Assembly for connecting a pipe having a flanged end in fluid communication with an opposing part. The assembly includes an insert received coaxially within the pipe end and having a forward end face extending axially beyond the pipe end, a clamp ring received coaxially over the pipe end, and a flange piece which is fastenable to the opposing as received coaxially over the clamp ring. As the flange piece is fastened to the opposing part, the forward end face of the insert is urged into a sealable engagement against a confronting surface of the opposing part.

The invention pertains to a flange connection in a design as a pipe connection device with a screw-on flange part, set on the outside of the pipe to be connected to by means of at least two screws with a counter piece, whereas a sleeve formed insert piece adapted to the contour of the connecting pipe with widened end can be inserted into the pipe provided with the widened end, said insert piece forming the pipe connection on its outer face and whereupon the screw-on flange part overlaps an additional clamping ring, with its inside contour matching the contour of the widening of the pipe end, slid on the outside of the widened pipe end.
A flange connection featuring screw couplings is known, for example, from the ISO-norm 6162 or 6164. Such flange connections are suitable and designated for the connection of two pipes together as well as for the connection of a pipe end with a connecting block, for example with a valve block. In the case of the known flange connections, standard ISO flange parts sit in each case on a formed pipe end fitting with a stepped outside contour corresponding to the ISO flange part, which is joined with the pipe to be connected by means of pipe-to-pipe weld joint. Herewith there is the disadvantage that the fabrication of the pipe end pieces, as well as their welding on the pipe to be connected, is laborious, whereas the necessary weld joint displays a certain weak spot in the case of later application of the pipe-flange-connection.
A flange connection of another design with a flange piece different from the ISO standards is described in the GB PS 1 232 938. In the case of the known pipe connection, the end of the pipe to be connected has a conically formed widening into which an insert piece featuring a conical outer surface is pushed. The insert piece has a sleeve form constructed with a central opening corresponding to the pipe cross section of the cylindrical pipe body, so that a flow passage from the cylindrical pipe body through the insert piece is provided. The outer face surface of the insert piece is either attached against a connecting block or against the outer face surface of an insert piece pushed into the pipe end of a second pipe, so that two pipe ends can be connected together by means of appropriately assigned insert pieces. Corresponding conical formed clamp pieces, which are overlapped by a flange piece, are arranged on the outside of the pipe end with the widened form. This flange piece is screwable by means of corresponding screw connections either with the connecting block or with a flange piece arranged on a second pipe end, so that the pipe connection is producible by means of the tightening of the corresponding screws. The flange piece has a conical form on its inner surface surrounding the clamp piece corresponding to the conical form of the clamp piece.
Associated with this pipe connection device is firstly the disadvantage that the transition of the conical widening in the cylindrical pipe body has a kinking point which, in the case of high vibration stress of the connected pipe or the pipes connected to each other, can result in a corresponding sensitivity to breakage. Furthermore there has been the result with the known pipe connection devices, especially in the case of large pipe diameters and high pressures, that the conical widening of the pipe body thereto tends to evade the cylindrical pipe form and thereby to slip out of the pipe connecting device.
A pipe connection of another design is known from GB 740 717, by which the connection of the pipe ends takes place by means of a screw nut threaded connection system. Here, in each case, clamp rings are attached to the outside of the pipe ends which have a widening end, said clamp rings having a support bearing or alternatively a male screw thread for a sleeve formed coupling nut such that the coupling nut grasping the clamp ring of one pipe end is screwed onto the clamp ring with male thread on the other pipe end and thereby pulls the clamp rings and hence the pipe ends together. Here the adapter pieces inserted into the widened pipe ends are also known. Associated with this pipe connection is the disadvantage that—as apposed to the known flange connection named at the beginning—a torsion movement is transferred to the widened area at the end of the pipes during the assembly of the screw nut coupling system, such that the pipes to be connected possibly rotate at the same time. This effect is, as a rule, undesirable in the case of the adjustment of pipes to be connected together.


A semiconductor memory device which comprises memory cells arranged in rows and columns on a semiconductor substrate, each having one transistor and one capacitor, word lines each connected to memory cells in the same row, bit lines each connected to memory cells in the same column, a plate voltage generating circuit for generating a capacitor plate voltage at the time of normal operation, a negative pulse generating circuit responsive to a control signal supplied thereto at the time of voltage stress testing, for generating a pulse voltage of negative polarity, switch circuits for supplying the pulse voltage of negative polarity output from the negative pulse generating circuit, to the plate electrodes of the capacitors of all memory cells simultaneously, in place of the output of the plate voltage generating circuit, and a switch control circuit responsive to a control signal supplied thereto during voltage stress testing, for controlling the switch circuits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and, more particularly, to a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) having means for screening out defects of capacitor insulating layers of memory cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to secure reliability of semiconductor devices, screening is commonly performed on the devices before their shipment, the detect potential defects in the devices and remove defective elements. The technique of screening most used is burn-in, which can implement voltage acceleration and temperature acceleration simultaneously. In burn-in screening, devices are operated at a voltage higher than their normal operating voltage and a temperature higher than a normal operating temperature. The devices thereby receive, within a short time, a stress greater than that they may receive in their early failure period under normal operating conditions. Of these devices, those which are most likely to have early failure are screened out before shipment. Thus, the devices that may fail early can be removed effectively, and only the devices which are far less likely to have early failure are delivered to customers.
Burn-in is classified into package burn-in and wafer burn-in. In package burn-in, semiconductor devices are subjected to burn-in after they have been sealed in packages as a final product. In wafer burn-in, semiconductor devices are subjected to burn-in while they are still in wafer form.
With DRAMs having a memory capacity of 1M bits or more, it is common that half of a power-supply voltage (VCC/2) is applied to the plate electrode of each memory cell capacitor during normal operation. More specifically, in a DRAM memory cell MC of FIG. 1, for example, a cell transistor 10 has its gate connected to a word line WL, its drain connected to a bit line BL, and its source connected to one terminal (charge storage node 11a) of a capacitor 11. The other terminal (plate electrode 11b) of the capacitor 11 is connected to VCC/2.
To eliminate the defect of the capacitor insulating layer rapidly during voltage stress testing for package burn-in of such a DRAM, an insulating layer of the capacitor (capacitor insulating layer) needs to be aged. A technique of aging the capacitor insulating layer is disclosed in IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. SC-22, No. 5, OCTOBER, 1987, pp. 643-650, "A 4-M bit DRAM with Folded-Bit-Line Adaptive Sidewall-Isolated Capacitor (FASIC) Cell", FIG. 11. In this technique, the capacitor plate electrode is set at a power-supply voltage VCC, thereby aging the capacitor insulating layer.
If the insulating layer begins breaking down, and a small leakage current begins to flow, during voltage stress testing, the voltage at the charge storage node 11a of the capacitor 11 will fall, and the voltage applied to the capacitor insulating layer will also fall because the node 11a is in the floating state. When leakage current starts flowing, the voltage stress across the insulating layer falls to 7 V or less if VCC is, for example 7 V. Consequently, it is no longer possible to break down the capacitor insulating layer completely, though the layer has been broken down to some extent, or a considerably long time is required to break down the insulating layer completely.
However, the capacitor insulating layer, whose defect is limited to leakage of small current, brings about degradation of various types of memory-cell operating margins. (The most significant degradation mode is that of data holding characteristic). In many cases it is difficult to detect memory cells having such a degradation mode by means of a functional test conducted after the voltage stress testing. The less prominent such degradation, the more difficult it is to perform successful detection.
Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 59-500840 which corresponds to PCT Application U.S. 83/00515, PCT Publication No. WO 83/04109 (Nob. 24, 1983) discloses the technique of mounting a voltage-stress applying pad on a DRAM chip and connecting it to capacitor plate electrodes of all memory cells of a memory cell array in common, and applying a negative voltage (-40 V) to the pad from outside the chip during voltage stress testing for DRAM wafer burn-in. In this technique, the semiconductor substrate and word lines are set at ground potential VSS, whereby the capacitor insulating layers of the memory cells can be screened out efficiently within a short period of time. In this case, however, a burn-in testing device external to the wafer requires a negative power supply for supplying the negative voltage.
For a voltage stress testing for package burn-in or wafer burn-in, it is desirable that an external testing device have no negative power supply and that the gate insulating layers of cell transistors be screened efficiently within a short time, while simultaneously screening the capacitor insulating layers of memory cells.

