The present invention relates to: a novel cell penetrating peptide; a cell penetrating botulinum toxin recombinant protein composition in which the cell penetrating peptide and the light chain of a botulinum toxin are fused; and a use thereof and, more specifically, to a composition enabling the transdermal delivery of a cell penetrating botulinum toxin recombinant protein and capable of being locally used for various treatments of the skin and cosmetic purposes. The cell penetrating peptide-botulinum toxin recombinant protein of the present invention can be transdermally delivered, thereby having the intrinsic effect of a botulinum toxin and simultaneously having greater convenience of use, and thus can be effectively applied as a local agonist for the treatment of various diseases and aesthetic and/or cosmetic purposes.

Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which grows in spoiled canned goods or spoiled meat. Botulinum toxin is classified into 8 types of neurotoxins, seven types (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) of which may induce neuronal paralysis. Botulinum toxin has a size of approximately 150 kDa, and forms a complex of a botulinum toxin protein and a non-toxin protein. The size of each complex is formed to have a size up to 900 kDa according to the type of neurotoxin. Action type and target, and an activity duration may vary according to botulinum toxin type, and the botulinum toxin type A is known as one of the deadly biological agents.
Botulinum toxin causes paralysis by blocking a signal inducing muscle convulsion or contraction, and due to this function, is used for medical treatment or cosmetic purposes, since approved by the FDA in 1989. For medical treatment, botulinum toxin is used as an injection for a medical purpose to treat a neuromuscular disorder such as strabismus, torticollis or blepharospasm, for a cosmetological purpose to reduce wrinkles, frown or glabellar lines and a square jaw, and for other purposes to treat hyperhidrosis or migraines. While it has been reported that botulinum toxin has side effects including dysphagia, voice change, dry mouth and blurred vision, since no death directly caused by botulinum toxin has been reported yet, if properly used, botulinum toxin is evaluated as a very safe drug. However, the use of botulinum toxin is restricted in the cases of a person who has hypersensitivity to the drug or a musculoskeletal disease, or a pregnant or breastfeeding woman.
In current applications of botulinum toxin, the duration of botulinum toxin injected into skin tissue lasts approximately 3 to 6 months, and when signal transduction between a nerve and a muscle is blocked by botulinum toxin, a new dendrite is produced to reduce a neuronal paralysis effect caused by botulinum toxin, and thus a regular treatment is needed. Also, when botulinum toxin is repeatedly administered, an antibody to the botulinum toxin is produced in vivo, and thus its effect is reduced.
Also, since muscle paralysis caused by such botulinum toxin is mostly induced by injections, a variety of research has been conducted to find a different, effective delivery means that can provide convenience to a user, which however is still inadequate.
Meanwhile, a body structure which is always in contact with an external environment, that is, skin, plays an important role as a protective barrier that prevents release of body fluids and infection, and water loss, and is composed of the epidermis, the dermis and subcutaneous tissue. The cornified layer of the epidermis is present at the outermost part of the skin, and prevents skin dryness by inhibiting the loss of water and electrolytes out of the skin and provides an environment facilitating normal biochemical metabolism of the skin. Also, the skin cornified layer plays an important role to protect the body from external physical damage and chemicals, and prevent dermal invasion by bacteria, molds, or viruses.
There are three absorption paths through the skin including absorption through the cornified layer, absorption through follicles and sebaceous glands, and absorption through sweat glands, and the delivery of active materials through the skin has numerous limitations in terms of the structural and physical characteristics of the skin. Particularly, the skin cornified layer has a compact structure at the outermost layer of the skin due to the natural death of keratinocytes, which are the main component cells of the skin, and exhibits an acidity of approximately pH 5 due to sweat and a variety of lipid ingredients. To pass through such a barrier of the cornified layer, it has been reported that the active material should generally have a molecular weight as small as 1,000 or less, and have lipophilic characteristics.
While low molecular weight synthetic compounds or natural materials which are frequently used as cosmetic and medical ingredients are known to be easily delivered into cells, since macromolecules such as proteins, peptides and nucleic acids are difficult to penetrate a cell membrane having a bilayer lipid membrane structure due to the size of a molecular weight and hydrophilicity, it has been known that, due to the intrinsic characteristics of the cornified layer that substantially constitutes the skin barrier, low molecular weight materials have extremely low penetration efficiency, and high molecular weight materials have an even lower penetration efficiency.
Therefore, for the transdermal delivery of botulinum toxin, a carrier which can deliver botulinum toxin through the skin barrier is needed. As a method of amplifying the efficiency of transmitting the small molecules and macromolecules through a cell plasma membrane, a protein transduction domain (PTD) may be applied. First, widely known PTDs are PTDs such as HIV-Tat, antennapedia, etc., which are known as positive-charged short peptides to deliver DNA, RNA, lipids, carbohydrates, compounds or viruses as well as proteins into cells. It has been reported that the PTDs are receptor-independent, and penetrate the cell membrane according to a mechanism such as endocytosis or phagocytosis. As a long history of such a PTD, a variety of applications using the PTD have been attempted, but it has been known that there is no successful development case so far. In the HIV-Tat-derived PTD, a peptide is derived from a virus, there is a problem in terms of safety, and particularly, when such transduction domains of the PTD family are independently used, it is known that an intracellular transduction rate is rapidly decreased at a low concentration of 2 to 5 μM or less according to the type of transduction domain. Also, it also has been reported that, when a protein having a molecular weight of 30,000 Da or more is conjugated to a PTD to be transduced into a cell, most of the PTD-protein conjugates tend to be transduced into the cell in the form of an endosome through endocytosis, and it has been reported that the endosome combines with a lysosome in the cytoplasm, and thus most of the PTD-protein conjugates are degraded by a hydrolase present in the lysosome, and only some undamaged PTD-protein conjugates are released into the cytoplasm. Accordingly, for dermal transduction of a functional protein using a PTD, a large amount of PTD-protein conjugates are needed to express expected efficacy, and will bring about an undesirable result in terms of economic feasibility.
To solve such a problem of the PTD and increase a pharmacological value, a hydrophobic or amphiphatic peptide having different characteristics from a conventional PTD, a macromolecule transduction domain (MTD; Korean Patent No. 10-1258279) was developed. An MTD is a novel cell-penetrating peptide, which has enhanced efficiency of delivering a material into cells, and has a different structure and different electrostatic properties, compared with a PTD. Unlike a PTD, in the intracellular transduction process of a MTD, endocytosis and energy are not needed, and the rigidity and integrity of the cell membrane act as important factors. Therefore, it has been suggested that direct interaction with the cell membrane is critical for the intracellular transduction process of an MTD. Such a cell membrane penetrating phenomenon of a peptide may increase a development value as a novel therapeutic drug by intracellular transduction of a therapeutic protein, or a nucleic acid material such as DNA or siRNA, which is difficult to be used as a drug because of a short in vivo half life or difficult cell membrane penetration. Also, compared with a conventional cell-penetrating peptide, which is a HIV-Tat-derived peptide, it is determined that a MTD has high availability in development of botulinum toxin as an external agent due to high efficiency of delivering a cargo material such as a compound, a peptide or a protein.
Also, as an amount of a light chain or light chain derivative of skin-penetrating and a nerve terminus cell-penetrating botulinum toxin, which is sought in the present invention, should be limited to a concentration of 1 to 10 ppm in order to ensure safety even through a toxicity attenuation process, it seems that it is inappropriate that a PTD is used as a skin- and neuronal cell-penetrating means, and to overcome this problem, there are demands for utilizing a MTD which has both skin barrier-penetrating and neuronal cell-penetrating potential and concentration-dependently penetrates the skin barrier even at low concentrations, or developing a novel MTD having the above-mentioned characteristics.

Cell penetrating peptide, conjugate thereof with botulinum toxin, and use thereof


A wheelchair includes left and right side frames and a folding mechanism for connecting the left and right side frames to each other in a folding and unfolding relationship. The folding mechanism includes cross struts rotatably connected to the lower side frame members, hinge links connected to the upper side frame members, and a lock for locking the hinge links together when the folding mechanism is unfolded to form a rigid truss between the left and right upper side frame members.

Wheelchairs are a class of personal mobility vehicle that provide greater ambulatory freedom to persons having limited movement abilities. Wheelchairs may be constructed having rigid frames to provide a solid or sturdy feeling to a user. Alternatively, wheelchairs may be foldable to provide greater portability. Folding wheelchairs often have frame support elements that secure mating frame components together. An improved and more adaptable connection between wheelchair side frame members in folding wheelchairs would be desirable.


An apparatus for implanting an intraocular lens comprises two gripping elements, the front ends of which carry contact elements which are movable towards each other with the gripping elements so that the lens to be implanted can be held therebetween. At least one of the contact elements is mounted rotatably on the respective gripping element.

