Silver halide emulsions are disclosed in which at least 50 percent of total grain projected area is accounted for by tabular grains (1) bounded by {100} major faces having adjacent edge ratios of less than 10, (2) each having an aspect ratio of at least 2, and (3) internally at their nucleation site containing iodide and at least 50 mole percent chloride. The emulsions are prepared by a process comprised of the steps of (a) introducing silver and halide salts into a dispersing medium so that nucleation of the tabular grains occurs in the presence of iodide with chloride accounting for at least 50 mole percent of the halide present in the dispersing medium and the pCl of the dispersing medium being maintained in the range of from 0.5 to 3.5 and (b) following nucleation completing grain growth under conditions that maintain the {100} major faces of the tabular grains.

During the 1980's a marked advance took place in silver halide photography based on the discovery that a wide range of photographic advantages, such as improved speed-granularity relationships, increased covering power both on an absolute basis and as a function of binder hardening, more rapid developability, increased thermal stability, increased separation of native and spectral sensitization imparted imaging speeds, and improved image sharpness in both mono- and multi-emulsion layer formats, can be achieved by employing high and intermediate aspect ratio tabular grain emulsions.
An emulsion is generally understood to be a "tabular grain emulsion" when tabular grains having an aspect ratio of at least 2 account for at least 50 percent of total grain projected area. The aspect ratio of a tabular grain is the ratio of its equivalent circular diameter (ECD) to its thickness (t). The equivalent circular diameter of a grain is the diameter of a circle having an area equal to the projected area of the grain. An emulsion is understood to be a "high aspect ratio tabular grain emulsion" when tabular grains having a thickness of less than 0.3 .mu.m have an average aspect ratio of greater than 8. The term "intermediate aspect ratio emulsion" is employed when, through tabular grain thickening above 0.3 .mu.m and/or low grain mean ECD, an average aspect ratio in the range of from 5-8 is exhibited. Generally, tabular grain emulsions exhibit average tabular grain aspect ratios of at least 2. The term "thin tabular grain" is generally understood to be a tabular grain having a thickness of less than 0.2 .mu.m. The term "ultrathin tabular grain" is generally understood to be a tabular grain having a thickness of 0.06 .mu.m or less. The term "high chloride" refers to grains that contain at least 50 mole percent chloride based on silver. In referring to grains of mixed halide content, the halides are named in order of increasing molar concentrations--e.g., silver iodochloride contains a higher molar concentration of chloride than iodide.
The overwhelming majority of high and intermediate aspect ratio tabular grain emulsions contain tabular grains that are irregular octahedral grains. Regular octahedral grains contain eight identical crystal faces, each lying in a different {111} crystallographic plane. Tabular irregular octahedra contain two or more parallel twin planes that separate two major grain faces lying in {111} crystallographic planes. The {111} major faces of the tabular grains exhibit a threefold symmetry, appearing triangular or hexagonal. It is generally accepted that the tabular shape of the grains is the result of the twin planes producing favored edge sites for silver halide deposition, with the result that the grains grow laterally while increasing little, if any, in thickness after parallel twin plane incorporation.
While high aspect ratio tabular grain emulsions have been advantageously employed in a wide variety of photographic and radiographic applications, the requirement of parallel twin plane formation and {111} crystal faces pose limitations both in emulsion preparation and use. These disadvantages are most in evidence in considering tabular grains containing high chloride concentrations. It is generally recognized that silver chloride grains prefer to form regular cubic grains--that is, grains bounded by six identical {100} crystal faces. Tabular grains bounded by {111} faces in silver chloride emulsions often revert to nontabular forms unless morphologically stabilized.
While high and intermediate aspect ratio tabular grain silver bromide emulsions were known to the art long before the 1980's, Wey U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,215 produced the first tabular grain silver chloride emulsion. The tabular grains were of the twinned type, exhibiting major faces of threefold symmetry lying in {111} crystallographic planes. An ammoniacal double-jet precipitation technique was employed. The thicknesses of the tabular grains were high compared to contemporaneous silver bromide and bromoiodide tabular grain emulsions because the ammonia ripening agent thickened the tabular grains. To achieve ammonia ripening it was also necessary to precipitate the emulsions at a relatively high pH, which is known to produce elevated minimum densities (fog) in high chloride emulsions. Further, to avoid degrading the tabular grain geometries sought both bromide and iodide ions were excluded from the tabular grains early in their formation.
Wey et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,306 developed a twinning process for preparing silver chlorobromide emulsions containing up to 40 mole percent chloride based on total silver. This process of preparation has not been successfully extended to high chloride emulsions. The highest average aspect ratio reported in the Examples was 11.
Maskasky U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,463 (hereinafter designated Maskasky I) developed a strategy for preparing a high chloride emulsion containing tabular grains with parallel twin planes and {111} major crystal faces with the significant advantage of tolerating significant internal inclusions of the other halides. The strategy was to use a particularly selected synthetic polymeric peptizer in combination with a grain growth modifier having as its function to promote the formation of {111} crystal faces. Adsorbed aminoazaindenes, preferably adenine, and iodide ions were disclosed to be useful grain growth modifiers. Maskasky U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,323 (hereinafter designated Maskasky II), significantly advanced the state of the art by preparing high chloride emulsions containing tabular grains with parallel twin planes and {111} major crystal faces using an aminoazaindene growth modifier and a gelatino-peptizer containing up to 30 micromoles per gram of methionine. Since the methionine content of a gelatino-peptizer, if objectionably high, can be readily reduced by treatment with a strong oxidizing agent (or alkylating agent, King et al U.S. Pat. 4,942,120), Maskasky II placed within reach of the art high chloride tabular grain emulsions with significant bromide and iodide ion inclusions prepared starting with conventional and universally available peptizers.
Maskasky I and II have stimulated further investigations of grain growth modifiers capable of preparing high chloride emulsions of similar tabular grain content. Tufano et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,621 employed di(hydroamino)azines as grain growth modifiers; Takada et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,398 employed heterocycles containing a divalent sulfur ring atom; Nishikawa et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,491 employed spectral sensitizing dyes and divalent sulfur atom containing heterocycles and acyclic compounds; and Ishiguro et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,508 employed organic bis-quaternary amine salts.
Bogg U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,951 reported the first tabular grain emulsions in which the tabular grains had parallel {100} major crystal faces. The tabular grains of Bogg exhibited square or rectangular major faces, thus lacking the threefold symmetry of conventional tabular grain {111} major crystal faces. In the sole example Bogg employed an ammoniacal ripening process for preparing silver bromoiodide tabular grains having aspect ratios ranging from 4:1 to 1:1. The average aspect ratio of the emulsion was reported to be 2, with the highest aspect ratio grain (grain A in FIG. 3) being only 4. Bogg states that the emulsions can contain no more than 1 percent iodide and demonstrates only a 99.5% bromide 0.5% iodide emulsion. Attempts to prepare tabular grain emulsions by the procedures of Bogg have been unsuccessful.
Mignot U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,156 represents an improvement over Bogg in that the disadvantages of ammoniacal ripening were avoided in preparing a silver bromide emulsion containing tabular grains with square and rectangular major faces. Mignot specifically requires ripening in the absence of silver halide ripening agents other than bromide ion (e.g., thiocyanate, thioether or ammonia).
Endo and Okaji, "An Empirical Rule to Modify the Habit of Silver Chloride to form Tabular Grains in an Emulsion", The Journal of Photographic Science, Vol. 36, pp. 182-188, 1988, discloses silver chloride emulsions prepared in the presence of a thiocyanate ripening agent. Emulsion preparations by the procedures disclosed has produced emulsions containing a few tabular grains within a general grain population exhibiting mixed {111} and {100} faces.
Mumaw and Haugh, "Silver Halide Precipitation Coalescence Processes", Journal of Imaging Science, Vol. 30, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 1986, pp. 198-299, is essentially cumulative with Endo and Okaji, with section IV-B being particularly pertinent.
Symposium: Torino 1963, Photographic Science, Edited by C. Semerano and U. Mazzucato, Focal Press, pp. 52-55, discloses the ripening of a cubic grain silver chloride emulsion for several hours at 77.degree. C. During ripening tabular grains emerged and the original cubic grains were depleted by Ostwald ripening. As demonstrated by the comparative Example below, after 3 hours of ripening tabular grains account for only a small fraction of the total grain projected area, and only a small fraction of the tabular grains were less than 0.3 .mu.m in thickness. In further investigations going beyond the actual teachings provided, extended ripening eliminated many of the smaller cubic grains, but also degraded many of the tabular grains to thicker forms.
Japanese published patent application (Kokai) 02/024,643, laid open Jan. 26, 1990, was cited in a Patent Cooperation Treaty search report as being pertinent to the subject matter claimed, but is in Applicants' view unrelated. The claim is directed to a negative working emulsion containing a hydrazide derivative and tabular grains with an equivalent circular diameter of 0.6 to 0.2 .mu.m. Only conventional tabular grain preparations are disclosed and only silver bromide and bromoiodide emulsions are exemplified.
In the precipitation of silver halide emulsions it is the most common practice to perform the entire precipitation reaction in a single reaction vessel. Nevertheless, so-called "dual-zone" precipitations have also been reported. In dual-zone arrangements silver and halide ions are brought together to form grain nuclei in a first area and then transported to a second area for grain growth. For many years emulsion was recirculated from the second (growth) area to the first (nucleation) area, but more recently arrangements have been reported that do not recirculate any portion of the emulsion from the second (growth) area to the first (nucleation) area, thereby completely isolating grain nucleation from grain growth. Specific illustrations of dual-zone precipitation are provided by Mignot U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,012, Urabe U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,208, and European published patent applications 326,852, 326,853, 355,535, 370,116, 368,275 and 374,954.
Although it was known for many years that the performance of silver halide emulsions can be modified by the introduction of transition metal ions during grain precipitation, it was generally assumed that the counterion of the transition metal ion, except when it happened to be halide ion, did not enter the grain structure and that the counterion selection was unrelated to photographic performance. Janusonis et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,272; McDugle et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,933,272, 4,981,781, and 5,037,732; and Keevert et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,035 were the first to demonstrate that ligands capable of forming coordination complexes with transition metal ions are capable of entering the grain crystal lattice structure and producing modifications of photographic performance that are not realized by incorporation of the transition metal ion alone. Thereafter, by hindsight, it was realized that earlier disclosures of adding transition metal ion dopants, either as simple salts or as coordination complexes, had inadvertently disclosed useful ligand incorporations. Of these inadvertent teachings, the incorporation of iron hexacyanide during grain precipitation is the most notable and is illustrated by Shiba et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,390; Ohkubo et al U.S. Pat. No. 3.890.154; Iwaosa et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,711 and Habu et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,483,
Evans et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,931 discloses a photographic silver halide emulsion comprised of radiation sensitive silver halide grains exhibiting a face centered cubic crystal lattice structure containing on average, at least one pair of metal ions chosen from group VIII, periods 5 and 6, at adjacent cation sites of the crystal lattice. Increased speed and reduced low intensity reciprocity failure are demonstrated in silver bromide emulsions.
Silver halide emulsions having high chloride contents, e.g., greater than 50 mole percent chloride based on silver, are known to be very desirable in image-forming systems due to the high solubility of silver chloride, which permits short processing times and provides less environmentally polluting effluents. Nevertheless, the higher the chloride content of a silver halide emulsion, the more difficult it is to achieve high and stable radiation sensitivity (sometimes referred to in the photographic art as "speed"). One reason for this is that conventional emulsions having high chloride contents exhibit a severe propensity to deterioration upon aging or storage. As a consequence, such an aged or stored emulsion when processed, produces a higher minimum density than the "fresh" emulsion. This increase in minimum density, commonly referred to as "fog", is attributable to the formation of a low level of reduced silver formation that occurs independently of imagewise exposure. In color photography, fog is typically observed as image dye density, rather than directly as silver density. Changes in fog and sensitivity are particularly troublesome in color photographic elements that comprise multiple color layers since such changes can vary from layer to layer which results in a color imbalance and reduction in quality.
Materials known in the photographic art as photographic "stabilizers", as distinguished from the general class of "antifoggants", have been used in the past to protect radiation sensitive silver halide emulsions against changes in sensitivity and fog upon aging and storage. One skilled in the art readily recognizes the distinction between the use of photographic stabilizers, which combat fog and sensitivity changes that occur upon storage, and those materials, categorized as antifoggants, which combat fog caused by such things as the inherent nature of the radiation sensitive silver halide emulsion (which may produce chemical fog) or the conditions of development of the emulsion, for example, development for protracted periods of time or at temperatures above normal. A more detailed discussion of this distinction between antifoggants and stabilizers can be found in G. F. Duffin, Photographic Emulsion Chemistry, Chapter 7, The Focal Press, London and New York (1966), Research Disclosure, August 1976, Item 14851 and U.S. Pat. No. No. 2,728,663. Research Disclosure is published by Kenneth Mason Publication, Ltd., the Old Harbourmaster's, 8 North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire P010 7 DD, England.
An extensive description of photographic stabilizers and antifoggants which are indicated to be useful for avoiding instability that increases minimum density in negative-type emulsion coatings (i.e., fog) or that increases minimum density or decreases maximum density in direct-positive emulsion coatings is set forth in Research Disclosure, Vol. 308, December 1989, Item 308119, Section VI. In addition, Nishikawa et al , U.S. Pat. No. No. 4,960,689, describes a color photographic material that comprises a silver halide emulsion containing at least 50 mole percent chloride and a compound that is referred to as an antifoggant. The antifoggant described contains a thiosulfonate group. The patent alleges that the color photographic material has high sensitivity and small reciprocity failure and storage fog. Also, Japanese published Patent Application (Kokai) 03/208,041, laid open Sep. 11, 1991, describes a silver halide color photographic material having a silver halide emulsion layer in which the emulsion is prepared in the presence of a thiosulfonate compound. The application alleges that the color material undergoes less fogging during emulsion coating, storage of the emulsion and high speed development.