Semiconductor memory device having voltage stress testing capability


An image conversion apparatus for converting and outputting the spatial resolution, temporal resolution, or image quality of compressed image data input thereto is provided. A compression-coded frame-unit image signal An input from the input signal line is changed to real-time image data Rn by an image decoding unit. A image coding unit then converts the real-time image data Rn to compressed image data comprising fewer picture elements and having a different spatial or temporal resolution different from that of the real-time image data Rn.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image conversion apparatus for converting the spatial resolution, temporal resolution or image quality of compressed image data to obtain compressed image data of a different spatial resolution, temporal resolution or image quality used for transmission or database storage of compressed images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The massive volume of information carried by digital image signals makes high efficiency coding essential for transmitting or recording digital image signals. Various image compression techniques have therefore been proposed in recent years, and some of these techniques are also scalable. Scalability makes it possible for the user to use images at any desired spatial resolution, temporal resolution, or image quality, and thus enables, for example, both HDTV and standard TV signals to be alternatively received from a single transmission path in response to user requests.
An image coding apparatus (including image conversion apparatuses) using MPEG, a conventional scalable image coding method, is described below with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B, block diagrams of a conventional MPEG-compatible image coding method. The image coding apparatus comprises a first image coder 7 shown in FIG. 1A, and a second image coder 8 shown in FIG. 1B. The image data size and number of pixels that can be processed by the first image coder 7 differ from those of the second image coder 8. Note that in FIGS. 1A and 1B the signal line indicated by the solid line is the video signal line, and the signal line indicated by the dotted line is the line for signals other than the video signal (including the so-called "side information" described below).
The video (image) signal is an. interlace-scanned image input in frame units. The video signal input to input terminal 70 in FIG. 1A is an uncompressed digital video signal. The input image is first input to the first resolution converter 91 shown in FIG. 1B, and converted to an image of half the resolution (number of pixels) both vertically and horizontally. The first frame coded is intraframe coded without obtaining any frame difference value. The input image data is passed through the differencer and applied to the DCT mode evaluator 82 and DCT processor 83. The DCT mode evaluator 82 detects the amount of motion in the image and determines whether frame or field unit DCT should be used by, for example, obtaining the inter-line difference in two-dimensional block units. The result of this operation is input to the DCT processor 83 as the DCT mode information.
The DCT processor 83 applies a DCT in either frame or field unit based on the DCT mode information, and converts the image data to a conversion coefficient. Quantizer 84 quantizes the conversion coefficient supplied from the DCT processor 83, and outputs to the variable length coder 85 and inverse quantizer 86. The variable length coder 85 variable length codes the quantized signal, and outputs the result through the multiplexer 93 shown in FIG. 1A to the transmission path. The quantized conversion coefficient is then inverse quantized by the inverse quantizer 86, and input to the inverse DCT processor 87. The inverse DCT processor 87 restores the input data to real-time image data, and stores the real-time image data to the frame buffer 88.
Because there is usually a high correlation between images, energy is concentrated in the conversion coefficients corresponding to the low frequency component after DCT is applied. As a result, by quantizing the high frequency components to which the human visual system (HVS) is less sensitive with large quantization noise, and quantizing the more important low frequency components with minimal quantization noise, image deterioration can be minimized, and the compressed image data size can be smaller (higher coding efficiency). In addition, the intraframe correlation is high when there is little motion in interlaced images, and when motion is large the inter-frame correlation is low but the intra-field correlation is high. It follows that interlaced images can also be efficiently coded by using this characteristic of interlaced images to appropriately switch between frame and field unit DCT processing.
Images following the intraframe coded frame- are then coded by calculating a predicted value for each frame, and then coding the difference between the actual frame value and the predicted value, i.e., coding the prediction error. The coding apparatus typically obtains the image used for predictive coding from the first resolution converter 91, and inputs the image to the motion detector 81; the motion detector 81 obtains the image motion vectors in two-dimensional block units using a common full search method.
The frame buffer 88 and motion compensator 89 then generate predicted values compensating for motion in the next frame in two-dimensional blocks using the motion vectors detected by the motion detector 81. The difference between the predicted value and the actual image input data is calculated to obtain the prediction error, which is coded with the same method used for intraframe coding. The motion vectors used for motion compensation, the motion compensation information expressing the parameters for block unit motion compensation, and the DCT mode information are applied as "side information" to the variable length coder 85, and are transferred to the decoder (not shown in the figures) through multiplexer 93 with the coded coefficient.
Because prediction error is optimally coded by means of the above image coding apparatus, the energy decreases and higher coding efficiency can be achieved in comparison with such direct image data coding schemes as intraframe coding.
In contrast with this, the first image coder 7 (FIG. 1A) is an image compression coder whereby the image resolution is not changed. The first image coder 7 shown in FIG. 1A comprises, similarly to the first image coder 7 in FIG. 1B, a motion detector 71, DCT mode evaluator 72, DCT processor 73, quantizer 74, variable length coder 75, a inverse quantizer 76, inverse DCT processor 77, adder, frame buffer 78, and motion compensator 79.
This image coder 7 essentially compression codes digital image signals in the same way as the second image coder 8, but differs from the second image coder 8 in the ability to use low resolution images to generate the predicted values. Predicted value generation itself is handled by the motion compensator 79, and to accomplish this, the low resolution image of the previous frame stored in the frame buffer 88 is input to the image resolution converter 92 (FIG. 1B) for resolution doubling in both vertical and horizontal directions. The motion compensator 79 then uses an image the same size as the original image obtained by the image resolution converter 92 as one of the predicted value candidates. The motion compensator 79 shown in FIG. 1A calculates the difference between the original image and the predicted value read from the frame buffer 78, and between the original image and the output of the second image resolution converter 92, and selects the smaller difference for input to the DCT processor 73.
By means of the first image coder 7 coding high resolution images as thus described, parts such as low resolution image areas do not need to be coded, and coding efficiency can be increased. The high and low resolution coded images are then multiplexed by the multiplexer 93 and output to the transmission path.
The decoder (not shown in the figures) obtains a low resolution image by extracting and decoding the low resolution coded image data from a single type of coded image data. In addition, by extracting both the high and low resolution coded image data for decoding, the high resolution image data can also be obtained. Depending on the situation, the user can thus switch between receiving low and high resolution images. Such resolution images are explained in MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 N659, "ISO/IEC CD 13818-2: Information technology--Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information--Part 2: Video", 1993.12).
For example, multiplexer 93 produces a multiplexed signal containing a HDTV signal from the variable length coder 75 and a standard TV signal from the variable length coder 85.
According to the prior art, the image coders 7 and 8 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B may be provided at the television broadcasting station. In this case, the television broadcasting station will need to prepare both a HDTV signal and a standard TV signal for the same television program.
Achieving scalability with the above image coding method faces the following problems, however.
First, the quality of high resolution images deteriorates. If the transmission rate of low resolution compressed image data is b, and that of high resolution compressed image data is c, the combined transmission rate a of images compressed by means of this conventional coding method will be a=b+c. Tests have shown that when the image quality of decoded images is compared between images coded using all of transmission rate a for the high resolution compressed images, and images coded using transmission rates b and c to separately code compressed image data of two different resolutions, the quality of the image coded using all of transmission rate a is clearly superior.
Second, the decoding apparatus on the receiving side becomes more complex. More specifically, it is not possible to decode high resolution compressed image data with the conventional coding method without using separate decoders for the high and low resolution images.

Image conversion apparatus for transforming compressed image data of different resolutions wherein side information is scaled

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Methods, corresponding apparatuses, and computer program products for configuring one or more signaling radio bearers are disclosed. A method comprises sending a configuration request for configuring one or more signaling radio bearers to a local area access point by which a user equipment is connected to a wide area base station, wherein the one or more signaling radio bearers are used for communication between the user equipment and the wide area base station. The method also comprises receiving configuration information with respect to the one or more signaling radio bearers from the local area access point. The method additionally comprises sending the configuration information with respect to the one or more signaling radio bearers to the user equipment via a radio resource control message. With the claimed inventions, the wide area base station is capable of efficiently configuring the signaling radio bearers for use between the wide area base station and the user equipment via the local area access point.

Various abbreviations that appear in the specification and/or in the drawing figures are defined as below:
AM Acknowledged Mode
AP Access Point
BS Base Station
CCCH Common Control Channel
CN Core Network
C/I Cipher/Integrity protection
CP Control Plane
DCCH Dedicated Control Channel
DRB Data Radio Bearer
EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol
eNB evolved Node B
EPS Enhanced Packet System
EPC Enhanced Packet Core
GW Gateway
HLR Home Location Register
HSS Home Subscriber Server
IP Internet Protocol
LAN Local Area Network
LCP Logical Channel Prioritization
MAC Medium Access Control
MME Mobility Management Entity
MSC Mobile Switching Centre
NAS Non Access Stratum
OAM Operations, Administrations and Maintenance
PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol
PDU Protocol Data Unit
RB Radio Bearer
RLC Radio Link Control
RRC Radio Resource Control
RRM Radio Resource Management
S1AP Application Protocol over S1 interface
SRB Signaling Radio Bearer
SDU Service Data Unit
UE User Equipment
VLR Visitor Location Register
WAN Wide Area Network
The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together with disclosures not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but provided by the present invention. Some such contributions of the present invention may be specifically pointed out below, while other such contributions of the present invention will be apparent from their context.
With the rapid developments of an LTE system, a high-speed data service is of increasing importance to meeting the requirements of wireless communication users. It is known that a LAN system generally provides a relatively high speed data service. Therefore, how to provide a local service with a high speed data rate under a wireless communication system, e.g., an LTE system, has become a hot topic in the 3GPP.