One form of apparatus for implanting an intraocular lens, as is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,065, comprises two gripping elements, the front ends of which constitute contact elements which are movable towards each other for holding the lens to be implanted therebetween. The front ends of the gripping elements which form the contact elements are provided with widened holding surfaces for the intraocular lens which is to be held in the implantation operation. That arrangement is intended to prevent the lens from being pressed in and permanently deformed, at the portions of the lens surface which are engaged by the contact elements, while at the same time ensuring that the intraocular lens is held securely when it is being fitted into the eye.
Difficulties arise however when, after the intraocular lens has been fitted into the eye, for example into the posterior chamber, the surfaces of the contact elements, which hold the intraocular lens, are to be removed from the surface of the lens. Particularly when dealing with lenses which are implanted in the folded condition, the surface of the lens can adhere strongly to the surfaces of the contact elements so that, when the gripping elements are removed from the eye, the lens subsequently accidentally slips out of its desired position, and subsequent correction of the lens positioning is required.

Apparatus for implanting an intraocular lens


A deposit film forming apparatus is disclosed. Cylindrical substrates are disposed within a reaction vessel to be substantially sealed so as to surround a discharge space, and microwave introducing means is provided to form a microwave discharge plasma containing a reactant arising from a source gas and contributing to the formation of film, apply the voltage to an electrode provided on said discharge space, and form a deposit film on a surface of said substrate, characterized in that said microwave introducing means except for at least a microwave introducing dielectric window is constituted of two areas made of mutually different materials, a first area for transmitting the microwave is composed of a metal, and a second area in contact with the plasma is composed of a dielectric of which the product of a dielectric constant (.epsilon.) and a dielectric loss tangent (tan .delta.) at a frequency of used microwave is equal to or less than 2.times.10.sup.-2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved film forming apparatus for continuously forming a functional film, particularly, a crystalline or non-monocrystalline semiconductor which is appropriately usable as an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a photovoltaic device, an image input line sensor, an image pickup device, and a semiconductor device such as TFT, on a substrate with the microwave plasma CVD method.
2. Related Background Art
Heretofore, non-monocrystal deposit films such as amorphous silicon, for example, amorphous silicon compensated with hydrogen and/or halogen (e.g., fluorine or chlorine) [hereinafter abbreviated as A-Si(H,X)], or crystalline deposit films such as diamond thin film, have been proposed as a device member for use in a semiconductor device, an electrophotographic photosensitive member, an image input line sensor, an image pickup device, a photovoltaic device, and other various electronic devices or optical devices, and some of them are practically used. And it is known that those deposit films are formed with the plasma CVD method, that is, the method of decomposing a source gas with the glow discharge caused by the direct current or radio frequency, or the microwave to form a deposit film on a substrate such as glass, quartz, heat-resistive synthetic resin film, stainless, or aluminum, in which various apparatuses for use with that method have been proposed.
In particular, recently, the plasma CVD method using the microwave glow discharge decomposition or the microwave plasma CVD method (hereinafter abbreviated as .mu.W-PCVD method) has also been noted in industries.
The .mu.W-PCVD method has an advantage of offering a higher deposition speed and a higher source gas utilization efficiency than other methods. One example of .mu.W-PCVD apparatus using such advantage is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 60-186849. The apparatus as described in that patent increases the gas utilization efficiency by disposing a substrate so as to surround introducing means of the microwave energy to an inner chamber (or discharge space).
Also, in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-283116, an improved microwave technique for fabricating a semiconductor member has been disclosed. That is, the above patent discloses a technique of improving the characteristics of deposit film in such a manner as to provide an electrode for the control of plasma potential in a plasma space, and deposit the film while controlling ion bombardment onto the deposit film by applying a desired voltage to the electrode.
With these conventional methods, it was enabled to fabricate a relatively thick photoconductive material at certain high deposit speed and in utilization of the efficiency of source gas.
The deposit film forming apparatus with such an improved .mu.W-PCVD method has typically an apparatus constitution as shown in a typical longitudinal cross-sectional view of FIG. 3A and a typical transversal cross-sectional view of FIG. 3B (FIG. 3B is a typical transversal cross-sectional view of the apparatus as shown in FIG. 3A 9).
In FIGS. 3A and 3B, 301 is a reaction vessel having a vacuum airtight structure. 302 is a microwave introducing dielectric window formed of a material capable of efficiently transmitting the microwave electric power into the reaction vessel and preserving the vacuum airtight (e.g., quartz glass or alumina ceramics). 303 is a transmission section of the microwave electric power, consisting of a waveguide and connected via a stub tuner (not shown) and an isolator (not shown) to a microwave power source (not shown). The dielectric window 302 is sealed airtightly to a wall of the waveguide 303. 304 is an exhaust pipe having one end opening to the reaction vessel 301 and the other end communicating to an exhaust apparatus (not shown). 306 is a discharge space surrounded and formed by a plurality of cylindrical substrates 305. 308 is an electrode for supplying an external electric bias to control the plasma potential, to which the D.C. or A.C. voltage is applied from a power source 309. Note that each cylindrical substrate is installed on a cylindrical holder containing a heater 307, each holder being rotated properly by drive means (rotary motor) 310.
The formation of deposit film with such a conventional deposit film forming apparatus can be performed in the following manner.
First, the reaction vessel 301 is exhausted via the exhaust pipe 304 by means of a vacuum pump (not shown) to adjust the pressure or internal pressure within the reaction vessel to less than about 1.times.10.sup.-7 Torr. Then, the substrate 305 is heated and retained at a temperature suitable for the film deposition, with the heater 307. Thus, a source gas, for example, silane gas or hydrogen gas if an amorphous silicon deposit film is formed, is introduced via a gas inlet tube (not shown) into the reaction vessel 301. Then the microwave having a frequency of 500 MHz or more, preferably 2.45 GHz, is produced with the microwave power source (not shown) and introduced via the microwave waveguide 303 and the dielectric window 302 into the reaction vessel 301. At the same time or in parallel, the D.C. voltage from the power source 309, for example, is applied to the electrode 308 provided in the discharge space 306 as the external electric bias. Thus, the source gas is excited and dissociated by the microwave energy in the discharge space 306 surrounded and formed by a plurality of cylindrical substrates 305, so that the deposit film can be formed on all the surfaces of cylindrical substrates 305. At this time, by rotating each of the cylindrical substrates 305 around a central axis in the generatrix direction, the deposit film is formed on an entire surface of individual cylindrical substrate.
With such a conventional deposit film forming apparatus based on the .mu.W-PCVD method, it is possible to obtain a deposit film having practical characteristics and uniformity at a certain film deposition speed. However, with such conventional deposit film forming apparatus based on the .mu.W-PCVD method, there is a problem that significant skill may be required to obtain the deposit film in uniform quality and meeting the requirements of optical and electrical characteristics steadily, stably and at high yield, particularly in the field of high film deposition speed, as for example, in the fabrication of the deposit film having a large area and a relatively large film thickness such as an electrophotographic photosensitive member.
That is, in order to form a desired deposit film on a substrate of large area at high film deposition speed, with the utilization efficiency of source gas being maintained at high value, as is the case with the electrophotographic photosensitive member, the following conditions must be satisfied.
(1) It is necessary to deposit the film on a substrate of large area (in particular 3000 mm.sup.2 or more) at high speed, and maintain excellent characteristics whereby a larger amount of source gas flow, a larger microwave energy and a lower pressure as compared with the conventional example are requisite. PA1 (2) It is necessary to avoid the occurrence of defects over a large area (in particular 3000 mm.sup.2 or more) and the peeling of the portion on which the deposit film is formed. PA1 (3) It is necessary to make uniform the electrophotographic characteristics uniform over a large area (in particular 3000 mm.sup.2 or more) up to the level at which there is no visible density difference on the image. To this end, the high uniformity of film thickness and quality that is required in the entire image forming is on the substrate.
Generally, when the deposit film is formed using the plasma by introducing the microwave into the reaction vessel, the deposit film is divided into an area (power limit area) where the film formation seed is increased with increasing microwave power because the source gas has not been completely decomposed and an area (flow limit area) where the film formation speed is not changed with increasing microwave power because the source gas has been completely decomposed, if the microwave electric power is increased with the source gas fixed at a constant flow rate. In the power limit area, as the utilization of the efficiency of source gas is small while the source gas left undecomposed may have a bad influence in the reaction within a gas phase or on the surface of the substrate, the characteristics of the obtained deposit film are lowered. Also, in the flow limit area, the excess energy from the decomposition of source gas becomes the internal energy of decomposed species, in which with a larger microwave power for raising the surface mobility on the surface of substrate, superior characteristics of deposit film can be obtained. As the method of introducing the microwave, it is common to use a waveguide with a dielectric window superior in the transmission of the microwave. However, when such a large energy is introduced via the waveguide using the dielectric window, the energy density of microwave within the reaction vessel is rendered very large. Therefore, the dispersion of formed deposit film in the film thickness and film quality is liable to occur between the substrate portion located near the window and the other substrate portion. Furthermore, more defects of deposit film may arise because the peeling of relatively thick film may occur in the vicinity of the microwave introducing window, or the peeled film may stick to another area.
In order to suppress the reaction of deposit species in the gas phase, and maintain the uniformity of deposit film in the film quality and thickness in good condition, it is important to perform a uniform discharge at a pressure lower than 50 m Torr. However, in such a pressure range, the discharge may be less liable to occur if the pressure is lower, whereby it is difficult to maintain a stable discharge.
Particularly, in order to further improve the characteristics of deposit film, with a method of controlling the ion bombardment onto deposit species by providing an electrode to be commonly used with the microwave plasma discharge in the discharge space and applying a desired voltage to the electrode, there is a problem that abnormal discharge called a spark may be induced. This spark is more easily induced if the microwave power is larger. As the microwave introducing means is provided at an end portion of cylindrical substrate as previously described, the ion density near the microwave introducing means is increased, so that the non-uniformity of ion bombardment onto the surface of substrate may arise between the neighborhood of microwave introducing means and other areas, and the discharge becomes unstable owing to low pressure for maintaining the characteristics of deposit film, thereby causing the non-uniformity in the characteristics of deposit film.

