The sense circuit recognizes the virgin or programmed status of cells in storage devices (e.g. non-volatile memories of the type with unbalanced loads), and includes a sense amplifier (SA) having a first input (Y) connected to a number of selectable virgin reference cells (T.sub.vr1, T.sub.vr2) and a second input (X) connected to a number of selectable matrix cells (T.sub.vm, T.sub.pm). According to the invention, the current path of a compensatory programmed cell (NP) is connected between a reference voltage and the first input (Y) of the sense amplifier (SA), with the gate of the compensatory programmed cell being connected to a voltage source (Vs) which selects the compensatory programmed cell at least while the sense amplifier reads a selected matrix cell.

In circuits made with CMOS technology, where programmable components are used to make non-volatile memories (e.g., ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, FLASH), it is necessary to provide a reference system which is able to distinguish between programmed elements (which are turned off) and non-programmed, or virgin, elements (which are turned on). The differentiation can be achieved by comparing the current I.sub.vr in a virgin reference cell with the current in the matrix element or cell which it is desired to read. The latter current will ideally be zero for a programmed cell (I.sub.pm), and non-zero for a virgin cell (I.sub.vm). In order to have a balanced comparison wherein the discrimination value lies at the middle between I.sub.vm, and I.sub.pm, it is known to shift the threshold by using differently sized loads for the matrix cell and the reference cell. This is known as reading with "unbalanced loads".
However, as will become more evident from the following, disclosure, for extreme values of parameters, such as various tolerances in the manufacturing process or of the supply voltage (particularly for an unusually high supply voltage), the current I.sub.pm in the programmed cell may depart from zero to such an extent that the comparison fails, and a programmed cell will be misread as virgin, or vice versa. This situation effectively limits the maximum range of acceptable supply voltages, or, from another point of view, compels the manufacturer to discard devices which would otherwise be satisfactory, because they fail at high supply voltages.

Compensated sense circuit for storage devices


A flexible head probe and modular head probe system that includes an optical functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system and integrated position sensor. The head probe and modular head probe system determines physiological data based upon the optical information gathered by the fNIRS system and gathers motion and position data from the position sensor. The physiological data and motion and position data are combined to permit topographical and tomographic analyses of a user's brain tissue.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive technique that utilizes non-ionizing near-infrared (NIR) light to determine the physiological data of a user's head and brain. FNIRS is known as a safe, non-invasive, information-rich, and potentially low-cost neuroimaging method, measuring hemodynamic changes of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) due to brain activities. Although fNIRS has seen an increase in use, bulky fiber-based connections, cart-sized optical instruments for high-density probes, and lengthy positioning and setup time of prior art devices remain major obstacles for translating fNIRS measurements outside of research environments. In addition, tomography-based fNIRS image reconstructions are known to provide more accurate quantification and localization of brain activations but require accurate measurements of 3-D source/detector positions. In prior art methods, this has been achieved using either a co-registered structural MRI scan—which is often not accessible in many studies—or a separate 3D position tracking system such as a Polhemus scanner. Such external 3D tracking systems can be expensive, require extra training and maintenance as well as additional registration steps. A more portable fNIRS system design is crucial to advance fNIRS outside of laboratory settings.
Several key challenges remain such as a lack of non-invasive continuous monitoring, limited spatiotemporal resolution in in-vivo imaging of human brain dynamics, and required immobility during acquisition. Specifically, a need exists for a fNIRS head-probe design, featuring 1) an integrated position sensor network that automatically obtains 3D position and motion data to enable tomographic fNIRS reconstructions and high image accuracy, 2) ultra-compact lightweight flexible-circuit based head probe modules that can be easily integrated with head wear, 3) interconnecting multiple flexible head probe modules capable of covering a range of brain regions, including full-head probe system, and 4) high reconfigurability.

Optically monitoring brain activities using 3D-aware head-probe


Systems, methods, and computer media for resizing icons displayed in a user interface are provided. Icons in a display can be resized by a user interacting with the icon itself. A user interaction with an icon can cause an icon resizing mode to be entered. Additional user interaction with the icon can then cause the icon to be resized. The display in which an icon is located can be rearranged as a result of the icon being resized.

As computing systems have evolved, the use of icons has become increasingly popular. Icons are widely used in traditional computing environments such as laptop and desktop computers as shortcuts to applications, files, menus, etc. Due to display space constraints, icons have become even more popular in mobile devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, and other handheld devices. Conventional user interfaces, especially in mobile devices, typically limit icons to a single, pre-determined size. Some display user interfaces provide two icon sizes, but either the icon size is fixed for each particular resource or the user is required to interact with a variety of menus or buttons to change between the two sizes. This "one-size-fits-all" approach can be especially frustrating to users of mobile devices attempting to efficiently manage information and computing resources in a limited display space.


Glass sheets are heated to their heat softening temperature and transferred to a shaping station having an upper vacuum mold with a downwardly facing shaping surface corresponding to the desired shape of the glass sheet. The glass sheet is lifted into engagement with the shaping surface and held thereagainst by vacuum. The mold and the glass sheet are then moved to a transfer station and the vacuum is released to deposit the shaped glass sheet onto a contoured conveying surface which generally conforms to the shaped glass sheet. The glass sheet is deposited onto the contoured conveying surface as it is moving from the shaping station to the transfer station to impart movement in the glass sheet along the contoured conveying surface and minimize marring of the glass sheet as it contacts the contoured conveying surface.

This invention relates to bending heat softenable sheets of material and, in particular, to bending glass sheets using a combination of shaped conveyor rolls, a lifting mold and a vacuum mold.
Shaped and tempered glass sheets are widely used as side windows or rear windows in vehicles such as automobiles or the like. To be suitable for such applications, flat glass sheets must be shaped to precisely defined curvatures dictated by the shape and outline of the frames defining the window openings into which the glass side or rear windows are installed. It is also important that the side or rear windows meet stringent optical requirements and that the windows be free of optical defects and reflective distortion that would tend to interfere with the clear viewing therethrough in their viewing area.
During fabrication, glass sheets intended for use as shaped windows in vehicles are subjected to thermal treatment to temper the glass for strengthening the same and increase the resistance of the shaped window to damage resulting from impact. In addition to increasing the resistance of the glass sheet to breakage, tempering also causes the glass sheet to fracture into relatively small, smooth surfaced fragments that are less injurious than the relative large, jagged fragments that result from the breakage of untempered glass.
The commercial production of shaped glass sheets for such purposes commonly includes heating flat sheets to the softening point of the glass, shaping the heated glass to a desired curvature and cooling the bent sheets in a controlled manner to a temperature below the annealing range of the glass. During such processing, a glass sheet is generally conveyed along a substantially horizontal path through a tunnel-type furnace, heated to its heat softening temperature and transferred into a shaping station adjacent the furnace, where the glass sheet is shaped. After shaping, the glass sheet is transferred to a cooling station where it is controllably cooled. The heat softened glass sheet may be shaped, for example by conveying the sheet over a series of transversely curved conveyor rolls as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,933 or by pressing the sheet between a pair of upper and lower shaping surfaces. In this later process, the upper surface is typically a full surface vacuum mold and the lower surface may be a full surface press as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,925, a segmented mold as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,274 or a ring type mold as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,650.
Within the past several years, considerable emphasis has been placed on the use of thinner glass sheets for automobile side windows as a means of reducing overall weight of the vehicle and obtain better fuel mileage. This has posed problems in shaping and tempering due to the lesser ability of thinner sheets, such as those having nominal thicknesses ranging from less than three millimeters to four millimeters, to retain heat and difficulties in utilizing the aforementioned glass sheet bending and tempering processes to process thin sheets. As the thickness of the glass decreases, the rate of heat loss increases and the heat initially imparted to such thin sheets is quickly dissipated upon leaving the heating atmosphere of the furnace and during the relatively cool shaping step. Attempts to solve these problems by initially overheating the thin glass sheets have not been entirely successful due to, among other things, the degradation of the surface quality of the finished glass as a result of roll ripple distortion and roll marking.
It would be beneficial to the glass sheet shaping art to develop a technique that combines the high speed operation of a roll forming method while maintaining the optical quality and shape control of glass obtainable by pressing a glass sheet against a vacuum mold.

