In a combined isolation oxide film (BT1), a part closer to a gate electrode (GT13) reaches a buried oxide film (2) through an SOI layer (3) while a part closer to another gate electrode (GT12) has a sectional shape provided with a well region on its lower portion. The shape of an edge portion of the combined isolation oxide film (BT1) is in the form of a bird""s beak in a LOCOS isolation oxide film. Consequently, the thicknesses of portions defining edge portions of the gate oxide films (GO12, GO13) are locally increased. Thus provided are a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor having a gate oxide film prevented from dielectric breakdown without increasing its thickness and a method of manufacturing the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, it relates to a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor having a gate oxide film prevented from dielectric breakdown and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
A semiconductor device (hereinafter referred to as an SOI device) having an SOI (silicon on insulator) structure formed on an SOI substrate including a buried oxide film and an SOI layer arranged on a silicon substrate, which can reduce parasitic capacitance and operate at a high speed with lower power consumption, is employed for a portable device or the like.
FIG. 41 shows a partially fragmented sectional structure of an exemplary SOI device 70 electrically isolating MOS transistors by trench isolation.
Referring to FIG. 41, an SOI substrate includes a buried oxide film 2 and an SOI layer 3 arranged on a silicon substrate 1, and an N-channel MOS transistor (NMOS transistor) N1 and a P-channel MOS transistor (PMOS transistor) P1 are arranged on the SOI layer 3 while an isolation oxide film 4 completely electrically isolates these MOS transistors N1 and P1 from each other. The isolation oxide film 4 is so arranged as to enclose the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1.
Each of the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1 is formed by source/drain regions SD and a channel forming region CH formed in the SOI layer 3, a gate oxide film GO formed on the channel forming region CH, a gate electrode GT formed on the gate oxide film GO and side wall oxide films SW covering the side surfaces of the gate electrode GT.
Thus, in the SOI device 70, the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1 are not only independent of each other in the SOI layer 3 due to the isolation oxide film 4 but also completely isolated from other semiconductor elements etc., whereby no latch-up takes place in principle in these transistors N1 and P1.
When manufacturing an SOI device having a CMOS transistor, therefore, the minimum isolation width decided by a microlithography can be used and the chip area can be advantageously reduced. However, a substrate floating effect causes various problems such that carriers (holes in an NMOS transistor) generated by impact ionization are collected in the channel forming region to result in kinks or deteriorate an operating withstand voltage and such that instability of the potential of the channel forming region results in frequency dependency of a delay time.
In this regard, a partial trench isolation structure has been devised. FIG. 42 is a partially fragmented sectional view showing an SOI device 80 having such a partial trench isolation structure (PTI structure).
Referring to FIG. 42, an NMOS transistor N1 and a PMOS transistor P1 are arranged on an SOI layer 3 while a partial isolation oxide film 5 having a well region WR arranged on its lower portion isolates the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1 from each other. The partial isolation oxide film 5 is so arranged as to enclose the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1.
With respect to the partial isolation oxide film 5, a structure such as that of the isolation oxide film 4 in the SOI device 70 completely electrically isolating elements with a trench oxide film reaching the buried oxide film 2 is referred to as a full trench isolation structure (FTI structure), and the oxide film is referred to as a full isolation oxide film.
While the partial isolation oxide film 5 isolates the NMOS transistor N1 and the PMOS transistor P1 from each other, carriers are movable through the well region WR on the lower portion of the partial isolation oxide film 5 and can be prevented from being collected in channel forming regions while the potential of the channel forming regions can be fixed through the well region WR, whereby no problems are caused by a substrate floating effect.
Whether an SOI device employs the PTI structure or the FTI structure, however, new manufacturing steps must be added for increasing the thickness of gate oxide films in order to improve reliability of MOS transistors and adjusting the quantity of an impurity injected into channels in order to reduce threshold voltages.
A method of manufacturing an SOI device 90 having a PTI structure improving reliability of MOS transistors is now described with reference to FIGS. 43 to 50.
First, an SOI substrate structured by a silicon substrate 1, a buried oxide film 2 and an SOI layer 3, formed by a SIMOX method forming the buried oxide film 2 by oxygen ion implantation or a bonding method is prepared. In general, the thickness of the SOI layer 3 is 50 to 200 nm, and the thickness of the buried oxide film 2 is 100 to 400 nm. As shown in FIG. 43, an oxide film 6 of about 10 to 30 nm (100 to 300 xc3x85) in thickness is formed on the SOI substrate by CVD or thermal oxidation, and a nitride film 7 of 30 to 200 nm (300 to 2000 xc3x85) in thickness is formed thereon. Then, a resist mask RM1 is formed on the nitride film 7 by patterning. The resist mask RM1 has an opening for forming a trench.
Then, the resist mask RM1 is employed as a mask for patterning the nitride film 7, the oxide film 6 and the SOI layer 3 by etching thereby forming a partial trench TR in the SOI layer 3, as shown in FIG. 44. In this etching, etching conditions are so adjusted as not to completely etch the SOI layer 3 and expose the buried oxide film 2 but to leave the SOI layer 3 on the bottom of the trench TR in a prescribed thickness.
The partial trench TR1 is formed to extend substantially perpendicularly to the silicon substrate 1 with a prescribed width, whereby element isolation can be performed while maintaining refinement without deteriorating the degree of integration.
In a step shown in FIG. 45, an oxide film of about 500 nm (5000 xc3x85) in thickness is deposited, a portion up to an intermediate portion of the nitride film 7 is polished by CMP (chemical mechanical polishing), and thereafter the nitride film 7 and the oxide film 6 are removed thereby forming a partial isolation oxide film 5. It is assumed here that the region located on the left side of the partial isolation oxide film 5 in FIG. 45 is a first region R1 for forming a transistor having a low threshold voltage while the region located on the right side of the partial isolation oxide film 5 is a second region R2 for forming a highly reliable transistor having a general threshold voltage.
In a step shown in FIG. 46, an oxide film OX1 is formed on the overall area of the SOI layer 3. The thickness of the oxide film OX1 is 1 to 4 nm (10 to 40 xc3x85). Thereafter a resist mask RM2 is formed to cover the second region R2, and a semiconductor impurity is introduced into the SOI layer 3 of the first region R1 by ion implantation through the oxide film OX1. As to the conditions for this implantation for forming the transistor having a low threshold voltage, boron (B) ions are implanted with energy of 5 to 40 keV and in a dose of 1xc3x971011 to 3xc3x971011/cm2 when forming an NMOS transistor, for example. In advance of this step, boron ions are implanted with energy of 30 to 100 keV and in a dose of 1xc3x971012 to 1xc3x971014/cm2 for forming a well region.
In a step shown in FIG. 47, a resist mask RM3 is formed to cover the first region R1, and a semiconductor impurity is introduced into the SOI layer 3 of the second region R2 by ion implantation through the oxide film OX1. As to the conditions for this implantation for forming the transistor having a general threshold voltage, boron (B) ions are implanted with energy of 5 to 40 keV and in a dose of 3xc3x971011 to 5xc3x971011/cm2 when forming an NMOS transistor, for example.
In a step shown in FIG. 48, a resist mask RM4 is formed to cover the second region R2, and the oxide film OX1 is removed from the first region R1.
The resist mask RM4 is removed and thereafter an oxide film is formed on the overall area in a step shown in FIG. 49. At this time, an oxide film OX2 of 2 to 4 nm (20 to 40 xc3x85) in thickness is formed on the region R1, while the thickness of the oxide film OX1 is increased to define an oxide film OX3 on the region R2. Thereafter a polycrystalline silicon layer (hereinafter referred to as a polysilicon layer) PS1 defining gate electrodes is formed on the overall area.
In a step shown in FIG. 50, the polysilicon layer PS1 and the oxide films OX2 and OX3 are patterned for forming gate electrodes GT1 and GT2 and gate oxide films GO1 and GO2 and forming NMOS transistors N3 and N4 by forming side wall oxide films SW and source/drain layers SD. A well region WR is provided on a lower portion of the partial isolation oxide film 5.
An interlayer isolation film is formed on the NMOS transistors N3 and N4 and a plurality of contact holes reaching the source/drain layers SD through the interlayer isolation film are formed to structure the SOI device 90, while illustration of these elements is omitted.
Thus, the thickness of gate oxide film is generally increased for forming the transistor having high reliability thereby preventing the gate oxide film from dielectric breakdown, with requirement for steps of forming resist masks. When increasing the thickness of the gate oxide film, however, there is a possibility of such a problem that the transistor characteristics are deteriorated.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of semiconductor elements formed on the semiconductor substrate and a trench isolation oxide film obtained by burying an oxide film in a trench formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate for electrically isolating the plurality of semiconductor elements by the trench isolation oxide film, while trench isolation oxide film has different contour shapes of the upper edge portion on the left and right edges in a brachydirectional section of the trench isolation oxide film.
In the semiconductor device according to the first aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has different contour shapes of the upper edge portion on the left and right edges in the brachydirectional section of the trench isolation oxide film, whereby gate oxide films of MOS transistors formed on the left and right sides of the trench isolation oxide film can have different thicknesses and the shapes of the edge portions of the gate oxide films can be optimized in response to MOS transistors having different specs.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the semiconductor substrate is an SOI substrate comprising a silicon substrate, a buried oxide film arranged on the silicon substrate and an SOI layer arranged on the buried oxide film, and the trench isolation oxide film is arranged in the surface of the SOI substrate.
In the semiconductor device according to the second aspect, the semiconductor substrate is an SOI substrate and the trench isolation oxide film is arranged in the surface of the SOI substrate, whereby the semiconductor device can attain high reliability while preventing gate oxide films of SOIMOS transistors from dielectric breakdown. Further, only the thickness of the edge portions of the gate oxide films is increased, and hence the transistor characteristics are not deteriorated dissimilarly to the case of increasing the overall thickness of the gate oxide films.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has such a contour shape that its upper edge portion projects into the surface of the semiconductor substrate in the form of a bird""s beak.
In the semiconductor device according to the third aspect, the upper edge portion of the trench isolation oxide film has the contour shape projecting into the surface of the semiconductor substrate in the form of a bird""s beak. When the semiconductor elements are MOS transistors, therefore, the thickness of edge portions of gate oxide films is consequently increased by forming the gate oxide films to engage with the bird""s beak of the trench isolation oxide film, and the semiconductor device can attain high reliability while preventing the gate oxide films from dielectric breakdown in the vicinity of edge portions of gate electrodes where an electric field readily concentrates. Further, only the thickness of the edge portions of the gate oxide films is increased, and hence the transistor characteristics are not deteriorated dissimilarly to the case of increasing the overall thickness of the gate oxide films.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has different shapes on the left and right sides in its brachydirectional section, and combinationally includes a full trench structure reaching the buried oxide film through the SOI layer and a partial trench structure having the SOI layer on its lower portion.
In the semiconductor device according to the fourth aspect, the trench isolation film combinationally has the full trench structure and the partial trench structure, whereby the upper edge portion can readily have different contour shapes on the sides of the full trench structure and the partial trench structure in the process of formation thereof.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the height of a protrusion on a base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the full trench structure is relatively small, and the height of a protrusion on a base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure is relatively large in the trench isolation oxide film.