Deposit film forming apparatus with microwave CVD method


The present invention applies one or more pruning heuristics to the expression, the binding, and/or the substitute during a database query optimization process. The heuristics identify certain rules that can be eliminated by either not applying the rules and/or not implementing the rules for a given expression and context (if any) based upon one or more flow rates of the expression. The pruning heuristics can eliminate the application of rules based upon the flow rates of the binding or substitute, for example. Examples include (1) not applying (cutting) a MergeJoin rule for a join expression when an inner table is small enough to be stored in a memory space that is allocated for a HashJoin; (2) not applying implementation rules on the substitute of a left-shift rule for an expression if the resulting input data flow rate from the left child of the join is significantly larger in the substitute than in the binding; (3) not applying the join to TSJ (tuple substitute join) rule if the data flow output of the join expression is significantly larger than the data flow input from the inner child of the join expression; or (4) not applying implementation rules on the substitute join expression of a left shift rule if the number of cross products increases and if the data flow rate from the left child is increases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to database query processing and optimization and more particularly to top-down rule-based database query optimizers.
2. Description of Background Art
A central issue in the design of database systems is the query processing strategy that is employed. Considerable focus has been placed in this area since a poor strategy can adversely effect the performance of the database system. In SQL, and similar query processing languages, a query can be expressed in a variety of different representations. Since the transfer of data that usually resides on secondary storage is slower than such a transfer from main memory, it is imperative that the number of accesses to secondary storage be minimized. Typically, a user writes a query without considering the most efficient manner for realizing the query. This task becomes the responsibility of a query optimizer.
The objective of the query optimizer is to find an execution strategy that causes the result of the query to be produced in the most efficient ("optimal") manner. Optimality is used to denote the best strategy that satisfies a prescribed criteria. Often this criteria is the minimization of a defined metric, such as computational cost. Query optimization is a search process that entails producing a solution space of semantically equivalent expressions that represent the query. The semantically equivalent expressions are generated through the application of rules. The optimizer searches through the solution space finding the optimal solution that best satisfies the defined metric.
A consideration in the design of a query optimizer is the minimization of its execution time as well as the conservation of memory space. The inefficient use of memory space and the execution of needless computations detrimentally affects the query optimizer's performance. Accordingly, there is a need to minimize the execution time of a query by utilizing efficient search procedures for finding the optimal solution.
Conventional query optimizers utilize a search engine and a database implementor (DBI) to generate an optimal plan for an input query having an optimization goal. The search engine generates a solution space from which an optimal solution or plan is selected. The solution space is defined by a set of rules and search heuristics provided by the DBI. The rules are used to generate solutions and the search heuristics guide the search engine to produce more promising solutions rather than all possible solutions.
The database query is represented as a query tree containing one or more expressions. An expression contains an operator having zero or more inputs (children) that are expressions. The query optimizer utilizes two types of expressions: logical expressions, each of which contain a logical operator; and physical expressions, each of which contain a physical operator specifying a particular implementation for a corresponding logical operator. An implementation rule transforms a logical expression into an equivalent physical expression and a transformation rule produces an equivalent logical expression. The database query is initially composed of logical expressions. Through the application of one or more implementation and transformation rules, the logical expressions in the database query are transformed into physical expressions.
The search engine utilizes a search procedure that generates a "solution" for the database query by partitioning the database query into one or more smaller subproblems where each smaller subproblem can contain one or more expressions. Some of the subproblems form a subtree including other subproblems as inputs. A solution to each subproblem is generated in accordance with an order that generates a solution for each input subproblem before a solution for its associated parent subproblem is generated. The solution for the database query is then obtained as the combination of the solutions for each of the subproblems.
The search procedure utilizes a top-down branch and bound technique for generating solutions for each subproblem. An initial solution is obtained for each subproblem that has an associated cost which is used as an upper bound for considering other candidate solutions. Additional solutions whose associated costs exceed the upper bound are eliminated from consideration. The solution having the lowest cost is selected as the optimal solution.
Solutions are generated through the application of implementation and transformation rules. Transformation rules produce equivalent logical expressions and implementation rules produce physical expressions. Each rule has a pattern and a substitute. A pattern is the before expression that is matched with the expression that is being optimized. A substitute represents the semantically equivalent expression that is generated by applying the rule. A rule's pattern matches an expression when the expression contains the same operators in the same position as the rule's pattern. Prior to applying a rule to an expression, all possible bindings that match a rule's pattern are determined. The purpose of a binding is to find all possible expressions that can match a rule's pattern in order to generate every possible equivalent expression.
A search data structure is used to store the expressions that are generated during the search process including those that are eliminated from consideration. The search data structure is organized into equivalence classes denoted as groups. Each group includes one or more logical and physical expressions that are semantically equivalent to one another. Initially each logical expression of the input query tree is represented as a separate group in the search data structure. As the optimizer applies rules to the expressions in the groups, additional equivalent expressions, and additional groups, are added. Duplicate expressions are detected before they are inserted into the search data structure.
The search procedure utilizes guidance methods that guide it toward generating more viable plans. The guidance methods produce guidance structures which are heuristics that are used to select rules that will generate more promising solutions. The heuristics capture knowledge of the search procedure which is passed onto later processing stages in order to eliminate generating unnecessary and duplicate expressions.
A problem with the conventional query optimizers, described above, is that when it is presented with a complex query, the conventional optimizers enumerate the plan search space, i.e., the set of all possible execution plans, by recursively applying transformation and implementation rules to existing plans or expressions. Considering all possible join orders, for example, results in an exponential growth in the number of applied rules as the number of tables to be searched increases. Consequently, such conventional query optimizers are unable to optimize such complex queries regardless of how efficient the implementation is. What is needed is a query optimization system and method that can optimize an arbitrarily complex query within a time that is at most linearly proportional to the complexity of the query.

System and method for reducing compile time in a top down rule based system using rule heuristics based upon the predicted resulting data flow


Disclosed is a system and method for distributing media content, the system including a media content server, a media content receiver configured to output a signal to an associated display device. The media content server is configured to provide a media content signal to the media content receiver.

Inserting/embedding advertising within media content is known. However, embedded advertising has often been keyed with an interactive element which either acts to highlight the advertising or advertised product or provide a link to other information about the product/services, independent of the content which a viewer or audience member may currently be viewing. In short, the interactive element or required efforts to access information concerning the product/services advertised in the media content act as a (often unwanted) interruption to the user/viewer/audience member (who is engaged in viewing of the media content) experience. The result is that many viewers/users choose not to pursue further information via an interactive link and instead end up completely having no awareness (other than perhaps negative awareness) of the advertised product/service/brand etc. after the media content has been viewed completely. If anything is remembered by the user/viewer, it is more likely the fact that someone's advertising interrupted the users/viewers of media content as they were pleasurefully engaged in viewing same.

System and method for reinforcing brand awareness with minimal intrusion on the viewer experience


A wireless device (120) and a method for enabling access to a radio network node (110) as well as a radio network node (110) and a method for enabling the wireless device (120) to enable access to the radio network node (110) are disclosed. The wireless device (120) supports a first transmission bandwidth. The radio network node (110) operates a carrier on a second transmission bandwidth. The first transmission bandwidth is narrower than the second transmission band width. The wireless device (120) obtains (202) information about the carrier. The wireless device (120) determines (206) a mapping scheme for mapping a set of enumerable elements, e.g. resource blocks or sequence elements, to frequency ranges based on the information about the carrier.

