[PROBLEMS] The present invention provides a novel cleaner having bacteria-proof, fungi-proof and algae-proof effects, which is added to a reaction thermostat using water as medium in scientific apparatus, particularly a thermostatic water bath in an automatic analyzer.

Generally, in the field of the clinical chemistry, measurement of physiologically active substances in such organism samples as serum, urine or tissue fluid, e.g., enzymes, lipid, protein, etc., is made widely for the purpose of diagnosis of diseases and grasping disease conditions.
Automatic analyzers have various features such as quick operation, high efficiency, high accuracy, convenient handling, small amounts of samples and reagent required for analysis and capability of saving energy, so that they are employed widely in the field noted above. The measurement is usually done in the order of taking a sample, adding a reagent, mixing, incubation, color comparison (measurement of absorbance) and calculation. Of these, the incubation is effected by an air bath system, a water bath system or oil bath system. Among them, most generally a water bath is used as thermostat bath. The reaction temperature is usually below 50° C. and most generally 37° C. The absorbance is measured by a system in which measurement is done by sucking up reaction solution from a reaction vessel to a cell, or a system in which the reaction vessel is measured directly as measurement cell. At present, the latter system is mainly adopted. In the measurement of this system with a water bath as thermostatic water bath, light from a light source disposed outside the water bath is passed through the water bath and through a reaction vessel therein to be detected by a sensor disposed on the opposite side of the water bath. In this way, the reaction vessel is also used as cell for measuring. The wavelength used for measurement is usually 340 to 900 nm.
Usually, water in the thermostatic water bath in the automatic analyzer is replaced once or several times a day. At the time of water replacement, air bubbles are frequently attached to the outer wall of the reaction vessel. To prevent this, a slight amount of cleaner is usually added. The cleaner used to this end is usually prepared from various surface active agents as main component by adding a chelating agent, a pH controller, a preservative agent, etc. to the main component. It has poor bubble-formation property, and it is added to a concentration of 0.05 to 2.0 w/w % in the water bath. However, in the water bath using water in the thermostatic water bath containing such a cleaner, the component of cleaner serves as source of nutrition to promote generation of algae and growth of various microorganisms (bacteria etc.) in the use of long time running (Any preservative agent added can not substantially provide any effect). In consequence, a great error in the measurement of the absorbance was produced by a cause such as generation of algae on the reaction vessel and/or increase in turbidity in water in the thermostatic water bath, etc. For this reason, as the analyzer requires sufficient daily maintenance control in the use of the apparatus, a great deal of labor is required for accuracy maintenance and maintenance control by frequently monitoring or periodically cleaning the inside of the water bath. Thus, although addition of a cleaner to a thermostatic water bath is necessary and effective, sufficient daily maintenance control is required to be done, therefore, improvement in this respect is strongly desired.
The present inventors thought that a cause for generation of algae and growth of microorganisms (bacteria etc.) is that the final concentration of the preservative agent present as a component of the cleaner in the thermostatic water bath is less than an effective concentration in the case of ordinary concentration of the cleaner (which is 0.05 to 2.0 v/v %). Accordingly, the present inventors considered that triazine derivatives which were effective in small quantity, that is, low effective concentration preservative agents were suitable for a preservative agent as a component of the cleaner. And after intensive researches and investigations, the present inventors found that, it is possible to prevent generation of algae and growth of microorganisms (bacteria etc.) in the thermostatic water bath by using a cleaner containing a triazine derivative and a surface active agent, and filed it as a patent application (Patent Document 1).
However, it was found that although the cleaner having the composition noted above permits prevention of the generation of algae and growth of microorganisms (bacteria etc.) in the thermostatic water bath for a long time, but when the liquid concentrate of the cleaner is preserved at a high temperature, some of its components are decomposed with a lapse of time, thus producing substances which have absorption in a wavelength range of 300 to 900 nm used for the measurement and are liable to cause great errors in the absorbance measurement.
Therefore, the present inventors further conducted intensive investigations, and have found that the cleaner obtained by adding a compound represented by the following formula [A]:
[wherein R9, R10, R11 and R12 are independently an a hydrogen atom, a methyl group or a hydroxymethyl group, and n is an integer of 1 to 5] to a cleaner composed of a triazine derivative as low effective concentration of a preservative agent and a surface active agent can prevent not only the generation of algae and growth of microorganisms (bacteria etc.) in the thermostatic water bath, but also restrain formation of a substance having absorption in the measurement wavelength range (300 to 900 nm) as a result of decomposition of a component of the cleaner when the cleaner is preserved at a high temperature. This invention also is already filed as a patent application (Patent Document 2).
On the other hand, for prevention of nosocomial infection by various types of bacteria (for example, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, etc.), various kinds of pretreatment are sometimes demanded. Although no example is reported that a cause of such infection is a thermostatic water bath in an automatic analyzer, there are some thoughts that prevention at a pre-stage is necessary, and there are some opinions to desire development of a cleaner having stronger germicidal effect than conventional cleaners.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-1-40599
[Patent Document 2] JP-A-1-319407

Cleaning agent for thermostatic chambers

Abstract: [SOUTLIN] A cleaner for a thermostatic water bath, which comprises a quaternary ammonium salt as shown by the general formula [1] described below and/or a preservative agent having amphoteric surface activity, and a surface active agent,

Abstract: wherein R1 to R4 independently represent an alkyl group, provided that at least one among R1 to R4 is an alkyl group having 8 to 18 carbon atoms, and at least one among them is a lower alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms; and X− represents an anion derived from a carboxylic acid having two or more carbon atoms; and a cleaning method of a thermostatic water bath, wherein the cleaner is added to a thermostatic water bath.


Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which multi-slice acquisitions of T1ρ-weighted data are combined to form quantitative T1ρ values without retrospective correction for the contaminating effects of other MR relaxation parameters.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique in which an object is placed in a magnetic field and subjected to pulses of the electromagnetic field at a frequency. Conventional MRI systems include a main magnet which generates a strong static magnetic field of a high temporal stability and a high spatial homogeneity within a field-of-view (FOV) where the imaging takes place. Conventional MRI systems also include a gradient coil assembly located in the bore between the main magnet and the RF coil and generating space-varying fields. The gradient coil assembly causes the response frequency and phase of the nuclei of the patient body to depend upon position within the FOV thus providing a spatial encoding of the body-emitted signal. Conventional MRI systems further include RF coil/coils arranged within the bore which emit RF waves and receive resonance signal from the body. The superconducting main magnet is typically used to achieve high field strength; the superconducting main magnet comprises a plurality of concentric coils placed inside a cryostat which is designed to provide a low temperature operating environment for superconducting coils.
MR imaging is used in diagnosis of a wide variety of medical conditions, including osteoarthritis (OA). Existing and emerging osteoarthritis treatments require early detection of the disease. Unfortunately, there are no established non-invasive diagnostic tools for the early detection of OA or for monitoring the effectiveness of OA therapies. Such a tool is needed to increase the efficacy and effectiveness of treatment. One indicator of OA is proteoglycan depletion. Some studies have shown that cartilage proteoglycan content is indicated by T1ρ relaxation values. These studies theorize that an increase in T1ρ indicates proteoglycan depletion. In MR, T1ρ is the exponential decay constant that describes a decay of transverse magnetization during RF spin lock that causes a spin-lattice relaxation in the rotating frame. The spin-lattice relaxation in the rotating frame probes the slow motion interactions between motionally restricted water molecules and the local macromolecular environment. T1ρ quantification has also been applied to the MR imaging of muscle, breast, liver, brain, spine, and tumors and has shown diagnostic promise in these areas as well.
Conventional quantitative T1ρ imaging is predominantly a single slice method in which only one transverse image of an object is generated. Multislice two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) methods have been suggested that generate multiple transverse images of the internal structure of the object. However both the suggested 2D and 3D methods require retrospective correction of either T2ρ saturation or T1-weighting. Retrospective correction, which necessarily assumes a constant T2ρ or T1 value, can adversely affect quantitative accuracy. Quantitative accuracy is especially adversely affected in imaging of non-homogeneous anatomy such as the brain. Quantitative T2ρ and T1 maps could be acquired but this greatly increases complexity of the experiment.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a more effective method of diagnosing osteoarthritis. There is also a need for a multi-slice quantitative T1ρ imaging sequence that does not require any retrospective correction and that improves quantitative accuracy of multi-slice imaging.