Method and apparatus for bending glass sheets


A system for measuring the weight of a seat occupant is used to control airbag deployment. The system includes a plurality of weight sensors that have a first end mounted to a seat riser and a second end mounted to a seat frame or track member. The weight sensors have a central bendable portion that extends between the first and second ends. A groove is formed in one of the external surfaces of the central bendable portion to localize strain. A full bridge strain gage assembly is mounted on a surface of each of the weight sensors, opposite from the groove, for generating a weight signal in response to measuring deflection of the central bendable portion. A central processor determines seat occupant weight based on the weight signals and an airbag control module communicates with the processor. The control module controls deployment force of the airbag based on seat occupant weight.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the weight of a seat occupant. Specifically, a sensor arrangement is mounted to a seat frame member to provide seat occupant weight measurements.
2. Related Art
Most vehicles include airbags and seatbelt restraint systems that work together to protect the driver and passengers from experiencing serious injuries due to a high speed collision. It is important to control the deployment force of the airbags and the force of the seatbelt pre-tensioners based on the size of the driver or the passenger. One way to control these forces is to monitor the weight of the seat occupant. If a smaller person such as a child or infant in a car seat is in the front passenger seat, the weight on the seat will be less than if an adult occupies the seat.
Current systems for measuring the weight of a seat occupant are complex and expensive. One type of system uses pressure sensitive foil mats mounted within the seat bottom foam. Another system uses sensors placed at a plurality of locations within the seat bottom cushion. The combined output from the mats or the sensors is used to determine the weight of the seat occupant. These sensors experience a substantially vertical force, due to the weight of the seat occupant, but are also subject to longitudinal and lateral forces caused by acceleration, deceleration, or turning. The lateral and longitudinal forces picked up by the sensor incorporate an error component into the weight measurement. The sensors are very sophisticated using multiple strain gages and complicated bending elements to provide high measurement sensitivity in the vertical direction and low sensitivity to lateral and longitudinal forces in order to increase accuracy.
Mounting these sensors within the seat bottom can also be difficult and time consuming. It is difficult to find mounting locations for each the sensors that will accommodate all of the various positions of a seated occupant while still providing accurate measurements. Further, shifting of the occupant on the seat can dislodge or move the sensors out of their proper location. Because the sensors are mounted within the seat bottom, it is difficult to reposition the sensors after the seat is installed in the vehicle.
Thus, it is desirable to have a simplified seat occupant weight measurement system that is accurate and easily to install and overcomes the above references deficiencies with prior art systems.
In a disclosed embodiment of this invention, a system for measuring the weight of an occupant seated on a vehicle seat includes a seat element mounted to a vehicle structure and a seat support member for supporting a seat bottom. A plurality of weight sensor assemblies are mounted between the seat element and the seat support member. Each of the weight sensor assemblies has a bottom surface and a top surface with a full bridge strain gage mounted on one of the surfaces.
In a preferred embodiment, each weight sensor assembly has a first end mounted to the seat element, such as a seat riser, and a second end mounted to the seat support member, such as a seat frame or track member, with a central bendable portion extending between the first and second ends. The strain gages each generate a weight signal in response to measuring deflection of the central bendable portion for the respective sensor assembly. A central processor determines the seat occupant weight based on the weight signals. An airbag control module communicates with the processor to control deployment force of an airbag based on seat occupant weight.
In a further preferred embodiment, each of the sensors includes at least one groove formed in one of the top or bottom surfaces. The groove extends at least partially along the width of the sensor to localize strain in the central bendable portion. The strain gage is placed on the other of the top or bottom surfaces, facing opposite from the groove.
The subject invention provides a simplified seat occupant weight measurement system that is inexpensive, accurate, and easily to install. These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.

Weight sensor assembly for determining seat occupant weight


There is provided catalysts and conversion processes for converting hydrocarbons using the catalysts. The catalysts comprises a first alumino-phosphospho-molecular sieves and a binder comprising a second alumino-phopho-molecular sieves. Exemplary conversion processes include the conversion of oxygenates to olefins, dewaxing, reforming, dealkylation, dehydrogenation, transalkylation, alkylation, and isomerization.

Crystalline microporous molecular sieves, both natural and synthetic, have been demonstrated to have catalytic properties for various types of hydrocarbon conversion processes. In addition, the crystalline microporous molecular sieves have been used as adsorbents and catalyst carriers for various types of hydrocarbon conversion processes, and other applications. These molecular sieves are ordered, porous, crystalline material having a definite crystalline structure as determined by x-ray diffraction, within which there are a large number of smaller cavities which may be interconnected by a number of still smaller channels or pores. The dimensions channels of these pores are such as to allow adsorption of molecules with certain dimensions while rejecting those with larger dimensions. The interstitial spaces or channels formed by the crystalline network enable molecular sieves, to be used as molecular sieves in separation processes, catalysts and catalyst supports in a wide variety of hydrocarbon conversion processes.
One family of crystalline microporous molecular sieves is molecular sieves containing framework tetrahedral units of silica (SiO.sub.2) and optionally alumina (AlO.sub.2). Another family of crystalline microporous molecular sieves contain framework tetrahedral units of alumina (AlO.sub.2) and phosphorous (PO.sub.2). These molecular sieves are discussed in "Introduction To Zeolite Science and Practice", (H. van Bekkum, E. M. Flanigen, J. C. Jansen ed. 1991) which is hereby incorporated by reference. Examples of such ALPO-based molecular sieves ("ABMS") include SAPO, ALPO, MeAPO, MeAPSO, ELAPO, and ELAPSO. The composition of these molecular sieves is disclosed in Table I below:
TABLE I ______________________________________ Compositional Acronyms for ALPO.sub.4 -Based Materials (Exemplary Me or Acronym Framework T-Atoms El T-Atoms) ______________________________________ AlPO Al, P SAPO Si, Al, P MeAPO Me, Al, P (Co, Fe, Mg, Mn, Zn) MeAPSO Me, Al, P, Si (Co, Fe, Mg, Mn, Zn) ElAPO El, Al, P (As, B, Be, Ga, Ge, Li, Ti) ElAPSO El, Al, P, Si (As, B, Be, Ga, Ge, Li, Ti) ______________________________________
Within a pore of the crystalline molecular sieve, hydrocarbon conversion reactions such as paraffin isomerization, olefin skeletal or double bond isomerization, disproportionation, alkylation, and transalkylation of aromatics are governed by constraints imposed by the channel size of the molecular sieve. Reactant selectivity occurs when a fraction of the feedstock is too large to enter the pores to react; while product selectivity occurs when some of the products can not leave the channels or do not subsequently react. Product distributions can also be altered by transition state selectivity in which certain reactions can not occur because the reaction transition state is too large to form within the pores. Selectivity can also result from configuration constraints on diffusion where the dimensions of the molecule approach that of the pore system. Non-selective reactions on the surface of the molecular sieve, such reactions on the surface acid sites of the molecular sieve, are generally not desirable as such reactions are not subject to the shape selective constraints imposed on those reactions occurring within the channels of the molecular sieve.
ABMS have been used in the past as catalysts for hydrocarbon conversion. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,820 involves the use in a reforming process using intermediate pore size molecular sieves such as SAPO which are bound by amorphorous material.
ABMS are usually prepared by crystallization of a supersaturated synthesis mixture. The resulting crystalline product is then dried and calcined to produce the molecular sieve powder. Although the powder has good adsorptive properties, its practical applications are severely limited because it is difficult to operate fixed beds with the powder. Therefore, prior to using the powder in commercial processes, the crystals are usually bound.
The powder is typically bound by forming aggregate of the molecular sieve such as a pill, sphere, or extrudate. The extrudate is usually formed by extruding the ABMS in the presence of an amorphorous binder and drying and calcining the resulting extrudate. The binder materials used are resistant to the temperatures and other conditions, e.g., mechanical attrition, which occur in various hydrocarbon conversion processes. Examples of binder materials include amorphous materials such as alumina, silica, titania, and various types of clays. It is generally necessary that the ABMS be resistant to mechanical attrition, that is, the formation of fines which are small particles, e.g., particles having a size of less than 20 microns.
Although such bound aggregates have much better mechanical strength than the powder, when such a bound material is used in a catalytic conversion process, the performance of the catalyst, e.g., activity, selectivity, activity maintenance, or combinations thereof, can be reduced because of the binder. For instance, since the binder is typically present in an amount of up to about 50 wt.% of crystals, the binder dilutes the adsorption properties of the material. In addition, since the bound molecular sieve is prepared by extruding or otherwise forming the molecular sieve with the binder and subsequently drying and calcining the extrudate, the amorphous binder can penetrate the pores of the molecular sieve or otherwise block access to the pores of the molecular sieve, or slow the rate of mass transfer to the pores of the molecular sieve which can reduce the effectiveness of the molecular sieve when used in hydrocarbon conversion processes and other applications. Furthermore, when the bound molecular sieve is used in catalytic conversion processes, the binder may affect the chemical reactions that are taking place within the molecular sieve and also may itself catalyze undesirable reactions which can result in the formation of undesirable products.

Hydrocarbon conversion catalyst and its use


Various aspects of a system and method for information processing are disclosed herein. The method includes capturing a set of images associated with an item by a first electric device. The set of images comprises one or more images of the item and/or an associated location where the item is stored. A user input that corresponds to the captured set of images associated with the item is received. A first set of information is extracted from the captured set of images and the received user input. The extracted first set of information is communicated to the server. A second set of information associated with the item is retrieved by the server from the extracted first set of information in response to a query received from a second electronic device.