Within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), specifications for telecommunication systems are proposed and decided upon. One such telecommunication system is called Long Term Evolution (LTE).
According to LTE, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is used for transmission in downlink and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-spread OFDM is used for transmission in uplink. Downlink refers to transmission from a so called eNB to a user equipment. Uplink refers to transmission from the user equipment to the eNB.
An LTE downlink physical resource, often referred to as a resource element, has a certain extension in time and frequency domains. In the frequency domain, the resource element extends over, or corresponds to, one so called OFDM subcarrier. In the time domain, the resource element, extends over, or corresponds to, one so called OFDM symbol interval.
In the time domain, LTE downlink transmissions are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, where each radio frame consists of ten equally-sized subframes. Each subframe has a length of 1 ms.
Furthermore, allocation of the resource elements in LTE is performed while organizing the resource elements into Resource Blocks (RB). A resource block corresponds to one slot, 0.5 ms, in the time domain and 12 contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain. Each subcarrier is 15 kHz wide. A pair of two adjacent resource blocks in the time domain, 1.0 ms, is known as a resource block pair. Resource blocks are numbered in the frequency domain, starting with 0 from one end of the transmission bandwidth.
The notion of Virtual Resource Blocks (VRB) and Physical Resource Blocks (PRB) has been introduced in LTE. The actual resource allocation to a user equipment is made in terms of VRB pairs. There are two types of resource allocations, localized and distributed. In the localized resource allocation, a VRB pair is directly mapped to a PRB pair, hence two consecutive and localized VRB are also placed as consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain. On the other hand, the distributed VRBs are not mapped to consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain; thereby providing frequency diversity for data channel transmitted using these distributed VRBs.
In order to efficiently and dynamically use radio spectrum, LTE supports flexible allocation of transmission bandwidths. The pre-determined transmission bandwidths are: 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, and 20 MHz. Therefore, in order to fulfill LTE specifications, any user equipment, fulfilling the LTE specifications, must support all of the aforementioned transmission bandwidths.
In LTE there are reference signals, which are sequences consisting of sequence elements, each of which associated with a sequence element number. The sequence elements are mapped to sub-carriers that are distributed with regular or irregular pattern over bandwidth.
In the following description, resource blocks and sequence elements are denoted as examples of enumerable elements.
A known LTE system comprises a radio base station, such as an eNB. A user equipment is located in a cell served by the radio base station. When the user equipment attempts to access a carrier of the radio base station, the user equipment receives various signalling about the carrier from the radio base station. At least some of the signalling is received on a broadcast channel, which is common to all of the pre-determined transmission bandwidths. The signalling informs the user equipment of the transmission bandwidth of the carrier. Accordingly, the user equipment selects to use a transmission bandwidth that matches the transmission bandwidth of the carrier.
A disadvantage, in connection with the above mentioned transmission bandwidth selection process of the LTE system, is that the number of available bandwidths is limited to a number of pre-determined bandwidths. As a consequence, only a user equipment with a transmission bandwidth that exactly matches the bandwidth of the carrier is able to access, e.g. able to camp on it, the radio base station.

Network nodes and methods for enabling access to a radio network node


Provided herein is a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes: a lower conductive pattern; a lower memory string conductive pattern disposed over the lower conductive pattern; a stack of upper memory string conductive patterns, wherein the stack is disposed over the lower memory string conductive pattern; a lower pad pattern extending from the lower memory string conductive pattern; upper pad patterns respectively extending from the upper memory string conductive patterns; a floating conductive pattern disposed under below the lower pad pattern, the floating conductive pattern overlapping the lower pad pattern; and a contact plug coming into contact with the lower pad pattern and overlapping the floating conductive pattern.

1. Field
Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including a stacked structure of conductive patterns.
2. Description of Related Art
A semiconductor device may include a memory device capable of storing data. The memory device may include memory cells. For a high integration of the semiconductor device, the memory cells may be arranged in three dimensions. The memory cells arranged in three dimensions may be coupled to conductive patterns that are disposed at different levels. The conductive patterns may form a stepped structure and be stacked on top of one another.
The stepped structure may be formed of one ends of the conductive patterns. The one ends of the conductive patterns that form the stepped structure may be defined as pad regions. The pad regions of the conductive patterns may be coupled to respective contact plugs.
Portions of the conductive patterns may be perforated in the pad regions by the contact plugs. In this case, the contact plug that passes through the conductive pattern in the pad region may cause a bridge failure. For example, the bridge failure may occur when a target conductive pattern among the contact patterns is electrically coupled with a lower conductive pattern disposed below the target conductive pattern. The operational reliability of the semiconductor device may deteriorate due to such a bridge failure.


A device for converting wind flow energy into mechanical energy has a base construction and a rotor with an essentially horizontal axis mounted on the base construction. The rotor has a number of elongated rotor blades which are connected to a rotary support and extend essentially radially therefrom. Each rotor blade or a part thereof is connected to the rotor support by a hinge connection for tilting the longitudinal axis of the rotor blade or part thereof to a predetermined orientation relative to the axis of rotation of the support. A hinge axis of the hinge connection between the rotor blade and the rotary support is directed at an acute angle both to the longitudinal axis of the rotor blade and to the axis of rotation of the support.

Such a device is known from German Patent No 647 287, which describes a windmill having a hinge connection between a rotor blade and the rotary support with a hinge axis extending at rights angles both to the longitudinal axis of the rotor blade and to the axis of rotation of the support. By pivoting the rotor blades or parts thereof from a position in which they are essentially at right angles to the wind direction to an orientation in which they are at a small angle or parallel to the wind direction, the wind-braking area of the rotor can be adjusted to the actual wind speed.


A talc applicator is provided for use with agricultural equipment such as grain carts and seed tenders. The talc applicator includes a supply hopper with a trough, a discharge, a feed auger extending through the trough and discharge, and an agitator assembly positioned in the supply hopper immediately above the feed auger and trough. The agitator assembly includes a drive gear driven by the drive element of the feed auger and an elongated agitator element including at least two elongate bars and a plurality of angled crossbars connecting the two elongate bars. The agitator element rotates to assist with flow of talc into the trough so that the feed auger can move the talc to the other agricultural equipment. The talc applicator may also be provided with a hydraulic motor and a flexible flighting in the feed auger.

In farming applications, chemical applicators are sometimes used to apply one or more chemicals to material being conveyed, such as seed being conveyed from a seed tender or from a grain cart. For example, graphite and talc are often used as dry lubricants for seed moving and planting operations. Talc operates as a dry lubricant when it is applied to seeds, but another primary role for talc is as a drying agent. Seed is subjected to air flows and ambient humidity when being moved within the farming equipment, and the seed itself as well as any pesticide coatings on the seed can pick up moisture from the ambient air during this process. That pickup of moisture can lead to additional friction and potential sticking/clumping points or jams within the equipment in the absence of the drying provided by chemicals such as talc. The problems with clumping and bridging of material is also present in some circumstances thanks to static electricity that sometimes builds up in the conveyor systems. To this end, the talc effectively smooths and dries the surface of seed to help avoid problems with clumping and/or bridging of material that may otherwise happen because of moisture in the environment.
Of course, the addition of talc to seed should be tailored such that enough talc is added to help prevent the potential flow problems described above, but not an excessive amount which will just be wasted by blowing into the atmosphere rather than coating the seed. Accordingly, talc applicators should typically be designed to carefully meter out flow of talc based on the movement of seed in the associated farming equipment. Many conventional talc applicators are designed to dispense talc at a constant, controlled rate, but this type of arrangement cannot account for variations in seed movement rate. More recent systems in this field have added variable speed drive mechanisms to address this problem of varying seed conveyance or application rates, but this adds potential complexities and added costs to the system.
Regardless of the design of the talc applicator, one further technical problem that must be addressed is the packing of the talc within the storage hopper of the talc applicator. Chemicals such as talc are typically not free flowing, which means the particles of the talc exhibit self-adherence qualities that can prevent an auger or another dispensing element from receiving a flow of talc to dispense to the seed tender, grain cart, or the like. As such, an agitator must typically be provided within the storage hopper to avoid blockages caused by the non-free flowing nature of chemicals such as talc. This agitator is typically another element like the dispensing element which must be powered with input energy, and these elements can add significant complexity and potential failure points within the talc applicator. These issues can be exacerbated when ambient conditions have high humidity.
There is a need, therefore, for further improvements in the field of chemical applicators such as talc applicators, which address these and other deficiencies of known designs.

Talc applicator for use with agricultural equipment and operations


A technique for managing storage space in a file system applies reference weights to compressed storage extents stored in multi-block segments. Each time a reference weight for a compressed storage extent in a segment changes to a value that indicates that the storage extent is no longer in use, a file system manager increments a freed-fragment counter provided for a range of the file system that includes the segment. The file system manager then determines whether to scavenge for free space in that range of the file system based at least in part on a count of the free-fragment counter.

Data storage systems are arrangements of hardware and software that include one or more storage processors coupled to arrays of non-volatile storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives, electronic flash drives, and/or optical drives, for example. The storage processors service storage requests, arriving from host machines ("hosts"), which specify files or other data elements to be written, read, created, or deleted, for example. Software running on the storage processors manages incoming storage requests and performs various data processing tasks to organize and secure the data elements stored on the non-volatile storage devices.
Data storage systems commonly arrange data in file systems, and file systems commonly store data, as well as metadata, in blocks. As is known, a "block" is the smallest unit of storage that a file system can allocate. Blocks for a given file system are generally of fixed size, such as 4 KB, 8 KB, or some other size.
File systems typically categorize blocks as either allocated or free. Allocated blocks are those which are currently in use, whereas free blocks are those which are not. As a file system operates, it tends to allocate new blocks, to accommodate new data, but it also tends to generate new free blocks, as previously allocated blocks become free. The file system may run utilities to coalesce ranges of contiguous free blocks. For example, a utility may move data found in allocated blocks between areas of the file system to create large regions of entirely free blocks. In various examples, the file system may return such regions of free blocks to a storage pool; it may also make such regions available to accommodate new writes of sequential data.