Methods, apparatuses and computer program products for configuration of signaling radio bearers


A method of text processing by receiving textual units. Then, select a language and a textual unit. Identify the selected textual unit's stem and suffix. Search a rules database for the suffix. If a base suffix is found in the rules database, combine it with the stem to form a lemma. Search a lexicon database for the lemma. If the lemma is found, a model number from the lexicon database is retrieved and cross-referenced with the rules database to obtain all inflected suffixes for the selected textual unit. Combine the inflected suffixes with the stem to form inflected forms. Output a subset of inflected-forms and information associated with the lemma and inflected suffixes. The method is repeated for unprocessed textual units. If the language selected is Russian or Somali, the textual units are processed separately.

Lexical morphology involves the analysis of inflections, derivations and alternate forms of words. For example, when switching from "swim" in the present tense to "swam" in the past tense, the shape of the base word "swim" is changed. In the field of morphology such transformations are referred to as conjugation and declension, and further is an example of morphological inflection. In English, "a" changes to "an" before a vowel sound, but both forms are still thought of as manifestations of the same indefinite article. English speakers know intuitively that "was", "were", "is", and "been" are all re-shapings of the base form "to be."
Though a human may be able to recognize a word as being a tense of a certain base verb, or some other derivation of a base word, the fact that a computer can not make this inherent connection is problematic in many fields. The field of language interpretation is one such field. For example, when a translator inputs a word into a computer translation system, the first thing the computer must do in order to look up the translation of this word is to figure out the dictionary lookup form of the word. For example, if the word to be translated is "fought", the word searched for would be "fight." In typical dictionaries, words are not listed under inflected forms, but under a base form of the word, which is thought of as the head member of a whole class of related forms under a given part of speech. Words in heavily-inflected languages have scores of inflected forms, and it would be impractical in most cases to simply lists all these forms for every word in the language. Because this task is so difficult, a computational algorithm is necessary to analyze all the morphological variations for words in these languages.
Prior to translation, the results of morphological processing are analyzed. To narrow the search for variants of the base word performed by the morphological text processor, many analyzers allow the user to specify certain characteristics for the word, such as the part of speech or tense of the desired word. Though many systems have been developed to morphologically analyze languages, none perform all the tasks necessary to do a complete analysis, especially for heavily inflected languages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,177, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND GENERATION OF NATURAL LANGUAGE TEXT," discloses a system for generating morphological data for a specified word. To accomplish this the system isolates a single word from a stream of text, strips that word to its base form and morphologically transforms that word using paradigms contained in the system memory. The word can be transferred from one form to another if the user requests a word matching only a specific part of speech, or several forms of the word can be generated if the user requests all words fitting a specified criteria. The present invention does not use the method of this invention for text processing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,177 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,959, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PARSING A NATURAL LANGUAGE INPUT SPAN USING A CANDIDATE LIST TO GENERATE ALTERNATIVE NODES," discloses a system that parses a stream of text containing problematic word spans. Problematic word spans are strings of words containing one or more words that have multiple meanings. The system generates alternative parses for each of these words or word groups and, in a preferred embodiment, proceeds to analyze the parsed strings based on the parts of speech of the parsed words. The present invention does not parse words in this manner. U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,959 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,161, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LEARNING THE MORPHOLOGY OF A NATURAL LANGUAGE," discloses a system that performs a morphological analysis of a natural language. The system takes each word of a series of input words and breaks it down to determine the base form, prefixes, and suffixes. This information is used to create a morphological database for the natural language. The present invention does not derive the morphology of a language as does the system of this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,161 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,205, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FROM IDENTIFYING LANGUAGE USING MORPHOLOGICALLY-BASED TECHNIQUES," discloses a system that identifies the language of input text based on the morphology of the text. To accomplish this, the system parses the words and analyzes the portions of the words using the morphological characteristics (e.g. stems, prefixes and suffixes) of those partial words. The parsed word is compared to information in a database representing the morphological characteristics of different languages to determine the language of the input text. The present invention does not perform this type of morphological analysis. U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,250 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
The difficulty in morphological text processing of languages in ensuring that all variant forms of an input word are products of the analysis. These variant forms include not only the standard inflected forms, but also forms that result from exceptions to traditional grammatical rules. This task is particularly difficult when analyzing heavily inflected languages. It is therefore desirable in the art to have a method of morphological text processing that provides all inflected forms for any input word or group of words. It is further desirable in the art to have a method of morphological text processing that provides all inflected forms for any input word or group of words of a highly inflected language.

The United States of America as represented by the Director, National Security Agency


The invention is concerned with a process for transporting a thermally unstable viscous mass through a pipe having a predetermined breaking point to release excess pressure, which predetermined breaking point breaks when the excess pressure is reached, the excess pressure thus being released, and is characterized in that the predetermined breaking point is provided in the interior of the pipe, provided that the predetermined breaking point is not provided as a portion of the inner wall of the pipe.

For the purposes of the present specification and claims, the term viscous mass is used particularly for a solution containing cellulose and an aqueous tertiary amine-oxide able to be processed to cellulose moulded bodies of any kind, particularly fibers and films.
Tertiary amine-oxides have been known as alternative solvents for cellulose. It is known for instance from U.S. Pat. No. 2,179,181 that tertiary amine-oxides are capable of dissolving cellulose without derivatisation and that from these solutions cellulose moulded bodies, such as fibers, may be produced by precipitation. From EP-A-0 553 070 of the present assignee, further tertiary amine-oxides are known. In the following, all tertiary amine-oxides capable of dissolving cellulose are meant when, for the sake of simplicity, only NMMO (=N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide) is cited.
As alternative solvents, tertiary amine-oxides are advantageous insofar as the cellulose is dissolved by the NMMO without derivatisation, contrary to the viscose process. Thus the cellulose does not have to be chemically regenerated, the NMMO remains chemically unchanged and passes during its precipitation into the precipitation bath and may be recovered from the latter and reused for the preparation of a new solution. Therefore the NMMO process offers the possibility of a closed solvent cycle. Additionally, NMMO has an extremely low toxicity.
However, when cellulose is dissolved in NMMO, the polymerisation degree of the cellulose decreases. Moreover, particularly the presence of metal ions (such as Fe.sup.3+) leads to radically initiated chain cleavages and thus to a significant degradation of the cellulose and the solvent (Buijtenhuijs et al. (The Degradation and Stabilization of Cellulose Dissolved in N-Methylmorpholin-N-Oxide (NMMO), in "Das Papier", Volume 40, number 12, pages 615-619, 1986).
On the other hand, amine-oxides generally have only a limited thermal stability which varies depending on their structure. Under normal conditions, the monohydrate of NMMO is present as a white crystalline solid, which melts at 72.degree. C. Its anhydric compound however melts at no less than 172.degree. C. When heating the monohydrate, intense discoloration will occur from 120.degree./130.degree. C. up. From 175.degree. C. up, an exothermal reaction is initiated, the molten mass being completely dehydrated and great amounts of gas developing which eventually lead to an explosion, the temperatures rising to far over 250.degree. C.
It is known that metallic iron and copper and particularly their salts significantly reduce the decomposition temperature of NMMO, while the decomposition rate is simultaneously increased.
Moreover, additionally to the problems mentioned above, there is another difficulty, i.e. the thermal instability of the NMMO/cellulose solutions themselves. This means that at the elevated processing temperatures (approximately 110.degree.-120.degree. C.), uncontrollable decomposition processes are initiated in the solutions which due to the development of gases may lead to strong deflagrations, fires and even explosions.
To release the excess pressure in pipes produced in the decomposition processes mentioned above, a pipe element having a predetermined breaking point as portion of the pipe wall is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5, 337,776. This predetermined breaking point is provided as a bursting disk. Due to the incorporation of the bursting disk into the pipe wall however, the heating jacket of the pipe is interrupted and therefore the transported mass will cure at the unheated surface of the bursting disk if the transported mass cools down below the solidification point. Another reason for which this solidificated mass will stick to the bursting disk and will not be transported along with the other mass is the reduced rate at the wall. This does not only impair the purpose of the bursting disk, i.e. its timely response, but also a contamination of transported mass will occur if decomposition products are produced in the mass deposited at the bursting disk. This may be the case for instance in solutions of cellulose in tertiary amine-oxides.
Moreover, when incorporating bursting disks into a pipe wall, they have to be dimensioned taking into account the required relief section, which may be calculated by those skilled in the art from the maximum pressure increase rate of the mass system. This means that bursting disk sections which fit to the pipe volume have to be chosen and incorporated. It would be advantageous however to employ bursting disks as small as possible, since the pipe diameter they occupy is reduced and the curvature of the bursting disk diameter adjusts well to the curvature of the pipe wall.
Therefore, an optimum has to be devised whereby the flow rate in the pipe interior is adjusted to the highly viscous flow behaviour by means of the inner diameter of the pipe. Thus, when the mass is highly viscous, reduced shearing rates in the pipe are attained, which is equivalent to a suitably big pipe diameter. When such a pipe is protected by means of a bursting disk arranged level to the pipe interior according to the method known from U.S. Pat. No. 5, 337,776, this will occupy an unnecessarily big circumferencial area of the pipe for the holding device of the bursting disk, leading to the problems described above.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,776, the bursting disk is adjusted to the pipe. This however is not necessary because of the maximum pressure generating rate of the unstable mass system. This means that a bursting disk having an optimized diameter should be employed.
When due to a higher relief a bigger bursting disk section is required, a poorer adjustment will result, since the pipe circumenference occupied by the bursting disk is big and thus the flow behaviour in the pipe may be deteriorated.