With recent advancements in the field of information processing, several inventory management applications have been introduced. Mostly, such inventory management applications are implemented in commercial establishments, such as a mall or a grocery store. Typically, such inventory management applications are included in a central server that may store metadata associated with various items, provided by a user by use of an electronic device. Thereafter, a query may be generated by another electronic device associated with another user, and communicated to the server. In response to the query, the server may retrieve stored metadata and communicate to the other electronic device for display. For example, the query may include an image of an item, such as a beverage can, captured via an electronic device, such as a smartphone. In response to the query, the server may retrieve associated metadata, such as calories in the beverage, and communicate the retrieved metadata to the electronic device. However, such inventory management applications may not be effective for non-commercial purposes, as the user may find it tedious to maintain a catalog about a location where the items are stored. Thus, it may be desirable by the user to have such an application by which random items may be suitably cataloged and organized, so that the metadata may be utilized for other purposes as well.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of described systems with some aspects of the present disclosure, as set forth in the remainder of the present application and with reference to the drawings.

System and method for information processing


A system and method for reordering storage levels in a virtualized environment includes identifying a virtual machine (VM) to be transitioned and determining a new storage level order for the VM. The new storage level order reduces a VM live state during a transition, and accounts for hierarchical shared storage memory and criteria imposed by an application to reduce recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions. The new storage level order recommendation is propagated to VMs. The new storage level order applied in the VMs. A different storage-level order is recommended after the transition.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to efficient interoperation of computing technologies, and more particularly to systems and methods for storage level reordering for virtual and dynamic resource allocation for memory-intensive applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Emerging Internet-scale service applications operate on large amounts of data that are maintained in memory to achieve high throughput and offer low response time guarantees to users. Key catalyzers to this trend have been the significant decrease of memory cost, increase of memory capacity in machines and development and adoption of in-memory distributed storage technologies such as memcached, XAP and ObjectGrid™ As a result, In-Memory Data Grids (IMDGs) have become the cost- and performance-effective solution for such vast-scale and distributed data provisioning. Thus, many Web-scale businesses, such as Facebook™ and Twitter™, rely on some form of such memory-backed data grids to operate while scaling to a large number of users.
Facebook™, for example, stores all its indexing information on a memcached to speed up the access to large objects from backend storage servers in a timely manner. Other non-traditional data oriented applications, e.g., fraud detection, rely on IMDG to collect and analyze operational data in an on-line fashion.
Virtualization technologies are becoming more important in large-scale data center and cloud infrastructures. In addition to the simplified management and provisioning benefits, these virtualized environments enable dynamic optimizations to the cloud operation by dynamically reallocating distributed resources to the running virtualized entities. By repositioning and reprovisioning virtual machines (VMs), virtualized environments provide agile runtime response to the dynamically-varying requirements of data centers. This alleviates the inefficiencies of the existing statically-allocated information technology (IT) infrastructure model due to the severe over-provisioning and inefficient underutilization of computing resources.
While both of these trends have proven to be effective exclusively in their domains and continue to gain increasing momentum, they exhibit a striking conflict in their characteristics that can hamper their effectiveness under joint operation in a cloud environment. More specifically, on one hand, IMDG solutions benefit from exploiting large amounts of random access memory (RAM) to manage data and therefore, they tend to heavily exercise memory for effective operation.
On the other hand, dynamic VM allocation in virtualization performs best by transferring as little live state as possible across physical entities during VM reallocation. It is well known that there is a strong positive correlation between the amount of live state a VM has and the migration overheads it can experience. The main contributors to the live state are the amount of 'active memory' or the working set size of the VM, the rate at which the pages are dirtied in memory and the overall footprint of the VM. Therefore, their dynamic response efficiency is inversely affected while allocating VMs with heavy memory usage. This has at least two detrimental effects: (1) higher performance overhead perceived by the applications using IMDG nodes as the response times increase under dynamic allocation conditions; and (2) energy overheads due to extensive copying and recopying of live state, as well as higher resource and link usage.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Virtualization and dynamic resource allocation aware storage level reordering

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A method for verifying a hologram, comprising the steps of reading at least two images of the hologram, the images being representative of images derived at respective different viewing angles, comparing a characteristic derived from the respective images with a reference characteristic to establish if the hologram is authentic, and outputting a signal indicative of the authenticity or otherwise of the hologram.

With the ever increasing amount of credit card fraud, it is essential that the authenticity of credit cards be accurately verified. The term "credit card" used in this specification is intended to include any type of credit, debit or charge card, as well as an ID card, a security card, a keycard or the like in which a hologram is provided on the card. In general, credit cards are provided with a hologram for facilitating both visual and machine verification of the credit card. Visual verification of a hologram of a credit card is carried out by visually inspecting the card in white light. By tilting the card relative to the light, the hologram can be viewed from different angles, thus permitting visual verification of the authenticity of the hologram. One method of machine verification requires directing light of different wavelengths at the hologram, and measuring the diffraction of the light. However, it has been found that this method is of limited value, and counterfeit holograms can be prepared relatively simply which provide for diffraction of light of the respective different wavelengths to accurately simulate diffraction of light by an authentic hologram.
There is therefore a need for a method and apparatus for verifying a hologram which overcomes this and other problems of known verification methods and apparatus.

Method and apparatus for verifying a hologram and a credit card


A method of plating which improves the uniformity of a plated coating thickness without changing the flow velocity of a feed plating solution. An aperture at a center of a mesh anode electrode of a plating apparatus produces an electric field density distribution between the mesh anode electrode and a wafer that is lower in the central portion of the wafer than at the edge portion of the wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plating apparatus and a plating method for forming a uniform plating layer on a semiconductor substrate.
2. Background Of the Invention
FIG. 7A shows a face-up type plating apparatus of the prior art wherein surface of a wafer 101 is plated while being arranged to face upward, and FIG. 7B is an enlarged view of a sealing portion of the wafer 101. In the drawing, the numeral 1 denotes a wafer processing vessel, 2 denotes a plating solution nozzle, 2a denotes holes of a drain-board, 3 denotes a plating solution supply pipe, 4 denotes a plating solution discharge pipe, 5 denotes a drain pipe, 6 denotes a plating tank, 7 denotes a plating solution, 8 denotes an upper portion of the wafer processing vessel, 9 denotes a lower portion of the wafer processing vessel, 10 denotes a cathode contact, 11 denotes a sealing material, 12 denotes a nitrogen gas injection release, 14 denotes a mesh electrode,16 denotes an auxiliary sealing material and 101 denotes a wafer.
In the plating apparatus described above, the plating solution 7 supplied through the plating solution supply pipe 3 is discharged through the plating solution discharge pipe 4, and is circulated throughout the period of plating process. A specified voltage is applied across the mesh anode electrode 14 and the wafer 101 via the cathode contact 10, thereby to form a plated coating on the wafer 101 surface. In such a face-up type plating apparatus, because the wafer surface is arranged to face upward, deposition of air bubbles onto the wafer surface can be prevented and plated coating of better quality can be formed in comparison to the face-down plating method where the wafer is arranged to face downward.
FIG. 8 shows a distribution of a plated coating thickness over the surface of a 4xe2x80x3 wafer plated with Au in the above plating apparatus with a current density of 5 mA/cm2 for a plating time of 12 minutes, where a distance from the wafer edge is plotted along the axis of abscissa and plate coat thickness is plotted along the axis of ordinate. As is clear from FIG. 8, the plated coating thickness shows a W-shaped distribution which has a peak at the center of the wafer and increases toward the edge.
Through an investigation into the cause of such a distribution of the plated coating thickness, it was found that the distribution of the thickness is greatly affected by the distribution of the transported ions of the plating metal, which is determined by the flow velocity distribution of the plating solution, and the distribution of the electric field on the wafer surface. Specifically, in the plating apparatus described above, because a flow velocity of the plating solution is highest, and accordingly the transported quantity of ions of the plating metal is largest, at the center of the wafer which is located just below the plating solution supply pipe 3, a plated coating is formed with the largest thickness at the center, while the electric field is concentrated at the edge which leads to the plated coating being formed with the second largest thickness along the edge of the wafer.
On the other hand, a method may be used in which as the flow velocity of the plating solution 7 supplied through the plating solution supply pipe 3 is slower, thereby reducing the distribution of the flow velocity of the plating solution on the wafer surface. However, when such a method is used, the plating solution 7 becomes stagnant locally on the wafer surface, resulting in lower quality of the plating.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a plating apparatus and a method of plating, which improve the uniformity of the plate coat thickness without changing the flow velocity of feeding the plating solution.
The present inventors have intensively studied. As a result, it has been found that unevenness in the plate coat thickness due to the flow velocity distribution of the plating solution can be mitigated and uniform distribution of the plate coat thickness can be achieved over the wafer surface, by providing an aperture at the center of a meshed anode electrode of a plating apparatus thereby to obtain an electric field density distribution, between the meshed anode electrode and the wafer, that is lower in the central portion of the wafer than in the portion along the edge, thus completing the present invention.
That is, the present invention provides an anode electrode installed to oppose a wafer, whereon a plating coat is to be deposited, for generating a specified electric field distribution over the wafer surface, which is a meshed electrode capable of supplying plating solution and has an aperture at the center of the meshed electrode.
Because the meshed anode electrode has the aperture at the center thereof, an electric field density distribution that is lower in the central portion of the wafer than in the portion along the edge can be obtained by using the meshed electrode as the anode to form electric field between the electrode and the wafer.
Thus the flow velocity of the plating solution can be made lower in the central portion of the wafer than in the portion along the edge, making it possible to mitigate the unevenness in the plate coat thickness due to the flow velocity distribution of the plating solution which has been a problem for the prior art, thus improving the uniformity of plate coat thickness over the wafer surface.
The meshed anode electrode may be an electrode made by weaving a thread-like material as shown in FIG. 2A, or an electrode made by punching holes through a sheet as shown in FIG. 2B.
The present invention also provides a plating apparatus which comprises, a plating tank wherein a wafer is placed so that the plating surface faces upward, plating solution supply means for causing the plating solution supplied from above onto the plating surface of the wafer at the center thereof to flow from the center of the plating surface of the wafer toward the periphery, and a meshed anode electrode installed to oppose a wafer for generating an electric field distribution by using the wafer as a cathode, wherein an aperture is made at the center of the meshed anode electrode to obtain an electric field density distribution that is lower in the central portion of the wafer than in the portion along the edge.
Because the plating apparatus of the present invention uses the meshed anode electrode which has the aperture at the center thereof, an electric field density distribution that is lower in the central portion of the wafer than in the portion along the edge can be obtained. As a result, unevenness in the plate coat thickness due to the flow velocity distribution of the plating solution can be mitigated. That is, an increase in the plate coat thickness at the central portion of the wafer due to the flow velocity distribution of the plating solution can be suppressed by decreasing the electric field density in the central portion of the wafer, thereby making it possible to improve the uniformity of the plate coat thickness over the wafer surface.
The meshed anode electrode is a circular electrode having a diameter nearly equal the wafer diameter, and the aperture of the meshed anode electrode is preferably a circular aperture having a diameter of 40 to 80% of the wafer diameter.
This is because it is most preferable for improving the uniformity of the plate coat thickness to use the meshed anode electrode which has the same circular shape as the wafer and also has a circular aperture of diameter 40 to 80% of the wafer diameter.
The present invention also provides at method of plating the surface of a wafer, comprising the steps of causing the plating solution supplied onto the plated surface of the wafer to flow from the center of the plated surface of the wafer toward the periphery, generating an electric field between the wafer and the meshed anode electrode which is arranged to oppose the wafer, and generating such an electric field distribution that mitigates the unevenness in the plate coat thickness caused along the flow of plating solution by using the meshed anode electrode having the aperture at the central portion thereof.
By using such a method, a uniform plating coat can be obtained.
The present invention also provides a wafer for semiconductor devices provided with a plating layer plated by the above method, wherein the distribution of the plating layer thickness on the wafer is about 10%, more specially 5%.