In the semiconductor device according to the fifth aspect, the height of the protrusion on the base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the full trench structure is relatively small and the height of the protrusion on the base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure is relatively large, whereby the thickness of the edge portion of the gate oxide film can be reduced in the MOS transistor engaging with the full trench structure side so that a gate oxide film suitable for the MOS transistor whose transistor characteristics are set with the characteristics of a parasitic transistor can be obtained while the thickness of the edge portion of the gate oxide film can be increased in the MOS transistor engaging with the partial trench structure side and hence a gate oxide film suitable for a MOS transistor requiring improvement in reliability of the gate oxide film can be obtained.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the length of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the full trench structure is relatively large, and the length of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure is relatively small in the trench isolation oxide film.
In the semiconductor device according to the sixth aspect, the length of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the full trench structure is relatively large and the length of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure is relatively small, whereby the shapes of the edge portions of the gate oxide films can be optimized in response to MOS transistors having different specs.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has different contour shapes of a base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure between a first inclined portion along a direction separating from the SOI layer and a second inclined portion directed toward the SOI layer, the first inclined portion has a substantially linear contour shape, and the second inclined portion has a contour shape roundedly projecting toward the SOI layer.
In the semiconductor device according to the seventh aspect, the first inclined portion of the upper edge portion on the side of the partial trench structure has a substantially linear contour shape and hence an unnecessary gate material can be prevented from remaining on the surface of the isolation oxide film when removing the gate material in gate electrode formation. Further, the second inclined portion has a contour shape roundedly projecting toward the SOI layer, whereby stress caused in the vicinity of the interface between the SOI layer and the isolation oxide film resulting from heat treatment or oxidation performed in the process of manufacturing the semiconductor device can be relaxed and the SOI layer can be inhibited from formation of crystal defects resulting from such stress.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has different contour shapes of a base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak on the side of the partial trench structure between a first inclined portion along a direction separating from the SOI layer and a second inclined portion directed toward the SOI layer, the first inclined portion has a contour shape roundedly depressed toward the SOI layer, and the second inclined portion has a contour shape roundedly projecting toward the SOI layer.
In the semiconductor device according to the eighth aspect, the first inclined portion of the upper edge portion on the side of the partial trench structure has the contour shape roundedly depressed toward the SOI layer, whereby an effect of preventing an unnecessary gate material from remaining on the surface of the isolation oxide film is increased when removing the gate material in gate electrode formation while a step projecting from the main surface of the SOI layer can be reduced by reducing the thickness of the edge portion of the trench isolation oxide film thereby simplifying a step of forming gate electrodes or the like. Further, the second inclined portion has the contour shape roundedly projecting toward the SOI layer, whereby stress caused in the vicinity of the interface between the SOI layer and the isolation oxide film resulting from heat treatment or oxidation performed in the process of manufacturing the semiconductor device can be relaxed and the SOI layer can be inhibited from formation of crystal defects resulting from such stress.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the trench isolation oxide film has such a contour shape that its lower edge portion projects between the SOI layer and the buried oxide film.
In the semiconductor device according to the ninth aspect, the lower edge portion of the trench isolation oxide film has the contour shape projecting between the SOI layer and the buried oxide film, whereby the interfacial state between the SOI layer and the buried oxide film can be improved.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises steps of (a) preparing an SOI substrate comprising a silicon substrate, a buried oxide film arranged on the silicon substrate and an SOI layer arranged on the buried oxide film, (b) forming an oxide extension layer on the SOI layer, (c) forming a mask layer having a prescribed opening pattern on the oxide extension layer, (d) forming a trench by selectively removing the SOI layer through the mask layer without passing through the SOI layer from the surface, (e) forming a resist mask having an opening at a first region between a prescribed position at least on the bottom surface of the trench and a first side wall surface in a brachydirectional section, and covering a second region between at least the prescribed position and a second side wall surface in the brachydirectional section, (f) removing the trench to reach the buried oxide film through the resist mask for forming a combined trench having a portion corresponding to the second region being a partial trench having the SOI layer on its lower portion and a portion corresponding to the first region being a full trench passing through the SOI layer, (g) forming a first oxide film on the inner wall of the combined trench by thermally oxidizing the inner wall of the buried trench and the oxide extension layer and (h) forming a trench isolation oxide film combinationally having a full trench structure reaching the buried oxide film through the SOI layer and a partial trench structure having the SOI layer on its lower portion by filling up the combined trench with a second oxide film.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the tenth aspect, a trench isolation oxide film combinationally having a full trench structure reaching the buried oxide film through the SOI layer and a partial trench structure having the SOI layer on its lower portion can be obtained. Further, this trench isolation oxide film has such a contour shape that its upper edge portion projects into the surface of the SOI layer in the form of a bird""s beak while the contour shape differs on the left and right edges in a brachydirectional section.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, the oxide extension layer includes an oxide film arranged on the SOI layer and a polycrystalline silicon layer arranged on the oxide film.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the twelfth aspect, the oxide extension layer includes the oxide film arranged on the SOI layer and the polycrystalline silicon layer arranged on the oxide film, whereby the polycrystalline silicon layer is oxidized in formation of the first oxide film so that the bird""s beak on the upper edge portion of the trench isolation oxide film has a clearer shape.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the step (h) includes steps of (h-1) forming the second oxide film to fill up the combined trench and cover the overall area on the mask layer, and (h-2) planarizing the second oxide film by chemical mechanical polishing through the mask layer serving as a stopper.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the twelfth aspect, the second oxide film is planarized by chemical mechanical polishing through the mask layer serving as a stopper, whereby the shape of the edge portion of the trench isolation oxide film can be adjusted by adjusting the degree of planarizing.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the opening of the resist mask is provided over the first region and a first edge portion of the mask layer adjacent to the first region, and the first edge portion of the mask layer is removed to have a step in association with formation of the combined trench so that the thickness of the mask layer is partially reduced.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the fourteenth aspect, the first edge portion of the mask layer is removed to be thin with the step so that the thickness of the second oxide film is reduced on the portion of the full trench and increased on the portion of the partial trench, whereby such a trench isolation oxide film can be finally obtained that the height of the protrusion on the base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak is relatively small on the side of the full trench structure and the height of the protrusion on the base portion of the upper edge portion projecting in the form of the bird""s beak is relatively large on the side of the partial trench structure.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the resist mask further includes a local opening arranged on at least either a first prescribed region of a first edge portion of the mask layer adjacent to the first region or a second prescribed region of a second edge portion of the mask layer adjacent to the second region, and a concave portion is formed in at least either the first prescribed region or the second prescribed region of the mask layer in association with formation of the combined trench.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the fourteenth aspect, the concave portion is formed in at least either the first prescribed region or the second prescribed region of the mask layer in association with formation of the combined trench for defining a protrusion, while the thickness of the second oxide film located on this protrusion is reduced when the second oxide film is formed by high-density plasma CVD and the protrusion is also polished when performing planarizing by chemical mechanical polishing, whereby the edge portion of the mask layer can consequently be brought into a shape thinned with a step.
According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device further comprises a step of performing annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere, a hydrogen atmosphere or an argon atmosphere in a stage at least either before or after formation of the first oxide film.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the fifteenth aspect, crystallinity on the outermost surface of the SOI layer can be improved by performing annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere, a hydrogen atmosphere or an argon atmosphere before formation of the first oxide film, while stress on the SOI layer following heat treatment can be relaxed when performing the said annealing after oxidation.
According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises steps of (a) preparing an SOI substrate comprising a silicon substrate, a buried oxide film arranged on the silicon substrate and an SOI layer arranged on the buried oxide film, (b) forming an oxide extension layer on the SOI layer, (c) forming a mask layer having a prescribed opening pattern on the oxide extension layer, (d) forming a trench by selectively removing the SOI layer through the mask layer without passing through the SOI layer from the surface, (e) forming a first oxide film on the inner wall of the trench by thermally oxidizing the inner wall of the trench and the oxide extension layer, (f) forming a resist mask having an opening at a first region between a prescribed position at least on the bottom surface of the trench and a first side wall surface in a brachydirectional section, and covering a second region between at least the prescribed position and a second side wall surface in the brachydirectional section, (g) removing the trench to reach the buried oxide film through the resist mask for forming a combined trench having a portion corresponding to the second region being a partial trench having the SOI layer on its lower portion and a portion corresponding to the first region being a full trench passing through the SOI layer and (h) forming a trench isolation oxide film combinationally having a full trench structure reaching the buried oxide film through the SOI layer and a partial trench structure having the SOI layer on its lower portion by filling up the combined trench with a second oxide film.
In the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the seventeenth aspect, a trench isolation oxide film combinationally having a full trench structure reaching the buried oxide film through the SOI layer and a partial trench structure having the SOI layer on its lower portion can be obtained. This trench isolation oxide film has such a contour shape that its upper edge portion projects into the surface of the SOI layer in the form of a bird""s beak while the contour shape is similar on the left and right edges in a brachydirectional section.
An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor having a gate oxide film prevented from dielectric breakdown without increasing the thickness thereof and a method of manufacturing the same.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


