A sensing circuit for use with a CAM circuit including multiple match lines and multiple CAM cells connected to the match lines includes at least one charge sharing circuit and at least one switching circuit connected to the charge sharing circuit. The switching circuit is operative to selectively connect the charge sharing circuit to a corresponding one of the match lines as a function of a first control signal supplied to the switching circuit. The sensing circuit further includes at least one comparator circuit connected to the corresponding match line and operative to generate an output signal indicative of a match between search data supplied to at least a given one of the CAM cells connected to the corresponding match line and data stored in the given CAM cell. The charge sharing circuit is operative to remove an amount of charge on the corresponding match line so as to reduce a voltage on the corresponding match line in conjunction with a search operation of the CAM cell.

Content-addressable memory (CAM), also known as associative memory or associative storage, is a type of memory used in, for example, certain very high speed searching applications, such as, lookup tables, databases, data compression, etc. Unlike standard computer memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM)) in which the user supplies a memory address and the RAM returns the data word stored at that address, a CAM is designed such that the user supplies a search word and the CAM searches to see if that search word is stored anywhere in the CAM. If the search word is found, the CAM returns a list of one or more storage addresses where the word was found, and in some architectures, also returns the data word and/or other associated data. Thus, a CAM is the hardware embodiment of what in software terms would be referred to as an associative array.
Because a CAM is designed to search its entire memory in a single operation, it is significantly faster than RAM in virtually all search applications. There are some cost disadvantages to CAM however. For example, unlike RAM, which utilizes comparatively simple storage cells, each individual memory cell in a fully parallel CAM generally has its own associated comparison circuit to detect a match between a stored data bit and an input search bit. Additionally, match line outputs from each CAM cell in a given data word are combined to yield a complete data word match signal. The additional circuitry required by a CAM increases the physical size of the CAM chip which increases manufacturing cost. Moreover, the additional circuitry may increase power dissipation in the chip since in most cases every comparison circuit is active during each clock cycle. Consequently, CAM is typically only used in specialized applications where searching speed cannot be achieved using a less costly approach.
In a standard CAM, each CAM cell contains circuitry for performing an exclusive-OR (XOR) function. The XOR circuits for each data word are then summed by a wired-OR connection onto a match line. During a search operation, if any bit of the supplied search word is different from the corresponding bit of each stored data word, the XOR of the bit that does not match pulls down the match line of the stored word. The time it takes for the match line to discharge when only one bit is different between the search word and the stored word is a significant part of the overall critical delay of the search operation in the CAM. In this scenario, a single XOR circuit must discharge the match line. CAM words can be very wide (e.g., 64, 128 and even 256 bits are commonly used). As the number of CAM cells connected to a given match line in the memory circuit increases, the time for a single CAM cell to discharge the match line increases accordingly. This is due primarily to the increased capacitance on the match line attributable to the CAM cells connected thereto.
In many cases, particularly single-ended sensing applications, the logical state of a selected match line in a CAM is sensed, for example during a search operation, by an inverter connected to the corresponding match line. A local search time of the memory circuit is defined primarily by the time it takes for the voltage on the match line to reach a switching point of the sensing inverter. Therefore, since it is desirable to minimize search time in the CAM, it is beneficial to reduce the time it takes for the voltage on the match line to reach the switching point of the sensing inverter.
One known technique for reducing the search time in a CAM is to employ differential latch sensing. However, latch sensing adds significant complexity to the CAM design due at least in part to the lack of differential match lines and due to the substantial amount of noise generated by simultaneously searching every word stored in the CAM. Another known technique is to employ larger memory cells having increased gain capable of more quickly driving (e.g., charging or discharging) the corresponding match lines. However, using larger memory cells undesirably increases the physical area and the power consumed by the memory cells, and thereby increases the cost of a memory circuit which uses such cells.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved searching arrangement and/or CAM cell for use with a CAM circuit which does not suffer from one or more of the problems exhibited by conventional CAM searching methodologies and/or CAM cells.

Accelerated searching for content-addressable memory


A feed-through for conducting electric current is provided that includes a flange, which has a through-opening, in which a conductor for electric current is held by an insulation component and is connected to the flange so that the through-opening is sealed off. The insulation component is flush with the upper side and/or the underside of the flange or is set back (T) from the upper side and/or the underside of the flange in the through-opening. The conductor includes a cobalt-iron alloy of which the cobalt content is 68 to 84% by weight.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electrical feed-throughs, suitable in particular for high currents, and to use thereof. With such a feed-through, electric currents can be introduced into and removed from safety-related enclosures and in this way electrical loads can be supplied with electric current. Also comprised in particular are feed-throughs in the low voltage range and medium voltage range. They are generically referred to generally as large feed-throughs, since their components can have diameters ranging from a few centimeters to many centimeters and the total weight may be several kilograms.
2. Background
In the case of enclosures for storing or transporting flammable hazardous material, enclosures of energy generating or storing devices or enclosures in which hazardous substances occur and/or are stored, known collectively as safety enclosures, it is often necessary to introduce and/or remove electric currents into and/or from the enclosure. For example, submersible pumps, in particular also cryogenic pumps, are used in installations for conducting and/or transporting liquefied natural gas, arranged within the enclosure. In order to introduce the power required for the pumps into the interior of the enclosure, connection devices with sealing electrical feed-throughs are used. In the case of energy generating units, for example steam generators of power plants, the energy generated must be safely removed and/or apparatuses in these energy generating units have to be supplied with current. For this purpose, a feed-through is typically flange-mounted on a flange of the safety enclosure, for example a pressure vessel, in particular a liquefied gas tank.
In particular in the case of pressure vessels of flammable gases and/or liquids, it is important here that the feed-through remains sealed over a long time. Especially when storing flammable substances, which can form explosive gas mixtures, there is still the risk here that, even in the event of extremely small leakages that are not in themselves critical, gas mixtures may be formed in closed-off regions of the feed-through. For example, such regions may be formed in mounted protective housings. If a deflagration then occurs, the feed-through may be damaged in such a way that unsafe material quickly escapes from the enclosure that is to be closed off. This is also relevant in particular in the case of installations for generating nuclear energy, in particular in order to ensure secure containment of the reactor housing and/or sealing of the reactor housing itself even in the event of a fault.
EP 2 031 288 B1 describes an electrical feed-through for liquefied gas tanks in which an electrical conductor is soldered in a flange by means of an insulating bushing. The flange has a through-opening, in which the electrically insulating bushing is connected to the flange with the help of the connecting elements with the numbers 20 and 22 as used in the drawings. The insulating bushing is tubular and has inside an electrical conductor of a smaller diameter than the inside diameter of the bushing. At its ends, the gap between the bushing and the conductor is hermetically sealed, so that there is a relatively great clearance between the bushing and the conductor. In the bushing there is a bore. The flange is of a two-part design, so that between the flanges there is a clearance, which connects the clearance in the bushing to the clearance between the flanges through the bore in the bushing, or a one-part flange is provided with a bore that corresponds to the bore of the bushing. By monitoring the pressure in the clearance of the bushing, gas penetrating into the bushing can be detected, and consequently damage to the feed-through can be monitored.
This feed-through has the problem that the electrically insulating bushing is of a certain length and protrudes beyond the surface of the flange. It is tubular and has a clearance that extends around the inner conductor. The material of the bushing is a ceramic, which is known as being a brittle material. In the case of such a feed-through unit, specifically the bushing may rupture under mechanical loading, especially since it protrudes beyond the surface of the flange. In the event of rupture, the barrier between the safety enclosure and the surroundings would be breached. Apart from that, the material of the bushing and of the inner conductor must be made to match one another with respect to their thermal expansion. Furthermore, the production of such a bushing involves considerable manufacturing expenditure.
DE 10 2013 202 614 A, not yet published at the time of the first application of the present invention, describes a feed-through in a flange in the case of which the functional element, for example a conductor for electric current, is glazed-in in a flange, the insulation components of glass not protruding beyond the surface of the flange. In order to provide electrical conductors for high current intensities with the aid of this feed-through, it is provided in this document that an electrical conductor is held by a first functional component, which in turn is glazed-in in the through-opening. The electrical conductor consists in particular of copper. Since this cannot be glazed in directly, the copper conductor is connected to the first functional component without a gap. The first functional component consists of a material that can be glazed in. Usually, the electrical conductor is in this case formed by a copper rod which is surrounded by a steel tube that establishes the connection with the glass material of the insulation component. In this case, the sealing of the connection of the copper rod to the steel tube must be ensured. Such a solution is mechanically stable, but requires increased production expenditure, in particular on account of the required connection of the copper rod and the steel tube.

Electrical feed-through and the use thereof


An information-processing method is provided, including a step of specifying first data clusters to which the first data each belongs and second data clusters to which the second data each belongs; a step of extracting the first data belonging to one of the first data clusters and the second data acquired at a corresponding time as correspondent data; a step of totalizing the number of pieces of correspondent data included in each of the second data clusters and calculating a total value for each cluster for the second data; and a step of specifying the second data clusters which are transition destinations of the correspondent data in a subsequent time and counting the number of pieces of transition destination data which is the correspondent data transitioning from each of the second data clusters which are transition sources to the second data clusters which are the transition destinations.

