The present invention relates to genetically modified plant cells and plants in which the genetic modification leads to a reduction in GBSSI, SSIII and BEI activity in comparison to the activity in corresponding wild type plant cells or wild type plants. Furthermore, the present invention relates to methods for the production of such plant cells and plants. The present invention also relates to the starch produced by the plant cells of the invention or plants of the invention, as well as to methods for the production of this starch and derivatised starch.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to genetically modified plant cells and plants in which the genetic modification leads to the synthesis of amylopectin starch with novel properties. Furthermore, the present invention relates to methods for the production of such plant cells and plants. The present invention also relates to starches produced by the plant cells and plants of the invention and methods for the production of these starches and derivatised starches.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
In view of the increasing significance that is currently being attributed to vegetable ingredients as sources of renewable raw materials, one of the objectives of bioengineering research is concerned with the adaptation of these vegetable raw materials to the requirements of the processing industry. In order to be able to utilise renewable raw materials in as many areas as possible it is additionally necessary to identify a wide variety of substances.
Starch is a complex mixture of polysaccharides that are composed of chemically unique base components, glucose molecules. However, polysaccharide molecules differ in respect of the degree of polymerisation and branching, which influences the physico-chemical properties of starch. A differentiation is made between amylose starch, i.e. starch that is comprised mainly of amylose, and amylopectin starch, i.e. starch that is comprised mainly of amylopectin.
For a considerable time amylose was regarded as a linear polymer, consisting of α-1,4-glycosidically linked α-D-glucose monomers. However, more recent studies have proven the presence of α-1,6-glycosidic branching points (approx. 0.1%) (Hizukuri and Takagi, 1984, Carbohydr. Res. 134, 1-10; Takeda et al., 1984, Carbohydr. Res. 132, 83-92).
Amylopectin consists of a complex mixture of variably branched glucose chains. Unlike amylose, amylopectin is more highly branched. Side chains are linked to the primary chain, consisting of α-1,4-glycosidically linked α-D-glucose monomers, by way of α-1,6-glycosidic bonds. According to textbook data (Voet and Voet, Biochemistry, John Wiley & Sons, 1990), the α-1,6 branches occur on average every 24 to 30 glucose moieties. This corresponds to a degree of branching of approx. 3%-4%. The data regarding the degree of branching are variable and dependent on the origin of the respective starch (e.g. plant species, plant variety, etc.). In plants that are typically used for industrial starch production such as, for example, maize, wheat or potato, the starch synthesised is comprised of approx. 20%-30% amylose starch and approx. 70%-80% amylopectin starch. Another fundamental difference between amylose and amylopectin lies in the molecular weight. amylose, depending on the origin of the starch, has a molecular weight of 5×105-106 Da, in the case of amylopectin it lies between 107 and 108 Da. The two macromolecules can be differentiated on the basis of their molecular weight and their differing physico-chemical properties, which can be seen most readily in their different iodine binding properties.
In addition to the amylose/amylopectin ratio and the phosphate content the functional characteristics of the starch are strongly influenced by the molecular weight, the side chain distribution pattern, the ion content, the lipid and protein content, the average starch granule size and the starch granule morphology. Examples of important functional characteristics are the solubility, the retrogradation behaviour, the water binding capability, the film formation properties, the viscosity, the gelatinisation properties, the freeze/thaw stability, the acid stability, the gel solidity, etc.
The gelatinisation properties, which include the end viscosity, can be determined by the person skilled in the art with various methods. Depending on the method used, absolute values in particular, but also relative values, can differ for the same starch sample. A quick and efficient method for the analysis of gelatinisation properties is the RVA analysis. Depending on the parameters selected and the temperature profile during the RVA analysis, different RVA profiles are obtained for the same sample. It should be noted that in the following quoted documents, which explain the state of the art, different profiles are sometimes described for determining the agglutination properties.
It is known that plants can be genetically modified in such a way that they produce starch that can be differentiated on the basis of physico-chemical parameters from the starch that is manufactured by corresponding plants that have not been genetically modified. A review of various plant species that exhibit a reduction in enzymes involved in the starch biosynthesis has been described by Kossmann and Lloyd (2000, Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 19(3), 171-126).
In conjunction with the present invention the following state of the art is of interest. Plants have hitherto been described in which the activity of the starch granule-bound starch synthase GBSSI ("Granule-Bound Starch Synthase") is reduced (Shure et al., 1983, Cell 35, 225-233; Hovenkamp-Hermelink et al., 1987, Theoretical and Applied Genetics 75, 217-221; Visser et al., 1991, Mol. Gen. Genet. 225, 289-296; Hergersberg, 1988, Dissertation, Universität Köln; WO 92/11376). The GBBSI is involved in the formation of amylose. Inhibition of the GBSSI activity leads to a synthesis of starch that is comprised almost exclusively of amylopectin. The corresponding GBSSI gene in the maize plant is known by the term "waxy".
Furthermore, plants have been described in which the activity of soluble starch synthase SSIII is reduced (Abel et al., 1996, The Plant Journal 10(6), 981-991; Lloyd et al., 1999, Biochemical Journal 338, 515-521; WO 00/08184; WO 96/15248; EP-A 0779363). In comparison with starch isolated from corresponding wild type plants, starch from such plants exhibits a relative shift of the side chains of amylopectin from longer chains to shorter chains (Lloyd et al., 1999, Biochemical Journal 338, 515-521), an increased phosphate content, no change in the amylose content (Abel et al., 1996, The Plant Journal 10(6), 9891-9991) and a reduced end viscosity in the RVA analysis (Abel, 1995, Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin).
Furthermore, plants have been described, in with the activity of the branching enzyme BEI is reduced (Kossmann et al., 1991, Mol. Gen. Genet. 230, 39-44; Safford et al., 1998, Carbohydrate Polymers 35, 155-168; WO 92/14827; WO 95/26407). Safford et al. (1998, supra) describe that corresponding potato plants produce a starch with an amylose/amylopectin ratio that is essentially unchanged. Nor does the degree of branching of the amylopectin differ significantly from that of starch isolated from wild type potato plants. The starch-bound phosphate content is comparably increased, however, which presumably leads to the various gelatinisation properties observed and the altered viscosity of the starch isolated from corresponding mutants as compared to starch isolated from wild type potato plants.
Plants are described in WO 01/19975, in which both the GBSSI and the SSII and/or SSIII activity are reduced. Starch from potato plants with reduced GBSSI, SSII and SSIII activity exhibits a lower amylose content, changed swelling properties and gelatinisation properties, and an increased freeze/thaw stability in comparison to starch from wild type potato plants.
Plants are described in WO 01/12782, in which both the GBSSI and the BEI activity are reduced. In comparison to starch from wild type plants, starch from these plants exhibits a reduced amylose content, and in comparison to starch from plants of the waxy phenotype an increased phosphate content and/or lowered gelatinisation temperature. Plants are described in WO 00/08184, in which both the SSIII and the BEI activity are reduced. In comparison to starch from wild type plants starch from such plants exhibits an increased phosphate content.