Disclosed are compounds consisting of a plurality of nucleosides which are covalently linked by at least one aminoalkylphosphoramidate linkage of the formula ##STR1## wherein n=2 to 6 and Nu.sub.1 and Nu.sub.2 represent nucleoside phosphates.

There is at present growing interest in non-radioactively labelled modified oligodeoxynucleotides. Biotin (Agrawal. S. et al., Nucleic Acid Research, 14:6227-6245 (1986); Agrawal, S. Tet. Lett., 30:7025-7028 (1989)), florophores (Cardullo, R. A. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85:8790-8794 (1988); Agrawal, S. et al., J. Cell Biology, 107:468 (1988); Haralambidis, J. et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 18(3):501-505 (1989)), intercalating (Helene, C. and J. J. Toulme, Oligodeoxynucleotides-Antisense Inhibitors of Gene Expression, Ed. J. S. Cohen, Macmillan Press, 137-166 (1989)) and chelating (Oser, A. et al., G. Nucleic Acid Research, 16:1181-1196 (1988)) reagents attached to synthetic oligonucleotides are becoming important tools of molecular biology. A variety of enzymatic and chemical procedures have been developed for their synthesis (Matthews, J. S. and L. J. Kricka, Anal. Biochem., 169:1-25 (1988)). Central to some of these procedures are (a) the introduction of a reactive group at either the 3'- or 5'- terminus of the oligonucleotide (Agrawal. S. et al., Nucleic Acid Research, 14:6227-6245 (1986); Agrawal, S. Tet. Lett., 30:7025-7028 (1989); Fidanza, J. A. and L. W. McLaughlin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 111:9117-9119 (1989); Nelson, P. S. et al., Nucleic Acid Research, 17:7187-7194 (1989)) or (b) the synthesis of modified nucleosides which contain the masked reactive group and are incorporated into the nucleic acid (Fidanza, J. A. and L. W. McLaughlin, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 111:9117-9119 (1989)). The presently-available methods are useful, but are limited in their usefulness for site specific internal non-radioactive labelling of synthetic oligonucleotides possible.

Site-specific functionalization of oligodeoxynucleotides for non-radioactive labelling


A locking device for a movable motor vehicle part (2), especially a movable roof part of a vehicle roof which can be opened, has a locking element (3) for fixing the vehicle part (2) in the end position of motion, a pivoting support (5) which can be pivoted between a rest position and an operating position. The locking element (3) is movably supported on the pivoting support (5), and is covered on the visible side by the pivoting support (5) when it is in a rest position. When the vehicle part (2) has moved into the end position of its motion, it is supported by the pivoting support which has pivoted into the operating position (5), and in this position, is fixed by the locking element. The locking element is covered on the visible side by the pivoting support when it is in the rest position.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a locking device of a movable motor vehicle part, especially a movable roof part of a vehicle roof which can be opened, with a locking element for fixing the vehicle part in the end position of motion, and a process for locking this vehicle part.
2. Description of Related Art
A locking device of the initially mentioned type is known, for example, on a folding convertible top of a convertible for locking the opened convertible top in its stowed position in a stowage space (see, for example, BMW Mini Cabrio). The locking device, which also locks the closed convertible top on the apron, is covered by convertible top components, and thus, is not visible either with the convertible top closed and also with the convertible top opened. On the other hand, for example, locking devices of sliding vehicle doors are open in sight; this can be undesirable for aesthetic reasons.


A method and a composition comprising human milk oligosaccharides for decreasing the production of detrimental proteolytic metabolites such as ammonia and branched chain fatty acids in the intestinal microbiota of humans, which is useful for the treatment of brain-gut disorders like autism, stress, anxiety, and depressive disorders, are disclosed. Methods of treatment of colon cancer and liver damage are also disclosed.

It has been estimated that the human intestine harbours 1013 to 1014 bacterial cells and the number of bacteria outnumbers the total number of cells in the body by a factor of 10. The microbiota of the human intestine is a complex and very dynamic microbial ecosystem, which is considered to serve numerous important functions for its human host, including protection against pathogens, induction of immune regulatory functions, nutrient processing and metabolic functions. The intestinal microbiota consists of various populations, which are important to preserve human health, and recent research has been able to link imbalances in the intestinal bacterial population to both intestinal and extra-intestinal inflammatory diseases.
In the large intestine, non-digested dietary compounds as well as secreted endogenous substrates can be fermented by the indigenous bacteria, and the substrate availability is a major driver for bacterial fermentation pathways. Hence, metabolites formed by the gut microbiota are largely determined by the composition of the diet and the pattern of food intake, and it is now clear that the species composition of the colonic microbiota is itself altered by the diet.
Non-digestible carbohydrates that reach the large intestine are used by the indigenous saccharolytic bacteria, which results in production of metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs); mainly acetate, propionate and butyrate. SCFAs exert multiple beneficial effects on human health. Acetate can enhance intestinal defence mediated by epithelial cells and thereby protect the host against assault. Butyrate is mainly metabolised by epithelial cells and has been proposed as the main energy source for colonocytes, and has been reported to regulate the physical and functional integrity of the normal colonic mucosa by altering mucin gene and tight junction expression.
Proteins that enter the large intestine non-digested, promote putrefactive fermentation and selective growth of proteolytic bacteria such as members of Fusobacteria, Streptococcaceae, Megasphera, Selenomonas, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria but also putatively pathogenic species such as E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Campylobacter spp., Streptococcus spp., C. perfringens and C. difficile. When proteins are utilized by these bacteria, branched short chain fatty acids (B-SOFA), ammonia, amines and phenolic compounds are produced, some of which are potentially harmful to human health (Pieper et al. Anim. Health Res. Rev. 17, 137 (2016).
Ammonia can interfere with the oxidative metabolism of SOFA in colonocytes inducing energy deficiency in the cell and increasing apoptosis and proliferation. Additionally, ammonia and other protein-derived metabolites such as B-SOFA present in the lumen can impair barrier function and promote pro-inflammatory signalling expression in the colonic mucosa, which negatively influence the expression of monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) (Villodre et al. Brit. J. Nutr. 113, 610 (2015)). MCT1 is stimulated by butyrate leading to increase butyrate uptake by colonocytes. The inhibition of MCT1 by high concentration of protein-derived metabolites in the intestine can impair the protective effect of butyrate on the colon epithelium and lead to pro-inflammatory conditions in the colon. High ammonia levels have been shown to increase inflammatory lesions in rats, which are established precursors in animal models and humans to the development of colon rectal cancer (Pieper et al. Anim. Health Res. Rev. 17, 137 (2016)).
Normally, gut-derived ammonia is taken up by the liver and consumed in the urea cycle and passes out of the body in urine. However, altered intestinal permeability can increase the delivery of compounds such as ammonia to the liver causing liver saturation and making the liver inefficient in processing ammonia. The ammonia is then returned to the blood for circulation. High concentration of ammonia in the blood can cause damage to the liver and affect the central nervous system such as impairing intracerebral synthesis of serotonin and dopamine and producing abnormal neurotransmitters such as octopamine. Elevated levels of detrimental proteolytic metabolites such as ammonia in plasma in patients with acute liver failure and chronic liver disease have been found, and higher concentration of faecal ammonia has been reported in children with autism spectrum disorders (43 mmol/g faeces) compared with control children (32 mmol/g faeces) (Wang et al. Dig. Dis. Sci. 57, 2096 (2012)).
An important determinant for the degree of proteolytic versus saccharolytic fermentation is the nutrient availability and in particular the ratio of available carbohydrate to nitrogen. The production of protein degradation products can generally be reduced by increasing the amount of fermentable carbohydrate reaching the colon (Vernazza et al., in: Prebiotics: Development and Application (Gibson et al. eds.), Chapter 1, John Wiley & Sons, 2006). Hence, selective stimulation of specific saccharolytic intestinal bacteria to promote their growth and metabolic activity, and inhibit the growth of unfavourable bacteria such as proteolytic bacteria could be a helpful approach in shifting the bacterial metabolism from a proteolytic to a saccharolytic metabolism. This leads to reduction of detrimental proteolytic metabolites such as ammonium and branched SOFA, and an increase of beneficial metabolites such as SOFA.
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a heterogeneous mixture of soluble glycans found in human milk. They are the third most abundant solid component after lactose and lipids in human milk and are present in concentrations of 5-25 g/l (Bode, in: Handbook of dietary and nutritional aspects of human breast milk (Zibadi et al. eds.), 515-31, Wageningen Academic Publishers (2013)). HMOs are resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis in the small intestine and are thus largely undigested and unabsorbed. The majority of HMOs that reach the colon serve as substrates to shape the gut ecosystem by selectively stimulating the growth of specific saccharolytic bacteria. HMOs are believed to substantially modulate the infant gut microbiota and play a decisive role in the differences in the microbiota of formula-fed and breast-fed infants. These differences include the predominance of bifidobacteria in the gut of breast-fed infants compared to a more diverse gut microbiota in formula-fed infants. This is viewed as beneficial for the infant because strains of Bifidobacterium species are believed to have a positive effect on gut health (Chichlowski et al. J. Pediatr. Gastroenterol. Nutr. 55, 321 (2012)). However, it is not known if HMOs can decrease proteolytic bacteria in the adult human intestine.
There is a need, therefore, for means, preferably orally or enterally administered means, more preferably dietetic means, for effectively changing the microbiota ecosystem leading to a decrease in the concentration of detrimental proteolytic metabolites such as ammonia and branched short chain fatty acids in the gastro-intestinal tracts of humans.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