Systems, methods and apparatus for multi-slice quantitative imaging


Disclosed are a method, a system and a computer program product for managing direct memory access (DMA) operations in a double buffering system. During direct memory access operations in a computer system, data is transferred from a source memory location to a destination memory location with minimal use of the computer's processing unit. Double buffering utilizes two separate memory buffers to perform simultaneous DMA operations. Prior to processing a DMA request each buffer in a double buffering system is assigned a channel identification (ID), or tag. When reading, writing, or polling status of data in a buffer, the tag identifies the buffer. A toggle factor is utilized to conveniently switch between each buffer in the double buffering system. Utilizing a toggle factor decreases latencies in DMA operations.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer systems and in particular to data transfer in computer memory systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Direct memory access (DMA) is an operation which may control the memory system of a computer without utilizing the central processing unit (CPU). During DMA operations, data may be moved from one memory location to another memory location, typically while the computer is in a low power mode. DMA operations utilize the same memory bus as the CPU; therefore, only one of the CPU or a device performing a DMA (operation) can access the memory at any one time. DMA operations may be utilized in conjunction with "double buffering" operations to minimize delays in input/output processes such as data transfer to and from memory locations. During double buffering of DMA operations, a separate channel is utilized for each buffer to perform input/output operations. Each buffer is assigned a channel identification (ID), or tag.
In a tag managed system, tags are assigned to each buffer according to availability. Numerically adjacent tags may be assigned to a buffer pair; however, the opportunity to assign numerically adjacent tags diminishes due to normal DMA operations. Expediting data transfer between memory locations is highly dependent on whether the tags assigned to each buffer are numerically adjacent. If the tags are not numerically adjacent the previously expeditious process becomes time-consuming.

Method for toggling non-adjacent channel identifiers during DMA double buffering operations

International Business Machines Corporation


A control program is previously stored in a flash ROM, and when update of the control program stored in the flash ROM is requested, control is changed to that based on a program stored in a mask ROM, and a control program as the subject of update is received and written into the flash ROM under the control of the program stored in the mask ROM. When writing of the new control program into the flash ROM has ended and the update of the control program in the flash ROM has been completed, the control is changed to that based on the updated control program. Further, information indicating whether or not the update of the control program has been normally completed is stored in an EEPROM, and control processing is performed based on the control program stored in the flash ROM or the control program stored in the mask ROM in accordance with the information.

Conventionally known is an electrophotographic printer which performs printing by modulating laser light in correspondence with an image signal then forming an electrostatic latent image with the modulated laser light and transferring a toner image onto a print sheet. A controller to control the operation of the printer is provided with a CPU such as microcomputer and a ROM holding a control program for the CPU and various data. As the ROM, a mask ROM is used for the sake of advantage in the cost of production.
The mask ROM is a low price device and appropriate for mass production. However, in a case where the control program stored in the mask ROM is somewhat changed due to, for example a change of specification of the apparatus, it is necessary to discard all the mask ROM and develop a mask ROM holding a new control program. This wastefulness is caused by the change of specification and it requires much time for development of new apparatus. For such reason, the conventional art cannot support diverse requirements from the market in a flexible manner.

Image forming apparatus and program update method in the apparatus


A precision feeding device for soft and hard packaged articles includes an angled rim for improved feeding and alignment. Separated rollers are placed between a rigid plate and a flexible disc to further enhance the operation and durability of the device.

In many industries, various parts or products are placed into packets or pouches for health, sterile, convenience or protective reasons. These pouches or packets are then placed in large quantity boxes or other containers for ultimate delivery to the consumer or customer. Currently, placement of the pouches or packets into the boxes or other shipping containers is done by hand, which is labor intensive and time consuming.
Since the vast majority of packaging companies currently feed the packets or pouches by hand into the boxes or shipping containers, centrifugal precision feeders have been developed to aid in this process. Precision feeders, such as Hoppman Corporation model FT-40 or FT-50, utilize a large outer bowl rotating at one speed and a flexible inner disc rotating at another speed to create centrifugal force. The packets or pouches to be packaged are placed on the flexible inner disc and are transferred from the inner disc to an independently rotating orienting rim for delivery to the packaging station. The orienting rim has a flat, level surface. When the packets are transferred from the inner disc to the flat rim, the packages are often skewed in numerous directions. This skewed orientation of the packets or pouches at the packaging station prevents rapid packaging of these packets or pouches since time must be expended to straighten and correctly orient the packages or pouches before they are placed in the containers.
In the currently available precision feeders, the flexible inner disc is positioned over a metallic plate. In order to reduce the friction between the flexible inner disc and the metallic plate, a powder, such as talcum powder, must be placed therebetween. If no powder is utilized, the flexible inner disc may be torn and ripped due to friction. The flexible inner disc spins over the stationary metallic plate, which creates surface tension. This surface tension causes the flexible disc to stick to the plate, and since a center shaft is trying to turn the flexible disc, it can get twisted, with the flexible disc tearing near the center hub, thereby requiring frequent replacement. However, use of a powder between the flexible inner disc and the plate creates other problems in sterile environments or when used in the processing of sterile products because the powder particles in the air can enter the products, thereby destroying their sterility. Further, when a powder is utilized between the metallic plate and the flexible inner disc, labels or print will often not stick to the product packages.
Based on the fact that much of the packaging today is still done by hand, and the limitations of the currently available centrifugal precision feeders, it would be advantageous to have precision feeders which could quickly orient and align hard and/or soft packets or pouches of product or parts so as to be in the same direction. This is particularly important with malleable soft pouched products. It would be even more advantageous to accomplish this without the use of a powder between the flexible inner disc and the plate, particularly in food or medical-related fields.

Pouch feeder method and device with angled rim


Novel fungal endoglucanases Cel5 and Cel12 are disclosed. The endoglucanases are conveniently produced by recombinant technology, and means for their production are described. The endoglucanases are used for treating cellulosic material, especially in textile industry, e.g. in biofinishing or biostoning. They may also be used in detergents, in animal feed and/or in pulp and paper industry, or in hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material for, e.g. bioethanol production.

Cellulases are amongst the most widely used enzymes in industry. They are generally applied in textile industry, detergent industry, pulp and paper industry, feed and food industry, including baking, and in hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material for, e.g. bioethanol production etc. The practical use of cellulases is hampered by the nature of the cellulase compositions, which are often enzyme mixtures having a variety of activities and substrate specificities. For this reason, efforts have been made to obtain cellulases having only the desired activities. The unique properties of each cellulase make some more suitable for certain purposes than others.
In fabric treatment cellulases attack the chains of cellulose molecules that form the cotton fibers, thereby affecting the characteristics of the fabric.
In textile industry a "stone washed" or abraded look has been denim producers' interest in recent years. Traditional stone washing with pumice stones reduces the strength of fabric and burdens the laundering apparatuses. The trend has been towards enzymatic denim finishing processes and cellulases have replaced or are being used together with pumice stones to give the fabric its desired "worn" look. Controlled enzyme treatments result in less damage to the garments and machines and eliminate the need for disposal of stones.
Additionally, textile industry uses cellulases in biofinishing, i.e. to create permanent improvement of depilling, and to improve pilling resistance, clear surface structure by reduced fuzz, improve textile handle, such as softness, smoothness and a silkier feel, improve drapability and brighter colors of the textile and improve moisture absorbability.
Cellulases comprise a catalytic domain/core (CD) expressing cellulase activity. In addition to the catalytic domain the cellulase molecule may comprise one or more cellulose binding domains (CBDs), also named as carbohydrate binding do-mains/modules (CBD/CBM), which can be located either at the N- or C-terminus of the catalytic domain. CBDs have carbohydrate-binding activity and they facilitate the enzymatic action on solid substrates. The catalytic core and the CBD are typically connected via a flexible and highly glycosylated linker region.
Cellulases that attack primarily on the surface of the fiber are especially useful in stone washing of denim dyed with Indigo dye, as the dye is located on the surface of the fiber. Cellulases applied in denim treatment are usually divided into two main groups: acid and neutral cellulases. Acid cellulases typically operate at pH 4.5-5.5 and the neutral cellulases in the range of pH 6-8. When used to treat cotton fabric, acid cellulases generally require a shorter washing time than neutral cellulases. Acid cellulases are especially used in biofinishing (depilling) and also in denim treatment (biostoning). Acid cellulases used in biostoning mainly originate from Trichoderma reesei (sexual form Hypocrea jecorina) and the neutral cellulases come from a variety of fungi, including genera of Melanocarpus, Humicola, Thielavia, Myceliophthora, Fusarium, Acremonium, and Chrysosporium (Haakana et al. 2004). T. reesei enzymes include, e.g., cellulases from the glycoside family 5 (endoglucanase II, EGII), family 7 (cellobiohydrolase I, CBHI) and family 12 (endoglucanase III, EGIII; Ward et al. 1993), and the neutral cellulases, most often endoglucanases, from family 45 and family 7 (Henrissat, 1991; Henrissat and Bairoch, 1993).
The wide spectrum of industrial uses for endoglucanases has established a need for commercial endoglucanase products showing desired performance at desired conditions such as pH and temperature ranges. Acid cellulases classified as EGII and EGIII have been described for use in i.a. textile treatment. For example WO2007/118935 describes the use of Cel5 (EGII) enzymes in textile finishing. EP 586,375 B1 discloses detergent compositions comprising a thoroughly characterized Trichoderma spp. EGIII enzyme with a pH-optimum of 5.5-6.0, pI of 7.2-8.0, and MW of 23-28 kDa. US2007/0026420 describes a method for obtaining genes for novel enzymes, which share certain conserved sequences with EGIII from Trichoderma reesei. Properties of the EGIII like cellulases are not exemplified but a temperature in the range of 35° C. to 65° C. is expected to be suitable for these enzymes.
The majority of the industrially used enzymes work better at elevated temperatures, usually about >50° C., but for energy saving reasons, better color fastness and reduction of shrinkage of garments there is a need for enzymes with good performance at lower temperature levels i.e. <50° C., for example about 30 to 40° C., or even 20 to 40° C. Such cold active enzymes have been described e.g. in bacteria, especially in Bacillus. However, production of bacterial enzymes for industrial applications is complicated and laborious compared to the production of fungal enzymes. Still there is very little knowledge about possible cold active fungal endoglucanases.
Thus there is a continuous need for new and advantageous endoglucanases having desired properties and thermal profiles. The present invention meets this need.