Process for transporting a thermally unstable viscous mass


A system creates an audio profile. The audio profile may be stored in a database. For example, the audio profile may be securely stored in a database of a social network and associated with a user account. The audio profile may contain data describing the way in which the specific user hears and interprets sounds. Systems and applications which present sounds to the user may access the audio profile and modify the sounds presented to the user based on the data in the audio profile to enhance the audio experience for the user.

People hear sounds differently. For users of an audio system, such as an audio system in an artificial reality system, the sounds presented by the audio system may be heard differently by different users. For example, some users may have hyperacusis (excessive sensitivity), presbyacusis (insensitivity to some frequencies), or some other condition that affects how they perceive sound. Accordingly, hearing differences among different users can affect their perception of presented audio content.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Audio profile for personalized audio enhancement


A computer anti-theft system for use with various lock devices includes a docking device and a computer engaged with the docking device by an interconnecting lock. A handle is provided for moving the latch to disengage the computer and the docking device. A first lock receiver is provided adjacent the handle for receiving a first type of lock for limiting movement of the handle to prevent disengagement of the docking device and the computer. A second lock receiver is also provided adjacent the handle for receiving a second type of lock, different from the first type, for limiting movement of the handle to prevent disengagement of the docking device and the computer.

The disclosures herein relate generally to computers and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing multiple anti-theft systems for computers.
Port replicators are docking devices which attach to the back of a portable notebook computer via a single docking connector. Replicators have several other connectors which remain connected to various cables, e.g. printer, power, video, etc. In this manner, a notebook computer can pass standard I/O signals to peripheral devices via the port replicator without the need to make all of the cable connections directly to the notebook computer. Thus, the user of the notebook computer can quickly engage and disengage the notebook computer from the replicator. Docking stations are docking devices similar to port replicators but offer more features and functions and are therefore physically larger in size than port replicators.
There are various methods of interconnecting notebook computers with port replicators and docking stations. Some models merely plug in. Others include mechanical assist devices to urge the interconnected plugs apart to overcome the gripping effect of the male-female connection. Still others include interlatching devices for security purposes thus providing both an electrical-mechanical plug connection and a security latching device.
Because of the small size of notebook computers, the port replicators and the docking station, and the ease of engaging and disengaging the notebook computers, theft of each of these devices is not only possible, but quite common. To avoid such theft, several lock-type security measures have been devised. These devices typically include a padlock and a lock cable which tether the computer, or the computer and the associated docking device, to a table or to the user's desk.
In one application, an apparatus for locking a closed notebook computer on a computer support includes a lock support which has a counterbore and a shackle hole which are formed therethrough and which intersect each other. The computer has a computer housing and a display unit pivoted to the computer housing. An L-shaped locking plate has a horizontal portion located intermediately over the display unit, and a vertical portion with an aperture located between the lock support and the display unit. A bolt member extends through the counterbore of the lock support and the aperture of the L-shaped locking plate to engage threadably with the threaded hole of the computer. A padlock is fastened to the computer support and has a shackle extending through the shackle hold of the lock support so as to cover the recess portion of the bolt member, thereby preventing the bolt member from being accessed by a screwdriver.
Another known device utilizes a commercially available cylinder lock device which includes a rotatable locking member insertable into a corresponding slot in the computer. A locking cable attached to the cylinder lock is used to secure the computer, and an associated docking device to a desk, or the like. The cylinder lock device is more expensive than some users are willing to pay. The padlock devices are less costly but are sometimes too bulky for the system and it becomes difficult to provide secure ways to attach the padlocks to the notebook computers and/or the docking devices.
As an example of the cylinder lock application, a portable computer desktop docking system includes a base structure, a port replicator, a shroud and a monitor stand. The base structure is horizontally supportable on a desktop and has an upwardly and rearwardly sloping top side with the port replicator being mounted on a rear section thereof. To dock the computer, it is manually slid rearwardly along the top side of the base structure until a rear side connector on the computer is forcibly mated with a front side connector on the port replicator. The port replicator has a rear side connectable to desktop peripheral device electrical cables. The shroud structure snaps onto a rear side of the base structure, conceals port replicator end portions of the cables, and groups the cables so that they exit the shroud structure in a horizontally central rear side portion thereof. The monitor stand has a monitor support platform from which four support legs depend. Bottom ends of the legs interlock with side edge projections on the base structure to position the platform above the port replicator and parallel with the desktop. A front pair of these side edge projections are positioned to permit the user's index fingers to rearwardly hook around them so that the user's thumbs can engage spaced apart front side portions of the computer and provide leverage for manually pushing the computer rearwardly along the top side of the support base structure to forcibly interconnect the port replicator and computer connector structures during docking.
Therefore, what is needed is a security system that secures both a docking device and an attached notebook computer, and which can accommodate a cylinder lock and cable device or which can accommodate a less expensive padlock and cable device, if preferred by the user.


A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) unit includes a cabinet defining a cabinet interior configured to house components of the HVAC unit. The cabinet includes an opening defining an air flow path between the cabinet interior and an external environment. The HVAC unit also includes a fan assembly including fan blades configured to move an air flow through the opening, wherein the fan assembly is configured to enable translation of the fan blades through the opening between a shipping arrangement in which the fan blades are disposed in the cabinet interior and an operational arrangement in which the fan blades are disposed in the external environment.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) systems are utilized in residential, commercial, and industrial environments to control environmental properties, such as temperature and humidity, for occupants of the respective environments. The HVAC system may control the environmental properties through the control of an airflow delivered to the conditioned environment. For example, the HVAC system may include a condenser used to cool and condense a gaseous refrigerant, via heat exchange with an air flow over the condenser, to convert the gaseous refrigerant to a liquid state. The air flow may be caused by a fan disposed in or around a cabinet of the condenser. Other components of the HVAC system may also include a fan disposed in or around a cabinet. It is now recognized that, in traditional HVAC systems, the fan may be mounted within a cabinet interior of the cabinet in a manner that reduces air flow efficiency, or mounted along a cabinet exterior in a manner that increases a volume or size of the condenser, which can contribute to increased shipping costs.

Movable fan assembly of a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) unit


An electricity-generating system of the invention which includes the following: a carbonization apparatus for carbonizing a carbonization source to form a carbonized product; a heat recovery steam generator for producing first steam through heat exchange with the heat exhausted from the carbonization apparatus; a carbonized fuel steam generator which employs the carbonized product serving as a fuel; a mixing header for mixing the first steam and a second steam produced by the carbonized fuel steam generator, which steams are fed thereinto, to thereby discharge a steam mixture having a uniform pressure; an electricity-generating apparatus for generating electricity by means of the steam mixture discharged from the mixing header as an actuating source; and an electricity-storing apparatus for storing the electricity generated by the electricity-generating apparatus.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electricity-generating system employing a carbonization apparatus.
Background Art
In recent years, extensive studies have been carried out for gaining more energy from limited resources and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide generated during recovery of energy.
At present, valuable energy sources such as heat and electricity are known to be more effectively recovered through combustion of a carbonized substance as opposed to a non-carbonized substance. Also, such a carbonized substance is known to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated during combustion.
Hitherto, a variety of carbonization apparatuses have been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2003-253267 discloses a carbonization apparatus having a rotary kiln of a dual-shell structure, which attains excellent carbonization efficiency through passing air upward through a raw material bed.
However, heat exhausted from the carbonization apparatus is merely employed as in-situ heat source, and not all the heat energy can be effectively utilized.


A system and method for controlling the work flow or processing of scanned images is disclosed. The system and method identify appropriate image processing techniques, particularly techniques well-suited to enable image compression yet maintain image quality so as to facilitate the storage and transmission of scanned image data.