High chloride tabular grain emulsions and processes for their preparation


A motor device for a vehicle includes a stator, a rotor, a bearing, an inverter, and a controller. The stator is attached into a housing and includes a concentrated winding coil. The rotor includes a permanent magnet. The bearing supports a rotating shaft of the rotor. The inverter controls an energization state of the concentrated winding coil. If a rotational speed of the rotor is greater than a threshold, the controller outputs a control signal to the inverter to execute field weakening control, and thereby makes a potential difference between the housing and the rotating shaft lower than a withstand voltage of the bearing. The control signal controls the energization state of the concentrated winding coil. The field weakening control generates magnetic flux of the concentrated winding coil in a direction of weakening magnetic flux of the permanent magnet.

The technology relates to a motor device to be installed in a vehicle.
A vehicle including an automobile is provided with an electric motor such as a travel motor or a power generation motor. Such electric motors include a stator that is accommodated in a housing and a rotor that is accommodated in the middle of the stator. To the housing may be attached a bearing that supports a rotating shaft of the rotor (for example, reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-158318 and Japanese Patent Nos. 4622593 and 5732309).


The invention relates to a steering wheel arrangement for motor vehicles, in which the risk of injury is reduced, should a driver impact against the steering wheel in the event of a crash. According to the invention the skeleton of the steering wheel arrangement has a compact body of deformable, energy absorbing material, in which the spokes of the steering wheel are fixed.

Steering wheel arrangements for motor vehicles are known, in which the risk of injury is reduced, should the driver, in the event of a crash, impact against the steering wheel whilst the airbag is not yet deployed. DE 44 06 420 A1, for example, discloses a steering wheel in which the steering wheel spokes, which join the hub and the steering wheel rim, are capable of bending should a driver impact against the steering wheel rim. In this case the steering wheel rim is capable of bending downwards from a normal plane relative to the hub into a deflection plane. This is achieved in that the padding material enclosing each steering wheel spoke running behind the central axis of the hub renders said spoke less flexurally rigid than does the padding material of each steering wheel spoke running in front of the central axis of the hub. This reduces the risk of injury to the impacting driver.
The disadvantage of this steering wheel lies in the increased cost, since spokes of different flexural rigidity have to be produced.
DE 197 47 873 A1 discloses an energy absorbing steering wheel which comprises an upper part containing the steering wheel rim and spokes, and a lower part which contains the hub, the lower part being designed as an energy absorbing deformable component. In order to achieve the energy absorption, the lower part has a shape such that sections thereof are capable of deformation. The lower part can therefore have a spoke-like structure, it being possible to influence the desired energy absorption through the number, shape and arrangement of the spokes.
This arrangement has the disadvantage that besides the spokes in the upper part, additional spokes are provided in the lower part, which make the steering wheel more costly.

Steering wheel arrangement for motor vehicles


The present invention provides for a statistics Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) (108) wherein the statistics CRC (108) is representative of the values contained within a statistics RAM (110). The statistics CRC (108) is then used to reduce test vectors by allowing the validity of the statistics to be determined by reading this signature instead of reading all the individual statistics. The signature is regenerated for each complete pass of the statistics, and the contents of this register are only updated when the pass is complete.

This invention relates generally to statistical analysis and more particularly to improved methods of storing and analyzing statistics.
The generation and analysis of statistics is useful to track and test the performance of many processes. In certain systems, however, the amount of statistics needed becomes cumbersome in that the amount of time it takes to manipulate the data and the amount of memory needed to store the data increases. One particular application where this is true is in the generation, storage and manipulation of network statistics.
Thus, there is a need for a method and system of managing large amounts of statistical data.
The present invention provides for a statistics Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) wherein the statistics CRC is representative of the values contained within the statistics RAM. The statistics CRC is then used to reduce test vectors by allowing the validity of the statistics to be determined by reading this signature instead of reading all the individual statistics. The signature is regenerated for each complete pass of the statistics, and the contents of this register are only updated when the pass is complete.
These and other features of the invention that will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, taken together with the accompanying drawings.