Fungal endoglucanases, their production and use


One example method includes receiving data segments that are not already part of a full disk image of a backup, storing the data segments in storage, determining whether or not an aggregate total of data segments in the storage, that are not already part of a full disk image of a backup, equals or exceeds a threshold, when the aggregate total of data segments in the storage equals or exceeds the threshold, creating a full disk image of a backup that includes the data segments in storage, and storing the created full disk image of the backup to a recovery disk.

Enterprises may generate significant amounts of important data that is typically preserved in some type of data protection environment. Such data protection environments help to ensure that the data is recoverable in the event that a disaster occurs that compromises, or prevents access to, the data. Thus, disaster recovery is a critical process for organizations. One important parameter of a disaster recovery (DR) plan is the time it takes to recover after an incident such as the loss or corruption of data.
One approach to performing DR in a data protection environment that could be employed would be to use an auxiliary restore VM to perform the actual DR activity. Such an auxiliary restore VM could create disks of the same sizes as the disks of the protected VM of the customer, read the segmented backup copies data from storage and fill the disks with the relevant segmented data. After the disks are created and filled with relevant data, a new VM would be launched with those disks and the DR process would be completed. Such an approach presents problems however.
For example, if the VM to be restored is relatively large, the process of filling disks with relevant data may take a significant amount of time. This is because the data is uploaded to the storage environment broken into small pieces, or segments, in order to be able to transfer, for each new backup, only the new or updated segments. The segments that have not been changed since the last backup will not be added to the new backup copy. In particular, when performing DR with respect to a specific backup copy, all the relevant segments should be found in that backup copy, or in previous ones, and then each segment would be written to the correct offset on the target disk. While such an approach can save space in the storage environment, and also time in the creation of backup copies, this approach can nonetheless be expected to impose a significant cost when the time comes to perform a DR process.
This time penalty may be avoided or reduced in some instances, such as where a relatively longer RTO (Recovery Time Objective) time to DR completion may be acceptable for certain non-critical VMs. For other VMs, the recovery disks can be created and filled with data upon creation of a new backup copy. By performing this process in advance of a DR process, the disks are ready ahead of time, thereby reducing the RTO. That is, when the DR process is executed, the recovery disks already exist and so the DR process can be performed relatively quickly. However, creating full disks for each backup copy is costly and impractical, inasmuch as this effort requires significant storage space, and may also require significant processing time and resources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Time based SLA compliance for disaster recovery of business critical VMs


A system and method for removing noise from images are disclosed herein. An exemplary system includes an edge-detection-based adaptive filter that identifies edge pixels and non-edge pixels in an image and selects a filtering technique for at least one non-edge pixel based on a comparison of the at least one non-edge pixel to a neighboring pixel region, wherein such comparison indicates whether the at least one non-edge pixel is a result of low-light noise.

Low-light images are especially susceptible to corruption from noise caused by light-detecting sensors (i.e., low-light artifacts). For example, a video or still camera may capture undesirable grains or discolorations in low-light conditions. This noise may lead to uncorrelated pixels and, as a result, reduced compression efficiency for video coding algorithms (e.g., MPEG4 and H.264). Many applications, such as security cameras, capture low-light images and require a large amount of storage space for retaining those images, and any decrease in the required storage space may lead to a more cost-effective application, an increase in the number of images or frames of video stored, or reduced network traffic for transporting the images. Thus, efforts have been made to detect and eliminate low-light noise.
Previous efforts (such as transform-domain methods, DCT, wavelet, or other statistical methods), however, suffer from drawbacks. These methods are computationally intensive and require a significant amount of computing resources, which may not be available on low-power, portable, or other devices. Furthermore, these methods are not adjustable based on available resources or the complexity of the source image, further wasting resources on simple images or during high-load conditions in which the additional resources may not be necessary or available.

System and method for removing image noise


According to this invention, a resonant tunneling transistor includes a first semiconductor layer having an n-type conductivity and serving as a collector layer, a second semiconductor layer having a p-type conductivity and serving as a base layer, a third semiconductor layer having the n-type conductivity and serving as an emitter layer, a fourth semiconductor layer serving as a first barrier layer against either of electrons and holes in the first and second semiconductor layers, and a fifth semiconductor layer serving as a second barrier layer against either of electrons and holes in the second and third semiconductor layers. The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth semiconductor layers are sequentially stacked in an order of the first, fourth, second, fifth, and third semiconductor layers. The second semiconductor layer sandwiches at least one sixth semiconductor layer serving as a third barrier against either of electrons and holes, thereby dividing the second semiconductor layer into a plurality of semiconductor layer portions.

