A deflectable tip catheter that is safe and effective for use in a magnetic resonance imaging environment. The deflectable tip catheter is configured such that it includes a built-in antenna, such as a loopless antenna or a loop antenna. The built-in antenna permits the deflectable tip catheter to be actively tracked and/or visualized. Depending upon the specific configuration of the deflectable tip catheter, the catheter may be tracked and/or visualized as a single unit, it may be tracked and/or visualized separate and independent of other components or instruments associated with the catheter, such as pull wires, injection needles, surgical instruments, and the like. The catheters described herein include injection type catheters and/or guidance type catheters.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to catheters that have a deflectable portion. More particularly, the present invention relates to deflectable tip catheters that can be actively visualized and/or tracked in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Occlusive coronary artery disease results in myocardial infarction and deleterious left ventricular remodeling. Occlusive coronary artery disease can be treated. Treatment includes coronary balloon angioplasty, coronary artery stenting, and bypass graft surgery. However, due to the limited regenerative capacity of adult cardiomyocytes, ischemic events often result in irreversible cell injury and concurrent myocardial dysfunction, leading to congestive heart failure and death.
There is scientific evidence that delivering therapeutic agents, such as cells (e.g., stem cells), various genetic materials, growth factors, and the like, directly into the infarcted myocardial tissue may help to restore healthy tissue and normal myocardial function. Conventional interventional cardiology procedures, including the aforementioned treatments, such as balloon angioplasty, typically involve the use of a balloon catheter to dilate the occluded artery and X-ray fluoroscopy to assist the attending cardiologist guide the catheter. X-ray fluoroscopy, however, does not distinguish healthy from infarcted myocardial tissue, nor does it provide an anatomical image of the heart, where the ability to distinguish infarcted tissue from healthy tissue within an anatomical image of the heart is of vital importance to the cardiologist who is attempting to precisely deliver therapeutic agents using any one of the above-identified conventional techniques.
There are electro-anatomical mapping systems capable of providing a functional map of the cardiac anatomy; however, these systems cannot provide real-time images of the heart. An example is Biosense Webster's NOGA system, which is used in conjunction with X-ray fluoroscopy. The NOGA system employs a catheter comprising three coils and an endocardial potential measuring electrode located at the distal tip. During clinical use, three external magnets are placed at three different locations on the patient (e.g., under the patient's back and on the right and left side of the patient's chest). The cardiologist is then able to move the catheter around inside the left ventricle of the patient's heart, and, in doing so, the NOGA system measures the electrical activity at endocardial surface, as well as the motion and the location of the distal tip of the catheter. The NOGA system uses these measurements to create a three-dimensional, real-time, dynamic reconstruction of the ventricle, and assess the electrical and mechanical properties of the myocardium. The electrical potential and the motion of the ventricular wall are used, in turn, to differentiate between healthy, viable, tissue, and completely infarcted tissue. The primary drawback of this system is that it does not provide an anatomical image of the entire heart. It is therefore difficult to know the cardiac anatomy in which the catheter tip is located, and whether the catheter tip is opposed to the septum or the lateral wall. In addition, the procedure associated with the NOGA system is lengthy and the quality of the ventricle image is highly dependent on operator skill.
MRI is a diagnostic and imaging modality that is capable of providing a three-dimensional map, or image of the entire heart. Furthermore, MRI offers this capability without the ionizing radiation associated with other imaging modalities, such as X-ray fluoroscopy. MRI also provides real-time images with excellent tissue contrast; thus, the attending cardiologist can quickly and efficiently see the entire heart and clearly differentiate between healthy, viable, tissue and completely infarcted tissue. Ideally, MRI should be available to cardiologists for use during intervention therapy to accurately track and precisely guide the catheter to regions of infarcted myocardial tissue.
There are many types of injection catheters currently available; however, none is well suited for use in an MRI environment. For example, deflectable (i.e., steerable) tip catheters including multi-directional, bi-directional and uni-directional deflectable catheters are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,487,757; 6,198,974; and 5,755,760, respectively. Injection catheters capable of delivering therapeutic agents to myocardial and other tissues are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,980,516 and 6,004,295. Still further, deflectable injection type catheters are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,346,099 and 6,210,362.
The various catheter designs described in the above-identified patents are not, as stated, well suited for use in an MRI environment for both procedural reasons as well as patient safety reasons. For instance, these catheters have ferromagnetic components that pose a safety hazard to the patient in a magnetic field environment, as they can cause injury to the patient, as they may move in an undesired manner due to the magnetic field. The ferromagnetic components can also cause image distortions, thereby compromising the effectiveness of the procedure. Still further, such catheters contain long metallic components, which can cause radiofrequency (RF) deposition in adjacent tissue and, in turn, tissue damage due to an extensive increase in temperature.
In addition, it would be difficult to track and/or visualize the location of the catheters described in the above-identified patents in an MRI environment. In general, there are two types of tracking in an MRI environment: active tracking and passive tracking. Active tracking is the preferred methodology. It involves incorporating a transmit and/or receive antenna into the catheter design. Because a high intensity signal is transmitted or received, active tracking provides precise location information. An example of a catheter that can be actively tracked in an MRI environment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,145. In this patent, the catheter employs a loopless antenna. Another example of a catheter that can be actively tracked in an MRI environment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,801. In this patent, the catheter does not have a deflectable tip, nor is it capable of delivering therapeutic agents to a target location, nor is it capable of deploying other surgical instruments such as forceps during a biopsy procedure.
It would be very desirable to provide attending cardiologists with a catheter design that he or she can easily steer. In addition, it would be desirable provide a catheter that can be effectively tracked and/or visualized in an MRI environment, a catheter that is safe and effective when used in an MRI environment, a catheter that can be used to effectively deliver therapeutic agents to a target location within the patient using an injection needle, and deploy other surgical instruments such as a laser, a suturing device, forceps, a cauterization tool, and the like.

Active MRI intramyocardial injeciton catheter with a deflectable distal section


An IC includes a bare die and a multiplexed pin. The multiplexed pin is electrically connected to first and second switch circuits, the first and second switch circuits are respectively connected to first and second circuit modules disposed on the bare die and control a connection between the first and second circuit modules and the multiplexed pin, the first switch circuit is connected to a first die pad by a metal layer trace within the bare die, the second switch circuit is connected to a second die pad by a metal layer trace within the bare die, and the first and second die pads are connected to the multiplexed pin through a bond wire respectively. The bare die with a larger number of die pads can be packaged into an IC package with a smaller number of chip pins.

A trend in the IC industry is to provide more features in a small pin count IC package, which saves space and reduces product size. Therefore, the pins of an IC are expected to be multiplexed with many functions. However, according to the limitations of some IC manufacturers designing products, the port of the analog IP (intellectual property core) is prohibited from directly hard-wired connecting the digital IP port. This leads to the problem that the number of chip pins is insufficient, and the analog IP port and digital IP port are incompatible when the designed integrated circuit bare die is to be packaged into a chip with a small number of chip pins.

Integrated circuit, and motor device including the same


There is provided an underlayer coating that is used as an underlayer of photoresists in lithography process of the manufacture of semiconductor devices and that has a high dry etching rate in comparison to the photoresists depending on the type of etching gas, does not intermix with the photoresists, and is capable of flattening the surface of a semiconductor substrate having holes of a high aspect ratio; and an underlayer coating forming composition for forming the underlayer coating. The underlayer coating forming composition for forming by light irradiation an underlayer coating used as an underlayer of a photoresist in a lithography process of the manufacture of semiconductor devices, includes a polymerizable compound containing 5 to 45% by mass of silicon atom (A), a photopolymerization initiator (B), and a solvent (C).