Statistics signature generation and analysis


A catheter having at least two lengths of tubular material axially joined together by a welded joint with no perceptible change in diameter at the welded joint; the welded joint including a substantial axially oriented seam between the two lengths of material.

Currently, both diagnostic and therapeutic catheters are manufactured by forming braided tubes of stainless steel fibers or strands, over a mandrel. More specifically, the braided tube may be formed about an inner Teflon.RTM. liner or tube initially carried on a supporting mandrel. An outer plastic layer may then be extruded about the braided material to create the catheter body. Current catheter constructions also utilize a transition tip which is not reinforced with braid in order that the tip be softer and more flexible than the remaining portions of the catheter. In some catheter designs, an even more flexible tip is bonded to the free end of the tubular transition tip.
Catheters which incorporate multiple axial sections typically employ butt or lap weld joints to secure the axial sections of the catheter together. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,254,107; 4,861,337; 4,793,351; 4,662,404; and 4,391,302.
Catheters incorporating either butt or lap type welded joints are not completely satisfactory however, and it is thus the object of this invention to improve upon prior catheter constructions by incorporating unique weld configurations which have a substantial axial seam component extending along the axis of the catheter. In other words, adjacent catheter sections are cut and welded in such a way that they overlap in the longitudinal direction, but without altering the outer diameter of the catheter. This arrangement not only increases surface area at the weld joints and thereby also increases bond integrity, but also creates a more desirable transition between the same materials of different durometer or different materials with or without the same durometer, than other more conventional welds such as lap or butt welds.
The unique weld configurations of this invention also permit alteration of properties or characteristics of the catheter material in the area of the weld, and this feature is particularly advantageous in areas of the catheter that will be curved, in that different stiffness or hardness materials can be used on the inside and outside of the curve.
Examples of the unique weld configurations in accordance with this invention include step joints, taper joints, and combinations of the two.
Thus, in accordance with its broader aspects, the present invention relates to a catheter having at least two lengths of tubular material axially joined together by a welded joint with no perceptible change in outer diameter at the welded joint; the welded joint including a substantial axially oriented seam between the two lengths of material.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a catheter having at least two lengths of tubular material axially joined by a welded joint, the welded joint having an axial length component of at least 0.5 cm. in length, and preferably in the range of 0.5-10 cm.
Other objects and advantages of the subject invention will become apparent from the detailed description which follows.

Overlapping welds for catheter constructions


According to certain embodiments, a silicide layer is formed after the fabrication of a functional gate electrode using a gate-last scheme. An initial semiconductor structure has at least one impurity regions formed on a semiconductor substrate, a sacrifice film formed over the impurity region, an isolation layer formed over the sacrifice film and a dielectric layer formed over the isolation film. A via is patterned into the dielectric layer of the initial semiconductor structure and through the thickness of the isolation layer such that a contact opening is formed in the isolation layer. The sacrifice film underlying the isolation layer is then removed leaving a void space underlying the isolation layer. Then, a metal silicide precursor is placed within the void space, and the metal silicide precursor is converted to a silicide layer through an annealing process.

Semiconductor structures and devices can contain metalized layers for forming interconnects between different regions of the structure. A pattern of trenches and vias can be patterned into a dielectric layer and inlaid with metal wire to fabricate a metalized layer. A silicide can be present and the bottom of vias formed in the metalized layer to facilitate the electrical contact between the metal wire and an underlying device layer of the semiconductor structure.
Semiconductor structures containing transistor devices have a gate electrode structure for applying an electrical potential to the transistor gate. Gate-last fabrication schemes can be employed where a dummy gate is provided and other elements required to form a transistor device are fabricated around the dummy gate. The dummy gate is removed and a functional gate structure is formed at a downstream point during fabrication. Formation of a functional gate structure typically requires high-temperature thermal processes such as densify annealing, post-nitridation annealing, and drive-in annealing. However, high-temperature processes can induce damage to some materials that can be present in the semiconductor structure including silicides.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Self-aligned silicide formation on source/drain through contact via


In a switching amplifier for generating a pair of output signals of square waves in response to an input signal, when the input signal is zero, the first output signal has a first duty cycle and the second output signal has a second duty cycle; when the input signal is greater than zero, the first output signal has a third duty cycle varying with the input signal and the second output signal still has the second duty cycle; and when the input signal is less than zero, the first output signal has the first duty cycle and the second output signal has a fourth duty cycle varying with the input signal. The first and second duty cycles are very small but equal to each other in size, and the phase difference between the first and second output signals could range from 0 to 180 degrees.

Switching amplifiers, also known as Class-D amplifiers, have the advantages in efficiency and benefits because of the efficiency, when compared to the Class-AB amplifiers. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional switching amplifier 10 with a low-pass filter (LPF) comprises an H-bridge circuit composed of transistors M1, M2, M3 and M4, and a control circuit 12 in response to an input signal Vi to switch the transistors M1, M2, M3 and M4 to thereby generate a pair of output signals OUTP and OUTN. The operation of the conventional switching amplifier 10 makes the output signals OUTP and OUTN in opposite polarities at any input signal and any time, and therefore, when the switching amplifier 10 is connected directly with an inductive load 16 such as a coil type speaker, there will be a large switching current flowing through the load 16, which will induce severe EMI problems and have the load 16 to bear the power dissipation resulted from the induced signals outside of the audio frequency band. It is thus necessary to filter out the signal components outside of the audio frequency band from the output signals OUTP and OUTN by a LPF 14 before they are applied to the load 16. FIG. 2. shows a waveform diagram of the output signals OUTP and OUTN of the switching amplifier 10 at different input signal Vi's, in which waveform 20 represents the output signal OUTP and waveform 22 represents the output signal OUTN. When the input signal Vi=0, the duty cycles of the output signals OUTP and OUTN both are 50%; when the input signal Vi>0, the duty cycle of the output signal OUTP increases and the duty cycle of the output signal OUTN decreases; and when the input signal Vi<0, the duty cycle of the output signal OUTP decreases and the duty cycle of the output signal OUTN increases. In other conventional switching amplifiers, it may also be the case that when the input signal Vi>0, the duty cycle of the output signal OUTP decreases while the duty cycle of the output signal OUTN increases, and when the input signal Vi<0, the duty cycle of the output signal OUTP increases while the duty cycle of the output signal OUTN decreases.
However, introducing the LPF 14 will result in cost raise and efficiency drop for implementing a switching amplifier, and it is therefore provided another type of amplifier, i.e., filterless switching amplifier. Under appropriate switching control, for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,211,728 and 6,262,632, a filterless switching amplifier may retain the advantages in efficiency. Additionally, the EMI issue is also important in the design of filterless switching amplifiers. The present invention is directed to a high efficiency and low EMI switching amplifier and a control method thereof.

Switching amplifier and control method thereof


An apparatus for converting a low voltage alternating current (AC) wiring circuit to a high speed data communications link, comprising a primary coupling circuit and a secondary coupling circuit. The apparatus provides low voltage AC power to a data device and couples data signals between the data device and the AC power line via the converted low voltage AC wiring circuit. An example is provided for retrofitting a door chime system to a high speed data link such as a video camera system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data communications and, more particularly, to converting a low voltage AC wiring circuit such as doorbell, or other low voltage control or signaling wiring to a data communications link.
2. Background and Description of the Prior Art
A conventional doorbell system in a residence is very limited in its functionality. If someone in the house wishes to determine the identity of a person at an entrance to a residence, the resident must typically go to the entrance and personally investigate, unless the residence is equipped with an intercom system to enable two-way communication with the person outside the entrance. One problem with the conventional system is that the person inside the house must be present at the door to determine the identity of the visitor. In addition, the conventional system cannot determine the identity of the visitor without disclosing the fact that someone is present inside the house. Further, even with an intercom facility it is not always possible to ascertain with certainty that the person outside the entrance is a person the resident would want to admit inside the house or even to have a conversation with the person.
One prior art solution is to install a closed circuit television system camera at the entrance connected via wiring to a closed circuit TV monitor located within the residence. Such systems tend to be bulky and expensive, and often require technical expertise to install correctly. Another disadvantage of the closed circuit television system is the requirement for additional wiring which may be a substantial expense in many kinds and sizes of residences.
Another prior art solution comprises a unit resembling a desktop telephone having a handset and a display and a second unit resembling a small intercom type unit having a small TV camera, a speaker microphone and a operating control. The camera unit is mounted adjacent the entrance to the residence and the desktop unit is located somewhere within the residence. The two units are connected via dedicated wiring and allows monitoring the entrance and permits two-way communication with the person at the entrance who has rung the doorbell. The call button on the outdoor camera unit may activate an indoor door chime, the camera, and an intercom if it is desired to do so. Even if the visitor does not press the call button but merely knocks on the door, the system has a monitor mode whereby the person inside can activate the camera to provide a visual image of the visitor. This video door phone has the same disadvantage the conventional closed circuit television systems does in that it also requires special wiring and expertise to connect the camera unit to the inside desktop monitoring unit.
Video door chime products similar to those described in the preceding paragraph are also available in versions having a wireless interface between an entry station outside a residence and a receiving station within the residence. While these units provide an alternative to a system that requires the installation of wiring or cabling, such systems tend to be expensive or subject to interference effects with the RF transmission, of the type often encountered with cordless phone products. Such interference can be more troublesome with wireless units because of the greater bandwidth demands placed on a video monitoring system.
What is needed is a system for providing communication between a visitor at an entrance to a residence or business that overcomes the disadvantages noted above and which may be easily installed by a homeowner of average mechanical skills.