The present invention relates to a resonant tunneling transistor used in a super high-speed element and a functional element.
A resonant tunneling phenomenon is known as a super high-speed phenomenon of 1 ps or less, and a resonant tunneling diode having an oscillation frequency of more than 600 GHz and using a negative resistance has already been reported. In addition, a resonant tunneling transistor obtained by directly adding the third electrode for controlling the resonance phenomenon to a resonant tunneling barrier structure has also been examined. The present invention relates to the latter resonant tunneling transistor.
FIG. 1 shows a typical arrangement of a conventional resonant tunneling transistor. The resonant tunneling transistor shown in FIG. 1 is arranged as follows. That is, on an n-type GaAs crystal semiconductor substrate 21, a semiconductor layer 22 consisting of n-type GaAs and serving as a collector layer, a semiconductor layer 23 serving as a first barrier layer against either of electrons and holes and consisting of, e.g., AlGaAs, a quantum well layer 24 serving as a base layer and consisting of GaAs doped with a p-type impurity, a semiconductor layer 25 serving as a second barrier layer against either of electrons and holes and consisting of, e.g., AlGaAs, and a semiconductor layer 26 serving as an emitter and consisting of n-type GaAs are sequentially grown by a normal molecular beam epitaxial method (MBE method) so as to form a collector electrode 27 and an emitter electrode 28 respectively connected to the semiconductor substrate 21 and the semiconductor layer 26. In addition, the semiconductor layer 26 is partially removed by etching to form a base electrode 29 connected to the quantum well layer 24.
FIGS. 2 and 3 show band structures corresponding to the stacked structure consisting of the collector layer 22 and the emitter layer 26. A power supply is connected between the collector electrode 27 and the emitter electrode 28 through a load such that the positive terminal of the power supply is connected to the collector electrode, and a bias voltage V.sub.BE is applied across the base electrode 29 and the emitter electrode 28 such that the base electrode is positive. When the bias voltage V.sub.BE is gradually increased, a Fermi level can be changed from the state in FIG. 2 to the state in FIG. 3. In these drawings, reference numeral 31 denotes a conduction band minimum; and 32, a valence band maximum. Reference symbol E.sub.f.sup.E denotes a Fermi level of an emitter layer; and E.sub.f.sup.B, a Fermi level of a base layer. Reference numeral 33 denotes a ground-state energy level of electrons in the quantum well layer 24; 34, a first excited-state level of the electrons in the quantum well layer 24; 35, a ground-state energy level of heavy holes in the quantum well layer 24; 36, an excited-state level of the heavy holes in the quantum well layer 24; 37, an ground-state energy level of light holes in the quantum well layer 24; 38, a first excited-state level of the light holes in the quantum well layer 24; and 39, a depletion layer formed in the emitter layer.
When the voltage V.sub.BE is increased to cause the ground-state energy level 33 to be lower than the Fermi level E.sub.f.sup.E of the emitter layer 26, electrons are injected from the emitter layer 26 into the base layer 24 by resonant tunneling. At this time, since most of the electrons flow into the collector, an amplifying operation similar to a normal bipolar transistor is obtained, thereby flowing a collector current Ic.
When the bias voltage is further increased, the ground-state energy level 33 becomes lower than the conduction band minimum of the emitter layer, thereby suppressing resonant tunneling.
When the bias voltage is further increased, the first excited-state level 34 becomes lower than the Fermi level E.sub.f.sup.E of the emitter layer, and electrons are injected from the emitter layer 26 into the base layer 24 by resonant tunneling. Since most of the electrons flow into the collector layer 22, a collector current is increased again. When the bias voltage is further increased, the first excited-state level 34 becomes lower than the conduction band minimum of the emitter layer 26 to suppress resonant tunneling, thereby decreasing the collector current.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 4, characteristics in which an emitter-collector current I.sub.C is periodically changed, i.e., I.sub.P1, I.sub.V1, I.sub.P2, and I.sub.V2, in accordance with an increase in emitter-base voltage V.sub.BE can be realized. Therefore, the resonant tunneling transistor having the above characteristics is examined to be used as a functional element having the functions of a parity generating circuit, a multi-value logical circuit, a multi-value memory circuit, an A/D converting circuit, and an oscillating element (Literature: F. Cappaso, Ed., "Physics of Quantum Electron Devices", Spring-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1990).
The resonant tunneling transistor with the above arrangement, however, has the following various problems.
In a bias state in which resonant tunneling of electrons occurs, holes, especially light holes, flow from the base layer 24 to the emitter layer 26 through the second barrier layer 25 due to a tunneling phenomenon. This current corresponds to a forward current of a p-n junction, and the current is sharply increased in accordance with an increase in bias voltage. For this reason, an emitter injection efficiency is considerably decreased to disadvantageously decrease an amplification factor. In addition, when the resonant tunneling current of electrons is sharply increased, this current is canceled by the tunneling current of holes. Therefore, the negative transconductance disadvantageously disappears.
FIG. 5 shows the current-voltage characteristics of the emitter and base. In FIG. 5, a characteristic curve a represents a case wherein electrons in the emitter layer 26 are injected in the base layer 24 and holes in the base layer 24 are injected in the emitter layer 26, and a characteristic curve b represents a case wherein only electrons in the emitter layer 26 are injected in the base layer 24.
In order to solve the above problem, Frensley et al. proposed the following (Japanese Patent Application No. 62-111469: U.S. Ser. No. 07/768542, U.S. Ser. No. 07/825720). That is, a semiconductor having the energy gap of the forbidden band larger than that of the base layer 24 is used as an emitter (wide-gap emitter) layer 26' to cause band discontinuity between the emitter layer 26' and the base layer 24. An example of this proposal is shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, reference symbols .DELTA.E.sub.C and .DELTA.E.sub.V denote band discontinuity values of a conduction band and a valence band, respectively. When a bias voltage is applied in an operative state, the band discontinuity value .DELTA.E.sub.V prevents holes located in the base layer 24 from flowing in the emitter region 26'. This method is similar to a known method for increasing an emitter injection efficiency by a hetero-junction bipolar transistor.
In this structure, however, to be described below, since the value .DELTA.E.sub.C necessarily generated with the value .DELTA.E.sub.V limits a level in the quantum well used for resonant tunneling of electrons to an excited-state level, another problem is posed as follows. That is, in resonant tunneling using an excited-state level, compared with resonant tunneling using a ground-state energy level, a ratio of a resonant tunneling current component to a non-resonant tunneling current component, i.e., a so-called peak-to-valley ratio (P/V ratio) is decreased. Although a detailed mechanism of the structure is not yet clarified, many experimental results pointing out this fact have been conventionally reported. Since the negative transconductance of the structure corresponds to the P/V ratio, an essential problem, i.e., a negative transconductance in such a resonant tunneling three-terminal element using an excited-state level, is posed.
The second problem posed when an excited-state level is used is a distortion of an output waveform. When electrons injected in the excited-state level flow into a collector layer, the electrons flow along two paths. The first path is a path in which the electrons are directly tunneled to the collector layer 22, and the second path is a path in which the electrons are once de-excited to a normal state by scattering of electrons in the base layer 24 and then tunneled to the collector layer 22. Tunneling times along the two paths are largely different from each other because the heights of the tunneling barriers of the two paths are different by a difference between the excited-state level and the ground-state energy level. For this reason, after a collector current flows along the first path, a collector current flows along the second path with a time lag. Therefore, the output current waveform is disadvantageously distorted.
Still another problem posed when an AlAs/GaAs hetero-junction is used together with the excited-state level will be described below. Since the effective mass (0.082 m.sub.e or less) of light holes of GaAs is substantially equal to the effective mass (0.067 m.sub.e) of electrons, the energies of the levels 33 and 37 in the quantum well are substantially equal to each other when the energies are measured from the bottom of the well. On the other hand, since it is known that the difference in the energy gap of a forbidden band is distributed to the discontinuity values of a conduction band and a valence band at a ratio of about 60:40, the value .DELTA.E.sub.C which is 1.5 times the value .DELTA.E.sub.V is generated For this reason, when tunneling of holes is prevented by the value .DELTA.E.sub.V, the value .DELTA.E.sub.C larger than the ground state of electrons is necessarily formed. For this reason, in a bias state wherein the ground-state energy level 33 is equal to the conduction band minimum of the emitter layer 26, the thickness of the barrier layer is actually increased due to a depletion layer on the emitter side, and a large resonant tunneling current is not obtained. Therefore, in order to obtain an actual resonant current, a bias voltage required for eliminating the depletion layer on the emitter side must be applied to cause resonance with the excited-state level so as to supply an emitter current.
In the above description, the AlAs/GaAs hetero-junction is used. However, even when a hetero-junction of other Group III-V compound semiconductors is used, the distribution state of band discontinuity and a relationship between electrons and light holes are not largely changed. For this reason, it is very difficult to solve the above problems by changing the materials.
As another method of suppressing holes from flowing into the emitter layer 26, the concentration of light holes in the base layer 24 is decreased. In a quantum well, the level of light holes is higher than that of heavy holes. For this reason, all the holes can serve as heavy holes by decreasing a Fermi level. However, in this method, the hole concentration has an upper limit, and a base resistance is disadvantageously increased. The base resistance is an important factor for defining the high-frequency operation of an element. More specifically, it is apparent from the analogy of a bipolar transistor that a maximum oscillation frequency f.sub.max is considerably decreased.
As another method of rising the ground-state energy level of light holes compared with the Fermi level in the quantum well layer 24, there is a method using a structure in which the width of the quantum layer 24 is decreased. However, in this structure, since a p-type impurity doped in the base layer is necessarily diffused in the emitter layer, an emitter injection efficiency is decreased, and a current gain is decreased. In addition, a negative transconductance disadvantageously decreased or disappears.
As described above, in the conventionally proposed structures, a large negative transconductance and a decrease in distortion of an output waveform cannot be realized without an increase in base resistance.

Resonant tunneling transistor with barrier layers

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


An apparatus for reel replacement in machines for the production of reels of light-weight web material, of a type with a device for winding material onto a tubular core or rod and a device for feeding an unloaded rod (spool) intended to replace the reel. The apparatus has a surface (80) able to delimit, in cooperation with the surface of an unloaded rod (51), a channel (85) to which a jet of air produced by a plurality of nozzles (9) is directed.

Machines for the production of reels of crepe paper, smooth paper and other light-weight web materials such as nonwoven fabrics, are known to comprise a so-called "winder" apparatus, which makes it possible to form reels of materials having a preset diameter and comprising a tubular core, usually named "rod" or "spool" onto which the material is wound upon forming each reel. The winder is essentially made up of a motorized cylinder with horizontal axis. The winding of the material during the formation of the reel is ensured by keeping the latter in contact with the surface of said cylinder: the axis of rotation of the reel, that is, of the respective rod, is parallel to the axis of rotation of the winding cylinder. To allow a continuous contact between the winding cylinder and the reel in the course of formation, that is, the "growing" reel, the rod of the latter is engaged to corresponding supports which are mounted horizontally movable on a support structure facing the material-feeding area. Upon completion of a reel, provision is made for moving it away and replacing it with an unloaded rod that is, with a spool. This is previously driven into rotation about its longitudinal axis, so that the peripheral speed of any surface point thereof is equal to the material-feeding speed. To this end, the unloaded rod is supported by two arms located at the two ends of the winding cylinder and movable from and to the area immediately downstream of the same cylinder. When replacing a reel, the arms move the unloaded rod from a position overhanging the winding cylinder to a position of surface contact with the same cylinder, and the unloaded rod is driven into rotation. When the material begins winding up over the thus positioned rod, the arms move the latter to the position previously taken by the just completed reel which is moved away from its position, and the paper web breaks the moment it begins winding up over the new rod.
Upon the replacement of a reel it is possible that the web fails winding up on the unloaded rod, so that the formation of the reel is to be interrupted to start again the winding operation. This has a consequent loss of production and considerable economic damages; moreover, the replacement operation is largely dependent on the skill of the operator in the charge thereof.

Automatic drive apparatus for reel replacement in machines for the production of reels of paper and the like


Presented herein is a run-level split FIFO. According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is presented a method for inverse quantizing. The method comprising receiving a data word; detecting whether the data word comprises a command or run-level data; storing the command, if the data word comprises a command; and processing the run-level data, if the data word comprises run-level data.