HMO compositions and methods for reducing detrimental proteolytic metabolites


An implementation of a technology, described herein, for facilitating the recognition of content of digital goods. At least one implementation, described herein, derives a probabilistic mirror distribution of a digital good (e.g., digital image or audio signal). It uses the resulting data to derive weighting factors (i.e., coefficients) for the digital good. Based, at least in part on such weighting factors, it determines statistics of the good and quantizes it. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Digital goods are often distributed to consumers over private and public networks—such as Intranets and the Internet. In addition, these goods are distributed to consumers via fixed computer readable media, such as a compact disc (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), soft magnetic diskette, or hard magnetic disk (e.g., a preloaded hard drive).
Unfortunately, it is relatively easy for a person to pirate the pristine digital content of a digital good at the expense and harm of the content owners—which includes the content author, publisher, developer, distributor, etc. The content-based industries (e.g., entertainment, music, film, software, etc.) that produce and distribute content are plagued by lost revenues due to digital piracy.
Modern digital pirates effectively rob content owners of their lawful compensation. Unless technology provides a mechanism to protect the rights of content owners, the creative community and culture will be impoverished.
"Digital goods" is a generic label, used herein, for electronically stored or transmitted content. Examples of digital goods include images, audio clips, video, multimedia, software, and data. Depending upon the context, digital goods may also be called a "digital signal," "content signal," "digital bitstream," "media signal," "digital object," "object," and the like.
In addition, digital goods are often stored in massive databases—either structured or unstructured. As these databases grow, the need for streamlined categorization and identification of goods increases.
Hashing
Hashing techniques are used to protect the rights of content owners and to speed database searching/access. Hashing techniques are used in many areas such as database management, querying, cryptography, and many other fields involving large amounts of raw data.
In general, a hashing technique maps a large block of raw data into relatively small and structured set of identifiers. These identifiers are also referred to as "hash values" or simply "hash." By introducing a specific structure and order into raw data, the hashing function drastically reduces the size of the raw data into short identifiers. It simplifies many data management issues and reduces the computational resources needed for accessing large databases.
Limitations of Conventional Hashing
Conventional hashing techniques are used for many kinds of data. These techniques have good characteristics and are well understood. Unfortunately, digital goods with visual and/or audio content present a unique set of challenges not experienced in other digital data. This is primarily due to the unique fact that the content of such goods are subject to perceptual evaluation by human observers. Typically, perceptual evaluation is visual and/or auditory.
For example, assume that the content of two digital goods is, in fact, different, but only perceptually insubstantial so. A human observer may consider the content of two digital goods to be similar. However, even perceptually insubstantially differences in content properties (such as color, pitch, intensity, phase) between two digital goods result in the two goods appearing substantially different in the digital domain.
Thus, when using conventional hashing functions, a slightly shifted version of a digital good generates a very different hash value as compared to that of the original digital good, even though the digital good is essentially identical (i.e., perceptually same) to the human observer.
The human observer is rather tolerant of certain changes in digital goods. For instance, human ears are less sensitive to changes in some ranges of frequency components of an audio signal than other ranges of frequency components.
This human tolerance can be exploited for illegal or unscrupulous purposes. For example, a pirate may use advanced audio processing techniques to remove copyright notices or embedded watermarks from audio signal without perceptually altering the audio quality.
Such malicious changes to the digital good are referred to as "attacks", and result in changes at the data domain. Unfortunately, the human observer is unable to perceive these changes, allowing the pirate to successfully distribute unauthorized copies in an unlawful manner.
Although the human observer is tolerant of such minor (i.e., imperceptible) alterations, the digital observer—in the form of a conventional hashing technique—is not tolerant. Traditional hashing techniques are of little help identifying the common content of an original digital good and a pirated copy of such good because the original and the pirated copy hash to very different hash values. This is true even though both are perceptually identical (i.e., appear to be the same to the human observer).
Applications for Hashing Techniques
There are many and varied applications for hashing techniques. Some include anti-piracy, content categorization, content recognition, watermarking, content-based key generation, and synchronization in audio or video streams
Hashing techniques may be used to search for digital goods on the Web suspected of having been pirated. In addition, hashing techniques are used to generate keys based upon the content of a signal. These keys are used instead of or in addition to secret keys. Also, hashing functions may be used to synchronize input signals. Examples of such signals include video or multimedia signals. A hashing technique must be fast if synchronization is performed in real time.

Content recognizer via probabilistic mirror distribution


Non-perishable plant-derived decorative food items are described, as are methods for making such articles.

1. Introduction
The following section includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any such information is prior art, or relevant, to the presently claimed inventions, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
2. Background
Edible flowers have been used in the culinary arts for flavor and garnish for hundreds of years. Early reports indicate that the Romans used flowers in cooking, as did the Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures. In fact, the first mention of people consuming flowers dates back at least as far as 140 BCE.
Candied fruits have typically been being made the same way since the at least the 14th century. In that process, barely ripe fruit is placed in increasingly stronger solutions of heated sugar syrup, with the syrup gradually replacing the water content of the fruit. The process can take from several days to several months, depending upon the type and size of fruit.
Candied or crystallized flowers have also been know for hundreds of years, and are generally prepared using a procedure that involves dipping or coating a flower with beaten egg white, followed by dipping and rolling the flower in sugar, and then sprinkling the upper surface of the flower with sugar as well. That process frequently results in a clumpy, uneven, and heavily coated flower having most its natural color and beauty obscured. Also, because that technique uses raw egg whites, problems such as spoilage, contamination with undesired microorganisms (e.g., Salmonella species), or allergic reactions, can result.
To address some of these problems, one improvement has been to use pasteurized powdered egg whites instead of fresh egg whites. Another improvement involves the sprinkling of sugar instead of dipping. Indeed, today these methods are how most crystallized flowers and/or edible produce are made.
These techniques, while improvements over the way plant material was candied or crystallized for centuries, still have inherent problems. Once such problem is that the plant material may dry non-uniformly, resulting in a product that is misshapen, deformed, or off-color when compared to the original, fresh counterpart. Another problem is that once dry, these products tend to be fragile and can also rapidly spoil should any of the plant surfaces remain uncoated, and even when coated, such products can readily absorb moisture, leading to their decay. Therefore there remains an unfulfilled need for processes and components that eliminate the difficulties and guesswork associated with making non-perishable plant-derived candied food items that resemble their fresh counterparts.
3. Definitions
Before describing the instant invention in detail, several terms used in the context of the present invention will be defined. In addition to these terms, others are defined elsewhere in the specification, as necessary. Unless otherwise expressly defined herein, terms of art used in this specification will have their art-recognized meanings.
An "aqueous solution" refers to a water-based solution capable of dissolving or dispersing one or more other substances, or solutes (i.e., the substance(s) dissolved in the solvent). A "solution" is a homogeneous mixture of at least one substance in a liquid. In the context of this invention, "aqueous solvents" can also include other liquids, including organic liquids, such as alcohols and/or oils.
A "binding agent" refers to an ingredient or substance, or mixture of ingredient or substances (i.e., a "composition"), which binds ingredients together. Examples include substances such as proteins. In the context of the invention, a particularly preferred protein is egg white protein, or albumen or ovalbumin.
An "edible" item refers to a product or composition in any physical form that is intended to be consumed by a human or other animal in whole or part via the oral cavity. Therefore, each ingredient or additive used in food preparation, whether naturally occurring as a product of nature or synthetically produced, or that becomes a part of or is used to treat an edible composition, is to be regarded as being edible. A "non-edible" item refers to a product or composition in any physical form that is not intended to be consumed by a human or other animal in whole or part via the oral cavity.
The term "egg white" refers to any egg white composition suitable for use as a binding agent in a preservative composition in accordance with the invention. In general, egg whites are the nutritive, protective gelatinous mixture surrounding the egg yolk, and are comprised primarily of albumen dissolved in water. Egg whites, including egg white protein, and other proteinaceous binding agents, may be derived from any suitable source. In the case of egg whites, they are typically, although not necessarily, harvested from poultry (frequently, chicken) eggs.
The term "food item" refers to any product or composition known to have or disclosed as having a nutritional effect. Items historically regarded as food include various meats (e.g., beef, pork, poultry, fish, etc.), dairy products (e.g., milk, cheese, eggs), fruits, vegetables, cereals, breads, etc.
A "fresh" food item is one that is not preserved, for example, by canning, dehydration, freezing, or smoking.
A "patentable" composition, process, machine, or article of manufacture according to the invention means that the subject matter at issue satisfies all statutory requirements for patentability at the time the analysis is performed. For example, with regard to novelty, non-obviousness, or the like, if later investigation reveals that one or more claims encompass one or more embodiments that would negate novelty, non-obviousness, etc., the claim(s), being limited by definition to "patentable" embodiments, specifically excludes the unpatentable embodiment(s). Also, the claims appended hereto are to be interpreted both to provide the broadest reasonable scope, as well as to preserve their validity. Furthermore, if one or more of the statutory requirements for patentability are amended or if the standards change for assessing whether a particular statutory requirement for patentability is satisfied from the time this application is filed or issues as a patent to a time the validity of one or more of the appended claims is questioned, the claims are to be interpreted in a way that (1) preserves their validity and (2) provides the broadest reasonable interpretation under the circumstances.
The term "plant-derived" means that the item is derived, or comes from, from a plant, and thus refers to such things as flowers (with or without stems), flower petals, leaves, fruits, stems, stalks, etc.
A "sugar" refers to a class of carbohydrates soluble in water and dilute alcohol that are used as sweeteners and preservatives. In dry form, they are frequently crystalline. Disaccharides include sucrose, lactose, and maltose. Monosaccharides include glucose, fructose, and inositol. Other representative sugars include dextran, fruitose, invert sugar, lactitol, lactose, maltitol, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, sorbitol, sucrose, trehalose, isomalt, xylitol, polydextrose, and combinations thereof. Confectioner's sugar refers to a composition comprising 95-97% sucrose ground together with cornstarch to a fine powder. "Granulated" or "table" sugar refers to sucrose granulated into a fine white powder. Suitable sugars also include natural and raw sugars, including sugars that are brown or white when refined into crystalline form. Sugars may also be used in liquid form; for example, molasses may be employed in the practice of the methods of this invention, as may other sugar-containing solutions produced naturally or by a suitable refining process.
In a "suspension" solid particles are dispersed in a liquid. The term "colloidal" refers to a state of subdivision, which, in the context of solutions, means that molecules or particles dispersed in the liquid have at least in one direction a dimension roughly between 1 nm and 1 μm. It is not necessary for all three dimensions to be in the colloidal range. A "colloidal dispersion" is a system in which particles of colloidal size of any nature (e.g. solid, liquid or gas) are dispersed in a continuous phase of a different composition (or state). In an "emulsion" liquid droplets and/or liquid crystals are dispersed in a liquid. An emulsion may be denoted by the symbol "O/W" if the continuous phase (i.e., is an aqueous solution) and by "W/O" if the continuous phase is an organic liquid.