Apparatus and method for converting a low voltage AC wiring circuit to a high speed data communications link


A device for sublimating a decoration on a surface of an object including opposing elastic membranes sealed at their peripheral edges and capable of elastic deformation in all directions when the device is placed under vacuum.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements regarding a device for sublimating a decoration on the surface of an object of whatsoever shape in order to increase the production and the quality of the objects to be decorated.
2. History of the Related Art
In the art are known machines of such type, generally consisting of two hinged rigid frames, in which one of the sides is integral with a membrane capable of elastic deformation. An inker, an object and a second inker are inserted into the machine between the two membranes. The machine is placed under vacuum so that the inkers, and in particular their decorated surfaces, are pressed against the surface of the object to be decorated. The assembly maintained under pressure is placed in a furnace, e.g., an electric one, for sublimating the decoration over a few millimeters of depth on the surface of the object.
This type of machine presents, however, some disadvantages with respect to the rigid frames which, when placing the machine under vacuum, precludes a perfect deformation of the elastic membranes and of the inkers, causing a clearance at the contact points on the object. When the decoration is transferred, this clearance between the object and the inkers results in a not decorated line at the contact point, which is detrimental to the quality of the object.

Device for sublimating a decoration on the surface of an object of any shape


Described herein are fabric care compositions comprising an esterquat, and a carbodiimide; along with methods of making and using same.

Fabric care compositions (e.g. fabric conditioners) can be applied to laundry during the rinse cycle in a washing machine. In contrast to laundry detergents, fabric softeners may be regarded as an after-treatment laundry aid.
Machine washing puts great mechanical stress on textiles, particularly natural fibers such as cotton and wool. The fibers at the fabric surface are squashed and frayed, and this condition hardens while drying the laundry in the air, giving the laundry a harsh feel. Adding a liquid fabric softener to the final rinse (rinse-cycle softener) results in the laundry that feels softer.
Fabric softeners are usually either in the form of a liquid, which is added to the washing machine during the rinse cycle (either by the machine itself or through use of a dispensing ball); or as a dryer sheet which is added to the moist laundry at the beginning of the dryer cycle. Liquid fabric softeners can be added manually during the rinse cycle or automatically if the machine has a dispenser designed for this purpose.
Fabric softeners coat the surface of fabric with chemical compounds that are electrically charged, causing threads to stand up from the surface and thereby imparting a softer and fluffier texture. Cationic softeners bind by electrostatic attraction to the negatively charged groups on the surface of the fibers and neutralize their charge. The long aliphatic chains then line up towards the outside of the fiber, imparting lubricity.
Rinse-cycle softeners usually contain cationic surfactants of the quaternary ammonium type as the main active ingredient. Cationic surfactants adhere well to natural fibers (wool, cotton), but less so to synthetic fibers. Cationic softeners are incompatible with anionic surfactants in detergents because they combine with them to form a solid precipitate. This requires that the softener is added in the rinse cycle. Fabric softener reduces the absorbency of textiles, which adversely affects the function of towels and microfiber cloth.
Formerly, the active material of most softeners in Europe, the USA, and Japan, were ditallowdimethylammonium chloride (DTDMAC) and distearyldimethylammonium chloride (DSDMAC). Due to their poor biodegradability, they were replaced by the readily biodegradable esterquats in the 1980s and 1990s.
A domestic laundry fabric softener is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,867. That patent teaches a self-emulsifying domestic laundry fabric active softener base comprised of N-methyl, N,N-di-(β-C14-C18 acyloxy ethyl), N-β-hydroxy ethyl ammonium metho sulfate characterized by good softening, outstanding whiteness-retention and excellent rewetting properties and has a light color having an index on the Gardner scale in the range of about 1 to 2. The active softener base is dispersed in an inert vehicle such as isopropanol and/or water and may be intermixed with other additives, such as perfumes, nonionic wetting agents, optical brighteners, etc.
Esterquats, a class of cationic fabric softeners, are reviewed by S. Mishra, V. K. Tyagi in J. Oleo Sci., vol. 56, iss. 6, pp 269 to 276. Esterquats, which are quaternary ammonium compounds having two long (C16-C18) fatty acid chains with 2 weak ester linkages, represent a new generation of fabric softening agents, having replaced the dialkyldimethylammonium salts (e.g., DTDMAC and DSDMAC). The inclusion of ester linkages into the aliphatic chains has significantly improved the kinetics of biodegradation of the cationic surfactants, lowering the environmental exposure levels. This generation of fabric softening agents combines a good environmental profile with the structural features required for an effective fabric conditioner. The paper reviewed the synthesis, types, actives combines a good environmental profile with the structural features required for a properties and applications of esterquats.
Esterquats are commonly used in fabric conditioners, however, they have a drawback: esterquats tend to hydrolyze at elevated temperatures. Such elevated temperatures are typically encountered in tropical climates. Additionally, such elevated temperatures are frequently encountered during the transportation vessels such as in hot trucks, and intermodal containers. Further such elevated temperatures are frequently encountered in warehouses. Finally, such elevated temperatures are sometimes found in laundry rooms, Laundromats, and facilities where heat is generated during the washing phase and the drying phase of doing laundry. One of the degradation pathways of the fabric conditioner is the hydrolysis of esterquat, to release free fatty acids. Free fatty acids have low solubilities in water and tend to precipitate out of the fabric conditioner as white fatty flakes. Such precipitation is undesirable from both efficacy and aesthetic considerations.
Clearly, a method of mitigating esterquat hydrolysis is needed. Embodiments of the present invention are designed to meet these, and other, needs.


A polyoxymethylene composition useful for producing weather-resistant molded articles comprising 60-95% by weight of a polyoxymethylene, a methacrylic acid ester polymer, and a pigment, a dye or a mixture thereof. The weather-resistant molded articles obtained therefrom.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polyoxymethylene composition which is useful for producing molded articles having excellent weather resistance, and to a molded articles thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to polyoxymethylene composition which, when molded, can be used as an exterior part without requiring the surface of the molded article to be plated or coated due to the weather-resistant characterization of the article and to a molded article obtained from the composition.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Polyoxymethylene is superior in mechanical strength, friction resistance, wear resistance, fatigue resistance, moldability, etc. and is in wide use in such fields as electronics, electricity, automobiles and precision machines.
Molded articles of polyoxymethylene exhibit poor weather resistance properties when used as a molded article for exterior parts (e.g. outside door handle of automobile). Molded articles of polyoxymethylene in general has insufficient resistance to weather conditions. Therefore, when a polyoxymethylene molded article is exposed to sunlight for a long period of time, the polyoxymethylene undergoes molecular fission due to the light energy at the surface of the molded article, and as a result, whitening and cracking takes place and the appearance of the molded article becomes substantially impaired. When these phenomena occur and are severe, the molded article will possess reduced mechanical strength.
In order to reduce these problems, there have been proposed, for example, a method wherein an ultraviolet absorber (e.g. benzophenone type ultraviolet absorber, benzotriazole type ultraviolet absorber and the like) is added to a polyoxymethylene molded article and a method wherein the above ultraviolet absorber and a hindered amine type light stabilizer are added in combination to a polyoxymethylene molded article.
However, the former methods of adding, an ultraviolet absorber or a mixture thereof with a hindered amine type light stabilizer, to a polyoxymethylene molded article, requires the addition of these additives in large amounts in order to obtain sufficient weather resistance. In these cases, deterioration would occur, for example, the heat stability, appearance and mechanical strength properties of the article, whereby the characteristics for the polyoxymethylene are impaired.
A method is presently in use in which a protective layer such as a plating layer, a coating layer or the like, is formed on the surface of a polyoxymethylene molded article to protect the surface.
However, even though a method of forming a protective layer (e.g. a plating layer, a coating layer) on the surface of a polyoxymethylene molded article is free from the above-mentioned problems, there is still the drawback of an increase in process steps, which in turn would increase production costs.