Decoding compressed video data often includes inverse quantizing blocks of data comprising frequency coefficients that correspond to a region of a picture. According to certain standards, such as MPEG-2, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), and VC-9, the quantized frequency coefficients are scanned and coded using run-length codes.
Scanning is a process of placing the frequency coefficients that are most likely to be significant towards the beginning of a data structure and the frequency coefficients that are most likely to be zero toward the end of the data structure. Run length codes further reduce the amount of data required for the data structure.
Decoders often include an inverse quantizer for inverse quantizing the blocks of frequency coefficients. Block headers that are in the stream of data that include the frequency coefficients are usually processed by other portions of the video decoder. Thus, the frequency coefficients may be provided to the inverse quantizer after run-level decode without an indication of the beginning of the blocks.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Run-level and command split FIFO storage approach in inverse quantization


Disclosed in one embodiment is a computer numerically controlled machine having a coolant nozzle that is mounted on a turret of the machine and that is rotatable relative to the turret under the control of a computer control system. The nozzle is fluidically connected to a source of a coolant. The machine includes a computer control system that is operatively coupled to the various components of the machine including the nozzle. In some embodiments, the nozzle may be moved to cause a constant contact angle with respect to one of said tool and said workpiece. In other embodiments, the nozzle may be moved to cause a constant coolant time to interface. Also disclosed are related methods.

Coolant is supplied in computer numerically controlled machines for various purposes. Typically, the coolant, which is an oil, an aqueous emulsion, or other liquid, is introduced under pressure via a nozzle. Grinding operations in general require adequate coolant at the point of contact between workpiece and the grinding wheel. In such operations, coolant typically is directed under pressure at the grinding wheel or workpiece or at the point of contact between the workpiece and wheel. The workpiece may itself be a cutting tool that is reground in the grinding operation or may be a functional part. In other operations, such as milling, coolant likewise may be applied to the workpiece or the tool, or applied at the tool-workpiece interface (point of contact). Also, the cooling fluid may be applied during or after a machine operation as a cleaning spray to wash away swarf.
The prior art has provided machines that include coolant nozzles, which, in many cases, are proximate the chuck of the machine tool. With typical coolant nozzle placement, it can be difficult to control and properly direct the coolant. This can cause difficulties. For instance, in a grinding operation it is typical for the coolant to be applied to the grinding wheel, which spins and which tends to throw off the coolant via centrifugal forces. It is sometimes desirable to maintain a constant time to interface, or time between the initial contact of the coolant with the grinding wheel and the time the coolant on the wheel reaches the interface between the wheel and workpiece. The grinding wheel often erodes during a grinding operation, and the ground dimension of the workpiece can decrease, thus requiring adjustment to the coolant nozzle if a constant time-to-interface is desired. In other circumstances, it may be desirable to maintain a constant contact angle, or rotational angle between the point of contact of the coolant on the workpiece or tool and the point of contact at the workpiece interface. Again, it can be difficult to maintain a constant contact angle, particularly if the size of the tool or of the workpiece changes, or as the position of the workpiece is varied.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,772,042 B1 (assigned to Dimensional Control, Inc.) and 6,666,748 B2 (assigned to Makino Milling Machines Co., Ltd.) purport to provide servo-controlled programmable coolant nozzles that are used to direct coolant to grinding wheel. The heretofore described servo-controlled coolant nozzle and programmable coolant nozzle of the prior art require special machine modifications. Generally, it is desired to provide in some embodiments a coolant nozzle arrangement and in some embodiments a method that differs from the foregoing.

Machine tool with cooling nozzle and method for applying cooling fluid


A transfer tape dispenser includes a case, a supply spool, a return spool, and a substantially rigid applicator tip having an application edge. The applicator tip is disposed in a path of a transfer tape that originates from the supply spool and terminates at the return spool. When pressing the application edge on a surface, an application layer of the transfer tape adheres to the surface. The transfer tape dispenser includes a cushion that cushions the pressing of the application edge on the surface. The transfer tape dispenser further includes a slip clutch mechanism for providing slipping of the supply spool relative to the rotation of the return spool, when necessary, to maintain a desired tension in the correction transfer tape.

Transfer tape dispensers are typically used to apply an application layer of material to a surface from a flexible carrier tape. The dispensers typically include an applicator tip that receives the carrier tape coated on one side with the application layer from a supply spool and apply the application layer to a surface. A return spool then collects the carrier tape.
The application layer can consist of one or more layers of material. What characterizes the application layer is when pressed to a surface by the applicator tip it is released from the carrier tape and transferred to the surface. A correction application layer consists of an opaque layer to obscure a mark and a contact adhesive layer to attach the opaque layer to a surface.
The applicator tip of a typical correction transfer tape dispenser is constructed from a flexible material or shaped to bend when pressed on a surface. Accordingly, the applicator tip can bend to align itself with the surface when being pressed thereon. Furthermore, the flexibility of the applicator tip provides a user with feedback regarding the amount of pressure to place on the applicator tip for application of the correction tape layer to the surface.
Correction transfer tape dispensers that have a highly flexible applicator tip are susceptible to the problem of the applicator tip deforming permanently from repeated use. In contrast, some correction transfer tape dispensers have applicator tips that do not deform sufficiently when pressed on a surface. This may result in the correction tape layer not properly adhering to the surface, or the user not being able to determine adequate pressure to apply to the surface.

Tape dispenser with a cushioned applicator tip


Communication of digital information between digital systems (2, 3) comprising clock generators (8, 9) is effected via storage in memory locations a1 to a8 and b1 to b8 of a cyclic buffer 4, in which, in succession, the information is written and read on a time base determined by the various clock generators (8, 9). Pointers stored in pointers (12, 13) determine the memory locations to be read out or written. If the pointers have become equal as a result of phase deviations of the clock generators (8, 9), this is detected by an address distance monitoring means (14) and made unequal and set to a maximum difference value relative to each other. The difference value amounts to half the number of memory locations n in a row of the buffer 4. For full duplex transmission the buffer 4 preferably comprises a double row of memory locations a1-an and b1-bn respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a buffer for temporary storage of digital information in memory locations having n cyclically successive addresses, which information is transmitted between two digital systems coupled to each other through the buffer, which systems each comprise a clock generator. addressing units are associated to each of the systems. The addressing units each comprise an address counter and are used for addressing while the information is being written in the memory locations of the buffer according to a first time base determined by the clock generator of one system. The addressing units are also for addressing while the information is being read out according to a second time base determined by the clock generator of the other system. The second time base substantially corresponds to the first time base.
The invention further relates to a data communication system comprising two or more digital systems which exchange information through a buffer connected to the systems.
2. Related Art
Such a buffer is known from French Patent Application FR 2 583 238 and is used, for example, in digital telephone exchanges or for communication between digital systems, such as microprocessors, modems etc.
The disadvantage of prior-art buffer is that the transmission efficiency expressed in terms of amounts of effectively transmitted information is too low when the buffer is used in a communication system.


A pressure relief valving system for a rail car cushion device including several preload valves mounted in the cylinder wall of the cushion device each having both spring biasing and hydraulic biasing applied to retain a valve piston against a seat until a preload pressure is reached, and each preload valve capable of transitioning from a closed mode to an open mode at a preset preload pressure.