Conventionally, in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, micro-processing by lithography using a photoresist has been carried out. A method of the micro-processing is a processing method including forming a thin coating of a photoresist on a semiconductor substrate such as a silicon wafer or the like, irradiating actinic rays such as ultraviolet rays through a mask pattern on which a pattern for a semiconductor device is depicted, developing it to obtain a photoresist pattern, and etching the substrate using the photoresist pattern as a protective coating, thereby forming fine unevenness corresponding to the pattern on the surface of the substrate.
In recent progress in high integration of semiconductor devices, there has been a tendency that shorter wavelength actinic rays are being used, i.e., ArF excimer laser (193 nm) has been taking the place of KrF excimer laser (248 nm). Along with this change, influences of random reflection and standing wave of actinic rays from a substrate have become serious problems. Accordingly, it has been widely studied to provide an anti-reflective coating between the photoresist and the substrate (bottom anti-reflective coating) in order to resolve the problem. As the anti-reflective coating, from a viewpoint of easy use or the like, many considerations have been done on organic anti-reflective coatings (see, for example Patent Document 1).
Further, in recent years, in order to solve interconnection delay that has become clear with miniaturization in pattern rule of semiconductor devices, it has been considered to use copper as interconnect material, and to apply dual damascene process as interconnect forming method on the semiconductor substrate. And, in dual damascene process, via holes are formed and an anti-reflective coating is formed on a substrate having a high aspect ratio (height/diameter). Therefore, the anti-reflective coating for use in this process is required to have filling property by which the holes can be filled without gap, flattening property by which a flat coating can be formed on the surface of a substrate, and the like. However, it is difficult to apply organic material for anti-reflective coating on a substrate having a high aspect ratio, and in recent years, materials with particular emphasis on filling property or flattening property has been developed (see, for example Patent Documents 2, 3, 4 and 5).
In addition, in the production of devices such as semiconductor devices, in order to reduce poisoning effect of a photoresist layer induced by a dielectric layer, there is disclosed a method in which a barrier layer formed from a composition containing a crosslinkable polymer and the like is provided between the dielectric layer and the photoresist layer (see, for example Patent Document 6).
As mentioned above, in the recent manufacture of semiconductor devices, in order to attain several effects represented by anti-reflective effect, it comes to provide an organic underlayer coating formed from a composition containing an organic compound between a semiconductor substrate and a photoresist layer, namely, as an underlayer of the photoresist.
On the other hand, the above-mentioned organic underlayer coating is formed by applying an underlayer coating forming composition on a semiconductor substrate, and then heating the semiconductor substrate at a high temperature of about 170° C. to 200° C. Therefore, components with a low molecular weight contained in the underlayer coating forming composition are volatilized or sublimated on heating at the high temperature, and this causes problems that the volatilized or sublimated components adhere on peripheral apparatuses and thus the apparatuses are polluted. Further, it becomes problems that the components adhered to the apparatuses fall on the semiconductor substrate and it exerts a harmful influence on patter formation.
[Patent Document 1]
    U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,599[Patent Document 2]    Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2000-294504[Patent Document 3]    Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2002-47430[Patent Document 4]    Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2002-190519[Patent Document 5]    WO 02/05035 pamphlet[Patent Document 6]    Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2002-128847

Silicon-containing resist underlayer coating forming composition for forming photo-crosslinking cured resist underlayer coating


A carrier plate configured for use with a filling system including a conveyor and at least one filling nozzle includes a plurality of spaced-apart plate segments interconnected by one or more receiving members. The carrier plate is movable along the conveyor and relative to the at least one nozzle. Each nozzle is configured to dispense product into the container supported by the corresponding receiving member and is aligned between the corresponding adjacent plate segments such that, upon movement of the carrier plate along the conveyor and relative to the at least one nozzle, each nozzle passes through the gap defined between the corresponding pair of adjacent plate segments.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to product packaging and, more particularly, to a carrier plate for use in a conveyor-based filling system.
2. Background of Related Art
Conveyor-based filling systems typically include a conveyor, one or more carrier plates, one or more filling stations, and one or more sealing stations. Each carrier plate is configured to retain one or more receptacles, e.g., cups, to be filled and is moved along the conveyor, continuously or incrementally, initially to the filling station and subsequently to the sealing station. At the filing station, alignment of the carrier plate and properly timed dispensing of the product ensure the appropriate amount of product is dispensed into each cup. However, despite precision alignment and timing, excess product may drip from the dispensing nozzle onto the carrier plate, even during proper operation of the filling system. With respect to the sealing station, alignment of the carrier plate ensures that the carrier plate can be properly clamped for heat sealing a film cover about a lip of the cup and for cutting the film cover between the cups. However, where excess product has dripped onto the carrier plate, the sealing, and/or cutting of the film cover about the cup may be compromised.

Carrier plate for conveyor-based filling system


A programmable logic device (PLD) includes configuration circuitry. The configuration circuitry is adapted to receive serial configuration data from a configuration device. The configuration circuitry is further adapted to program a function of the PLD without using an input buffer to store the configuration data.

PLDs provide circuit and system designers the ability to design and test a circuit or system in a relatively short amount of time. As the name suggests, the relatively short turnaround time owes to the programmability of PLDs. Typically, a PLD receives configuration data from an external device or host and uses the configuration data to configure or program PLD functionality.
Conventional techniques for programming PLDs, however, have some shortcomings. For example, the PLD may fail to receive or process in a timely manner the information that the external device or host provides. As a result, the external device or host may stall, leading to less overall efficiency or to configuration problems. A need therefore exists for an improved way of configuring PLDs so as to avoid the stalling problem that conventional techniques experience.

Apparatus and methods for configuration of programmable logic devices


The present invention relates to a process for secretory production of a foreign protein, in particular, transglutaminase by a coryneform bacterium. According to the present invention, a process is provided for the secretory production of a foreign protein, in particular, transglutaminase, by making a coryneform bacterium to produce an industrially useful foreign protein, in particular, transglutaminase and efficiently release the product extracellularly (i.e., secretory production). An intended foreign protein, in particular, transglutaminase, is produced by using an expression construct wherein the gene sequence of the intended foreign protein containing the pro-structure part, in particular, pro-transglutaminase gene sequence, is ligated to the downstream of a sequence encoding the signal peptide region from a coryneform bacterium, introducing this expressional genetic construct into a coryneform bacterium, culturing the thus transformed coryneform bacterium, and treating the extracellularly released protein with a protease, etc. to cleave and eliminate the pro-part.

The present invention relates to a process of producing a heterologous protein, especially transglutaminase, by secretory production. The heterologous proteins produced by the method include industrially useful enzymes, physiologically active proteins and others. Transglutaminase has been widely used for food processing, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and the like.
A number of processes for the secretory production of heterologous proteins have been previously reported including those as described in the review on the secretory production of a heterologous protein by a bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus [Microbial. Rev., 57, 109-137 (1993)], the review on the secretory production of a heterologous protein by methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris [Biotechnol., 11, 905-910 (1993)] and the report on the industrial production of heterologous proteins by the mold belonging to the genus Aspergillus [Biotechnol., 6, 1419-1422 (1988); Biotechnol., 9, 976-981 (1991)].
The transglutaminase produced by the secretory production according to one embodiment of the present invention is an enzyme which catalyzes acyltrasfer reaction of γ-carboxylamide groups in the peptide chain of the protein. When the enzyme is reacted with a protein, the formation of the cross-linkage ε-(γ-Glu)-Lys and the replacement of Gln with Glu by deamidation can be occurred. Transglutaminase has been used to manufacture gelled food products such as jelly, yogurt, cheese or gelled cosmetics and others, and to improve the quality of meat, etc (Japanese publication of examined application No. 1-50382). Moreover transglutaminase is an enzyme having industrially high usefulness in that it has been used to manufacture materials for thermostable microcapsules, carriers for immobilized enzymes etc.
Transglutaminases derived from animals and from microorganisms (microbial transglutaminase: referred to as 'MTG' hereinafter) have been previously known. The former is the calcium ion-dependent enzyme which is distributed in animal organs, skin, blood, etc. The examples include guinea pig hepatic transglutaminase (K. Ikura et al. Biochemistry 27, 2898 (1988)), human epidermal keratinocyte transglutaminase (M. A. Phillips et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87, 9333 (1990)), human blood coagulation factor XIII (A. Ichinose et al. Biochemistry 25, 6900 (1990)) and others.
For the latter, calcium-independent transglutaminases have been discovered from bacteria belonging to the Streptoverticillium genus, which include, for example, Streptoverticillium griseocarneum IFO 12776, Streptoverticillium cinnamoneum sub sp. cinnamoneum (hereinafter it can be abbreviated as S. cinnamoneum) IFO 12852, Streptoverticillium mobaraense (hereinafter it may abbreviated as S. mobaraense) IFO 13819 and others (Publication of unexamined Japanese patent application (JP-Kokai) No. 64-27471). The peptide mapping and the structural analysis of the genes revealed that the primary structure of the transglutaminase produced by these microorganisms shared no homology with transglutaminases from animals (European Patent application No. 0 481 504 A1).
Because microorganism-derived transglutaminase (MTG) is produced through the purification from the cultures of microorganisms such as described above, there have been problems in terms of the amount and the efficiency and the like. The production of transglutaminase using genetically engineered procedure has been also attempted. Transglutaminase proteins and the genes thereof have been reported in, for example, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 58, 82-87(1994), Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 58, 88-92(1994), Biochimie, 80, 313-319(1998)., Eur. J. Biochem., 257, 570-576(1998), WO 96/06931, WO 96/22366, etc, which report the expression and production of transglutaminase in host-vector systems such as Streptomyces lividans, Aspergillus oryzae and Escherichia coli. In addition to these information, a process wherein transglutaminase is produced by secretory production in microorganisms such as E. coli and yeast (JP-Kokai No. 5-199883) and the method has been reported wherein MTG having activities is produced by expressing MTG as an inactive fused protein in an inclusion body within E. coli and subsequently solubilizing the inclusion body using protein-denaturing agents, and then, reconstituting it through the removal of the denaturing agents (JP-Kokai No. 6-30771). However, the problem has been noted that the expression level is significantly low in the secretory production by microorganisms such as E. coli or yeast.
On the other hand, there are examples of previous studies for the efficient secretory production of heterologous proteins using a coryneform bacterium include the secretion of nucleases and lipases [U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,197, J. Bacteriol., 174, 1854-1861(1992)] and the secretion of proteases such as subtilisin [Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 61, 1610-1613 (1995)] by Corynebacterium glutamicum (hereinafter it may be abbreviated as C. glutamicum), a study on the secretion of cell surface proteins of a coryneform bacterium [International patent application published in Japan No. Hei 6-502548], the secretion of fibronectin-binding protein using this study [Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 63, 4392-4400 (1997)], a report wherein the secretion of proteins was enhanced using a mutated secretory machinery [JP-Kokai No. 11-169182], etc., but there has been a limited number of reports on limited proteins. In light of the accumulated amount of proteins, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 61, 1610-1613 (1995) describes that about 2.5 mg/ml of protein was accumulated by expressing the alkaline protease gene from Dichelobacter nodosus within C. glutamicum using a promoter of subtilisin gene (aprE) from Bacillus subtilis, ribosome binding site and the sequence of a signal peptide, but U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,197, JP-Kokai No. 6-502548 or JP-Kokai No. 11-169182 do not specifically describe the values of the amount of the proteins secreted and accumulated. Furthermore, in the case of the fibronectin-binding protein [Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 63, 4392-4400 (1997)], only the secretory accumulation of the protein of about 2.5 μg/L is confirmed. Thus, there has been no reports that heterologous proteins could be efficiently accumulated in the medium at a practical level.
Additionally a genetic engineering technology for a coryneform bacterium has been developed in the system using plasmid and phage, such as the establishment of the transformation by protoplast [J. Bacteriol., 159, 306-311(1984); J. Bacteriol., 161, 463467(1985)], the development of a various type of vectors [Agric. Biol. Chem., 48, 2901-2903(1984); J. Bacteriol., 159, 306-311(1984); J. Gen. Microbiol., 130, 2237-2246(1984); Gene, 47, 301-306(1986); Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 31, 65-69(1989)], the development of the regulation method of gene expression [Bio/Technology, 6, 428-430(1988)] and the development of cosmid [Gene, 39, 281-286(1985)]. Moreover there are reports on the cloning of genes from a coryneform bacterium [Nucleic Acids Res., 14, 10113-1011(1986); J. Bacteriol., 167, 695-702(1986); Nucleic Acids Res., 15, 10598(1987); Nucleic Acids Res., 15, 3922(1987); Nucleic Acids Res., 16, 9859(1988); Agric. Biol. Chem., 52, 525-531(1988); Mol. Microbiol., 2, 63-72(1988); Mol. Gen. Genet., 218, 330-339(1989); Gene, 77, 237-251(1989)].
Further a transposable element derived from a coryneform bacterium has also been reported [WO93/18151; EP0445385; JP-Kokai No. 6-46867; Mol. Microbiol., 11, 739-746(1994); Mol. Microbiol., 14, 571-581(1994); Mol. Gen. Genet., 245, 397-405(1994); FEMS Microbiol. Lett., 126, 1-6(1995); JP-Kokai No. 7-107976].
The transposable element means a DNA fragment which can be transposed on the chromosome and is known to be present in a wide range of organisms ranging from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. Transposons using transposable elements have been developed [WO93/18151; JP-Kokai No. 7-107976; Mol. Gen. Genet., 245, 397-405(1994); JP-Kokai No. 9-70291] and a heterologous gene has become to be able to be expressed using a transposon.