Method of plating semiconductor wafer and plated semiconductor wafer


A reflective photochromic element having a diffuse reflective surface is provided. A diffuse reflection type photochromic element has a transparent thin film having surface irregularities formed on a transparent base and a reflective photochromic thin film layer having surface irregularities formed on that transparent thin film. A diffuse reflection type photochromic glass material includes the aforementioned diffuse reflection type photochromic element as a constituent unit. A method for manufacturing a diffuse reflection type photochromic unit includes the steps of forming a transparent thin film having surface irregularities integrally or separately on a transparent base and forming a reflective photochromic thin film layer having surface irregularities on that transparent thin film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diffuse reflection type photochromic element, and relates more particularly to a diffuse reflection type photochromic element in which a transparent state and a diffusely reflective state which diffuses light can be controlled at will. In light of the fact that in the technical field of photochromic glass, in which as a photochromic material the trasmissivity of light of which can be reversibly altered, conventional photochromic glass has suffered from the problem of reflecting sunlight and the like too glaringly when in a clear mirror-like state for example, the present invention provides a novel diffuse reflection type photochromic element capable of providing a new diffuse reflection type photochromic glass which does not suffer from this problem. The present invention is useful in that it provides a novel diffuse reflection type photochromic material to be used in photochromic glass for automatically controlling sunlight entering through window glass without the use of blinds or curtains, a diffuse reflection type photochromic glass prepared using this material, a window material for controlling the transmittance of sunlight in buildings and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In buildings in general, windows (openings) are a major source of heat loss and gain. For example, the proportion of heat which escapes through the windows when a building is heated in the winter is about 48%, while the proportion of heat entering through the windows when a building is cooled in the summer is about 71%. Consequently, great energy-saving benefits can be obtained by successfully controlling light and heat at the windows. Photochromic glass was developed for this purpose and serves the function of controlling the gain and loss of heat and light.
There are various systems for performing light control of such photochromic glass. These include 1) materials the transmissivity of which is reversibly altered by application of current or voltage (called as electrochromic materials) and 2) materials the transmissivity of which is reversibly altered by controlling atmospheric gas (called as gasochromic materials). Of these, research is more advance in the field of electrochromic light control glass using a thin film of tungsten oxide for the light control layer, a technology which is almost at the practical stage, with products already on the market.
Known electrochromic light control glasses, including tungsten oxide glass, are all based on the principle of controlling light by absorbing light at the photochromic layer. In this case, the problem is that this kind of photochromic glass acquires heat when light is absorbed by the photochromic layer, and this heat is radiated back into the room, detracting from the energy-saving benefits. To avoid this problem, light needs to be controlled by reflecting it rather than by absorbing it. There is demand for materials which have the property of reversibly changing from a mirror state to a transparent state.
For a long time no such photochromic material could be found capable of reversibly changing from a mirror state to a transparent state, but in 1996 a Dutch group discovered that hydrides of rare earths such as yttrium and lanthanum could be switched from a mirror state to a transparent state by means of hydrogen, and such materials were named "switchable mirror" (J. N. Huiberts, R. Griessen, J. H. Rector, R. J. Wijngaarden, J. P. Dekker, D. G. de Groot and N. J. Koeman, Nature 380 (1996) 231). These rare earth hydrides vary greatly in transmissivity and have excellent switchable mirror properties. However, because rare earth elements are used as materials in these switchable mirrors, there are resource and cost problems when they are used as window coatings and the like.
Next, in 2001, a U.S. group discovered the magnesium-nickel alloy Mg2Ni as a new switchable mirror material (T. J. Richardson, J. L. Slack, R. D. Armitage, R. Kostecki, B. Farangis and M. D. Rubin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 78 (2001) 3047). The elements used in this material are magnesium and nickel, which are cheaper and easier to obtain than rare earth elements. Consequently, this material is expected to be better suited to window coatings. However, although this material is highly reflective when in a mirror state, its optical transmissivity in a transparent state is low (20% according to the literature), and this transmissivity would need to be improved in order for the material to be practical.
After work at improving the switchable mirror characteristics of this magnesium-nickel alloy thin film, the present inventors have discovered that a magnesium-rich magnesium-nickel alloy thin film has good switchable properties, and developed a switchable mirror glass using a magnesium-nickel alloy thin film (Japanese patent publication No. 2003-335553).
However, when this switchable mirror is used in a building, the problem is that if the mirror state is too clear, sunlight and the like will be reflected too glaringly. The recent trend has been to avoid the use in buildings of highly reflective glass which appears mirror-like. Sometimes called "light pollution," this problem of glass reflection is a problem in the architectural field.

Reflective light control element with diffusible reflecting surface

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


Techniques include: identifying a first group that has a specified number of entities or more; associating a first group restrict with the first group, where a group restrict comprises data associated with two or more members of a group; assigning the first group restrict to one or more items of content in a search index that the members of the group can access; identifying a second group associated with a second group restrict, where the second group has fewer than the specified number of entities; and assigning searcher restricts for entities in the second group to one or more items of content in the search index, where the searcher restricts include data associated with a searcher.

This specification relates generally to information retrieval, particularly to modifying access controls in a search index.
Search engines identify resources (e.g., images, audio, video, Web pages, text, documents) that are relevant to a user's needs and present information about the resources in a manner that is useful to the user. A search engine may be used to conduct a search of a source of data, e.g., the Internet, a social network, a local data source, non-networked content, or the like. Typically, a search engine receives a search query from a user, consults an appropriate search index to identify subject matter relevant to the search query, obtains snippets of the relevant subject matter, ranks the snippets, and output the snippets for presentation in a Web browser.