Non-perishable plant-derived decorative items and methods for making same


A system and method of warranty insight solution are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes populating a data mart with data from a number of sources, text analyzing and mining the unstructured data of the data mart according to a uniform structure, performing root cause analysis assistance on staged data mart data, generating root cause analysis output from the root cause analysis, merging the root cause analysis output with the data of the data mart, and generating final output based on a portion of the merged data of the data mart. The data may include data selected from a group including warranty claim data, traceability data, supplier data, manufacturer data, retailer data, customer data, component data, service data, failure data, field data, vehicle failure fault codes trough telematics, and collection center data.

Various organizations may offer warranties for products and/or services. One example is automotive warranties offered by automobile manufacturers for component failures/nonconformance. Claims arising under the warranties as a result of warranty failures may result in large settlement awards or judgments for claimants. Expenses associated with the settlement awards or the judgments may accrue to an excess of one billion dollars. In addition, warranty failures may negatively impact financial performance, brand value, and customers' perceptions of the organization.
Further, the organization may be unable to collect, manage, or interpret data related to warranty failure. Without such capabilities, the organization may be unable to identify failure points, may be unable to exact cost recoveries from suppliers of the products, and may be unable to accurately forecast future warranty expenses.
Current attempts to address the foregoing issues may not provide a comprehensive failure analysis of design improvement activities. Further, the attempts may not address issues of entities related to the organization, such as a supplier or a retailer associated with the organization. The issues may include, for example, excessive timelines for replacement of failed components and replacement of a working component rather than the failed component.
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.

Warranty insight solution framework system and method


A system and method for stimulating a human heart including a sensing module coupled through a lead to an electrode associated with a tissue of the human heart for sensing electrical activity of the heart. A controller module may be coupled to the sensing module. The controller module may select between a temporary stimulation therapy and a chronic stimulation therapy. Also included is a therapy module coupled to the controller, the therapy module communicating a plurality of anodic pulses to the heart through the lead when providing the temporary stimulation therapy. The amplitude, frequency, and duration of the anodic pulses may be varied, and biphasic pacing may also be used. The electrode may be a drug-eluting electrode for delivery of a drug. After an event occurs, the controller module may transition to the chronic stimulation therapy that may include cathodic stimulation.

Living tissues possess known bioelectrical properties. Potential differences can be observed in living tissues during normal function. For example, a potential difference (the "resting potential") of approximately −70 milliVolts exists between the inside and the outside of normal cell membranes. In certain specialized cell types, such as those found in the cardiac tissues, the potential difference across the cellular membrane slowly changes with time, eventually reaching a threshold that triggers rapid membrane depolarization.
The electrical characteristics of tissue are also observed in damaged tissues. The implantation of one or more pacing leads with electrodes for a cardiac rhythm management (CRM) system, such as a pacemaker or resynchronization device, involves trauma to the tissues, causing damage. This trauma may be caused at least in part by the simple placement of a pacing lead in heart tissue during normal CRM system implantation. More specifically, during implantation of a pacing lead for a CRM system, an elevation of the ST-segment of an electrocardiogram (ECG) is commonly observed, known as a repolarization abnormality, once contact between the electrode disposed at the end of the lead and the cardiac tissue is made. Also known as "current of injury," this repolarization abnormality may persist anywhere from only a few minutes to occasionally hours. The repolarization abnormality is therefore typically absent from prolonged ("chronic") lead performance.
It is known that an electrical stimulation applied to tissues may bring about desired effects. One obvious example is the use of electrical stimulation to bring about the clearly observable contraction of the heart muscle. Another much more subtle example is the use of electrical stimulation to alter the wound healing process.
It is also known in the art that electrical stimulation increases the healing rate in both animals and humans. Furthermore, evidence suggests that electrical stimulation can increase scar tissue development, encapsulation, and/or collagen deposition. Scar tissue development, encapsulation, and collagen deposition, generically referred to herein as a foreign body tissue response, are natural responses by a tissue to an implanted foreign object. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a generic foreign object 100 implanted into a body tissue develops a fibrous encapsulation 110 around the foreign object's surface.
The research still further suggests that this foreign body tissue response, or healing enhancement, take place preferentially at the cathode. This may be significant because the cathode is the preferred polarity used for chronic cardiac stimulation in CRM devices such as pacemakers and resynchronization devices. It is believed that such a foreign body tissue response around a cathodic electrode alters voltage stimulation thresholds, or the voltage potential necessary to incite cardiac contraction. Specifically, as the natural tissue encapsulation surrounding an implanted electrode grows more extensive over time, the voltage needed to stimulate the tissue also increases. These studies show increased encapsulation with pacing and suggest undesirable alterations in electrical performance as a result of pacing.
The increased voltage stimulation thresholds associated with a foreign body tissue response are deleterious to a CRM system for several reasons. First, the higher voltages necessary for stimulation require greater current from the system's battery, thereby decreasing battery life for the system. Higher voltage stimulation may also impair the ability of the CRM system to rapidly sense the effectiveness of an electrical pulse communicated to stimulate the tissue. Further, higher voltage stimulation may result in electrochemical reactions at the electrode/tissue interface, the by-products of which possibly being toxic to the tissue.
FIG. 2 illustrates how typical voltage stimulation thresholds for two cathodic electrodes implanted in a heart tissue change over time. The voltage stimulation threshold is the voltage necessary to cause a desired effect on a tissue. For example, with cardiac tissue, the voltage stimulation threshold may be the voltage necessary to cause the cardiac tissue to contract. The x-axis in FIG. 2 represents time, in weeks, and the y-axis represents the voltage stimulation threshold necessary for stimulation of a cardiac tissue.
The first solid line A illustrates the voltage stimulation thresholds necessary for a typical electrode implanted into a cardiac tissue. A typical voltage stimulation threshold necessary to stimulate the tissue upon implantation is approximately 0.3 volts. As shown by line A, the stimulation threshold rises over the first two weeks of electrode implantation, peaking at approximately 1 to 2 volts, or possibly more. The stimulation threshold then plateaus and reaches a chronic threshold of approximately 1 volt after approximately four weeks of implantation.
The second dashed line B of FIG. 2 represents the voltage stimulation thresholds necessary for an implanted electrode that includes drug-eluting properties to counteract the foreign body tissue response after introduction of the electrode. One example of such a drug-eluting electrode is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,661 to Heil, Jr. et al., herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. One such drug that may be used to counteract the foreign body tissue response is a steroid. The voltage stimulation threshold for the drug-eluting electrode starts initially at the same 0.3 volts upon implantation, and the threshold peaks at approximately two weeks at approximately 0.8 volts. Finally, the stimulation threshold may reach a chronic level of approximately 0.7–0.8 volts at about four weeks. Therefore, although the drug-eluting electrode exhibits lower peak and chronic stimulation thresholds than a non drug-eluting electrode, there still exists a need to provide an electrode that exhibits still lower peak and chronic thresholds, as well as a lower threshold level at implantation.
It is believed that the mere act of pacing a heart from an implanted CRM system influences the type and rate of healing that occurs around the implanted electrode, causing a greater foreign body tissue response and encapsulation than if pacing was not performed. More specifically, the influence of cathodic pacing on promoting tissue encapsulation is believed to prevent optimized electrode performance. Optimized electrode performance may be achieved only when the tissue-promoting effects of pacing stimuli are minimized or eliminated.
It is therefore desirable to develop a system and method to decrease the foreign body tissue response to implanted electrodes and thereby decrease the voltage thresholds necessary to incite contraction.