Example embodiments provide a capacitorless dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and methods of manufacturing and operating the same. The capacitorless DRAM according to example embodiments may include a semiconductor layer separated from a top surface of a substrate and that contains a source region, a drain region, and a channel region, a charge reserving layer formed on the channel region, and a gate formed on the substrate to contact the channel region and the charge reserving layer.

1. Field
Example embodiments are directed a semiconductor device and methods of manufacturing and operating the same, and more particularly, to a capacitorless dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and methods of manufacturing and operating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A memory cell of a conventional dynamic random access memory (DRAM), may have a 1T/1C structure including one transistor and one capacitor. It may be difficult to reduce a cell area of the conventional DRAM including both the transistor and the capacitor.
In order to scale down conventional DRAMs, a DRAM that may store data with a transistor and without a capacitor, that is, a capacitorless 1T DRAM, has been suggested. The capacitorless 1T DRAM, hereinafter referred to as a conventional capacitorless DRAM, may include a channel that is electrically floated.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional capacitorless DRAM.
Referring to FIG. 1, a gate 200 may be formed on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate 100 that has a structure in which a first silicon layer 10, an oxide layer 20, and a second silicon layer 30 are sequentially stacked. The gate 200 may be formed of a gate insulating layer 40 and a gate conductive layer 50 sequentially stacked on the second silicon layer 30. A source 30a and a drain 30b may be formed in the second silicon layer 30 on both sides of the gate 200. The source 30a and the drain 30b of the second silicon layer 30 may be silicon layers doped with n-type impurities of high density. A floating channel body 30c that is electrically separated from the first silicon layer 10 by the oxide layer 20 may be formed between the source 30a and the drain 30b. The floating channel body 30c may be a p-type silicon layer and may function as data storage. Because the floating channel body 30c may display different electric resistances in a state of the floating channel body 30c where excess holes are accumulated (hereinafter, a first state) and a state where no excess holes are accumulated (hereinafter, a second state), the first and second states may correspond to data '1' and '0', respectively.
However, the data retention characteristics of the floating channel body 30c in the conventional capacitorless DRAM may not be desirable. For example, because a broad area of the floating channel body 30c contacts with the source 30a and the drain 30b in the conventional capacitorless DRAM, charges may leak at the junction areas therebetween. Accordingly, the data retention time in the floating channel body 30c may be reduced.
In addition, since the conventional capacitorless DRAM is formed on the expensive SOI substrate 100, increased manufacturing costs may be incurred.

Capacitorless DRAM and methods of manufacturing and operating the same


There are provided a manufacturing method of a transparent substrate for a mask blank, a mask blank, or an exposure mask adapted to prevent occurrence of a transfer pattern defect or a mask pattern defect, by correcting a recessed defect existing on the surface of the transparent substrate, and a defect correction method of an exposure mask.

In the exposure mask manufacture, an inspection is made to determine whether a mask pattern is formed on a transparent substrate according to a design. In this way, detection is made of, for example, a pinhole defect (white defect, clear defect) caused by removal of a film serving as a mask pattern which should not be removed and an etching-insufficient defect (black defect, dark defect) where part of a film is not removed and thus remains due to insufficient etching. When such a pinhole defect or etching-insufficient defect is detected, correction is made for it.
For correcting the foregoing white defect, there is, for example, a method of depositing a carbon film or the like in the pinhole according to an FIB (Focused Ion Beam) assist deposition method or a laser CVD method. For correcting the foregoing black defect, there is, for example, a method of removing the unwanted portion by irradiation of FIB or laser light.
Recently, a photomask defect correction method has been proposed which physically removes a projection-like defect formed on a glass substrate by the use of a fine probe having a pointed tip of a stylus profilometer or a scanning probe microscope (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent (JP-B) No. 3251665    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-43669

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Manufacturing method of transparent substrate for mask blanks, manufacturing method of mask blanks, manufacturing method of exposure masks, manufacturing method of semiconductor devices, manufacturing method of liquid crystal display devices, and defect correction method of exposure masks

Abstract: With respect to an exposure mask having a transparent substrate 1 formed thereon with a mask pattern 2 which becomes a transfer pattern, correction is performed by removing, by the use of a needle-shaped member 4, a peripheral portion of a recessed defect 3 formed on a surface 1a of the substrate, where the mask pattern 2 is not formed, so as to induce a reduction in transmission light quantity which causes a transfer pattern defect, thereby reducing a level difference between the surface of the substrate and the depth of the recessed defect. This correction of the recessed defect is carried out at the stage before forming a mask pattern forming thin film on the transparent substrate. A mask blank and an exposure mask are manufactured by the use of the transparent substrate applied with the correction of the recessed defect.