Apparatus, positioned at an inlet port to a pump, for shielding the pump from a process chamber of a semiconductor wafer processing system, where the apparatus has a variable effective throughput area. Specifically, the apparatus is a restrictor shield having a first effective throughput area during processing and a second effective throughput area during bakeout, where the first effective throughput area is typically less than the second effective throughput area. The selection of the effective throughput area is directly responsive to the temperature within the process chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor processing equipment and, more particularly, to a restrictor shield, located between a process chamber and a pump, having a variable effective throughput area.
2. Description of the Background Art
To produce a sufficient vacuum for processing semiconductor wafers in a process chamber of a semiconductor wafer processing system, a cryogenic pump (commonly referred to as a cryo-pump) is used to attain the vacuum. Systems that utilize cryo-pumps include physical vapor deposition (PVD) systems that require an ultra high vacuum (UHV), approximately 10.sup.-9 Torr, to achieve optimal process conditions and process performance.
Typically, the cryo-pump is connected to the process chamber via a conduit, where the connection point of the conduit to the process chamber is known as the "cryo-port". The area of the cryo-port opening is critical to achieving particular process results during a deposition process. Although the cryo-port has a fixed area, it is typically fitted with a cryo-pump restrictor shield (referred to herein as a cryo-shield) that defines the effective throughput area of the cryo-port. A typical cryo-shield is an aluminum plate having approximately a six inch (15.25 cm) diameter. The plate contains a plurality of apertures of predefined diameter. The cumulative area of the apertures defines the effective throughput area of the cryo-port. As such, different plates having differing effective areas are installed over the cryo-port depending upon the particular process results desired. One example of a PVD system that uses such a cryo-shield is the Endura model manufactured by Applied Materials, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
Typically, before a process chamber is used to process semiconductor wafers, the chamber goes through a process known as "bakeout", where the chamber is heated by lamps to desorb and evaporate any volatile particles within the chamber. The volatile particles are removed by the chamber by pumping, e.g., usually by using a combination of pump types including turbo-pumps, cryo-pumps, and the like. Once the volatile particles have been pumped from the chamber, the chamber is allowed to cool to a nominal temperature over a period of time known as the cooldown period. A chamber is considered "qualified" for processing when the chamber achieves a sufficient vacuum (e.g., 8.times.10.sup.-9 to 5.times.10.sup.-9 Torr) after both bakeout and cooldown are complete. The bakeout and cooldown period can be as long as 80 hours. Thus, for a substantial amount of time, the processing equipment is being initialized and is not processing wafers.
The duration of the bakeout and cooldown period is directly proportional to the effective throughput area of the cryo-port. To facilitate a high gas flow rate during bakeout and reduce the bakeout period, it is desirable to have as large of a cryo-port effective throughput area as possible. However, the cryo-shield is in place during bakeout in anticipation of processing once the chamber is qualified. As such, the cryo-port effective throughput area is inherently limited to the aperture area of the cryo-shield.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a restrictor shield having a variable effective throughput area such that the effective throughput area can be increased during bakeout and set to a predefined area during processing.

Restrictor shield having a variable effective throughout area


There is provided a resist underlayer coating forming composition used in processes for manufacturing a mask blank and a mask, and a mask blank and a mask manufactured from the composition. The resist underlayer coating forming composition comprises a polymer compound having a halogen atom-containing repeating structural unit and a solvent. In a mask blank including a thin film for forming transfer pattern and a chemically-amplified type resist coating on a substrate in that order, the composition is used for forming a resist underlayer coating between the thin film for forming transfer pattern and the resist coating. The polymer compound is preferably a compound containing a halogen atom in an amount of at least 10 mass %.

1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates to a resist underlayer coating forming composition used for a mask blank that has a resist underlayer coating under a chemically-amplified type resist coating. Specifically, the present invention relates to a resist underlayer coating forming composition comprising a polymer compound having a halogen atom-containing repeating structural unit and a solvent. Further, the present invention relates to a mask blank in which a resist underlayer coating composed of the resist underlayer coating forming composition is formed, and a mask prepared by using the mask blank.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photomask (reticle) used in micro-processing technique of semiconductor devices is produced by patterning an opaque film formed on a transparent substrate. The patterning of the opaque film is carried out by for example etching by use of a resist pattern as a mask. The resist pattern is formed by for example electron beam lithography process and the like.
In recent years, in the mask production field, it is considered to make an accelerating voltage of electron beam used in the electron lithography process 50 eV or more. This is because it is required to lower forward scattering of electron beam passing electron beam resist and to improve beam convergence of the electron beam so that finer resist pattern would be resolved. When the accelerating voltage of electron beam is low, forward scattering occurs on the surface of the resist or in the resist, and the forward scattering deteriorates the resolving property of the resist. However, when an accelerating voltage of electron beam of 50 eV or more is applied, forward scattering is reduced inversely proportional to the accelerating voltage, and energy provided to the resist by the forward scattering is reduced, and thus the resist occur shortage of sensitivity in case where for example an electron beam resist for an accelerating voltage of 10 to 20 eV, or the like is used, and therefore fall of throughput occurs.
In case where is used a chemically-amplified type resist coating in the mask production field, it is known that for example when the vicinity of the surface of a base coating is in state of a relatively low film density or in a rough state, a problem that the chemically-amplified type resist coating is deactivated may occur. Concretely, an acid-catalyzed reaction during patterning is inhibited in the interface between an anti-reflective coating of chromium oxide that becomes a base coating and a resist coating, and thereby the resolving property is often deteriorated in the bottom part of the resist pattern. In this case, shape defects such as a shape defect in the bottom part in for example a chemically-amplified type resist coating of positive type, or a crack in negative type occur.
It is assumed that this is responsible for an apparent lowering of the sensitivity of chemically-amplified type resist coating in the interface with the base coating (deactivation of resist coating) for example by suppression (quench) of the acid generated in the resist coating by exposure to light with a base component on the chromium oxide surface, or by diffusion of the acid to the chromium oxide side.
As methods for resolving the problem of the above-mentioned shape defects, it is reported to introduce an inorganic coating of silicide materials or an organic anti-reflective coating as a base coating (anti-deactivation coating) (see, for example Patent Document 1).
On the other hand, Patent Document 2 discloses an anti-reflective coating forming composition comprising a polymer material containing halogen atom for forming an anti-reflective coating that strongly absorbs a light at wavelength 157 nm.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-107675 (2003)    Patent Document 2: WO 03/071357 pamphlet

Resist underlayer coating forming composition for mask blank, mask blank and mask


In a motion insensitive coaxial cylindrical connector a male member has a substantially cylindrical body having a male or diameter and a substantially cylindrical stub having a minor diameter which stub extends from the body of the male member. The stub fits into a dielectric sleeve within a cavity in a female member. Preferably, the dielectric sleeve has two portions made of different dielectric materials.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector for coaxial cable.
2. Background of the Invention
Two piece connectors of the type having a male member which fits into a female member have long been used for connecting cables and other conductors. This type of connector can be easily connected and disconnected. Such a connector and other connectors designed for easy connect/disconnect operations, have the disadvantage that motion between the connector pairs is possible if both ends of the pair are not securely mounted. With this motion the electrical characteristics of the connector may vary sufficiently to degrade system performance. For example, phase modulation sidebands caused by mechanical vibrations (or other causes) are typically required to be below -110 dBc for many modern radar systems. To meet this requirement, using conventional connectors, the relative movement between connector pairs would need to be kept to less than 10.sup.-6 wavelengths. At 10 GHz, this distance is about 1.2 microinches. The present approach to solving the modulation problem is to mount both ends of the connector pair in such a way as to virtually eliminate the relative motion between the connector ends or to reduce this motion to below some acceptable level. This approach, however, may not be possible for some mechanical structures or may be too difficult or expensive to implement. Thus, there is a need for a connector that is insensitive to this motion. Such a connector must be designed not to produce phase shifts as the connector pair separates.

Motion insensitive phase compensated coaxial connector


A fragmented lens system for creating an invisible light pattern useful to computer vision systems is disclosed. Random or semi-random dot patterns generated by the present system allow a computer to uniquely identify each patch of a pattern projected by a corresponding illuminator or light source. The computer may determine the position and distance of an object by identifying the illumination pattern on the object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to interactive display systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a lens system as might be used by an illuminator in an interactive display system.
2. Description of the Related Art
If a computer vision system uses a two-dimensional camera input and background subtraction, a random or semi-random dot pattern allows the system to more reliably detect objects that are at a different distance from a background. If the pattern is too regular, however, the object may disappear relative to the background when at a particular distance. This is a result of too many parts of a texture looking alike. Determinations as to the position of objects (or a more accurate indication thereof) therefore suffer. As a result, users may attempt to interact with an object (e.g., grab an object) that is not where the interactive display system otherwise indicates the object to presently be located. There is, therefore, a need for a system that may create lighting patterns useful to computer vision systems and to allow for more accurate tracking and determination of object positions in space.


A system and method by which construction tools, electronics, and other electrically powered devices are protected from theft and unauthorized use is disclosed. A tool or electronic device is equipped with an electronic receiver that receives an authorization code from a remote transmitter. Should the item be stolen, the rightful owner can disable it remotely, rendering it worthless. Additionally, the system provides for a Global Positioning System Receiver (GPS) that allows the invention to determine its physical location to within a few feet anywhere on the face of the earth, and transmit its location to the original owner such that it may be recovered. The use of the present invention allows for increased security of portable tools and electronics in a manner that is quick, easy and effective.