System and method for providing temporary stimulation therapy to optimize chronic electrical performance for electrodes used in conjunction with a cardiac rhythm management system


A personal care device includes a handle including a head supporting a personal care implement, a cradle longitudinally extending from the head to a proximal extremity open to the cradle, an elongate opening open to the cradle and extending longitudinally between the head and the proximal extremity and defined by mutually respective longitudinal edges, and a container extending longitudinally through the cradle. The container is deformable and a longitudinal part of the container extends laterally outward from the cradle through the elongate opening beyond the longitudinal edges. The container includes a dispensing opening proximate to the proximal extremity that is normally closed by a closure. In another embodiment, the container is coupled in fluid communication to the personal care implement.

Various personal care products include implements and specific preparations designed to be used or applied by those implements. Examples of personal care implements and preparations include razors used in removing unwanted body hair through the act of wet shaving in conjunction with a corresponding shaving-related preparation, applicators used in the application of topical preparations, cosmetic preparations, cleaning preparations, and the like.
One type of personal care implement is the razor. A standard razor includes a head of a handle and a bladed member of the head. The handle is taken up by hand by the shaver for shaving. To effectuate shaving, the user typically applies a shaving cosmetic preparation, such as shaving cream, a shaving gel, a shaving soap, or other lather-forming preparation to the face or body portion to be shaved, which is wiped away during shaving. Other cosmetic preparations commonly used in conjunction with shaving include pre-shave lotions/balms intended to treat the hair for improved shaving action and aftershave preparations used upon completing the shaving operation, such as alcohol-based liquids, lotions, balms, and pastes. Other personal care implements and related preparations include, for example, applicator or cleansing pads used to apply cleanser and other topical preparations, toothbrushes used to brush teeth in the presence of a chosen toothpaste or gel dentifrice.
The above-described personal care implements and the personal care compositions or preparations used therewith are conventionally separate items typically stored in proximity with one another in a suitable storage area, such as a medicine cabinet, bathroom drawer, or the like. Because they are separate from one another, they can often become lost or misplaced, especially while traveling. While skilled artisans have developed personal care implements that incorporate associated personal care preparations, they are structurally complex, difficult and cumbersome to use, expensive, and contain an excessive number of easily breakable parts. Given at least these deficiencies, the need for continued improvement in the art is evident.

Substance dispensing handle and container assemblies, substance dispensing handles, and personal care devices


A wide area load sharing control system includes a statistic information gathering module obtaining from respective nodes, as statistic information, a traffic state of links connected to the respective nodes in a network, a route determining module determining, based on the obtained statistic information, at least one route for extending a plurality of paths between ingress edge nodes and egress edge nodes that correspond to within a traffic engineering section in the network, and a load sharing determining module determining, based on the obtained statistic information, a ratio at which a traffic should be distributed to respective paths on the determined route. Active modules among the statistic information gathering module, the route determining module and the load sharing determining module are switched over to between the ingress edge nodes and the network control device concentratedly controlling the respective nodes, mutually.

The present invention relates generally to a load sharing control system that enables load sharing in the case of forwarding packets in an IP (Internet Protocol) network, and more particularly to a wide area load sharing control system that enables packets to be forwarded with a high quality in a large-scale label switching network.
Traffic engineering (which will hereinafter abbreviated to TE in some cases) is a technique for performing wide area load sharing in the IP network. This traffic engineering is a technical concept aiming at avoiding congestion in the network or efficiently utilizing network resources by forwarding the packets via a plurality of routes in a way that does not stick to the route determined by an existing routing protocol (routing algorithm). MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is a protocol used for build a network architecture in which the TE is concretely conducted.
MPLS enables a packet attached with a fixed-length label to be forwarded across a preset-up connection known as LSP (Label Switched Path). According to MPLS, the traffic control using paths on the IP network can be attained by extending (setting up or establishing) the LSPs along on a route obtained by an IP-based routing protocol.
Further, MPLS enables the set-up of the paths independent of the existing IP routing, and therefore the traffic engineering (TE) can be performed by utilizing these paths. One example thereof is wide area load sharing control involving the use of a plurality of LSPs.
The load sharing control is defined as a technique for distributing an input traffic to ingress edge routers to a plurality of paths by setting up these paths in an intra-network traffic engineering section, i.e., between the ingress edge routers (nodes) that execute the TE and egress edge routers. It is possible to avoid the load from concentrating on a single route, improve a resource usage efficiency in the whole network and avoid a long-term congestion by adopting this load sharing control technique.
Another load sharing control technique involve adopting such a control method that a scheme is not that the plurality of paths are set up from the beginning but that a load state of the traffic in the network is monitored at all times and, when a load on a certain route increases, a new path is established by searching for a different route directed to the same destination.
What has generally been proposed so far in order to execute the TE-based wide area load sharing is to install (a) a statistic information gathering function, (b) a route calculating (route searching) function and (c) a load sharing calculating function (algorithm) into the respective edge routers in the MPLS-based label switching network. Namely, each of the edge routers operates autonomously distributively the functions necessary for the TE.
This autonomous distribution type traffic engineering has requires, in (a) the statistic information gathering function, a creation of a special message by which all the routers (edge routers and core routers) notify each edge router of the self-router statistic information (traffic information). This message format is not yet standardized. Hence, there is a case where the routers in the network can not send and receive the message, and there arises a problem in which a flexibility of building the network might be lost.
Further, according to the autonomous distribution type TE, if all the functions (a) through (c) are executed in the edge routers, it can be considered that a processing performance declines due to a rise in a CPU load of the router concerned. In particular, the router generally uses a large quantity of CPU resources for a packet forwarding process, a routing protocol process and so on, and hence it is inevitable that a performance of the essential function of the router declines because of executing the traffic engineering (TE) process.
Moreover, the functions (a) through (c) and the routing protocol process come to have a higher processing load with a larger number of routers in the network. Accordingly, in the autonomous distribution type TE by the edge routers, a scale-up of the network is difficult to attain.


Compositions and methods are provided for endopeptidase production and for enhanced efficiencies of processing heterologous precursor polypeptides to mature polypeptides, including proteins requiring gamma-carboxylation for biological activity. These compositions and methods utilize recombinant PACE, a mammalian endopeptidase that is specific for dibasic amino acid sites.