Plants that produce amylopectin starch with novel properties


Light sources illuminate eyes in a predetermined cycle using the pulse of light. Video cameras are directed to the eyes, and a video signal of the pupil is output. This video signal is output to a digital computer via video control units, a multiplexer, and an analog-to-digital converter. The digital computer detects the size of the pupil by processing an input video signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pupil measuring system for measuring a pupil diameter and a system for diagnosing Alzheimer's dementia (Alzheimer's disease) by measurement of the size of a pupil.
2. Related Art
It is said that about one million patients suffer from senile dementia in Japan. About half those patients are affected by cerebrovascular dementia, and the rest of them are affected by Alzheimer's disease. No early diagnosing method was conventionally available for Alzheimer's patients. Medicines for delaying the progress of Alzheimer's disease have now been developed, which makes it possible to delay the progress of the disease if Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed early. For this reason, the method for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease has long been expected.
A method for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was reported in a US Journal entitled SCIENCE (VOL. 266, 11 NOV., 1994), which enables the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by dropping a pupil dilating dilution into an eye, and by measuring the area of a resultantly dilated pupil or the magnification of the pupil diameter. However, a diagnosing system employing this method is not available yet.
The following problems were encountered as a result of an attempt to build the diagnosing system of this type by combining together conventional units, such as, a pupil photographing unit which measures the area of a pupil or the magnification of a pupil diameter and a data analyzing unit which analyzes data obtained by the pupil photographing unit.
In the conventional pupil photographing unit, an eye is exposed to continuous light using a continuously illuminating device as a photographing device. The pupil is stimulated by flashing light, and the area of the pupil or changes in the pupil diameter obtained as a result of the lapse of several seconds after the stimulation of the pupil. The above described method for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease requires the measurement of changes in the pupil size over a long period of time, e.g., 30 minutes to one hour. However, the eye often moves during the course of the measurement which is continued over such a long period time, thereby resulting in eye deflections. The eye deflections make it difficult to accurately measure the area of the pupil or the pupil diameter.
To reproduce an image on a monitor by processing a signal output from a video camera, the speed of an electric shutter is usually set to a standard speed, that is, a rate of 1/60 sec. Data for two fields are obtained from the data which the video camera outputs for every one screen, that is, at an interval of 1/60 sec. One screen (one frame) is formed on a monitor screen by means of the data. If the eye moves quickly, displacements arise even in the image of the pupil for two fields at an interval of 1/60 sec. This problem will be described in a more detailed manner.
Eye movement is generally divided into two types, i.e., a slow phase and a quick phase. The slow phase designates the slow movement of the eye, and the quick phase designates the quick movement of the eye. The quick phase represents, for example, the momentary return of the eyes after they have followed a train passing a railway crossing from left to right. Contrary to this, the slow phase means the movement of the eyes as they are following the train from left to right. It is said that a rotating speed of the eye in the quick phase is 300 to 500 degrees/sec. Provided that the rotating speed of the eye is 500 degrees/sec., the front surface of the eye moves together with a pupil in the following manner. In the example, the diameter of the eye is assumed to be 30 mm, as shown in FIG. 9, and the speed of the electronic shutter is set to a standard period of 1/60 sec.
(1) A traveling speed of the pupil center is .pi..times.30.times.(500/360) mm/sec.=about 131 mm/sec. PA1 (2) A travel distance of the pupil center during a period of 1/60 sec. is (131 mm/sec).times.(1/60 sec.)=about 2.2 mm. PA1 (3) Displacements of the subject, i.e., the pupil, are as follows:
The pupil commonly measures approximately 3-5 mm in diameter. In this event, the pupil is assumed to measure 4 mm, as shown in FIG. 9. The pupil having a diameter of 4 mm travels 2.2 mm during a period of 1/60 sec, which in turn results in a substantially elliptical image having a longer radius of about 6.2 mm and a shorter radius of about 4 mm, as shown in FIG. 10. An apparent area of the image is about more than 150% of the true area. Hence, there arises an error of more than 50%. For this reason, it becomes impossible to accurately measure the area of the pupil or the pupil diameter.
To prevent such a problem, it may be possible to form one screen (one frame) on the monitor screen by using the data of the identical field obtained from the video camera twice while the release period of the electronic shutter remains set to a standard period of 1/60 sec. Even in the case of this method, the image moves during one field having a period of 1/60 sec. if the eye is exposed to continuous light, thereby resulting in a blurred pupil image.
Alternatively, it may be possible to use intensive and continuous light while the speed of the electronic shutter is set to a small period of time, e.g., 1/1000 sec. According to this method, on the assumption that the rotating speed of the eye is 500 degrees/sec. and the diameter of the eye is 30 mm, the pupil center travels at a speed of about 131 mm/sec along the surface of the eye. Hence, the travel distance of the pupil center during a period of 1/1000 sec. is (131 mm/sec.).times.(1/1000 sec.)=0.131 mm. Assuming that the pupil diameter is 4 mm, a ratio of the apparent area of the pupil to the true area of the same is 4.131.sup.2 /4.sup.2 =1.067 (times). The error of the area of the pupil is reduced to about 6.7%.
However, if the eye is continuously exposed to intensive light, there is a risk of damaging the cornea of the eye. For this reason, this second method is not practical. Conversely, if the speed of the electronic shutter is set to a very short time, e.g., 1/1000 sec., and weak light is continuously used, the image will become dark, which makes it difficult to analyze the image. The dark image is not suitable for measuring the pupil size.
The conventional data analyzing unit for analyzing data obtained by the pupil photographing unit is designed to directly use data relating to the size of the pupil which are obtained at predetermined intervals of time. However, the eye itself is reduced or increased in size all the time. Thus, constant changes of this type in the area of the pupil are ignored in the conventional data analyzing unit, which in turn results in errors. For example, on the assumption that the area of the pupil obtained as a result of the first measurement is 100%, and that the area of the pupil is then measured for 40 seconds at every 0.2 seconds, the area of the pupil changes all the time, as shown in FIG. 7. The area changes in as much as a range of about 100-130%. If the minor movement of the eye is measured for a short period of time, no problems arise. However, this method is not desirable to measure the overall changes in the pupil size over a long period of time, and data obtained as a result of such a measurement make it difficult to carry out a correct diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Pupil measuring system and Alzheimer's disease diagnosing system


An object is to simplify a process performed due to a failure recovery. To realize this object, the transmission apparatus includes a determining unit that determines, when a transmission apparatus receives a frame from each ring in a network including multiple rings in which a part of each ring is shared, whether failure information indicating that a failure has occurred in one of the rings is contained in one of the received frames. The transmission apparatus also includes a mapping unit that maps a frame that is determined by the determining unit to contain the failure information, onto a shared frame that is a frame used in a shared portion in the multiple rings. Accordingly, the process performed due to a failure recovery can be simplified.

In recent years, with the increased demand for bulk data transmission, large-scale networks using a high-speed digital transmission method has been constructed. The use of the Optical Transport Network (OTN), which is prescribed by International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication standardization sector (ITU-T) Recommendation G.709 as the digital transmission standards, is being studied. The OTN is used to transmit a frame that is a signal in which a signal (overhead) used for maintaining a transmission apparatus or the like is attached to a digitized main signal (pay load).
An example of a method for constructing a large-scale network using the OTN includes a Bi-directional Line Switched Ring (BLSR) method in which, for example, transmission apparatuses are connected in a ring shaped fashion. Some ring networks constructed using the BLSR method uses an automatic protection switching (APS) function for recovering a network when a failure occurs. In the ring network that uses the BLSR method using the APS function (hereinafter, referred to as an "APS/BLSR ring network"), high-speed failure recovery is implemented by transmission apparatuses notifying each other of APS bytes stored in the overhead contained in a frame. For example, in the APS/BLSR ring network, when a signal fail (SF) occurs as a failure, a network is recovered by notifying an adjacent apparatus with information on the network's own apparatus to by using the APS bytes containing the SF and by switching the currently used line to a spare line.
When constructing a large-scale network that is larger than the above, it is preferable to implement a multi-ring configuration in which multiple ring networks are connected with each other. Such a multi-ring configuration as that illustrated in FIG. 11 has been proposed. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional multi-ring configuration. As illustrated in FIG. 11, with the conventional multi-ring configuration, two transmission apparatuses in a ring network A are connected with two transmission apparatuses in a ring network B, respectively.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-18891    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-266480    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-101559    Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-232442

Transmission apparatus, failure recovery method, and network system


A system is disclosed that provides computer-aided processing of a rebate on a product. The system includes a rebate processing center communicating over a network with a manufacturer, a distributor, and a consumer. The rebate processing center maintains a promotion table and a transaction table in order to facilitate processing of product rebates and to offer the consumer a choice of disbursement options.

Manufacturers and service providers offer rebates as a financial incentive to increase sales. Rebates offer cash back to consumers who fulfill a set of requirements after purchasing a product bearing a rebate. By requiring post-purchase activities, the rebate offerer attempts to reduce the number of successful rebate claimants. Breakage occurs when a product bearing a rebate is sold, but the rebate is not successfully claimed. Because rebate programs offer the potential for breakage, manufacturers can offer a more valuable rebate compared to a straight reduction in product price. Thus, manufacturers establish procedures to maintain a sufficient rate of breakage and to prevent fraudulent rebate claims.
Consumers, in contrast, desire the quickest and easiest process for receiving their rebates. This creates a tension between the manufacturer's desire to maintain consumer satisfaction and the need to sustain a sufficient level of breakage in rebate programs.

Rebate processing system and method providing promotions database and interface


A method for enriching or amplifying a target nucleic acid including providing a system having a guide nucleic acid, and a Cas or Argonaute protein or a variant thereof. The guide nucleic acid contains a target-specific nucleotide region substantially complementary to a region of the target nucleic acid, and contacting the target nucleic acid with the system to form a complex.

