A configuration is provided which enables usage management and secure data management of data newly generated or obtained that is different from data already stored in an information recording medium. New data such as information which the user has newly generated or downloaded related to content information increments of content management information stored in an information recording medium is recorded as configuration data of the content management unit, in the form of encrypted data to which a unit key corresponding to the content management unit, or a unit key corresponding to a new content management unit, has been applied. According to this configuration, secure data management and usage management is realized for new data the same as with data corresponding to original units.

The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a computer program. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a computer program, wherein information, newly generated or downloaded by a user in relation to content information stored in an information recording medium in increments of units, is recorded as managed data corresponding to the units, with secure data management and usage management being realized for each unit of the newly generated data as well.
Various kinds of software data, such as audio data like music and so forth, picture data like movies and so forth, game programs, various kinds of application programs, and so on (hereafter collectively referred to as "content"), can be stored in recording media, such as Blu-ray disks which use blue laser, or DVDs (Digital Versatile Disc), MDs (Mini Disc), CDs (Compact Disk), or the like, as digital data. Particularly, Blu-ray disks which use blue laser are capable of high-density recording, and can record great amounts of picture contents and the like as high-definition data.
Digital contents are stored in such various types of information recording media, and are provided to the user. The user reproduces and uses the contents using a reproducing device such as a PC (Personal Computer), and disk player, or the like.
With many contents, such as music data, image data, and the like, generally, the distribution rights thereof are held by the author or vendor. Accordingly, an arrangement is generally made such that certain usage restrictions are applied to distribution of such contents, i.e., so that only authorized users can use the contents, and that unauthorized duplications and so forth are not made.
With digital recording devices and recording media, data can be repeatedly recorded and reproduced without deterioration in image quality or audio quality, for example, and accordingly, there is the problem of widespread distribution of unauthorized copies of contents via the Internet, so-called bootleg disks wherein contents are copied to CD-Rs or the like, and usage of copied contents stored on hard disks of PCs and the like.
Large-capacity recording media such as DVDs, and blue-laser recording media developed in recent years, are capable of storing great amounts of digital information, one to several movies worth on one disk, for example. The capability to record such picture information and the like as digital information makes preventing unauthorized copies to protect copyright holders an even more important issue. Heretofore, various techniques have been put into practice for preventing unauthorized copying with digital recording device and recording media, in order to protect such unauthorized copying of digital data.
For example, Content Scramble System is used with DVD players. With Content Scramble System, video data, audio data, etc., is recorded in a DVD-ROM (Read Only Memory) in an encrypted form, and a key to be used for decrypting the encrypted data is provided to a licensed DVD player. A license is provided to a DVD player designed to follow predetermined action stipulations, such as not performing unauthorized copying and so forth. Accordingly, licensed DVD players can reproduce the images and audio from the DVD-ROM by using the key provided thereto to decrypt the encrypted data recorded in the DVD-ROM.
On the other hand, unlicensed DVD players do not have a key for decrypting the encrypted data, and accordingly cannot decrypt the encrypted data recorded in the DVD-ROM. Thus, DVD players which to not satisfy conditions required at the time of licensing cannot reproduce from the DVD-ROM storing digital data, thereby preventing unauthorized copying.
In this way, a management system for content stored in information recording media has been established. However, secure data management and usage management is far from being realized regarding data generated by a user executing a program stored in information recording media as content, and data content obtained from external servers, and so forth.
In the event of performing secure management of data generated by users executing programs stored in information recording media and data content obtained from external servers, individual data needs to be handled by the user protecting with his/her own password, applying an encryption key externally obtained to create encrypted data, and so forth. Such a data management configuration results in the problem of an increased number of encryption keys and passwords to manage in the event that generated data and obtained data increases, the location of data readily becomes unclear, and further the correlation of stored data and encryption keys/passwords also becomes unclear. Another current issue is that sufficient measures are not implemented regarding such new data.

Information processing device and method


An apparatus can include an acetabular cup, and a connection member that can be mounted to the acetabular cup such as near a rim edge of the acetabular cup. The connection member can include an attachment section that can be configured to receive an attachment from an inserter. The attachment section can be configured to permit the inserter to be attached to the connection member in two or more different orientations relative to the connection member.

In a hip replacement procedure, an orthopedic implant assembly in the form of an acetabular cup can be implanted within an acetabulum of a patient. A cup inserter is attached to the acetabular cup and used to insert and position the cup within the acetabulum. A femoral component can be mated to the acetabular cup to complete the hip replacement procedure.
For proper performance of the device, the acetabular cup should be properly positioned in the acetabulum. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,904,688 and 7,341,593 discuss acetabular cups and related insertion tools.


Four identical handles for manipulating a tarpaulin with grommets in the four corners to collect and transport a load. Each handle has a handgrip with a hook on each end, a staking member, and an attachment system to hold a grommeted corner of the tarpaulin. The hooks are dimensioned to admit and support the handgrips of other handles. Two handles are grasped together by a user and the handgrips of the other two handles are hung on opposite pairs of hooks of the grasped handles that the load in the tarpaulin may be gathered and transported by the grasped handgrips.