Non-linear hydraulic shock absorbers are used in railroad cars to minimize damage from bumping and collisions and the units are referred to as cushion devices. During a 14 mile per hour collision between rolling stock weighing 220,000 pounds shock forces transferred to cushion devices can result in a rise in hydraulic fluid pressure to a peak of more than 1,200,000 pounds per square inch (psi) within just a few seconds. The very high peak pressures, combined with a wide range of operational shock absorbing create special engineering challenges. While it is necessary to rapidly release hydraulic fluid pressures in a cushion unit during high speed collisions to prevent an explosive failure, at lower speeds pressures build more slowly and if they are released too rapidly the railcar or its cargo can be damaged.
Typically rail car cushion devices mounted in rail cars (e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,700), are filled with hydraulic fluid. The cushion units are designed to absorb a constant force by using a piston to force hydraulic fluid through apertures spaced along the side walls of a central cylinder and into an annular space surrounding the circumference of the cylinder, i.e., between the casing and the cylinder. As the piston traverses the cylinder it progressively closes the apertures leaving fewer and fewer open. By varying the spacing along the cylinder wall an attempt has been made to create a relatively constant resistive force throughout the piston stroke. In railroad operation, forces applied to railcars during collisions are not necessarily linear or constant with respect to time. The piston is commonly returned to its original position by a spring or by charging the hydraulic fluid in the cushion device with nitrogen gas to a pressure of about 600 to 800 pounds psi. Typical cushion devices in the art suffer from the disadvantage that rapid shock force loading, even at a low total force, can result in damage to a railcar and cargo if hydraulic fluid escapes too rapidly through the apertures in the sidewalls of the cushion device cylinder.
Rail car collisions commonly occur at a variety of different speeds and involving different loads that can be more than 220-350 thousand pounds. Common rail car gas charged cushion devices are fabricated with either a 10-inch or 8-inch cylinder and piston, and with a 10-inch stroke. (An 8-inch diameter 15-inch stroke unit is currently under consideration for approval by the American Association of Railroads.) The two common 8- and 10-inch diameter units must currently accommodate all the different types of shock absorbing requirements encountered in normal railroad operations. Theoretically, pressure in a hydraulic cushion device is related to at least the area of the piston; the working area of the cushion device; the volume of fluid in the cylinder; the pressure of gas in the cylinder; the temperature of the fluid (e.g., heat generated from rapid fluid movement); the frictional forces in the device; the hydraulic fluid viscosity and the change in viscosity with temperature; the collision rate (i.e., velocity/time); the rail car mass; and, the variation in collision applied force(s) with time (i.e., a multi-equation, multivariate analysis). The analysis is further complicated, because in common cushion devices, as a shock absorbing piston traverses a cylinder it pushes hydraulic fluid through apertures and progressively closes the apertures that are available for release of pressure. Thus, while certain "educated" guesses have been made as to the number, position and size of apertures in hydraulic cylinder devices, usage has shown deficiencies resulting in both cargo damage, metal fatigue, and failure of cushion devices.
The inventor has disclosed test devices for railcar cushion devices, and parameters determining hydraulic damping coefficients in railcar cushion devices in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,700 (incorporated herein by reference).
Service life of cushion units is varied, depending upon type of use, number of high impact collisions and the like. Moving parts are subject to wear, (e.g. seals), while the casing and metal parts are subject to corrosion and metal fatigue. Generally cushion units give several years of service before failing. Conventional cushion units are, unfortunately, a compromise that may absorb shock forces well at some collision velocities and within certain load limits, but may commonly fail at other velocities or loads. If satisfactory for higher speed higher mass collisions the units may be too "stiff" for lower speed or lower load collisions; and if satisfactory for lower speed lower load collisions too "relaxed" for higher speed/load collisions. Limitations in cushion devices restrict the types of railroad operations that may be conducted with railcars containing e.g., fragile cargo.
It is an object of the invention to provide cushion unit that are less of a compromise, and are capable of absorbing shock more uniformly over a wider range of operating conditions, loads and collision velocities.

Railcar cushion device preload valving systems


A pressure sensor includes a structure that deforms in response to an applied pressure. A light source is directed at the structure. This provides a reflection from the structure. A sensor is arranged to sense the reflection and provide an output related to the applied pressure.

The present invention relates to the process control industry. In particular, the invention relates to a pressure sensor in a pressure transmitter.
Pressure transmitters in process applications measure pressure of a process and responsively communicate the information over a two-wire process application loop, for example a 4-20 mA current loop. Pressure sensors in transmitters typically comprise some type of a pressure responsive structure which has a deflectable diaphragm that moves in response to applied pressure. These structures can be used to measure both absolute and differential pressure. As used herein, a differential pressure sensor is a sensor which measures a relatively small pressure differential (such as that generated across an orifice in a flow tube or between two different heights in a fluid filled container) over a relatively wide absolute pressure range. In a typical prior art transmitter, to measure differential pressure, two different pressures are applied to opposing sides of the structure causing a relative deformation in the structure which is measured. Measurement of the deformation, for example, can be achieved by measuring a change in electrical capacitance due to movement of capacitor plates carried on the structure, by change in resistance of a resistive strain gauge, etc.
Highly accurate absolute pressure sensors have been desired. It also may be preferable desirable to measure differential pressure with two separate absolute pressure sensors, employing two separate absolute pressure sensors is mechanically much simpler than mechanically coupling two pressures to a differential pressure sensor. Additionally, an over-pressure condition in such a differential pressure sensor can damage the differential pressure sensor. However, it has been difficult to obtain absolute pressure sensors with sufficient accuracy to allow differential pressures in the 0.4 psi to 40 psi range to be measured in a device which must withstand static or line pressure extremes of as much as 4000 psia. For example, 0.01% of 4 psid requires 0.00001% of 4000 psia (10−7 or 0.1 ppm).
Typical known pressure sensors used in process applications have unit-to-unit variations in sensitivity to sensed pressure as well as unit-to-unit variations in undesired responses to extraneous parameters such as temperature. This can be a particular problem when the outputs of two absolute or gauge pressure sensors are combined to provide an output representing differential pressure or when the sensor is used over a large pressure range. Additionally, mechanical stress associated with mounting the sensor to the pressure transmitter may result in relatively large errors in pressure measurement.
Another type of pressure sensor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,585 entitled PRESSURE SENSOR FOR A PRESSURE TRANSMITTER assigned to Rosemount Inc. by Sittler et al. which issued Nov. 26, 2002. The Sittler et al. patent describes a different type of pressure sensor which is made of a brittle material. Capacitive plates are carried in the material and spacing between the capacitive plates changes in response to an applied pressure. This causes the electrical capacitance between the plates to change which can be measured and correlated to the applied pressure.


The present invention concerns a circuit and method for improving the data access times across boundary reads between cascaded buffers, such as FIFOs, that are connected to a common data output bus. The circuit allows read accesses within a cascaded buffer system to have similar access speeds, i.e., a boundary read is not noticeably slower or faster than any other non-boundary read access from an individual buffer in the system. The circuit may not adversely affect the data sheet or operating system parameters, and imposes minimal chip real estate constraints.

Access times are important in memory devices, such as first-in first-out (FIFO) buffers, where one device discontinues the driving of a common data output bus as a second device begins the driving of the common data output bus. FIG. 1 illustrates a circuit 10 implementing such a configuration. The circuit 10 generally comprises a first FIFO 12 and a second FIFO 14. The first FIFO 12 has an input 16 that receives an output enable signal OEB and an input 18 that receives a read clock signal RCLK. The second FIFO 14 has an input 20 that receives the output enable signal OEB and an input 22 that receives the read clock signal RCLK. Both the first FIFO 12 and the second FIFO 14 present data to the common data output bus 24. With a standard read data access, the common data output bus 24 quickly responds to either the first FIFO 12 or the second FIFO 14. When two successive read data accesses cross the boundary between the first FIFO 12 and the second FIFO 14, an internal read clock signal and an internal output enable signal generally make a transition between the first FIFO 12 and the second FIFO 14. The output enable signal OEB is active throughout the transition. As a result, there is a longer path from the read clock signal RCLK to the common data output bus 24 during a read data access that crosses the boundary as compared to a normal read data access that does not cross the boundary. As the speed of the FIFOs increases (e.g., in excess of 100 MHz with 8 ns data access times) the problem associated with reads that cross physical device boundaries increases.
FIG. 2 shows the output circuitry 26 contained in each of the first FIFO 12 and the second FIFO 14 shown in FIG. 1. The output circuitry 26 generally comprises an output enable block 28, a read clock block 30, an expansion detection block 32, an output buffer 34, an output driver 36, an output register 37 and an output 38. The output enable block 28 receives the output enable signal OEB at an input 40 and receives a signal from the expansion detection block 32 at an input 42. The output enable block 28 presents a signal to an input 44 of the output buffer 34. The read clock block 30 receives the read clock signal RCLK at an input 46 and presents an output to both an input 47 and an input 49 of output register 37 as well as to an input 48 of the expansion detection block 32. The output buffer 34 presents a signal PU and a signal PD to the output driver 36. The output driver 36 presents an output signal Q at the output 38 that is presented to the common data output bus 24 in FIG. 1.