The present invention provides a primer that effectively can detect, for example, the double helix structure of a nucleic acid. The primer is a labeled nucleic acid containing at least one structure represented by the following formula (16),

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a primer set for amplifying a target nucleic acid sequence, and a nucleic acid amplification method and mutation detection method that use the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In, for example, genetic diagnoses of diseases and gene expression analysis, it is necessary to detect a target nucleic acid having a specific sequence. For the detection, fluorescence is used widely. Specifically, a known method uses a fluorescent substance whose fluorescence intensity increases with an increase in target nucleic acid sequence. A typical example of the fluorescent substance is a substance that intercalates into a double helix structure and emits fluorescence by irradiation with excitation light. When a target nucleic acid sequence is amplified using a primer labeled with such a fluorescent substance, for instance, the primer hybridizes to a target nucleic acid sequence of a template DNA to form a double strand, and thereby the fluorescent substance emits fluorescence. Therefore measurement of the fluorescence intensity of the fluorescent substance of the primer makes it possible to detect, for example, the occurrence or amount of amplification, or the presence or absence of a mutation to be detected in the target nucleic acid sequence.
However, there is a possibility that a conventional fluorescent substance may emit fluorescence, even when, for example, no double helix structure has been formed. Furthermore, for the purpose of quenching fluorescence of only a primer or probe labeled with a fluorescent substance, the method using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is effective (for example, Tyagi, S., Kramer, F. R. (1996) Nat. Biotechnol. 14, 303-308; Nazarenko, I. A., Bhatnagar, S. K., Hohman, R. J. (1997) Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 2516-2521; Gelmini, S., Orlando, C., Sestini, R., Vona, G., Pinzani, P., Ruocco, L., Pazzagli, M. (1997) Clin. Chem. 43, 752-758; and Whitcombe, D., Theaker, J., Guy, S. P., Brown, T., Little, S. (1999) Nat. Biotechnol. 17, 804-807). However, it has problems in, for example, cost due to the introduction of two types of fluorescent dyes.
Thiazole orange, which is one type of cyanine dye, is known as a fluorescent dye whose fluorescence intensity increases through an interaction with DNA or RNA. There are examples in which a fluorescent probe was intended to be produced with thiazole orange being bonded to DNA by a covalent bond. However, it also emits strong fluorescence through an interaction with a single-stranded DNA containing a purine base (Biopolymers 1998, 46, 39-51). Accordingly, the increase in fluorescence intensity obtained when a double helix is formed is small, and therefore it cannot be considered as being successful (Analytica Chimica Acta 2002, 470, 57-70, and Chemistry—A European Journal 2006, 12, 2270-2281).
Furthermore, recently, the present inventors have reported an innovative method that allows a gene mutation to be detected easily and quickly by merely amplifying nucleic acid of a target nucleic acid sequence under an isothermal condition (Mitani Y., Lezhava A., Kawai Y., Kikuchi T., Oguchi-Katayama A., Kogo Y., Itoh M., Miyagi T. et al. 2007. "Rapid SNP diagnostics using asymmetric isothermal amplification and a new mismatch-suppression technology." Nat. Methods 4(3): 257-262; JP 3897926 B; and JP 3942627 B). Similarly in this method, a fluorescent substance as described above is used, and there are demands for a fluorescent substance that allows more effective detection.

Primer, primer set, and nucleic acid amplification method and mutation detection method using the same

Abstract: where B is an atomic group having a nucleobase skeleton, E is an atomic group having a deoxyribose skeleton, a ribose skeleton, or a structure derived from either one of them, or an atomic group having a peptide structure or a peptoid structure, and Z11 and Z12 are each an atomic group that exhibits fluorescence and are identical to or different from each other.


In order to improve the compression rate for configuration information including address information and data information when transmitting or storing configuration information which includes addresses and data having differing characteristics, an information compression device is provided with a compressor which receives as input and compresses the configuration information provided with the addresses and data, and a compressed information storage module for storing the configuration information which is compressed, that is, compressed configuration information, as the information to be decompressed for the user, said compressor including an information separating module for separating the configuration information into address information and data information, an address compressor and data compressor which separately compress the separated address information and data information, and a compressed information outputting module for combining the compressed address information and data information and outputting the result as compressed configuration information.

Information systems such as computer systems are being spread broadly. In general, those information processing systems process information by using high-performance LSI such as CPU (Central Processing Unit). Recently, the performance of LSI other than CPU has been making a tremendous progress.
For example, reconfigurable devices such as FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) can reconfigure logic circuits designed by users on the actual cites, so that those devices have drawn attentions because it is possible with those devices to reduce the development cost and to shorten the development time compared to those of ASIC that is a device of specific usage specification.
Due to the development of the high-performance reconfigurable device, the configuration information that can be loaded into the device tends to increase gradually. In the meantime, for example, extremely long time is required for loading vast amount of configuration information in a test and the like of the reconfigurable device, so that it takes more time in the test process than in main processing that is creation of a logic circuit.
In order to overcome this issue, some researches for compressing configuration information and decompressing (expanding) the information more efficiently have been presented.
For example, a compression method called LZ depicted in Non-Patent Document 1 is shown in FIG. 16. FIG. 16 is an illustration which schematically shows an example of a compression method under a research regarding compression of configuration information. In FIG. 16, a comparator/output device 502 searches whether or not a character string corresponding to an input character string 501a is contained in a referred character string dictionary 500. In a case where the input character string 501a is contained in the character string dictionary 500, the comparator/output device 502 outputs flag information indicating that the character string is contained, the start position of that character string in the character string dictionary 500, and the length of that character string.
In the meantime, in a case where the input character string 501a is not contained in the character string dictionary 500, the comparator/output device 502 outputs flag information indicating that the character string is not contained, and the uncontained input character string 501a itself. Thereafter, the oldest character string is erased from the character string dictionary 500, and the input character string 501a is newly added to the character string dictionary 500.
In the case of FIG. 16, a character string "BC" out of the input character string 501a is contained in the character string dictionary 500. Thus, as an output character string 503a, the comparator/output device 502 outputs flag information "Yes" indicating that the character string is contained, the start position "2" of the corresponding character string in the character string dictionary 500, and the length "2 (bytes)".
In the meantime, a next character string "R" out of the input character string 501a is not contained in the character string dictionary 500. Therefore, as the output character string 503a, the comparator/output device 502 outputs flag information "No" indicating that the character string is not contained, and the uncontained character string "R" itself. As a result, it is possible to compress the output character string 503a with respect to the input character string 501a (see Non-Patent Document 1).
Further, a compression method called X-Match is depicted in another document. FIG. 17 is an illustration which schematically shows the compression method of this research. In FIG. 17, a comparator/output device 602 searches whether or not a character string corresponding to an input character string 601a is contained in a referred character string group dictionary 600. In a case where the input character string 601a is contained in the character string group dictionary 600, the comparator/output device 602 outputs flag information indicating that the character string is contained, the position of the referred character string within the character string group dictionary 600, the position of the matching character in that character string, and the unmatched character string itself.
In the meantime, in a case where the input character string 601a is not contained in the character string group dictionary 600, the comparator/output device 602 outputs flag information indicating that the character string is not contained, and the uncontained input character string 601a itself. Thereafter, the oldest character string is erased from the character string group dictionary 600, and the input character string 601a is newly added to the character string group dictionary 600.
In the case of FIG. 17, a character string "B*R*JF (* is uncontained character string)" out of the input character string 601 is partially contained in "BQRTJF" of a referred character string 3 within the character string group dictionary 600. Thus, as an output character string 603a, the comparator/output device 602 outputs flag information "Yes" indicating that the character string is contained, the start position "3" of the referred character string, a bit string "101011" of the character positions indicating matching or unmatching state of that character string, and uncontained character strings "S" and "E". As a result, it becomes possible to compress the output character string 603a with respect to the input character string 601a (see Non-Patent Document 2).
Further, a compression method called FPC is depicted in another document. FIG. 18 is a schematic illustration of the compression method of this research. In FIG. 18, a comparator/output device 702 searches which of referred compression rules 700 a character string corresponding to an input character string 701a conforms to. In this case, all the input character strings are generated to conform to one of the compression rules without exceptions. Thus, as an output character string 703a, the comparator/output device 702 outputs the number of conformed compression rule, and a character string required for decompression (restoration).
In the case of FIG. 18, higher-order 16 bits "0123" and lower-order 16 bits "0123" of the input character string 701a match with each other. Thus, this conforms to a compression rule under the number "101" out of the compression rules 700, which is a rule indicating that the higher-order and lower-order 16 bits are the same. Therefore, as a character string 703a, the comparator/output device 702 outputs the conformed compression rule number "101", and the lower-order 16-bit character string "0123" required for decompression. As a result, it becomes possible to compress the output character string 703a with respect to the input character string 701a (see Non-Patent Document 3).
Other than the researches described above, there are also various kinds of researches proposed regarding compression processing of information (Patent Documents 1 to 3). For example, "Data Compression Device and Method" according to Patent Document 1 provides a compression/expansion system for increasing the capacity of digital storage devices such as magnetic disk storage devices and magnetic tape storage devices. In this document, depicted are a compression unit and an expansion unit mounted into a single integrated circuit that is a part of a data storage system or a data transmission system controlled by a microprocessor. For example, the compression unit performs compression processing on uncompressed data received from a host and transmits it to a device under a control of a controller MPU (microprocessor).
In the meantime, the expansion unit performs expansion processing on the compressed data received from the device and transmits it to the host under a control of the controller MPU. In this case, the history of data that are compression-processed and expansion-processed previously is stored in a RAM, and the history is utilized when matching data is received.
Further, in "Silicon Storage Medium Control Method and Silicon Storage Medium" according to
Patent Document 2, the silicon recording medium includes a controller and at least a single memory. The controller is structured to include a microprocessor, a data compressor, a data restorer, and also a conversion table buffer as well as an address mapping module.
Further, in "Program Code Compression Method Making It Possible to Perform High-Speed Prototyping of Code Compression Technique, Program Code Compression System" according to Patent Document 3, depicted is a structure with which the effect of program code compression can work entirely through executing compression release on the fly at a position close to a processor by using XTensa processor of Tensilica as a base to increase a memory and a bus bandwidth.
For example, as shown in architecture, it is so structured that a signal sent from a cache or a tag is changed so that the signal is not intercepted by a compression release engine and the existence of the compression code is not recognized by the CPU. Further, as shown in a flowchart, there is also depicted processing for separating the program codes and the data.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2000-201081    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2005-322209    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2007-234048    Non-Patent Document 1: T. A. Welch, A Technique for High-Performance Data Compression, IEEE Computer, pp. 8-19 (1986)    Non-Patent Document 2: M. Kjelso, M. Gooch, S. Jones, Design and Performance of a Main Memory Hardware Data Compressor, IEEE Proceedings of EUROMICRO-22, pp. 423-30 (September 1996)    Non-Patent Document 3: A. R. Alameldeen, D. A. Wood, Frequent Pattern Compression: A Significance-Based Compression Scheme for L2 Caches (2004)