As the use of scanning services devices becomes more prevalent, it is also the case that users of such system require assistance in defining the parameters of images being created through scanning operations. Furthermore, one of the significant factors being treated in such systems is the explosive growth of file sizes for scanned images. While it is known to use image compression methods to process image data and reduce the size thereof, such methods do not always result in desired reductions in file size.
In view of such problems, the system and methods described herein provide for a post-error diffusion operation to be applied to error diffused photographic images or segments, and a morphological filtering operation to be applied to text segments. One such method is to rearrange the pixels in the error diffused binary image to make it more compression friendly. Such a process also works for mixed content scanned images, as long as segmentation is employed to separate the text and photo portions of the page.
Disclosed is a method for controlling image quality and file size of a scanned document, comprising: receiving a scanned input image, said image including an error-diffused portion and a text portion; segmenting the image into a plurality of regions, including at least one continuous tone region and one text region; processing at least one of said plurality of regions differently than the remaining regions in accordance with a user selection of output quality, wherein said processing includes pixel clustering of at least one of said regions; merging the processed regions to produce a representative image; and compressing the representative image.
Also disclosed is a method for controlling image characteristics, comprising receiving a scanned input image; segmenting the image to produce a segmented image; processing the segmented image in accordance with a user selection of an image characteristic; producing a representative image that includes at least a processed portion; and compressing the representative image.
Further disclosed is a scanning services system for controlling image characteristics, comprising a subsystem for digitizing a document and producing a representation thereof in the form of digital image data; and an image processor for receiving the digital image data and producing a compressed image in accordance with a user selection of an image characteristic, said characteristic indicating a manner of processing at least a portion of the compressed image.
The system and method will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, however, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the embodiment(s) described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

System and method for image file size control in scanning services


A high voltage stress test circuit includes an internal data generation unit for generating internal data and inverted internal data, and a level shifter for receiving the internal data and the inverted internal data and for generating digital data and inverted digital data. In a normal mode, the internal data and the inverted internal data have logic states corresponding to input data, while the digital data and the inverted digital data have logic states corresponding to the internal data and the inverted internal data. In a high voltage stress test mode, the internal data and the inverted internal data have predetermined logic states regardless of a logic state of the input data, while the digital data and the inverted digital data have predetermined logic states regardless of logic states of the internal data and the inverted internal data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a High Voltage Stress ("HVS") test circuit for semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to an HVS test circuit for decoders, the HVS test circuit having a substantially reduced number of high supply voltage transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a test is performed during manufacture of a semiconductor device. Specifically, the test operates a semiconductor element of a manufactured semiconductor device to quickly test electrical characteristics and functional characteristics thereof, as well as to distinguish acceptable products from unacceptable products. Furthermore, the electrical and/or functional characteristics and yield of products, such as the semiconductor device, can be substantially improved by collecting and analyzing test data from the test and applying the test data to modify a manufacturing process of the products.
For example, in an HVS test, for example, one or more defects (or potential defects) can be discovered by applying stress to two ends of an insulating film of an MOS transistor of the semiconductor device. Specifically, in the HVS test, a high voltage is forcibly applied to the two ends of the insulating film. As a result, defects are discovered and a reliability of products is substantially improved by preemptively eliminating potential defects, for example.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a 1-bit n-channel metal oxide semiconductor ("NMOS") of the prior art. Semiconductor devices typically include various types of decoders, such as the 1-bit NMOS decoder shown in FIG. 1, for example. In operation in a normal mode, the 1-bit NMOS decoder shown in FIG. 1 generates one of two input voltage levels V11 and V12 as a voltage level of an output signal DOUT1, based on a logic state of digital data DH applied to the transistor 12. As shown in FIG. 1, an inverted digital signal DHB, which is an inverted digital data of the digital data DH, is applied to the transistor 11.
To conduct an HVS test of the transistors 11 and 12 of the decoder, within a short period of time, the digital data DH and the inverted digital data DHB must be applied at a high supply voltage HVDD when the two input voltage levels V11 and V12 are maintained at a ground voltage VSS.
In addition, to conduct the HVS test, an HVS test circuit is contained in a semiconductor device. Specifically, in normal mode, the digital data DH and the inverted digital data DHB are provided by the HVS test circuit to have opposite logic states (based on a logic state of input data), while the digital data DH and the inverted digital data DHB are supplied at a high supply voltage HVDD (regardless of a logic state of the input data) in an HVS test mode.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an HVS test circuit according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 2, the HVS test circuit of the prior art includes an internal data generation unit 110 for generating both internal data IDI and inverted internal data IDIB based on input data DI, and a level shifter 130 for generating both output data ODI and inverted output data ODIB by level-shifting the internal data IDI and the inverted internal data IDIB to the high supply voltage HVDD. Thus, the low supply voltage LVDD is used in the internal data generation unit 110, while the high supply voltage HVDD is used in the level shifter 130.
Meanwhile, the level shifter 130 is typically implemented using six transistors 131-136 using the high supply voltage HVDD, as shown in FIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of a level shifter according to the prior art. Specifically, a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor ("PMOS") transistor 131 and a PMOS transistor 132 pull up the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB to the high supply voltage HVDD in response to a pulling down of the inverted output data ODIB and the output data ODI. In addition PMOS transistors 133 and 134 function as resistances to reduce a short-circuit current which may be generated during switching of the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB. Additionally, an NMOS transistor 135 and an NMOS transistor 136 pull down the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB to a ground voltage VSS in response to the pulling up of the inverted output data ODIB and the output data ODI.
Referring again to FIG. 2, the HVS test circuit further includes a test response unit 150 for generating digital data DH and inverted digital data DHB based on the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB. The test response unit 150 typically includes two logical sum gates 151 and 152. In HVS test mode, in which a test mode signal VTEST is activated to a high logic state, the two logical sum gates 151 and 152 control the digital data DH and the inverted digital data DHB so that they have the high logic state regardless of logic states of the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB. Further, each of the two logical sum gates 151 and 152 is generally implemented using six transistors 21-26, as shown in FIG. 4, which is a schematic diagram of a logical sum gate according to the prior art. The test response unit 150 uses the high supply voltage HVDD and receives first and second inputs IN1 and IN2, respectively, corresponding to the output data ODI and the inverted output data ODIB, respectively (FIG. 2), for example, and outputs an output signal OUT, corresponding to the digital data DH or the inverted digital data DHB (FIG. 2), for example, as shown in FIG. 4.
However, a MOS transistor using the high supply voltage HVDD requires a considerably large layout area, as compared to a MOS transistor using the low supply voltage LVDD, due to leakage current being equal to or less than a threshold voltage of the associated MOS transistor. As a result, a reduction of a number of MOS transistors which use the high supply voltage HVDD is required, to substantially reduce a layout area, e.g., a size, of a semiconductor device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.


The present disclosure relates to a system and method for membrane protein separation including: fractionating a membrane sample on a reversed-phase superficially porous stationary phase at a temperature of greater than or equal to about 40° C. to recover a protein greater than about 70 weight percent of the mixture of proteins.

Interest in proteomic analysis of human serum has been greatly elevated during the past several years. Proteomic analysis of human serum represents an extreme challenge due to the dynamic range of the proteins of interest. In serum, the quantities of proteins and peptides of interest range from those considered "high abundance", present at 2-50% by mass of total protein, to those present at 10−12 or less. This range of analytical target molecules is outside the realm of available technologies for proteomic analysis. One way to address the complexity of these samples is the application of multidimensional separation techniques.
At present, two major approaches are being used as prefractionation techniques: chromatographic and electrophoretic. Liquid chromatography equipment and methods, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), can be used in a variety of applications, such as, for example, in chemical analysis or diagnostics, to separate, isolate, and identify chemical compounds in mixtures. A significant problem encountered in liquid chromatographic methods is the lack of methods to reliably separate, detect, or distinguish low abundance protein constituents from high abundance protein constituents in a sample of interest. Consequently, lower abundance proteins, for example, of significant biological interest, can be incompletely detected or can go undetected or overlooked. Additionally, recovery of proteins from currently used HPLC columns is often unsatisfactory for proteomic analysis since lower abundance proteins may be present at concentrations that are at or below the detection limits of conventional instrumentation used in proteomic analysis (e.g., such as mass spectrometers).

Methods and system for protein separation


Provided is a fuel processing device including: a combustion unit equipped with a heat source; a desulfurization unit for extracting a sulfur component from the source gas; a reforming unit for generating, from the desulfurized source gas, a hydrogen-containing gas having hydrogen as a main component thereof; and a low-temperature conversion unit equipped with an exothermic catalyst for reducing the impurity concentration in the hydrogen-containing gas. The reforming unit and the desulfurization unit are configured so as to surround the combustion unit, and are disposed concentrically in the given order facing outwards from the combustion unit. The present invention further includes a preheating passage which is connected to the desulfurization unit, and which is provided to a bottom part of the combustion unit via a heat insulation material, such that the source gas is preheated by heat from the combustion unit.