Output buffer circuit and method having improved access


A naming system for resolution of hierarchically named computer accessible objects to respective object identifiers. The naming system includes a global namer module which is instantiated on multiple systems. Resolution of a hierarchical name begins at a first instance of the global namer module. The first instance resolves one or more successive portions of the hierarchical name to a respective object identifier(s). If the hierarchical name cannot be completely resolved at the first instance, the hierarhcial name is forwarded to a second instance which is referenced by an object identifier identified by the first instance. Resolution then continues at the second instance, and possibly at additional instances of the global namer module, until the last portion of the hierarchical name is resolved to an object identifier. The object identifier is then returned as that of the entire hierarchical name.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to client-server type data processing systems, and more particularly to a system for naming objects which are made accessible via server systems.
2. Description of Background Art
Usage of client-server type data processing systems continues to increase. Client-server systems offer flexibility in the distribution of processing tasks between various systems on a network.
Server systems host server programs that provide services to client programs. Oftentimes, the term object is used to refer to services and/or data referenced by a client program. For a client program to gain access to an object, it must know the identity of the server system hosting the server program which provides access to the object, as well as the identifier of the object.
The client program may be programmed to directly reference the object (via the server system identifier and object identifier). However, this means that if the referenced object is moved and thereby hosted by a different server system, the client program must be modified to reference the different server system. If there are many client programs which reference the object, each of the programs would have to be modified. Thus, the seemingly simple act of moving an object to a different server system could actually result in a major effort to update the client programs.
In response to such a problem, the Domain Name Service (DNS) was created. The DNS introduces a level of indirection into the addressing of an object. The service maps a logical name of a service to an Internet Protocol (IP) address, thereby eliminating the requirement for a client program to remember the address. Note that the logical name of a service oftentimes refers to the logical nature of the service or data. Thus, it is desirable for the name to remain relatively static. With DNS, the client program need only remember the logical service name. Thus, the service can be moved to a machine having a different IP address without requiring notification to the clients. Only the DNS needs to be notified of the change.
With the growth of the Internet, distributed naming services have become popular. Systems adhering to distributed naming protocols, e.g., Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), offer replication of naming services, thereby distributing the naming services at multiple sites on the Internet. The availability of the naming services at multiple sites offers protection against disaster in addition to relieving processing bottlenecks.
Present naming services are typically implemented under either a multiple-master naming service architecture or a single-master naming service architecture. In both types of architectures a master naming service system is the only system that can effect a change. Both types of architectures can have multiple slave systems, and the slave systems duplicate the changes forwarded from the master systems. In the multiple-master naming service architecture, there are multiple master naming service systems, and a name and address may be added at any one of the master naming service systems. The master system at which a name is added propagates the addition to each of the other master naming service systems and to the slave systems.
In contrast, the single-master naming service architecture has multiple slave naming service systems and a single master naming service system. A name may be added only at the master system, which then propagates the addition to each of the slave naming service systems.
Both the multiple-master naming service architecture and the single-master naming service architecture require a protocol for maintaining consistency. That is, each of the naming service systems must have identical mappings. When a mapping is added to a master naming service system, the mapping must be added to either the other master naming service systems or the slave naming service systems, depending upon the architecture type. With respect to the multiple-master naming service architecture, each of the master naming service systems must be consistent with the others; and in the single-master naming service architecture, the master naming service system must make consistent each of the slave naming service systems. Maintaining consistency between the naming service systems involves extra complexity in implementation and additional overhead processing when names are added and close connections between the master systems and slave systems.
Both the multiple-master naming service architecture and the single-master naming service architecture have multiple replicated databases of the mappings. Thus, the architectures may be viewed as having multiple centralized databases. A drawback to a centralized database is that a bottleneck may develop at the system hosting the database. Thus, even though the replicated databases are distributed throughout a network, the number of client systems assigned to each of the naming service systems must be monitored to provide adequate response time.
Thus it would be desirable to have a naming service which is not a subject to the limitations of multiple-master or single-master type naming service architectures.

Naming system for hierarchically named computer accessible objects


Method and apparatus for encoding/decoding audio data with scalability are provided. The method includes slicing audio data so that sliced audio data corresponds to a plurality of layers, obtaining scale band information and coding band information corresponding to each of the plurality of layers, coding additional information containing scale factor information and coding model information based on scale band information and coding band information corresponding to a first layer, obtaining quantized samples by quantizing audio data corresponding to the first layer with reference to the scale factor information, coding the obtained plurality of quantized samples in units of symbols in order from a symbol formed with most significant bits (MSB) down to a symbol formed with least significant bits (LSB) by referring to the coding model information, and repeatedly performing the steps with increasing the ordinal number of the layer one by one every time, until coding for the plurality of layers is finished. According to the method, fine grain scalability (FGS) can be provided with a lower complexity and a better audio quality can be provided even in a lower layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to coding and decoding audio data, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for coding audio data so that a coded audio bitstream has a scalable bitrate, and a method and apparatus for decoding the audio data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to recent developments in digital signal processing technology, audio signals are generally stored in most cases as digital data and reproduced. Digital audio storage/restoration apparatuses transform audio signals into pulse code modulation (PCM) audio data, i.e., digital signals, through sampling and quantization. By doing so, the digital audio storage/reproducing apparatus stores the PCM audio data in an information storage medium such as a compact disc (CD) and a digital versatile disc (DVD), and reproduces the stored signal in response to a user's command such that the user can listen to the audio data. The digital storage/restoration method greatly improves audio quality compared to analog methods using a long-playing (LP) record or magnetic tape, and dramatically reduces deterioration caused by a long storage period. However, the digital method has a problem in storage and transmission due to the large amount of digital data.
To solve this problem, a variety of compression methods are used to compress digital audio signals.
In Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG)/audio standardized by International Standard Organization (ISO), or AC-2/AC-3 developed by Dolby, the amount of data is reduced using psychoacoustic models. As a result, the amount of data can be efficiently reduced regardless of the characteristics of a signal. That is, the MPEG/audio standard or AC-2/AC-3 method can provide almost the same audio quality as that of a CD with a bitrate of only 64˜384 Kbps, which is ⅙ to ⅛ of that of the previous digital encoding method.
In these methods, however, an optimal state suitable for a fixed bitrate is searched for and then quantization and encoding are performed. Accordingly, if the transmission bandwidth is lowered due to poor network conditions in transmitting bitstreams through the network, cut-offs may occur and appropriate services cannot be rendered to a user any more. In addition, when the bitstream is desired to be transformed into bitstreams of a smaller size more suitable for a mobile apparatus having a limited storage capacity, a re-encoding process should be performed in order to reduce the size of a bitstream, and the amount of computation required increases.
To solve this problem, the applicant of the present invention filed Korea Patent Application No. 97-61298 on Nov. 19, 1997 entitled "Bitrate Scalable Audio Encoding/Decoding Method and Apparatus Using Bit-Sliced Arithmetic Coding (BSAC)", for which a patent was granted on Apr. 17, 2000 with Korea Patent No. 261253. According to the BSAC technique, a bitstream coded with a high bitrate can be made into a bitstream with a low bitrate, and restoration is possible with only part of the bitstream. Accordingly, when the network is overloaded, or the performance of a decoder is poor, or a user requests a low bitrate, services with some degree of audio quality can be provided to the user by using only part of the bitstream, though the quality will inevitably decrease in proportion to the decrease in the bitrate.
However, since the BSAC technique adopts arithmetic coding, complexity is high, and when the BSAC technique is implemented in an actual apparatus, the cost increases. In addition, since the BSAC technique uses a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) for transformation of an audio signal, audio quality in a lower layer may severely deteriorate.


An orthopedic toilet seat includes a frame supporting a seat. The frame is moveable over an existing toilet so that the seat is positioned to allow a person to use the toilet when sitting on the seat. The toilet seat may be configured so that the femur to spine, and femur to shin, joint angles are between 90° and 140°. Also, the seat is configured to be disposed at an angle between 5° and 65° above horizontal.

An aging population has increased the number of knee and hip surgeries. Other medical advances have resulted in increased life spans, including post knee and hip replacement life spans. Despite many of the medical advances, patient mobility is significantly reduced after undergoing a hip or knee surgery. There are also precautions that need to be followed, status post hip replacement surgery, to insure that the new joint (hip implant) remains intact. The decrease in mobility includes reduced mobility while sitting. The reduction in mobility not only affects patients immediately following surgery, but may continue for substantial periods of time. The reduction in sitting mobility makes it difficult for patients to use every day toilets.
Custom-made toilets and toilet adaptive items are impractical and expensive. Simple booster seats make toilets easier to use as they effectively raise the level of the toilet seat, but are insufficient as knees and hips can still flex to an undesired degree. They are also very uncomfortable after surgery due to the expected swelling and pressure they place on their sides. More complex mechanical lifting devices have also been created, but can be expensive, difficult to install, and may still cause knees and hips to flex more than the desired amount. Both simple booster seats and complex mechanical lifting devices are not completely safe, as patients may slip off of them.


A semiconductor device according to an embodiment, includes a first dielectric film arranged above a gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor film arranged above the first dielectric film, a second dielectric film arranged above the oxide semiconductor film, a drain electrode having a drain contact portion that is arranged in the second dielectric film and connects one end side of the oxide semiconductor film to a wire of an upper layer, and a source electrode having a source contact portion that is arranged in the second dielectric film and connects another end side of the oxide semiconductor film to a wire of an upper layer. A wiring portion arranged above the second dielectric film and forming the wire of the upper layer is formed to overhang toward a center direction of the oxide semiconductor film on a source electrode side more than on a drain electrode side.

In recent years, thin-film transistors (TFT) using an oxide semiconductor film of InGaZnO as an oxide of indium (In), gallium (Ga), and zinc (Zn) or the like have been developed. The InGaZnO thin-film transistor can be fabricated easily even at low temperature and the mobility thereof is known to be high at 10 cm2/Vs or more. Thus, the realization of BEOL (back end of line) transistors embedded in multilayer interconnection is expected. In addition, the application thereof to the next-generation liquid crystal panels is expected.
In contrast to silicon (Si)-MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) and Si-TFT, InGaZnO-TFT is known to have a channel region as an accumulation layer, instead of an inversion layer. If the channel length becomes shorter with increasingly finer patterns, a current path is formed not only in the channel region near an interface on a gate dielectric film side of an InGaZnO film, but also near the interface with a dielectric film on a rear surface side of the InGaZnO film away from the gate dielectric film, posing a problem that a rear surface current flows. Such a problem is caused particularly when the InGaZnO-TFT is operated near a threshold voltage where the gate electric field is small. It is difficult to control a current flowing on the rear surface of the InGaZnO film by the gate electrode. As a result, problems such as degradation of sub-threshold swing S (Sfactor), an increase of off current, and degradation of 1/f noise characteristics are caused.


