboratory procedures such as the polymerization chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing have gained widespread use. Highly automated and efficient equipment and instrumentation have been developed for these procedures, but the DNA must first be extracted from biological cells, and this is one of the limiting factors in use of the procedures. With the ever-present goals of speed and low cost, there is a continuing need for new materials and procedures for extracting DNA in less time and with fewer opportunities for operator intervention and error.


A rigid, swing-open packet of cigarettes having: at least one group of cigarettes; at least one inner container housing the group of cigarettes; an outer container housing the inner container and having at least one open lateral end; and a hinge connecting the inner container and the outer container to allow the inner container to rotate between a closed position, in which the inner container is inserted inside the outer container, and an open position, in which the inner container is at least partly extracted from the outer container; the hinge being located close to an edge of a wall of the inner container and close to an edge of a bottom wall of the outer container at the open lateral end of the outer container.

Rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes are currently the most widely marketed, by being easy to produce, practical and easy to use, and by effectively protecting the cigarettes inside.
In addition to rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes, rigid slide-open or swing-open packets of cigarettes have been proposed comprising two containers, one inserted in partly removable manner inside the other. In other words, a rigid slide-open or swing-open packet of cigarettes comprises a first container housing a group of cigarettes, and in turn housed inside a second container to move, with respect to the second container, between a closed position, in which the first container is inserted inside the second container, and an open position, in which the first container is extracted from the second container. The movement of the first container with respect to the second container may be either a straight (slide-open) movement, or a rotational (swing-open) movement about a hinge connecting the two containers.
A number of embodiments of rigid, straight slide-open packets of cigarettes are described in FR2499947A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,534,463A1 and 5,080,227A1, and one embodiment of a rigid, swing-open packet of cigarettes is described in WO2006021581.
Known rigid swing-open packets of cigarettes, however, have various drawbacks, by being complicated and expensive to produce, and relatively complicated to open.


A protective structure is provided that is configured to crush descending items into particles. The protective structure comprises an upper mesh layer made of hard material capable of crushing the descending items and a bottom layer made of combined hard material and relatively soft material, wherein the bottom layer is capable of absorbing the particles. The protective structure is further provided with a plurality of supporting poles that are positioned between the upper mesh layer and the bottom layer.

Falling and descending objects instigated by circumstances such as projectile objects or arsenals, earthquake or volcano burst, meteorites, or building collapse can cause a sever damage to buildings, roads, train or bus stations, tunnel entrance, strategic areas, etc. Shields are provided on top or near those strategic places that are susceptible to such danger, however, in cases the descending object is relatively heavy, hot, or propelled, the available shields will not be sufficient in order to stop the fall or protect the items or people that are staying in the structure.


A fixing apparatus for fixing a data storage device with a plurality of mounting holes defined in sidewalls thereof includes a first bracket, a second bracket, and a latch member. The first bracket includes a side sheet and a base sheet perpendicularly connected thereto. The second bracket includes a side sheet, and a base sheet perpendicularly connected thereto. The base sheet of the second bracket is pivotally attached to the base sheet of the first bracket. The latch member is slidably attached to the base sheet of the first bracket and engages with the base sheet of the second bracket. A plurality of fixing pins extends from the side sheets of the first bracket and the second bracket, corresponding to the mounting holes of the data storage device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data storage, and specifically to a fixing apparatus for data storage devices providing convenient removal and installation.
2. Description of Related Art
An electronic apparatus, such as a typical desktop computer, tower computer, server, or the like, usually includes storage devices, such as hard disk drives, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) drives, digital video disc (DVD) drives, floppy disk drives, and the like. These storage devices are typically added to increase the functionality of the electronic apparatuses. Conventionally, the storage devices with rigid cases are retained in enclosures by means of bolts or screws. However, attachment and detachment of screws or bolts is time-consuming and cumbersome.
What is needed, therefore, is a fixing apparatus which can provide convenient removal and installation of data storage devices.

Fixing apparatus for data storage device

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A biodegradable biopolymer material consists of silk fibroin from domesticated silkworm; silk fibroin from wild silkworm; a composite material comprising silk fibroin from domesticated silkworm and silk fibroin from wild silkworm; or a composite material comprising either silk fibroin from domesticated silkworm or silk fibroin from wild silkworm and at least one secondary substance selected from the group consisting of cellulose, chitin, chitosan, chitosan derivatives, keratin from wool and polyvinyl alcohol. The material may be prepared by, for instance, casting an aqueous solution of domesticated silkworm silk fibroin on the surface of a substrate and then cast drying the applied solution. The biodegradable biopolymer material is effectively used as, for instance, a metal ion-adsorbing material, a sustained release substrate for a useful substance such as a medicine, a biological cell-growth substrate and a biodegradable water-absorbing material.