Weather-resistant polyoxymethylene composition and molded article thereof


An anti-lock braking control method for a vehicle for preventing locking of vehicle wheels, wherein brake hydraulic pressure is controlled in accordance with a wheel speed to be controlled in each brake control system or channel. The increase in the brake hydraulic pressure in one of the brake control channels is started when a predetermined condition is determined to be met in that control channel and after the predetermined condition is also determined to by met in another control channel. The predetermined condition is determined to be met for a control channel when the system speed Vs for that control channel becomes higher than a speed Vv-.DELTA.Vo, which corresponds to the estimated vehicle speed Vv lowered by a predetermined minute value .DELTA.Vo.

The present invention relates to an anti-lock braking control method and apparatus for preventing locking of automotive wheels of a running vehicle during braking.
Generally, in an anti-lock control apparatus for automotive vehicles, to maintain steering ability and running stability during braking, a control unit including a microcomputer controls brake hydraulic pressure. This brake pressure control also reduces braking distance.
During operation of the anti-lock control apparatus, a control mode for brake hydraulic pressure is determined based on an electric signal indicative of a wheel speed. This wheel speed is detected by a wheel speed sensor. According to the control mode, a hold valve, which is a normally opened solenoid valve, and a decay valve which is a normally closed solenoid valve, are selectively opened or closed to increase, hold constant and decrease the brake hydraulic pressure.
In such anti-lock control devices, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No 4,984,164, a reference speed for deciding when to decrease the brake hydraulic pressure is set or determined in accordance with a wheel speed (herein after referred as system speed Vs) to be controlled in each brake control system or channel. There is also set an estimated vehicle speed Vv having a predetermined follow-up limit of acceleration/deceleration with respect to the highest wheel speed among four wheel speeds. Further, there is set a threshold speed which tracks the estimated vehicle speed Vv with a predetermined speed difference therefrom and which is below the estimated vehicle speed Vv.
Based on the comparison of the system speed Vs with the reference speed or the threshold speed and also on the detected high peak point and low peak point of the system speed Vs, a pressure decrease status, a pressure hold status and a pressure increase status are set. Then, a plurality of hydraulic pressure valves (solenoid valves) are turned on and off in accordance with a predetermined control mode set for each of these statuses, thereby effecting the pressure decrease, pressure hold and pressure increase.
However, since the brake hydraulic pressure for each wheel, which is subjected to the anti-lock control through the corresponding brake control channel, is subjected to regulation such as increase, decrease and holding, without regard to the state of the regulation of the brake hydraulic pressure for another wheel, which is subjected to the anti-lock control through another corresponding brake control channel, all the brake control channels often act simultaneously with each other to start the increase in the brake hydraulic pressure for the four wheels of the vehicle at the same time. For that reason, when the speeds of the four wheels have dropped simultaneously with each other and because the estimated vehicle speed Vv is set on the basis of the highest one of the wheel speeds and each of the wheel speeds is compared with the estimated vehicle speed to perform the anti-lock control, the estimated vehicle speed becomes so different from the actual speed of the vehicle that the anti-lock control cannot be accurately performed.
Besides, when the four wheel speeds have dropped simultaneously with each other, moment of yawing, pitching or the like is likely to act to the vehicle to make the vehicle unstable.

Anti-lock braking control method and apparatus for a vehicle


Pharmaceutical compositions that contain a lipase inhibitor having a melting point ≧37° C., a sucrose fatty acid ester wherein the sucrose fatty acid ester is a mono-, di-, tri- or tetra-ester, and optionally one or more pharmaceutically acceptable excipients, are useful for treatment of obesity.

1. Field
The present invention relates to lipase inhibiting compositions having reduced food dependency and decreased formation of free oil.
2. Description
Lipase inhibitors are well known in the art and include lipstatin and orlistat. The latter is also known as tetrahydrolipstatin or THL and is derived from a natural product excreted by Streptomyces toxytricini. This class of compounds was found to exhibit in vitro as well as in vivo activity against various, lipases, such as lingual lipase, pancreatic lipase, gastric lipase, and carboxylester lipase. Its use for the control or prevention of obesity and hyperlipidemia is described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,089.
Orlistat is currently administered at doses of 120 mg per meal and dosing is independent of the body mass of the human subject. Orlistat acts locally in the gastrointestinal ("GI") tract and prevents lipase from digesting triglycerides and thus inhibits the formation of absorbable lipid degradation products. For this reason, systemic availability of the lipase inhibitors is not required and, instead, local residence in the GI tract is the preferred mode of delivery.
Lipase inhibitor compositions currently administered inhibit around 30% of fat absorption after consumption of a mixed meal; increasing the concentrations of lipase inhibitors in the pharmaceutical composition does not increase its clinical efficacy and/or potency while the intensity of local side effects increases.
Anal leakage of oil (oily spotting) is an adverse effect, which is occasionally observed by patients treated with lipase inhibitors. This phenomenon reflects physical separation of some liquid unabsorbed dietary fat from the bulk of solids in the lower large intestine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,953 discloses that by combining a lipase inhibitor with substantial amounts of water insoluble crude fibers, the inhibiting effect on fat absorption can be increased. Patent publication WO 00/09123 discloses that by combining a lipase inhibitor such as orlistat with low amounts of chitosan or a derivative or a salt thereof, the phenomenon of anal leakage of oil can be reduced.
International Patent Application WO 01/19378 discloses solid lipid formulations for lipase inhibitors useful to reduce or prevent fat excretion and unwanted formation of free oil. It has been found that a higher efficacy (high fat excretion) can be combined with a lowering of unwanted side effects, e.g. free oil. Recently it has been recognized that the efficacy of lipase inhibitors may depend strongly on the kind of the ingested food. A high efficacy have been found with meals composed of French fries, sausages and hamburgers, while lower efficacy was observed for cheese and other dairy products. Strong food dependency of the formulation efficacy is an unwanted phenomena, because either the formulation is overdosed in susceptible diets (with the consequence of free oil formation) or not active in less susceptible diets. Therefore, the decrease of the food dependency is a prerequisite to realize scenarios with a low dosage of the inhibitor, a high efficacy and less fewer side effects.
Surprisingly, the subject inventors discovered that a certain sucrose fatty acid ester subgroup can increase the activities of lipase inhibitors, decrease the food dependency and decreasing the formation of free oil.


An apparatus comprising an amplifier comprising at least one amplifier transistor, a threshold detection network and a bypass capacitor. The amplifier may be configured to generate an output signal at a collector in response to an input signal received at a base. The threshold detection network may be coupled between the collector and the base of the amplifier transistor. The threshold detection network may include a bias transistor having a collector coupled to the collector of the amplifier transistor and an emitter coupled to the base of the amplifier transistor. The threshold detection circuit may be configured to (i) sense a feedback current and (ii) provide a DC signal to the base of the amplifier transistor for dynamically sourcing bias current to the amplifier. The bypass capacitor may be coupled to the base of the bias transistor.

For new wireless systems such as WLAN and Wi-MAX, power amplifiers with high linear efficiencies are needed. Some sort of class AB or dynamic biasing is typically used to obtain high linear efficiencies. Other applications such as high dynamic range receivers can also benefit from dynamic biasing. Such receivers improve the input compression of a low noise amplifier (LNA).
Conventional approaches implement class AB configurations as a popular solution. Many implementations are used, most of which include external manual tuning of resistors. Such implementations have extra control ports, and can be very sensitive to process or temperature variations.
Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a circuit 10 illustrating a conventional approach is shown. The circuit 10 illustrates a traditional class AB bias circuit applied to a power amplifier transistor Q1. Many conventional class AB circuits implement a pass gate QPG, which supplies a base current IB to amplifier transistor Q1. The base current is received from the supply VCC. As input power is increased, the base current IB increases. Conventional approaches include diode temperature compensation D1 and D2, which are often added to provide stability over temperature. A resistor R1 is typically externally adjusted in order to set the quiescent current of the transistor Q1. A coupling capacitor C1 detects and integrates an RF input signal IN. The coupling capacitor C1 increases the voltage applied to the pass gate transistor QPG in order to provide more base current to the transistor Q1 when under drive.
The circuit 10 has one or more of the following deficiencies (a) needing an additional supply VCC input pin which is incompatible with a SOT89 package configuration, (b) needing manual tuning of the resistor R1 in order to set the bias current of the transistor Q1 that is not very stable, and (c) providing a detection circuit that is open loop.
Referring to FIG. 2, a circuit 20 illustrating another conventional approach is shown. The circuit 20 illustrates a variation of the popular class AB bias. The circuit 20 uses a current mirror implemented as a mirror transistor QMIRR. The transistor QMIRR sets the quiscent bias. The quiscent bias adjustment allows substantially less process sensitivity compared to the bias network 10 of FIG. 1. Similar to the circuit 10, the circuit 20 uses a pass gate transistor QPG for the supplying base current IB to the amplifier transistor Q1 under RF input drive.
The circuit 20 also uses a separate supply voltage/input pin for operation of the pass gate transistor QPG. Unlike the circuit 10, the circuit 20 does not include a feed-forward coupling capacitor to enhance the class AB action. The circuit 20 also illustrates a series base resistor RBB. The size of the base resistor RBB determines the amount of class AB action that is attainable. The circuit 20 also uses an open loop configuration.
It would be desirable to implement a compact class AB dynamic feedback bias that may (i) be implemented without (a) external resistor tuning and (b) additional dedicated control ports, (ii) be implemented with a two terminal gain block, such as a Darlington feedback amplifier, and/or (iii) be implemented without being sensitive to process and/or temperature variations.