An auxiliary device is constituted by a U-bolt-shaped, pincer-like implement which, during the fabrication of semiconductor devices with a mesa structure from a starting substrate forming a wafer, serves to transfer the outline geometry of the individual semiconductor devices from one side of the wafer to the back of the wafer. The implement has at least one tracer at the end of one of its arms for engaging a sawed groove and for guiding the implement along the sawed groove on one side of the wafer. At the end of the other arm, a marking device with at least one marking stylus is provided whereby the course of the at least one sawed grooved can be transferred from the front side of the wafer to the back, and scribed there in the form of auxiliary lines.

Individual semiconductor devices with mesa structures are typically fabricated from a starting substrate by doping the front and back sides of the substrate with impurities of opposite conductivity types using diffusion techniques and subsequently, providing each of the diffusion layers with a respective metal layer. In the prior art, such processing steps are followed by the application of a photoresist layer to each of the metal layers and the formation of an etch mask from the photoresist layers on each side of the substrate using photolithography. This is accomplished by employing a dual exposure system to expose the front and back sides of the wafer to develop the photoresist layers. After developing and patterning the photoresist layers, the exposed regions of the metal layers on both sides of the substrate are etched. Next, silicon etching is performed on both sides of the substrate to simultaneously form a mesa structure and uncover the pn junction. Finally, the photoresist layers on each side of the substrate is removed and the chips are separated.
The photolithographic process requires considerable expenditure for clean rooms, for chemicals, and particularly for the specific, costly dual exposure system. The removal of the photoresist layers causes waste-disposal and cost problems. The photoresist on the metallic contact areas can cause organic residual material to be present on the metal layers and also in the metal pores, so that during attachment of the chips by soldering, problems may arise due to poor solderability.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a process and an auxiliary device for fabricating individual semiconductor devices having a mesa structure, the process being substantially simpler and, in particular, permitting a considerable reduction of the hitherto required expenditure, this also applying to the auxiliary device.

Process and auxiliary device for fabricating semiconductor devices


Techniques for electronic messaging synchronized to media presentation are provided. The techniques include a method for displaying text in connection with an audiovisual production, a method for displaying text in connection with playback of an audiovisual production, a method for synchronizing viewer-inputted messages with playback of an audiovisual production, and others. For example, a method for displaying a message in connection with an audiovisual production includes receiving a signal from a viewer interface to define the message, displaying the defined message adjacent to a first display of the audiovisual production, and displaying the defined message in a second display adjacent to the audiovisual production. In addition, the present invention provides a system for displaying messages in connection with playback of prerecorded media to produce an audiovisual production and a computer-readable medium with instructions for displaying messages in connection with an audiovisual production.

This invention relates in general to playback of an audiovisual production and more specifically to playback of an audiovisual production from a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) while allowing the creation and display of synchronized text messages.
Playback of audiovisual productions using DVDs and DVD players is growing in popularity. Audiovisual productions include music videos, concerts, movies, games, public or private events and other similar types of recorded performances. As used herein, audiovisual productions also generally encompass audio productions, visual productions or other media presentations recorded on a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) or other such storage medium or transmitted over satellite or cable systems. Audiovisual productions can be viewed from computer systems, consumer digital devices, and other displays, systems or platforms. Consumer digital devices include video Compact Disk (CD) players or DVD players. Other platforms, such as MPEG players, allow storage or streaming of audiovisual productions over digital networks or the Internet. Unfortunately, playing or viewing previously recorded audiovisual productions are relatively static and do not change. Accordingly, there is diminished motivation for the viewer to return to the production over time. What is needed is a method to enhance the viewing experience and to provide the viewer greater insight into the production each time the production is viewed.
Exchanging text messaging over a digital network is also gaining popularity. Various communication techniques for text messages have been developed. For example, messaging systems based on "bulletin boards" usually provide a common set of functionality to enable open discussions that are available to all viewers in an organized and efficient manner. The organization and efficiency in communication are accomplished with the use of "threads," which are essentially subject hierarchies. Under each subject hierarchy, an initial message on any topic starts a "thread," and all messages in response to this initial message are organized with this "thread." All messages within the same thread are usually organized on a viewer interface with indentations, where the initial message of the thread appears in the leftmost position, and replies to this message are indented. Such indentations provide an easy-to-scan hierarchy of content. Further, text messaging systems based on "bulletin boards" may provide multiple levels of threading whereby responses to an initial message can initiate new, "deeper" threads of their own, thus creating a nested table of replies that can be at once freeform and highly organized.
However, what is needed is a method for viewers of audiovisual productions to discuss the production with other viewers in a manner that encourages communication and that enhances the exchange of opinions and information. Accordingly, there is a great need for coupling features of message threads with the viewing of previously recorded audiovisual productions. However, because many comments are scene specific, the threads need to be linked to specific frames or groups of frames of the audiovisual production. Further, what is needed is a messaging system that provides communications of messages over digital networks that are linked to the performance of an audiovisual production to improve a viewer's enjoyment and inform the viewer upon playback of an audiovisual production.

Electronic messaging synchronized to media presentation


A method of forming contact holes. A substrate on which a plurality of gate structures is formed is provided, wherein the gate structure comprises a gate, a gate capping layer, and a gate spacer. An insulating layer is formed on the gate structures and fills between the gate structures. The insulating layer is etched using the gate capping layers, the gate spacers, and the substrate as stop layers to form first contact holes between the gate structures to expose the substrate and the gate spacers and form second contact holes overlying each gate structure to expose the gate capping layers. A protective spacer is formed over each sidewall of the first contact holes and the second contact holes. The gate capping layer under each gate contact hole is etched using the protective spacer as a stop layer to expose the gate. The protective spacers are removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method for forming contact holes, and more particularly, to a method for forming contact holes for a memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor device geometries continue to decrease in size to provide more devices per fabricated wafer and faster devices, misalignment between each patterned layer is a serious obstacle. Therefore, many self-aligned processes have been developed in order to prevent misalignment and decrease the interval between devices, thereby increasing the device density.
FIGS. 1a to 1d are cross-sections showing a conventional method of forming contact holes for a memory device. First, in FIG. 1a, a silicon substrate 100 is provided. The substrate 100 may contain any semiconductor device, such as MOS transistors and capacitors, used in the memory devices. Here, in order to simplify the diagram, only a flat substrate is depicted. Moreover, the substrate 100 has a memory array region 10 and a peripheral circuit region 20.
Next, a plurality of gate structures 109 is formed overlying the memory array region 10 and the peripheral circuit region 20, wherein the gate structure 109 comprises a gate dielectric layer (not shown), a gate 104, a gate capping layer 106, and a gate spacer 108. The gate dielectric layer may be a silicon oxide layer formed by thermal oxidation. The gate 104 may comprise polysilicon. The gate capping layer 106 and the gate spacer 108 may comprise silicon nitride.
Thereafter, an insulating layer 110, such as a borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) layer, is formed on the gate structures 109 and fills the gaps therebetween to serve as an interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer. Next, a photoresist layer 114 is coated on the insulating layer 110 and lithography is performed to form openings 117, 119, and 121 therein to expose the insulating layer 110.
Next, in FIG. 1b, the insulating layer 110 under the openings 117, 119, and 121 is etched using the photoresist layer 114 as an etch mask and using the gate capping layers 106, the gate spacers 108, and the substrate 100 as stop layers to simultaneously form bit line contact holes (CB) 123 on the memory array region 10 to expose the substrate 100 and the gate spacers 108 and form substrate contact holes (CS) 127 and gate contact holes (CG) 125 on the peripheral circuit region 20 to expose the substrate 100 and the gate capping layers 106, respectively.
Next, in FIG. 1c, after the photoresist layer 114 is removed, a photoresist layer 128 is coated on the insulating layer 110 and fills the bit line contact holes 123, the substrate contact holes 127, and the gate contact holes 125. Next, lithography is performed to remove the photoresist layer 128 in the gate contact holes 125.
Finally, in FIG. 1d, the gate capping layers 106 under the gate contact holes 125 are etched using the remaining photoresist later 128 as an etch mask to expose the gate 104, thereby completing the fabrication of the gate contact holes 125. Thereafter, the remaining photoresist layer 128 is removed.
However, in this method, in order to prevent damaging the gate capping layer 106 and the gate spacer 108 under the bit line contact hole 123 during etching the gate capping layer 106 under the gate contact hole 125, an additional masking layer 128 must be formed by lithography. As a result, the fabrication of contact holes is complicated, increasing fabricating cost. Moreover, misalignment may occur easily when the additional masking layer is formed, reducing device yield.