Tracking compressed fragments for efficient free space management


In order to test the input and output drivers of a circuit, in particular an integrated semiconductor circuit, a method and apparatus is provided to connect the input or output drivers assigned to individual signal connections of the circuit to be tested in series to a ring oscillator or to an open chain with the oscillation of the ring oscillator or the delay time being evaluated. By providing appropriate controllable switches, the configuration of the ring oscillator or the chain can be altered variably depending on the input or output drivers to be tested respectively. In this way an “at-speed” and “leakage” test of all input and output drivers, including the external signal connections, are possible with all of these having to be connected to a rapid test unit.

This disclosure relates to a method for testing input/output drivers for a circuit, and, in particular, testing of an integrated semiconductor circuit as well as a corresponding test device.
Generally speaking, for testing an integrated semiconductor circuit with n signal connections an automatic tester or a test device with n inputs and outputs is required. The automatic tester may apply test signals to the semiconductor circuit and subsequently measure and evaluate at a speed required by the respective test specimen (so-called "at-speed test"). The automatic tester is cheaper the fewer signal inputs and outputs are required and the lower the frequencies required for the test. Test methods are therefore sought on economic grounds which can be conducted using simple automatic testers with the fewest possible signals inputs and outputs and low frequencies.
Instead of costly function testing of digital circuits "at speed" using all the circuit signal connections, structural test methods are increasingly being used and are known by the names "scanpath" and "boundary scan", as examples, with only a few signal connections for the circuit to be tested needing to be contacted. In the case of the "scanpath" test method there is direct access to all sequential parts of the circuit to be tested, whereas with the "boundary scan" test method there is access to all internal logic circuit inputs and outputs. However, this method cannot yet establish whether the other non-contacted circuit signal connections can be routed outward free from error and function at the required speed (i.e., with this test method the functioning of all the various signal connections for allocated input and output drivers cannot be tested and whether their bond connections are free from error or not cannot be established). There is, therefore, the risk that errors in the input and output circuits of the semiconductor circuits to be tested are not discovered and that defective circuits may be delivered to customers under certain circumstances.

Method and apparatus for the testing of input/output drivers of a circuit


An automatic bagging system useful for packaging a stack of a compressible material, such as a stack of folded disposable diapers into a drawstring type plastic bag. The apparatus includes means for compressing gradually the stack of diapers while reorienting the stack so that when the stack is packaged, the diapers will fit snugly in the bag with the folded portion of the diaper near the open end of the bag, for convenience in removing each diaper from the bag. Further the apparatus comprises means for handling and conditioning the bag for the insertion of the diaper stack that includes collapsible funnels for holding the bag open in a box-like shape in order to receive the compressed stack of diapers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automatic bagging systems and particularly to a system for automatically compressing a stack of compressible materials such as disposable diapers and bagging the diapers in a drawstring type plastic bag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Packaging techniques for packaging compressible material in containers have included the method of compressing a stack of compressible material and then packing the compressed stack into a carton container. For a discussion of this technique, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,060 issued Feb. 29, 1972 to Philip G. Hammond.
Another technique for packaging compressible material in a container is described in British Pat. No. 1,540,218 issued Feb. 7, 1979 to Edward Alan Lister and Graham Wilson Clarke. This patent discloses a technique for inserting compressible articles into a pre-formed bag by partially opening an edge of the bag with air jets and then pivoting a funnel into the bag. The pivoting of a funnel into a bag which has been partially opened by air appears to be an inefficient procedure for loading compressible items into the bag since the funnels must pivot in and out of the bag within the stream of air. Such action could affect the bag opening operation performed by the jet of air.
A further apparatus for bagging articles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,169 issued Apr. 10, 1979 to Donald R. Zike. There, a automatic bagging machine is described that includes control mechanism that actuates arms to pick up and spread a plastic bag at a pick-up station which grips and maintains the bag open for filling at a filling station. However, this apparatus appears to be for packing commodity in plastic bags; it does not appear to be suitable for packing stacks of compressible material in a plastic bag.


A golf club head of this invention includes a face portion, first and second interchangeable members, a first attachment portion from which the first and second interchangeable members are detachable, and a second attachment portion from which the first and second interchangeable members are detachable. The first interchangeable member is a reinforcing member that abuts against the rear surface of the face portion and restricts deformation of an abutment portion when the member is attached to the first attachment portion. The second interchangeable member is a member that does not abut against the rear surface of the face portion when the member is attached to the first attachment portion.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf club head.
Description of the Related Art
To improve the performance of a golf club head, various structures have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,271 discloses a golf club head that has a hollow structure incorporating a skeleton so as to improve the degree of freedom for the position of center of gravity and the like. For example, each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,140,977 and 8,602,912 and Japanese Patent No. 5438124 discloses a golf club head having a structure that reinforces the central portion of the face portion. Each of Japanese Patent Nos. 4608437 and 4608426 discloses a golf club head that includes an interchangeable part so as to allow a user to select desired characteristics. Each of Japanese Patent Nos. 4608437 and 4608426 discloses an interchangeable part that promotes attenuation of vibration in the face portion at impact. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-525214 discloses a golf club head having a structure that reinforces the central portion of the face portion, and particularly, a structure capable of adjusting the rigidity of the central portion.
The rigidity distribution of the face portion affects characteristics of a golf club head such as distance performance and a hitting feel. However, the degree of effects changes depending on the capability and need of a golfer. Hence, it is preferable to allow the golfer to select desired characteristics.


An arrangement in a sewing machine including a fabric feed dog (14; 44) for feeding a fabric to be sewn, and a vertically movable presser bar (12; 42) having a presser foot (13; 43; 63) and a presser spring (23; 53). The presser bar is actuatable by a power-driven actuator(19; 49) connected to the presser spring and slidable in parallel with the presser bar. The actuator is movable relative to the presser bar to adjust the presser foot pressure and operatively connected to the presser bar to raise and lower the presser foot during the sewing procedure in accordance with a predetermined program. In one embodiment, the presser foot (13, 43) is slidable to follow the fabric during the feeding step. In another embodiment, the presser foot (63) is provided with a top feed ruffler (69, 70) for forming tucks or pleats in the fabric being sewn.

The present invention relates to an arrangement in a sewing machine, comprising a needle bar having a needle, a feed dog for feeding a fabric to be sewn, and a vertically movable presser bar having a presser foot and a presser spring. The presser bar is actuated by a power-driven actuating means connected to the presser spring and slidable in parallel with the presser bar. The actuating means is movable relative to the presser bar to control the presser foot pressure and to engage the presser bar in order to raise and lower the presser foot during the sewing procedure in accordance with a predetermined program.
A conventional, stationary presser foot creates a braking action on an upper fabric layer due to friction between the fabric and the presser foot. The friction results in a risk of mutual displacement of the fabric layers in that the distance of feeding of the upper layer will be shorter than that of the lower layer which is in direct contact with the feed dog. As is easily seen, such mutual displacement of the fabric layers will have a negative effect on the sewing performance. The problem is particularly evident in the case of material providing great friction when engaging the presser foot, but also when sewing soft, compressible fabric material.
In order to provide a solution to the above problem it is known to use an arrangement having a slidably journalled presser foot. Raising movement of the presser foot is provided by the drive mechanism of the needle bar. However, in such an arrangement it is not possible to obtain raising and lowering of the presser foot at the appropriate moments during the sewing procedure, and the performance of the arrangement has therefore not appeared to be satisfactory.