Information processing system, information compression device, information decompression device, information processing method, and program


A feeder horn for two-way satellite telecommunications includes a center transmitter/receiver horn (10) and at least three separate measuring (11, 12, 13) which are positioned symmetrically relative to the symmetry (O) of the feeder horn. All horn are produced mechanically in a one-piece metal structure (1) which includes the transmitter/receiver horn (10) accommodating and through-penetrating a center opening (100) which merges with a transmitter waveguide (101) and a receiver waveguide (102) which are separated by a filter of the orthomode transducer type (OMT), which is constructed for separating differing polarizations and comprises an output to the center opening (100) of the metal structure and two inputs to respective waveguide for the transmitter and receiver waveguides; wherein the metal structure further includes a bottom-defined opening (110, 120, 130) for each of the measuring horns, a switching device (111, 121, 131) anchored in the metal structure for each of the measuring horns and moat-like channels (104, 114, 124, 134) provide around each opening (100, 110, 120, 130) in the metal structure, to isolate electromagnetically each horn in relation to each other horn.

The mechanical and electrical components of satellite communications equipment intended particularly for marine applications must be of a very high quality that will guarantee a smooth and continuous operating time of at least about two years before the event of a malfunction. It can be mentioned as an example that the mechanical gyros available do not provide information on very small changes occurring in the three-dimensional space. The mechanism of such gyros is encumbered with a large intrinsic inertia which makes it impossible to handle information quickly enough to compensate for the rapid but small changes to which the equipment can be subjected in marine environments.
Equipment of this kind includes control systems which receive input data from transmitters in positioning systems. This input data is updated against non-linearity and operation due to thermic influences in electronic systems among other things, by calibrating actively against a "true" signal, ie the signal that is received by an antenna and that has its origin from the target object, the satellite, concerned, whose elevation and azimuth are well-defined for those geostationary satellites that can constitute a reference for "true" calibration.
It is only possible to satisfy the required tracking accuracy of 0.1.degree., by using an efficient and highly effective tracking system which is fast enough to track continuously satellite transmitted signals and to register any deviations that might occur in the X:Y:Z-directions. Those products that are available commercially at present are associated with very high investment costs (in the order of about SEK 1,000,000:-). Furthermore, it is difficult to find technical solutions that would enable the cost to be reduced by manufacturing in large numbers.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks of a technical and economic nature.
The novel and inventive feeder horn is based on the basic concept of producing a physical phase difference between incoming signals solely mechanically. The characteristic features of an inventive feeder horn are set forth in the following claims.

Feeder horn, intended particularly for two-way satellite communications equipment


A system is provided for rapidly recognizing hand gestures for the control of computer graphics, in which image moment calculations are utilized to determine an overall equivalent rectangle corresponding to hand position, orientation and size, with size in one embodiment correlating to the width of the hand. In a further embodiment, a hole generated through the utilization of the touching of the forefinger with the thumb provides a special trigger gesture recognized through the corresponding hole in the binary representation of the hand. In a further embodiment, image moments of images of other objects are detected for controlling or directing onscreen images.

It will be appreciated that the control of onscreen images in a computer environment is desirable in order to provide realtime interaction. One of the more difficult problems associated with the direction of character movement is when one seeks to optically detect hand gestures in real time. The time necessary to acquire or recognize the hand gesture, both in a cluttered environment and against a natural background, can exceed several seconds, a relatively long time for interactive applications.
During optical recognition of the hand gesture, it is oftentimes necessary to compare the digital images of the hand with a template so that a match can be made between the predetermined template and the hand gesture. In so doing, many multiplications must be performed resulting in a relatively large lag time for hand gesture recognition.
One such hand gesture recognition system is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/391,955 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,469 by William T.
Freeman and Craig D. Weissman, filed on Feb. 25, 1995 incorporated herein by reference. While the system described therein operates satisfactorily to uniquely determine particular hand gestures, there is nonetheless a need for a more simplified system which operates more quickly and accurately to detect hand gestures.
It is also a requirement, especially in the games industry, for an exceptionally inexpensive method for hand gesture recognition.

Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, Inc.


A method of thinning a silicon wafer in a controllable cost-effective manner with minimal chemical consumption. The wafer is placed into a process chamber, after which ozone gas and HF vapor are delivered into the process chamber to react with a silicon surface of the wafer. The ozone and HF vapor may be delivered sequentially, or may be mixed with one another before entering the process chamber. The ozone oxidizes the silicon surface of the wafer, while the HF vapor etches the oxidized silicon away from the wafer. The etched oxidized silicon is then removed from the process chamber. As a result, the wafer is thinned, which aids in preventing heat build-up in the wafer, and also makes the wafer easier to handle and cheaper to package. In alternative embodiments, HF may be delivered into the process chamber as an anhydrous gas or in aqueous form.

Silicon wafer thinning is an important step in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Wafer thinning is vital because it aids in preventing heat build-up in the wafer during manufacture and use, and also makes the wafer easier to handle and less expensive to package.
Traditionally, the wafer thinning process has been performed by grinding and polishing operations commonly referred to as "backgrinding," or by using solutions containing strong oxidizers such as nitric acid (HNO3) and/or hydrofluoric acid (HF). These two processes are also often combined, because the mechanical grinding operation induces a significant amount of stress in the silicon surface. This stress may be alleviated by chemical etching, which removes the stressed and damaged layer. The chemical reactions for this process generally proceed as follows:Si+2HNO3−>SiO2+2NO2 (silicon oxidation)4HF+SiO2−>SiF4+2H2O (dissolution of silicon dioxide)
From these reactions, it is apparent that the silicon removal mechanism is the formation of silicon dioxide by exposure to an oxidizing agent (HNO3), followed by the reaction of the silicon dioxide with fluorine to form silicon tetrafluoride (SiF4), which can be dissolved in an aqueous carrier or evolved as a gas. While numerous oxidizing agents have been experimented with, there appear to be few alternatives to fluorine for the reaction to effectively proceed.
One problem with this process is that it is difficult to control, due to the consumption of reactants and the evolution of nitrous oxides which dissolve into the etchant solution, thereby "poisoning" the bath by saturation, which will affect subsequent etches. The process also requires large volumes of expensive process chemicals, involves a great deal of hazardous waste, and is difficult to control to the extent required in order to deliver optimal etch uniformity.
Alternative silicon etchants include caustic solutions such as potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, or fluorine plasma chemistries such as SiF6. The two primary classes of silicon etchants can thus be classed as either aqueous chemistries applied in the liquid state (e.g., HNO3, HF, or caustics), or fluorine plasmas. Each of these process categories has certain applications and limitations.
In the case of aqueous chemistries, limitations include the cost of the chemicals, the need for significant amounts of water for rinsing, the creation of large volumes of waste (chemical and rinse water), and the inability to deliver the etchant into small geometries, which are common in semiconductor devices and MEMS devices. In general, caustics are not favored in the semiconductor industry, due to commonly known problems associated with mobile ion contamination. This is especially true of elements such as Na and K.
In the case of plasma chemistries, the cost of the processing equipment and supporting hardware (e.g., vacuum pumps) can be quite high. Many plasma processes are designed to deliver an anisotropic etch profile. While this has many desirable features, it has a tendency to create very sharp corners on system geometries, which can lead to device breakdown. Many of these systems are also designed for single-wafer processing, which can prove detrimental, depending on throughput requirements. Additionally, plasmas are relatively expensive, dirty, and are not configured for the removal of several hundred microns of silicon as required in a wafer thinning operation.
Thus, there is a need for an improved method of thinning silicon wafers used in semiconductor devices and/or MEMS devices.

Methods of thinning a silicon wafer using HF and ozone


A system and a method are disclosed for a structured-light system to estimate depth in an image. An image is received in which the image is of a scene onto which a reference light pattern has been projected. The projection of the reference light pattern includes a predetermined number of particular sub-patterns. A patch of the received image and a sub-pattern of the reference light pattern are matched based on either a hardcode template matching technique or a probability that the patch corresponds to the sub-pattern. If a lookup table is used, the table may be a probability matrix, may contain precomputed correlations scores or may contain precomputed class IDs. An estimate of depth of the patch is determined based on a disparity between the patch and the sub-pattern.