There are a variety of methods and applications for which it is desirable to enrich or amplify a target polynucleotide among a population of polynucleotides, e.g., among whole genome.
Many of the methods currently used for sequence-specific DNA enrichment involve multiple steps and require relatively large amounts of sample nucleic acids, and usually are difficult, tedious, laborious, time-consuming, inefficient, and costly. In addition, methods currently used for targeted enrichment of double-stranded DNA require creating a single-stranded DNA prior to the sequence specific targeting. They also require longer time for hybridizing probes to target DNA. Thus, there exists a need for new methods that enable rapid and efficient sequence-specific polynucleotide enrichment.
Nucleic acid amplification is a key step of many nucleic acid based processes such as nucleic acid sequencing. Most currently used nucleic acid amplification methods, e.g., those used in cluster generation in the next generation sequencing, require both temperature cycling and fluid exchanges. Isothermal amplification, on the other hand, can be time and energy efficient by eliminating temperature ramp and equilibration times. Several isothermal amplification methods have been developed, e.g., recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) based isothermal amplification. These isothermal amplification systems usually lack the desired speed and efficiency ideally suitable for some applications. Furthermore, some systems require additional enzymes and reagents including ATP. Thus, there remains a need in the art for convenient, rapid, and efficient isothermal nucleic acid amplification methods.
CRISPR-Cas and related proteins are discussed in PCT Publ. Nos. WO2016/014409 and WO2016/077350, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
The present disclosure addresses these and other needs by providing methods for enriching or amplifying nucleic acid using CRISPR-Cas or Argonaute systems. Related advantages are provided as well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Polynucleotide enrichment and amplification using CRISPR-Cas or Argonaute systems


A system for quantifying surface characteristics detects and quantifies characteristics of a surface of an object. For example, the system may quantify changes in surface roughness without contacting the specimen and without requiring precise temporal or spatial stability. The system may also quantify the evolution or progression of a particular characteristic of a surface, such as a defect, a slipband, a crack, a microcrack, a pit, a damage feature, corrosion, a contour change, an impact crater, a change in residual stress, and so on. The system may include an energy source, a detector section, and a process section. The energy source transmits a source signal to the surface of the object. The source signal is specularly reflected and/or scattered by the surface to yield one or more received signals. The detector section receives the received signal and, in turn, provides a detector signal indicative of the received signal. The processor applies an algorithm to the detector signal to quantify an evolution in one or more characteristics of the surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques and methods for detecting and quantifying surface characteristics and material conditions using light scattering.
2. Description of the Related Art
Detecting and monitoring fatigue damage is needed for preemptive failure repair or replacement of critical components in engineering systems. A macroscopic crack does not generally manifest until very late in the life of the component high cycle fatigue (HCF) conditions. However, surface structural changes and micro-cracks can occur much earlier on the surface and could possibly be used as a precursor for fatigue crack formation that leads to catastrophic failure. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop methods to quickly detect localized deformation and micro-cracking early in the fatigue life, well in advance of micro-crack coalescence and macroscopic crack growth.
Early in the fatigue process, dislocations in crystalline solids migrate to give rise to localized deformation, which in turn leads to micro-crack initiation and eventual failure. Crack formation typically occurs very late in fatigue life (within the last 20%) under high cycle fatigue conditions and, therefore, early determination of fatigue and estimation of remaining life requires the detection of dislocation structures as they impinge on the surface of the specimen. Optical visualization of precursor dislocation structures prior to crack formation is generally not possible for engineering components. However, in materials that have moderate to high surface residual stresses, the initial formation and movement of dislocations can reduce surface residual stress. The relationship between cyclic loading and a decrease in residual stress has been observed and reported by many researchers. For example, substantial relaxation of residual stresses during fatigue loading has been observed using x-ray diffraction techniques. The relaxation of residual stresses by 30% in mild steel under fatigue loading conditions was also measured using high sensitivity Moiré interferometry. Similarly, a laser light scattering technique was shown to efficiently detect not only micro-cracks, but also a reduction in surface roughness on wire specimens that were subjected to high cycle fatigue conditions. This change in roughness was attributed to cyclic relaxation of large residual stresses at the surface that resulted from the wire drawing process.
Microcrack formation occurs relatively early in the life of samples under low cycle fatigue (LCF) conditions. The number of microcracks that develop prior to the formation of the primary crack also increases with the greater imposed strain amplitude under LCF conditions. Monitoring the gradual increase in the microcrack density early in the life of an LCF specimen can provide an accurate prediction of fatigue life. Although this monitoring can be performed using surface replication techniques, a less time intensive method is needed to make microcrack monitoring practical for life assessment of components in service.
Various techniques have been proposed for the optical measurement of surface roughness and defect detection including laser ultrasonic, laser Doppler vibrometry, interferometry, and scattered light scanning.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for methodology and system that utilize scattered light detection so as to be more reliable, simpler in operation, and have the lowest cost to implement when compared to conventional system.

Methods and apparatus for detecting and quantifying surface characteristics and material conditions using light scattering


A test apparatus for an electronic device package is provided, which includes a test socket having a first portion with a recess for receiving an electronic device package having external terminals arranged in a terminal configuration and a second portion. An interchangeable insert board is disposed between the first portion and the second portion and extended on the recess, which includes first contact pads arranged in a first pad configuration compatible with the terminal configuration and facing the recess and second contact pads arranged in a second pad configuration and disposed between the first and the second portions. Trace layers each electrically connects one of the first contact pads to one of the second contact pads. The contact pins each penetrates through the second portion and electrically connects to one of the second pads, wherein the contact pins are arranged in a pin configuration compatible with the second pad configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test apparatus for an electronic device package and method for testing an electronic device package, and in particular relates to a test apparatus for an electronic device package and method for testing a BGA electronic package.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technological development in the semiconductor industry has continued to be driven by Moore's Law and miniaturization. Thus, along with miniaturization, functionality of semiconductor devices has also increased. However, with miniaturization and increased functionality, the density of semiconductor I/O pins has increased, thereby making it difficult for the semiconductors to be packaged.
Thus, a ball grid array (BGA) package has been developed to package advanced semiconductor devices. One advantage of the BGA packages over more conventional lead frame packages include higher operating efficiency due to shorter signal transmitting distances of the BGA package. Specifically, the spherical pins of the BGA package have a shorter pitch than that of a lead frame package. Meanwhile, the solder balls of the BGA package may be arranged according to requirement.
Devices implementing BGA packages may be subjected to electrical and/or reliability tests. Such tests may employ a test socket used to receive the solder balls of the BGA package to provide electrical access to the devices. For example, pogo pins directly contacting the solder balls may be used between the BGA package and a test machine. Usually, the test socket needs to be coupled to the test machine through an interface printed circuit board to analyze the electrical data from the BGA package. Thus, if the arrangement of the solder balls of the BGA package is changed, the test socket as well as the interface printed circuit board may also need to be changed. Specifically, if the arrangement of the solder balls for the BGA package is changed, the distribution of the pogo pins for the test machine or test element, may also need to be altered and/or rebuilt. Thus, in such a case, costs would increase.

Test apparatus for electronic device package and method for testing electronic device package


A control device for a volume stream of a hydraulic working medium has a blocking valve having a seat valve body cooperating with a stationary main valve seat, a pre-control valve member arranged in the seat valve member and cooperating with a valve seat provided with the seat valve member, an actuating device with which the pre-control valve member is in an operative communication, a spring providing a force with which the pre-control valve member cooperates with the valve seat and controls a pressure in a pressure chamber formed in the seat valve member and a valve housing. The seat valve member is pressed against the main valve seat under the action of the pressure, a pressure chamber for a working medium is formed, a throttle point with a constant cross-section communicates the pressure chamber between the seat valve body and the valve housing constantly with the pressure chamber of the working medium, a variable throttle point connects the pressure chamber between the seat valve body and the valve housing with a container. The variable pressure point has a cross-section which is changeable by the pre-control valve member. The actuating device which cooperate with the pre-control valve member is formed as a proportional magnet mounted on the locking valve.