This invention relates to a lawn and garden accessory for clearing leaves, grass clippings and other types of refuse, which can be raked into a pile for removal from a lawn or field. Raking leaves in the autumn and removing them is a common problem. Grass clippings from a lawn mower should also be removed along with other types of light refuse, such as small limbs or dead vegetable matter.
One method for removing such material is to rake it into piles and load the piles into a conveyance. When the material is light and bulky, particularly leaves, the conveyance fills quickly, but with very little weight, and requires many trips. Another method for removing such material is to rake it onto a plastic or cloth tarpaulin or other type of pliant sheet member, gather the corners and manually carry or drag the load to a disposal area.
When the tarpaulin is spread out, it will often not stay in place, due to the wind blowing it or due to the raking action or the blast from a leaf blower. Gathering and holding the corners of the tarpaulin is tiring on the hands of the user when the load is carried or dragged for some distance.
Suggestions have been made in the prior art for addressing various aspects of these problems.
A pickup device for hauling leaves in a pliant sheet member is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,974,971 issued Mar. 14, 1961 to Buck. The device is provided with hold down stakes and a handle for dragging, but must be especially constructed for the task.
Exemplary of a device to convert a conventional general-purpose tarpaulin for dragging refuse is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,101 issued May 20, 2003 to James, Jr. A mandrel holds the tarpaulin flat on one end while raking and shapes the tarpaulin for dragging the refuse. The tarpaulin must be equipped with a hauling rope running through grommets.
A tarpaulin hold down device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,232 issued Oct. 15, 1996 to Callaway. Stakes with integral handles are attached and retained by conventional grommets on the tarpaulin and used to stake the corners in place. The only purpose for the handles is to push the stakes into the ground.
Another tarpaulin hold down device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,372 issued Apr. 8, 1986 to Osborn. weighted handles are attached to the tarpaulin corners by threaded necks and closures for lifting the tarpaulin. This requires special large grommets and adds to the overall weight of the load, as well as requiring the user to manipulate four handgrips at once.
Lastly, a device for gathering and hooking together the four corners of a tarpaulin is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,831 issued Aug. 31, 1999 to Pangburn. A single bent rod of elastically deformable material is attached by threading the end through all four corners. It would appear to be time-consuming to attach and detach the device, and there is no hand grip by which to hold it.
It would be desirable to have a set of handles which could perform the functions of holding the tarpaulin in place, collecting the load by gathering the corners of the tarpaulin, and serving to carry or drag the gathered load manually with one hand.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved handle for collecting and transporting a load in a tarpaulin or similar pliant sheet member.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved handle for holding a tarpaulin in place while collecting a load of light bulky material on the pliant sheet member.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a handle with improved means for attachment to the corner of a tarpaulin.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved handle which, together with other substantially identical handles in a set, cooperate for collecting and carrying or dragging a load in a tarpaulin.

Handle and handle set for collecting and transporting a load in a tarpaulin


Systems and methods for facilitating a purchase are described. When a payment processor declines a transaction, an error code is sent to a merchant. The error code indicates to the merchant that the failed transaction is recoverable if the user chooses a new funding source or payment instrument. The merchant sends the user back to a payment service provider site where the user can either choose a new funding source or enter a new payment method.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to recovering declined payment transactions.
Related Art
When a user shops on a merchant's website, the user typically provides a credit card, debit card, bank account, or some other form of payment during checkout. If the user's credit card is declined, the user is usually not informed about the reason the card was declined, only that the transaction did not go through. In most situations, the user will attempt to use another payment method, but will have to repopulate the shopping cart with previously selected items, click on the checkout button, and then enter the new payment funding details. In other words, the user has to restart the entire transaction.
Such lack of capability of recovering purchase transactions with a different payment means disrupts a seamless purchase experience of the user and causes loss of sales that are otherwise recoverable because many users choose to give up. It is inconvenient and a hassle to have to start the purchase procedure from the very beginning. Thus, a need exists for improved methods that allow a user to select a new payment method for transactions that are declined.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.


A raised basic structure is first made from a conducting or nonconducting, easily structurable substitute material. Electrode material, such as platinum, is then sputtered onto the basic structure. The layer thickness of the electrode material is greater on the surface and on the side walls of the basic structure than on the neighbouring surface. After a subsequent anisotropic etching process, the electrode material remains only on the basic structure, including the top surface and the side walls. The process is applicable to memory cells having a capacitor dielectric with a high-.epsilon.-dielectric or ferroelectric material.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to integrated circuit manufacture, in particular to a method of manufacturing a capacitor electrode in an integrated semiconductor circuit.
Integrated semiconductor circuits frequently have capacitors which are raised during the manufacturing process, i.e., they are produced on an approximately horizontal surface. An example of this are so-called stacked capacitor memory cells, in particular in DRAM components. The choice of capacitor dielectric has an important effect on the space requirement of such a capacitor.
Conventional capacitors mostly make use of silicon oxide layers or silicon nitride layers as storage dielectric. Those have a dielectric constant of at most approximately 8. New paraelectric materials such as, for example, BST (barium strontium titanate, BaSrTiO.sub.3) and similar materials, have a dielectric constant .epsilon.>150, and thus render a smaller capacitor possible.
Such memory elements with a paraelectric material as capacitor dielectric (DRAM) lose their charge, and thus their stored information, when the supply voltage fails or is turned off. Furthermore, because of the residual leakage current, conventional memory elements must continuously be rewritten (refresh time). Because of the different polarization directions, the use of a ferroelectric material as storage dielectric permits the construction of a nonvolatile memory, which does not lose its information in the event of failure of the supply voltage, and need not continuously be rewritten. The residual leakage current of the cell does not influence the stored signal. An example of such a ferroelectric material is PZT (lead zirconium titanate, Pb(Zr,Ti)O.sub.3).
The production of these novel ferroelectric materials and paraelectric materials is generally performed at high temperatures in an oxidizing atmosphere. Consequently, there is no need, in particular for the first capacitor electrodes, of materials which are compatible with these conditions. A suitable material for this purpose seems to be an electrode made from platinum. The structuring of platinum, in particular of a relatively thin platinum layer is, however, a largely unsolved problem to date, since no suitable etching process has yet been developed, and since no volatile platinum compounds seem to be suitable for RIE processes. Etching processes to date are based on the application of a resist mask and etching in argon, oxygen or chlorine plasmas. In this case, because of the physical components of the process, only limited selectivity can be achieved with respect to mask materials and substrate.