In plants such as power plants, acquisition of time-series data such as temperature, pressure, and the like at the time of operations of devices included in the plants by monitoring devices for the devices and use of the acquired information for application to diagnosis of breakdown or the like and various kinds of control of the devices has been examined.
Since an information amount of the time-series data acquired from the devices is sparse, for example, it is difficult to diagnose the devices using the time-series data. Therefore, generation of dynamic characteristic models of the devices based on the time-series data and use of changes in states of the devices as changes in constants of the dynamic characteristic models for diagnosis or the like of the devices has been examined.
The time-series data of the devices has nonlinearity, and thus it is difficult to derive appropriate dynamic characteristic models in addition to the nonlinearity. Therefore, a dynamic characteristic model is generally expressed by linearly approximating nonlinearity (for example, see Patent Literature 1).

Information-processing method, information-processing device, program, and information-processing system


An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body, a power supply switch, a photoreceptor drum, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, a transfer roller, a cleaning device, and a toner-layer formation unit. The transfer roller contacts the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum at a downstream side with respect to the developing device in the rotation direction and is configured to transfer the toner image to a sheet. The cleaning device is cleaning device arranged opposed to the photoreceptor drum, downstream. The cleaning device is configured to clean the photoreceptor drum. The toner-layer formation unit is configured to form a toner layer on a surface of the transfer roller in an initial operation started after the apparatus main body is installed in a predetermined installation location and the power supply switch is switched on.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical image forming apparatus, which forms images on sheets, includes a photoreceptor drum, developing device, and a transfer apparatus. After the developing device visualizes an electrostatic latent image formed on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum as a toner image, the transfer apparatus transfers the toner image to a sheet. The transfer apparatus includes a transfer roller. The transfer roller is in abutting contact with the photoreceptor drum and rotatably driven. Applying a transfer bias to the transfer roller forms a transfer electric field in which toner moves from the photoreceptor drum to the transfer roller.
There is disclosed a certain technique that applies a cleaning bias to a transfer roller to remove toner attached to the transfer roller made of a rubber material. The technique stops applying the cleaning bias for a predetermined period after an image forming operation is terminated to solve a bleeding phenomenon, which is a phenomenon where remaining low molecular materials (impurities) on the transfer roller exude in the form of oil.

Image forming apparatus ensuring reduced initial bleeding phenomenon


A circuit (10) for connecting a power distribution bus (14) to a battery (12) has a connector circuit (20) and a switch (40). The battery has a positive battery terminal (16) and a negative battery terminal (18). The switch (40) has a control terminal (46), a first terminal (42), and a second terminal (44). A contactor circuit (48) is coupled between the battery (12) and the power distribution bus (14). The contactor circuit (48) has a solenoid (50) and a plunger switch (52) that is operably coupled by solenoid (50). In one embodiment of the invention the connector circuit has a switch (38) used to allow the connector terminals to be coupled at different times to the circuit. In the second embodiment, different length terminals may be used to enable coupling of the battery terminals at different times.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to power delivery systems for automotive vehicles, and more particularly, to a power delivery circuit used to prevent electrical arcing.
2. Background
In future automotive vehicles, 42-volt systems will replace or supplement 12-volt systems. Forty-two volt systems will be used to help meet the ever-increasing electrical demand of automotive vehicles. However, as voltage increases and current being conducted increases, the probability of arcing increases. Arcing can also be influenced by the types of loads being interrupted, for example, inductive capacitive or resistive.
The inventors herein have recognized a need to provide an electronic power distribution that minimizes the probability of arcing in a vehicle having a 42-volt system.
In addition, the inventors herein have recognized the need to provide an electrical architecture suitable for powering an integrated starter/generator while still allowing the use of 42 volt components.
The present invention provides an improved circuit for a power distribution system that includes a power distribution bus and a battery having a positive terminal and a negative terminal. A contactor circuit having a solenoid is operably coupled to a plunger switch. The solenoid has a first solenoid terminal and a second solenoid terminal. The plunger switch selectively couples the power distribution bus to the positive battery terminal. A switch having a first terminal, a second terminal and a control terminal is coupled to the second solenoid terminal. A connector matingly engages the positive battery terminal and the first solenoid terminal before the negative battery terminal is coupled to the second terminal of the switch. A controller is coupled to the control terminal of the switch to control the operation of the switch.
In a further aspect of the invention, a method for operating a circuit having a contactor that includes a solenoid and a plunger switch that is operatively coupled to the solenoid includes coupling a first connector portion to a second connector portion, and in response to coupling the first connector portion to the second connector portion, coupling a second terminal of a switch coupled to a solenoid to the negative battery terminal after coupling a positive battery terminal to a first terminal of the solenoid.
One advantage of the invention is that the switch of the circuit may be used for supervisory control by the controller and also as a theft deterrent, a safety shunt, or to reduce parasitic load on the battery when the vehicle is parked. By including a diode in the contactor switch reverse battery protection may also be provided by the circuit of the present invention.
Other advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent when viewed in light of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings and appended claims.

Power delivery and connection circuit for an automotive vehicle


According to the present invention, provided is a disc player device (100) that automatically performs a user operation for playing a first play that is a title played before playing of a main part or display of a menu, faster than playing at a normal speed after the power is applied. A signal processing unit (15) is provided with a menu detection unit (17) to analyze structure of various data and detect a menu state, a main part detection unit (18) to detect playing state of a main part from the various data, and a user operation unit (19) to automatically perform a user operation for playing a title currently being played faster than playing at a normal speed until a menu state is detected by the menu detection unit (17) or a playing state of a main part is detected by the main part detection unit (18) when the signal processing unit (15) determines that a First Playback exists after the power is applied.

In recent years, an optical disc player device has become widespread in household-use for an optical disc that has an advanced interactive function with high-definition images and high quality sounds and has a large amount of information recorded thereon.
A typical high capacity optical disc is a Blu-ray Disc (hereinafter referred to as "BD"). A BD is provided with a huge data capacity: 25 gigabytes (GB) in a single layer and 50 GB in a dual layer, and can store high definition movie content. Commercially available or rental-use packaged software using the BD is supplied as a BD-ROM that is a read-only media in which data is written in the course of manufacture and which is not recordable and not rewritable.
For the BD-ROM, two modes of specifications have been developed: High Definition Movie (HDMV) mode and Blu-Ray Disc Java (BD-J) mode. In the HDMV mode, codec specification for video and sound is extended from a conventional Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM), and high definition video and high quality audio are available. It is noted that content specification of a BD-ROM is similar to that of a DVD-ROM. In the BD-J mode, in addition to the HDMV mode, visual representation such as a superimposed video can be added by a Java® application.
An operation in which a disc player device plays a BD-ROM will now be described.
A BD-ROM such as packaged software is managed on a basis of a plurality of reproducible titles. Some titles are played before playing of a main part or display of a menu (hereinafter, the title is referred to as a "first play") among the plurality of titles when the power is turned on. A first play is an introduction of other packaged software, a movie preview, demonstration content for sound field playing technology, or the like. Some packaged software takes as long as five minutes in a first play when the first play is played at a normal speed.
In addition, in each title including a first play, a user operation can be restricted by a user operation mask (hereinafter referred to as "UO mask"). UO mask refers to a restriction on user operations such as a button operation of a menu screen, menu shift, title skip, stop playing, chapter selection, fast forward, and reverse play that are used when a user watches and listens to packaged software.
When UO mask is set, any user operation is restricted by a software module that serves to accept a user operation. With the function, an operation intended by a content provider can be realized.
Accordingly, in a household-use BD player device, when it is desired that video of a main part are played as soon as possible after a disc is inserted, a user operation such as menu shift, title skip, and fast forward can be performed by operating a remote control and a time of a first play can be reduced if UO mask is not set to the first play.
In addition, it has been proposed to play a digital stream recorded in a recording medium such as an optical disc by an operation without a Graphical User Interface (GUI) similar to an operation of a Compact Disc (CD) player device when a BD-ROM player device is used in a car (for example, see Patent Literature 1).
However, in many cases where a disc player device is used in a car, a driver is barred from operating the disc player device during the movement of the vehicle, and a playing time of a first play cannot be reduced by operating a remote control.
Especially, in a BD-J title, continued playing (resume playing) is not practical when the playing is resumed after the car engine is turned off or an instantaneous power interruption occurs because a lot of memory is needed. Therefore, generally, when these events occur, the playing is started again from a first play. For example, when the car engine is turned off to take a rest during car travel and the power is turned on again after taking the rest, a first play of the same content is played for a few minutes every time and then video of a main part is played.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


The present invention pertains to recombinant genes coding for oleosin proteins in cacao and to polypeptides encoded by said genes. In particular, the present invention relates to the use of such genes and gene products for the manufacture of emulsifiers, encapsulating agents, and flavor components useful in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