The present invention relates to a control device for volume stream of a hydraulic working medium.
More particularly, it relates to a control device which has for example a working cylinder with a blocking valve having a seat valve body cooperating with a main valve seat in the housing, and a pre-control valve member in operative communication with an actuating element and cooperating with a valve seat provided in the seat valve body under the action of the spring to control the pressure in a pressure chamber formed between the seat valve member and the valve housing.
A control device of the above mentioned general type is disclosed for example in the German document DE-OS 30 42 277. In this control device, by means of a finely controllable locking valve or a so-called lowering valve, the load which for example acts at a consumer during lowering of the associated pressure medium stream does not act ahead. This blocking valve has a seat valve body, in which a pre-control valve member is provided. The pre-control valve member extends with a draw pin into an outflow opening. Such a blocking valve has the disadvantage that the pressure medium can flow out when the control pin of the pre-control valve member extends outwardly of the outflow opening. The actuating path over which an actuating device of the pre-control valve member must move before the pressure medium can flow out is therefore very long.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,364 discloses how a load can be raised or lowered via a pre-controlled, complicated control valve which has a main control slider and a pre-control slider. The actuating device is formed as a proportional magnet which acts on the pre-control slider. For regulating the output pressure of the control valve, a complicated force comparison between the forces during the action of a pressure spring and during the action of the pressure is performed. A sequence control between the main control slider and the pre-control slider is not provided.

Control device for volume stream of hydraulic working medium


In a control device of a plasma processing system, a storage unit is configured to store a reference recipe indicating an order of the plasma processing. An operation unit calculates a state variation value of each of the plasma processing devices by a predetermined timing at a plurality of processing lot intervals. A table generation unit generates an adjusting table for adjusting the reference recipe from the calculated state variation value of each of the plasma processing devices. In addition, a process executing control unit adjusts the reference recipe by using one of the generated adjusting tables for the plasma processing devices by the table generation unit and performs the plasma processing on the target object in the corresponding plasma processing device according to an order of the adjusted reference recipe.

A semiconductor manufacturing factory increases the entire processing efficiency and improves the productivity by arranging a plurality of plasma processing devices and enabling the plasma processing devices to simultaneously perform desired plasma processing of target objects.
The plasma processing devices are managed by a control device. The control device performs the plasma processing of target objects, e.g., product wafers (or referred to as wafers) in processing spaces on the basis of the processing orders indicated in a plurality of recipes by managing the recipes corresponding to the plasma processing devices (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H9-129529.
Various kinds of gas are used in the plasma processing device. If a plasma etching device, however, uses fluorocarbon processing gas, a resist used as an etching mask and/or wearable parts such as a focus ring are eroded and by-products are produced. Some by-products are not exhausted and are gradually attached and accumulated on the inner wall of a processing space as organic materials. Such accumulation changes the state of the processing space.
Even though the etching is performed according to the processing order of the recipe identically to the previous time, it is undesirably impossible to obtain the same result as the previous time and a desired characteristic from the processed wafer if the state of the processing space is changed. Accordingly, the following methods have been discussed. One method inserts a test wafer for measuring etching characteristics into intervals of the successive processing of wafers on a regular basis to measure any change in the state of processing space. Another method changes the recipe according to the etched results of wafers and adjusts etching characteristic deviations of wafers within a preset range.
When the recipe is changed according to the state of the processing space, however, it is troublesomely required to individually manage the recipes corresponding to the respective plasma processing devices although the same processing is performed in the plasma processing devices.
In addition, each of the plasma processing devices does not always perform the same processing. A plurality of kinds of processing may be performed in the same processing space. In this case, it is necessary to individually manage as many recipes as the number of kinds of the processing that can be performed by the respective plasma processing devices. For example, when each of the 10 plasma processing devices can perform 10 kinds of the processing in the manufacturing factory, if the recipe is changed according to the state of the processing spaces of the respective plasma processing devices, it is required to manage 100 (i.e. 10 kinds×10 devices) recipes. Especially, today's manufacturing factory has become bigger and the number of the plasma processing devices being installed has become increasing, thereby making it more bothersome and difficult to manage the corresponding recipes.

Control device and control method of plasma processing system, and storage medium storing control program


Photoconductive devices (1,2) comprising MgxZn1−xO, that is preferably epitaxially deposited on a substrate (21), optionally also including a buffer layer (22), wherein x has a value such that the layer is sensitive to UV light. The a MgZnO device (2) having predetermined electrical and optical properties and first and second electrodes (3) deposited on a surface of the device, the second electrode being spaced from the first electrode. A voltage source (4) is connected across the first and second electrodes to create an electric field within the device. In operation, when the surface of the device upon which the electrodes are deposited is subjected to a photon emission, electron-hole pairs are created within the device and flow within the device because of the electric field.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the optoelectronic applications of certain MgZnO materials and methods for their manufacture. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of the MgZnO materials in ultraviolet detection devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Photodetectors are broadly defined as devices which respond to incident electromagnetic radiation by converting the radiation into electrical energy, thereby enabling measurement of the intensity of the incident radiation. A photodetector typically includes some sort of photoconductive device and external measurement circuitry. Photodetectors have many practical applications. For instance, photodetectors find use in scientific research (such as in scintillation detectors), in manufacturing (such as in devices to detect and prevent spoilage of products by light contamination), and in safety applications (such as in preventing overexposure of workers to certain radiation).
In many applications it is desirable to detect a particular type of light, i.e., a certain range of wavelengths. In such an application, light having a wavelength falling outside the range of wavelengths, which is desired to be detected constitutes "noise" to the photodetector. Noise can cause an erroneous response from the photodetector. Prior art UV photodetectors have the drawback that they typically respond to visible light.
AlxGa1−xN is a compound semiconductor that is ideally suited for devices in the visible and the ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. GaN—AlGaN based solid state ultraviolet (UV) photo detectors, sensitive to 200 nanometer (nm) to 365 nm UV radiation, have been actively sought for applications including solar-blind UV detection and flame sensing. Due to the direct band gap and availability of AlxGa1−xN in the entire alloy composition range (0<x<1), GaN—AlGaN based UV detectors have the advantages of high quantum efficiency, tunability of cut-off wavelengths, and the capability of being fabricated as heterostructures. In recent years, GaN—AlGaN photo conductors and photo diodes of both Schottky and PIN junctions with good performance have been reported. Aluminum gallium nitride has a direct bandgap which is tunable from 3.4 electron volts (or 365 nanometers) at x=0 to 6.2 electron volts (or 200 nanometers) at x=1. This makes the material ideally suited for intrinsic ultraviolet sensors with high responsivities for wavelengths shorter than 365 nanometers and essentially no photosensitivity for longer wavelengths. Such sensors can there for detect ultraviolet emissions from flames in the presence of hot backgrounds (such as infrared emission from the hot bricks in a furnace).
Gallium nitride is a wide, direct bandgap semiconductor which has a broad range of potential applications for optoelectronic and high power/temperature electronic devices. A number of devices have been demonstrated, including high power, short wavelength (blue, violet) light emitting diodes or LED's, ultraviolet photoconductive detectors, ultraviolet Schottky Barrier Detectors, metal-semiconductor field effect transistors or MESFETS, high electron mobility transistors or HEMTS and heterojunction bipolar transistors or HBTs. In the past, several groups of investigators have reported on gallium nitride/aluminum gallium nitride based ultraviolet detectors, including photoconductive, Schottky Barrier, and p-n-junction ultraviolet detectors based on gallium nitride single layers or p-n-junctions. These photo-conductor devices were all of lateral geometry and suffer from several problems. For example, for photoconductors with gains of 1000, the reported bandwidth has only been around 1 kHz, which makes them too slow for many applications. This response speed problem becomes more severe with the addition of aluminum in the active layer.
The lateral Schottky Barrier devices prepared on p-doped gallium nitride were also slow because of the large series resistance of the p-type layer resulting from the lower carrier mobility and in concentration achievable. Further, for the Schottky devices, back illumination through the transparent sapphire substrate side was required. This resulted in poor quantum efficiencies because of light absorption at the gallium nitride-sapphire interface region where a very high dislocation density exists.
The detection of ultraviolet (UV) light during daylight conditions is an important problem for both commercial and military applications. It is difficult to design a very sensitive detector that can be used in broad daylight to detect very low levels of UV radiation. The spectral distribution of radiation from the sun is similar to that of a 6,000 degree blackbody radiator. The solar spectral distribution drops off very sharply below 290 nm due to atmospheric absorption by ozone. As a result, the earth's surface is essentially dark below 290 nm. A solar-blind detector can be defined as a device or apparatus that only responds to wavelengths below about 285 nm. Applications for solar-blind detectors include monitoring lightning events during thunderstorms, detecting ultraviolet laser sources such as excimer lasers or frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG lasers used as LIDAR sources, and ultraviolet telescope detectors for space platforms.
Many prior art approaches have been proposed to achieve solar blind detector performance. One approach, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,881, uses a series of chemical and color glass filters to accomplish UV transmission below 285 nm and a sharp cut off, blocking wavelengths longer than 285 nm. The chemical filters consist of an expensive, single crystal nickel sulfate hexahydrate crystal that has very poor thermal and moisture stability, and an organic dye, Cation X, contained in a polyvinylalcohol film to provide UV bandpass characteristics. This approach uses a relatively expensive UV sensitive photomultiplier tube for detection.
Another approach (described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,881) uses a ruby crystal with interference filters coated on the two faces. The input face has a bandpass interference filter that transmits a narrow UV band at approximately 254 nm and rejects all other wavelengths. The output face of the ruby crystal is coated with an interference filter that transmits the ruby fluorescence wavelengths and blocks all other wavelengths. The performance of this device is limited by the band pass and broad band blocking capability of interference filters. A dielectric coating is limited to a rejection of about 105 outside of the bandpass region. An out-of-pass-band rejection of approximately 108 is necessary for true solar blind detection.
Other approaches (described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,241,258 and 5,331,168) use UV sensitive phosphor powders as downconverters. Phosphor powders are highly scattering and can result in reduced light collection efficiency.
Visible-blind UV detectors also have great potential in applications such as UV radiometry, flame sensing and missile guidance systems. Currently, photocathodes are the only devices capable of addressing these applications. Unfortunately, these are bulky, difficult to integrate with control electronics and in general, require high operating voltages. Typical prior art devices for achieving visible-blind UV-detection suffer from either excessively low transmission in the UV signal wavelength region or inadequate rejection of visible light.
Other UV detectors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,104,074; 5,446,286; 5,574,286 and 6,137,123.