A widely used technique for estimating depth values in structured-light three-dimensional (3D) camera systems, also referred to as stereo-camera systems, is by searching for the best match of a patch in the image to a patch in a reference pattern. To reduce the overall computational burden of such a search, the image patch is assumed to be in a near horizontal neighborhood of the reference pattern. Also, the reference pattern is designed so that there is only a finite set of unique sub-patterns, which are repeated horizontally and vertically to fill in the entire projection space, which further simplifies the search process. The known arrangement of the unique patterns in the reference pattern is used to identify the "class" of an image patch and, in turn, determine the disparity between the image patch and the reference patch. The image patch is also assumed to be centered at a depth pixel location, which also simplifies the calculation of the depth estimation.
Nevertheless, if the image patch size and the searching range become large, patch searching becomes time consuming and computationally intensive, thereby making real time depth estimation difficult to achieve. In addition to suffering from significant computational costs, some structured-light 3D-camera systems may also suffer from significant noise in depth estimation. As a consequence, such structured-light 3D-camera systems have high power consumption, and may be sensitive to image flaws, such as pixel noise, blur, distortion and saturation.

Ultrafast, robust and efficient depth estimation for structured-light based 3D camera system


An electrophotographic photosensitive medium has a photosensitive layer on an electroconductive base, the medium having at least one intermediate layer between the base and the photosensitive layer, the intermediate layer containing indium oxide - tin oxide solid solution (ITO) powder and a binder resin. An electrophotographic apparatus includes a photosensitive medium; a device for forming latent images; a device for developing formed latent images; and a device for transferring developed images to a transfer member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member and, more particularly, to an electrophotographic photosensitive member with excellent potential characteristics, having an electroconductive intermediate layer capable of reducing black spot fogging in images at high temperature and humidity.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic photosensitive member is basically formed of a base and photosensitive layers. However, when the base is an insulating material, such as paper or plastic, an electroconductive film must be provided on the base in order to cause electrical charge to flow. When the base is a metal, such as aluminum, copper, brass, or stainless steel, an electroconductive film need not be formed on the base, but forming such a electroconductive film is effective for increasing the coating ability of the photosensitive member, protecting the photosensitive member against electrical breakdown, covering defects on the surface of the base, and the like. It is required that the coated layer have a sufficiently low electrical resistance such that it prevents electrical charges from being accumulated when it is used repeatedly in a high-speed electrophotographic process and that it provides stable potential characteristics.
Since it has been difficult in the past to obtain an electroconductive film described above by using only a single resin, usually the film is formed by dispersing electroconductive powder in a binder resin. As disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-163346, metallic powder, such as nickel, copper, silver, or aluminum; metallic oxide powder, such as iron oxide, tin oxide, antimony oxide, or indium oxide, or a mixture of these; carbon black; fibrous carbon, or the like, are used for such electroconductive powder.
An electrophotographic photosensitive member having a vapor deposition film containing indium oxide in which tin or tin oxide, or a mixture of both, are doped, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 52-7242.
However, the above-described electroconductive powder has certain drawbacks. Metallic powder, such as nickel, copper, silver, or aluminum, has sufficient electroconductivity. However, since it is comparatively easy to oxidize, the potential characteristics thereof are readily changed when it is used continuously at a high temperature and high humidity Accordingly, image defects, such as spot fog, is likely to occur. Also, electroconductive powder, such as electroconductive iron oxide, tin oxide, antimony oxide, titanium oxide, or a mixture of these has a comparatively high work function If the resistance thereof is sufficiently decreased so that residual potential is not accumulated because of repeated use at low temperature and low humidity, satisfactory potential characteristics can be obtained. On the other hand, at high temperature and high humidity, there is a drawback in that spot fog occurs
It is known that indium oxide has a low work function and is highly stable even in an oxide atmosphere or a reducing atmosphere. This fact is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 1-233458, 3-136064, 3-136063, and 3-136062. However, indium oxide powder has a drawback in that its resistance is high. Accordingly, characteristics required for a photosensitive member; i.e., sensitivity, residual potential and repeatability under different environmental conditions, cannot be satisfied unless a considerably increased amount is employed in order to form a practical photosensitive drum. Also, the resistance of a vapor deposition film containing indium oxide in which tin or tin oxide, or a mixture of both of these, are doped, is low. For this reason, a vapor deposition film of indium oxide in which tin, tin oxide or a mixture is doped, cannot sufficiently prevent charge injection, and it is difficult to reduce spot fogs.

Electrophotographic photosensitive member and apparatus using same


A furniture glide assembly including a threaded rod, a convex glide foot, and an retractable glide foot, wherein the furniture associated with the glide assembly is essentially immobile when the glide foot is engaged, and wherein the furniture can be easily moved when the glide foot is retracted.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a furniture glide including a retractable glide cup that may be used to level and/or immobilize furniture, appliances, or any other devices or apparatus used with legs or feet.
(2) Description of the Art
Major household appliance such automatic clothes washers, clothes dryers and refrigerators, office furniture and in particular modular office furniture typically include glides which are feet that provide a mechanism for supporting, immobilizing, and for leveling the piece of furniture or appliance so that it may be used optimally even though the floor on which it is mounted may not be level. One problem that exists with glides associated with furniture and appliance is that they are designed only level and immobilize the furniture or appliance to which they are associated. As a result, it is difficult to move furniture or appliances with immobilized glides without completely lifting the furniture or appliance off the ground, by pushing instead of lifting. Thus, improperly moving appliances or furniture that is associated with furniture glides can cause the furniture glides to bend and or snap which requires the difficult and expensive replacement of the glides.


A method of operating an internal combustion engine in which fuel is combusted during a working stroke in at least one combustion chamber includes determining by a pressure sensor a gas pressure acting in the combustion chamber during the working stroke, monitoring a plausibility of a measuring variable obtained from a signal of the pressure sensor, determining, of a plurality of actual operational variables of the internal combustion engine which are not based on the signal of the pressure sensor, a reference variable corresponding to the measuring variable, comparing the measuring variable with the reference variable, and by this comparison checking the plausibility of the signal of the pressure sensor and the measuring variable obtained from it; and also a computer program, an electrical storage medium, and a control and/or regulating device for carrying out the method are provided.

The present invention relates to a method for operating an internal combustion engine.
More particularly, it relates to a method of operation of an internal combustion engine, in which the fuel is burned during a working stroke in at least one combustion chamber, a gas pressure which is generated during a working stroke in the combustion chamber is detected by a pressure sensor, and the plausibility of a measuring variable obtained form the signal of the pressure sensor is monitored.
Such a method is known on a market. A pressure sensor is provided in an internal combustion engine in at least one cylinder and measures the actually acting gas pressure in the combustion chamber of the cylinder. With the variables derived from the gas pressure, it is possible to obtain knowledge about the course and the quality of the combustion of the fuel in the combustion chamber. This knowledge can be used for an optimization of the control of the combustion engine, in particular with respect to the fuel consumption, the emission behavior and the running quietness.
The used pressure sensors are however extremely subjected to temperature and pressure loads. Therefore, a complex mechanical design is needed to uncouple an evaluating electronic unit of the pressure sensor from a receiver, which is arranged directly on the combustion chamber of the cylinder of the internal combustion engine. Therefore, it can not be excluded that such a pressure sensor fails. In order to recognize a failure, the plausibility of the signal of the pressure sensor is monitored. For this purpose, in the known methods rigid limiting values are defined, and when the signal is below or above the limiting value, a conclusion about an error of the pressure sensor is made. For example, a failure of the pressure sensor is recognized when the sensor signal during the operation of the internal combustion engine indicates zero volt.

Method of operating an internal combustion engine


A disc brake has a brake carrier (10) with at least two bolts (16a, 16b, 18a, 18b) which stand axially to the brake disc for guiding a brake lining (32a, 32b). The plane (P) spanned by the bolt axes has a smaller radial distance (D) from the disc axis (A) than the centroid of the friction lining.

The invention relates to a disc brake with a brake carrier, able to be fixed to the vehicle and having bolts, and with brake linings and a caliper or frame.
Brakes of this kind are generally known. The brake linings, consisting of a carrying plate and a friction lining, are normally guided axially in relation to the brake disc by means of bolts fixed to the brake carrier. With disc brakes "axially" means in general: in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the brake disc. "Radially" means correspondingly a direction perpendicular to an axial direction in the above sense.
The prior art of disc brakes of this kind is represented by, e.g. the following patent documents: DE 1238284, DE 1505491 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,468, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in entirety, DE 1 575920, DE 2804808 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,106, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in entirety, DE 2845404, DE 4115064 and DE 4 416 815. Further patent documents which also belong to the prior art are DE 101 13 347, DE 2 211 013 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,263.
The present invention is also dedicated to these technical features.
A persistent technical problem definition in designing disc brakes is the reduction of manufacturing expense and the weight of the brake with simultaneous high functional reliability and low maintenance expense. The two latter-mentioned standard aims also include in particular the avoidance of susceptibilities to failure of the brake caused by rust. A particular problem in all brake designs is the avoidance of squeaking noises due to oscillations.
The present invention is also dedicated to these technical objectives.