A stirring element (10), especially a gasing stirring element for stirring liquids and introducing a gas, preferably air, to the liquids. The stirring element has a hub (12) for attachment to a stirring shaft and a support disk (14) joined to the hub (12), a plurality of stirring blades (16) being attached to a peripheral edge of the support disk (14). To achieve a low output power coefficient, each stirring blade (16) is made of a wedge-shape that is directed in the direction of rotary motion of the stirring element (10). Preferably, radially inner end sections (22, 24) of two sides (18, 20) of the stirring blade (16) are angled relative to sides (18, 20) outwardly with reference to the direction of rotary motion of the stirring element (10). The stirring element (10) simplifies gas feed and prevents clogs. By providing the support disk (14) with a conical shape having a ring of teeth (26) on its outer edge, a uniform distribution and good dispersion of the gas bubbles is obtainable.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stirring element, especially a gasing stirring element for stirring of liquids to which a gas, for example, air, is supplied, with a hub for attachment to a stirring shaft, and a support disk joined to the hub; a plurality of stirring blades is attached to the peripheral edge of the support disk.
2. Description of Related Art
A gas supplied to a liquid to be stirred is dispersed into bubbles as small as possible by means of a gasing stirring element in order to form a large surface for mass transfer between the gas and liquid.
Usually this gasing stirring element comprises a disk stirrer with stirring blades and an annular gas distributor, along whose apex line round holes are formed which holes feed the gas to the rotating disk stirrer, by whose shearing action the gas is further dispersed. The rotational motion of the stirring element, however, produces a negative pressure on the back of the stirring blades which leads to formation of gas cushions there. These gas cushions impart a streamlined contour to the stirring blades which is expressed in a strong power drop at given rpm.
Since, for mass transfer, two parameters, specifically the amount of gas and the power input, are determined by the stirring process, in order to be able to control the adjustment of the desired mass transfer, the power reduction deficit must be balanced by increasing the rpm. This engenders considerable cost in control engineering and hardware.

Stirring element for stirring gases into liquids


Azabicyclic, azatricyclic and azaspirocyclic derivatives of aminocyclohexanes which are systemically-active as NMDA, 5HT3, and nicotinic receptor antagonists, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the same, method of preparation thereof, and method of treating CNS disorders which involve disturbances of glutamatergic, serotoninergic, and nicotinic transmission, treating immunomodulatory disorders, and antimalaria, antitrypanosomal, anti-Borne virus, anti-HSV and anti-Hepatitis C virus activity.

1. Field of the Invention
Azabicyclic, azatricyclic and azaspirocyclic derivatives of aminocyclohexanes which are systemically-active as NMDA, 5HT3, and nicotinic receptor antagonists, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the same, method of preparation thereof, and method of treating CNS disorders which involve disturbances of glutamatergic, serotoninergic, and nicotinic transmission therewith, for treating immunomodulatory disorders, and for treating infectious diseases.
2. Prior Art
NMDA Antagonists
Antagonism of glutamate receptors of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type has a potentially wide range of therapeutic applications [19]. Functional inhibition of NMDA receptors can be achieved through actions at different recognition sites such as the primary transmitter site, strychnine-insensitive glycine site (glycineB), polyamine site, and phencyclidine site located inside the cation channel. The NMDA receptor channel blockers act in an uncompetitive "use-dependent" manner, meaning that they usually only block the channel in the open state. This use-dependence has been interpreted by many to mean that stronger activation of the receptor should lead to a greater degree of antagonism. Such a mode of action has further been taken to imply that this class of antagonist may be particularly useful when overactivation of NMDA receptors can be expected, such as in epilepsy, ischemia, and trauma. However, initial clinical experience with the selective, high affinity, strongly use-dependent uncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzocyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate ((+)-MK-801) has been disappointing. Namely, therapeutic efficacy in epilepsy was poor while some psychotropic side effects were apparent at therapeutic doses. These observations, together with the fact that phencyclidine abusers experience similar psychotropic symptoms, has led to the conclusion that uncompetitive antagonism of NMDA receptors may not be a promising therapeutic approach.
However, the use of more elaborate electrophysiological methods indicates that there is no equality between different uncompetitive antagonists since factors such as the speed of receptor blockade (on-off kinetics) and the voltage-dependence of this effect may determine the pharmacodynamic features in vivo, i.e., therapeutic safety as well. Paradoxically, agents with low to moderate, rather than high, affinity may be desirable. Such findings triggered a reconsideration of the concept of uncompetitive antagonism of NMDA receptors in drug development [19, 22]. Uncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonists, such as amantadine and mezzanine—which fulfill the above criteria—have been used clinically for several years in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and dementia respectively, and do indeed rarely produce side effects at the therapeutic doses used in their respective indications.
In view of the above mentioned evidence, we have developed a series of novel uncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonists based on the azabicyclic, azatricyclic and azaspirocyclic aminocyclohexane structure.
5-HT3 Receptor Antagonists
5-HT3 receptors are ligand gated ionotropic receptors permeable for cations. In man 5-HT3 receptors show the highest density on enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa, which are innervated by vagal afferents and the area postrema of the brain stem, which forms the chemoreceptor trigger zone.
Since 5-HT3 receptors not only have a high density in the area postrema but also in the hippocampal and amygdala region of the limbic system, it has been suggested that 5-HT3 selective antagonists may have psychotropic effects (Greenshaw & Silverstone, 1997).
Indeed, early animal studies suggested that the 5-HT3 receptor antagonists, in addition to their well recognized anti-emetic use, may well be clinically useful in a number of areas. These include anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, drug and alcohol abuse disorders, depressive disorders, cognitive disorders, Alzheimer's disease, cerebellar tremor, Parkinson's disease treatment-related psychosis, pain (migraine and irritable bowel syndrome), and appetite disorders.
Neuronal Nicotinic Receptor Antagonists
At present, ten alpha subunits (alpha 1-10) and four beta subunits (beta 1-4) for nicotinic receptors are known. α4β2 receptors are probably the most common in the CNS, especially in the hippocampus and striatum. They form non-selective cation channels with slowly, incompletely desensitizing currents (type II). Homomeric α7 receptors are both pre- and postsynaptic and are found in the hippocampus, motor cortex and limbic system as well as in the peripheral autonomic nervous system. These receptors are characterized by their high Ca2+ permeability and fast, strongly desensitizing responses (type 1A). Changes in nicotinic receptors have been implicated in a number of diseases. These include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia, drug abuse, nicotine abuse, and pain.
Based on the observation that the nicotinic agonist nicotine itself seems to have beneficial effects, drug development so far is aimed at the discovery of selective nicotinic agonists.
On the other hand, it is unclear whether the effects of nicotinic agonists in, e.g., Tourette's syndrome and schizophrenia, are due to activation or inactivation/desensitization of neuronal nicotinic receptors.
The effects of agonists on neuronal nicotinic receptors is strongly dependent on the exposure period. Rapid reversible desensitization occurs in milliseconds, rundown occurs in seconds, irreversible inactivation of α4β2 and α7 containing receptors occurs in hours and their upregulation occurs within days.
In other words, the effects of nicotinic "agonists" may in fact be due to partial agonism, inactivation and/or desensitization of neuronal nicotinic receptors. In turn, moderate concentrations of neuronal nicotinic receptor channel blockers could produce the same effects as reported for nicotinic agonists in the above mentioned indications.

Azabicyclic, azatricyclic and azaspirocyclic derivatives of aminocyclohexane NMDA, 5HT


Bendability of a copper alloy wire is improved without decrease in an electrical conductivity of the copper alloy wire made of copper alloy containing zirconium. A cable includes: a two-core stranded wire formed by intertwining two electrical wires made of a conductor and an insulating layer covering the conductor; a filler formed around the two-core stranded wire; and a sheath formed around the filler and the electrical wire. The conductor is a copper alloy wire in which a precipitate containing the zirconium disperses, and has a crystal gain diameter that is equal to or smaller than 1 μm, an electrical conductivity that is equal to or higher than 87% IACS, and a tensile stress that is equal to or larger than 545 MPa.

Conventionally, for a conductor configuring an electrical wire and a cable, a copper alloy wire made of copper alloy has been used in some cases. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. S63-243240 (Patent Document 1) and International Patent Publication No. WO/2010/084989 (Patent Document 2) describe the copper alloy containing zirconium or others.