Manufacturing process for a raised capacitor electrode


A disk drive comprising a tray (TR) for receiving a disk, the tray (TR) being supported for movement between a first position within a casing (CS) of the disk drive and a second position projecting from the casing (CS), an electric motor for moving the tray (TR) between the first and second positions, and a regulation device for regulating an electric current through the motor for regulating the rotation of the motor. The regulation device comprises a detection device for detecting a back-electromotive voltage produced during rotation of the motor for deriving position information of the tray (TR) with respect to the first and second positions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a disk drive, and more specifically to an optical disk drive comprising a tray for receiving a disk, the tray being supported for movement between a first position within a casing of the disk drive and a second position projecting from the casing, an electric motor for moving the tray between the first and second positions, and regulation means for regulating an electric current through the motor for regulating the rotation of the motor.
The invention also relates to a method of moving a tray of a disk drive between a first and a second position under the control of an electric motor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is commonly known, an optical storage disk comprises at least one track, either in the form of a continuous spiral or in the form of multiple concentric circles, of storage space where information may be stored in the form of a data pattern. An optical disk drive comprises inter alia a tray for loading the disk drive, rotating means for receiving and rotating the optical disk, and light generation means for generating an optical beam, typically a laser beam, for scanning the storage track with said laser beam. Since the technology of optical disks in general and the way in which information can be stored in an optical disk are commonly known, it is not necessary to describe this technology in great detail.
In optical data storage devices, the medium (e.g. the CD, DVD, or BD disk) is loaded into the disk drive by a loader mechanism, which generally comprises the tray, a tilting mechanism, and a (magnetic) clamp. To play or read a disk, the user places the disk on the tray which, after the user has pressed a button or the tray itself, transports the disk into the disk drive. When the tray is inside the disk drive, the tilting mechanism tilts the turntable upwards such that the disk is lifted off the tray. The clamp, finally, fixes the disk onto the turntable. To eject the disk from the disk drive, the loader mechanism is driven in the reverse direction.
The loader mechanism (tray and tilting mechanism) is usually driven by a DC motor via a gear transmission. The electrical current Im through the motor obeys the following equation:
                                          V            m                    -                      V            emf                          =                              RI            m                    +                      L                                                                        ⅆ                                      I                    m                                                                    ⅆ                  t                                            .                                                          (        1        )            Vm is the voltage driving the motor, Vemf is the back-EMF voltage, R is the motor resistance, and L is the motor inductance. Usually a hardware switch (usually mechanical or optical) is included in the disk drive in order to detect whether the tray or the loader mechanism has completed an opening/closing action. Such a hardware switch is generally called a tray switch. It is known that the end stops of the tray motion can be detected by measurement of the tray motor current, as follows. When the tray hits one of the end stops, the motor blocks and consequently the back-EMF voltage generated by the motor drops. This causes a sudden and remaining increase in the motor current. This increase in motor current at the end stop can be detected by means of a level detection algorithm: if the current exceeds a certain limit for a certain amount of time, it is decided that the tray has reached a stop, and the motor is turned off. The motor current may be measured, for example, in that a measuring resistor is connected in series with the motor, and the voltage across the resistor is measured. Detection of the end stops from the motor current measurement obviates the need of a hardware (mechanical or optical) switch to detect the end stops. Detection of end stops by current measurement without a tray switch will be called "switchless detection" in the following.
A shortcoming of the method of switchless detection compared with the traditional tray switch method is the uncertainty of the tray position. A tray switch gives complete certainty about whether the tray is actually closed: if the switch is closed, the tray must be at either one of its end positions. Switchless detection does not give full certainty about the actual position of the tray after a stop: it could be that the user of the disk drive has manually forced a tray stop at an intermediate position.
Another shortcoming of the method of switchless detection compared with the traditional tray switch method is the twisting motion of the tray as it hits the outside stop.
With switchless detection, a stop is detected after the tray has been mechanically blocked by the end stop. For a short duration, the tray is simultaneously being driven by the motor, and blocked by the end stop. The force that the motor exerts on the tray generally does not attach to the center of gravity of the tray. Furthermore, there is generally some mechanical play in the tray mechanism, particulary when the tray is at the outside position. Consequently, in this short phase in which the tray is driven and blocked at the same time, it can occur that the tray displaces sideways or twists. This kind of motion is undesired, especially in audio/video disk drives.


A method includes obtaining at least one program slice embedding vector and at least one register vector that are generated based on results from a static analysis tool, the at least one register vector corresponding to the at least one program slice embedding vector. The method also includes using a machine learning model to generate, from the at least one program slice embedding vector and the at least one register vector, at least one probability rating associated with a vulnerability. The method also includes reporting the at least one probability rating for use by the static analysis tool.

Static analysis is a method of computer program debugging that is performed by examining the code without actually executing the program. In many cases, static analysis is performed on the program's source code. In some cases, static analysis is performed on object code. Automated tools exist that can assist programmers and developers in carrying out static analysis, such as static analysis based source code and binary vulnerability detection tools. However, such tools are prone to producing many false positives, due to over-approximating the possibilities of program paths that may execute during a program execution. This results in many alerts that a human analyst (or downstream automation tool) must sift through in order to identify the true positives.