This invention pertains to recombinant genes coding for oleosin proteins in cacao and to the polypeptides encoded by said genes. In particular, the present invention relates to the use of such genes and gene products for the manufacture of emulsions and flavor.
In a variety of different plants, such as e.g. in soybean, rapeseed or sunflower oily components that are insoluble in water, are stored in subcellular structures termed "oil bodies". The oil stored in these particles form cellular food reserves that may be mobilized quickly when large increases in cellular metabolism are required, such as during seed germination or pollen tube growth. Most plant seeds contain stored TAG's (triacylglycerols) as food reserves for germination and post germination growth, although the level of TAG's stored in seeds varies between different plants.
Intracellular oil bodies of seeds are generally between 0.5 and 2 μM in diameter (Tzen et al., Plant Physiol. 101 (1993), –276) and are considered to be composed of a matrix of TAG's surrounded by a phospholipid layer and associated with a set of different proteins, that are called oil body proteins or oleosins. The function of said oleosins is deemed to reside in the maintenance of the oil reserves of seeds and pollen in small stable droplets providing a high surface to volume ratio which facilitates the rapid conversion of the TAG's into free fatty acids via lipase mediated hydrolysis at the oil body surface.
Genomic clones encoding oleosins have been isolated for two species, namely maize (Browman et al., J. Biol. Chem. 265 (1987), 11275–11279) and carrot (Hatzopoulos et al., Plant Cell 2 (1990), 457–467). Moreover, from the cultivated oilseed Brassica napus cDNA clones could be obtained and the genomic organisation of the corresponding gene could be verified (Murphy et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1088 (1991), 86–94). However, not any plant is presumed to make use of such oleosins and for cacao it was generally held that no such genes/proteins are present (Leprince et al., Planta 204 (1998), 109–119).
Most of the plant seed oil bodies and/or oleosins analyzed to date have been derived from seeds that undergo drying during maturation and can be stored safely for long periods under dry, low temperature conditions ("orthodox" seeds). To this end, genomic clones encoding oleosins have been isolated for two species, namely maize (Browman et al., J. Biol. Chem. 265 (1987), 11275–11279) and carrot (Hatzopoulos et al., Plant Cell 2 (1990), 457–467). Moreover, Murphy et al. report in Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1088 (1991), 86–94 the isolation of a cDNA clone and the genomic organisation of oleosin in the cultivated oilseed Brassica napus.
In addition, studies have been carried out on oleosin proteins of two other groups of seeds. Seeds that do not undergo desiccation during late maturation and are usually killed at a high water content and low temperatures (recalcitrant seeds; e.g. cacao and red oak) and seeds that do undergo desiccation, but are sensitive to storage at temperatures below 0° C. ("intermediate" seeds; coffee and neem) (Leprince et al. (1998) Planta 204, 109–119.). The data presented in this report lead to the conclusion that the seeds of red oak had very low levels of oleosin proteins while cacao did not seem to have any oleosin proteins at all. In contrast thereto, "intermediate" seeds were shown to have both oil bodies by electron microscopy and levels of oleosins similar to that observed in "orthodox" seeds, such as the rape seed Brassica napa.
The known oleosins turned out to be small alkaline proteins having an average weight of about 15 to 26 kDa and exhibiting an unusually long central hydrophobic region (about >70 amino acids). In an intact oil body within the cell this hydrophobic region is deemed to reside within the TAG matrix and anchor the oleosin in the oily central matrix. The N-terminal region of known oleosin proteins have been found to be rather diverse both in sequence and length.
Cacao is an important raw material for manufacturers of confectionery and other products, for e.g. chocolate. It is known that during fermentation of cacao the existing protease activity in the cacao seed results in the formation of an increased level of cacao flavor precursors, such as hydrophilic peptides and hydrophobic amino acids, which contribute significantly to the typical flavor the consumer knows as the cacao flavor (Mohr, W. W., Landschreiber, E., and Severin, T., (1976) Fett. Wissenschaft. Technologie Vol 78 88–95; Voigt, J., Biehl, B., Heinrichs, H., Kamaruddin, S., Gaim Marsoner, G., and Hugi, A. 1994 Food Chemistry 49, 173–180). This increase of flavor precursor peptides and hydrophobic amino acids is dependent on the proteolytic activity within the seed during the fermentation process and on the amount of proteins containing these precursor peptides and hydrophobic amino acids. The progress of the fermentation reaction has to be carefully monitored so that the desired cacao flavor precursors will be eventually obtained. Also, the raw materials have to be evaluated for flavor potential, since cacao seeds deficient in an appropriate amount of proteins containing flavor precursor peptides and hydrophobic amino acids will result in a fermented material deficient in cacao flavor precursors. Consequently, there is a need in the art to provide cacao raw material that constantly has a sufficient amount of cacao flavor precursor peptides and hydrophobic amino acids.

Recombinant oleosins from cacao and their use as flavoring or emulsifying agents


The present invention is directed to a compound of Formula I wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, W, X, Y, and Z are defined herein. The compounds of the present invention are useful as anticancer agents. Specifically, the compounds are useful for treating or preventing cancer and tumor growth. The present invention is also directed to compositions comprising a compound according to the above formula. The present invention is also directed to methods of using a compound according to the above formula.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to macrocyclic depsipeptides, including didemnin and tamandarin analogs and fragments thereof, which are useful as anti-cancer agents and for other purposes. Methods of using these compounds as inhibitors of protein synthesis, cell growth, tumorigenesis, and viral infection, and for immunosuppresive therapy, and as enhancers of apoptosis are also provided. Methods of making the tamandarin analogs are also provided.
2. Background Art
Tamandarins A and B are naturally occurring didemnin analogs which have been isolated from a marine tunicate. Tamandarins A and B belong to a family of compounds (didemnins—from organisms of the Didemnidae family) which potently inhibit protein synthesis and cell cycle progression and induce rapid apoptosis (Grubb et al., Biochem. Biophys, Res. Commun. 215:1130-1136 (1995); Johnson et al., FEBS Lett. 383:1-5 (1996); Johnson et al., Immunol. Cell Biol. 77:242-248 (1999); Johnson et al., J. Cell. Biochem. 72:269-278 (1999)). Other didemnins, including didemnin B, didemnin M, and dehydrodidemnin B, exhibit cytotoxic and cytostatic effects as well.
Tamandarins A and B exhibit biological activity which is similar to the activities exhibited by didemnin B. See, e.g., Liang, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123:4469-4474 (2001). For example, tamandarin A is a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis, cell growth, and tumorigenesis. Tamandarin A exhibits significant in vitro activity against pancreatic carcinoma (Liang et al., Org. Lett. 1: 1319-1322 (1999)).
A significant limitation on the use of the tamandarins and didemnins, either for research or for other applications, is the limited supply of tamandarins that is available from natural sources and the difficulty and expense of isolating these compounds. A need exists for a method of synthesizing tamandarins A and B and other didemnin analogs.
Furthermore, very few derivatives or analogs of tamandarins A and B have been prepared and examined. Additional derivatives and analogs of tamandarins A and B and didemnins are needed. Additionally, compound which are useful in the synthesis of tamandarins and didemnins are needed. Additional compounds that are useful as inhibitors of protein synthesis, cell growth, tumorigenesis, and viral infection, and for immunosuppresive therapy, and/or as enhancers of apoptosis are also needed.

Tamandarin analogs and fragments thereof and methods of making and using

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


Various embodiments include large cores fibers that can propagate few modes or a single mode while introducing loss to higher order modes. Some of these fibers are holey fibers that comprising cladding features such as air-holes. Additional embodiments described herein include holey rods. The rods and fibers may be used in many optical systems including optical amplification systems, lasers, short pulse generators, Q-switched lasers, etc. and may be used for example for micromachining.

Fiber lasers have demonstrated a great deal of potentials as high power pulse and cw laser sources, especially for applications where high quality, near diffraction-limited beam is required. Such applications include precision machining where well defined beam location is critical and micro-machining and waveguide-writing where a highly focused beam is a useful tool for reaching a threshold power level. The major limitation to the development of fiber lasers with even high peak power is nonlinear effects. The major nonlinear limits are from Raman scattering and self-phase modulation, although Brillouin scattering can also play a role in narrow line-width laser systems. Nonlinear coefficients are low for the silica glass used in most optical fibers. The interaction between the low nonlinear coefficients with high peak intensity in the small fiber core over a sufficient length can, however, still cause severe pulse distortion and loss of energy. Reduction of fiber length is certainly one possible approach. This is, however, limited by the solubility of rare earth ions in the glass host and M2 value of the multimode pump lasers. The key to the nonlinear problem is therefore optical fibers with large effective mode area while maintaining robust single mode propagation. Such fiber is also required to deliver a single mode beam over distance to the work piece, an important practical attribute in many applications.
Conventional single mode fiber can, in theory, be adapted to provide very large effective mode area. In practice, such a waveguide is so weak that the optical fiber becomes very sensitive to its environment, notably bending effects. Single mode propagation in fibers with few modes was subsequently proposed (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,630 for example). The robustness of the single mode propagation can be maintained at reasonable levels in this case especially when care is given to ensure single mode launch, minimization of mode coupling and additional mode filtering. A combination of these techniques has lead to a demonstration of single mode propagation with a mode field diameter (MFD) of ˜30 μm (A. Galvanauskas, "Mode-scalable fiber chirped pulse amplification systems", IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron., 7, 504 (2001)). Repeated efforts have also been made in the last few years to provide a large effective area solution using the emerging photonic crystal fiber technology. A typical photonic crystal fiber has a regular array of hexagonally placed air holes surrounding a solid core. A photonic crystal fiber supports guided modes in a solid core by proving a composite cladding comprising air holes in a glass background, having a lower effective refractive index than that of the core. To reduce the number of modes in photonic crystal fibers, the state-of-art design employs small air holes with hole-diameter d to pitch Λ ratio of less than 0.1. In this regime, the photonic crystal fiber is very weakly guided leading to high environmental sensitivity. Robust single mode propagation in photonic crystal fibers has been limited to a mode field distribution (MFD) of ˜28 μm (High-power air-clad large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber laser in Optics Express, vol. 11, pp. 818-823, 2003), a similar level to that of conventional fiber. This is not surprising considering the similarity in principle of the two approaches. The progress towards fibers with large effective area is therefore relatively stagnant in the past 5-7 years, despite the significant progress in fiber lasers.