Copper alloy wire, cable, and method of manufacturing copper alloy wire


A simple and direct method of forming a SiGe-on-insulator that relies on the oxidation of a porous silicon layer (or region) that is created beneath a Ge-containing layer is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a structure comprising a Si-containing substrate having a hole-rich region formed therein and a Ge-containing layer atop the Si-containing substrate; converting the hole-rich region into a porous region; and annealing the structure including the porous region to provide a substantially relaxed SiGe-on-insulator material.

In the semiconductor industry, there has recently been a high-level of activity using strained Si-based heterostructures to achieve high carrier mobility structures for CMOS applications. Traditionally, to boost performance of NFET and PFET devices, the prior art method to implement this has been to grow strained Si layers on thick (on the order of from about 1 to about 5 micrometers) relaxed SiGe buffer layers.
Despite the high channel electron mobilities reported for prior art heterostructures, the use of thick SiGe buffer layers has several noticeable disadvantages associated therewith. First, thick SiGe buffer layers are not typically easy to integrate with existing Si-based CMOS technology. Second, the defect densities, including threading dislocations (TDs) and misfit dislocations, are from about 106 to about 108 defects/cm2 which are still too high for realistic VLSI (very large scale integration) applications. Thirdly, the nature of the prior art structure precludes selective growth of the SiGe buffer layer so that circuits employing devices with strained Si, unstrained Si and SiGe materials are difficult, and in some instances, nearly impossible to integrate.
In order to produce relaxed SiGe material on a Si substrate, prior art methods typically grow a uniform, graded or stepped SiGe layer to beyond the metastable critical thickness (i.e., the thickness beyond which dislocations form to relieve stress) and allow misfit dislocations to form, with the associated threading dislocations, through the SiGe buffer layer. Various buffer structures have been used in an attempt to increase the length of the misfit dislocation section in the structures and thereby to decrease the TD density.
When a typical prior art metastable strained SiGe layer is annealed at a sufficiently high temperature, misfit dislocations will form and grow thereby relieving the total strain on the film. In other words, the initial elastic strain of the film is relieved by the onset of plastic deformation of the crystal lattice. For the case of prior art metastable strained SiGe grown on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, experiments have shown that under most annealing/oxidation conditions, the formation of misfit dislocations occurs early in the annealing history for temperatures greater than ˜700° C. Many of these defects are then either consumed or annihilated during the high-temperature annealing of the structure, however, the surface topography of the original misfit array persists during oxidation. Furthermore, SGOI substrate materials fabricated by thermal diffusion do not completely relax the SiGe alloy layer. Instead, the final SiGe lattice expands only to some fraction of the equilibrium value.
In addition to growing thick SiGe buffer layers atop an SOI substrate and then relaxing the SiGe layer by annealing/oxidation, it is also known to form SiGe-on-insulator substrates by wafer bonding and/or by oxygen implantation. Although these prior art processes are capable of forming relaxed SiGe-on-insulator substrates, they require additional processing steps, particularly in the case of wafer bonding, and/or add extra cost to the fabrication of SiGe-on-insulator substrates.
In view of the above drawbacks with the prior art, there is a need for providing a simple, yet low-cost method of forming high-quality, substantially relaxed SiGe-on-insulator substrates which can be used as a lattice mismatched template for forming a strained Si layer thereon.

Formation of a silicon germanium-on-insulator structure by oxidation of a buried porous silicon layer

International Business Machines Corporation


A mechanism for generating pre-translated segments for use in virtual to real address translation is provided in which segments that are determined to meet a density threshold are promoted to a pre-translated segment class. The pages of these segments are moved to a contiguous portion of memory and the segment table entry corresponding to the segment is updated to indicate the segment to be a pre-translated segment and to include the base real address for the contiguous portion of memory. In one embodiment, as each page is moved, its page table entry is updated to point to the new location of the page so that the page is still accessible during promotion of the segment to a pre-translated segment. In this way, virtual-to-real address translation may be performed by concatenating the segment base real address, the page identifier, and a byte offset into the page.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally directed to address translation for accessing portions of computer memory. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism for bypassing the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) hierarchy of known address translation systems by providing pre-translated segments for page translations.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advent of faster processors and large amounts of memory in modern computing devices, applications have started using larger working sets, i.e. a larger amount of data and instructions that needs to be loaded into system memory. Faster processors can support a higher level of multi-programming which in turn results in an increase in the cumulative working set size. Despite the huge increase in physical memory in modern computing devices, the size of the memory address mapping mechanisms, e.g. the translation lookaside buffer (TLB), have not increased much due to hardware costs and other constraints.
A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) is a table in the processor that contains cross-references between the virtual and real addresses of recently referenced pages of memory. The TLB functions like a "hot list," or quick-lookup index, of the pages in main memory that have been most recently accessed.
When a cache miss occurs, data must be fetched from an address in virtual memory. This virtual memory address must be translated into a real-memory address, or physical address. If the real-memory address of a desired page is not in the TLB, a further delay is incurred while the real address is determined by other means.
Because the size of the TLB has not increased with the increase in the size of physical memory, the reach of the TLB in modern computing devices is inadequate for supporting large working sets. As a result, the TLB miss ratio increases as working sets get larger. In addition, large working sets also result in a large page table footprint. This makes it increasingly less likely that the page table entry required to satisfy a TLB miss will be found in the level of cache closest to the processor. Consequently, the amount of time it takes to satisfy TLB misses also increases. TLB misses have become a critical performance bottleneck for large-memory machines.
Proposed solutions to the TLB latency problem include increasing the size of the pages of memory, e.g. superpages, and providing support for multiple page sizes. Superpages are a mechanism that has been devised for reducing the number of translation lookaside buffer (TLB) and page table entries required to map memory. Superpages are large virtual pages used to increase the memory mapped by each page table entry. Superpages increase the relative TLB coverage and reduce the number of TLB misses, which require expensive (slow) address translations.
Superpages are useful when large objects need to be mapped, but are not suitable for all applications. If the application does not require the mapping of large objects, the use of superpages could result in considerable internal fragmentation, without considerably reducing the number of translation entries. Providing additional support for multiple page sizes (including superpages) requires considerable operating system modifications and introduces additional overhead into the translation mechanism.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have an improved mechanism for performing virtual to real address translations that reduces the required size of the page table for large memory systems while minimizing the overhead for performing such translations.

Apparatus and method for providing pre-translated segments for page translations in segmented operating systems


A fusible conductive ink for use in manufacturing microfluidic analytical systems includes micronised powder containing platinum and carbon, poly(bisphenol A-co-epichlorohydrin)-glycidyl end capped polymer, and a solvent. In addition, the ratio of micronised powder to poly(bisphenol A-co-epichlorohydrin)-glycidyl end capped polymer is in the range of 3:1 to 1:3. The fusible conductive inks can be employed in the manufacturing of microfluidic systems to form electrodes, electrically conductive traces and/or electrically conductive contact pads.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to analytical devices and, in particular, to materials for use in manufacturing microfluidic analytical systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In analytical devices based on fluid samples (i.e., fluidic analytical devices), the requisite fluid samples should be controlled with a high degree of accuracy and precision in order to obtain reliable analytical results. Such control is especially warranted with respect to "microfluidic" analytical devices that employ fluid samples of small volume, for example, 10 nanoliters to 10 microliters. In such microfluidic analytical devices, the fluid samples are typically contained and transported in microchannels with dimensions on the order of, for example, 10 micrometers to 500 micrometers.
The control (e.g., transportation, position detection, flow rate determination and/or volume determination) of small volume fluid samples within microchannels can be essential in the success of a variety of analytical procedures including the determination of glucose concentration in interstitial fluid (ISF) samples. For example, obtaining reliable results may require knowledge of fluid sample position in order to insure that a fluid sample has arrived at a detection area before analysis is commenced.
The relatively small size of the fluid samples and microchannels in microfluidic analytical devices can, however, render such control problematic. For example, microchannels and surrounding structures (e.g., substrate(s) and electrode(s)) can suffer from a lack of unified structural integrity such that the microchannels are not adequately liquid and/or air tight.
In addition, microfluidic analytical devices often employ electrodes for a variety of purposes including analyte determination and fluid sample control (e.g., fluid sample position detection and fluid sample transportation). However, the electrodes employed in microfluidic analytical devices are relatively small and can be fragile in nature. As a consequence, the electrodes are susceptible to incomplete or weak electrical contact resulting in the creation of spurious and/or deleterious signals during operation.
Still needed in the field, therefore, are materials that can be employed in the manufacturing of an analytical devices that provide for a robust and secure electrical connection to electrodes within the analytical devices. Moreover, the materials should provide for any microchannels within the analytical device to be essentially liquid and/or air tight.

Fusible conductive ink for use in manufacturing microfluidic analytical systems


The present application provides an instant messaging-based method and means for processing information. The method comprises: receiving a group add request, said group add request being for requesting the addition of a first user to a first group; assessing whether the first user needs to be added to the first group with a specific status; if the assessment result is yes, then subjecting the group information of the first group to screening in accordance with the group permissions corresponding to the specific status in order to obtain screened group information and issuing the screened group information to the instant messaging client of the first user. The present application can solve information security problems while meeting instant messaging needs.