Disc brake with brake linings guided on bolts


A computerized, electronic purchase mediating system includes a purchaser database having a list of purchasers and a merchant database having a list of merchants. The purchaser database stores information about each purchaser including a set of personal payment methods that the purchaser could use to purchase goods and/or services. Similarly, the merchant database stores information about each merchant including a set of accepted payment methods that the merchant would accept for sale of the goods and/or services. The purchase system also includes a processor coupled to the purchaser and merchant databases. The processor receives a purchase request and accesses the merchant database according to a merchant identified in the purchase request to retrieve the set of accepted payment methods which corresponds to that merchant. The processor also accesses the purchaser database to retrieve the set of personal payment methods which corresponds to the identified purchaser. The processor then computes an intersection of these two sets to derive a common set of any available payment method that is both accepted by the merchant and can be used by the purchaser for purchase of the goods and/or services. The purchaser is presented with the purchase amount and the common set of available payment methods to choose a most preferred form of payment. Upon selection, the processor consummates the sale and signs a digital signature with the purchaser's permission via password verification to ensure for the merchant that a completed transaction has occurred.

In a transaction for the purchase of goods and/or services, the purchaser typically has the ability to pay for the items using any one of many different payment methods. For instance, consider the familiar situation where a purchaser in a department store wishes to buy an article of clothing. The purchaser can pay for the clothing article with cash or by check. Alternatively, the purchaser might wish to use a credit card or a debit card. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the purchaser to carry many payment options in the form of cash, a checkbook, a bank debit card, as well as many different kinds of credit cards, including cards issued by the merchants themselves (e.g., a Sears.RTM. charge card or a Nordstroms.RTM. charge card), bank issued credit cards (e.g., a SeaFirst Bank VISA.RTM. credit card or a Bank of America MasterCard.RTM. credit card), an organization-related credit card (e.g., United Airlines Mileage Plus First Card.TM. or an IEEE credit card), and association credit cards (e.g., Discover.RTM. and American Express.RTM.).
The department store, on the other hand, might only accept a few of these forms of payment, such as cash, local checks, its own charge card, and American Express.RTM., while not accepting other forms of payment. The department store often posts these accepted forms of payment at the point-of-purchase counter.
During the purchase transaction of the clothing article, the purchaser mentally takes note of the forms of payment accepted by the department store. The purchaser then tenders payment using a suitable payment method. If the purchaser chooses to pay with a personal check, the sales clerk performs an authentication process. The clerk only accepts the check if it is local, if the clerk recognizes the person writing the check, or if the person presents another piece of identification (e.g., a credit card or driver's license) to verify the authenticity of that person who is offering the check.
In the event the purchaser tenders a credit card to pay for the clothing article, the sales clerk performs a check to verify that the purchaser has sufficient funds in the credit card account and has not exceeded the spending limit imposed by the issuing institution. This is typically done by passing the purchaser's credit card through a magnetic-stripe card reader, such as a Verifone.RTM. system, that is located at the point-of-purchase counter to electronically read the purchaser's account information contained in the magnetic stripe on the credit card. The purchaser's account information is validated on-line with the card issuer with respect to the purchaser's account balance and spending limit. Assuming that the verification process returns a normal status, the sales clerk accepts the tendered credit card and consummates the purchase.
The complexity of a purchase transaction increases when moved from the point-of-purchase context, where the purchaser and merchant are face-to-face, to a remote purchase context, where the merchant and purchaser are separated from one another. For example, consider another familiar transaction where a purchaser wants to buy a new lamp from a mail order catalog. The purchaser places an order for the lamp over the telephone or through the mail. The purchaser might use a credit card, enclose a check, or simply wait to be billed at the end of the month. The merchant takes an assumed risk that the ordering consumer is legitimate and that payment will be forthcoming, and based upon that assumption, ships the new lamp to the purchaser.
In these transactions, the merchant accepts a fairly high risk of not being paid (compared to other types of sales transactions) because the purchaser does not present a credit card or sign a credit card receipt. The purchaser can deny that the transaction ever occurred, leaving the merchant with the burden of proving that a transaction took place. To meet this burden, the merchant typically tries to show that the purchaser signed for receipt of the product.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in the number of consumers that order goods and/or services, and then pay for them, using electronic devices. For instance, it is fairly common for a purchaser to watch a home shopping television program, choose a product, and order the product over the telephone. The product is shipped and the purchaser is billed at a later time. As another example, the viewer may purchase a special movie or event that is scheduled to be shown at a particular time, like that of the Pay-Per-View.RTM. arrangement. In this situation, the viewer orders the special program from the cable company over the telephone, typically using an automated menu, and the program is electronically sent to the viewer's own television set. The viewer is then billed at the end of the month as part of the cable bill. For another example, a computer user might wish to purchase a service from an on-line service provider whereby the user simply orders and receives the desired service electronically over a network communication system, such as Internet. Common on-line service providers include CompuServe.RTM., Dialog.RTM., and America On-Line.RTM..
In addition to purchasing items using electronic devices, people are beginning to automate their payment of such items. After a good or service is received and a bill is presented, many purchasers are starting to pay their bills electronically, or through a check writing system such as the Checkfree.RTM. system. In these computerized payment systems, the consumer instructs the service provider by telephone, computer terminal, or other telecommunications to pay various bills (especially recurring, monthly bills) without the consumer having to write a check for each bill. U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,113 describes an example computerized check writing system.
With the increasing demand to electronically purchase and pay for goods and/or services, there are a number of issues that arise. For instance, the purchaser must choose a method of paying for the goods and/or services that is acceptable to the merchant. But this task is not so simple, because the purchaser most likely will not have access to payment methods that are accepted by the merchant. Unlike a point-of-purchase transaction where the accepted payment methods are often posted, the purchaser in the electronic transaction is often blind to the requirements of the merchant.
Another issues concerns how to protect the purchaser's wallet from the merchant. Given a choice, the merchant would most likely choose one particular payment method (such as using the merchant's own charge card) that the purchaser might not wish to use. Moreover, for obvious reasons, it is in the purchaser's interest not to reveal his/her bank account or credit card information to the merchant. An electronic purchasing system should block the merchant from access to the purchaser's payment options and to this confidential account information.
Another concern is protection from fraudulent transactions, both on the part of the merchant and the purchaser. For instance, how can the purchaser be sure that the merchant is authentic and truly has the represented goods or services to sell? How can the purchaser know that he/she will not be billed for more than the amount that was agreed upon? From the merchant side, how can the merchant be assured that the purchaser really exists and that payment will be forthcoming? These issues are less troublesome in a point-of-purchase context because the purchaser and merchant can see one another, the goods are often readily apparent, and payment is typically tendered on the spot. However, in an electronic purchasing system where the purchaser might live in one state or country and the seller might live in another, these issues become rather important. A suitable purchasing system should address these issues to reduce or prevent the occurrence of fraudulent transactions.
Another issue that arises in the electronic environment is whether the purchaser has sufficient funds to pay for the goods or services. Still another issue concerns how to authenticate the purchaser and merchant, as there is no opportunity for either of them to visually authenticate one another like in the point-of-purchase context.
Many of the issues raised above are born out of the difficulty and complexity of converting from a "paper-trail" purchase transaction system--where these concerns are addressed in large part through the use of paper checks, receipts, physical credit cards, debit cards, and penned signature verification--to a "paperless" computerized purchase transaction system. It is an object of this invention to provide a "paperless" electronic purchasing system which solves these above noted problems.

Computerized purchasing system and method for mediating purchase transactions over an interactive network