A fuel cell system such as a household cogeneration system includes a fuel processing apparatus that generates hydrogen-containing gas and a fuel cell that generates electricity using the hydrogen-containing gas generated by the fuel processing apparatus (for example, see PTL1 and 2).
As illustrated in FIG. 9, fuel processing apparatus 100 for a conventional fuel cell system includes: combustion section 102 including burner 23; desulfurization section 105 provided to surround combustion section 102, which removes sulfur component from a source gas such as hydrogen carbonate fuel including city gas, LPG, and others; vaporization flow channel 108 in which the source gas and steam are mixed; reforming section 103 that causes a steam reforming reaction of mixed gas at a high temperature of approximately 600° C. and generates hydrogen-containing gas having hydrogen as the main component, conversion section 106 in which the concentration of carbon monoxide which is poisonous to the catalyst of a fuel cell is reduced to approximately 0.5% by the CO shift reaction, and selective oxidation section 110 that further reduces the carbon oxide concentration to approximately 10 ppm or lower by the selective oxidation reaction (for example, see PTL 3).
It is preferable that the temperature of desulfurization section 105 is set and maintained to a high temperature of 250° C. to 300° C., which is an optimum temperature for a hydrodesulfurization catalyst. In addition, it is preferable that the source gas provided to desulfurization section 105 is heated to an optimum temperature for the catalyst so as to promote the hydrodesulfurization reaction. Preheating, by the heat of the combustion section, before source fuel is supplied to the desulfurization section has been suggested (see PTL4 and PTL5).
However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, desulfurization section 105 is provided outside of fuel processing apparatus 100. Accordingly, desulfurization section 105 is easily affected by an external environment, making it difficult to set and maintain the temperature of the desulfurization section 105 at an optimum temperature. When the desulfurization section 105 is kept operating at a temperature lower than the optimum temperature, activity in hydrodesulfurization catalyst is reduced, shortening the lifetime of the hydrodesulfurization catalyst. Since the lifetime of a fuel processing apparatus is generally considered as 10 years, there has been a request for a method for reducing the influence of the temperature from external environment.
Furthermore, since a source gas at room temperature is provided to desulfurization section 105, there is a problem that the temperature of the source gas is not raised up to a temperature sufficient for hydrodesulfurization reaction.
As a means for reducing the influence of the temperature of the external environment, providing a heat insulating section at an outer periphery of fuel processing apparatus 100 (desulfurization section 105) has been considered. For example, placing the desulfurization section in a heat insulating section provided around the combustion section has been suggested (see PTL6). However, there is a problem that providing further heat insulation material to the outer periphery of fuel processing apparatus 100 increases the volume of the entire fuel cell system.
Alternatively, the amount of hydrodesulfurization catalyst added to desulfurization section 105 may be increased. However, there is a problem that the increased amount of the hydrodesulfurization catalyst added increases the size of the apparatus and the cost for the fuel processing apparatus. Furthermore, PTL7 discloses, for example, a reforming apparatus in which a vaporization section is provided to surround the reforming section. Although the invention disclosed in PTL7 can reduce the amount of heat emitted from the reforming section, an effect that the influence of the temperature on the desulfurization section from the external environment is reduced is not suggested.
A fuel processing apparatus housed inside an outer package, with a plurality of reactors closely arranged in parallel has been disclosed in PTL8 as a means for keeping the temperature of the source gas at a high temperature. According to the invention disclosed in PTL8, the reformed gas can be used for preheating the source gas. However, according to the configuration, the influence of the temperature of the external environment is reduced by a granular heat insulating material filling the outer package. Accordingly, it is difficult to miniaturize the size of the apparatus. PTL8 does not suggest that the influence of the temperature on the desulfurization section from the external environment is reduced. Accordingly, a fuel processing apparatus not easily affected by the temperature of the external environment has been needed.
Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 9, in a conventional fuel processing apparatus, there was a region A where no component is arranged around reforming section 103 that reaches a high temperature. Since reforming section 103 is exposed, it was necessary to provide a thick insulating material at an outer periphery of the apparatus in order to prevent the emission of heat to outside of the apparatus. The more the amount of heat insulating material, the more the volume of the apparatus becomes, despite the need for miniaturization of the apparatus. Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 9, conventional conversion section 106 is provided at one part. Since conversion section 106 is cooled on the inner-rim side contacting vaporization flow channel 108, exothermic reaction is mainly occurred on the upstream side of the gas. Accordingly, there is a problem that the reaction efficiency of the converter catalyst is reduced due to uneven temperature distribution in the converter catalyst. In response to the problem, a fuel processing apparatus having a catalyst with high reaction efficiency has been needed.

Panasonic International Property Management Co., Ltd.


Systems and methods to support flexible scaling and dynamic resource allocation for virtualized cable data plane applications. The system includes a head end together with a node to provide data to customer devices. A container operating that includes a data plane application that provides packets of data for transmission to the node. The data plane application is instantiated with at least one of a virtual networking function and a computing resource function.

The subject matter of this application relates to systems and methods to support lifecycle management for virtualized cable data plane applications.
Cable Television (CATV) services provide content to large groups of customers (e.g., subscribers) from a central delivery unit, generally referred to as a "head end," which distributes channels of content to its customers from this central delivery unit through an access network comprising a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) cable plant, including associated components (nodes, amplifiers and taps). Modern Cable Television (CATV) service networks, however, not only provide media content such as television channels and music channels to a customer, but also provide a host of digital communication services such as Internet Service, Video-on-Demand, telephone service such as VoIP, home automation/security, and so forth. These digital communication services, in turn, require not only communication in a downstream direction from the head end, through the HFC, typically forming a branch network and to a customer, but also require communication in an upstream direction from a customer to the head end typically through the HFC network.
To this end, CATV head ends have historically included a separate Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), used to provide high speed data services, such as cable Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol, etc. to cable customers and a video headend system, used to provide video services, such as broadcast video and video on demand (VOD). Typically, a CMTS will include both Ethernet interfaces (or other more traditional high-speed data interfaces) as well as radio frequency (RF) interfaces so that traffic coming from the Internet can be routed (or bridged) through the Ethernet interface, through the CMTS, and then onto the RF interfaces that are connected to the cable company's hybrid fiber coax (HFC) system. Downstream traffic is delivered from the CMTS to a cable modem and/or set top box in a customer's home, while upstream traffic is delivered from a cable modem and/or set top box in a customer's home to the CMTS. The Video Headend System similarly provides video to either a set-top, TV with a video decryption card, or other device capable of demodulating and decrypting the incoming encrypted video services. Many modern CATV systems have combined the functionality of the CMTS with the video delivery system (e.g., EdgeQAM—quadrature amplitude modulation) in a single platform generally referred to as a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP).
Furthermore, many modern architectures relocate the physical layer (PHY) of a traditional CMTS or CCAP to the network's fiber nodes (referred to as a Remote PHY or R-PHY architecture). Thus, while the core in the CMTS/CCAP performs the higher layer processing, the R-PHY device in the remote node converts the downstream data sent from the core from digital-to-analog to be transmitted on radio frequency to the cable modems and/or set top boxes, and converts the upstream radio frequency data sent from the cable modems and/or set top boxes from analog-to-digital format to be transmitted optically to the core. Still other modern CATV systems relocate the control or MAC layer to the fiber nodes as well (called R-MACPHY architectures) or relocate other components into the nodes. Such architectures are generally referred to as Distributed Access Architectures (DAA), Distributed CMTS (D-CMTS), etc. as opposed to integrated architectures where all physical and control layers are located in the head end (e.g., I-CMTS). For simplicity, though this disclosure will subsequently show and describe an "I-CMTS" architecture as one where all CMTS functionality is located in the head end, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that in a system containing a CCAP, such a description would include an integrated CCAP architecture where all CCAP functionality is located in the head end. Similarly, though this disclosure will subsequently show and describe a D-CMTS architecture where physical portions of the CMTS are pushed into the nodes, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that such a description would not only include other distributed architectures such as a R-MACPHY, but also distributed CCAP functionality as well where a system uses a CCAP.
Unfortunately, virtualization of portions of the system tend to be problematic for real-time applications. What is desired, therefore, are improved systems and methods for virtualization of portions of the system.

Automated lifecycle management with flexible scaling and dynamic resource allocation for virtualized cable data plane applications


A semiconductor device includes an active region tilted at an angle with respect to a buried bit line. The buried bit line includes a metal silicide pattern and a metal pattern. The metal silicide pattern has a plurality of metal silicide films each disposed at a lower portion of the active region and corresponding to a bit line contact region. The metal pattern has a plurality of metal films. The metal silicide films and the metal films are alternately arranged and electrically coupled to each other.

Embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and a method for forming the same, and more particularly to a semiconductor device including a buried bit line.
As highly integrated semiconductor devices have developed, cell structure (or cell layout) is changing from 8F2 and 6F2 structures to a 4F2 structure. In order to reduce the size of a unit cell, various methods for forming constituent elements (such as transistors, word lines, capacitors, and the like) have been developed by research institutions and companies. For example, a semiconductor device in which a source and a drain are vertically arranged to implement the 4F2 cell structure, and thereby inducing a vertical channel, has been proposed.
A semiconductor device having a vertical channel includes a gate electrode adjacent to an active pillar, which extends vertically from a main surface of a substrate. A semiconductor device having a vertical channel also includes sources and drains at portions of the active pillar that are over and under the gate electrode, respectively. As a result, a channel is vertically formed in a portion of the active pillar beneath the gate electrode. Since a channel is formed vertically, the length of the channel of the resultant semiconductor device may not be as significantly affected by a reduction in the size of a unit cell region of the semiconductor device.
A semiconductor device having a vertical channel may further include a buried bit line (BBL) structure in which a bit line is buried in a region of the substrate below the active pillar.
In the 4F2 structure, a buried bit line has a line shape and is formed of metal silicide. However, portions of the silicide line may aggregate so that the line has thinner portions, thereby increasing electrical resistance of the buried bit line.
In addition, during a plasma doping process to form a junction of the buried bit line, a bending or a leaning of an active region may occur due to plasma residue.
In a 6F2 structure, a process for etching the active region is carried out to define a buried bit line. Due to the etched active region, a contact region between a word line and an active region and/or a storage node contact (SNC) region may be reduced in size. As a result, control capability of word lines and an Iop are unavoidably reduced.

Semiconductor device and method for forming the same


The communication device which implements a voice communicating function, an attached file emailing function, a geographic location function, a dictionary function, a schedule notifying function, a multiple type TV program function, a multiple TV screen displaying function, a touch panel function, and a communication device finding function.

Paragraph [0003.1]—The invention relates to a communication device and more particularly to the communication device which has a capability to communicate with another communication device in a wireless fashion.
Paragraph [0004]—U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,570 is introduced as a prior art of the present invention of which the summary is the following: "A route guidance display device for an automotive vehicle capable of displaying route patterns with a three-dimensional effect to enhance the viewer's comprehension of the road route situation being encountered. The display device includes a plurality of intersecting display segments indicative of corresponding possible route configurations. A depth-enhancing segment is included in a portion indicating the straight-ahead route. An intersection name display section may be separately included to display the name and related information regarding an intersection laying ahead." However, the foregoing prior art does not disclose the communication device which implements a voice communicating function, an attached file emailing function, a geographic location function, a dictionary function, a schedule notifying function, a multiple type TV program function, a multiple TV screen displaying function, a touch panel function, and a communication device finding function.
Paragraph [0005]—For the avoidance of doubt, the number of the prior arts introduced herein (and/or in IDS) may be of a large one, however, the applicant has no intent to hide the more relevant prior art(s) in the less relevant ones.


Systems and methods are provided that facilitate configuration of a keypad by end users of the portable host device, via employing a mapping component that can map individual keys of the keypad to characters and/or functions predefined by a user (e.g., defined for the host unit via a proprietary application/software). The reconfigurable keypad of the present invention can provide for a one touch access to special characters and/or performance of predetermined functions designated by the user, and thus facilitates performances of customized functions that can be unique to the end users.

Increasing advances in computer technology (e.g., microprocessor speed, memory capacity, data transfer bandwidth, software functionality . . . ) have generally contributed to increased computer application in various industries. Today, portable hand held terminals users produce and manage large amounts of data or information, as compared to their respective work load in prior years. As such, portable hand held terminals are employed in many different industries, and are typically assembled by enclosing internal electrical components; such as keypads, a central processing unit (CPU) board, display, and internal wiring, within a housing made of plastic or another structural material.
Generally, a desirable characteristic of such terminals is that they can readily function, while a respective user performs other more demanding tasks. For example, a user may find it necessary to operate a data terminal with one hand, while leaving the other hand free. In particular, the user may find it desirable to lift or otherwise shift small items of inventory with one hand, while simultaneously inputting data or scanning them with the portable scanner held in the other hand.
Moreover, when employing the keypad for data input, the user typically should be able to manipulate keys on the keypad with ease and accuracy. Otherwise, the ensuing incompatibility can cause the hand, finger and wrist movements of the user operator to be somewhat strained, slowed, and even sometimes misdirected, resulting in not only unwanted and undesired physical stress on the operator, but also in undesired fatigue with resulting entry errors. The results of such repetitive stress and errors while manipulating the keypad on a portable terminal can cause unwanted loss in time for correcting the errors, as well as a loss in productivity through stress related injuries suffered by the keyboard operator. Such injuries may be severe enough to render the individual unemployable. For example, repetitive stroking of an incompatible keypad can typically stress the wrists, elbows and shoulders of an operator. As stated earlier, when continued over long periods of time, this can lead to repetitive stress injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a painful and oftentimes a crippling ailment affecting the tendons and nerves in the person's wrist area. Moreover, carpal tunnel syndrome is only one of several musculoskeletal injuries, frequently being identified variously as cumulative trauma disorder, repetitive strain injury, as well as repetitive motion disorder.
At the same time there is a continuing desire to reduce size of portable units. Such reduction in size can reduce the space available to the keypad and the associated individual key members. This can further hinder rapid and accurate data manipulation on a keypad interface. In particular, the user/operator should be able to enter information rapidly and accurately, and typically should not be required to undergo extensive and time consuming training in order to use the keypad arrangement for rapid data entry.
Therefore, there is a need to overcome the aforementioned deficiencies associated with conventional devices.

Programmable keypad for sized optimized device


A drum damper includes a flexible body having a lower edge and an upper portion extending from a left side to a right side. The body is formed from at least one panel of a sound damping material which is folded and secured in places to define a passage extending through the upper portion from the left side to the right side. An elastic cord having opposing first and second ends is received in the passage. The ends of the cord extend beyond the corresponding left and right sides of the body. A hook is secured to each end of the cord. When the hooks are connected to the drum, the lower edge of the body hangs below a bottom surface of the drum and reduces the perception by nearby people and microphones of piercing notes emitted from of the drum.

The present invention relates generally to the field of musical instruments. More specifically, the present invention relates to devices for muting, muffling, or damping drums.
Drums have been widely used throughout human history. There are many kinds of drums in use today, including but not limited to bass drums, timbale drums, and snare drums. The snare drum in particular forms a key part of modern popular music. However, snare drums are generally known among musicians to emit an unpleasant piercing sound from the underside of the drumhead when played. This piercing sound can project forward and cause discomfort among attendees of a live musical performance and interfere with nearby vocal microphones, especially on smaller stages or in very reflective rooms.
Musicians, sound engineers, producers, and others in the music business have used various devices and methods to attempt to control this piercing sound during live performances and studio recordings. Some currently available options for reducing the piercing sound emitted by a snare drum include, for example, silicone gels and thin adhesive sheets affixed to the drum head, the use of baffles and plexiglass affixed to the corner of the drum riser, muffling the drum with a towel or other cloth taped to or laid over the drum, and asking drummers to play quieter. However, adhesive devices can leave a residue on the drum head which can undesirably affect the tonal qualities of the drum, while the use of available baffles and physical barriers are inconvenient. Available muffling devices can also come detached or unfastened from the drum, especially during a vigorous performance, and playing more quietly is simply undesirable for many musicians.
Accordingly, what is needed are improvements in devices and methods for damping drums.


The present invention generally relates to ruthenium and osmium carbene catalysts for use in olefin metathesis reactions. More particularly, the present invention relates to Schiff base derivatives of ruthenium and osmium carbene catalysts and methods for making the same. The inventive catalysts are generally prepared by the treatment of unmodified catalysts with the salts of the desired Schiff base ligands, in which an anionic and a neutral electron donating ligands of the unmodified catalysts are simultaneously replaced. The Schiff base derivatives of the ruthenium and osmium carbene catalysts show unexpectedly improved thermal stability while maintaining high metathesis activity, even in polar protic solvents. Although the inventive catalysts may be used in all metathesis reactions, use of these catalysts for ring-closing metathesis ("RCM") reactions is particularly preferred.

A large number of catalyst systems that can initiate olefin have been introduced. However, most early work in olefin was done using ill-defined multi-component catalyst systems. It is only in recent years that well-defined single component metal carbene complexes have been prepared and extensively utilized in olefin metathesis.
With the advent of efficient catalyst systems, olefin metathesis has emerged as a powerful tool for the formation of C--C bonds in chemistry. Of importance among the well-defined catalyst systems is the alkoxy imido molybdenum system 1 developed by Schrock and co-workers and the benzylidene ruthenium carbene complexes 2-3 developed by Grubbs and co-workers. ##STR1##
In particular, the ruthenium carbene catalyst systems have drawn a lot of attention, not only because they exhibit high reactivity for a variety of metathesis processes under mild conditions, but also because of their remarkable tolerance of many organic functional groups. However, although these ruthenium carbene catalysts (particularly complexes 2 and 3) have been used in diverse olefin metathesis reactions with remarkable success, further improvements such as better thermal stability, high activity in polar protic solvents, and chiral and cis/trans selectivity, are required to more fully exploit their commercial potential.