System and method for prioritizing and ranking static analysis results using machine learning


A defoaming or antifoaming composition comprises a free flowing granular combinate of 50 to 90 weight percent of a water soluble carbohydrate-based agglomerate selected from the group consisting of maltodextrin agglomerates, maltodextrin/dextrose co-agglomerates, dextrose agglomerates, maltodextrin/sucrose co-agglomerates, maltodextrin/fructose co-agglomerates, sucrose agglomerates, fructose agglomerates, mannitol agglomerates, sorbitol agglomerates, agglomerates of hydrolyzed cereal solids, and agglomerates of corn syrup solids and about 10 to 50 weight percent of a liquid, nonaqueous, defoaming or antifoaming composition such as simethicone, hydrocarbon-based oils or silicone oils. The composition may be combined with one or more suitable excipients and prepared as a unit dosage in the form of a compressed tablet, filled capsule, packet, or granule for various defoaming applications.

This invention relates to a composition whereby fluid, nonaqueous, defoaming or antifoaming compositions are prepared as relatively free flowing granular combinates by intermixing them with a low density, highly porous, generally spherical, water soluble carbohydrate-based agglomerate such as maltodextrin to form adjuvant agglomerate combinates suitable for addition to products or processes wherever a rapid dispersion of the antifoaming or defoaming compound in an aqueous medium is indicated or desired.
The following listing and characterization of fluid, nonaqueous, antifoaming or defoaming compositions or compounds used in the practice of this invention is given to more precisely and particularly illustrate applicable compositions and compounds. The listing is not meant to limit or to specifically define the category of fluid, nonaqueous antifoaming or defoaming compositions, but rather to illustrate the scope of compositions applicable to the formation of the adjuvant agglomerate combinates.
Fluid hydrocarbon oil-based antifoaming or defoaming compositions containing a hydrocarbon-silicon copolymer, a hydrophobic filler, an organo-silicone surfactant, a hydrocarbon carrier oil, and, optionally, a silicone oil are disclosed in Kulcarni et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,319.
Fluid antifoaming or defoaming compositions comprising mineral oil-containing dispersed hydrophobic solid particles are well known in the art. The use of hydrophobic silica in fluid hydrocarbon oil based antifoam or defoaming compositions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,076,768; 3,207,698; 3,388,073; and 3,714,068.
Fluid antifoaming or de foaming compositions comprising polyoxyethylene-polypropylene copolymers containing dispersed hydrophobic silica are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos 3,912,652 and 3,959,176.
Fluid antifoaming or defoaming compositions in a non-silicone oil and containing activated insitu hydrophobic silica particles are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,266.
Fluid antifoaming or de foaming compositions comprising a non-silicone water insoluble polyalkylene containing an alkoxysilicon chloride as the hydrophobic agent are disclosed in G.B. Pat. No. 1,166,877.
Fluid antifoaming or defoaming compositions employing the use of other intrinsically hydrophobic fillers in organic liquids are also well known. For example, Canadian Pat. No. 508,856 discloses N,N'-distearyl ethylene-diamide in white spirits, while the use of finely divided polyolefin polymers or polyesters dispersed in organic liquids is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,859. The use of fatty acid salts is disclosed in G.B. Pat. No. 1,267,482 and low molecular weight polyethylenes in combination with mineral oil and conventional organic nonionic emulsifiers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,445.
Fluid antifoam or defoaming compositions comprising silicone oil-silica compounds containing organo silicone compounds to improve performance are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,091.
Fluid antifoam or defoaming compositions comprising the use of silicone-glycol copolymers in association with silicone oil and silica are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,746,653; 3,784,479; and 3,865,544.
Simethecone is a fluid antifoam or defoaming composition comprised of polydimethylsiloxane and silica suitably purified for its intended application. The preparation of liquid methylsiloxane polymers is delineated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,441,098, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The normal physical state of the simethicone is a water white to grey translucent, viscous, oil-like liquid with a density of 0.965-0.970 grams/cubic centimeter having demonstrable immiscibility with water and alcohol.
The medically established therapeutic use for simethicone is as an ointment base ingredient, topical drug vehicle, skin protectant, but most particularly as an antigas and antiflatulent agent for human application as well as an antibloating agent for veterinary (animal) application. A combinate of simethicone and calcium silicate useful for such latter applications is disclosed in Valentine et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,478.
Various antigas or antifoam formulations, some containing simethicone, are disclosed in the prior art. The pharmaceutical and medicinal applications include Buehler et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,551; Prussin et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,754; Thompson et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,774,710; Rubino et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,553; Mitra U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,604; McVean et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,794; and Morris et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,381. Non-pharmaceutical and non-medicinal antifoaming applications, such as powdered cleaning agents, are disclosed in Farminer et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,558; Llenado U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,485; Abel U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,465; Matheson et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,823; and European Patent 213,953 to Iley et al.
The preferred pharmaceutical solid dose delivery system for simethicone is a chewable tablet Such chewable tablets often contain antacid ingredients such as calcium carbonate, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide and magnesium carbonate. The article by F. Maksond et al, "Simethicone use in Antacid Medications" as published in Manufacturing Chemist and Aerosol News, Vol. 47, No. 5, 1976, pp 36-36 discloses instability problems when simethicone is intermixed with aluminum or magnesium bases It is extremely troublesome to distribute the oil-like, viscous, water and alcohol immiscible simethicone expeditiously and uniformly throughout a tablet granulation prior to compression. It is equally difficult to be certain that the simethicone is in a sufficiently divided and dispersed state so that its action will be quick and effective when administered per os as a chewable or swallowable tablet or powder filled capsule.
Similar problems are encountered in distributing the other anitfoaming compositions in an expeditious and uniform manner in their liquid form.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved dry, granular combinate for dispersing liquid antifoaming or defoaming compounds in an aqueous medium.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an effective simethicone containing granule for use in gastric antacid, antigas, and/or antiflatulent formulations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide granules to be added to aqueous based products or processes wherever antifoaming or defoaming is indicated or desired.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a facile method of producing an effective simethicone-containing foam controlling granule utilizing conventional equipment at relatively low cost.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a free flowing simethicone containing granule for use in conventional formulations which, after processing, retains acceptable defoaming activity.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an antifoaming or defoaming compound combinate which retains its properties and activity after extended storage and at elevated temperatures.
The present invention achieves these objects and satisfies the long felt need to overcome the difficulties in expeditious utilization of antifoaming or defoaming compounds in an aqueous medium A larger amount of antifoaming or defoaming compound can be incorporated with the carbohydrate-based agglomerate of this invention for dispersion than has previously been disclosed in the prior art. The carbohydrate-based agglomerate portion of the combinate makes it possible to effect rapid and uniform distribution of the antifoaming/defoaming compound by simple mixing.