A portable simulated pulling exercise apparatus includes an upright support and a variable resistance head member lockably and pivotably connected to the upright support in an adjustable manner. A continuous pulling member runs through the variable resistance head and is pulled by a user. The user can determine the variable pulling resistance and adjust a head member pivot range with a degree of pivot through various degrees of freedom. The Apparatus is collapsible and repositionable for user convenience and portability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable exercise device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a simulated pulling or climbing apparatus offering variable resistance and adjustment to accommodate a variety of user types in an easily collapsed and portable design.
2. Description of the Related Art
While no pulling exercise devices are known at present, a broad variety of climbing type devices and machines are known and many include a continuous member for grasping with a user's hands or with through some type of climbing attachment fixed to the continuous member.
One example of a climbing exercise machine operated by a user from an upright position is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,515, by Charnitski. In this invention, a user stands on foot supports and places their hands on handles projecting from a continuous member. The user then alternatingly operates foot-hand pairs along the vertical direction. A linking mechanism associates an operation ration between the foot supports and the handles allowing the user to operate their limbs within normal ranges.
Both U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,360 (Haber et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,206 (Carson, Jr.) provide a continuous rope climbing device stretching a vertically aligned continuous member between two opposing horizontal supports. A standing user, then grasps the continuous member with his hands and/or feet and attempts to climb the continuous member resisted by the force of gravity and internal resistance gearing and mechanisms. In Carson, the user employs a stability strap to ensure the user stays proximate the bottom horizontal support.
In Charnitski, Haber, and Carson, the device user must be capable of coordinated quadrupedal, or four-limb (2 hands and 2 feet) motion, using the feet to support and/or move opposite the hands. These devices also represent the use of a taut continuous member to aid the user in gripping and pulling (it is recognized as easier to climb a taut rope then a slack rope). Another commonality of these devices is the ability to discretionally or mandatorily engage a friction-based 'resistance' member that increases the difficulty in climbing.
Other types of conventional climbing exercise machines enable a user to pull a slack (non taut) continuous member, either with or without resistance in a vertical manner.
In U.S. Pat. No. 641,519, E. J. Kerns provides a vertically mounted continuous rope member joined with a rigid coupling and a friction-based means, namely a strap following a smooth drum member. Since this device may be mounted at any height, use by a seated person is possible, unfortunately, as the use is vertically oriented and hence aided by gravity, strengthening of a user's trunk/back is impossible, and the exercise is mainly based in a user's arms.
Johnson, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,574 provides another example of a slack/loose continuous member provided in a vertical arrangement with an included resistance member. In this disclosure a member pulls a rope through a triangular-series of pulleys, originating from a top pulley. A user pulls the rope vertically against the support and the pulled-slack portion of the rope is guided horizontally away from the user through a series of channels to a resistance mechanism.
A final example of a slack/loose continuous member exercise machine is discussed in Hawley, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,258. In this conventional design, the pulling orientation remains vertical for a standing or seated operator, and the pulled/slack rope is directed horizontally away from the user through a series of pulleys. A pulling/resistance device in the machine is provided by a series of adjustable weights and spring members that act to provide tension on the rope and resist a user's pulling action.
Unfortunately, none of the above-described conventional devices allow the pulling direction of the rope to remain perpendicular and vertical to the resistance means during a user's side-to-side operation. In each case, pulling on the rope forces the rope to pull in a tangential manner to the sheave (pulley wheel), risking the user pulling the rope off the pulley or tangling and damaging the rope or the pulley.
Another detriment of the conventional art is that positionable adjustment to accommodate various users' heights is not provided. Since each conventional art design operates in a vertical manner (pulling downward toward the center of gravity) every user must reach straight upward to grasp the rope and must also employ substantially only arms and biceps muscles. Thus, conventional designs do not accommodate users with disabilities limiting arm and shoulder rising above the horizontal relative to the user's torso.
An additional detriment to the conventional designs is that is that the user does not employ substantial torso strength for each pulling/climbing operation, substantially limiting their anaerobic and aerobic effectiveness.


An integrated circuit memory is described which has a multi-bit write register. Each plane of the multi-bit write register has a plurality of bits, or columns. The multi-bit write register allows each memory cell in a block of selected memory cells of the integrated circuit memory to be block written to a different logic state. The write register can be a color register in a multi-port memory device, or a single port device. Several methods of loading the write register are also described. These methods include loading the write register one column at a time or one plane at a time. The columns or planes can be loaded in either a pre-determined pattern, or selectively loaded.

Multi-port random access memories (RAM) are substantially faster than standard RAM and commonly referred to as video random access memories (VRAM) because of their effectiveness in video systems. FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a prior art multi-port memory similar to the memory described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,794 issued to Hush et al. entitled "Three Port Random Access Memory" assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference. In its simplest form, the multi-port memory includes a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) 90, a DRAM controller 92, two serial access memories (SAM) 94, 96 and a SAM controller 98. Each SAM is essentially a long shift register which can receive a block of data from the DRAM and serially shift the data out through a data port 99. The SAM can also serially shift data in through the serial port and transfer the data to the DRAM.
The DRAM is a dynamic array for storing multi-bit registers in multiple two dimensional planes each having memory cells arranged in rows and columns. The DRAM has address line inputs 95 and a plurality of input/output lines 97. Each of the registers are defined by the same row and column addresses in the multiple planes. Each SAM has a multi-bit register row associated with each of the planes of the DRAM were the columns of the DRAM correspond to the bits of the register row. In general, the DRAM and SAM's can operate either independently or in limited combinations for internal transfers of data. When operating in combination, the SAM's are structured to allow each SAM to access one row of the DRAM.
Various features have been incorporated in VRAM's to speed the transfer of data to and from an associated graphics processor or microprocessor. One example of a function used to speed memory writing is the `block write` function. U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,177 entitled "Multiple Register Block Write Method and Circuit for Video DRAMs" issued to McLaury on Jan. 25, 1994 describes several methods and circuits for block writing to a DRAM and is incorporated herein by reference.
The block write is useful in a VRAM to quickly clear a large area of frame buffer or to create a background for a display. The block write function simultaneously writes to a block of memory cells instead of writing to each cell individually. The block of cells can be pre-selected number of cells in a row of the DRAM or the entire row of memory cells. The block of selected cells in each plane of memory is written to the same state. That is, one bit of a multi-bit write register is written to each cell of the selected block.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,177 discloses a multiple register block write. The multiple register block write is similar to the block write described above except the write register has multiple registers. The multiple write register has a plurality of eight bit static memory registers. Any one of the plurality of write registers can transfer data to the VRAM. The multiple write register, therefore, eliminates the need to re-load a single write register for different block writes by pre-loading all of the multiple write registers.
The prior art allows for a block of memory to be written to by one bit of a write register. Each memory cell of the block is written to the same logic state, 1 or 0. Prior art fails to provide a means for transferring different logic states to the different cells of each row of the block via the random access port.
Block write functions allow for fast, efficient transfers of data to a memory, such that blocks of memory can be simultaneously written to a common state. If a portion of the block needs to be a different state, that portion must be either blocked from writing or edited by a later write function. Block writing to a block of memory followed by several edit operations is time consuming. What is needed is the ability to write a block of memory so that subsequent editing is reduced or eliminated.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a circuit and method for block writing data to a DRAM such that the individual cells of a selected block can be written to different states, in a simultaneous fashion.