Schiff base derivatives of ruthenium and osmium olefin metathesis catalysts


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that generates code to perform anticipatory prefetching for data references. During operation, the system receives code to be executed on a computer system. Next, the system analyzes the code to identify data references to be prefetched. This analysis can involve: using a two-phase marking process in which blocks that are certain to execute are considered before other blocks; and analyzing complex array subscripts. Next, the system inserts prefetch instructions into the code in advance of the identified data references. This insertion can involve: dealing with non-constant or unknown stride values; moving prefetch instructions into preceding basic blocks; and issuing multiple prefetches for the same data reference.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compilers for computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for performing anticipatory prefetching for data references within an optimizing compiler.
2. Related Art
Advances in semiconductor fabrication technology have given rise to dramatic increases in microprocessor clock speeds. This increase in microprocessor clock speeds has not been matched by a corresponding increase in memory access speeds. Hence, the disparity between microprocessor clock speeds and memory access speeds continues to grow, which can cause performance problems. Execution profiles for fast microprocessor systems show that a large fraction of execution time is spent not within the microprocessor core, but within memory structures outside of the microprocessor core. This means that the microprocessor systems spend a large fraction of time waiting for memory references to complete instead of performing computational operations.
In order to remedy this problem, some microprocessors provide hardware structures to facilitate prefetching of data and/or instructions from memory in advance of wherein the instructions and/or data are needed. Unfortunately, because of implementation constraints, these hardware prefetching structures have limited sophistication, and are only able to examine a limited set of instructions to determine which references to prefetch. As more processor clock cycles are required to perform memory accesses, prefetch operations must take place farther in advance of where the prefetched data is needed. This makes it harder for hardware prefetching mechanisms to accurately determine what references to prefetch and when to prefetch them.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for performing prefetch operations in farther advance of where the prefetched data is required.

Method and apparatus for selecting references for prefetching in an optimizing compiler


A composite flange spacer for articulation between a fluid control assembly and a pair of pipe flanges comprising a fire-resistant, relatively non-compressible, layer sandwiched between a pair of fire-resistant compressible layers.

The present disclosure relates to joined pipe flanges and, more particularly, a fluid control device secured between pipe flanges. Even more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a fluid control assembly adapted to be secured between two pipe flanges and including flange spacers.
Pipes and fluid control devices, such as valves and pumps, are common in the utility, refinery, manufacturing, chemical and petrochemical industries for transporting fluids. Pipes often include attachment flanges at their ends, and fluid control devices are secured between the pipe flanges, usually using bolts. In such cases it is desirable that stresses be applied to the pipe flanges evenly, that the fluid control device is properly aligned with the pipes, and that the bolts are correctly torqued or loaded.
For example, fiberglass reinforced pipe (xe2x80x9cFRPxe2x80x9d) as well as other plastic piping systems and components provide many industries with a corrosion-resistant, less costly replacement for metal piping. However, since plastic piping is, by its nature, not as strong as metal piping, flanges of plastic piping may be more susceptible to cracking upon uneven loading or rotation of the flanges.
Improper alignment of the fluid control device with the pipes could interfere with operation of the fluid control device. Butterfly valves, for example, typically include a generally cylindrical body which is connected into a pipe line by being clamped between two pipe flanges. The valve body has a flow-way therethrough and a valve element is mounted in the flow-way for movement from a closed valve position to an open valve position. In the open valve position, the valve element can extend out of, and beyond the valve body. Thus, correctly aligning the valve with the pipes is necessary to prevent interference between the valve element and the pipe flanges during movement of the valve element between the closed and open positions.
In addition, bolt creep and improper loading or torquing of bolts joining the pipe flanges to the fluid control device can result in a loosening or weakening of the joint. Bolt creep is a condition wherein bolts naturally loosen over time due to machine vibration and thermal expansions and contractions, for example. Improper loading can occur due to inaccurate torquing of bolts holding flanges together.
In many industries it is important not only to prevent leakage of materials from pipes at the pipe-flange/fluid-control device interface under normal operating conditions, but also to reduce the possibility of leakage of materials after exposure to abnormal conditions, such as high heat or flames. In some industrial applications leakage of materials may eventuate hazardous conditions or catastrophic failures. It is therefore a real concern that seals be maintained during such abnormal conditions so that plant personnel can shut down the system in which such seals are employed.
Thus, what is desired is a fluid control assembly for clamping between pipe flanges that provides reduced flange stresses, provides effective sealing under abnormal conditions such as fire, and easy alignment with the pipes. What is also desired is a fluid control assembly wherein bolt creep is reduced or eliminated, and wherein bolt loading is made easy and convenient, both in the assembly of the joint and in the maintenance of the joint.
Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a fluid control assembly including a fluid control device and a relatively non-compressible flange spacer. The fluid control device has a main body, an annular shoulder extending from the main body, and a tubular, relatively compressible liner extending out of the body through and axially beyond the shoulder. The relatively non-compressible flange spacer is positioned on the shoulder and extends from the main body to between an end of the shoulder and an end of the liner, when the liner is in a non-compressed state. Whereby, the flange spacer prevents a pipe flange secured to the fluid control device from bending, or xe2x80x9crotatingxe2x80x9d, when clamped to the device, thereby substantially eliminating uneven stresses on the pipe flange. The flange spacer also allows the liner to be compressed, but not over-compressed and damaged, such that the compressed liner provides a fluid-tight seal between the fluid control device and the pipe flange, yet does not interfere with movement of a valve member within the liner.
According to one preferred embodiment, the flange spacer is a composite assembly comprising compressible fire-resistant material (that is, resistant to deformation when subjected to a flame and the heat associated with typical industrial fires), such as flexible graphite, bonded to a relatively non-compressible material, such as a solid metal. The compressible fire-resistant material is preferably bonded along the major surfaces of the flange spacer that are intended for contact with the flanges of the pipe and the fluid control assembly. For example, flexible graphite may be bonded to each major face of a carbon steel ring to form a three-ply laminate assembly that acts as the flange spacer. Preferably, the compressible fire-resistant material is a low-density material which increases its density as its thickness decreases. The increase in density creates a homogenous gasket and eliminates permeating fluid from escaping through its wall. That is, the compressible fire-resistant material preferably acts as a gasket. In a preferred application, a composite flange-spacer is placed about each shoulder of the fluid control assembly and is articulated between the valve body and the pipe flange. When flexible graphite is employed, it is preferred that the graphite faces are compressed from a nominal thickness to approximately half its nominal thickness after final compression. Preferably, a mating pipe liner is simultaneously compressed against the mating valve liner in order to create a face seal for the process fluid. In the event of a fire, while the mating valve liner and pipe liner may soften, burn or disintegrate (depending on the exposure time), the composite flange spacer will remain and the flexible fire-resistant material will retain its seal with the valve body and mating pipe-flanges (by impinging on the same). This prevents process fluid from escaping into the environment. Thus, while the plastic materials may burn or disintegrate, the seal is maintained, at least to an extent that plant personnel can have time to shut down any process employing such fluid control assembly, or to drain the pipes connected with such fluid control assembly.
As would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the invention described may employ any valve type, in particular, any flanged style valve such as, but not limited to, a gate, globe, ball, plug and butterfly. Further, as would be understood by such person, the composite flange spacer would have particular use in applications where the risk of fire or extended temperatures might be feared to destroy the pipe and flange linings since these are often fabricated from rubber or plastic material.
According to one aspect, the flange spacer comprises a perimeter spacer ring having an inner diameter equal to an outer diameter of the annular shoulder. According to another aspect, the fluid control assembly is for connection to a pipe flange and the perimeter spacer ring has an outer diameter equal to an outer diameter of the pipe flange, such that the ring allows the fluid control device to be easily and properly aligned with the pipe flange.
According to an additional aspect, the main body of the fluid control device includes bolt holes passing therethrough and the perimeter spacer ring has bolt openings corresponding to the bolt holes of the fluid control device. According to a further aspect, the fluid control assembly further includes bolts for securing the fluid control assembly to a pipe flange, and a liveload assembly positioned on each bolt for preventing bolt creep and maintaining clamping pressure on the flanges. Each liveload assembly includes an upper washer, a lower washer, and at least one spring positioned to resist compression between the upper and the lower washers.
According to still another aspect, the liveload assemblies also include a ribbon secured at a first end to one of the upper and the lower washers, with a second end of the ribbon extending towards the other of the upper and the lower washers. The ribbon has a total length, including a comparison portion substantially equal to a proper compressed height of the at least one spring, with only the comparison portion of the total length positioned between the upper and the lower washers for comparison with the height of the spring.