This invention relates generally to the production of proteins in recombinant host cells. More particularly, it relates to materials and methods for the production of mature forms of proteins from heterologous precursor polypeptides using a paired basic amino acid converting enzyme (PACE), which is expressed in selected host cells.
Many eukaryotic proteins are naturally synthesized as larger precursor polypeptides, which require further specific proteolytic processing for full maturation prior to secretion. However, many of these eukaryotic proteins or precursors when synthesized in bacteria fold incorrectly or inefficiently and, consequently, exhibit low specific activities. Posttranslational proteolysis is frequently required for the synthesis of fully biologically active, mature proteins and peptides in all eukaryotes examined, including yeast [R. S. Fuller et al., Ann. Rev. Phvsiol., 50:345 (1988)], invertebrates [R. H. Scheller et al., Cell, 32:7 (1983)], and mammalian cells [J. Douglass et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem., 53:66. (1984); and W. S. Sossin et al., Neuron, 2, 1407 (1989)].
One of the early events in precursor protein maturation is endoproteolytic cleavage at the carboxyl side of paired basic amino acid sequences (e.g., -Lys-Arg- and -Arg-Arg-). This kind of endoproteolytic cleavage was initially inferred from the sequences of several endocrine and neuroendocrine precursor proteins and was first proposed from studies of proinsulin [D. F. Steiner et al., Science, 157:697 (1968); R. E. Chance et al., Science, 161:165 (1968)] and the ACTH/.beta.-endorphin precursor, proopiomelanocortin (POMC) [M. Chretien and C. H. Li, Can. J. Biochem., 45:1163 (1967)]. Subsequent studies have revealed a broad spectrum of precursor proteins that require endoproteolysis at pairs of basic amino acids to yield mature peptides including serum factors [A. K. Bentley et al, Cell, 45:343 (1986)], viral proteins [C. M. Rice et al., Virology, 151:1 (1986); C. M. Rice et al., Science, 229:726 (1985); J. M. McCune et al., Cell, 53:55 (1988)], growth factors [L. E. Gentry et al., Mol. Cell Biol., 8:4162 (1988); K. Sharples et al., DNA, 6:239 (1987); M. Yanagisawa et al., Nature, 332:411 (1988); and Gray et al., Nature, 303:722 (1983)] and receptors [Y. Yosimasa, Science, 240:784 (1988)]. See, also, Dickerson et al, J. Biol. Chem., 265:2462 (1990); Achsletter et al, EMBO J., 4:173 (1985); and Mizuno et al, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 144:807 (1987).
Cleavage at the site of a paired basic amino acid sequence removes many propeptides which function in a variety of roles in the processing of the mature protein. In certain cases the propeptide can mediate correct folding and disulfide bond formation within the protein sequence. In other cases the presence of the propeptide appears to be involved in .gamma.-carboxylation of glutamic acid residues in vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors. .gamma.-carboxylated proteins include Factor IX and Protein C, and certain bone-specific proteins, such as bone Gla protein/osteocalcin. The propeptide can also direct intracellular targeting and regulate the coordinate synthesis of multiple mature peptides from a single precursor polypeptide.
The sequences of the propeptide domains of certain vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation proteins have been published [See, Furie et al, Cell, 53:505 (1988)] and the size of the propeptide has been established for both Factor IX and Protein C. Factor IX is a zymogen of a serine protease that is an important component of the intrinsic pathway of the blood coagulation cascade. The protein is synthesized in the liver and undergoes extensive co- and post-translational modification prior to secretion. These modifications involve endoproteolytic processing to remove the pre- and pro-peptides, glycosylation, vitamin K-dependent .gamma.-carboxylation of 12 amino-terminal glutamic acid residues and .beta.-hydroxylation of a single aspartic acid residue.
The .gamma.-carboxyglutamic acid residues confer metal binding properties on the mature Factor IX protein and may function similarly in the processing of the other vitamin K-dependent blood clotting proteins. These .gamma.-carboxyglutamic acid residues are essential for coagulant activity. The gamma-carboxyglutamate (GLA) domain of Factor IX has also been identified as a major requirement for cell binding [Derian et al, J. Biol. Chem., 264(12):6615-6618 (1989)].
With the advance of genetic engineering, many eukaryotic proteins are being produced recombinantly in selected cell lines. For example, Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) DUKX cell lines producing recombinant Factor IX at high antigen levels (20 .mu.g/ml/day) have been isolated. However, only 1-2% of that recombinant protein is .gamma.-carboxylated, and therefore biologically active, in the presence of vitamin K3 [Kaufman et al, J. Biol. Chem., 261(21):9622-28 (1986)]. Additionally, amino-terminal sequencing of the recombinant protein has found that 50% of the recombinant Factor IX produced by the CHO cells retain the propeptide [Derian et al, J. Biol. Chem., 264(12): 6615-18 (1989)]. Presumably, the endoproteolytic processing enzyme of the CHO cells directing this cleavage was either saturated or simply inefficient in its function.
Several activities capable of cleaving at single or paired basic residues in vitro have been proposed as candidates for authentic mammalian precursor endoproteases. See, for example, Y. P. Loh and H. Gainer, in Brain Pentides, D. T. Krieger, M. J. Brownstein, J. B. Martin, Eds. (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1983), pp.76-116; M. Chretien, et al. in Cell Biology of the Secretory Process (Karger, Basel, Switzerland, 1983), pp.214-246; A. J. Mason, et al., Nature, 303:300 (1983); P. J. Isackson et al., J. Cell. Biochem., 33:65 (1987); I. Lindberg et al., J. Neurochem., 42:1411 (1985); J. A. Cromlish et al., J. Biol. Chem., 261:10850 (1986); K. Docherty et al., J. Biol. Chem., 259:6041 (1984); T. C. Chang and Y. P. Loh, Endocrinology, 114, 2092 (1984); B. P. Noe et al., J. Cell. Biol., 99:578 (1984); U. P. Loh, J. Biol. Chem., 261:11949 (1986); H. W. Davidson et al., Biochem. J., 246:279 (1987); P. Gluschankof et al., J. Biol. Chem., 262:9615 (1987); C. Clamigrand et al., Biochem., 26:6018 (1987); S. O. Brennan and R. J. Peach, FEBS Letters, 229:167 (1988); R. S. Fuller et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86:1434 (1989); K. Mizuno et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 159:305 (1989); I. C. Bathurst et al., Science, 235:348 (1987); and G. Thomas et. al., Science, 241:226 (1988)].
Despite the fact that these candidate activities and other processing enzymes have been proposed as being involved in the propeptide processing reactions, these endoproteolytic candidates have either not been fully characterized or have not been shown to be a bona fide precursor cleaving endoprotease in vivo. The purification of proprotein cleavage enzymes has been hampered by their low levels of activity in mammalian tissue and by their membrane-associated nature. Purification of these specific proteases has been complicated additionally by non-specific cleavage of the assay substrates in vitro, and by contaminating proteases such as those released from lysosomes.
The yeast enzyme Kex2, encoded by the KEX2 gene, is a membrane-bound, Ca.sup.++ -dependent serine protease which functions late in the secretory pathway of Saccharomvces cerevisiae. The enzyme cleaves the polypeptide chains of prepro-killer toxin and prepro-.alpha.-factor of that microorganism at the paired basic amino acid sequences of Lys-Arg and Arg-Arg [D. Julius et al, Cell, 37:1075 (1984); D. Julius et al, Cell, 36:309 (1984); K. Mizuno et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 156:246 (1988); R. S. Fuller et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86:1434 (1989)]. Kex-2 has been considered to be a prototypic proprotein convertase.
Recently, co-expression of the yeast KEX2 gene with POMC in mammalian BSC-40 cells (a cell line which is incapable of processing this peptide precursor) reportedly resulted in the generation, by proteolytic cleavage at pairs of basic amino acids, of authentic neuroendocrine prohormone peptides, including .gamma.-LPH and .beta.-endorphin [Thomas et al, (1988), cited above]. Foster et al, Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 62:321 (1989) have reported that the yeast KEX2 gene product cleaves the Protein C precursor to a two-chain form when the yeast endoprotease of the KEX2 gene and the wild-type Protein C precursor are coexpressed. However, propeptidce processing and the effect of Kex2 expression have not been studied.
Two human DNA protease sequences, designated PC2 and fur, share some structural homology with each other and with the KEX2 gene sequence. PC2, a mammalian subtilisin-like protease, was identified by amplification of a human insulinoma cDNA library by the polymerase chain reaction using KEX2-derived primers. PC2, which has been implicated in the endoproteolytic processing of prohormones, shares a partial homology to the yeast Kex2 protease, especially in the putative active site domains [Smeekens et al, J. Biol. Chem., 265:2997 (1990)]. To date, however, no functional activity has been demonstrated for the PC2 clone.
The availability of the complete Kex2 gene sequence also allowed the detection of significant homology between the Kex2 protein and "furin", the product of the partially characterized human fur gene. The fur locus was initially identified by its proximity (in the immediate upstream region) to the c-fes/fps proto-oncogene [A. J. M. Roebroek et al, EMBO J., 5:2197 (1986)]. The complete nucleotide sequence of the putative coding region of the fur gene has been reported. Upon comparison, the human fur gene product has demonstrated structural homology with the subtilisin-type serine protease encoded by the KEX2 gene of the yeast S. cerevisiae [A. M. W. van den Ouweland et al, Nucl. Acids Res., 18(3):664 (1990). This published cDNA coding sequence for fur is presented in FIG. 1 [SEQ ID NO: 1]. See, also, R. S. Fuller et al, Science, 246:482 (1989). However, no evidence of the expression of fur was reported.
An expression system has been developed which utilizes baculovirus vectors to introduce heterologous genes into insect cells in culture and subsequently effects the expression of the heterologous polypeptide. This has proven successful for the recombinant expression of some proteins (see, e.g., G. Ju et al., Curr. Communic. in Mol. Biol.--Gene Transfer Vectors for Mammalian Cells, C.S.H.L. Press (1987) pps. 39-45; and A. E. Atkinson et al., Pestic. Sci., 28:215-224 (1990)].
There remains a need in the art for a method of increasing the efficiency of proteolytic processing of precursor polypeptides in recombinant host cells.

Expression of pace in host cells and methods of use thereof


A content delivery network (100) for streaming digital video content across a data network. The content delivery network (100) is configured to receive digital video content. The content delivery network is configured to store the digital video content in a storage format comprising a base layer (B) and an enhancement layer (E), wherein the base layer (B) is decodable to present the digital video content at a base level of video reproduction quality, and the enhancement layer (E) is decodable with the base layer to present the digital video content at an enhanced level of video reproduction quality which is higher than the base level of reproduction quality. The content delivery network (100) is configured to determine, based on a target quality which is to be provided to a client device, which layers to use in order to achieve the target quality; and to use the determined layers (B, E) to provide the client device with the digital content at the target level of quality.