Lifting control for slidable presser foot


An electronic device which prevents a veterinary patient from licking and mutilating, medical appliances which are attached to the patient. The medical appliances may include bandages, splints, catheters, fluid administration sets, etc. The electronic device comprises a housing containing electronic circuitry powered by two series-connected, replaceable nine volt batteries. A negative electrode and a positive electrode extend from the housing. The electrodes are attached to the patient""s body in a manner to form an open circuit. A mild, but convincing, shock is produced if the patient attempts to lick or chew the medical appliance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical devices. More specifically, the present invention is drawn to an electrical device which prevents an animal from licking or chewing a wound-covering bandage, a splint, or an attached medical appliance.
2. Description of Related Art
Unfortunately animals, like humans, sometimes engage in activities that produce injuries. A beloved dog or cat, the bear in the zoo, the cow in the barn, etc., may cut a forepaw or break a leg or have some injury occur which requires the use of a protective covering such as a bandage or the like. Unlike humans however, the animal""s instinct is to lick the wound. Thus, the bandage is regarded as an impediment of which to be rid. The animal will lick at or chew on the bandage, thereby mutilating it and negating the protective intent. This scenario enhances the chances for infection and prolongs the healing process.
A simplistic, efficient, effective device that would discourage this instinctive behavior would surely be a welcome addition to the art.
There are several devices in the prior art utilized for discouraging animals from licking or chewing in areas adjacent wounds. For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,009 (Boyle) shows an electric device adapted to be positioned around a bandage on an animal. The device will produce a mild electric shock if the animal attempts to bite, lick or chew the bandage. The Boyle device uses two nine volt batteries to provide the electrical shock. It is to be noted that the device of the instant patent is limited in that it can be employed only in an anatomical area encompassed by the relatively narrow width of the flexible mounting band.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,830 (Stampe) also shows an electrical device that will produce a mild shock if an animal licks in an area adjacent a wound. The anatomical area encompassed by the Stampe device appears to be even more limited than that of the above cited patent. Moreover, the Patentee contemplates providing a voltage output of only four to six volts which is not enough to discourage persistent animals from licking and/or chewing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,036 (Abadjieff) shows a bandage which would cause pain when the animal attempts to lick or chew the bandage. Besides pain, the sharp points would also inflict wounds to the animal thereby creating a second medical situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,177,789 (Sacker) is drawn to an electrical device to discourage a farm animal, especially a bull, from butting. There is no contemplation to use the device as a medical device to discourage licking a wound.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,292 (Rostenberg et al.) discloses an electric shock guard adapted to be attached to the top of a garbage can to discourage animals from tampering with the can. No provision is made to adapt the instant device to be attached to an animal""s anatomy.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,545 (Wilson) pertains to an electrical device for blocking or masking pain in a human patient. There is no teaching for applying the device to protect an injury to an animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,790 B1 (Gerig) discloses a receiver unit for use in animal behavior modification. The receiver employs relatively complex circuitry and requires the use of a remote signaling device.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to disclose an electronic device to discourage animals from licking and/or mutilating bandages or medical appliances as will subsequently be described and claimed in the instant invention.
The instant invention is a device which prevents a veterinary patient from licking and mutilating a medical appliance which is attached to the patient. The medical appliance may include but is not restricted to a bandage, splints, catheter, fluid administration set, etc. The device comprises a housing containing electronic circuitry powered by two series-connected, replaceable nine volt batteries.
A negative electrode and a positive electrode extend from the housing. The negative electrode is attached to the patient""s body in an area adjacent the injury or medical appliance. An electrocardiogram adhesive lead or the like can be used to effect the attachment of the negative electrode. A conventional bandage may then be applied to afford protection for the area and to further secure the negative electrode to the area.
A flexible material, which has an electrically conductive outer surface and an electrically insulated inner surface, is utilized to cover the bandaged area. The flexible material may be cut to any size whereby the material may be made to extend over any desired anatomical area. The positive electrode is attached to the outer, conductive surface. When the patient attempts to lick or chew the area desired to be, protected, a circuit is completed causing the device to emit a small but convincing shock to discourage the patient from further contact with the protected area.
The concept and apparatus of the instant invention is simplistic and effective. The desired anatomical area is protected without the use of confining cages or uncomfortable Elizabethan collars. The animal patient is able to maneuver and perform normal functions, only limited by the injury itself.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a medical device adapted for use on veterinary patients.
It is another object of the invention to provide a medical device to discourage veterinary patients from licking and/or biting medical appliances attached thereto.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a medical device for veterinary patients, which device is portable and self-contained.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a medical device for veterinary patients, which device is durable and easy to operate.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in a device for the purposes described which are inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing their intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.

Electronic device for veterinary patients


A portable cleaning device dispenses at least a first cleaning fluid and a second cleaning fluid. The device includes at least two user controllable fluid dispensing devices, a frame means, a first fluid reservoir for holding the first cleaning fluid, a first pump for pumping the first cleaning fluid from the first reservoir, and a first manifold for receiving the first cleaning fluid from the first pump, and distributing it to a first line set comprising a plurality of lines. The lines deliver the first cleaning fluid to the fluid dispensing devices. A second fluid reservoir holds a second cleaning fluid, such as water, and delivers it to a second pump which pumps the second cleaning fluid to a second manifold. The second manifold includes a plurality of exit ports for distributing the second fluid to a plurality of second lines which deliver the second cleaning fluid to the fluid dispensing devices. The dispensing devices each include a mixing valve for receiving one line from each of the first and second line sets, and permit the user to controllably adjust the relative volumes of the first and second cleaning fluids dispensed by the dispensing devices.

Pressurized cleaning devices are well known and take many different forms. For example, a garden hose connected to a typical household faucet may be used to provide a source of pressurized "tap" water for a variety of cleaning needs. In other applications, such as a public car wash, a mechanism is provided for selecting pressurized water only, or a predetermined mixture of pressurized water and a concentrate such as soap or wax. A smaller vehicle cleaning system that operates on this principal is disclosed in Futrell U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,960. Likewise, a drain cleaning apparatus operating in this manner is disclosed in Russell U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,113. A larger system employing this principal for cleaning commercial aircraft is disclosed in Vice et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,753.
In many of the cleaning devices described above, some types of valves are employed to allow one fluid to intermix with another fluid, thereby providing a solution of predetermined concentration. Such a system using an aspirator-transfer valve is shown in Ostergaard U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,526. Other valve configurations, such as that shown in Potter U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,245, permit the mixing together of two liquids according to plurality of predetermined proportion settings.
In the commercial airline industry, aircraft are typically cleaned extensively on a yearly basis by "teams" of airline employees. Such a task usually involves the use of a variety of cleaning agents and bulky cleaning machinery. It would therefore be desirable to provide a stand-alone cleaning apparatus that would allow multiple users to accomplish specific cleaning tasks without disrupting the other members of the team. It would further be desirable to provide each user with complete control over the strength of the particular cleaning solution being used. Such a system must therefore be capable of providing a constant pressure cleaning solution to each user wherein the cleaning agent to water ratio is continuously adjustable.
Another desirable feature of an airplane cleaning apparatus is that it be portable, so that the device can be taken to a plane, rather than requiring the plane to travel to it. This desirability is especially because hangar space is usually at a premium at maintenance facilities, and airplanes undergoing extensive renovation are usually somewhat immobilized within a repair bay during the performance of the maintenance.
Additionally, a portable cleaning apparatus should be configured to comport with typical airplane sizes and dimensions. One of the more important dimensions of an airplane relates to the clearance between the bottom surface of the wing and fuselage and the ground. Preferably, a portable cleaning apparatus should be sized so that it can be rolled under the fuselage of larger airplanes (such as 747's) so that both sides of the airplane can be cleaned effectively by the device.
Another desirable feature of an aircraft cleaning device is that it be designed to provide a high pressure source of cleaning fluid and water to a user controllable fluid dispensing device, such as a wand, so that the water pressure emanating from the device can perform much of the "work" of cleaning the airplane and removing the dirt and grime from the airplane and its parts.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a portable cleaning apparatus for use with aircraft, that is both efficient, and effective in the cleaning of aircraft.

Aircraft cleaning apparatus and mixing valve therefor


Disclosed is a device for regulating the pressure and/or flow of a gas stream, which device comprises a housing (9, 109) which is provided with a pressure-regulating chamber (4, 104), at least part of whose wall comprises a diaphragm (10, 110), which diaphragm (10, 110) is subjected, on the side remote from the pressure-regulating chamber (4, 104), to an adjustable prestressing force, the pressure-regulating chamber comprising an inlet opening (3, 28, 128) for a gas and an outlet opening (5, 29, 129) for a gas, it being possible for at least one of the openings (3/5, 28/29, 128/129) to be completely or partially closed off with the aid of a displaceable closure member (15, 115) which is connected to the diaphragm (10, 110) in such a manner that the position of the closure member is dependent on the displacement of the diaphragm.