Instant messaging is a form of communication that is quite popular now on the Internet. Various kinds of new instant messaging software keep appearing all the time, and service providers are providing an ever-wider range of communication service functions.
In the prior art, if User A wishes to conduct instant messaging with User B, he or she will have to add User B as a friend. User B then will appear in the contact directory of User A's instant messaging software. By the same token, User A will appear in the contact directory of User B's instant messaging software. User A and User B may thereupon conduct instant messaging.
However, in actual applications there exist some special application scenarios: User A needs to conduct instant messaging with User B, but in order to prevent information leaks, doesn't want User B to see information relating to User A. Such a situation regularly occurs within an enterprise. For example, some enterprises will have temporary employees or contractors. Temporary employees or contractors need to be notified of some messages internal to the enterprise. It thus becomes necessary to add the temporary employees or contractors to the enterprise group. However, with existing instant messaging software, employees in an enterprise group may see some mutually registered personal information, as well as information about the enterprise's organizational structure, posing an information security risk. This instant messaging software problem urgently requires a solution.

Method and device for processing information based on instant messaging


The present disclosure is in the field of gastroretentive dosage forms. A gastroretentive dosage form for extended retention in a stomach is provided.

Gastric residence systems (GRS) are delivery systems which remain in the stomach for extended periods of time. They enable oral delivery of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), diagnostic or electronic device etc. to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, for example for the purpose of extended GI residence, for local treatment of the upper GI, for continuous exposure of API especially those with a narrow absorption window or low solubility in the intestine. Gastric residence systems fall within three areas of technology: namely floating systems, bio-adhesives and systems with expanding geometry through swelling or unfolding.
Folding systems are conveniently administered to a patient in a folded or compacted form for example via a capsule. Once in the stomach, dissolution of the capsule in the stomach results in the system expanding or unfolding to a size which resists passage through the pyloric sphincter over the desired residence period. Examples of such systems are described in the following publications: U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,804, PCT/US2015/033850, PCT/US2015/035423 and PCT/IB2011/002888.
Requirements for folding systems include providing a safe and pharmaceutically acceptable system which is compact for swallowing, able to unfold to an effective expanded system that can endure the mechanically and chemically harsh environment of the stomach for a desired residence period and eventually exit the stomach safely and in a timely manner. The present disclosure describes advancements in the design of improved structures for extended residence in the stomach.
To date, there are no approved products for oral delivery to the human upper gastro-intestinal tract and specifically to the stomach which release active agents for more than 24 hours.
A gastric retentive product having the ability to retain therapeutic or diagnostic agents, and/or electronic devices in the stomach over at least about 48 hours, at least about 3 days, at least about 4 days, at least about 5 days, at least about 6 days, at least about 7 days or at least about 8 days is desired.


The invention provides systems and methods for continuous back up of data stored on a computer network. To this end the systems of the invention include a synchronization process that replicates selected source data files data stored on the network and to create a corresponding set of replicated data files, called the target data files, that are stored on a back up server. This synchronization process builds a baseline data structure of target data files. In parallel to this synchronization process, the system includes a dynamic replication process that includes a plurality of agents, each of which monitors a portion of the source data files to detect and capture, at the byte-level, changes to the source data files. Each agent may record the changes to a respective journal file, and as the dynamic replication process detects that the journal files contain data, the journal files are transferred or copied to the back up server so that the captured changes can be written to the appropriate ones of the target data files.

Computer networks have been remarkably successful at processing, communicating and storing of vast amounts of data. As companies today become more accustomed to storing important company information on their data network, the value of these networks and the data they store continues to grow. In fact, many companies now identify the data stored on their computer network as their most valuable corporate asset. Accordingly, it is an important function of a network administrator to, from time to time, backup to a long term storage medium, the data on the corporate network.
Today most backup systems operate by having the network administrator identify a time of day during which little or no network activity occurs. During this time the network administrator turns the network over to a backup system and the data files stored on the computer network are backed up, file by file, to a long term storage medium, such as a tape backup system. Typically the network administrator will backup once a week, or even once a day, to ensure that the back up files are current.
Although such a backup process may work well to create a copy of the data stored on the network, it is a time consuming and labor intensive process. Moreover, it is a cumbersome process that often is inappropriate in many environments. For example, as more and more computer networks begin to operate twenty-four hours a day seven days week, it is continuously more difficult for the system administrator to identify a block of time during which the majority of network resources may be turned over to the backup procedure. Moreover, as computerized network systems begin to store more information as well as information that changes regularly during the course of the work day, the value of a backup system which only backups once a week or once a day is fairly reduced. In fact many companies now rely on the corporate network to store almost all of its business information, and the loss of even a portion of the information stored on the network during the course of a day may result in a substantial cost for the company. Accordingly, systems which only backup periodically are of a reduced value to a company.
Moreover, although the current backup systems work well for putting data on to a long term storage media system, they often store data sequentially on to media, like a magnetic tape, losing the file structure of the data, and making it difficult to retrieve information without having to reinstall all the data previously stored on the tape. Thus, if a portion of the data is lost, it is often difficult to restore just the data that was lost, and often the system administrator is forced to decide whether it is worth the cost of retrieving the lost portion of the data.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for backup systems that are less obtrusive, may continuously update the data stored on a network, and make it more facile for a system administrator to retrieve data, or portions of data, stored to a computer network.

Systems and methods for backing up data files


A rotary machine drive system includes: a first heat source heat exchanger that receives a first heating medium and gasifies a liquid working medium; a first expander that is connected to a rotation shaft and rotates the rotation shaft by expanding the working medium that has been gasified by the first heat source heat exchanger; a rotary machine that has a rotor part provided to the rotation shaft; a second heat source heat exchanger that receives a second heating medium and gasifies a liquid working medium; a second expander that is connected to the rotation shaft and rotates the rotation shaft by expanding the second heating medium; and a condenser that condenses the working medium that has been used in the first expander and the working medium that has been used in the second expander.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary machine drive system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as disclosed in JP 2004-339965 A, for example, a rotary machine drive system has been known that recovers exhaust heat from various facilities such as a plant and drives a rotary machine using energy of the recovered exhaust heat. The disclosed rotary machine drive system includes a circulation circuit through which a working medium circulates and a power generator as a rotary machine. The circulation circuit includes an evaporator that evaporates the working medium using the exhaust heat, an expander that expands the working medium that has been evaporated by the evaporator, a condenser that condenses the working medium that has been expanded by the expander, and a pump that delivers the working medium that has been condensed by the condenser to the evaporator, all of which is connected in series. The power generator is driven by the working medium expanding in the expander. In addition, it is described that the power generator generates a high pressure steam using a heat source of a relatively low temperature such as exhaust warm water of 100 to 150° C.


A system and method are provided for automatically providing for connection to electronic addresses received in spoken communications or audio signals. Under one embodiment, a system and method receives telephone calls or other information streams including spoken address information. The spoken address information includes electronic addresses, for example, telephone numbers. The system and method identify the spoken address information, and automatically recognize and extract the identified address information from the information stream. The extracted address information is subsequently available for use in automatically coupling a receiving communication device to electronic devices accessed by or associated with the extracted address information.

The popularity and availability of portable communication devices has undergone a significant increase as a result of technological gains that have provided more efficient, reliable and cost-effective mobile devices. As these devices have become more capable and cheaper to own, they have become an integral part of everyday life. Thus, now, more than ever, more people rely on these devices to communicate with their families, friends, co-workers, and business associates while on the go. Further, many of these devices are capable of gathering and presenting many types of information and connecting with other types of electronic devices, thereby allowing users to integrate them into all aspects of their lives.
As these portable communication devices become more integrated into society and daily routines, they are relied on more, and more is expected of them. So much so, that portable communication devices are often used as the sole means of communication. For example, people have cellular telephone conversations while driving to work, and while walking on the beach. Further, one can check his voice mail using a personal computer while waiting in an airline terminal.
As a result of the increased numbers of these communication devices in use, and the safety risks inherent in the use of these devices during certain activities, there has been a trend to enhance services available through these devices. This trend has been to incorporate automated call processing techniques into communication systems and system services. Many typical message paging and cellular telephone systems, for example, include interfaces that enable callers to leave numeric messages using a telephone keypad, which are automatically transmitted to the system subscriber. More advanced systems enable callers to interact with the system using a computer network and thereby type text messages into their computer for transmission to a mobile device like a text message pager or cellular telephone. In these typical systems the system subscriber can read and even store the received text messages. However, there is a desire to increase the utility and automation of these call and message processing systems.
In the drawings, the same reference numbers identify identical or substantially similar elements or acts. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the Figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g., element 104 is first introduced and discussed with respect to FIG. 1).
Any headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.

System and method for recognition of and automatic connection using spoken address information received in voice mails and live telephone conversations