Multi-bit block write in a random access memory


This invention is directed to the production of antibodies against lipid A by using encapsulating slow-releasing delivery materials or devices containing concentrations of lipid A that are greater than could be given safely to humans in the absence of said materials or devices. The antibodies to lipid A can be used for binding the antibodies to the lipid A that are present in the lipopolysaccharide that coats the surface of the Gram-negative bacteria.

Gram-negative Bacterial Infection
Throughout the world, sepsis caused by infection with Gram-negative bacteria is one of the major causes of death. Gram-negative bacteria are ubiquitous in the environment, and are present in the air, water, food, and are present in particularly high concentrations in the intestines. The surface of the skin is coated with Gram-negative bacteria and many skin infections are caused by these organisms. Because of their widespread distribution these bacteria cause opportunistic infections in association with other afflictions. For example, it is widely believed that sepsis is the most common cause of death in hospitals, and is particularly associated with conditions such as cancer, traumatic injury, and burns. A major cause of death in association with burns on the skin is infection and sepsis caused by gram-negative Pseudomonas organisms. Most urinary tract infections are caused by Gram-negative organisms. Individuals who are weakened by chronic diseases, or who have massive traumatic or burn injuries, or who have penetrating injuries of the intestines, are particularly at risk for developing life-threatening Gram-negative sepsis. Gram-negative infections that cause diarrhea are one of the major causes of death in infants.
The normal treatment of Gram-negative sepsis is by the administration of antibiotics that are active against sensitive organisms. The widespread use of such antibiotics has led to the continuous emergence of resistant strains of organisms and this has limited the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment. In addition, treatment often depends upon prompt administration of the appropriate antibiotic, but definitive laboratory tests to prove that the organism is sensitive to the antibiotic and that the optimally potent antibiotic is being used normally involves isolation and growth of the Gram-negative organism and inhibition by candidate antibiotics. Sensitivity tests normally require at least 1-2 days to perform, and because of urgency of many infections inadequate or suboptimal antibiotic therapy is often employed.
Immunotherapy with Lipid A
Suboptimal antibiotic use is one of the major factors responsible for emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms. A new strategy of immunotherapy has been developed for the treatment of Gram-negative sepsis. This technique involves the administration of monoclonal (or polyclonal) human antibodies having specificity against lipid A. The monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies to lipid A that are used for immunotherapy are given by intravenous administration in individuals who have sepsis, and are usually used only when a relatively large infection has already become established. These individuals are frequently already in a toxic condition that renders the treatment by immunotherapy more difficult.

Encapsulated high-concentration lipid a compositions as immunogenic agents to produce human antibodies to prevent or treat gram-negative bacterial infections

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming contact holes in insulating layers to expose an impurity doped region of a semiconductor substrate. An epitaxial layer is then grown in the contact hole. A polycrystalline silicon layer is formed over the top to provide the lower electrode of a capacitor. Accordingly, the polycrystalline layer is separated from the impurity doped region thereby preventing current leakage.

With the progress of microtechnology in the semiconductor manufacturing field, the physical dimensions of semiconductor devices are becoming increasingly smaller. As these devices become smaller, the contact area has been reduced to dimensions below 1 .mu.m. However, due to the reduction of the contact area, contact resistance increases. Further, a step coverage defect may occur at the stepped portion due to a high aspect ratio, which is caused by microscale processing.
Meanwhile, since dynamic DRAM semiconductor devices are being manufactured in densities of mega-bit order, various capacitor structures have been proposed to obtain sufficient capacitances in a limited space. Particularly, in the semiconductor devices of a 4Mbit scale, a stacked capacitor (STC) structure is generally used because it is simple to manufacture and it has a high immunity against soft errors.
The conventional STC has a capacitor structure stacked on an access transistor which is formed on a semiconductor substrate. The capacitor consists of a storage node (i.e., a lower electrode), a dielectric film and an upper electrode. The storage node contacts the source (diffused or ion-implanted region) of the access transistor and usually is formed of polycrystalline silicon doped with an impurity.
However, the conventional STC has several drawbacks. First, the defects of the polycrystalline silicon are distributed over the source (doped region), which cause current leaks at the contact portion. Accordingly, the reliability of the semiconductor device is reduced. Further, the conventional STC has a structural characteristic wherein its capacitance decreases as its density increases. As a result, 4Mbit devices form a limit in conventional semiconductor manufacturing techniques.
Therefore, to manufacture a 16Mbit or a 64Mbit device, the limited space must be utilized more effectively. Accordingly, multi-layer structures, built in the upward direction above the substrate, or in the downward direction in a trench etched in the substrate, have been proposed to increase the effective total area of the capacitor. However, in the case where a multi-layer structure is formed in the upward direction, the contact hole of the drain (doped region) of the access transistor is deepened, thereby making it difficult to contact a bit line to the drain (diffused or ion-implanted region).

Method for manufacturing a semiconductor device


A wireless communication apparatus that transmits a transmission signal and receives a reception signal via a wireless transmission channel, the wireless communication apparatus including circuitry for determining an expected signal attenuation along the wireless transmission channel, stored information providing correlation between a transmission level of the transmission signal into a first power consumption parameter for each possible modulation method, stored information providing correlation between an expected signal strength for a received signal into a second power consumption parameter for each possible modulation method, and a means for determining the modulation method and the level of the transmission signal that minimizes power consumption.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method using wireless communication, such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), and a signal attenuation prediction apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, battery-driven terminals having wireless communication capabilities have been widely used. An example of the wireless communication capability may be a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), such as IEEE 802.11a/b/g.
In related art, a major challenge of a desktop wireless communication instrument that uses transmitting and receiving terminals having a fixed distance therebetween is maximization of communication speed and improvement of stability, while a challenge of a battery-driven mobile terminal is increase in continuous operating time without recharging as well as maximization of communication speed and improvement of stability. That is, in a battery-driven wireless LAN device, reduction in power consumption is a major challenge to address.
As one effective method for reducing power consumption, attention is given to a control method for optimizing transmission power according to the transmission channel characteristic. Intuitively speaking, it is easily conceivable that transmitting and receiving terminals communicate with each other using relatively low transmission power when they are within a short distance, while these terminals use higher transmission power as the distance between them increases, so as to reduce unnecessary transmission power. That is, when data is sent, transmission power is controlled such that power consumption is minimized on the transmitter side to the extent that the receiver may always normally receive packets, thereby allowing reduced unnecessary power consumption.
JP-A-7-143047 describes a wireless relay apparatus that, whenever the receiver receives a signal, feeds the level of the signal back to the transmitting side so as to update the transmission signal level to an appropriate value. JP-A-2005-117303 describes a method for determining optimum transmission power in wireless LAN communication when reception power intensity and PER (Packet Error Rate) is obtained.
Focusing on IEEE 802.11h, it defines TPC (Transmit Power Control) as measures to minimize radio interference into neighboring areas and describes the possibility of reducing power consumption of a TPC-implemented transmission terminal. Particularly, "Energy-Efficient PCF Operation of IEEE 802.11a Wireless LAN", Qiao, etc, IEEE INFOCOM 2002 (hereinafter referred to as "Qiao"), which was used as a reference material in the standardization drafting work, analyzes in detail the power saving effect in a TPC-operated mobile terminal. "Qiao" describes that an equation for evaluating power consumption per transmission bit is derived using two variables of the modulation method and transmission power, and significant power consumption reduction can be achieved when an optimum modulation method and transmission power are given from the evaluation equation.

Wireless communication apparatus and method, and signal attenuation prediction apparatus and method


A method of making a coated article including a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film supported by a glass substrate is provided. In certain example embodiments, the coated article including the TCO film on the glass substrate is thermally tempered in a tempering furnace. In certain example embodiments, during tempering flame(s) are provided proximate the exposed surface of the TCO in order to burn off excess oxygen near the TCO surface thereby preventing or reducing oxidation of the TCO during the tempering process. A coated article, that is thermally tempered, made by such a product is also provided.