Security alarms are almost common items on homes, businesses, and motor vehicles in today's society. Their use has not only stopped many attempted thefts in progress, but the knowledge that they are there, has stopped many more before they are even started. While such alarms work well for homes, businesses, motor vehicles and other large structures, they leave smaller portable devices such as construction tools and portable electronics vulnerable. These devices such as drills, saws, compressors, generators, televisions, computers, notebook computers and the like are often very expensive, and present a financial hardship should they need to be replaced. Should insurance be utilized to cover such devices, the cost of the insurance is often as great as the device itself due to the high probability of being stolen.
Solving the problem described immediately above, is a unique system and method by which construction tools, electronics, and other electrically powered devices are protected from theft and unauthorized use. Upon initial observation of a power tool such as a saw or drill, or an electronic device such as a television or computer, nothing appears readily different. However, after closer observation, it can be seen that the tool or electronic device is equipped with an electronic receiver that receives an authorization code from a remote transmitter. This enables the equipment to operate. Should the item be stolen, the rightful owner can disable it remotely, rendering it worthless. Additionally, the system provides for a Global Positioning Receiver (GPS) that allows the invention to determine its physical location to within a few feet anywhere on the face of the earth, and transmit its location to the original owner such that it may be recovered. The use of the new and novel tracking system for tools and electronics allows for increased security of portable tools and electronics in a manner which is quick, easy and effective.
Several attempts have been made in the past to effectively locate, tack, and command electrically-operated equipment from a remote location. U.S. Pat. No. 6,891,471, issued in the name of Yuen et al., discloses an expandable object tracking system and devices, wherein each device has an RF transceiver, memory, user interface, and a processor for coordination and management. Unfortunately, the Yuen et al. system does not include the use of GPS technology to track and locate these devices over a broad range.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,655, issued in the name of Elledge, describes a method and system for identifying lost or stolen devices, including a transmitter, a receiver, and a computer each coupled to the device. The device utilizes RF identification and operates an alarm. As in the Yuen et al. device, the Elledge patent does not incorporate GPS locating technology within the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,202, issued in the name of Tsuchimoto et al., teaches a data storage system, storage medium, and a method of controlling a data storage system. Such a data storage system does not fall under the scope of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,981, issued in the name of Renney, discloses an item locator with an attachable receiver/transmitter, comprising a hand-held device and multiple sensors/chips applied to the device in question. The sensors receive a dedicated signal transmitted by the hand-held device and sound an audible alarm. The Renney device unfortunately differs from the present invention in that it does not have provisions for commanding such a sensor and also does not incorporate GPS locating technology.
Additional patents have been issued, based on systems for locating a lost object with an audible alarm, notably U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,050, issued in the name of Sacca et al.; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,090, issued in the name of Taylor et al.
None of the prior art particularly describes device for locating and commanding electrically-operated equipment such as construction tools at a remote site utilizing GPS technology. Accordingly, there is a need for a means by which construction tools, and portable electronics can be protected from theft, unauthorized use and should theft occur, subsequent recovery can be provided.

Electrical lock-out and locating apparatus with GPS technology


A perspective texture mapping circuit (10) is disclosed. In a perspective texture mapping mode, an inverse z gradient and corresponding inverse z polygon vertex value is loaded into a first interpolator circuit (14), and texture address product gradients with corresponding polygon vertex texture address product values are loaded into a second and third interpolator circuit (16 and 18). The first interpolator circuit (14) interpolates a sequence of inverse z values for the surface of the polygon. The second and third interpolator circuits (16 and 18) interpolate corresponding texture address product values for each interpolated inverse z value. The texture address product values are divided by the corresponding inverse z value in a divider circuit (12) to generate texture address values. Texture address values are coupled to texture memory (20) to generate texel values which are passed onto an output FIFO (26). In a color interpolation mode, each pixel includes three color component. Different color component gradients and vertex color component values are coupled to each interpolator circuit (14, 16 and 18) which interpolate corresponding color component values for the surface of the polygon. Corresponding color component values are coupled together to the output FIFO (26) to generate color pixels.

The increasing computing power of personal computer systems has given rise to more complex and powerful system applications. One particular type of application gaining in popularity are those applications that model objects in a three dimensional (3D) space. 3D objects are commonly modeled as a collection of joined polygons (typically triangles) defined by vertex positions and attributes. Display images are created by projecting the objects onto a two dimensional viewing plane according to a rendering "pipeline." For an example of rendering pipelines see Computer Graphics by Foley et al. pp. 806-809.
The end result of the rendering process is a collection of pixels for each surface of the projected polygon. The particular value of a pixel depends upon the rendering method used. One method of rendering polygons is to generate the same color for all the pixels of the polygon. This provides for fast rendering but results in an image that can lack realism and/or detail. For increased realism polygons can be uniformly shaded (called flat shading) according to a shading scheme. This adds a degree of realism but can produce abrupt color change at polygon boundaries. A common method of providing realistic shading effects is interpolating color intensity across the surface of the polygon according to the vertex values; commonly referred to as Gouraud shading.
Another polygon rendering method fills the polygon surface, not with an interpolated color, but with a selected one of many stored texture maps. Each texture map includes a texture composed of a number of pixel values (also called "texels") each having a texture map address (commonly given by texture coordinates u and v). A selected texture is mapped to a given polygon surface by assigning a texture map address to each vertex of the polygon. The remaining pixels of the polygon are mapped to corresponding texture addresses according to a texture mapping scheme. "Affine" texture mapping makes no adjustment in texture map address according to the depth (z position) of the polygon surface, and so can result in a polygon surface that appears warped or otherwise distorted to the viewer. To compensate for the z position of a given polygon pixel "perspective" texture mapping is used. Perspective texture mapping interpolates the texture address across the polygon surface, typically by taking advantage of the fact that the gradient of the texture address divided by the depth (d(u/z) and d(v/z)) is linear with respect to the viewing plane. See "Under the Hood: Perspective Texture Mapping Part I: Foundations", Game Developer, April/May 1995 by Chris Hecker.
The Hecker article also sets forth a software perspective texture mapper. Software solutions to texture mapping can require considerable host processor resources, however. In order to free up system resources it is known to offload portions of the rendering pipeline onto specialized graphics accelerator hardware.
At the same time more and more image rendering tasks are being offloaded from the host processor to a graphics accelerator chip, there is conflicting drive to provide smaller and smaller die sizes in order to create a more cost effective product.
It would be desirable, therefor, to provide a graphics accelerator architecture for rendering polygons with the most efficient use of the circuits therein.

Perspective texture mapping circuit having pixel color interpolation mode and method thereof


In a temperature sensor, especially in a temperature sensor using a resonator, based on a frequency of one oscillator circuit (resonator), frequencies of the other one or more oscillator circuits (resonators) are measured, and frequency-temperature characteristics of a plurality of resonators are synthesized in order to realize an accurate temperature sensor which does not require an accurate frequency reference regardless of a temperature change, and has a linear characteristic and a wide measurable temperature range. Also, two oscillator circuits have two resonators respectively with quadratic characteristics in which quadratic coefficients are the same and linear characteristics are different from each other, and a difference between oscillation frequencies of both oscillator circuits is obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a temperature sensor, and in particular to a temperature sensor using a resonator.
Various temperature sensors have been proposed depending on the applications thereof and have been reduced to practice. For any temperature sensor, a temperature reproducibility, a temperature range, a temperature characteristic, and an accuracy required for the applications are important.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 17 shows a frequency-temperature characteristic of a Surface Acoustic Wave (hereinafter, abbreviated as SAW) resonator receiving attention in various fields for its superior temperature reproducibility. This characteristic is shown by a quadratic curve in which a frequency "f" exhibits a maximum value (peak) at a temperature T1.
FIG. 18 shows a prior art arrangement of a temperature sensor using a SAW resonator. In this example, an oscillator circuit 20 is arranged so as to connect a SAW resonator 21 as an oscillator to an amplifier 22 and a temperature sensor 10 measuring the oscillation frequency of the oscillator circuit 20 by a reference frequency is composed.
A counter 31 counts an output of the oscillator circuit 20. A reference frequency oscillator circuit 40 produces a latch signal 92 for latching, in a register 41, a value of the counter 31 at a fixed time interval (e.g. 1 sec.) based on an internal reference frequency, and a reset signal 91 provided to the counter 31 after the latching.
A frequency/temperature converter 50 includes a table storing a relationship between the frequency "f" and the temperature "T" shown in FIG. 17 preliminarily obtained by experiments or the like, and outputs, referring to this table, a temperature signal 90 obtained by converting a frequency value from the register 41 into a temperature value.
In such a temperature sensor 10, an accurate frequency reference signal corresponding to a required temperature accuracy becomes necessary, so that the circuit price is increased as the accuracy increases.
As for a measurable temperature range at this time, it is supposed that either a temperature range higher than a temperature T1 or a temperature range lower than the temperature T1 is preliminarily selected lest two temperatures correspond to the same frequency. Also, since a gradient around the temperature T1 is small, the temperature greatly changes even for a little frequency change and the measurement accuracy declines. For this reason, it is common to remove the range around the temperature T1 from available ranges.
Namely, when the frequency-temperature characteristic is a quadratic curve, a cubic curve, or more, there is a possibility that two or more temperatures correspond to the same frequency. Therefore, the measurable temperature range is disadvantageously limited by the frequency-temperature characteristic of the SAW resonator.
It is to be noted that the above-mentioned problems are common to the temperature sensors using not only the SAW resonator but also a general oscillator.