The present invention relates generally to compositions and more particularly to compositions comprising leukaemia inhibitory factor (hereinafter referred to as “LIF”) or derivative or homologues thereof. The compositions of the present invention are particularly useful as compositions which exhibit enhanced stability and/or which exhibit reduced aggregation and/or reduced deamidation of LIF, its derivatives or other active ingredients.

LIF is a polyfunctional glycoprotein with diverse actions on a broad range of tissue and cell types, including induction of differentiation in a number of myeloid leukaemic cell lines, suppression of differentiation in normal embryonic stem cells, stimulation of proliferation of osteoblasts and DA-1 haemopoietic cells and potentiation of the of the proliferative action of interleukin-3 (IL-3) on megakaryocyte precursors. Functionally, LIF is able to switch autonomic nerve signalling from adrenergic to cholinergic mode, stimulate calcium release from bones, stimulate the production of acute phase proteins by hepatocytes and induce loss of fat deposits by inhibiting lipoprotein lipase-mediated lipid transport into adipocytes.
With a potentially broad range of clinical applications, it is imperative that compositions containing LIF are presented in a stable form and remain so during an extended period which may include shipment, handling and storage. Thus, a stable composition is one which retains its physical, chemical, therapeutic and toxicological profile over this period.
Deamidation is the most significant chemical degradation of LIF over time. It is clearly desirable that this process is minimized. Adsorption of LIF onto surfaces of containers, vials, syringes and infusion tubing is also a potential problem and must be minimized to ensure accurate dose and concentration. Physical degradation, such as aggregation or flocculation, may occur due to denaturation caused by elevated temperatures and/or agitation and excessive handling of the composition. Such degradation is clearly undesirable in terms of appearance and more importantly, consistent and effective administration of LIF in clinical applications. Storage at temperatures below room temperature typically retards chemical degradation, with storage in the frozen state being generally the most effective. Whilst this may minimize chemical degradation, the process of thawing the composition may then result in aggregation.
Thus, there exists a need for a stable composition and, in particular, a stable pharmaceutical composition of LIF and/or its derivatives or homologues wherein chemical and physical degradation is minimised.

Compositions of leukaemia inhibitory factor


Chronic obstructive airway diseases are treated by administering an osmotically active compound such as a salt, sugar, sugar alcohol, or organic osmolyte to the afflicted airway surface. The compound may be administered as a liquid or dry powder aerosol formulation. Diseases that can be treated by the method include cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and ciliary dyskinesia. The formulations of the invention can also be used in conjunction with other active agents such as bronchodilators, sodium channel blockers, antibiotics, enzymes, or purinoceptor agonists on airway surfaces.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are characterized by the retention of mucous secretions in the lungs. Examples of such diseases include cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and primary or secondary ciliary dyskinesia. Such diseases affect approximately 15 million patients in the United States, and are the sixth leading cause of death. Other airway or pulmonary diseases characterized by the accumulation of retained mucous secretions include sinusitis (an inflammation of the paranasal sinuses associated with upper respiratory infection) and pneumonia.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,028 to Anderson describes a method for the provocation of air passage narrowing (for evaluating susceptibility to asthma) and/or the induction of sputum in subjects. It is suggested that the same technique can be used to induce sputum and promote mucociliary clearance. Substances suggested include sodium chloride, potassium chloride, mannitol and dextrose.

Compounds and methods for the treatment of airway diseases and for the delivery of airway drugs

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


A semiconductor device is provided configured to be electrically connected to another device by through silicon interconnect technology. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate with at least one through hole. A through silicon conductor extends inside the through hole from the upper side to the bottom side of the semiconductor substrate. The through silicon conductor is electrical isolated from the semiconductor substrate and includes a conductor bump at one of its ends. Between the inner surface of the through hole and the through silicon conductor a gap is formed. The gap surrounds the through silicon conductor on one side of the semiconductor substrate having the conductor bump, and extends from this side of the substrate into the substrate. The gap is filled with a flexible dielectric material.

To increase the functionality and density of semiconductor devices multiple semiconductor chips are stacked on a substrate or on each other. For instance, chips with the same functions, e.g., memory chips are stacked to increase the memory density or chips with different functions, e.g., processor chip and memory chip are stacked to minimize the processing time. Usually a first chip is mounted on a substrate. A second chip is then mounted onto the upper side of the first chip.
In the so called Through Silicon Interconnect Technology (TSV—Through Silicon Via), electric connections between chips, or between substrate and chip are led directly through the chip. At this, via holes are formed directly into the semiconductor substrate. The inner surface of the via holes is passivated and the via hole are filled with conductive material.
For stacking at chip level or at wafer level, the chips or the wafers each having a plurality of semiconductor chips are stacked on each other. Chips and wafers are prepared using any conventional semiconductor manufacturing process. Each semiconductor chip is provided with a plurality of interconnect elements mostly comprising a through electrode and a bump wherein a bump is formed on at least one end surface of the through electrodes.
A plurality of such chips or wafers are then sequentially stacked so that the corresponding through electrodes or bumps of adjacent chips are aligned and brought into contact so as to provide electric connection between vertical adjacent chips. In stacking at wafer level, the stacked wafers are then divided into individual chip stack packages.