Broadly speaking, adaptive bit rate streaming is a technique of determining, at a client device, the ability of the client device to receive and process an encoded video stream, and adapting the quality of the encoded video stream, in real time, to adjust the quality of the encoded video stream to suit an available bandwidth. The state-of-the-art in practical implementations of adaptive bitrate streaming includes Microsoft® Smooth Streaming (MSS), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming.
These types of delivery are a combination of server and client software that detect a client's bandwidth capacity and adjust the quality of the video stream between multiple bitrates and/or resolutions. The adaptive bitrate video experience is superior to the delivery of a static video file from a streaming server at a single bitrate, because the encoded video stream can be switched midstream to suit the client's available network speed. When delivering static video files, there can sometimes exist excessive playback delay due to slow initial buffering speeds, or pauses in playback when the video stream cannot be downloaded quickly enough. Both of these problems are caused when the client's network bandwidth cannot deliver the video content at an optimal speed, and are especially pronounced in situations of variable network bandwidth. Furthermore, the delivery of the static video file may not utilise the full potential of the client device resulting in a sub-optimal video stream being used for presentation by the client device.
Microsoft® Smooth Streaming, HTTP Live Streaming, and HTTP Dynamic Streaming each use different protocols to receive video content, and so a client device must support each protocol. A standard for HTTP streaming of multimedia content has been developed, called MPEG-DASH, to enable consistent playback and unification of servers and clients of different vendors.
In general, in MPEG-DASH ("DASH"), multimedia content is captured and stored on an HTTP server and is delivered using HTTP. The content exists on the server in two parts: Media Presentation Description (MPD), which describes a configuration of the available content, its various alternatives, their URL addresses, and other characteristics; and segments, which contain the actual multimedia bit streams in the form of chunks, in single or multiple files.
To play the content, a DASH client first obtains the MPD. The MPD can be delivered using HTTP, email, thumb drive, broadcast, or other transports. By parsing the MPD, the DASH client learns about the program timing, media-content availability, media types, resolutions, minimum and maximum bandwidths, and the existence of various encoded alternatives of multimedia components, accessibility features and required digital rights management (DRM), media-component locations on the network, and other content characteristics. Using this information, the DASH client selects the appropriate encoded alternative and starts streaming the content by fetching the segments using HTTP GET requests.
After appropriate buffering to allow for network throughput variations, the DASH client continues fetching the subsequent segments and also monitors the network bandwidth fluctuations. Depending on its measurements, the DASH client decides how to adapt to the available bandwidth by fetching segments of different alternatives (with lower or higher bitrates) to maintain an adequate buffer.
In addition, there are recent moves towards content-aware encoding, where different bitrate and resolution options are encoded and made available on a per-title basis (i.e. each individual film or television programme is encoded at bitrates and resolutions that suit the particular video content). This has advantages in that some video content can be delivered in very good quality (PSNR around 45 dB) at relatively low bitrates, and so bandwidth efficiencies are achieved, whereas other more complex video content cannot be delivered at certain resolutions (e.g. 1080p) in reasonable quality (at or above 38 PSNR) without being encoded at a relatively high bitrate, and so the bandwidth required to view at that resolution must be relatively high, for optimal viewing experience. Knowing that and how a particular video content should be encoded in multiple resolution/bitrate pairings is a technique which has been put forward by at least Netflix® for optimising efficiency and viewing experience of video received via an over-the-top (OTT) architecture.
However, despite adaptive bitrate streaming being a huge improvement over static video file streaming, and finding widespread practical use, there is room to improve adaptive bitrate streaming further. For example, a video content provider (e.g. a broadcaster) is normally required to provide video content to a content delivery network (for OTT) in all format permutations that the broadcaster wishes end video consumers to be able to use.
The various formats include various codecs (MPEG-2, H.264, HEVC), at various levels of resolution (360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 2160p, 4320p), and various encoder profiles (reflecting quality in bitrate levels: 16 kbit/s, 400 kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s, 2.5 Mbit/s, 4.5 Mbit/s, 9.8 Mbit/s, 40 Mbit/s and decoding compatibility). This causes:                1. high encoding overhead at the video content source to encode all format permutations for the video content;        2. high file storage overhead in the content delivery network to store all format permutations;        3. high caching storage overhead at edge servers of the content delivery network to cache necessary format permutations;        4. delay when switching to a different format (e.g. for consumer bandwidth fluctuations) as different format requested by and sent to edge server;        5. high file management overhead to manage format permutations;        6. lack of flexibility, as further encoding of video content is required into new format permutations when technology advances (e.g. the introduction of 4K HEVC), further increasing overheads and delay in points above.
More recently, transcoding techniques within a content delivery network have been proposed to mitigate the above listed problem of high encoding overhead at the video-content source. Here, a single version of the video content at a maximum level of quality is provided to a content delivery network which then creates all necessary versions to serve various video clients at various bandwidths as needed. However, there exists a need to mitigate or solve the remaining problems with minimal impact to the video delivery ecosystem.


An acoustic transducer which is operable in air up to at least 2MHz is described. A conducting substrate, usually a silicon wafer is etched to provide a selected pattern of micro pits up to about 30 .mu.m or more deep. A dielectric film, such as a polyimide film is placed over the etched surface so as to trap air in each individual pit. A conducting upper layer is then superimposed over the dielectric film. When a potential is applied between the substrate and the upper layer the upper layer is driven into motion and enhanced by the vibrations of the air pockets. Alternatively a smooth substrate may be employed in conjunction with an etched dielectric film to achieve the same result. These transducers are useful for non-destructive testing of large structures or for medical diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, without the need for a liquid or gel coupling agent.

Electrostatic transducers for generating and detecting sound waves are well known in the art and attention is directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,544,733; 3,946,422; 3,961,291; 4,329,547; 4,419,545; 4,908,805; 4,429,193; 4,439,642; 4,885,781; 4,993,072; 5,101,543; 4,809,355; 4,594,897; 4,85,783; 4,558,184 and 4,593,567, which are typical of known devices and which generally include a moveable conductive material in juxtaposition to a moveable non-conductive dielectric material, both of which vibrate in unison. In most instances a conductive backplate in the form of a plate or foil is spaced from the dielectric material which is usually a thin film of plastic such as a Mylar film. Between the two there is an air gap or space of predetermined thickness. The size and thickness of the air gap is critical and many attempts have been made to vary this gap by the use of multi dielectric layers, and spaces of varying types. The problem is that ultrasound is highly attenuative in air above about 600 kHz and conventional ultrasonic devices cannot adequately couple vibrational energy from solid to gas due to the large impedance mismatch. Use of conventional transducers for such applications as non-destructive testing of large planar planar surfaces is greatly hampered by the need to use an external coupling agent such as a gel. Many prior art patents rely on a simple air pocket between the dielectric material and the backing electrode so that the dielectric does not touch the backing electrode. Others, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,805, support the dielectric membrane covering the backing electrode on posts and use glue to hold the membrane in place, and then provide openings in the backplate. They are designed for use at relatively low frequencies and the space taken up by the glue is effectively wasted space that could be used for generation of ultrasonic energy. U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,545 provides means for varying the area of the open holes in the backplate leading to the single air pocket in order to affect the frequency response and sensitivity but the vibrating element does not touch the back plate.
There is, therefore a need for improved acoustic transducers which can operate efficiently at frequencies up to at least 2 MHz, and it is believed that this can be attained by careful control of the surface roughness of the backplate so as to provide a plurality of air pockets each of which vibrates. Such transducers would find applications testing large surfaces for internal flaws, among other applications obvious to those skilled in the art. Such other applications include human diagnostic and therapeutic uses. As is well known ultrasound, using a gel coupling agent, is used extensively for medical purposes.


Techniques are described for selective extraction of color attributes from digital images that overcome the challenges experienced in conventional systems for color extraction. In an implementation, a user applies a region selector to a source image to select a portion of the source image for color attribute extraction. A graphics editing system identifies a selected region of the source image as well as visual objects of the source image included as part of the selected region. The graphics editing system iterates through the selected visual objects and extracts color attributes from the visual objects, such as color values, patterns, gradients, gradient stops, opacity, color area, and so forth. The graphics editing system then generates a color palette that includes the extracted color attributes, and the color palette is able to be utilized for various image editing tasks, such as digital image creation and transformation.

One of the most powerful tools in a digital designer's arsenal is color and based on color's profound effect on a viewer's perception of visual elements, color plays a significant role in design. In approaching a particular digital design project, a designer typically selects a color palette that consists of a collection of a discrete set of colors (e.g., 3-6 different colors) which define the visual theme of a design. To select a color palette for a digital design project, designers often draw inspiration from various sources, such as natural settings and existing artwork created by other designers. In particular, designers often seek to replicate color themes from existing artwork in digital form. Conventional techniques for extracting color themes from existing digital artwork, however, exhibit a number of drawbacks. For instance, "eyedropper" techniques enable designers to manually pick colors from a digital artwork. Such eyedropper techniques, however, only typically enable colors to be selected one at a time, and thus are labor intensive and prone to mistakes due to the course selective ability of an eyedropper tool. Other conventional techniques enable color palette extraction, but such techniques are coarse in nature and do not enable a designer to designate specific areas of a digital artwork from which to extract a color theme.

Selective extraction of color attributes from digital images


Vehicle seat (1) having a seat part (2) and a backrest (3), wherein the supporting structure (44) of the seat part or the backrest, in particular the side part thereof, integrally has at least one spring element (40, 31) a pivot point (P) and/or a safety belt connection.

Such a vehicle seat is known from DE 10 2011 106 219. In automotive engineering, there is a continuous desire to be able to produce such a vehicle seat more easily and/or cost-effectively.
It was therefore the object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat or individual components of a vehicle seat which meet(s) the abovementioned requirements.
The object is achieved with a vehicle seat having a seat part and a backrest, wherein the supporting structure of the seat part and/or the backrest, in particular the side part thereof, integrally has at least one spring element, a pivot point and/or a safety belt connection.