(Not applicable.)
The present invention relates to a device for regulating the pressure and/or the flow of a gas stream, which device comprises a housing which is provided with a pressure-regulating chamber, at least part of whose wall comprises a diaphragm, which diaphragm is subjected, on the side remote from the pressure-regulating chamber, to an adjustable prestressing force, the pressure-regulating chamber comprising an inlet opening for a gas and an outlet opening for a gas, it being possible for at least one of the openings to be completely or partially closed off with the aid of the diaphragm. This means that the extent to which the diaphragm bends is dependent, on the one hand, on the instantaneous pressure in the pressure-regulating chamber and, on the other hand, on the stress which is applied to the diaphragm with the aid of the prestressing means, wherein the diaphragm is actively connected to a pressure chamber for a gas, which pressure chamber is provided with has an inlet opening for a gas and an outlet opening for a gas for setting the pressure in the pressure chamber for the purpose of applying the prestressing force.
A device of the abovementioned type is known in the prior art. The device may be used, for example, to regulate a gas stream which is at a relatively high pressure down to a gas stream at a lower pressure. The position of the closure member is linked to the bending of the diaphragm. Consequently, the pressure of the gas stream which leaves the pressure-regulating chamber via the outlet opening will be determined by the position of the diaphragm in a starting position. The known device can be used to reduce the pressure of a gas stream to a desired level. The pressure of the gas stream which will leave the pressure-regulating chamber at the outlet opening will be dependent on the size of the inlet opening which is left open by the closure member. The more the closure member closes off the inlet opening, the lower the pressure flowing out of the outlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber will be.
The above mentioned device is (i.a.) known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,521. From this document a device is known for regulating the pressure in a container. In addition to the mentioned elements, the known device comprises means for measuring possible differences in the pressure in the pressure chamber and the device""s outlet opening, which differences can used for regulating the pressure in the pressure chamber.
An important drawback associated with devices known from the prior art is that it still is impossible to accurately set the position of the diaphragm. In practice the switching time of the valves inside the inlet opening and the outlet opening will not be infinitesimal. There will always be a physical limitation which limits the accuracy of the control.
The object of the present invention is to provide a device of the type mentioned in the introduction with which it is possible to accurately set the position of the diaphragm. It is also desirable for it to be possible to adjust a position of the diaphragm once it has been set, in a relatively simple manner.
These objects are achieved, in the present invention, in that the inlet opening is provided with a flow restriction. Therewith it is possible that outlet opening is provided with a flow restriction.
The use of a pressure chamber in which a gas is kept under pressure allows the position of the diaphragm in the starting position, and therefore the position of the closure member in the inlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber, to be adjusted with the aid of a gas pressure. By increasing or reducing the pressure in the pressure chamber, the position of the diaphragm can be fixed as desired.
Because of the presence of the restrictions at both the inlet opening and the outlet opening it is possible to control the flow to and from the pressure chamber with a much higher accuracy then before.
According to the invention it is further possible that the side of the diaphragm which is remote from the pressure-regulating chamber adjoins the pressure chamber. Therewith it is possible that the inlet opening and the outlet opening of the pressure chamber are provided with a remotely controllable shut-off valve.
Therewith the position of the diaphragm can be altered by altering the pressure in the pressure-regulating chamber.
These measures ensure, in a very simple manner, that the pressure in the pressure chamber can be increased or reduced. The remotely controllable shut-off valves allow the setting of the pressure in the pressure-regulating chamber to be coupled, for example, to measuring means which are accommodated elsewhere in the device.
According to the present invention, it is possible for the device to be provided with means for measuring the pressure of the gas stream, which measuring means are arranged in the vicinity of the outlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber. It is also possible for the device to be provided with means for measuring the pressure of the gas stream, which measuring means are arranged in the vicinity of the inlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber. In this case, it is advantageous for the device to be provided with regulating means which are actively connected to, on the one hand, the means for measuring the gas pressure and, on the other hand, the remotely controllable shut-off valves of the pressure chamber.
These measures ensure that the pressure or the flow of the gas stream which leaves/flows into the pressure-regulating chamber can be monitored. By additionally coupling this pressure measurement to the remotely controllable shut-off valves, it is possible for any deviations in the measured pressure of the gas stream to be directly translated into a change in the position of the diaphragm.
According to the invention, it is also possible for the diaphragm to be connected, via a coupling member, to a second diaphragm, the said second diaphragm adjoining the pressure chamber, and that side of the diaphragm which is remote from the pressure-regulating chamber adjoining a second pressure chamber, the pressure-regulating chamber being in communication, via a restriction, with a feed line for a gas, and the second pressure-regulating chamber being in open communication with the said feed line.
This measure allows the present invention to be used for setting a diaphragm, with both its sides adjoining a feed line for a gas stream. The first side of the diaphragm adjoins a closed space which contains an outlet opening and is connected to the feed line via a restriction. The other side of the diaphragm adjoins a closed space which is in free communication with the feed line. If flow takes place from the feed line, via the restriction, to the outlet opening of the closed space on the first side of the diaphragm, the presence of the restriction will cause there to be a pressure difference across the diaphragm. This pressure difference determines the position of the diaphragm and hence the extent to which the outlet opening is closed off. The equilibrium position about which the diaphragm will move can be set, by means of the measures described above, with the aid of the said pressure chamber, it being possible to vary the pressure in the pressure chamber. At least one wall of the pressure chamber is formed by a second diaphragm which is connected, via a coupling member, to the diaphragm which is connected on both sides to the feed line.
The present invention also relates to a gas chromatograph provided with the above mentioned device.
The device according to the present invention is especially suited to be used in a gas chromatograph. Firstly because at both sides of the diaphragm a gas is present, diffusion through the material of the diaphragm will be limited to a minimum. Further it is possible to connect both the inlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber and the inlet opening of the pressure chamber to one and the same feed line. That means that on both sides of the diaphragm the same gas will be present. In the gas chromatograph it is possible to add a substance to be examined to the gas flow when the pressure of the gas flow has been decreased from a relatively high pressure to a relatively low pressure, i.e. downstream of the device according to the present invention. The result of this will be that possible loss of material to be examined will be prevented.
In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a method for regulating the pressure or a flow of a gas stream, in which the gas stream to be regulated is fed from an inlet chamber, via an inlet opening, to a pressure-regulating chamber, at least part of whose wall is formed by a diaphragm, the pressure in the pressure-regulating chamber being regulated by adjusting the size of the inlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber with the aid of a closure member which is actively connected to the diaphragm in such a manner that a change in the level of displacement of the diaphragm causes a change to the extent to which the closure member closes off the inlet opening, the diaphragm being subjected to a prestressing force, with the aid of which a specific positioning is imposed on the diaphragm.
The method according to this invention is characterized in that the said prestressing force is applied by a pressurized gas in the pressure chamber, the starting position of the diaphragm being set by setting the pressure of the gas in the pressure chamber.
According to the present invention, it is possible for the gas stream to be discharged from an outlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber. In this case, it is advantageous for the pressure of the gas stream to be measured at least periodically in the vicinity of the outlet opening of the pressure-regulating chamber, and for the measured value to be compared with a desired value which is dependent on the starting position of the diaphragm, and for the pressure in the pressure chamber to be increased or reduced on the basis of this comparison by feeding or discharging gas to or from the pressure chamber.
This measure makes it possible to keep the pressure in the gas stream which leaves the pressure-regulating chamber as close as possible to the desired value. In principle, the device is designed in such a way that any deviations from the desired pressure in the gas stream emerging from the pressure-regulating chamber caused by variations in the position of the diaphragm can be eliminated by the device itself. Any undesirable residual variations can be effectively eliminated by means of the method according to the invention.
Furthermore, it is possible, according to the invention, for a volume of gas to be fed to the pressure chamber, during or after which process a different volume of gas is discharged from the pressure chamber.
The effect of this measure is that during use of the device according to the invention there is no problem with so-called dead spaces. If an insufficient volume of gas were to be fed to the pressure chamber, the diaphragm might react in a non-linear manner to this addition of gas. By ensuring that the volume of gas which is supplied is always greater than a specific threshold, and that a certain volume of gas is discharged during or immediately after this volume of gas has been supplied, it is ensured that, on balance, small volumes of gas can be fed to the pressure chamber, in other words that the pressure in the pressure chamber can be adjusted very accurately without there being problems with dead spaces.
According to the invention, it is advantageous if the pressure in the pressure chamber is allowed to gradually increase or decrease.
For certain applications, it may be advantageous to allow the pressure of the gas stream which leaves the pressure-regulating chamber to gradually increase or decrease. For example, in the case of a gas chromatograph, it may be that in the event of variations in pressure, different elements are separated out of the gas stream in a column which may be positioned in a line which is connected to the device according to the present invention. If the pressure in the pressure chamber is now gradually varied, the pressure of the gas stream leaving the pressure-regulating chamber will also vary. These variations may benefit the separating capacity of the column.

Device and method for regulating the pressure of a gas stream


A sports field barrier is disclosed for arresting the flight of a ball moving in one direction over a field of play and for rebounding the ball in another direction generally and usually reciprocal to the one direction and with the barrier being erected uprightly along a zigzag course adjacent the field of play. Where the sports field is a tennis court the barrier may be constructed by the steps of intertwining wire coils to form a section of wire mesh fencing, crimping the fencing section or mounting it to forms so as to form the wire coils into a zigzag shape, and mounted the fencing section to a fence frame with the coils stretched between a pair of upright stanchions.