Typically, methods of forming TCOs on glass substrates require high glass substrate temperatures. Such methods include chemical pyrolysis where precursors are sprayed onto the glass substrate at approximately 400 to 500 degrees C., and vacuum deposition where the glass substrate is kept at about 150 to 300 degrees C. Sputter deposition of a TCO at approximately room temperature would also be desirable, given that most float glass manufacturing platforms are not equipped with in-situ heating systems.
There is often a need to thermally temper coated articles having a glass substrate coated with a TCO film/coating. For instance, in certain applications tempering is required by code (e.g., e.g., for windows over doorways, for windows identified as breakable windows for firemen, and other applications). Thermal tempering typically requires heating the glass substrate with a coating thereon in a tempering furnace at a temperature of at least about 580 degrees C., more preferably at least about 600 degrees C., and often at least about 620 or 640 degrees C. (e.g., for at least about 2 minutes, more preferably for at least about 5 minutes). Thus, it will be appreciated that thermal tempering involves very high temperatures.
Conventional temperable TCOs use pyrolytically processed fluorine-doped tin dioxide as the material for the TCO coating. However, it would also be desirable for a TCO to be able to be deposited by sputtering so that it could be performed at approximately room temperature.
However, glass supporting sputter-deposited TCOs cannot be thermally tempered without the TCOs suffering a significant loss in electrical conductivity. Glass tempering temperatures (see above) cause a rapid conductivity drop in certain TCOs (e.g., sputter-deposited zinc oxide inclusive TCOs). It is believed that this drop in conductivity is due to oxidation of the TCO during the tempering process.
Thus, it will be appreciated that there exists a need in the art for an improved technique or method of tempering glass substrates including TCO films/coatings thereon, which can prevent or reduce oxidation of the TCO during tempering and thus allow the TCO to substantially maintain its electrical conductivity in certain example instances.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, a method is provided for thermally tempering a glass substrate with a TCO film/coating thereon. The thermal tempering typically involves heating the glass substrate with the TCO coating thereon in a tempering furnace at a temperature of at least about 580 degrees C., more preferably at least about 600 degrees C., and often at least about 620 or 640 degrees C. The glass substrate with the TCO coating thereon may be in the tempering furnace for at least about 2 minutes, more preferably for at least about 5 minutes, in certain example embodiments of this invention. In certain example embodiments, flame(s) are provided proximate the exposed surface of the TCO in the tempering furnace in order to burn off excess oxygen near the TCO surface thereby preventing or reducing oxidation of the TCO during the tempering process. By reducing oxidation of the TCO during the tempering process, more of the electrical conductivity of the TCO coating can be maintained during and/or after tempering.
In certain example embodiments, the flame(s) need not be provided in the entire tempering furnace. In certain example embodiments, the flame(s) are provided in locations so that the flame are only proximate the surface of the TCO film once the glass and/or TCO film reaches a predetermined temperature at or near the TCO oxidation temperature which can vary based on the material making up the TCO film.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, the TCO film may be sputter-deposited on a glass substrate (either directly or indirectly) at approximately room temperature. In alternative embodiments, it is possible to pre-heat the glass substrate prior to the sputter-deposition of the TCO film. In certain example embodiments, however, the flame(s) discussed herein may be used in connection with tempering TCO films deposited via pyrolysis. Example TCO films include films of or including ZnAlOx:Ag, ZnO, ITO (indium tin oxide), SnO2 and/or SnO2:F. Other types of TCO films may instead be used.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of making a coated article including a transparent conductive film, the method comprising: providing a glass substrate; forming a film comprising a transparent conductive oxide on the glass substrate; and tempering the coated article including the glass substrate and the film comprising the transparent conductive oxide, and wherein at least one flame is provided in a tempering furnace in order to burn off oxygen to prevent or reduce oxidizing of the film comprising transparent conductive oxide during tempering.
In other example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of making a coated article including a transparent conductive film, the method comprising: providing a glass substrate; forming a transparent conductive film comprising a transparent conductive oxide on the glass substrate; and tempering the coated article including the glass substrate and the transparent conductive film, and wherein at least one flame is provided in a tempering furnace proximate the transparent conductive film.

Method of thermally tempering coated article with transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coating using flame(s) in tempering furnace adjacent TCO to burn off oxygen and product made using same


An implantable cardioverter for providing cardioversion electrical energy to at least one chamber of a patient's heart in need of cardioversion and applying a pain alleviating therapy at an appropriate site in the patient's body prior to or in conjunction with the delivery of the cardioversion energy to the heart chamber to alleviate propagated pain perceived by the patient. The combined cardioversion and pain alleviating therapies are preferably realized in a single implantable, multiprogrammable medical device or separate implantable cardioversion and pain control devices with means for communicating operating and status commands between the devices through the patient's body.