Semiconductor device with an interconnect element and method for manufacture


In a CD storage device, the combination comprising an upstanding post to receive CD's in a stack, and via openings therethrough, a carrier for each CD having circularly spaced retainers to retain the periphery of each CD at spaced locations, an identification zone associated with a retainer, for each CD, and cam surfaces on said carriers for inter-engagement in response to selected CD rotation, for locally elevating the carrier of a selected CD for retrieval off the post.

This invention relates generally to stack-storage of information discs, as for example compact discs, and more particularly it concerns facilitation of selected retrieval of such discs from stacked position.
When discs, such as compact discs (i.e. CD's) are stored in a stack, it becomes difficult to identify different discs in the stack, and it also becomes difficult to selectively retrieve them from the stack without destroying the stack organization. There is need for simple, easily usable, and efficient means for identifying discs in the stack, and for retrieving selected discs in the stack while retaining stack organization.


A hair roller includes a tubular body having a generally cylindrical outer wall and defining a hollow chamber therewithin, first and second generally circular end closures respectively sealing first and second longitudinal ends of the tubular body to prevent air flow therethrough, and an annular adapter. The outer wall has a first hole and a plurality of vent openings formed therethrough. The first hole is configured to receivably engage a first open end of the adapter. A second open end of the adapter is configured to interconnect with a first end of a conduit such that, upon the first hole receivably engaging the first open end of the adapter, the adapter facilitates a flow of air being delivered from the conduit through the outer wall into the hollow chamber via the first hole and out of the hollow chamber through the outer wall via the vent openings.

Cylindrical tube hair rollers are well known, comprised of a hollow tube and open tube ends, using hood dryer or column dryer where the air ventilates downwards drying the hair in the rollers from the root to the ends.
Notwithstanding the widespread use of this kind of hair roller, certain drawbacks can be attributed thereto, such as, for instance, a certain difficulty in drying hair taking up much time and consequently more electric energy.
Another problem of usual hair rollers consists of the fact of drying hair with hood or column dryers and this mode makes use of 50% of the air in drying the hair rollers when the air is ventilated to dry the hair downwards, consequently the air is not only ventilated towards the hair rollers but also to the ears, face, neck and shoulders, and a client who is under facial skin treatment cannot use it.


This invention relates to agents that are inhibitors or activators of variant forms of endogenous proteins and novel methods of identifying such variants. Of particular interest are inhibitors and activators of endogenous protein variants, encoded by genes which have mutated, which variants often arise or are at least first identified as having arisen following exposure to a chemical agent which is known to be an inhibitor or activator of the corresponding unmutated endogenous protein.