The present invention provides a method for predicting an effectiveness of chemotherapy using an anticancer agent with high probability. The effectiveness is predicted based on a comparison of a parameter relating to CDK and/or CDK inhibitor in a tumor cell specimen obtained from a patient, with a corresponding threshold value to the parameter. The patient to be subjected this sensitivity prediction test of an anticancer agent is administered with the anticancer agent prior to removal of the tumor cell. The threshold is predetermined based on data of correlation between the selected parameter and anticancer agent therapy results obtained from a number of patients actually performed the therapy. Accordingly, the predicting method can provide information useful for determining whether to perform the chemotherapy to individual patients.

Chemotherapy using an anticancer agent is known as an example of anticancer therapies. Pathological conditions of cancer patients, however, differ one from another depending on the type of the cancer, the area affected by the cancer, the stage of progression, or other factor. The versatile pathological conditions and difference in responsiveness among cancer patients mean that some patients have to be treated with a chemotherapy using an anticancer agent which is ineffective to them, while the others receive benefits from an effective chemotherapy using an anticancer agent. Continuing administration of an anticancer agent that is not effective to a patient may only increase an adverse effect due to a side-effect, which may impose unwanted suffering to the patient.
In view of the above, there is a demand for a technique of predicting, with high probability, the effectiveness of an anticancer agent for patients at an early stage of administration of the agent.
As a method for predicting the chemosensitivity of patients to an anticancer agent, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-199585 (D1), for instance, discloses a method for assessing the chemosensitivity of specimen cells to an anticancer agent, wherein gene polymorphisms of BCRP contained in the specimen cells are identified based on an idea that a difference in chemosensitivity is due to the gene polymorphisms.
BCRP is an example of ABC transporters, and is known to be associated with resistance to an anticancer agent. Also, it is known that a difference in BCRP expression among the individuals is caused by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In view of this, the chemosensitivity assessing method disclosed in D1 comprises the steps of examining the DNA sequence of cancer cells obtained from a patient; identifying a polymorphism of gene encoding BCRP; and assessing the chemosensitivity of the cancer cells to the anticancer agent or the degree of a side-effect of the anticancer agent.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-304884 (D2) discloses a method comprising specifying a marker gene having compatibility to an anticancer agent with reference to the chemosensitivity of a cultured cancer cell line, and a gene expression profile of the cancer cell line in an intact state, and measuring an expression level of the corresponding to the specified marker gene in the cancer cell line of the specimen to predict compatibility of the specimen to the anticancer agent based on the obtained the expression value.
In the method disclosed in D2, if the gene group in the cancer cells of the specimen having a high relative expression amount has a high matching rate to the marker gene group having a high correlation to a certain anticancer agent, it is predicted that the specimen has compatibility to the anticancer agent. If, on the other hand, the gene group in the cancer cells in the specimen having a high relative expression amount does not show any matching to the marker gene group having a high correlation to the anticancer agent, it is predicted that the specimen does not have compatibility to the anticancer agent.
Even if the anticancer agent which is assessed to have compatibility by the above method is used for chemotherapy, it is known that the actual effectiveness of the chemotherapy is about 80%. The effectiveness of 80% is not a high rate for selecting a chemotherapy using the anticancer agent. Accordingly, an effectiveness indicator with higher probability is required for undergoing the chemotherapy in clinical facility.
There is known that p53, which is an oncosuppressor protein encoded by the p53 gene, or a retinobiastoma (RB) protein is associated with cell cycle control. In view of this, in recent years, a study has progressed concerning a relation between cancer and cell cycle related protein.
WO2004-076686 (D3) implies that a drug resistance test and prognosis are enabled by measuring at least two kinds of cell cycle related proteins and obtaining a profile of the cell cycle related proteins. D3, however, has no disclosure about a specific method or effect of the method.

Method for predicting effectiveness of chemotherapy using anticancer agent


A developing apparatus is provided for incorporation into an image forming machine. The developing apparatus includes a developer accommodating space for containing a developer composition, a series of developing rollers disposed in the developer accommodating space adjacent to each other and in facing relationship to an electrostatic latent image carrier for supplying the developer composition to the image carrier while transferring the developer composition from one developing roller to another, and a developer feed regulator for regulating the transfer of the developer composition between adjacent two of the developing rollers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus which may be incorporated in an image forming machine such as an electrophotographic printer or electrostatic-recording printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a developing apparatus of the type which includes two or more developing rollers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an electrophotographic printer is increasingly used which has a developing apparatus equipped with two or more developing rollers in order to meet a demand for higher printing speed. Such a developing apparatus effectively supplies a sufficient amount of developer composition to an electrostatic latent image carrier such as a photosensitive drum for development of the latent images, thereby enabling thick printing.
A developing apparatus of the above-described type is exemplified in FIG. 9. As shown in this figure, a photosensitive drum 10 rotates clockwise (the arrow P direction in FIG. 9). The drum 10 faces a first or lower developing roller 20 and a second or upper developing roller 30. Each of the developing rollers 20, 30 includes a magnetic roll body 21 (31) which is a fixed cylinder with N-poles and S-poles alternately arranged circumferential, and a rotary sleeve 22 (32) of e.g. stainless steel rotatably fitted on the roll body. The rotary sleeve 22 (32) rotates clockwise (the arrow P direction), preferably at a higher peripheral speed than the photosensitive drum 10.
Both of the developing rollers 20, 30 are disposed in a container 40 containing a suitable amount of developer composition S which is a mixture of toner with small magnetic particles as carrier. The toner is replenished as consumed, from a non-illustrated toner supplier, and thus the developer composition is maintained at a predetermined toner concentration. Indicated by reference numeral 41 is an agitator for helping the developer composition circulate within the container 40.
The developer composition S is electrostatically charged by mutual friction between the toner particles and the carrier particles while being agitated by the agitator 41. When moved onto the first developing roller 20 by the agitator 41, the developer composition is attracted on the rotary sleeve 22 by the magnetism of the magnetic roll body 21 and then supplied onto the photosensitive drum 10 as the rotary sleeve 22 rotates. Specifically, the developer composition on the rotary sleeve 22 ears up like whiskers along the magnetic flux arcuately extending from the N poles to the S poles around the magnetic roll body 21 and is transferred in this state. The ear-up state of the developer composition is appropriate for effectively depositing the developer composition on the photosensitive drum 10. At this time, the ear-up height of the developer composition is regulated by a first scraper or blade. 42 disposed under the first developing roller 20.
A remaining portion of the developer composition not passed onto the drum 10 is passed onto the second developing roller 30 and transferred thereon again in the ear-up state while coming into contact with the drum 10 for secondary deposition. A residual portion of the developer composition not passed onto the drum 10 even in the second chance for deposition moves with the rotation of the rotary sleeve 32, and is then scraped off the rotary sleeve 32 by a second scraper 43 to fall into the container 41 for recirculation.
As described hereinabove, during a single cycle of circulation within the container 40, the developer composition S comes into contact with the photosensitive drum 10 twice due to the provision of the two developing rollers 20, 30. Thus, even if the drum 10 and the developing rollers 20, 30 are rotated at a high speed for high speed printing, it is still possible to efficiently supply a sufficient amount of developer composition to the drum 10 for realizing appropriately thick printing.
However, the developing apparatus equipped with the plurality of developing rollers 20, 30 is still disadvantageous in that the carrier particles of the developer composition deteriorate in a relatively short time, and such carrier deterioration leads to a decrease of the developer composition supply to the photosensitive drum 10, consequently resulting in faint printing. This is because the circulating path for the developer composition within the container 40 is extended due to the provision of the two developing rollers 20, 30 instead of a single developing roller. In particular, the developer composition is subjected to great friction between the two rotary sleeves 22, 32 when transferred from the first developing roller 20 to the second developing roller 30. As a result, the toner powder deposits on the surfaces of the carrier particles, or the coating provided on the carrier particles is damaged, thereby resulting in improper and/or unstable electrostatic charge.
In this regard, it is possible to adjust the gray level of printing by controlling for example the charge voltage of the photosensitive drum 10. However, the early deterioration of the printing quality caused by the above-described carrier deterioration applies regardless of the gray level setting.