By way of definition, in the field of automatic implantable arrhythmia control devices, the term "cardioversion" or "cardioverter" refers to the process of and device for discharging relatively high energy electrical shocks or pulses into or across cardiac tissue to arrest a life threatening tachyarrhythmia. Cardioversion shocks or pulses may or may not be synchronized with a cardiac depolarization or rhythm and may be applied to arrest a malignant ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation with a selectable or programmable pulse energy. The arrest of atrial or ventricular fibrillation by such pulses is referred to as "defibrillation" (a form of cardioversion), and "defibrillators" have been characterized as a form of cardioverter. Products have been described and sold as combined, multiprogrammable, "pacemaker/cardioverter/defibrillator" systems for providing programmable staged therapies of anti-tachyarrhythmia pacing, synchronized cardioversion pulses and unsynchronized defibrillation pulses. In the following description and claims, it is to be assumed that the terms "cardioversion" and "defibrillation" are interchangeable, and that use of one term is inclusive of the other device or operation, unless specific distinctions are drawn between them in the context of the use.
Tachyarrhythmias are episodes of high rate cardiac depolarizations, typically occurring in one chamber of the heart but which may be propagated from one chamber to the other, that are sufficiently high in rate and chaotic that cardiac output from the chamber(s) is compromised, leading to loss of consciousness and death, in the case of ventricular fibrillation or weakness and dizziness in the case of atrial fibrillation or flutter and non-sinus atrial and ventricular tachycardias. Atrial fibrillation and flutter is debilitating but not life threatening unless it leads to ventricular fibrillation.
Fibrillation has generally been treated by means of high energy defibrillation shocks or pulses, which, in the context of implantable anti-arrhythmia devices, are applied by means of large surface area electrodes, including an electrode on or in the chamber to be defibrillated. The high energy level is employed in order to simultaneously depolarize the bulk of the heart chamber to be defibrillated, which will include tissues in all stages of the depolarization-repolarization cycle at the time the pulse is delivered.
Atrial fibrillation is probably the most common cardiac arrhythmia as reported in The Framingham Study reported in "Epidemiologic Features of Chronic Atrial Fibrillation", THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, 306:17 1018-22, 1992, by W. Kannel, M.D. et al. Atrial fibrillation results in twice as many hospitalizations annually as bradycardia or ventricular tachyarrhythmia. The Framingham Study found an overall incidence of atrial fibrillation of approximately 0.1% per year among adults ages 25-64 years, and the prevalence in this population was approximately 2%.
Atrial fibrillation is associated with strokes thought to be caused by blood clots forming in areas of stagnant blood flow as a result of prolonging atrial fibrillation. In addition, patients afflicted with atrial fibrillation generally experience palpitations of the heart and may even experience dizziness or even loss of consciousness. Atrial fibrillation is otherwise not inherently life threatening if the ventricles are beating normally, but presumably may precipitate a life threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia.
Atrial fibrillation occurs suddenly and many times can only be corrected by a discharge of electrical energy to the heart through the skin of the patient by way of an external defibrillator of the type well known in the art. Care must be taken in delivering the atrial cardioversion shock outside the vulnerable period of the ventricles. This treatment is commonly referred to as synchronized cardioversion and, as its name implies, involves applying electrical defibrillating energy to the heart in synchronism with a detected ventricular electrical activation (R-wave) of the heart outside of the vulnerable period. The treatment is very painful and, unfortunately, most often only results in temporary relief for patients, lasting but a few weeks.
Drugs are available for reducing the incidence of atrial fibrillation. However, these drugs have many side effects and many patients are resistant to them which greatly reduces their therapeutic effect.
Automatic implantable atrial defibrillators have been proposed to provide patients suffering from occurrence of atrial fibrillation with relief. For example, improved implantable atrial defibrillator and lead systems are described in the above-referenced '769 application and in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,165,403, 5,292,338, and 5,314,430 incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Delivery of an atrial defibrillation pulse at an inappropriate time in the cardiac cycle may induce ventricular arrhythmias, including ventricular fibrillation. An atrial sense amplifier and fibrillation detector is included in these systems to determine when the atria of the heart are in need of cardioversion, and a ventricular sense amplifier is included for sensing the R-waves. The atrial fibrillation detector causes a cardioverter stage to deliver defibrillating or cardioverting electrical energy to the atria in timed relation to a detected R-wave of the heart to avoid delivering the atrial cardioversion pulse into the vulnerable period of the ventricles.
In the system described in the '338 patent, for example, the output signal of the ventricular sense amplifier is also analyzed by a ventricular fibrillation detector to recognize ventricular fibrillation or other life threatening tachyarrhythmias. In the event that ventricular fibrillation or another life threatening ventricular arrhythmia is induced or occurs spontaneously, a ventricular cardioversion therapy is delivered to the ventricles. As a result, the atria can be automatically and safely cardioverted.
Unfortunately, the quantity of electrical energy which is required to cardiovert or defibrillate the atria is sufficient, in most cases, to cause a sudden, propagated pain in the patient's chest area or to stun the patient. Typically reported defibrillation thresholds between transvenous lead beating electrodes placed to provide atrial cardioversion pathways between the right atrium (RA) and coronary sinus (CS) or the superior vena cava (SVC) and CS are 1.3.+-.0.4 J. Significant discomfort and often intolerable pain is associated with transvenous shock therapy in this range, resulting in the need for sedation of some patients and refusal to accept the therapy by other patients.
In addition, the successful cardioversion or defibrillation of the atria may also result in a rapid decrease in the patient's heart rate from a high and possibly variable heart rate. This rapid change in heart rate can, for some patients, cause discomfort or even temporary dizziness.
The atrial defibrillator and method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,400 provides a warning to the patient that an atrial cardioversion shock is about to be delivered in the form of electrical energy applied to internal tissue of the patient and being of a quantity so as to be discernable by the patient without pain or other undesirable effects. The warning also provides a sufficient time in advance of the delivery of the cardioverting shock to afford the patient with an opportunity to prepare for it. For example, if the patient is standing or walking and receives the warning, the patient may wish to find a place to sit in preparation. As another example, if the patient is driving an automobile and receives the warning, the patient may wish to safely pull off the road and park in preparation.
In summary, implantable atrial cardioverters capable of generating electrical energy of sufficient amplitude and duration delivered via either epicardial or endocardial electrodes have proven effective in converting atrial fibrillation or tachycardia to normal sinus rhythm. However, with delivered shock energy exceeding 1.0 joule, intractable pain occurs to the conscious patient which drastically limits the utility of this therapy, especially if atrial cardioversion is required several times a day.
Ventricular cardioversion shocks delivered by automatic implantable cardioverter/defibrillators are typically an order of magnitude greater in energy, in the range of 10.0-30.0 joules. However, the patient is usually unconscious by the time that the shock is delivered due to the loss of cardiac output. Nevertheless, patients report lingering chest muscle pain and discomfort from the successful cardioversion shock after awakening. Considerable research effort has gone into reducing the required ventricular cardioversion shock energy level in order to reduce the size and increase the longevity of the implanted device. To date, the reduced energy delivered is still great enough to result in considerable pain if the patient is still awake, and significant lingering pain exists following cardioversion shock energy delivery.
Turning to pain control through electrical stimulation, temporary or permanently implanted medical electrical nerve or spinal cord stimulation (SCS) devices for producing pain relief are widely available. The Medtronic.RTM. Itrel II implantable neurostimulation system is widely implanted for treatment and alleviation of intractable pain. Clinical reports and studies have shown that spinal cord stimulation, a.k.a. dorsal cord stimulation, appears to suppress angina pectoris pain symptoms. The effects of SCS on angina symptoms induced by pacing the subject's heart at an elevated rate been studied, as described, for example, in "Effects of spinal cord stimulation in angina pectoris induced by pacing and possible mechanism of action", BMJ, 307(21):477-450, Aug., 1993, by C. Mannheimer, MD, et al. Similar pain suppression effects have been reported in patients suffering exercise induced, or pain or fright response, angina symptoms in "Spinal cord stimulation in angina pectoris with normal coronary arteriograms", Coronary Artery Disease, 1993: 4:819-827 by T. Eliasson, MD, et al. It is postulated therein that spinal cord stimulation relieves pain by inhibiting impulse transmission in small fiber afferents by the activation of the large fiber afferents on the spinal segmental level.
Chronic angina symptoms arise at an exercise induced elevated heart rate when cardiac muscle is deprived of oxygen due to restricted arterial blood flow and lactate accumulates in the cardiac muscle deprived of oxygen. Typically, the patient reduces exercise level to lower the heart rate or is medicated. Acute angina symptoms arise in a "heart attack" when a restricted cardiac artery is blocked. Interventional therapies are required to restore the blood flow before the insufficiency results in myocardial ischemia. Neither chronic nor acute angina symptoms are necessarily related to an arrhythmia of a heart chamber which requires cardioversion and/or drug therapies to alleviate, and the SCS pain suppression described in these articles is not related to cardioversion.
Other approaches have also been proposed and nerve stimulation systems implanted in patients to control chronic angina and/or reduce a tachyarrhythmia heart rate to a normal rate. One such early implantable peripheral nerve stimulator, the Medtronic.RTM. Angistat carotid sinus nerve stimulator, operated by regulation of the patient's blood pressure through electrical stimulation of the carotid sinus nerve to initiate a reflex vagal activity which in turn effected a slowing in a patient's supraventricular tachycardia.
Electrical stimulation of the left or right vagus nerve to directly achieve this result was also implemented in the Medtronic.RTM. Barostat vagal nerve stimulator. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,515, a programmable, implantable vagal stimulator is described for stimulating afferent fibers for activating a descending anti-nociceptive pathway and thereby blocking incoming pain signals is described. A history of these stimulation systems and comparison to other pain control stimulation systems for various pain sources appears in the '515 patent.
The delivery of compensatory bradycardia pacing, if necessary to restore adequate cardia output, and other aspects of a combined nerve stimulator and pacemaker are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,507. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,326, a combined antiarrhythmia pacemaker and nerve stimulator for stimulating selected autonomic nerves or ganglia in the patient's autonomic nervous system is also described. The above-referenced '278 patent application discloses a device which provides pulse bursts to the atrium, synchronized to detected atrial depolarizations, to stimulate the SA nodal fat pad and reduce the sinus rate of patients who suffer from angina. Systems of these types are not intended to cardiovert the heart nor do they have the effect of reducing pain attendant to the delivery of a defibrillation shock.
The alleviation of pain through the operation of implantable drug dispensers for automatically periodically delivering a bolus of a pain alleviating drug at a site in the body are also well known in the art. The Medtronic.RTM. SynchroMed" programmable implantable drug pump is implanted with a drug dispensing catheter for dispensing pain relieving or analgesic agent, e.g. analgesics, anesthetics, or spinal opiates, or for dispensing chemotherapy drugs or other agents to a specific body site. A combined catheter for delivering a pain relieving or analgesic agent and electrical lead for delivering electrical stimulation for treating various neurological disorders by simultaneous or sequential administration of either therapy is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,832. Such a combined lead and drug dispensing catheter is currently employed in the Medtronic.RTM. Verify" temporary screening system for determining the most efficacious therapy at a given delivery site.
Returning to the treatment of atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias, a number of systems have been proposed to combine the delivery of an appropriate antiarrhythmic drug therapy as an alternative or companion therapy with the delivery of an appropriate cardioversion therapy as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,987,897, 5,087,243 and 5,269,301. In these systems, an implantable drug delivery system is combined with an implantable pacemaker/cardioverter/defibrillator, the system having a decision making control algorithm to govern the diagnosis of the arrhythmia, prioritize the therapies to be delivered, and deliver the therapies. It is hoped that the drug therapies can reduce the frequency of the need to deliver a defibrillation shock by either suppressing the tachyarrhythmia entirely or converting it to a lower rate or less chaotic tachyarrhythmia amenable to conversion by less aggressive high rate pacing therapies. In the event that a defibrillation shock is delivered to a conscious patient, the pain attendant to the shock is not alleviated by the delivered drug therapies. Nor does the delivery of an antiarrhythmic drug reduce the pain felt by the patient awakening from a ventricular defibrillation event.
Despite these notable improvements in implantable medical device technology, a need exists to reduce the pain and discomfort attendant to the intracardiac delivery of cardioversion shocks.

Method and apparatus for alleviating cardioversion shock pain by delivering a bolus of analgesic