The progressive development of drug resistance in a patient is the hallmark of chronic treatment with many classes of drugs, especially in the therapeutic areas of cancer and infectious diseases. Molecular mechanisms have been identified which mediate certain types of drug resistance phenomena, whereas in other cases the mechanisms of acquired as well as de novo resistance remain unknown today.
One mechanism of induced (acquired) drug resistance originally thought to be relevant in the area of cancer therapy involves increased expression of a protein known as P-glycoprotein (P-gp). P-gp is located in the cell membrane and functions as a drug efflux pump. The protein is capable of pumping toxic chemical agents, including many classical anti-cancer drugs, out of the cell. Consequently, upregulation of P-glycoprotein usually results in resistance to multiple drugs. Upregulation of P-glycoprotein in tumor cells may represent a defense mechanism which has evolved in mammalian cells to prevent damage from toxic chemical agents. Other related drug resistance proteins have now been identified with similar functions to P-gp, including multidrug-resistance-associated protein family members such as MRP1 and ABCG2. In any event, with the advent of the development of compounds that are specific for a given target protein, and less toxic, the importance of P-glycoprotein and related ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins in clinically significant drug resistance has lessened.
Another possible molecular mechanism of acquired drug resistance is that alternative signal pathways are responsible for continued survival and metabolism of cells, even though the original drug is still effective against its target. Furthermore, alterations in intracellular metabolism of the drug can lead to loss of therapeutic efficacy as well. In addition, changes in gene expression as well as gene amplification events can occur, resulting in increased or decreased expression of a given target protein, and frequently requiring increasing dosages of the drug to maintain the same effects. (Adcock and Lane, 2003)
Mutation induced drug resistance is a frequently occurring event in the infectious disease area. For example, several drugs have been developed that inhibit either the viral reverse transcriptase or the viral protease encoded in the human immunodeficiency (HIV) viral genome. It is well established in the literature that repeated treatment of HIV-infected AIDS patients using, for example, a reverse transcriptase inhibitor eventually gives rise to mutant forms of the virus that have reduced sensitivity to the drug which resulted from mutations that have occurred in the gene encoding reverse transcriptase that render the mutant form of the enzyme less affected by the drug.
The appearance of drug resistance during the course of HIV treatment is not surprising considering the rate at which errors are introduced into the HIV genome. The HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme is known to be particularly error prone, with a forward mutation rate of about 3.4×10−5 mutations per base pair per replication cycle (Mansky et al., J. Virol. 69:5087-94 (1995)). However, analogous mutation rates for endogenous genes encoded in mammalian cells are more than an order of magnitude lower.
New evidence shows that drug resistance can also arise from a mutational event involving the gene encoding the drug target (Gone et al., Science, 2001; PCT/US0218729). In this case, exposure of the patient to a specific therapeutic substance such as a given cancer drug that targets a specific protein-of-interest (POI, or "target" protein) may be followed by the outgrowth of a group of cells harboring a mutation occurring in the gene encoding the protein that is the target of the therapeutic substance. Whether the outgrowth of this population of cells results from a small percentage of pre-existing cells in the patient which already harbor a mutation which gives rise to a drug-resistant POI, or whether such mutations arise de novo during or following exposure of the animal or human being to a therapeutic agent capable of activating or inhibiting said POI, is presently unknown. In either case, such mutation events may result in a mutated protein (defined below as a theramutein) which is less affected, or perhaps completely unaffected, by said therapeutic substance.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is characterized by excess proliferation of myeloid progenitors that retain the capacity for differentiation during the stable or chronic phase of the disease. Multiple lines of evidence have established deregulation of the Abl tyrosine kinase as the causative oncogene in certain forms of CML. The deregulation is commonly associated with a chromosomal translocation known as the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph), which results in expression of a fusion protein comprised of the BCR gene product fused to the Abelson tyrosine kinase, thus forming p210Bcr-Abl which has tyrosine kinase activity. A related fusion protein, termed p190Bcr-Abl, that arises from a different breakpoint in the BCR gene, and has been shown to occur in patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) (Melo, 1994; Ravandi et al., 1999). Transformation appears to result from activation of multiple signal pathways including those involving RAS, MYC, and JUN. Imatinib mesylate ("STI-571" or "Gleevec®") is a 2-phenylamino pyrimidine that targets the ATP binding site of the kinase domain of Abl (Druker et al, NEJM 2001, p. 1038). Subsequently it has also been found by other methods to be an inhibitor of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) β receptor, and the Kit tyrosine kinase, the latter of which is involved in the development of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (see below).
Until recently, it had not been observed that during the course of treatment with a specific inhibitor of a given endogenous cellular protein that a mutation in its corresponding endogenous gene could lead to the expression of protein variants whose cellular functioning was resistant to the inhibitor. Work by Charles Sawyers and colleagues (Gorre et al., Science 293:876-80 (2001); PCT/US0218729) demonstrated for the first time that treatment of a patient with a drug capable of inhibiting the p210Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase (i.e., STI-571) could be followed by the emergence of a clinically significant population of cells within said patient harboring a mutation in the gene encoding the p210Bcr-Abl cancer causing target protein which contains the Abelson tyrosine kinase domain. Various such mutations gave rise to mutant forms of p210Bcr-Abl which were less responsive to Gleevec treatment than was the original cancer causing version. Notably, the mutations that emerged conferred upon the mutant protein a relative resistance to the effects of the protein kinase inhibitor drug, while maintaining a certain degree of the original substrate specificity of the mutant protein kinase. Prior to Gorre et al.'s work, it was generally believed by those skilled in the art that the types of resistance that would be observed in patients exposed to a compound which inhibited the Abelson protein kinase, such as STI-571, would have resulted from one or more of the other mechanisms of drug resistance listed above, or by some other as yet unknown mechanism, but that in any event said resistance would involve a target (protein or otherwise) which was distinct from the drug's target POI.
Accordingly, the ability to treat clinically relevant resistant mutant forms of proteins that are otherwise the targets of an existing therapy would be extremely useful. Such mutated proteins (theramuteins as defined below) are beginning to be recognized and understood to be important targets in recurring cancers, and will become important in other diseases as well. There exists a need for therapeutic agents that are active against such drug resistant variant forms of cellular proteins that may arise before, during or following normally effective drug therapies. A key purpose of this invention is to provide compounds that may serve as potential therapeutic agents useful in overcoming mutation-induced drug resistance in endogenously occurring proteins.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Components in an information processing system are represented by software objects whose properties can be changed through function calls. Setting a property of an object controls the associated component. Properties are connected through routes that propagate state changes throughout the system without the need for a running client application. Two-way property routes are used to keep consistence among a controlled object and multiple controlling objects without the risk of endless loops. To achieve this, the two-way route is executed to change a state of a specific one of the properties upon a change of state of another one of the properties if the change of state of the other property was caused by an effect other than the route itself.