Developing apparatus with developer feed regulator


A method for manufacturing a handsaw capable of cutting a glass bottle. The method includes cutting a steel strip to a predetermined length to form a handsaw substrate. A portion of the handsaw substrate, other than a cutter blade forming portion formed on at least one edge of the handsaw substrate in a widthwise direction is masked. A hard abrasive is applied onto the portion of the handsaw substrate other than the masked portion. The handsaw substrate, to which the hard abrasive has been applied, is dipped in an electrolytic solution tank to deposit a metal layer in which the hard abrasive is embedded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handsaw which can be used to cut glass, such as a glass bottle, a method for manufacturing the same, and a method for re-using an empty wine bottle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wine bottles, come in various colors and designs, having stylish labels, which enhances enjoyment in drinking the wine contained therein. However, since such wine bottles are formed from colored glass provided in a various range of colors, it is difficult to re-use empty wine bottles. As a result, society has to deal with the mounting piles of empty wine bottles which exist at present.
The Life Products Division of the Life Industry Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry have proposed recycling empty wine bottles by melting the same to produce 'ecology bottles' wherein various colors of the wine bottles to be recycled do not matter, and also converting the wine bottles into construction material such as roadbed material for roads. However, the fact that there is no guarantee (agreement) that drink/beverage manufacturers will utilize such 'ecology bottles' poses a major problem, and the construction material made from wine bottles is still at the testing and research stage so that it will take a long time before such construction material can be put into practical use. On the other hand, if the bottom portion of a bottle such as a wine bottle, a "sake" bottle, or a cola bottle can be manually cut, as a do-it-yourself (DIY) project, the cut bottle can be reused as a flowerpot, for example, wherein the cut bottle is turned upside-down. However, a diamond cutter which is commonly used by a glazier to cut plate glass cannot be used to cut a glass bottle.
A file-type cutter and a wire-type cutter are also known in the art as a handy glass cutter as an alternative to a diamond cutter. In either cutter, hard abrasive such as diamond abrasive is used. In the file-type cutter, diamond abrasive is applied to a surface of a substrate having a wedge-shaped cross section. In the wire-type cutter, diamond abrasive is applied to a stainless wire. However, in the file-type cutter, it is impossible to deeply cut glass because of the wedge-shaped section (i.e., it is impossible to cut thick glassware, such as a glass bottle), and in the wire-type cutter, it is difficult for a user to exert a strong force on the cutter because the wire is flexible, or it is difficult to cut an object along a straight line. Moreover, the wire of the wire-type is easily broken.


A card game designed to simulate movements and activities between two combatants. The object of the game is to force all the other players to lose their game points before the winner does. The game uses a unique set of playing cards each containing one of three possible main color codes, and up to three out of four possible activity symbols. Each activity symbol is associated or linked to a second color code that matches one of the three main color codes. The game is presented herein as a sword fighting game between combatants. The activity symbols represent various offensive and defensive activities performed by opposing players during a sword fight. During the game, an offensive player selects an opposing player to attack after reviewing his or her holding cards and the top card in the discard pile of the other player. The defender must either dodge, parry or riposte the attack. If the defender cannot defend the attack, then he or she loses a game point(s) equal to the value of the number of game point(s) on the card played by the offensive player. The last player to possess game points wins the game.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to games, and more particular to card games that simulate sporting or fighting activities between combatants.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sword-fighting is an ancient fighting activity between two or more combatants attempting to kill or seriously injure each other with a sword. To be successful swordfighters, the individuals must not only learn how a series of offensive moves (called attacks) used to kill or injure his or her opponent with a sword but also a series of defensive moves to avoid (called a dodge) or deflect (called a parry) the opponent's sword. When attacking, the offensive opponent may be temporarily unbalanced and vulnerable to a counter move by the defending opponent, known as a riposte. In many instances, defenders will intentionally present or display a weakness, only to respond by a deadly riposte. These activities of attacking, dodging, deflecting and riposting and the display of weakness to entice a desired response, makes sword-fighting an exciting sport to watch and to play.


A curb-climbing rear wheel drive power wheelchair is disclosed having a pair of drive wheels, at least one ground-engaging idler wheel connected to the frame forward of the drive wheels and at least one anti-tip wheel mounted above ground aft of the drive wheels. Each drive wheel and an associated drive assembly are mounted to a motor support bracket that is pivoted to the frame of the wheelchair. The drive assembly is mounted such that its motor is angled upward and rearward from the bracket. The anti-tip wheel is attached to one motor support bracket such that pivoting of the motor support bracket causes vertical displacement of the anti-tip wheel.

Wheelchairs for use by handicapped and disabled persons have been well known for many years. These wheelchairs fall into two basic categories, manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs. Power wheelchairs use a motor system for driving one set of wheels on the chair. Depending on the location of the set of wheels that are driven, the wheelchair is categorized as either a front, mid or rear wheel drive wheelchair. Each type of chair has its advantages, disadvantages and design complexities.
In a rear wheel drive wheelchair, the wheelchair includes powered wheels that have an axis typically behind the center of gravity of the wheelchair and occupant. In this chair, there are generally two caster wheels that contact the ground located at or near the front of the chair. These front casters provide support and balance for the wheelchair. Rear wheel drive power wheelchairs also typically have small anti-tip wheels on rigid mountings to the rear which are designed to catch the wheelchair if it should start to tip backwards.
One example of a rear wheel drive power wheelchair is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,297 to Meier. This wheelchair has the large powered wheels mounted on sprung trailing arms, and has the rear anti-tip wheels mounted on the ends of the trailing arms.
Power wheelchairs are also known in which the drive wheels are positioned forward of the center of gravity, and the wheelchair normally rests on the drive wheels and on rear caster wheels. These include wheelchairs, known as mid-wheel drive power wheelchairs, in which the drive wheels are aligned close to the position of the center of gravity. In this type of wheelchair, anti-tip wheels are provided at the front to support the wheelchair if it should tip forwards and to assist it in climbing curbs and ramps. Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,165 shows a mid-wheel drive power wheelchair in which the front anti-tip wheels are inter-linked to the drive wheel suspension.
One of the deficiencies with conventional rear wheel drive power wheelchairs has been that the anti-tips wheels that are located on the rear of the frame are typically fixed mounted such that there is no vertical change in position. This type of arrangement can pose a problem when accelerating on an incline.
Also, in rear wheel drive power wheelchairs, because of the location of the drive wheels aft of the center of gravity, the wheel base tends to be fairly long, thus increasing the turning radius of the wheelchair.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved rear wheel drive power wheelchair.


The invention is directed at devices, systems, and processes for managing the temperature of an electrochemical call including a device 10 comprising an inlet for receiving a heat transfer fluid; one or more electrochemical cell compartments 12 for receiving one or more electrochemical calls 20; one or more thermal energy storage material compartments 14 containing one or more thermal energy storage materials 18; and one or more heat transfer fluid compartments 16 for flowing the heat transfer fluid through the device; wherein the space between the one or more heat transfer fluid compartments 16 and the one or more electrochemical cell compartments 12 preferably includes one or more first regions 22 (i.e. portion) that are substantially free of the thermal energy storage material 18; and the space between the one or more heat transfer fluid compartments 16 and the one or more thermal energy storage material compartments 14 preferably includes one or more second regions 24 (i.e. portion) that are substantially free of an electrochemical cell 20; so that the heat transfer fluid compartment 16 is in direct thermal communication with both the thermal energy storage material compartment 14 and the electrochemical cell compartment 12.

Industry in general has been actively seeking a novel approach to partially or completely power vehicles using electricity stored in electrochemical cells. One problem which has been recognized by the automotive industry is the need to control the temperature of the electrochemical cells. The power generating capacity of an electrochemical cell is known to change with temperature, and electrochemical cells are known to fail when heated to high temperatures.
Various approaches to regulating the temperature of an electrochemical cell are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,433 B2 (Godmundsson et al., issued Jul. 22, 2003), U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,434 (Brooker et al, issued Oct. 6, 1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,571 (Longardner et al., issued Sep. 12, 1995), U.S. Pat. No. 6,797,427 B2 (Maleki et al., issued Aug. 9, 2001), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,944 B2 (Al-Hallaj et al., issued Sep. 13, 2005), each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Each of these approaches is inefficient in one or more aspects. For example, Godmundsson et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,433 B2) teaches a device including a compartment containing a phase change material that completely separates the electrochemical cells from a passage for flowing air. As such, the air stream cannot directly cool the electrochemical cell. Heat must first diffuse through the phase change material before it reaches the air stream. This arrangement is inefficient, particularly for dealing with applications that may require long times of high battery discharge power (such as during high speed driving or uphill driving of an automotive vehicle). Also Godmundsson does not teach a system for heating the electrochemical cells when the phase change material has cooled.
The basic idea is to be able to operate an electrochemical cell within a target temperature by providing heat when the temperature is below a minimum target temperature, removing heat when the temperature is above a maximum target temperature, and transferring heat into or out of a thermal energy storage material when the temperature of the electrochemical cell is within the target temperature range. To be a practical solution the approach to heating the electrochemical cell should employ a device that efficiently stores heat for extend periods of time (e.g., at least 4 or more hours) so that after the vehicle is parked in a cold environment the electrochemical cells can be rapidly heated to at temperature at which they can provide sufficient power to a an electric load, such as an electric motor.
There continues to exist a need for devices and systems for rapidly removing heat from an electrochemical cell, for rapidly providing heat to an electrochemical cell, for maintaining an electrochemical cell between a minimum target temperature and a maximum target temperature, to efficiently store heat, or any combination thereof. For example, there exists a need for a device that is capable of transferring heat from an electrochemical cell directly to both heat transfer fluids and thermal energy storage materials.

Thermal management of an electrochemical cell by a combination of heat transfer fluid and phase change material