This invention relates to field barriers for sports of the type using a ball and racket such as tennis, to methods of constructing such barriers, and to practice backboard type barriers.
Tennis courts are usually bounded by wire mesh fencing to contain the balls within the courts during play. The fencing is almost invariably formed by upright planar sections of wire mesh streched tightly between upright stanchions anchored in the ground where the court is located out of doors. Though in some cases gaps in the fencing do occur, usually the fence as a whole, together with access gates, completely encloses one or a group of adjacent courts by forming a rectangular barrier.
During the course of play balls are continually hit into the fence from which they usually rebound a short distance. The direction of rebound quite frequently has a vectoral component oriented away from the player who last hit the ball. This is because the angle of ball reflection is equal and opposite to the angle of incidence in accordance with Newton's laws of dynamics. Of course since the barrier is composed of wire mesh, it is not completely flat and thus the angle of incidence is not invariably equal and opposite to the angle of incidence. Nevertheless, generally this is the case. As a result it is seen that a ball will tend to rebound away from the player who last struck it making retrieval by that player more difficult. In addition, since the flight of the ball also will typically pass closely by an opposing player the ball rebound will also usually be away from that player too who is likely to be the one to retrieve it. It therefore is seen that in the majority of incidences tennis court fences of the prior art are constructed to rebound balls away from the players. This in turn makes retrieval more time consuming and, in the case of multiple courts of play bounded by a common fence, often causes the balls in play at one court to interfer with play at an adjacent court.
Windy conditions create an additional problem with present day out of doors tennis court fences. The winds first push the balls into the fence from which they rebound slightly. However, after rebound the wind will again push the ball back into the fence. Since the fence is straight adjacent the court surface the ball soon will begin to roll along the fence until it reaches a downwind corner. With multi-court fences its final resting place may, in some cases, be several courts away from that in which it was in play.
In addition to barriers placed about sports fields other barriers have also been constructed and erected for solo practice. In tennis these are termed backboards and, as opposed to the wire mesh structure of court fences, are constructed of solid materials such as wood or concrete to provide a high degree of rebound for continuous practice. Again here, however, the rebound direction tends to have a vectoral component oriented away from the player in all cases except where the ball is hit normally, i.e. at a 90.degree. angle of incidence, onto the backboard. The further from normal the more aggreviated the condition. In addition, the predictability of return speed and timing is quite great and therefore unnatural. Accordingly, it is to the just described problems associated with sports field barriers to which the present invention is directed.

Sports field barrier and method of constructing same


A method of making a precursor for a thin film formed by chemical vapor deposition processes, includes mixing ZCl4 with H(tmhd)3 solvent and benzene to form a solution, where Z is an element taken from the group of elements consisting of hafnium and zirconium; refluxing the solution for twelve hours in an argon atmosphere; removing the solvents via vacuum, thereby producing a solid compound; and sublimating the compound at 200xc2x0 C. in a near vacuum of 0.1 mmHg. A ZOx precursor, for use in a chemical vapor deposition process, includes a Z-containing compound taken from the group of compounds consisting of ZCl(tmhd)3 and ZCl2(tmhd)2.

This invention relates to the synthesis of hafnium chloride alkoxides which can be used for the hafnium metal oxide thin film deposition via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer chemical vapor deposition (ALCVD) process.
Currently, zirconium and hafnium precursors used for CVD or ALCVD are HfCl4, Hf(OR)4, where R=alkyl, such as CH(CH3)2, Hf(tmhd)4, where tmhd=2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionato, Hf(tfac)4, where tfac=trifluoroacetylacetonate, and Hf(NO3)4, and similar precursors with zirconium components. For metal gate oxide applications, HfCl4 has been reported as a potential source for a pure HfO2 thin film deposition. Ryan C. Smith et al. Chemical Vapor Deposition of the Oxides of Titanium, Zirconium and Hafnium for Use as High-k Materials in Microelectronic Devices. A Carbon-free Precursor for the Synthesis of Hafnium Dioxide, Advanced Materials for Optics and Electronics 10, 105-114, 111-113 (2000).
As for the other precursors, Hf(OR)4 is extremely air and moisture sensitive and is difficult to handle; Hf(tmhd)4 is stable, but induces carbon contamination, which is difficult to remove; Hf(tfac)4 is a volatile precursor, but its use includes a risk of fluorine contamination. There is no report about application of Hf(NO3)4 in ALCVD.
Because hafnium and zirconium have nearly identical electron configurations, they have nearly identical chemical properties. Thus, as is well know to those of ordinary skill in the art, they are virtually interchangeable in chemical compounds, and exhibit similar characteristics when used in semiconductor devices.
A method of making a precursor for a thin film formed by chemical vapor deposition processes, includes mixing ZCl4 with H(tmhd)3 solvent and benzene to form a solution, where Z is an element taken from the group of elements consisting of hafnium and zirconium; refluxing the solution for twelve hours in an argon atmosphere; removing the solvents via vacuum, thereby producing a solid compound; and sublimating the compound at 200xc2x0 C. in a near vacuum of 0.1 mmHg.
A ZOx precursor, for use in a chemical vapor deposition process, includes a Z-containing compound taken from the group of compounds consisting of ZCl(tmhd)3 and ZCl2(tmhd)2.
It is an object of the invention to provide hafnium precursors which may be used for the hafnium metal oxide thin film deposition via CVD or ALCVD process.
A further object of the invention is to reduce chlorine contamination while still providing a sufficiently volatile precursor.
Another object of the invention is to use alkoxide ligands to partially replace the chlorine, resulting in hafnium dichloride dialkoxide or hafnium chloride trialkoxide.

Precursors for zirconium and hafnium oxide thin film deposition


A signal processing apparatus includes a transform unit configured to orthogonally transform an audio signal; an analysis unit configured to analyze the audio signal orthogonally transformed by the transform unit and estimate a very high frequency stationary signal component; and a signal processing unit configured to perform signal processing to reduce the very high frequency stationary signal component estimated by the analysis of the analysis unit with respect to the audio signal.

The present disclosure relates to a signal processing apparatus and a signal processing method, and more particularly to a signal processing apparatus and a signal processing method that can reproduce audio data including a very high frequency more securely while suppressing reduction in audio quality.
In recent years, there has been a wide use of audio data including a very high frequency signal component which is a higher-frequency band (for example, 20 kHz or more) than a frequency band commonly called an audible band (so-called data of high-resolution) (hereinafter referred to as high-resolution data).
This very high frequency may include a large amount of noise components formed of, for example, a noise shaper. It is difficult for a user to hear such very high frequency noise, so that the user is likely to perform volume adjustment based on reproduction volume of the audible band. Accordingly, the reproduction volume of the very high frequency noise is excessively increased, which overloads a reproduction device such as an amplifier and a speaker and can lead to breakdowns and the like.
Then, it is conceivable to suppress signal amplification (gain) at the time of reproduction to perform reproduction more safely. For example, there has been proposed a method of determining whether an input signal is noise or audio data with use of an autocorrelation and decreasing a gain when it is determined as the noise (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-543194).

Processing audio signal to produce enhanced audio signal


A method and apparatus adapted to permit an internal handover from 1900 MHz to 900 MHz under controlled circumstances. Using the method of the present invention, the amount of time needed to disconnect a call of a user equipment (UE) under test, remove the 1800 MHz cell and setup a GSM 1900 MHz cell, allow the UE to perform a search for the 1900 MHz cell, register and establish a new call and then perform tests on GSM 1900 MHz is reduced by several seconds. On a production line in which millions of UEs are manufactured, the time saved by the present invention allows for significant savings in production costs.

The following abbreviations used herein shall have the following meanings:
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access.
DCS Digital Communications System.
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications.
PCS Personal Communications System.
UE User equipment, including mobile terminals, cellular telephones, smart phones and/or personal digital assistants (PDAs).
WCDMA Wideband CDMA.
WLAN Wide Area Local Access Network.
When UE is tested to be either validated, or calibrated and then validated, in a production line or elsewhere, several frequency bands and/or access technologies must be tested. FIG. 1 is a message flow 100 illustrating a conventional testing of a quad band UE, when performing production testing of a UE. The steps as seen therein are as follows:
1. Start in WCDMA 2100 and perform tests on 2100 MHz;
2. Perform a handover to GSM 900 and perform tests on 900 MHz;
3. Perform an internal GSM handover from 900 MHz to 1800 MHz and perform tests on 1800 MHz;
4. Disconnect call, remove 1800 MHz cell and setup the GSM 1900 cell; and
5. Allow the UE perform a search for the 1900 MHz cell, register and establish a new call and then perform tests on GSM 1900.
Note that when certain specific frequencies are used herein, e.g. 1900 MHz, it is to be understood that reference is to the general frequency band around and possibly including said specific frequency as used in cellular telecommunication systems. The time to perform a handover is less then 100 milliseconds (ms) for a GSM handover, however the time when moving from step 4 to step 5 above can be as long as 10 seconds or more. While a UE can handle different access technologies such as WCDMA, GSM, WLAN, and/or different frequency bands, such as GSM, DCS, PCS and/or WCDMA 1900 MHz/2100 MHz, the standards setting forth the specifications for the different technologies require the UE to transition between technologies and/or frequencies in defined ways. The transition can be performed in one of two methods. The first method is in a non-dedicated mode wherein the UE does not have a dedicated connection established. To change access technology or frequency in a non-dedicated mode, the UE must perform a search for the target technology/frequency, which is time consuming. The second method is in a dedicated/connected mode. The change of access technology or frequency in a dedicated mode is performed very quickly.
In the disclosure of Leung, two special commands are required to perform tests:
Command—1: A handover command with a channel number in a certain range orders the UE to operate in the PCS band.
Command—2: A handover command with a channel number in a certain range orders the UE to operate in the DCS band.
In Leung, commands are sent from a personal computer via a serial port to the UE. The personal computer is also connected via a general purpose instruction bus to a GSM tester, which emulates a network. Because of the time necessary to perform tests on the available technologies and frequencies of a UE, production times are adversely affected.
What is desired is a method and apparatus that allows non-standardized transitions between different access technologies and frequencies so that the need for non-dedicated mode transitions can be eliminated.

Method and apparatus of performing frequency transitions in user equipment