A cigar package has an outer package with walls, a top and a bottom, where the outer package of a size adapted for use in a vending machine. The cigar package includes an interior cigar-supporting insert having a cigar-supporting portion and a mounting portion. The cigar-supporting portion contains an aperture and extends across the outer package at a point between a bottom-supporting wall and a top-supporting wall such that a plane formed by the aperture is oriented transversely to a longitudinal axis of the cigar package. The mounting portion of the insert is secured to a side-supporting wall of the cigar package. The package also includes an ash compartment separate from a main storage compartment. A lid of the ash compartment is hingedly connected to a rear wall. The package includes means for securely fastening the lid to the compartment when the lid is rotated upon the lid hinge to a closed position so that the lid remains closed when the package is inverted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package and method used to disburse cigars in point-of-sale transactions through an already established infrastructure of cigarette or other vending machines or any other infrastructure especially adapted to accommodate the vending of cigarette packages. The invention also relates to a package for a cigar or similar smoking item incorporating an ashtray particularly well suited to a single use packaging system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an established infrastructure for the distribution of cigarettes through vending machine mediated, point of sale transactions. Another established infrastructure exists, for example within convenience stores, that facilitates the storage and point of sale, single package vending of cigarettes. Typical point of sale cigarette transactions are made in packages of twenty cigarettes, which is a quantity often desired for an individual's use. Cigarette packages are formed either of soft paper or thin cardboard, are generally cellophane-wrapped and generally have one of two well established and dominant sizes. The infrastructure for sale of cigarettes include vending machines or distribution racks that are designed to accommodate such packages on an individual package basis. Cigarettes thus have a well-established point of sale infrastructure for vending quantities demanded for personal use. By contrast, cigars do not have a well-established point of sale distribution channel for vending quantities demanded for personal use and have been difficult to purchase individually or in small quantities outside of specialized cigar retail establishments. Traditional cigar vending has been in the form of boxes of twenty, fifty or one hundred, which quantities cannot be considered appropriate for short term individual use. In part, the market channels conventionally preferred for cigars reflect the appreciation that cigars are best stored in environments maintained under careful moisture and temperature control. The nature of cigars and the culture of cigar smoking make single unit sales a strong preference.
Cigars are thicker than cigarettes and generally cannot be easily vended through standard vending machines that are configured for sales of packages of cigarettes having a standard size. Single cigar sales are difficult through standard cigarette vending machines because the transport mechanisms of such machines are too crude to handle the small size and the difficult cylindrical shape of cigars. In addition, cigars have leaf wrappers and often have substantially unbroken leaf tobacco contained within the leaf wrappers. This makes cigars both stiffer and more subject to damage than cigarettes, since it is undesirable to crush the tobacco leaf filler or to cut the leaf wrapper over the body of the cigar. Cigars are much more difficult to handle than cigarettes, because cigarettes are made of shredded tobacco within a paper wrapper. The somewhat delicate nature of cigars further exacerbates the difficulties of vending cigars, because vending machines are ill equipped to handle comparatively delicate products such as cigars. Because cigars are difficult to handle in their conventionally preferred sales configuration and because cigars can be somewhat delicate, it has generally not been practical to vend cigars through conventional vending machines of the type established for the vending of cigarettes.
With cigars, as with cigarettes, there is always a difficulty in disposing of the ashes produced as the article is smoked. There have been suggestions to alter the packaging of cigarettes to provide an ash compartment integral to the cigarette package. These prior suggestions have been unsuccessful, as evidenced by the failure of these suggestions to be implemented on any commercial basis. One of the problems with the ash compartments conventionally taught is that such ash compartments tend to compress the enclosed ashes as the compartment is closed. This creates a bellows effect that undesirably expels the ashes from the ash compartment as the compartment is closed. Another limitation of the conventional suggestions is that the ash compartment is configured as a separate lid or opening into the main storage compartment of the package. When ashes are stored in such compartments, the ashes undesirably mix with the smoking articles, so that smoking articles subsequently removed from the package are covered with ashes and cannot be handled cleanly.

Cigar package and package having integral ashtray


The present disclosure is directed to a system and method of providing advertisements to mobile devices. In an embodiment, an approximate position of a mobile device along a path can be determined based at least partially on data identifying the mobile device within a cellular coverage region. A service can be selected at least partially based on the approximate position, and an advertisement relating to the selected service can be sent to the mobile device.

Mobile devices, e.g., cellular telephones, portable digital assistants, 802.11 devices, are useful for obtaining information while traveling. For example, a user can call an information service to obtain the location of a gas station, restaurant, etc. Further, a user can access the Internet or a Wide Area Network via a mobile device and input a query in order to obtain information about a business, a local attraction, a civic event, or any other point of interest. These systems are not typically proactive and require an input from a user before information about a business, location, etc. is sent to the requesting device. Additionally, GPS systems have been provided that can track the location of a user and show the location of the user on an electronic map. However, these systems include limited information and typically, the electronic map provided by the GPS system is simply a map with little other information. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of providing advertisements to mobile devices.

System and method of providing advertisements to mobile devices


A universal LCC test socket assembly for making solderless connections between the leads of either a rectangular or square configured LCC packaged IC and a testing device includes a top member having spring biased securing members for temporarily securing a LCC packaged IC, and a base member including a plurality of electrical contacts that extend beyond the base member for electrical connection to the testing device.

The subject invention relates to a new and improved universal LCC test socket assembly for temporarily connecting the conductive leads of an LCC surface mounted device to an electric testing device during a test and evaluation procedure.
The term LCC is intended to include leaded chip carriers or chip carrier packages that typically consist of one or more circuit chips mounted on a lead frame and encapsulated within an electrically non-conductive housing. In one exemplary type, the encapsulating housing is of a plastic or plastic like material, hence the designation PLCC for plastic leaded chip carrier. In another exemplary type, the encapsulating housing is of a ceramic or ceramic-like material, hence the designation CLCC for ceramic leaded chip carrier.
In the manufacture and use of integrated circuits ("IC") packaged as surface mounted devices, it is important to electrically test such devices accurately, reliably, and quickly. In the LCC device, the IC circuit is contained in a non-conductive housing having a generally square or rectangular, box-like configuration. Generally speaking, LCC packages house memory and microprocessor integrated circuit chips requiring large numbers of conductive leads. LCC's typically include either two rows of conductive leads or terminals along opposed parallel sides of the housing or four rows of conducting leads, one along each side of the housing. The most common configuration of LCC's include four rows of conductive leads contained on either a generally square or rectangular, box-like housing. The conductive leads of a LCC are relatively flexible and extend laterally outwardly from the housing of the semiconductor circuit and are bent downwardly and inwardly, so that the leads curl under the housing of the semiconductor circuit. At such time, the leads are disposed generally in a common plane. A typical LCC may have from 20 to 84 terminals or conductive leads arranged in four equal groups along each side of the housing. For example, a 20-lead LCC has five leads per side. The conductive leads are typically positioned on 0.050 inch centers along each side of the LCC, with each lead having a side portion exposed at the bottom of the housing.
A LCC is designed to be mounted directly on the surface of a circuit board or within a suitable receiving socket of a circuit board, hence the designation surface mounted device. A LCC is typically mounted on the surface of a printed circuit board using a soldering technique to mechanically and electrically attach each conductive lead to a respective solder land on the printed circuit board.
The LCC can be distinguished from dual-in-line packaged (DIP) integrated circuits in that DIP devices are intended for mounting with leads, or more commonly connecting pins, passing through the surface of the circuit board (or within a suitable socket) as opposed to mounting on the surface of the circuit board. Additionally, DIP's typically include only two rows of parallel connecting leads, in contrast to the usual four-rows of conductive leads of the LCC.
Due to the ever increasing use of LCC's, it has become desirable to provide a test socket assembly that may be used to make electrical connections with each of the conductive leads of a LCC surface mounted device for signal testing and/or signal injecting purposes. Because the conductive leads are located along each of the four sides of the LCC, prior art test assemblies for DIP packages generally could not be used effectively even if appropriately sized since they would permit electrical connections with conductive leads at only two opposed sides of the LCC.
Of critical importance, when designing a LCC test socket assembly, the LCC leads tend to be very soft, flexible and hence delicate. For instance, the conductive leads contained within LCC surface-mount devices are frequently provided with solder joints which are sensitive to external pressures and therefore any ensuing contacts with a testing assembly should be carefully conducted so as to avoid fracturing the solder joints. A force component as small as a few grams in a direction parallel to the plane of the LCC could result in fracture of the solder joints of each conductive lead. A single lead of an LCC damaged in testing can render the entire LCC unsuitable for use.
Still another critical design consideration is the alignment system which is utilized in the test socket assembly for aligning the LCC conductive leads with the appropriate contact points of the testing apparatus. Misalignment of the LCC leads from the appropriate contacts on the testing apparatus could render the entire testing procedure useless.
Yet another critical design consideration is the adaptability of the testing apparatus to be capable of testing different configurations of LCC's, i.e., square as well as rectangular configured LCC's.
In summary, there exists a requirement in the electronics industry for a universal test socket assembly for testing LCC packages which have large numbers of fragile conductive leads. The need for such a test socket assembly is especially critical because of the expanding use of LCC surface-mount packages, and the fact that such packages are presently particularly difficult to test. LCC devices are difficult to test because the LCC packages can easily become skewed from a square position relative to the test circuit board, and because of the need to avoid undue pressure contact between the conductive leads of the LCC and the conductive contacts of a test assembly. There is also a need for a universal test assembly that does not cause undue delays during testing and is readily adaptable for testing LCC integrated circuit packages mounted in various patterns on different configured housings.
It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide a universal test socket assembly for both square and rectangular configured LCC's.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide a universal LCC test socket assembly which does not bend or fracture the delicate LCC leads of a LCC during a test procedure.
Yet another object of the subject invention is to provide a universal LCC test socket assembly which properly positions and holds a LCC while aligning the respective conductive leads with the appropriate electrical contacts on the test socket assembly.
Still another object of the subject invention is to provide a universal LCC test socket assembly which provides an electrical test assembly that can be connected with, and disconnected from, a LCC packaged IC with a relatively small amount of force being applied to the conductive leads of the LCC.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide a universal LCC test socket assembly which readily achieves electrical interconnection between the leads of the LCC and the testing circuit, without subjecting the conductive leads to excessive forces that could result in damage to the leads.
Still a further object of the subject invention is to provide a universal LCC test socket assembly that is inexpensive to manufacture, and can be readily operated by unskilled labor.

Test socket assembly for testing LCC packages of both rectangular and square configuration