Single mode propagation in fibers and rods with large leakage channels


A method for manufacturing a spherical frozen food is provided. One or more plates are provided. The plates, when together, form a spherical mold. An inlet facilitates the injection of a mixture into the mold. The mold is subjected to a low temperature such that the mixture is caused to freeze. A rotating mechanism may cause one or more of the plates to open and/or rotate outwardly such that the frozen material may be removed from the mold with ease. Liquid nitrogen may be used to freeze the material.

Typically, packages of ice cream bear a square shape. Upon manufacturing the ice cream, the volume of the ice cream is less than that of the framework.
On the other hand, a conventional technology for making spherical ice exists, one example of such is found in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0040433 to Case. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of Case, the spherical ice is formed by a spherical tray abscess (21). The spherical tray abscess (21) is formed of a semicircular tray upper abscess (21a) and lower abscess (21b).
The semicircular tray upper abscess (21a) and lower abscess (21b) are respectively formed of bottom (32) and upper (33) flanges.
The tray abscesses (21) are formed by the top half (24a) and the bottom half (24b) of the molds. Between the top (24a) and bottom (24b) half of the molds, a rubber packing layer (27) is provided to prevent water leakage.
For injecting water, the top half of the mold (24a) has a vertical injection hole (23), and the bottom half of the mold (24b) has refrigerant piping (25).
However, this spherical ice manufacturing systems need to be installed into the abscess of a separate tray (21) in the mold (24). This makes for a complicated structure and manufacturing process. If it is not installed on the the tray abscess (21), a separate heater is required to be installed for the separation of the ice. Meanwhile, even if it is removed from the mold (24), it is not easy to separate the semicircular upper tray abscess (21a) and the lower tray abscess (21b). In practice, after the ice has frozen, it may be difficult to separate the semicircular upper (21a) and lower (21b) tray absences by the flanges (32,33) due to the frozen nature of the ice. Therefore, the ice must be dipped into hot water to aid in the process of separating.

Manufacturing equipment for rapidly freezing spherically-shaped foods using a cryogenic refrigerant


Output voltages of regulators are supplied to each load device and input to a representing-value decision logic circuit that is operated by a dedicated resident power supply. The representing-value decision logic circuit selects an output voltage that appears the most irregular of all output voltages from the regulators, and then sends a selection result to a selector. The selector selects only the output voltage from a regulator that outputs the output voltage that appears the most irregular and is selected by the representing-value decision logic circuit and then outputs the output voltage to a smoothing circuit. The direct current that has been smoothed by the smoothing circuit is quantized by an AD converter and then received by a system monitoring processor.

Conventionally, in an electric apparatus that contains a secondary power supply using a DC-DC (Direct Current to Direct Current) converter, the integrated circuit of the DC-DC converter is often replaced by a plurality of regulators (constant direct current power supply circuits) to reduce costs. In this case, it is difficult to realize power supply by connecting to the output of a plurality of regulators for each one of them. Generally, power supply is realized by using regulators each of which is dedicated to a plurality of power supply areas (e.g., an LSI (Large Scale Integration) as a load device).
Because regulators are inexpensive and provide a low failure rate, replacing a DC-DC converter with a plurality of regulators may reduce the production costs of a power supply apparatus. In contrast, when a plurality of regulators is used, each output voltage of regulators needs to be regularly monitored because the output voltage is different for each regulator.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a power supply monitoring apparatus that reads output voltage of each regulator with an ADC (Analog Digital Converter) and gives out a warning when output voltage is below or above a reference value.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a power supply apparatus that monitors a plurality of power supplies and stops a power supply by outputting a signal to shut down the power supply where an error of output voltage is detected.
When a conventional configuration of a power supply monitoring apparatus in which one system monitoring processor (SPV: Service Processor) monitors output voltage by one ADC reading the output voltage of one DC-DC converter is changed into a configuration where one DC-DC converter is replaced by a plurality of regulators, the system-monitoring processor firmware needs to be substantially changed when the conventional technology notably disclosed in Patent Documents 1 or 2 is used. Thus, a problem of incompatibility arises in that the power supply apparatus including a power supply monitoring apparatus ends up incurring rather higher production costs because there is no compatibility with the configuration of a conventional power supply monitoring apparatus.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 08-005693    [Patent Document 2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,467

Power supply apparatus and voltage monitoring method


A method of detecting radiation that includes providing a layer of high purity single crystal CVD diamond, applying an electric field of no greater than 0.5 V/μm to the layer, exposing the layer to the radiation thereby generating a signal, and detecting the signal.

This invention relates to a diamond radiation detector. Diamond is well known as a potential radiation detector. Its advantages include high radiation hardness, high thermal conductivity, rigidity, and simplicity of the detector design. However, its application has not been as widespread as anticipated, because of a range of practical problems.
Polycrystalline diamond radiation detectors are currently being assessed for a range of applications including particle detectors for the large hadron collider (LHC). In this application, radiation hardness is paramount, but another requirement is good separation of signal from background noise. Based on the particular signal characteristics exhibited by polycrystalline diamond, application of this material requires a charge collection distance (CCD) of at least 250 μm. The 250 μm collection distance is achieved by using very high quality polycrystalline diamond layers about 500 μm thick, and an applied field of 1 V/μm, equivalent to a voltage of about 500 V. It is found that the CCD in polycrystalline CVD diamond is a roughly linear function of the applied field up to about 1 V/μm, when the signal saturates, i.e. the CCD no longer increases when the field is increased.
Measurements of the CCD of natural single crystal diamond as a function of applied field suggest that it does not saturate at 1 V/μm, but continues to rise to much higher fields (see, for example, Zhao. S. (1994), PhD Thesis 'Characterization of the Electrical Properties of Polycrystalline Diamond Films', The Ohio State University) offering one route to higher CCD values, although exacerbating the problems of using higher voltages. However, the maximum CCD reached with such crystals is reported to be about 40 μm at 2 V/μm applied electric field.
WO 01/96633 discloses a high purity single crystal diamond produced by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The diamond has a high resistivity, a high breakdown voltage in the off state, high electron mobility and hole mobility and a high collection distance. The diamond is described as being useful in electronic applications, particularly as a detector element or switching element.


A novel CC-chemokine binding protein is isolated from the saliva of Rhipicephalus sanguineus. Compounds prepared in accordance with the present invention can be used as anti-inflammatory compounds and in the treatment or prevention of CC-chemokine-related diseases.

Chemokines are small, secreted pro-inflammatory proteins, which mediate directional migration of leukocytes from the blood to the site of injury. Depending on the position of the conserved cysteines characterizing this family of proteins, the chemokine family can be divided structurally into C, CC, CXC and CX3C chemokines that bind to a series of membrane receptors (Baggiolini M et al., 1997; Fernandez E J and Lolis E, 2002). These membrane receptors, all heptahelical G-protein coupled receptors, allow chemokines to exert their biological activity on the target cells, which may present specific combinations of receptors according to their state and/or type. The physiological effects of chemokines result from a complex and integrated system of concurrent interactions: the receptors often have overlapping ligand specificity, so that a single receptor can bind different chemokines. A single chemokine can bind to different receptors as well.
Studies on structure-activity relationships indicate that chemokines have two main sites of interaction with their receptors, the flexible amino-terminal region and the conformationally rigid loop that follows the second Cysteine. Chemokines are thought to dock onto receptors by means of the loop region, and this contact is believed to facilitate the binding of the amino-terminal region that results in receptor activation.
Usually, chemokines are produced at the site of injury and cause leukocyte migration and activation, playing a fundamental role in inflammatory, immune, homeostatic, hematopoietic, and angiogenic processes. Thus, these molecules are considered good target candidates for therapeutic intervention in diseases associated with such processes. The inhibition of chemokines, or of their receptors, can reduce leukocyte maturation, recruitment and activation, as well as other pathological processes related to angiogenesis or arteriosclerosis (Baggiolini M, 2001; Loetscher P and Clark-Lewis I, 2001; Godessart N and Kunkel S L, 2001).
In addition to mutant inhibitory chemokines, antibodies and peptide and small molecule inhibitors blocking the receptors the search for effective chemokine antagonists has also been extended to a series of viruses and other organisms that, when entering into contact with human or mammal hosts, show potent immunomodulatory activities affecting the host.
The viral mimicry of cytokines, chemokines, and their receptors may indicate strategies of immune modulation for developing therapeutic products (Alcami A, 2003; Lindow M et al., 2003). Recently, immunomodulatory factors expressed by haematophagous arthropods (such as mosquitoes, sandflies and ticks) have been reviewed (Gillespie, R D et al., 2000; Nuttall P A et al., 2000; Schoeler G B and Wikel S K, 2001).
In particular, the salivary glands of ticks produce a complex mixture of bioactive molecules having, in particular, anti-inflammatory, anti-haemostatic and anti-immune activities. These include bioactive proteins that control histamine, bind immunoglobulins, or inhibit the alternative complement cascade or other proteases.
The effect of these molecules is, probably, to provide a privileged site at the tick-host interface that shelters the tick from the normal innate and acquired host immune mechanisms that combat infections, ensuring successful feeding.
Moreover, tick salivary glands are considered the major route by which tick-borne pathogens enter the host during feeding, since ticks use their salivary glands as a means of concentrating the blood meal by returning the excess fluid and ions back to the host, possibly transmitting pathogens resident in these glands. In fact, tick induced modulation of host immunity is increasingly recognized as an important factor in successful transmission or establishment of tick-borne pathogens.
Immunomodulating activities have been characterized in tick saliva extracts (Alarcon-Chaidez F J et al., 2003; Bergman D K et al., 2000; Anguita J et al., 2002; Gwakisa P et al., 2001; Leboulle G et al., 2002; Kopecky J et al., 1999; Kovar L et al., 2002; Gillespie R D et al., 2001). For example, the saliva from Rhipicephalus sanguineus inhibits antigen-stimulated production of immunoglobulins and the expression of IFN-gamma, IL-2 and IL-5 in a dose-dependent manner (Matsumoto K et al., 2003).
CXC-chemokine binding activities, in particular CXCL8/Interleukin 8 binding activities, have been detected (but not characterized in terms of specific protein sequences) in the saliva prepared from several ixodid tick species (Dermacentor reticulatus, Amblyomma variegatum, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, Haemaphysalis inermis, Ixodes ricinus), demonstrating a reduction of the level of detectable IL-8, and inhibiting IL-8 induced chemotaxis of human blood granulocytes. (Hajnicka V et al., 2001; Kocakova P et al. 2003; WO 01/58941; WO 01/48484).
Antigens from Rhipicephalus sanguineus elicit potent cell-mediated immune responses in resistant but not in susceptible animals. The saliva introduced during tick infestations reduces the ability of a susceptible animal host to respond to tick antigens that could stimulate a protective immune response. As a consequence, the animals present a disturbed cellular migration to the tick feeding site, which can represent a deficient response against ticks (Ferreira B R et al., 2003).
A homologue of the pro-inflammatory cytokine Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor has been detected in the tick, Amblyomma americanum. This sequence inhibited the migration of human macrophages in an in vitro functional assay to the same extent as recombinant human MIF (Jaworski D C et al., 2001; WO 01/78770).
Despite the large amount of literature, only a few articles list cDNA sequences identified by random sequencing and differential screens of libraries generated from various tick tissues and/or species. Lists of cDNA sequences have been published for Amblyomma americanum and of Dermacentor andersoni at different developmental stages (Hill C A and Gutierrez J A, 2000), salivary glands of unfed and fed male Amblyomma americanum (Bior A D et al., 2002), male mating Ixodes scapularis (Packila M and Guilfoile P G, 2002), salivary glands of Amblyomma variegatum (Nene V et al., 2002), of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Nene V et al., 2004), and of Ixodes scapularis (Valenzuela J G et al., 2002a; Francischetti I M et al., 2002).
However, the large majority of these sequences are not characterized biochemically or functionally, and many annotations are entered only on the basis of sequence similarity with known proteins involved in basic cellular functions, such as those previously characterised in tick salivary glands for enzymatic activities or inducing antibody response. In particular, there is no indication of tick proteins acting as CC-chemokine binding proteins.


A magnetic device includes a free layer including a first magnetization layer; a pinned layer including a second magnetization layer; and a tunnel barrier layer provided between the free layer and the pinned layer. At least one selected from the free layer and the pinned layer includes a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) structure formed of a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, and a ruthenium-rhodium (Ru—Rh) alloy layer provided between the first and second ferromagnetic layers.

The inventive concept relates to a magnetic device, and more particularly, to a magnetic device including a magnetic layer having a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) structure and a magnetic memory device using the magnetic device.
Recently, magnetic devices having a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with a tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) property has attracted a great deal of attention due to its characteristics, including low-power consumption, fast read-write access time and non-volatility. In order to improve the performance of the magnetic devices, to stabilize magnetic structures, and to prevent read/write errors, SAF structures having exchange coupling have been suggested. In general, as the strength of an exchange coupling field increases, the magnetic devices may become more stable.
When a magnetic device is annealed to increase a magnetoresistance ratio, due to an increase in the temperature, materials of the magnetic device may spread to the surrounding areas, thereby deteriorating the performance of the magnetic device. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a magnetic device structure having more tolerance to the temperature increase.


A method for recovering from uncorrected memory errors may include receiving, at an operating system, a correctable error (CE) associated with a first memory page. The correctable error is marked in a page table entry describing the first memory page. The first memory page is then migrated, by the operating system, to a second memory page based on the received correctable error.

Errors in computer memory are among the most common hardware causes of machine failures in the business enterprise production environment. An enterprise computer system may employ different mechanisms in the hardware, such as Error Correcting Codes (ECC), to attempt transparent recovery from memory errors. Errors that the hardware cannot correct eventually lead to hardware failures, which require identifying and replacing the affected memory modules. While the memory modules may be inexpensive relative to the total investment in the computer hardware configuration, the disruption to affected business applications and potential loss of data may be costly to remediate. Additionally, as advances in technology lead to increased density in memory chips, a corresponding increase in the rate of memory failures may also result.
It may therefore be desirable, among other things, to transparently correct errors detected in computer hardware memory more efficiently.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Recovering from uncorrected memory errors


A pyrotechnic active element for separating media and/or fluids has a base element (12) and an electrical ignition element (26) which is arranged on or in the base element (12). The pyrotechnic active element also includes a pyrotechincal charge (28) which can be ignited by the ignition element (26), in addition to a separating element (14) which is fitted with a separating tool (40) and a fixing member (34) for the tool. The fixing element (34) is hermetically sealed to the base element (12). The connection is disrupted when the pyrotechnical charge (28) is ignited.

The invention relates to a pyrotechnic active element for severing media and/or fluids.
DE 42 11 079 A1 and DE 44 22 177 describe pyrotechnically acting fuse elements which have a housing having a hollow space formed therein through which extends transversely with respect to the longitudinal extent thereof, an electrical conductor to be severed in the event of an overcurrent. Arranged in the hollow space is a severing piston which, upon ignition of a pyrotechnic charge, can be moved forwards in the direction of the conductor in order to sever the latter.
The assembly and the construction of the known pyrotechnic fuse elements are extremely costly and the pyrotechnic elements, such as the electrical ignition element and charge and also the severing piston, are to be produced specifically according to the respective needs of the client, which is cost-intensive.
The underlying object of the invention is to develop a pyrotechnic active element having a reduced number of components to be built up separately during the assembly.
In order to achieve this object, there is proposed in accordance with the invention a pyrotechnic active element which is provided with
a base element,
an electrical ignition element which is arranged on or in the base element,
a pyrotechnic charge which can be ignited by the ignition element, and
a severing element which has a severing tool and a holding element holding the latter,
wherein the holding element is connected in a sealed manner to the base element and this connection is releasable upon ignition of the pyrotechnic charge.
The active element in accordance with the invention has electrical ignition element, as it were, as a support for the pyrotechnic charge, and, for holding the terminal contacts of the ignition element, it has a base element to which the cutting element is connected. This connection is moisture-tight and, in particular, is gas-tight, so that the pyrotechnic charge is not rendered inoperative by external influences (penetration of moisture) during the storage of the pyrotechnic active element. On the one hand, the mechanical connection of base element and severing element is mechanically secure such that the two portions do not unintentionally separate from each other during handling and in particular during mounting in a primary unit (for example installation in the housing of an electrical fuse element). On the other hand, the connection of base element and severing element must reliably become detached when the pyrotechnic charge is ignited in accordance with the requirements, without a considerable force being required for this purpose, so that all of the energy released upon ignition of the pyrotechnic charge is converted into kinetic energy of the severing element.
As a result of the active element in accordance with the invention being a self-contained component, an active element once ignited can be removed from its primary unit and replaced with a new active element.
The pyrotechnic active element in accordance with the invention is generally to be used in primary units in which one is concerned with severing or interrupting a medium (for example an electrical conductor) or a flowing fluid (flow of liquid or gas, or viscous substances). The severing tool of the severing element is made of a suitable material (for example metal, ceramics, plastics) depending on the properties and fields of use of the medium or fluid. In the case of the use of the active element in accordance with the invention in an electrical fuse element, the severing tool consists of a non-conductive material, preferably plastics, in which case materials of the raw-material groups polyamide, polycarbonate, polyphenylene sulphide or suchlike with mineral, organic or inorganic fillers are to be mentioned here, in particular.
In an advantageous development of the invention, it is provided that the detachable connection between the base element and the severing element is material-locking, friction-locking and/or form-locking up to a minimum strength, something which can take place in particular by gluing, (ultrasonic) welding, caulking, camming or locking together.
The connection between the severing element and the base element is preferably provided with predetermined breaking points which break open when the pyrotechnic charge explodes and release the severing element. The severing element of the active element in accordance with the invention has the severing tool and a holding element which holds the latter and is preferably constructed in one piece with the severing tool.
In an advantageous development of the invention, in order to achieve the tightness in the unit of the severing element and the base element, at least one O-ring is provided. This sealing ring is preferably arranged in a circumferential groove of the base element or the severing element and rests tightly against the respective other element in the region in which it protrudes above the circumferential groove. The holding element of the severing element (or alternatively the base element) preferably has a protruding encompassing collar, which surrounds the base element (or alternatively the holding element).

Dynamit Nobel GmbH Explosivstoff-und Systemtechnik


An optical navigation system for determining movement relative to a navigation terrain includes a first source and a second source of optical radiation for illuminating the navigation terrain, the first source differing from the second source in at least one operating parameter. The system further includes means to select the first source and the second source independently based on decision criteria. The system further includes a detector for capturing patterns in the optical radiation subsequent to illuminating of the navigation terrain.

Existing optical devices for relative motion detection utilize pattern correlation techniques to determine relative motion between the device and a surface by capturing patterns characterizing the surface as the device passes over the surface (or equivalently as the surface moves past the device). Both the distance and the direction of the device movements are determined by comparing one pattern frame with the next. This technique typically detects intensity variations of shadows on surfaces; and its sensitivity and usability depends on the intensity contrast in the captured surface patterns. Relative motion sensors are used, for example, for computer pointer (e.g., mouse) control. Such pointers typically use optics to control the position of the pointer on the computer screen. More generally, optical navigation information can be used to compensate for distortion artifacts of curvilinear and rotational movement of the scanning device along a scan path.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,786,804, 5,578,813, 5,644,139, 6,442,725, 6,281,882 and 6,433,780 disclose examples of optical mice, other hand-held navigation devices, and hand-held scanners. These patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Typical existing optical navigation devices use light emitting diodes (LEDs) to obliquely illuminate the surface to be navigated (the "navigation terrain") for the purpose of imaging the surface using a detector. Height variations on the surface, on the order of 5 to 500 micrometers (μm), cast shadows described by geometrical ray optics. The size and contrast of the shadow patterns depends in part on the type of surface through the size of the height variation. Typically, the detector is positioned to receive the reflection in the surface normal direction, and the angle between the surface and the incident light is typically selected to optimize the contrast of the shadow patterns, as is familiar from dark field imaging. Typical values for the angle of incidence are in the range from about 5 degrees to about 20 degrees.
Smooth surfaces such as whiteboard, high gloss paper, plastic, wood grain, or painted metal present functional challenges to typical current optical navigation devices. In general, smooth surfaces are those containing less mid spatial frequency and more high spatial frequency structures. To increase the signal level, high optical power is required for LED illumination resulting in typical current draws in excess of 30 mA.

Low power consumption, broad navigability optical mouse

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A protective device for an electronic lock includes a fixing plate mounted in a casing of an electronic lock and located behind an opening of the casing. The fixing plate includes a through-hole aligned with the opening. A protective cover is mounted to the fixing plate and movable between a shielding position shielding the through-hole of the fixing plate and the opening of the casing and a revealing position not shielding the through-hole of the fixing plate and the opening of the casing. The protective cover is drivable by a motor to move between the shielding position and the revealing position. A keypad is mounted to an outer side of the casing. A motor is activated to drive the protective cover when a pin code is input through the keypad.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective device and, more particularly, to a protective device for an electronic lock.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic locks are well known, and some of them use biological features such as fingerprints and voice patterns for identification purposes such that the users do not need to carry keys. A typical electronic lock includes a fingerprint identifying device and a casing mounted to an outer face of a door. Fingerprint(s) of one or more authorized users is(are) registered in the fingerprint identifying device housed in the casing. The casing includes a finger insertion opening and a handle. The finger insertion opening is aligned with an outer side of a fingerprint input section of the fingerprint identifying device. An authorized user may insert his or her finger through the finger insertion opening to access the fingerprint input section. The handle can be operated to open the door if the input fingerprint matches with the registered data. On the other hand, the handle cannot be operated if the input fingerprint does not match with the registered data.
Although electronic locks using fingerprints work efficiently, there is no protective device for shielding the fingerprint identifying device. Hence, dust and/or moisture easily enter the electronic locks via the finger insertion opening and might cause damage to internal parts such as the finger input section of the fingerprint identifying device. Another drawback is that a burglar may destroy the fingerprint identifying device via the finger insertion opening.
The present invention is intended to provide a protective cover for an electronic lock that mitigates and/or obviate obviates the above-mentioned problems.


A data communication system comprises a radio frequency module, a baseband module, a memory unit, a parallel/serial module, a multimedia module, an image sensor module and a display module. The parallel/serial module performs digital signal processing and converts parallel bus data into serial bus data, and vice versa. The present invention provides an improved data communication method and system featuring a parallel/serial module that enables a serial data communication within cellular phone modules. The present invention will also reduce the cost of manufacturing and improve the performance of the cellular phone.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a data communication method and system and more particularly to a data communication method and system applied in-between cellular phone modules.
2. Background of the Invention
Along with the rapid growth in the electronic products industry, new telecommunication products are continuously being developed. In recent years, portable electronic products, such as cellular phones, cover a versatile range of functions and have become a necessity to people in their everyday lives.
Cellular phone handsets have become so small that all cellular phone modules must be arranged in a more compact way. A traditional parallel data bus communicating with cellular phone modules and occupying a lot of layout space thus needs to be changed in order to accommodate new technology.
One device discloses a data communication system within a cellular phone handset, which allows an image processor to process the image data captured by an image sensor and directly send the processed image data to a display module without occupying the resource of a central processing unit. Another device discloses a data communication system within a cellular phone handset wherein a handset user can capture and view the image data without interrupting the voice communication between the handset user and a remote handset user. All cellular phone modules inside these two disclosures use a parallel data bus to communicate with each other.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved data communication method and system featuring a parallel/serial module that enables a serial data communication within cellular phone modules. The improved method and system will also reduce the cost of manufacturing and improve the performance of the cellular phone.

Cellular phone data communication system wherein a parallel interfaced baseband module and a serial interfaced multimedia module are coupled to one another using a parallel/serial conversion module


Systems and methods for preventing and/or inhibiting toner scatter inside of laser printer toner cartridges including a shield that is adjacent to the toner regulating member, extends over and adjacent the developing roller, includes triboelectric material of a polarity corresponding to the polarity of the laser printer cartridge during operation and that functions as a physical barrier and as an electrical barrier to direct toner particles that scatter away from the developer roller back toward the developer roller.

Electro photo printing technology is an evolving technology that changes with time as market demands, especially the computer market and the imaging market, evolve and change. The main features of the printer/cartridge technology that are presently evolving include:
A. Printer Speed
As time passes printer manufacturing firms try to design faster printing machines. The speed of a printing machine is usually defined by the number of pages the printer can print per minute (also known as ppm). In today's market, there are office laser printers that can go up to 60 pages per minute.
B. Print Resolution
As the imaging market evolves more and more customers expect higher print quality. Where in the past, laser printers used to print simple graphics, in today's market the printers can print in relatively high resolutions, around 1200 dots per inch (dpi).
C. Demand for Color
The laser toner color printer market share is growing every year relative to that of the black and white laser toner printer market.
In order to accommodate for the market's demands, new toner formulations and toner making technologies have been developed to comply with the evolving demands for speed, resolution and use of colors. Higher printing speed printers require toner resins with lower melting points to accommodate for the faster fusing speed. Higher resolution printers require smaller average particle size toner in order to achieve the small details in high resolution images and color toners inhibit the use of magnetic toner system. Hence, most color toners are mono-component, non-magnetic toners. Moreover, the need for color, non-magnetic toner significantly limits the variety of materials that can be used as resins. Those changes and others known in this field but not specifically described herein are responsible for a number of side effects in the functionality of toner cartridges such that they create print defects and reduce print quality. The present system and method are directed to solving a common problem found in high speed, non-magnetic toner printer systems and color toner systems. This problem is usually called "toner scatter" or "dusting". Toner scatter refers to toner particles that disengage from the developing system and accumulate inside of the laser toner cartridge, and typically create local print defects on the printed media, such as toner stains or continuous haze. Continuous haze is also known as "background" on the printed media.
In one preferred embodiment of the present system and method a toner shield is installed inside of the laser toner cartridge in order to prevent the toner scatter phenomenon. When installed the toner shield minimizes or prevents toner from scattering and/or accumulating inside of the cartridge, thus eliminating the aforementioned print defects. The shield described below can be used in a new laser toner cartridge or in a remanufactured laser toner cartridge.

Laser toner cartridge toner scatter prevention system and process


A method of supporting mass human-interaction events, including: providing a mass interaction event by a computer network (100) in which a plurality of participants (102) interact with each other by generating information comprising of questions, responses to questions and fact information for presentation to other participants and assimilating information: and controlling, automatically by a computer (104) the rate of information presentation to each participant, to be below a maximum information assimilation rate of each participant.