It is quite a long time since materials consisting of organic polymers and possessing biodegradability came on to the market. In the medical field, there have frequently been used materials, which are biologically decomposed and degraded through the action of an enzyme to thus form small molecules. Materials recently widely put into practical use include, as typical examples, poly(oxy-acids) such as poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid) among the biodegradable organic polymers and these materials have widely been used as implanting materials to be embedded in the living bodies, materials for the in vivo delivery or carriers for sustained release of medicines.
These poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid) show excellent resistance to chemicals. Poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid) are non-toxic and quite susceptible to hydrolysis and accordingly, they have widely been used as materials capable of being decomposed and absorbed in vivo. Moreover, poly(glycolic acid) can be prepared as a very high molecular weight polymer and therefore, it is useful as a material, which should have excellent mechanical or dynamic characteristic properties such as high tensile strength. Specifically, poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid) have been used as, for instance, biodegradable and bioabsorbable suture.
Moreover, in the medical field, silk sutures from domesticated silkworm have long been used as sutures for surgical operations. The use of the silk fiber from domesticated silkworm as sutures for surgical operations, for the first time, dates away back to the beginning of the eleventh century. The total volume of the sutures traded in this country is equivalent to about six billion yens a year (in 1985), 46% of which corresponds to the volume of the silk sutures. The silk fiber is excellent in, for instance, tensile strength and knot strength and can easily be sterilized. For this reason, the silk fiber has favorably been used as sutures. Therefore, even when judging from the actual conditions of the use of the conventional silk sutures, the silk fiber can quite easily be sterilized, it is never biologically decomposed within a short period of time when embedded in the living body and when it is implanted in the living body, it only insignificantly causes an antigen-antibody reaction with the biological tissues.
The cocoon fiber (the silk fiber) is a protein fiber produced and spun by matured larvae of silkworm. The silkworms are divided into two groups or domesticated silkworms reared in farmhouses and wild type ones. Silk fibroin fibers are those obtained by removing sericin as an adhesive substance, which covers the surface of the cocoon fiber, by treating the cocoon fiber with, for instance, an alkali.
The silk fibers from wild silkworm in general mean those produced and spun by, for instance, Antheraea pernyi, Antheraea yamamai, Antheraea militta, Antheraea assama, Philosamia cynthia ricini and Philosamia cynthia pryeri.
The foregoing silk suture is a non-absorbent material, it is never decomposed within a short period of time and accordingly, it would remain in the living body even after the suture. For this reason, it has been used for the purposes different from those of the threads for suture made from poly(oxy-acids) such as poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid), which are absorbed in the body and decomposed into water and carbon dioxide within several weeks after the suture.
With respect to the foregoing metal ion-adsorbing material and sustained release carrier for useful substances consisting of the aforementioned biodegradable biopolymer, there has not yet been proposed any product having satisfactory characteristic properties.
As has been discussed above in detail, poly(lactic acid) has widely been used as a biodegradable and bioabsorbable material, but it suffers from a problem in that the production cost thereof is too high. Moreover, poly(glycolic acid) has been used as a biodegradable and bioabsorbable material because of the advantages described above. On the other hand, it is too expensive, has high crystallizability, is too hard and is inferior in the compatibility with soft tissues. Moreover, it also suffers from problems such that the rate of decomposition thereof cannot easily be controlled and that the control of the biodegradability thereof is likewise difficult even if this material is chemically modified.
Further, fibrous poly(lactic acid) has a glass transition temperature similar to that of, for instance, polyethylene terephthalate fiber and accordingly, the poly(lactic acid) fibers possess mechanical properties quite resemble to those observed for the polyethylene terephthalate fibers. In this respect, however, poly(lactic acid) or the like has a crystallization velocity slower than that observed for polyethylene terephthalate and fibers of, for instance, poly(lactic acid) are not sufficiently oriented and are not satisfactorily crystallized even when they are passed through the usual spinning and/or orientation steps. For this reason, additional problems arise when putting them into practical use, for instance, the tensile strength and dimensional stability of poly(lactic acid) are insufficient.
In addition, the higher the molecular weight of the foregoing poly(oxy-acids), the slower the rate of the decomposition thereof. In this connection, it is necessary to produce poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid) whose molecular weight is controlled for the control of the decomposition speed of these polymers, but the production of such polymers requires much labor and the use of highly advanced techniques requiring a great deal of skill. For this reason, the use of poly(oxy-acids) has presently been limited to medical applications such as absorbent sutures and cosmetic applications and accordingly, there has strongly been desired for the establishment of a production process, which is not expensive or is economical and does not require any skilled technique.
As has been discussed above, the suture of silk differs from sutures of poly(oxy-acids) such as poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid), which are finally decomposed into water and carbon dioxide in the living body. Accordingly, there has strongly been desired for the development of a biodegradable material whose biodegradability in vivo can be controlled, which does not suffer from any problem concerning the biological safety and whose production cost is very low and which can biologically be decomposed without producing any cytotoxic products, does not form any harmful substance such as formaldehyde as a by-product and which is thus safe to the biological tissues.
The silk protein as a biopolymer from an insect, which can be used as a raw material for the foregoing silk suture is a naturally occurring polymer material produced through the biosynthesis of silkworms, excellent in the biological compatibility with the biological tissues and has good molding properties. Therefore, if by-products of silk obtained in the process for preparing raw silk and silk products are used as starting material for the sutures, one can save the cost of raw materials. Moreover, silk proteins include a large number of active sites rich in chemical reactivity and therefore, the fields of applications thereof (such as the use as medical materials) can considerably and widely be extended if a technique, which permits the control of the biodegradability or biochemical properties of silk fibroin through, for instance, hybrid processings and/or chemical modification treatments, can be developed. For this reason, there has strongly been desired for the development of a novel biodegradable material, which can effectively be used in the medical field, using such biopolymers from insects as starting materials and secondary substances capable of being combined (hereunder also referred to as hybrid or hybridized with the former (composite (materials)).

Biodegradable biopolymers, method for their preparation and functional materials constituted by these biopolymers

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences