An exclusive OR circuit is provided which detects whether or not a preceding-stage logical output value and a subsequent-stage logical output value agree. When these logical output values are found to agree, a NAND circuit functions to cut off the supply of a clock signal to a first and second switch circuits and to a latch circuit. Accordingly, when there occur no data changes between clock signal cycles, in a switch circuit and a latch circuit both arranged between each stage of a pipeline, the charge/discharge of the capacitance of gate electrodes of transistors forming these circuits is prevented, thereby reducing power consumption.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the improvement of signal processing. More specifically, the present invention pertains to signal processing circuits that operate in synchronization with a clock signal and signal processing methods for use in LSI (large-scale integrated) circuits such as microprocessors and signal processors. This invention is further directed to the reduction of electric power consumption in circuits such as switch circuits and latch circuits which operate in response to clock signals.
2. Background Art
In conventional signal processing circuits, particularly, in a very fast digital signal processing circuit of a semiconductor integrated circuit, a pipeline is formed by dividing a logic circuit or an arithmetic unit into an adequate number of stages and by placing a switch circuit and a latch circuit between each stage, to improve the throughput of signal processing.
With reference to FIG. 9, one stage of such a pipeline structure is described. CLK indicates a clock signal. 100 is an inverter circuit which receives and inverts the clock signal CLK. 101 is another inverter circuit which receives and inverts the output Q of the inverter circuit 100.
SW1 is a first switch circuit. The first switch SW1 receives the output Q of the inverter circuit 101 and the output XQ of the inverter 101. On the rising edge of the clock signal CLK, the first switch SW1 turns on, as shown in FIG. 10. 102 is a latch circuit, comprised of a switch circuit 102a and two inverter circuits 102b and 102c, receives DATA A through the first switch SW1 when the first switch circuit SW1 turns on. This DATA A is latched by the latch circuit 102 when the first switch SW1 subsequently turns off. SW2 is a second switch circuit. The second switch circuit SW2 receives the output Q of the inverter circuit 100 and the output XQ of the inverter circuit 101. The second switch circuit SW2 turns on, on the falling edge of the clock signal CLK (FIG. 10) and outputs, to a subsequent stage, LATCH DATA B of the latch circuit 102 as DATA C.
This conventional signal processing circuit, however, has the following drawbacks. When no data changes occur between clock signal cycles, the transfer of data between pipelines is not essentially required. However, in the switch circuits SW1, SW2 and 102a and the inverter circuits 100 and 101, the gate electrode capacitance of transistors forming these circuits is charged or discharged every time the clock signal CLK rises or falls. The gate electrode capacitance is charged or discharged even when LATCH DATA XB of the latch circuit 102 is identical with the next INPUT DATA A, which increases the power consumption by a proportional amount to such charge/discharge. In other words, the switch circuits SW1, SW2 and 102a and the inverter circuits 100 and 101 operate, regardless of the contents of transfer data, with their gate electrode capacitance repeatedly charged or discharged in synchronization with the system clock signal CLK. As a result of such charge/discharge, extra electric power is wasted. Especially, in the idling state, that is, when the clock signal is still supplied although the arithmetic unit is in the non-operation mode, further extra electric power is wasted.

Circuit and method for signal processing

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a dynamoelectric stator and a method for the manufacture thereof enabling electrical insulation properties to be improved by forming slot-housed portions with a racetrack-shaped cross section to suppress damage to an electrically-insulating coating arising during mounting of a stator winding to a stator core.

FIG. 12 is a cross section explaining a conventional dynamoelectric stator construction such as that described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. SHO 63-194543 (Gazette), for example, and FIGS. 13 to 17 are all diagrams explaining a method for manufacturing the conventional dynamoelectric stator.
This conventional dynamoelectric stator 1, as shown in FIG. 12, includes: a stator core 2; and a stator winding 4 installed in the stator core 2.
The stator core 2 is constructed by laminating a predetermined number of magnetic steel sheets punched into a predetermined shape, being constructed such that tooth portions 7 disposed so as to extend radially inward from an annular core back portion 6 are arranged at a predetermined pitch in a circumferential direction. Slots 3 are defined between adjacent tooth portions 7. Flange portions 5 are formed on tip portions of each of the tooth portions 7 so as to project circumferentially. These flange portions 5 serve a function of collecting magnetic flux, and also serve a function of preventing dislodgment of the stator winding 4 by closing approximately half a width of the openings of the slots 3.
The stator winding 4 is installed in the stator core 2 such that three-phase output can be obtained. In each of the slots 3, slot-housed portions 12a, described below, formed by pressing and deforming a portion of conductor wires 11 having a circular cross section into a rectangular cross section are housed so as to line up in single columns in a radial direction.
Furthermore, heat-tolerant insulators 8 are mounted into each of the slots 3, ensuring electrical insulation between the stator core 2 and the stator winding 4.
A method for forming the stator winding 4 will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 13 to 17.
First, as shown in FIG. 13, a first rectangular winding portion 12 is formed by winding a single conductor wire 11 having a circular cross section into a generally rectangular shape for six winds, and then winding the conductor wire 11 projecting from this rectangular winding portion 12 for six winds so as to form a second rectangular winding portion 12. A lap winding 10 having a plurality of rectangular winding portions 12 is prepared from the single conductor wire 11 by performing this operation repeatedly.
Next, each of the rectangular winding portions 12 of the lap winding 10 are mounted onto a press forming machine 13, as shown in FIG. 14. Here, six slot-housed portions 12a are stacked in single columns and inserted between a stopper 15 and slides 14 slidably supported by springs 16. Then, the slot-housed portions 12a are pressed in the direction of the arrow by a pusher 17. In this manner, as shown in FIG. 15, the slot-housed portions 12a of each of the rectangular winding portions 12 of the lap winding 10 are deformed into a rectangular cross section. Moreover, coil end portions 12b linking the slot-housed portions 12a have a circular cross section.
Then, the slot-housed portions 12a of the lap winding 10 are inserted from an inner circumferential side into each of the slots 3 mounted with the insulators 8 as shown in FIG. 16. Thereafter, tip surfaces of the tooth portions 7 are pressed by a roller, etc., in directions indicated by the arrows F in FIG. 17. In this manner, penetrating apertures 9 formed on the tip portions of the tooth portions 7 are crushed, and portions on first and second circumferential sides of the penetrating apertures 9 are pushed circumferentially outward to form the flange portions 5, obtaining the stator 1 shown in FIG. 12. In this stator 1, the slot-housed portions 12a having a rectangular cross section are housed in six layers in each of the slots 3 so as to line up in single columns in a radial direction with longitudinal axes of their rectangular cross sections aligned in a circumferential direction.
However, in the conventional method for manufacturing the stator 1, because six slot-housed portions 12a having a circular cross section are stacked in a single column and deformed by pressing them simultaneously with a pusher 17, the slot-housed portions 12a having a circular cross section are flattened while being in direct contact with each other, making it difficult to achieve a high degree of flatness on the long sides of each of the flattened slot-housed portions 12a. As a result, space factor when the slot-housed portions 12a are housed inside the slots 3 is reduced, giving rise to reductions in output. Furthermore, because first and second circumferential sides of the slot-housed portions 12a are restricted by the slides 14 and the stopper 15 when the slot-housed portions 12a are deformed by pressing, the flattened slot-housed portions 12a are deformed into a generally rectangular cross section with short sides also becoming flat surfaces. As a result, corner portions are formed on the short sides of the flattened slot-housed portions 12a, and when the slot-housed portions 12a are inserted into the slots 3, the corner portions of the slot-housed portions 12a rub against the inner circumferential side surfaces of the slots 3, damaging an electrically-insulating coating on the conductor wires 11, thereby making electrical insulation properties poor.

Stator of dynamoelectric machine and method for manufacturing stator winding

Abstract: The construction is such that the slot-housed portions of the stator winding are formed with the racetrack-shaped cross section, and are housed inside slots so as to line up in single columns in a radial direction with a longitudinal direction of the cross section of the slot-housed portions aligned in a circumferential direction.

Abstract: Thus, because short sides of the slot-housed portions facing inner circumferential side surfaces of the slots form convex curved surfaces, the occurrence of damage to the electrically-insulating coating resulting from rubbing between the short sides of the slot-housed portions and the inner circumferential side surfaces of the slots during insertion of the slot-housed portions into the slots is suppressed, thereby improving electrical insulation properties.


This moldable refractory composition is intended to be used in the production of cast refractory pieces resistant to molten metals, especially molten aluminum. It comprises 8 to 25% by weight of an aqueous phosphoric acid solution having a concentration of phosphoric acid ranging from 40 to 85% by weight, with up to 50% of the primary acidic function of the acid phosphoric acid neutralized by reaction with vermiculite. It also comprises from 75 to 92% by weight of a mixture containing wollastonite and an aqueous suspension containing from 20 to 40% by weight of colloidal silica. The weight ratio of the aqueous suspension to the wollastonite within the mixture ranges from 0.5 to 1.2. The composition according to the invention is particularly interesting in that it can be unmolded within a very short period of time that is less than 2 hours and can be as small as 10 minutes.

a) Field of the invention The present invention relates to a moldable refractory composition for use to prepare refractory pieces that can handle molten metals, especially molten aluminum.
More particularly, the invention relates to a refractory composition which, after casting, can be unmolded within a very short period of time that can be as small as 10 minutes.
b) Brief description of the prior art
There are numerous refractory products known in the art, which are resistant to molten metals, like molten aluminum, and are therefore useful for handling the same. Amongst these refractory products, one can mention those prepared from compositions containing one or more heat resistant inorganic materials, like asbestos fibers, in admixture with a colloidal silica that is used as a primary binder.
As an example of such refractory products and compositions for preparing the same, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,927 of 1965 to BROWN et al, which discloses a composition for preparing heat resistant products that can be formed and/or molded into rods, tubes or blocks. This composition comprises inorganic fibers, preferably asbestos fibers, bonded with from 2 to 20% by weight of colloidal silica and from 0.20 to 1.5% by weight of a positively charged starch, the above percentages being based on the weight of inorganic fibers in the composition. The above mentioned, positively charged starch is used inter alia as a secondary binder to impart strength to the cast products until a silica bonding can be developed by heating.
As another example of refractory products of the above mentioned type and compositions for preparing the same, reference can also be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,873,209 of 1989 and 5,033,721 of 1991, both to GNYRA, which disclose a castable composition for preparing light weight refractory products that can be used in metal foundries especially as cementing material or as surface finishing or "face-off" material to form a protective coating layer to protect an underling article. The composition disclosed in these patents comprises a mixture of ceramic fibers and wollastonite powder and an aqueous colloidal silica having a solid content of 5 to 25% by weight. It can also comprise milled and/or screened vermiculite to adjust the density and strength of the final product. In use, the composition disclosed in the above patents is efficient. However, it has the drawback of taking about 24 hours to dry and harden at room temperature, thereby making the casting process very time consuming.
It is already known in the art that one may control and actually accelerate the setting of ceramic coating compositions containing colloidal silica as a binder, by adding thereto a phosphorus compound like phosphoric acid and its salts, especially trivalent metal phosphates. In this connection, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,995,453 of 1961 to NOBLE et al; 3,041,205 of 1962 to ILER and 3,650,783 of 1972 to YATES. However, the compositions disclosed in these patents, are essentially useful as refractory binders, coatings or adhesives, and not for the preparation of cast pieces.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,690 of 1994 to DELVAUX et al discloses and claims a castable refractory composition for use in the prosecution of cast refractory pieces, having a phosphate salt as a primary binder. The composition comprises 1 part by weight of a phosphoric acid solution having a concentration ranging from 40 to 85% and its primary acidic function partially neutralized by reaction with vermiculite. It also comprises from 0.1 to 2.5 parts by weight of a mineral, preferably wollastonite, that is refractory and of fibrous structure and may react with one part of the acidic functions of the phosphoric acid that are still free or not neutralized yet. It further comprises from 0.1 to 2.5 parts by weight of another mineral such as serpentine, MgO or synthetic olivine, containing at least one cation that may react with another part of the acidic functions of the phosphoric acid that are still free or not saturated yet and from 0.28 to 1.45 parts by weight of water. When the composition disclosed in this patent is processed, it passes from a granular state to a plastic state, and then to a liquid state, without need for any external heating. At that time, it may be cast to produce refractory pieces having good thermal insulation characteristics, and in particular, a very good behaviour with respect to molten aluminium.

Moldable refractory composition and process for preparing the same


In one embodiment, a driving environment is perceived based on sensor data obtained from a variety of sensors, including determining a current speed of an ADV. In response to a request for driving with an idle speed, a speed guideline is generated based on an idle speed curve in view of the current speed of the ADV. A speed planning operation is performed by optimizing a cost function based on the speed guideline to determine the speeds of the trajectory points at different points in time along a trajectory planned to drive the ADV. One or more control commands are then generated to control the ADV with the planned speeds along the planned trajectory, such that the ADV moves according to an intended idle speed.

Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.
During regular manual driving, one could drive the vehicle simply doing nothing, i.e., without any throttle or brake actions. The vehicle will move along with its idle speed. However, for autonomous driving, it is not easy for an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) to plan autonomous driving with an idle speed. Typical autonomous driving is divided in a planning phase and a control phase. Control phase will exactly follow the trajectory planned by the planning phase, which makes "release gas and brake" not natural and hard to implement. Furthermore, it is very difficult to drive under vehicle idle speed (especially for gas powered vehicles), as it requires constantly pressing on brake and causes a lot of trouble to control phase operations.

Speed planning using a speed planning guideline for idle speed of autonomous driving vehicles


A method for treating a gate stack in the fabrication of a semiconductor device by providing a substrate containing a gate stack having a dielectric layer formed on the substrate and a metal-containing gate electrode layer formed on the high-k dielectric layer, forming low-energy excited dopant species from a process gas in a plasma, and exposing the gate stack to the excited dopant species to incorporate a dopant into the gate stack. The method can be utilized to tune the workfunction of the gate stack.

In the semiconductor industry, the minimum feature sizes of microelectronic devices are approaching the deep sub-micron regime to meet the demand for faster, lower power microprocessors and digital circuits. The Si-based microelectronic technology is currently faced with major materials challenges to achieve further miniaturization of integrated circuit devices. A gate stack containing a SiO2 gate dielectric and a degenerately doped polycrystalline Si gate electrode, which has served the industry for several decades, will be replaced with a gate stack having a higher capacitance.
For example, high-capacitance dielectric materials may be used to replace conventional SiO2 gate dielectric materials. Such high capacitance dielectric materials, known as high-k materials (where "k" refers to the dielectric constant of the material), feature a dielectric constant greater than that of SiO2 (k˜3.9). In addition, high-k materials may refer to dielectric materials that are deposited onto substrates (e.g., HfO2, ZrO2) rather than grown on the surface of the substrates (e.g., SiO2, SiOxNy). High-k materials may, for example, incorporate metallic silicates or oxides (e.g., Ta2O5 (k˜26), TiO2 (k˜80), ZrO2 (k˜25), Al2O3 (k˜9), HfSiO (k˜5−25), and HfO2 (k˜25)).
In addition to the gate dielectric layer, the gate electrode layer also represents a major challenge for future scaling of microelectronic devices. The introduction of metal-containing gate electrodes to replace the traditional doped poly-Si gate electrode can bring about several advantages. These advantages include elimination of the poly-Si gate depletion effect, reduction in sheet resistance, better reliability and potentially better thermal stability on the advanced high-k dielectric materials. In one example, switching from poly-Si to a metal-containing gate electrode can achieve a 2-3 Angstrom (Å) improvement in the effective or electrical thickness of the gate stack. This improvement occurs largely because the problem of poly-Si depletion at the interfaces with other materials is removed entirely.
Workfunction, resistivity, and compatibility with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology are key parameters for the new gate electrode materials. The workfunction of a material is the energy required for an electron to move from the Fermi level of a material into free space. One of the material selection criteria for the metal-containing gate electrode is that the workfunction be tunable. Positive-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor (PMOS) and the Negative-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor (NMOS) transistor gate electrodes require different gate materials be used in order to achieve acceptable threshold voltages; the former having a Fermi level near the silicon valence band (E˜4 eV), and the latter having a Fermi level near the conduction band (E˜5.1 eV). TABLE 1 shows the workfunction for low, midgap, and high work function metals and metal-containing materials.
TABLE 1METALWORKFUNCTION (eV)Al4.3Ti4.33V4.3Cr4.5Mn4.1Fe4.7Co5Ni5.15Nb4.3Mo4.6Ru4.7Rh4.98Hf3.9Ta4.25W4.55Re4.96Os4.83Ir5.27Au5.1TaN/TaSiN3.9-4.3
Several metal gate electrodes have been studied as a replacement for poly-Si, including Re, W, Mo, Ta, Ti, TaN, TiN and TaSiN. The metal gates must have suitable work function and required thermal and chemical stability with underlying thin gate dielectrics for gate-first CMOS processing, including high-k dielectrics such as HfO2, ZrO2 and their silicates. However, midgap work function metal gates are subjected to a serious problem in that the threshold voltage for the metal gate metal oxide semiconductor field emission transistor (MOSFET) is larger than that for poly-silicon gate transistor. Consequently, buried channel technology is necessary to reduce the threshold voltage of metal gate MOSFETs and that results in degradation of device characteristics including threshold voltage deviation, drive current, etc. Threshold voltage deviation becomes a more serious problem in the sub-100 nm regime because the threshold deviation is an obstacle to realize low voltage and lower power operation.
While metal gate electrode layers do not need to be doped to be electrically conductive, there is not one metal that can set the work function, the energy required to pull an electron free from the surface of the electrode, for both NMOS and PMOS devices. To replace n+ and p+ poly-Si and maintain scaled performance, it is necessary to identify pairs of metals or metal-containing materials with work functions that are close to the conduction and valence edges of Si. Mid-gap work function metals and metal-containing materials (e.g., TiN and W) are inadequate for advanced bulk-Si CMOS devices due to large low-voltage operation threshold voltages and severely degraded short channel characteristics. Control over the gate electrode workfunction can be achieved by depositing a composite metal-containing gate electrode layer, where composition of the layer can be adjusted to obtain the desired workfunction of the gate electrode.
The interactions of different materials at layer interfaces in a gate stack can affect the workfunction and other properties of the gate stack. The measured workfunction of a gate stack depends upon bulk and surface material properties, crystallographic orientation, and the permittivity of the dielectric layer interfacing with the gate electrode layer. High-energy implantation of dopant ions (e.g., nitrogen ions) into a metal gate electrode layer overlying a dielectric layer in a gate stack has been previously researched in order to lower the workfunction. However, ion implantation methods that include exposing the metal layer to high-energy ions can damage the gate stack, for example cause charging damage of the dielectric layer that can increase the leakage current and the reliability of the dielectric layer. The charging damage from exposure of high-energy ions is expected to increase as the minimum feature sizes get smaller and the different materials layers that form gate stacks get thinner. Therefore, new methods are needed for processing gate stacks and, in particular, new methods for tuning the workfunction of the gate stacks.

Method for fabricating a semiconductor device


In order to produce an intermediate from which a cyclic alcohol compound can be stereoselectively obtained, a method for producing an oxetane compound according to the present invention includes the step of reacting, with a cyanide salt, a compound represented by Formula (I):

Conventionally, a typical method for forming an oxetane ring includes: a method of coupling a hydroxy group with a methyl group, adjacent to the hydroxy group, having a leaving group; and a method of adding a double-bond compound to a carbonyl compound (see Non-patent Literature 1). Other examples of the method for forming an oxetane ring include: a method of reacting an aldehyde with a cyanide (see Non-Patent Literatures 2 and 3); a method of reacting a haloalkyl ketone with a cyanide (see Non-Patent Literature 4); and a method of refluxing diol mesylate or diol tosylate in a base (see Patent Literature 1).

Method for manufacturing oxetane compound, method for manufacturing azolylmethylcyclopentanol compound, and intermediate compound

Abstract: wherein R1 is selected from a hydrogen atom and an alkyl group optionally having a substituent; X1 is selected from a halogen atom and —OSO2R3 where R3 is selected from an alkyl group optionally having a substituent, a phenyl group, and a naphthyl group; and a ring Z1 represents a cyclic hydrocarbon optionally having a substituent,                to obtain a compound represented by Formula (II):


A method for joining two ceramic parts, or a ceramic part and a metal part, and the joint formed thereby. The method provides two or more parts, a braze consisting of a mixture of copper oxide and silver, a diffusion barrier, and then heats the braze for a time and at a temperature sufficient to form the braze into a bond holding the two or more parts together. The diffusion barrier is an oxidizable metal that forms either a homogeneous component of the braze, a heterogeneous component of the braze, a separate layer bordering the braze, or combinations thereof. The oxidizable metal is selected from the group Al, Mg, Cr, Si, Ni, Co, Mn, Ti, Zr, Hf, Pt, Pd, Au, lanthanides, and combinations thereof.

Joining ceramic and metal parts has proven to be one of the critical technical challenges facing the material scientists fabricating devices used in high temperature electrochemical applications. The ability to join a metal part to a ceramic part, or a ceramic part to another ceramic part, theoretically provides an economical way to manufacturing complex ceramic components from inexpensive, simple-shaped ceramic parts, and to provide a hermetic seal between components consisting of dissimilar materials. However, while a number of joining techniques, such as glass joining and active metal brazing are currently used, each possesses some form of trade-off or exhibits some penalty in terms of joint properties, ease of processing, and/or cost.
As an alternative, a simple and economical joining technique referred to as reactive air brazing (RAB) has been recently developed and demonstrated for joining several different substrates. As described in J. S. Hardy, J. Y. Kim, K. S. Weil, "Joining Mixed Conducting Oxides Using An Air-Fired Electrically Conductive Braze,"J. Electrochem. Soc. Vol. 151, No. 8, pp. j43-j49 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/334,346, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,055,733 RAB differs from conventional active metal brazing because RAB does not require the stringent atmosphere control normally associated with conventional active metal brazing. Instead, the RAB technique is conducted directly in air without the use of flux or reducing agents to promote wetting.
The braze filler materials of the RAB consist of two ingredients, a noble metal and an oxide compound. An oxide compound, which dissolves in a molten noble metal, is added to reactively modify the oxide faying surface and to help the remaining molten filler material wet on it. The resulting joint is adherent, ductile, and oxidation resistant. Due to the ductility and compliance of the noble metal, for example silver, this brazing can be used for high temperature electrochemical devices, even though there is a significant mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between silver (22.8 ppm/° C.) and typical ceramic components, such as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ, 10.5 ppm/° C.)
One drawback of the RAB technique that has been identified in silver-copper oxide (Ag—CuO) based reactive air brazing systems for high temperature electrochemical applications relates to the propensity of silver to undergo a form of high-temperature embrittlement. This occurs due to the reaction of hydrogen diffused into the braze at one side and oxygen diffused into the braze at the other side when the silver-copper oxide braze is simultaneously exposed to a reducing atmosphere on one side and an oxidizing atmosphere on the other, as is typical in fuel cell applications. The present invention is a novel braze and method of forming a novel braze that addresses this problem, while preserving the advantages of silver-copper oxide (Ag—CuO) based reactive air brazing systems.

Diffusion barriers in modified air brazes


An interface transport mechanism uses an upper hand when transporting a substrate from a substrate platform to an exposure device before exposure processing by an exposure device, and uses a lower hand when transporting the substrate from the exposure device to the substrate platform after the exposure processing by the exposure device. That is, the lower hand is used to transport a substrate to which a liquid is attached after exposure processing, and the upper hand is used to transport a substrate to which no liquid is attached before exposure processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate processing apparatuses and substrate processing methods for applying processing to substrates.
2. Description of the Background Art
A substrate processing apparatus is used to apply a variety of processings to substrates such as semiconductor substrates, substrates for use in liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, optical disks, magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, photomasks, and other substrates.
Such a substrate processing apparatus typically applies a plurality of successive processings to a single substrate. The substrate processing apparatus described in JP 2003-324139 A comprises an indexer block, an anti-reflection film processing block, a resist film processing block, a development processing block, and an interface block. An exposure device is arranged adjacent to the interface block as an external device separate from the substrate processing apparatus.
In the above-described substrate processing apparatus, a substrate is carried from the indexer block into the anti-reflection film processing block and the resist film processing block, where the formation of an anti-reflection film and resist film coating processing are applied to the substrate. The substrate is then carried to the exposure device through the interface block. After exposure processing has been applied to the resist film on the substrate by the exposure device, the substrate is transported to the development processing block through the interface block. In the development processing block, development processing is applied to the resist film on the substrate to form a resist pattern thereon, and the substrate is subsequently carried into the indexer block.
In this substrate processing apparatus, a single holding arm of an interface transport mechanism transports the substrate from the interface block to the exposure device and from the exposure device to the interface block.
With recent improvements in the density and integration of devices, making finer resist patterns have become very important. Conventional exposure devices typically perform exposure processing by providing reduction projection of a reticle pattern on a substrate through a projection lens. With such conventional exposure devices, however, the line width of an exposure pattern is determined by the wavelength of the light source of an exposure device, thus making it impossible to make a resist pattern finer than that.
For this reason, a liquid immersion method is suggested as a projection exposure method allowing for finer exposure patterns (refer to, e.g., WO99/49504 pamphlet). In the projection exposure device according to the WO99/49504 pamphlet, a liquid is filled between a projection optical system and a substrate, resulting in a shorter wavelength of exposure light on a surface of the substrate. This allows for a finer exposure pattern.
However, in the above-described projection exposure device, exposure processing is performed with the substrate and the liquid being in contact with each other. Accordingly, the substrate to which the liquid is attached is transported out of the projection exposure device.
Thus, when combining the substrate processing apparatus according to the aforementioned JP 2003-324139 A with the projection exposure device according to the aforementioned WO99/49504 pamphlet as an external device, the liquid attached to the substrate that is carried out of the projection exposure device settles on the holding arm. Since the holding arm also transports a substrate before exposure processing to the projection exposure device, the liquid settled on the holding arm attaches also to the back surface of the substrate before exposure processing.
Therefore, during the transport of the substrate to the projection exposure device, particles and the like in the atmosphere attach to the liquid on the back surface of the substrate, and contaminate the back surface of the substrate. This may result in degraded resolution performance during the exposure processing due to the contamination of the back surface of the substrate.


The portion of email traffic that cannot be definitively determined to be spam or definitively determined to be ham (non-spam) is processed by sending a bounceback email to the sender, requiring the sender to reply using a sub-address created by the bounceback generator. The type of bounceback email depends on whether the domain of the received email indicates that the sender is or is not likely to be a spammer. When the sender is not likely to be a spammer, the bounceback email includes a sub-address in computer readable form. When the sender is likely to be a spammer, the bounceback email includes a test that must be solved to yield the sub-address; preferably, the test is very difficult for a computer to solve but reasonably easy for a human to solve. When a reply email to the bounceback email (“reply bounceback”) is received, the presence of the sub-address indicates that the sender is not a spammer, so the reply bounceback is determined to be ham and delivered to the destination mailbox. The bounceback can have the sub-address encoded in such a way that a human must be involved in decoding, which is appropriate for situations where the envelope sender domain of the original email is considered suspicious. The bounceback can have the sub-address presented in a computer readable format when the envelope sender domain of the original email is more trustworthy, if authenticated. Authentication information can be retained in a local private Sender Policy Framework (SPF) database, or shared in a centralized private SPF database.

The present invention relates to sender authentication for email, and more particularly, is directed to highly reliable sender authentication for email that is difficult to classify via conventional probabilistic filtering.
Unsolicited commercial email, commonly referred to as spam, is an ever-increasing problem. Email service providers are constantly battling spammers, deploying ever more sophisticated schemes for blocking known spam. In turn, spammers keep using more sophisticated message creation techniques, to avoid being blocked.
With present spam fighting schemes, there is still a portion of email traffic that cannot be definitively determined to be spam or definitively determined to be ham, that is, non-spam. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved way to process the email that is difficult to classify as spam or ham.

Sender authentication for difficult to classify email


A screw plug for a liquid conduit, particularly an oil pipe or an oil container, comprising a cylindrical shaft that is placed on a top plate and is provided with an external thread. A pocket hole having a polygonal cross section is centrally arranged on the top plate as a receiving member for a tool. The shaft is embodied as a tubular butt that is provided with the external thread. A pocket hole which is arranged coaxial to the pocket hole of the top plate extends from the face of the shaft. In order to produce the screw plug, a blank comprising the cylindrical tubular butt that is connected to the top plate in a molded on manner is made, the inner diameter and outer diameter of the tubular butt being smaller than the final corresponding diameters (e, f) of the screw plug. The tubular butt of the blank is then enlarged by applying pressure to the inner wall surface of the pocket hole thereof. Also disclosed is a tool in which one end of a pressure die is fixed as a mandrel-type tool while a supporting or holding head which is disposed so as to be movable relative thereto and encompass a seat for a blank is associated with the free end thereof.

The invention relates to a screw plug of metallic material for a fluid line, in particular for an oil line or oil tank, having a cylindrical shank, comprising an external thread, on a top plate in which a blind hole of polygonal cross section is provided centrally as a receiving member for a tool. In addition, the invention covers a method and a blank for manufacturing this screw plug and a tool for the production thereof.
Screw plugs of this type are used in particular in motor vehicles and have therefore to be produced in large numbers. It has hitherto proven favourable for the production thereof to have to be performed in at least three manufacturing stages. The object of the invention is to modify this in the direction of an improvement.

Screw plug made of a metallic material, method for the production thereof, corresponding blank, and corresponding tool


A mechanism for, and method of, processing multiply-accumulate instructions with out-of-order completion in a pipeline, for use in a processor having an at least four-wide instruction issue architecture, and a digital signal processor (DSP) incorporating the mechanism or the method. In one embodiment, the mechanism including: (1) a multiply-accumulate unit (MAC) having an initial multiply stage and a subsequent accumulate stage and (2) out-of-order completion logic, associated with the MAC, that causes interim results produced by the multiply stage to be stored when the accumulate stage is unavailable and allows younger instructions to complete before the multiply-accumulate instructions.

Over the last several years, DSPs have become an important tool, particularly in the real-time modification of signal streams. They have found use in all manner of electronic devices and will continue to grow in power and popularity.
As time has passed, greater performance has been demanded of DSPs. In most cases, performance increases are realized by increases in speed. One approach to improve DSP performance is to increase the rate of the clock that drives the DSP. As the clock rate increases, however, the DSP's power consumption and temperature also increase. Increased power consumption is expensive, and intolerable in battery-powered applications. Further, high circuit temperatures may damage the DSP. The DSP clock rate may not increase beyond a threshold physical speed at which signals may traverse the DSP. Simply stated, there is a practical maximum to the clock rate that is acceptable to conventional DSPs.
An alternate approach to improve DSP performance is to increase the number of instructions executed per clock cycle by the DSP ("DSP throughput"). One technique for increasing DSP throughput is pipelining, which calls for the DSP to be divided into separate processing stages (collectively termed a "pipeline"). Instructions are processed in an "assembly line" fashion in the processing stages. Each processing stage is optimized to perform a particular processing function, thereby causing the DSP as a whole to become faster.
"Superpipelining" extends the pipelining concept further by allowing the simultaneous processing of multiple instructions in the pipeline. Consider, as an example, a DSP in which each instruction executes in six stages, each stage requiring a single clock cycle to perform its function. Six separate instructions can therefore be processed concurrently in the pipeline; i.e., the processing of one instruction is completed during each clock cycle. The instruction throughput of an n-stage pipelined architecture is therefore, in theory, n times greater than the throughput of a non-pipelined architecture capable of completing only one instruction every n clock cycles.
Another technique for increasing overall DSP speed is "superscalar" processing. Superscalar processing calls for multiple instructions to be issued ("wide-issue") and processed per clock cycle. Assuming that instructions are independent of one another (the execution of each instruction does not depend upon the execution of any other instruction), DSP throughput is increased in proportion to the number of instructions processed per clock cycle ("degree of scalability"). If, for example, a particular DSP architecture is superscalar to degree three (i.e., three instructions are processed during each clock cycle), the instruction throughput of the DSP is theoretically tripled.
These techniques are not mutually exclusive; DSPs may be both superpipelined and superscalar. However, operation of such DSPs in practice is often far from ideal, as instructions tend to depend upon one another and are also often not executed efficiently within the pipeline stages. In actual operation, instructions often require varying amounts of DSP resources, creating interruptions ("bubbles" or "stalls") in the flow of instructions through the pipeline. Consequently, while superpipelining and superscalar techniques do increase throughput, the actual throughput of the DSP ultimately depends upon the particular instructions processed during a given period of time and the particular implementation of the DSP's architecture.
One of the resources often found in DSPs, and processors in general for that matter, is a MAC. MACs are responsible for executing instructions that call for multiplication and division operations to be performed. Multiplication and division operations are important functions for DSPs to perform efficiently. Unfortunately, conventional MACs consume a significant amount of time to operate.
As DSP clock speed has continued to increase, MACs have had a difficult time keeping up. As complicated as MACs are, it remains highly desirable to confine their operation to one clock cycle, so as not to introduce bubbles into the pipeline. What is needed in the art is a new MAC architecture for pipelined processors. More specifically, what is needed is a new MAC architecture for pipelined DSPs. And still more specifically, what is needed is a new MAC architecture and associated logic that allow the MAC to operate in the environment of a wide-issue, pipelined DSP.

Pipelined multiply-accumulate unit and out-of-order completion logic for a superscalar digital signal processor and method of operation thereof

VeriSilicon Holdings (Cayman Islands) Co. Ltd.


To provide an immunomodulator in which DNA can be administered orally or percutaneously, not through injection, or can be taken daily like a food, or an immunomodulator food or feed. DNA derived from cells of procaryotes such as Bacillus subtilis, lactic acid bacteria, amino acid producing bacteria and Escherichia coli is added to food or molded to be able to administer the same orally, percutaneously or permucosally, or formed into food, feed or the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an immunomodulator, an immunomodulator food, an immunomodulator feed, a troche and an agent for external application, having DNA derived from the cells of procaryotes.
2. Related Art
Appropriate activation of an immunological activity of man and animals is considered important to become resistant to infectious diseases including common cold, to primary prevention of cancers, and checking allergic and atopic diseases and the like. It has been known that DNA from the cells of procaryotes has an immunopotentiation activity and DNA from the cells of eucaryotes does not. However, the immunomodulation activity of DNA is inactivated through deoxyribonuclease treatment in vitro (S. Yamamoto et al., Microbiol. Immunol., Vol. 36(9), 983-997, 1992). It has been so far considered that since a digestive juice enzyme of humans and animals contains deoxyribonuclease, the immunomodulation activity of DNA is effective only through administration thereof by injection.
Since the administration by injection damages the body, however, it is inappropriate for repeated administration. In order to improve the physical condition for which immunopotentiation is deemed necessary, it is actually rather important that the purpose is achieved by daily intake of DNA through food or by contact with the cutaneous mucosa.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an immunomodulator in which DNA can be administered not through injection, but, for example, orally or percutaneously, or can daily be taken in food or feed.
As a result of extensive investigation in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present inventors have found that the exhibition of immunomodulation activity is unexpectedly obtained by either oral or percutaneous administration of DNA derived from procaryotes such as Bacillus subtilis and lactic acid bacteria. This finding has led to the completion of the present invention.
That is, the present invention is to provide an immunomodulator, an immunomodulator food or an immunomodulator feed containing DNA derived from cells of procaryotes as an active ingredient.
The invention provides a method of modulating the immunofunction by administering orally, percutaneously or permucosally a pharmacologically effective amount of DNA extracted from cells of a procaryote to human being or animal.
It is preferable that the DNA is a product produced by culturing cells of a procaryote, harvesting the cells, dissolving the cells with a bacterial cell wall digesting enzyme in water and adding ethanol to the lysate solution to isolate a DNA product. The DNA may be the DNA extraction product or the ethanol-insoluble fraction in ethanol or an aqueous ethanol of bacterial cells. The product may be well obtained at about 40% volume/volume aqueous ethanol.
It is preferable that the DNA has at least 8 bases and includes at least one CpG sequence. The DNA a sodium salt of the same.
In the invention, the reticuloendothelial system is activated. Accordingly, an infectious disease can be treated.
In the invention, the growth of a tumor is inhibited.
In the invention, an autoimmune cutaneous disease is treated.
In the present invention, the procaryotes are not necessarily specific bacteria. However, in view of the safety, Bacillus subtilis (genus Bacillus), lactic acid bacteria (lactobacilli), amino acid-producing bacteria, Escherichia coli and the like can be mentioned. Of these, Bacillus natto, lactic acid bacteria and amino acid producing bacteria, which are used in production of foods, are especially preferable. As lactic acid bacteria, preferably, Lactobacillis casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus del-brueckii, Streptococcus faecalis, Biphidobacterium longum and the like can be mentioned. As amino acid producing bacteria, for example, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Corynebacterium herculis, Brevibacterium flavum, Microbacterium ammoniaphilum and Escherichia coli can be mentioned.
DNA can be removed from cells of procaryotes by a known method. For example, Corynebacterium glutamicum is cultured in an appropriate medium. The cells are then harvested through centrifugation, washed with a 0.85% physiological saline solution, and thereafter suspended in a physiological saline solution or purified water. The cells are dissolved with the addition of a bacterial cell wall digesting enzyme such as a lysozyme. To this solution is gradually added pure ethanol that has been cooled. DNA which is insolubilized at an ethanol concentration of 40% volume/volume is wound up on a glass bar. The resulting DNA is washed with 60% volume/volume ethanol, with 70% volume/volume ethanol and with 80% volume/volume ethanol in this order, and dried in vacuo to obtain a high-purity DNA product.
The resulting DNA product can be added as such to food, feed or beverages. It is also possible that the resulting DNA product is mixed with a filler, an excipient and the like which are ordinarily the production of pharmaceuticals, and the mixture is molded into an appropriate form as required to provide preparations or food. It can further be formulated into a solution.
The immunomodulation activity of the procaryotic DNA is chemically stable. Even when it was added to an ordinary feed, it neither reacted with feed ingredients nor deactivated with heat as described in Examples 4 and 5. This shows that during the step of producing the immunomodulator food and the immunomodulator containing this DNA, cooking or heat sterilization treatment can freely be practiced. The immunomodulation activity of the DNA derived from procaryotes is, as mentioned above, stable, and no aging deterioration is observed. Accordingly, the activity is not lost during the storage or the distribution of this product.
In case of administering DNA as an immunomodulator in the form of an aqueous solution, it is especially rendered to have a low-molecular weight through ultrasonic treatment (sonication) or restriction endonuclease treatment, whereby the viscosity decreases and it becomes convenient for drinking. In the sonication, for example, purified water is added to the DNA product such that the concentration reaches 1%, and an ultrasonic wave is applied thereto for from 5 minutes to 20 minutes while cooling the same with ice water. It has been known that the DNA molecule derived from procaryotic cells exhibits immunomodulation activity because the base sequence is characteristic and procaryotic cells, unlike eucaryotic cells, contain a large number of CpG sequences (A. M. Krieg et al., Nature, Vol. 374; pp. 546-549, 1995). Accordingly, in the restriction endonuclease treatment, the restriction endonuclease is not particularly selected so long as it does not cleave a CpG linkage. The restriction endonuclease treatment may be conducted by an ordinary endonuclease treatment method.
The food is not particularly limited when DNA is provided in food through addition. DNA can be added to, for example, staple foods such as bread, noodles and rice; side dishes such as boiled fish paste (kamaboko), ham, sausage, cooked salad and pickled vegetables; seasonings such as soy-bean paste (miso), soy sauce, soup, sauce and dressing; dairy products such as milk, cocoa drinks, butter, margarine, cheese and ice cream; confectioneries such as cookies, biscuits, wafers, candies and chewing gum; processed fruit products such as fruit juice drinks and jam; and pet feed, fishery and stockbreeding feeds and the like.
When DNA in the present invention is applied as a main agent, it can orally be used in powder, granules, dispersions, capsules, sweets, drinks or the like. In addition, it can be used percutaneously as an ointment, a compress, a solution or a bath product and permucosally as a troche, a suppository or a gargle. In the percutaneous use, the above-mentioned low-molecular product is preferable. When the immunomodulator of the present invention is used through oral administration, the standard intake is between 0.001 and 100 g/day equivalent to DNA, and there is no specials upper limit. The concentration of DNA in the percutaneous application is between 0.001 and 100%, but it is not particularly limited.
In accordance with the present invention, it is possible to provide an immunomodulator in which DNA can be administered orally or percutaneously, not through injection, or can daily be taken in food or feed, and further to provide an immunomodulator food or feed.

Immunomodulator, immunomodulator food and immunomodulator feed


A process is described for converting HMF to FDCA, comprising dissolving a quantity of HMF in water to form an aqueous solution including HMF, combining the aqueous solution including HMF with an oxygen source in the presence of a homogeneous metal salt catalyst, but in the substantial absence of any solvent for the HMF and the homogeneous metal salt catalyst other than water, and under conditions which are effective for oxidizing HMF in the presence of the catalyst to form FDCA, and then recovering an FDCA precipitate.

The use of natural products as starting materials for the manufacture of various large-scale chemical and fuel products which are presently made from petroleum- or fossil fuel-based starting materials, or for the manufacture of biobased equivalents or analogs thereto, has been an area of increasing importance. For example, a great deal of research has been conducted into the conversion of natural products into fuels, as a cleaner and, certainly, as a more sustainable alternative to fossil-fuel based energy sources.
Agricultural raw materials such as starch, cellulose, sucrose or inulin are inexpensive and renewable starting materials for the manufacture of hexoses, such as glucose and fructose. It has long been appreciated in turn that glucose and other hexoses, in particular fructose, may be converted into other useful materials, such as 2-hydroxymethyl-8-furfuraldehyde, also known as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural or simply hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF):

The sheer abundance of biomass carbohydrates available provides a strong renewable resource base for the development of commodity chemical and fuel products based on HMF. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,081, issued in June 2008 to Gong, estimates, for example, that of the approximately 200 billion tons of biomass produced annually, 95% was in the form of carbohydrates, and only 3 to 4% of the total carbohydrates were then used for food and other purposes.
In view of this fact, and due to HMF's various functionalities, it has been proposed that the HMF thus obtainable from hexoses such as fructose and glucose, could be utilized to produce a wide range of products derived from renewable resources, such as polymers, solvents, surfactants, pharmaceuticals, and plant protection agents. HMF has in this regard been proposed, as either a starting material or intermediate, in the synthesis of a wide variety of compounds, such as furfuryl dialcohois, dialdehydes, esters, ethers, halides and carboxylic acids.
A number of the products discussed in the literature derive from the oxidation of HMF. Included are hydroxymethylfurancarboxylic acid (HMFCA), formylfurancarboxylic acid (FFCA), 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA, also known as dehydromucic acid), and diformylfuran (DFF). Of these, FDCA has been discussed as a biobased, renewable substitute in the production of such multi-megaton polyester polymers as polyethylene terephthalate) or poly(butylene terephthalate). Derivatives such as FDCA can be made from 2,5-dihydroxymethylfuran and 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydrofuran and used to make polyester polymers. FDCA esters have also recently been evaluated as replacements for phthalate plasticizers for PVC, see, e.g., WO 2011/023491A1 and WO 2011/023590A1, both assigned to Evonik Oxeno GmbH, as well as R. D. Sanderson et al., Journal of Appl. Pol. Sci. 1994, vol. 53, pp. 1785-1793.
While FDCA and its derivatives have attracted a great deal of recent commercial interest, with FDCA being identified, for instance, by the United States Department of Energy in a 2004 study as one of 12 priority chemicals for establishing the "green" chemical industry of the future, the potential of FDCA (due to its structural similarity to terephthalic add) to be used in making polyesters has been recognized at least as early as 1946, see GB 621,971 to Drewitt et al, "Improvements in Polymer".
Unfortunately, while HMF and its oxidation-based derivatives such as FDCA have thus long been considered as promising biobased starting materials, intermediates and final products for a variety of applications, viable commercial-scale processes have proven elusive. Acid-based dehydration methods have long been known for making HMF, being used at least as of 1895 to prepare HMF from levulose (Dull, Chem. Ztg., 19, 216) and from sucrose (Kiermayer, Chem. Ztg., 19, 1003). However, these initial syntheses were not practical methods for producing HMF due to low conversion of the starting material to product. Inexpensive inorganic acids such as H2SO4, H3PO4, and HCl have been used, but these are used in solution and are difficult to recycle. In order to avoid the regeneration and disposal problems, solid sulfonic acid catalysts have also been used. The solid acid resins have not proven entirely successful as alternatives, however, because of the formation of deactivating humin polymers on the surface of the resins.
In the acid-based dehydration methods, additional complications arise from the rehydration of HMF, which yields by-products such as levulinic and formic acids. Another unwanted side reaction includes the polymerization of HMF and/or fructose resulting in humin polymers, which are solid waste products and act as catalyst poisons where solid acid resin catalysts are employed, as just mentioned. Further complications may arise as a result of solvent selection. Water is easy to dispose of and dissolves fructose, but unfortunately, low selectivity and the formation of polymers and humin increases under aqueous conditions.
The realization of an economical commercial production of HMF has also been hindered by HMF's comparative instability and tendency to degrade. One approach that has been considered has been to either form more stable and easily separated HMF derivatives, for example, HMF ester and ether derivatives, or to quickly remove the HMF from exposure to those conditions, for example, acidic conditions, tending to contribute to its degradation.
An example of the former approach may be found in US 2009/0156841 by Sanborn et al., in which a method is provided of producing substantially pure HMF and HMF esters from a carbohydrate source by contacting the carbohydrate source with a solid phase catalyst; "substantially pure" was defined as referencing a purity of HMF of about 70% or greater, optionally about 80% or greater, or about 90% or greater.
An example of the latter approach may be found in WO 2009/012445 by Dignan et al., wherein HMF is proposed to be made by mixing or agitating an aqueous solution of fructose and inorganic acid catalyst with a water immiscible organic solvent to form an emulsion of the aqueous and organic phases, then heating the emulsion in a flow-through reactor at elevated pressures and allowing the aqueous and organic phases to phase separate. HMF is present in the aqueous and organic phases in about equal amounts, and is removed from both, for example, by vacuum evaporation and vacuum distillation from the organic phase and by passing the aqueous phase through an ion-exchange resin. Residual fructose stays with the aqueous phase. High fructose levels are advocated for the initial aqueous phase, to use relatively smaller amounts of solvent in relation to the amount of fructose reacted.
In commonly-assigned Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. PCT/US12/66708 for "Process for Making HMF and HMF Derivatives From Sugars, With Recovery of Unreacted Sugars Suitable for Direct Fermentation to Ethanol", now published as WO 2013106136 ("WO '136"), we described a process for making HMF or HMF derivatives (e.g., the ester or ether derivatives) from an aqueous hexose sugar solution in which, according to certain embodiments, the acid-catalyzed dehydration step is conducted with rapid heating of the aqueous hexose solution from an ambient to a reaction temperature, as well as with rapid cooling of the HMF and/or HMF derivative unconverted sugar mixture prior to the separation of a fermentation-ready residual sugars product from the HMF and/or HMF derivative product. In addition, the time between when the aqueous hexose solution has been introduced into a reactor and the HMF and/or HMF ether products begin to be cooled is preferably limited.
By accepting limited per-pass conversion to HMF, the overall exposure of the HMF that is formed from any given aqueous hexose solution to acidic, elevated temperature conditions is limited, and preferably little to no unwanted or unusable byproducts such as humins are produced requiring waste treatments. Separation and recovery of the products is simplified and levels of HMF and other hexose dehydration products known to inhibit ethanol production by fermentation are reduced in the residual sugars product to an extent whereby the residual sugars product can be used directly for ethanol fermentation if desired. Processes conducted as described were characterized by very high sugar accountabilities and high conversion efficiencies, with very low losses of sugars being apparent.
Even more recently, in commonly-assigned Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Serial No. PCT/US2014/18186 for "Process For Making HMF From Sugars With Reduced Byproduct Formation, And Improved Stability HMF Compositions" (the "WO '186 Application"), further improvements are offered for addressing some of the difficulties that have been encountered in seeking to manufacture HMF on a commercial scale, especially from common hexose sugars from corn wet or dry milling or from the cellulosic fraction of a lignocellulosic biomass, for example. In particular, while WO '136 concerns limiting the exposure of HMF to acidic, elevated temperature conditions, we found in the WO '186 Application that oxidation, including especially auto-oxidation, of HMF also plays a heretofore unappreciated role in its degradation. Consequently, in the WO '186 Application, various processes are contemplated wherein one or more hexose sugars are dehydrated in a reduced oxygen environment with reduced degradation of the desired HMF product/feedstock for making FDCA or other oxidation products from HMF. As an example, in one embodiment, an HMF production process according to WO '136 can be conducted in a reduced oxygen environment, before the HMF (or HMF derivative) is used as a feedstock to an oxidation process for making FDCA.
In this regard, notwithstanding the numerous challenges confronting those seeking a commercially viable process for making HMF—so that large-scale production of a suitable HMF feedstock has not so far been realized—nevertheless, in recognition of the commercial interest in FDCA, a number of processes for making FDCA from HMF have been described in the technical and patent literature.
Several references describe processes for the oxidation of HMF or derivatives of HMF in a Mid-Century type process or a somewhat modified Mid-Century type process, see, for example, US Patent Application Publications No. 2012/0059178 A1 to Sanborn and 2012/0271060 to Muñoz de Diego et al. (with a number of like earlier references being described in each of these publications).
Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. PCT/US2012/052800 for "Spray Oxidation Process for Producing 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid from Hydroxymethylfurfural", now published as WO 2013033058 ("WO '058"), is illustrative as well in describing the use of the Mid-Century, homogeneous Co/Mn/Br catalyst for oxidizing HMF to FDCA in a spray Oxidation process, but is notable also for the discovery that in the context of that spray oxidation process a crude dehydration product mixture from a conventional acid dehydration could be directly solubilized in a solvent for the catalyst (acetic acid being preferred), sprayed into the reactor and oxidized with subsequent recovery of the FDCA product in an unexpectedly high yield. Consequently an integrated, seamless process is contemplated wherein the HMF need not be isolated, purified or derivatized to prevent its degradation prior to its conversion to FDCA by oxidation, though as noted above in US 2009/0158841 by Sanborn et al, the acetate ester derivatives of HMF (formed in situ from combination With the acetic acid solvent) are readily oxidized to yield FDCA in the presence of the CoMnBr catalysts.
While the discoveries of WO '136, WO '186 and WO '058 thus can be seen individually and/or in combination to provide significant improvements in dealing with one long-standing impediment to the commercial realization of processes for making HMF and for making the HMF oxidation product FDCA—namely, the instability and tendency of HMF to degrade—nevertheless all of the Mid-Century type processes, however, use an organic solvent of some kind, that must (given the amounts used) be recovered and recycled; the use, recovery and recycle of an organic solvent such as acetic acid adds significant cost to the overall process.
Other processes have been proposed for converting HMF to FDCA, including processes using different heterogeneous catalysts for the oxidation of HMF to FDCA, but these various heterogeneously catalyzed methods also have their drawbacks—for example, long reaction times for reasonable conversions and yields, very dilute substrate concentrations, high catalyst-to-substrate ratios, a high content of expensive metals such as gold and platinum, difficulty in recovering the costly metal for reuse, generation of significant waste in working up the catalyst, difficulty in separation of FDCA from the heterogeneous catalyst and so forth.
It would consequently be highly desirable if a process Were available wherein a much less costly metal catalyst could be used for homogeneously catalyzing the oxidation of HMF to FDCA in water alone, whereby the expense associated with the use, recovery and recycle of an organic solvent in the previously known, homogeneously catalyzed Mid-Century type processes could be avoided along with the aforementioned drawbacks of the heterogeneously catalyzed methods.

Process for making 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid


A device for connecting together a vertically disposed roller screw and roller nut assembly to a stationary member and moving member includes a bearing housing attached onto a fixed end of the roller screw. The bearing house includes at least one bearing and two bearing house pivots. A first universal ring concentrically surrounds the bearing housing and includes two mating pivots mated with the two bearing house pivots and two attachment pivots mated with corresponding pivots of the stationary member. A roller nut mount rigidly attaches to the roller nut and includes two roller nut mount pivots. A second universal ring concentrically surrounds the roller nut mount. The second universal ring includes two mating pivots mated with the two roller nut mount pivots and further includes two attachment pivots mated with corresponding pivots of the moving member.

It is known in the art relating to linear screw drives to fixedly connect a nut to a moving member in order to move the moving member by the actuation of a screw that drives the nut. With such an arrangement, the rigid connection between the nut and moving member can cause excessive wear on the screw and premature failure of the nut.
In closure panel hemming operations large loads are applied by linear ball screw drives drawing upper and lower dies together to edge hem preformed metal panels. In such operations, there is a need to maximize ball screw life and reduce the failure rate of ball nuts used to move the dies.
Previously, I provided a device for slip-fittably connecting together a ball nut and a moving member moved by the ball nut. The device includes a first connecting member fixedly attached to the ball nut. The first connecting member has first registration elements disposed radially opposite relative to the ball nut. A second connecting member is fixedly attached to the moving member. The second connecting member has cooperative second registration elements disposed radially opposite relative to the ball nut which cooperate with the first radially opposite registration elements.
The first and second registration elements are slip-fittably connectable together and provide indexed registration within predetermined tolerances in the axial, radial and circumferential directions relative to the ball nut.
Other manufacturers utilize gimbals on ball screw drives to effect connections between the fixed one end and free opposite end bearing arrangement to ensure that ball screw force is axial and reduce the potential for side loading the ball screw. However effective these connection solutions may be, allowance for misalignment at the attachment points of a ball screw assembly particularly where a drive mechanism is connected to the ball screw needs to be provided to eliminate side loading and premature failure of the components of the mounting arrangement or system itself.

Device for connecting together a roller screw and roller nut assembly to a stationary and moving member


A "micro" hollow fiber bioreactor and method of use are provided for use in screening different cell lines and process conditions. The bioreactor includes the use of an oxygen permeable (e.g., silicone rubber) tube sealably containing a hollow fiber bundle, in order to create an extracapillary space to provide a medium reservoir and an intracapillary space for the growth of cells. The bioreactor avoids the need for oxygen or medium pumps or supply systems, and permits multiple cell lines, and/or multiple conditions to be evaluated simultaneously. Preferably, the tube has an oxygen permeability of between about 100.times.10.sup.-10 to about 10,000.times.10.sup.-10 (cc-mm/sec-cm.sup.2 -cm Hg), the extracapillary space provides a medium reservoir of about 1 ml to about 100 ml, the intracapillary space provides a cell culture volume of about 0.1 ml to about 1 ml, the hollow fibers have a molecular weight cut off from about 1 kD to about 1,000 kD and a pore size of from about 0.01 microns to about 5 microns, and the tube contains about 1 to about 1000 hollow fibers.

Hollow fiber bioreator technology is an economical alternative to traditional cell culture methods for the production of cells and cell-derived products (Hirschel and Gruenberg, "An Automated Hollow Fiber System for the Large Scale Manufacture of Mammalian Cell Secreted Product". In Large Scale Cell Culture Technology; Lydersen, B., Ed.; 1988; pp. 113-144), and is finding increased use for novel applications in the fields of tissue engineering (Maki et al., "Treatment of Diabetes by Xenogenic Islets Without Immunosuppression: Use of a Vascularized Bioartificial Pancreas". Diabetes 1996, 45, 342-347; Sielaff et al., "Gel-Entrapment Bioartificial Liver Therapy in Galactosamine Hepatitis". J Surg. Res. 1995, 59, 179-184), toxicology (Stanness et al., "A Dynamic Model of the Blood-Brain Barrier In Vitro". Neurotoxicology 1996, 17, 481-496), and pharmacology (Lister et al., "Importance of .beta.-lactamase Inhibitor Pharmacokinetics in the Pharmacodynamics of Inhibitor-Drug Combinations: Studies with Piperacillin-Tazobactum and Piperacillin-Sulbactam" in Animicrob. Agents Cheinother, 1997, 41, 721-727; Moore et al., "Activity of (s)-1-(3-Hydroxy-2-Phosphonylmethoxypropyl) Cytosine against Human Cytomegalovirus when Administered as a Single Bolus Dose and Continuous Infusion in In Vitro Cell Culture Perfusion System". Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 1994, 38, 2404-2408).
A diagram of a simple hollow fiber system is shown in FIG. 1. Cells are typically inoculated into the area outside of the hollow fibers, i.e., into the extracapillary (EC) space. Medium is circulated from a reservoir, through a pump, gas exchange cartridge, in order to pass through the fibers and within the intracapillary (IC) space, to be finally returned to the reservoir. For instance, Yoshida et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,912) describes a method of cultivating cells that involves the use of culture medium in a bioreactor having a shell and a plurality of hollow fibers, wherein the medium passes through the interior of the fibers and cells are cultivated in the space between the shell and the fibers.
Yet another approach is taken in the line of Tricentric.TM. bioreactors available from Setec, Livermore Calif. These bioreactors employ a concentric "fiber-within-fiber" geometry in which all cells are said to be grown within 100 microns of a nutrient source. More recent advances in this area are described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5622857, R. Goffe, which describes a high performance hollow fiber bioreactor having concentric hollow fiber bundles, a central hollow fiber bundle supplies media, and an outer array supplies oxygen needed for cell culture. The bioreactor is said to be useful for expanding therapeutic cells such as stem cells ex vivo, and as an extracorporeal device such as an artificial liver.
Typically, the hollow fiber membranes that serve to separate the cells and the circulating medium provide a predetermined molecular weight cutoff, e.g., allowing the passage of molecules having a molecular weight of under about 10 kD, while preventing the passage of larger molecules and cells themselves. Therefore, with cells being maintained in the EC space, nutrients such as glucose and oxygen are delivered in medium and passed through the fibers. The nutrients are able to pass through the fibers to be fed to the cells, while waste products such as lactate and carbon dioxide can pass through as well to be removed through the fibers and diluted in the medium reservoir. Large molecular weight growth factors in serum (or serum-free medium components such as transferring and albumin) can be supplied by the medium directly to the EC space containing the cells. The IC medium reservoir is changed every day or two to provide fresh basal nutrients. The EC medium is also changed every few days to replenish the high molecular weight growth factors and to harvest whatever product may be retained on the EC side along with the cells.
Occasionally, bioreactors have been described in which cells are grown in the IC, rather than EC, space. See, for instance, Sielaff et al. cited above. While these approaches generally provide improved flow distribution, they also suffer from several potential drawbacks as well, including poorer cell retention and reduced cell culture volume.
There are a number of advantages to using hollow fiber perfusion bioreactors for the production of proteins using mammalian cells. These advantages include the direct result of cell retention and the high density cell growth that hollow fiber systems provide. The use of a semi-permeable membrane to retain high molecular weight proteins on the cell side allows for more efficient use of expensive medium components while producing a highly concentrated product. As a result, cost reductions are obtained through continuous production, lower overhead, lower labor, reduced medium costs, and lower purification costs.
Since the presence of an ample supply of oxygen is generally considered the limiting factor in hollow fiber systems (see, e.g., Piret and Cooney, "Model of Oxygen Transport Limitations in Hollow Fiber LBioreactors". Biotech. Bioeng. 1991, 37, 80-92), it is common to provide the bioreactor with both continual IC medium (or EC medium, in the case of IC cell growth) recirculation as well as an in-line gas exchanger. The oxygen supply system is housed in a CO.sub.2 incubator for pH buffering and temperature control. More sophisticated, dedicated systems include additional process controls such as automatic pH control, continuous medium replacement, and other strategies to optimize production (Hirschel and Gruenberg, cited above).
A continuing weakness of hollow fiber technology is an inherent lack of predictability, since there is no efficient screening method to determine how well a new cell line will perform in a hollow fiber system, or how well an established cell line will perform under new conditions. Instead, it is usually necessary to go through the costly and time consuming processing of complete scale up, on a cell line by cell line basis, in order to determine performance. Commercially available bioreactors are too large and expensive for simple screening protocols. Even small, inexpensive bioreactors are not well-suited for screening protocols since a pump is required to support the oxygen demand for each bioreactor.
Data from 96-well plates or T-flask cultures are useful for predicting cell line performance in stirred-tank reactors. Such data, however, does not correlate well with cell growth and productivity in high density hollow fiber cultures (Schlapfer et al., "Development of Optimized Transfectoma Cell Lines for Production of Chimeric Antibodies in Hollow Fiber Cell Culture Systems", Biotech. Bioeng., 1995, 45, 310-319). Research to understand the fundamental mechanisms that affect cell productivity in hollow fiber culture is very complex, especially since several potentially critical factors are likely to be cell line dependent. How a particular cell line will react, for instance, to the partition of medium components across the membrane and to other stresses of high density culture is not well-understood.
This lack of understanding is due, in part, to the lack of a good model system for fundamental research and process development. One approach to hollow fiber research is to use a small system such as that shown in FIG. 1 (Jackson et al., "Evaluation of Hollow Fiber Bioreactors as an Alternative to Murine Ascites Production for Small Scale Monoclonal Antibody Production", J. Immunol. Methods 1996, 189, 217-231; Schlapfer et al., cited above). However, these systems are still too expensive for routine development, and cell growth takes several weeks to reach confluency. As a result, research proceeds very slowly, and replicates are often omitted so that the significance of the results is unknown. Very small hollow fiber bioreactors with only one or a few fibers have been used for fundamental research (Sardonini and Dibiasio, "Investigation of the Diffusion-Limited Growth of Animal Cells Around Single Fibers". Biotech Bioeng. 1992, 40, 1233-1242). However, each bioreactor still requires an independent flow circuit and medium recirculation pump to meet the cellular oxygen demand. As a result, this type of system is not well-suited for use as a screening tool.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus for screening cell lines in a manner that will inexpensively and quickly predict their use in a hollow fiber system.


An improved refrigeration system is disclosed for chilling a circulating water supply, particularly a supply intended for cooling industrial equipment. The system includes a water container having at least one coiled water tube disposed in the container and positioned in heat-transfer relation with respect to at least one coiled refrigerant-conducting passage external to the water tube(s). A pump circulates water through the water tube(s) in a direction opposite the flow of refrigerant through the adjacent refrigerant-conducting passage(s). The refrigerant circulating system includes two circuits, the first of which connects the outlet of the condenser-compressor to the inlet of the coiled refrigerant-conducting passage(s), and the second of which includes a subcooling condenser tube disposed within the body of water in the container and interposed between the condenser/compressor and the inlet of the refrigerant-conducting passage(s). A plurality of thermostatically-controlled valves are provided to selectively divert refrigerant from the first circuit to the second circuit when ambient temperatures exceed a predetermined level so that refrigerant will be pre-cooled in the subcooling condenser to increase the efficiency of the refrigeration system.

This invention relates to an improved refrigeration system for cooling a water supply to be circulated through or around industrial equipment and other similar equipment, and particularly to a system which includes a subcooling condenser.
Water chillers are useful for cooling a circulating water supply for use in maintaining industrial equipment at desired operating temperatures. Such equipment may take the form of machines for blow molding, injection molding, extruding, printing and etching, chemical processing, food processing, and the like. It has been found, for example, that the use of water chillers with industrial machines such as hydraulic presses, compressors, metal treating ovens, and special metal fabrication processes results in definite improvements in operating efficiency. However, water chillers used in the past have often taken the form of large and complex refrigeration systems operating at high energy levels and, even then, oftentimes failing to achieve a satisfactory temperature drop in a circulating water supply when ambient temperatures are excessive.
With respect to prior water chillers, such refrigeration systems have usually been of conventional designs. The coiled refrigerant tubes or evaporators are simply immersed in a container of water to chill the water used for cooling the industrial equipment. Even when such a chiller is used, however, ambient temperatures often reach high levels and greatly reduce the water cooling capacity of the system. For example, it has been found that a typical refrigerant compressor loses between 6 and 10% cooling capacity for each 10.degree. F. of ambient temperature which exceeds 95.degree. F. There has therefore developed a need to somehow increase refrigeration capacity when relatively high ambient temperatures impede the efficiency of such a compresser.
Several methods have been suggested in the art for increasing the refrigeration capacity of a chiller, such as by increasing compressor capacity or the volume of refrigerant used in the system. Other methods known in the art include bringing the refrigerant gas, downstream from the evaporator, into a heat exchange relationship with condensed refrigerant leaving the condenser. Systems which cool refrigerant leaving a condenser are known in the art, it being recognized that cooling condensed refrigerant at a high temperature, for example 125.degree. F., is easier to accomplish than cooling refrigerant at a relatively low temperature, for example -40.degree. F. One prior system for subcooling condense refrigerant is exemplied in U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,974 which teaches the use of a secondary refrigeration system. In such a system, a secondary refrigerant circuit includes evaporator coils in heat transfer relationship with a primary refrigerant circuit so as to subcool the condensed refrigerant of the primary circuit before the refrigerant reaches an expansion valve. Although such a system increases the efficiency of the primary refrigeration system by subcooling the condensed refrigerant, such increases in efficiency tend to be largely offset by the cost and complexity of providing a secondary refrigeration system.
In the system of the present invention, refrigerant leaving the condenser may be subcooled to increase the refrigerating capacity of the system. A coiled subcooling condenser tube is disposed in the body of water to be cooled by the system. When ambient temperatures exceed a predetermined level, the flow of condensed refrigerant through a first circuit which leads directly to the expansion valve of the evaporator coil is re-routed through a second circuit which includes the subcooling condenser coil immersed in the body of water. Refrigerant flowing through the subcooling condenser at high temperature, for example at 125.degree. F., is subcooled by the chilled body of water in the container which is at a relatively low temperature, for example, at 40.degree. F. The cooled refrigerant then flows through the expansion valve at a relatively low temperature, resulting in a lower refrigerant temperature in the evaporator and thereby increasing the refrigerating capacity of the system to compensate for the decreased capacity of the compressor.
In a preferred embodiment, the heat exchange between the coiled water tubes and the associated refrigerant passages takes the form of at least one coiled refrigerant-conducting tube which contains a plurality of smaller water tubes having outer surfaces that are threaded, or provided with generally circumferentially-extending ribs, and having longitudinally-extending channels along their outer surfaces. The refrigerant-conducting tube and water-conducting tubes therein are formed of metal having relatively high thermal conductivity and that, combined with the relatively large inside diameter of the refrigerant-conducting tube and the substantial surface area of the water tubes therein, provides an arrangement that promotes high thermal transfer efficiency in the refrigeration system.
Other features, advantages, and objects of the invention will become apparent from the specification and drawings.

Refrigeration system and subcooling condenser therefor


A land clearing device that is sized and configured to be attached to a small earth moving machine, such as a skid loader. The land clearing device has a pusher assembly with telescopically extendable actuator arms that are operated by a control unit accessible from the interior of the earthmoving machine. When the actuator arms are extended, the forward end of the pusher assembly applies lateral force on a trunk of a tree, pushing the tree until uprooted. The pusher assembly is supported by a pair of upright legs that rest on the ground and provide stability to the pusher assembly, which cantilevered from the upright legs. A Y-shaped grabber assembly has a front hook that partially encircles and holds the tree below the location of contact with the pusher assembly. A mounting assembly is secured to the pusher assembly and the grabber assembly by a common securing rod about which the pusher assembly and the grabber assembly can pivot. The mounting assembly is configured for detachable mounting on a front of an earthmoving machine.

The present invention relates to tree and stump removal, and more particularly to a land clearing device used as an attachment for a skid steer loader or other earthmoving machine that can be used for removing trees and stumps.
It is expensive to use bulldozers and excavators to clear land for new construction of homes or just removing unwanted trees and stumps. It also requires a tremendous force to remove the trees and uproot the stumps. Usually, it is hoped to spare neighboring trees due to their beauty and expense to replace them. However, this has not always been possible when a building contractor or professional has used the expensive large, heave-duty bulldozers and excavators to clear the land and remove trees and stumps. These large, heavy-duty bulldozers and excavators, just because of their size, have frequently knocked down many of the neighboring trees that should have been saved. Additionally, there are swampy areas that require removal of trees and stumps, but this heavy-duty equipment sinks in the mud, causing further damage and expense. Thus, a land clearing device solving the aforementioned problem is desired.


A HVAC system is provided. In one embodiment, the HVAC system includes (1) a sensor being configured to measure a body condition of a user and having a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit body condition information, and (2) a HVAC controller having a receiver configured to receive the body condition information and being configured to adjust a current conditioning set point of the HVAC system to a temporary conditioning set point based on the body condition information.

Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are used to regulate the environment within an enclosed space for the comfort of an occupant. Typically, the thermostat of the HVAC system regulates the environment by measuring the ambient condition and treating the air based on the measured ambient condition. For example, if the measured ambient temperature is out of the range set by the occupant of the HVAC system, the thermostat assumes that the occupant is uncomfortable and instructs the demand unit of the HVAC system to condition (e.g., cool or heat) the air to meet the set range.

External body temperature sensor for use with a HVAC system