Although the Internet is touted as turning the world into a large village, interactions between large groups of individuals are not typically handled in a synchronous manner such as would be expected in a "village". In such a conversation-like synchronous interaction, individuals generally expect a response within a short, bounded time, which response allows a further discussion and a comfortable flow of information.
Most interactive solutions only work when the audience for an information provision event is small, such as under 20 or 30 participants. In larger groups, the audience is either entirely passive, as in television, or can only interact asynchronously, such as via a message board. Generally, as the group gets larger, the interaction becomes more difficult. In token-based systems, where only one participant can present information at a time, most participants cannot participate. In free-for-all systems, the noise level is too high. Even in mediated systems, such as "chat rooms", the mediator becomes overwhelmed if there are too many participants. Furthermore, a significant amount of the audience's time is wasted on questions that are of no interest to most of the audience.
Exemplary ways of transmitting information on the Internet (and outside of it) include:
(a) Static or dynamic downloadable content, such as WWW pages, text, graphics and video (corresponding to books and video cassettes).
(b) Interactive software, for use in a home setting.
(c) Conferencing tools for enabling a small group of persons to interact as if they were in one large room.
(d) Voting tools, where participants can answer a poll regarding a particular posed question.
(e) Web-Casting tools, which stream a live or recorded event to a large number of participants.
(f) Chat rooms, where each participant can voice an opinion.
A particular type of interaction event occurs during on-line education. It would be extremely desirable to have very large classes, thus keeping costs down and making gifted lecturers available to large audiences. However, as noted above, such large classes do not usually provide a reasonable interaction level. For many students, interaction in class is a requirement for complete understanding of the learning material. Currently however, interactive on-line classes are limited to small numbers. Furthermore, much of the student participation is after the class and/or via a message board.
It is known i n on-line education systems to divide a class into groups and provide open discussion questions for each group. It is also known to provide credit points to students that find suitable source material in an on-line class.

Large group interactions via mass communication network


An orthopedic device ankle exerciser for rehabilitating and exercising an injured ankle of a pair of feet where each foot has an arch, a heel, toes, and a mid portion and where one foot of the pair of feet has a healthy ankle. The orthopedic device ankle exerciser comprises a foot board, pivot means, and fastening means. The foot board has a central portion, a lower surface, an upper surface opposite the lower surface, a first end, and a second end opposite the first end. The pivot means pivotably and frictionally supports the foot board and the pivot means is fixably and centrally attached to the lower surface of the foot board at the central portion inorder to prevent horizontal translation of the foot board. The fastening means secures the pair of feet to the foot board in selectively fixed side-by-side relation and the fastening means is fixably attached to the upper surface of the foot board proximate the central portion. The fastening means is located and positioned for securing the pair of feet to the foot board so that the arch and the mid portion of each foot overly the pivot means and the central portion and this positioning provides maximum range of movement to the injured ankle. The heel is located in close proximity to the first end and the toes in parallel facing relationship to the second end. The fastening means co-acts with the foot board and therefore enables the healthy ankle to assist the injured ankle to move in upward and downward translation with the pivotal translation of the foot board and the heel of each foot maintains contact with the foot board so as to facilitate active and assisted dorsiflexion and plantar flexion of the injured ankle.

1. Field of the Invention
My invention relates to the field of therapeutic rehabilitation devices. In particular, my invention relates to devices facilitating exercise and rehabilitation of the ankle following medical complications or physical injury to the ankle and corresponding muscle groups.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A stroke is a neurological event taking place in the brain of a person that is caused by a lack of blood to the brain. Sometimes a stroke will cause temporary or permanent paralysis of the body's muscle groups. These muscle groups can include the muscle groups of the lower legs and the feet. Often the victim of a stroke will suffer temporary or permanent paralysis of the muscle groups which operate the ankle bones and joints and the victim will sense that the ankle bones and joints have "locked up".
Other physical conditions and diseases will have similar effects on the muscles, bones, and joints of the ankle region of the body. Those physical conditions and diseases include: 1) peripheral vascular disease, a disease which comes with aging and which is caused when the blood vessels in the lower leg fill up with plaque and cause conditions, such as arteriosclerosis and the consequent lack of blood supply to the lower leg, which then causes the inaccurate function of the nervous system and the consequent inability to move the lower leg, 2) nerve injury, and 3) orthopedic injury such as arthritis, muscle sprains, and bone fractures, such as bone spurs.
The ankle joints and muscles are very important for various physical functions such as safe ambulation (walking), stair climbing, and for balancing. The ankle joint is capable of a wide range of motion including dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. Dorsiflexion brings the toes upward and closer to the front of the leg and plantar flexion points the toes downward, curling the sole of the foot under and deepening the arch of the foot. In addition, the ankle muscles, tibialis anterior and the gastrocnemius-soleus unit muscle groups, are critical in the proper functioning of the ankle. The tibialis anterior is an extensor muscle of the anterior compartment of the leg which acts to extend the toes and to produce dorsiflexion. The gastrocnemius-soleus unit muscle groups is a prominent flexor muscle group forming the calf muscles. Together with the Achilles tendon, the gastrocnemius-soleus unit muscle group act to lift the heel and to produce plantar flexion.
Therefore, when injury occurs to the ankle joints and muscles it is imperative to rehabilitate and exercise them, if possible, inorder to restore stability and range of movement, increase strength, and recover neurological capacities so that the victim of the injury can walk again. This is possible by exercising one ankle, if only one ankle has "locked up", or both ankles on a device which is capable of isolating the movement of the ankle or ankles to forward and backward motion and thereby, to pure and isolated dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. In addition, exercising a "good", healthy ankle with a "bad" ankle at the same time will aid rehabilitation of the "bad" ankle.
The prior art devices designed to exercise and rehabilitate ankles can be characterized by different tensioning structures capable of movement in various directions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,536 discloses an Ankle Rehabilitation Device that is capable of exercising one ankle at a time in multiple directions. This device discloses a plurality of attachment points extending around the perimeter of the foot receiving platform for providing the various directions of exercise. The device also provides a resistance means and an adjustment means to vary the resistance. However, this device only exercises one ankle at a time, strapped by straps 21, 22, and 23, and does not allow the user to use a "good" ankle and foot to assist the "bad" or "locked up" ankle and foot in the therapy. Moreover, the foot receiving platform is mounted on a ball joint which acts as a pivot to provide the various directions of exercise and the device does not focus solely on pure, isolated dorsiflexion and plantar flexion therapy.
Other prior art devices, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,469 disclose exercise boards mounted on a roller that is secured to the assembly by a retainer pin. The feet of the user are adapted to be placed on opposite sides of the roller so that the user can shift his or her weight from one leg to another to cause the board to pivot on the roller. No straps are used to hold the feet of the user to the board.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,374,730 discloses an Apparatus For Treatment Of The Feet which is a pair of platforms that are mounted on spring hinge members. Bumpers 36 and 38 are mounted at opposite ends of each pivotal member so that as the foot supports are rocked on their respective spring hinge members, the bumpers can cushion impact with an underlying support frame. The feet are exercised one relative to another by moving the support member on their respective hinge members while each foot is held by individual straps. Again, one "good" foot is not capable of helping the other "bad" foot. In addition, the pivotal member is located at the end of the platform and not underneath the arch of the foot where maximum therapeutic ankle exercise occurs to the ankles' joints and muscles.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of my invention to provide an orthopedic device ankle exerciser that securely straps the feet of the user to the device and thereby isolates ankle exercise and creates pure dorsiflexion and plantar flexion of the ankles as well as strengthens the anterior tibialis and gastrocnemius-soleus unit muscle groups.
It is a further object of my invention to provide an orthopedic device ankle exerciser that re-educates the anterior tibialis and gastrocnemius-soleus unit muscle groups following damage due to strokes, peripheral vascular disease, nerve injury, and orthopedic injury.
It is a further object of my invention to provide an orthopedic device ankle exerciser that provides the means for a "good" ankle to assist the "bad" ankle in pure dorsiflexion and pure plantar flexion exercise as well as to provide the means for one ankle to be exercised at a time, the device being adjustable to any foot size.
It is an additional object of my invention to provide a simple, economical therapeutic orthopedic device ankle exerciser and method of use.
It is an additional object of my invention to provide an orthopedic device ankle exerciser that can be used in either sitting position or standing position and can thereby be used in geriatrics, athletics, and the like.
Other objects of my invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.

Orthopedic device ankle exerciser and method


An image processing apparatus for processing image data formed by a set of pixel data includes a real space filter processing unit and a color space filter processing unit, wherein the real space filter processing unit calculates a real space weighting coefficient and performs weighted average of pixel data according to filter processing of an edge preservation type; pixel data of at least a target pixel of pixel data used in the color space filter processing unit is pixel data calculated by the real space filter processing unit; and of the pixel data which the color space filter processing unit uses for the weighted average, the pixel data of the target pixel is pixel data calculated by the real space filter processing unit, and the pixel data of a peripheral pixel is pixel data forming the image data before being input to the real space filter processing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method, and in particular, relates to a technique that reduces noise while preserving an edge of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of imaging devices such as a camera, there is a case where digital image data acquired through an imaging element (such as a CCD or a CMOS) includes a noise component, and various methods of removing this noise component are proposed.
For example, Japanese patent application publication No. 2007-288439 discloses an image processing apparatus that applies noise reduction processing to a color image of RGB. According to this image processing apparatus, the distance between a target pixel and a peripheral pixel therearound on the RGB color space is calculated, a weighting coefficient for each peripheral pixel is calculated according to the distance on the color space, and image data of peripheral pixels in addition to the target pixel is subjected to weighted average processing to calculate the pixel value of the target pixel.
Moreover, Japanese patent application publication No. 2002-222416 discloses an image quality improvement apparatus that removes noise from an image. According to this image improvement apparatus, covariance data between color channels in image data is calculated, a filter which minimizes the mean square error in the k-dimensional color space with an original image that does not deteriorate by noise is derived according to this covariance data and covariance data between color channels of prescribed noise, and noise reduction processing is performed by this derived filter.
Moreover, Japanese patent application publication No. 10-112803 discloses an image processing apparatus that removes noises by use of a reference value recorded in a reference value buffer. According to this image processing apparatus, an output pixel value is determined by weight calculation with respect to an input pixel value.
Various methods related to noise reduction/removal are proposed as described above, but each method has difference in noise reduction effects, and in such a case where the noise level is relatively large (high), an excellent noise reduction effect cannot be necessarily acquired.
For example, Japanese patent application publication No. 2007-288439 discloses an image processing method according to which the distance on the color space is calculated after low-pass filter processing is performed. In a case where only the low-pass filter is simply applied, the edge preservability may become poor though it is still effective for the noise reduction effect. In particular, in a case where the noise level is large, defects such as color spread (blur) and color loss in a color boundary part of an image may occur.
Moreover, even in the image improvement apparatus of Japanese patent application publication No. 2002-222416, when noise of a large level is included in image data, the separation performance between the image signal component and the noise component deteriorates. As a result, in a case where the image improvement apparatus of Japanese patent application publication No. 2002-222416 is used, strong noise may remain and color spread may occur in a color boundary part.
Moreover, in the image processing apparatus of Japanese patent application publication No. 10-112803, since weight averaging is performed on the basis of only an input pixel value and a reference value, a resultant noise reduction effect is inherently small.
Therefore, it is desired to propose a new technique of effectively removing image noise while preventing color spread or the like in a color boundary part and preserving the original edge (boundary part) sharpness of an image even in a case where a noise component of a large level is included in image data.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method


The present technology relates to a transmission apparatus, a transmission method, a reception apparatus, and a reception method that allow for reliable notification of a start position of a transport packet or a transport stream during encapsulation of the transport packet or the transport stream in an error correction block.

For example, ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial) adopted in Japan and other nations is available as a broadcasting scheme for digital terrestrial television broadcasting (refer, for example, to NPL 1).
Also, a TLV (Type Length Value) packet, a variable length packet, is known as a transport packet for transporting video and audio data (refer, for example, to NPL 2).

Transmission apparatus, transmission method, reception apparatus, and reception method for forward error correction frame

Abstract: The transmission apparatus generates an FEC block on the basis of an input packet or an input stream, generates an FEC frame on the basis of the FEC block, and sends the FEC frame. A header of the FEC block includes type identification information identifying a type of the input packet or the input stream, information detecting a header error, and a minimum fixed length header having start position information of the input packet or the input stream stored in a payload of the FEC frame. The present technology is applicable, for example, to data transport.


A two-step aldol condensation process is disclosed. α-Campholenic aldehyde (ACA) and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) react in the presence of a base under conditions effective to produce a mixture comprising a high yield of ketol condensation products. Dehydration of the ketols in the presence of an organic sulfonic acid provides unsaturated ketones that are valuable intermediates for fragrance components for synthetic sandalwood products. Compared with the usual one-step, base-catalyzed approach, the two-step process increases the yield of all condensation products and maximizes production of the most valuable ketone isomers.

East Indian sandalwood oil has been valued for perfumery for thousands of years. The natural oil contains mostly santalol compounds that impart a soft, woody odor that is easy to adore but hard to reproduce. Unfortunately, the santalols cannot be manufactured economically. The fragrance industry has therefore identified synthetic substitutes that boast some of the odor qualities of sandalwood oil yet are more feasible to make and sell.
Several commercial products having such a sandalwood aroma derive from an aldol condensation of α-campholenic aldehyde (ACA) and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). In general, aldol condensation reactions can be catalyzed by either acid or base. In one common method, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,341, condensation and dehydration reactions proceed simultaneously in one pot using potassium hydroxide in methanol. The reaction occurs at both C1 and C3 of MEK to provide a mixture of ketones. Isomerization of α,β-unsaturated ketones to β,γ-unsaturated ketones under the reaction and distillation conditions further complicates the process. In all, five ketone products result, as shown in Scheme 1. Ketones 1, 2, 4, and 5, upon hydrogenation, provide the secondary alcohol isomers found in Sandalore™, a product of Givaudan.

Only methyl ketones 1 and 4 can be used as precursors for making Polysantol™ (a product of Firmenich, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,813), and Ebanol™ (from Givaudan, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,766), the principal components of which are shown in Scheme 2.
While the maximum obtainable yields of the various aldol condensation products are challenging to decipher from the references noted above, we conclude that the highest yield of ketone 1 obtained from ACA is about 60%, the highest combined yield of ketones 1 and 4 is about 62%, and the best combined yield of all condensation products (ketones 1-5) is about 75%. Catalysts other than alkali metal hydroxides have been used, but the product compositions differ or the yields of the desired products are lower.
While it is generally known that aldol condensation reactions can be effected in two successive steps with different catalysts (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,840,992 and 6,833,481), such a process has not been suggested for the reaction of ACA and MEK. In the typical two-step process, a base is used to produce an aldol product, and an acid (e.g., sulfuric, phosphoric, or oxalic acid) catalyzes the dehydration. The two-step process appeared to be problematic because ACA and its derivatives readily undergo acid-catalyzed rearrangements to form the corresponding β-campholenic aldehyde derivatives (see, e.g., C. Cardenas and B. Kane, "Rearrangement of α-Campholenic Aldehyde," in Proceedings of 11th ICEOFF, New Delhi, 12-16 Nov. 1989, pp. 37-41).
In sum, improved ways to make sandalwood aroma compounds are desirable. In particular, a better approach to aldol condensation products of ACA and MEK is needed. A valuable process would provide the highest possible yield of ketone 1, which is a common intermediate for synthetic sandalwood products, and the highest possible combined yield of methyl ketones 1 and 4, which are used to make the principal components of Ebanol and Polysantol. Ideally, the process would be easy to practice using conventional reagents and common equipment.

Process for making intermediates for fragrance components from α-campholenic aldehyde


Controlled overetching is utilized to produce metal patterns having gaps that are smaller than the resolution limits of the feature patterning (e.g., photolithography) process utilized to produce the metal patterns. A first metal layer is formed and masked, and exposed regions are etched away. The etching process is allowed to continue in a controlled manner to produced a desired amount of over-etching (i.e., undercutting the mask) such that an edge of the first metal layer is offset from an edge of the mask by a predetermined gap distance. A second metal layer is then deposited such that an edge of the second metal layer is spaced from the first metal layer by the predetermined gap distance. The metal gap is used to define, for example, transistor channel lengths, thereby facilitating the production of transistors having channel lengths defined by etching process control that are smaller than the process resolution limits.

Scaling down transistor channel lengths is the most important ingredient fueling the last twenty years progress of semiconductor industry. The width-to-length (W/L) ratio of transistors is directly proportional to the transistors on-current. The channel length L is a more important parameter in typical scaling rules since the circuit switch speed can be scaled down with smaller length L but not with larger width W.
However, conventional methodology in semiconductor industry of scaling down transistor channel lengths is to use high-resolution lithography tool to define transistor critical dimensions (e.g., gate length, source/drain separations) with their finest resolution. The shortest channel length is therefore directly limited by the tools, and it is very difficult and expensive to realize high resolution lithography tools for large-area process. Current multi-million large area lithography tools for LCD back-plane manufacturing have typical resolution limits around 2 μm, which is more than one orders of magnitude larger than the state-of-the-art photolithography tool designed for crystalline Si industry. The recent development of feature patterning techniques based on patterning technology has even lower resolution limits, e.g., about 40 um for wax inkjet printing technique, 100 um for screen printing technique, 100 um for PCB dry film resist technique.
There are a few high resolution, relatively low cost un-conventional feature patterning techniques under development that rely on contact pattern transferring, which must be carefully studied for the known problems of contact pattern transferring such as mask life time and particle defect propagation before these methods can be adopted by the industry.
Another conventional technique for scaling down transistor channel length without using high resolution lithography is the formation of vertical transistor structures. This methodology claims to use layer thickness, which is the most controllable dimension in the large area process, to define transistor channel length. However, the problems of most proposed vertical transistor structures are the large parasitic capacitance and parasitic conductance between source and drain contacts, caused by the overlap of source and drain electrodes, which are defined by the resolution of lithography tools.
What is needed is a highly reliable method for producing integrated circuits having high resolution features using relatively low resolution feature patterning (e.g., lithography) tools that is both economical and reliable.

Sub-resolution gaps generated by controlled over-etching