The invention relates to an information processing system and a method, in particular, but not exclusively, for control of consumer electronics equipment in the home or office environment.
Consider a computing model based on Component Object Model (COM/DCOM) technology of Microsoft. For more information, see, e.g., the Component Object Model Specification version 0.9 of October 1995 as supplied by Microsoft, herein incorporated by reference. COM is object-oriented. An object has properties that represent control functionalities of an associated electronic device as exposed to a software application. A state change of an object as a consequence of an event from outside is passed on to the software application. The application manipulates the objects by changing or setting their properties. When the application modifies a property of an object associated with a certain physical device a command is sent to the associated device.
COM is a generic mechanism allowing applications to communicate in a consistent way and is a framework for developing and supporting program component objects. It provides capabilities similar to those defined in CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), the framework for the interoperation of distributed objects in a network. OLE (object linking and embedding) provides services for the compound document that users see on their display, COM provides the underlying services of interface negotiation and event services (putting one object into service as the result of an event that has happened to another object). In this implementation clients are modeled as OLE Automation objects (abstract representations) that use properties to expose controls and events to signal state changes. OLE Automation is a COM technology that enables scripting and late binding of clients to servers. OLE Automation provides communication with other programs through calls to features (commands and queries) that the programs have made available for external use. Before using an object, a client application has first to obtain the object""s interface pointer. The interface pointer is obtained through the network""s directory by binding the object""s name or by enumerating devices. Standard COM API""s for moniker binding can be used. References to objects can be obtained by calling GetObject or CoGetObject with a string specifying the desired device""s name or ID. The application can then manipulate the object by setting or retrieving its properties through xe2x80x9cset propertyxe2x80x9d calls to the appropriate properties. When an application sets or modifies a property of an object corresponding with a device the property-setting operation or modification operation is converted into a command that is sent across the network to the relevant device. The objects may differ in implementation, but expose a similar property-based model to client applications running on a controller, e.g., a PC with a Windows-based operating system.
Consider an information processing system comprising such objects (i.e., a collection of software modules, e.g., as introduced above) and client software applications that control the interaction among the objects. For example, the system comprises a home automation sub-system with audio/video equipment for entertainment, a security sub-system and an inhouse-climate control sub-system. These sub-systems and their components are modeled as, e.g., OLE Automation objects that use properties to expose their controls to application clients and events to signal state changes to the application clients. The sub-systems may use different communication protocols for their control signals. Accordingly, since they cannot communicate with each other directly, they communicate at the object-level. A client application could register for notification of changes to the xe2x80x9cstatexe2x80x9d property of a first object representing a first (software) sub-system or first device and respond by setting a specific property of a second object representing a second sub-system or second device. However, the client application would need to be running all the time to provide this interaction. An alternative solution is therefore to specify that, whenever a change occurs to a property of a first object, the property""s new value be propagated as a SetProperty call to a property of a second object. This mechanism is being referred to as a property route. A property route interconnects objects and is registered at the network""s directory as a system-wide OLE Automation object itself. Registering a route creates a link between properties, typically, but not necessarily, between properties of different objects. Whenever a first property changes, the change triggers a call to change a second property via the registered route interconnecting these properties. For more background on a home automation system of the above kind see, for example, Ser. No. 09/146,020 filed Sep. 2, 19998 for Yevgeniy Shteyn for xe2x80x9cLOW DATA-RATE NETWORK REPRESENTED ON HIGH DATA-RATE HAVi-NETWORKxe2x80x9d, herein incorporated by reference.
Now, consider such a system with an object, a property of which is controllable through a state change from each of multiple other objects via property routes. Consider, for example, a lighting system wherein a light is controllable through two switches at two different locations. The two switches are represented by first and second software objects and the light is represented by a third software object. A first client application registers a first property route so that a change of a state of the first switch object propagates to the third light object to cause a corresponding state change of its brightness property. A second application registers a second property route to control the brightness of the light through a state change of the second switch object. Now, when the second switch changes its state to xe2x80x9cONxe2x80x9d, the light""s brightness goes to 100%. The state of the first switch is not updated, unless a third route has been registered for propagating the light""s brightness state to the first switch. However, in many cases such behavior seems counter-intuitive as it requires a conscious effort from the user or application developer to keep the system synchronized. It also requires the system to use complicated logical rules to avoid looping route propagation. The state change of the light propagated to the first object may cause a call from the first switch object to the light object and thus a change in its brightness, etc.
As another example, consider a home entertainment system, wherein a particular functionality (e.g., sound volume) of an apparatus is controllable both through a physical slider at a control panel, and through a remote control device. Assume that the slider and remote control device are represented by first and second software objects and that the controllable functionality of the equipment is represented by a third software object. A first client application registers a first property route so that a change of a state of the slider object propagates to the third object to cause a corresponding state change in the volume property. A second application registers a second property route to control the sound volume through a state change of the object associated with the remote control. In order to keep the first, second and third object synchronized, one could register routes that propagate the state changes of the apparatus to the controls. This, however, renders the control complicated, as in the light case above, and requires checking for endless loops.
The inventor has realized that the user or the application developer has to make an effort in order to keep the behavior of the system""s components synchronized. The inventor has also realized that it further a requires the system to use a complicated logic rule base in order to prevent the system from entering an endless loop.
It is therefore an objective of the invention to provide a system and a method for controlling physical components through their representations as software objects that facilitates the synchronizing and that avoids endless loops.
To this end, the invention provides an information processing system comprising multiple functionalities, e.g., components of physical devices or services to or from such a component or device. Each respective one of these functionalities is represented by a respective software object. Each software object has one or more properties whose state or parameter value can be changed via an appropriate message (call, command, etc.). The system comprises a route manager through which a two-way property route is invoked. Executing the route enables keeping respective states of the respective properties that are linked through this route consistent with each other. To achieve this the route is executed to change a state of a specific one of the properties upon a change of state of another one of the properties if the change of state of the other property was caused by an effect other than the route itself.
The invention is based on the insight that the conditional execution as specified by the invention is a simple and effective way to avoid endless loops and uncontrolled propagation of state changes through the
The invention also relates to a method of enabling controlling an information processing system. The system has first and second functionalities that are represented by first and second software objects, respectively. The first and second properties have first and second settable properties, respectively. The method comprises enabling invoking a property route between the first and second properties for enabling keeping states of the properties consistent with each other; enabling executing the route to change the state of the first property upon a change of the state of the second property if the change of the state of the second property was caused by an effect other than the route itself; and enabling executing the route to change the state of the second property upon a change of the state of the first property if the change of the state of the first property was caused by an effect other than the route itself.
The expressions xe2x80x9cenabling invokingxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cenabling executingxe2x80x9d as used herein cover not only the consequences of user-interaction with the system, but also the supply of software and/or hardware components to the end-user to allow the system to show the behavior as specified.
The invention enables conditional state changes of software objects interconnected by routes, e.g., so as to keep their states consistent with each other. The mechanism proposed by the invention guarantees this consistency regardless of the direction of propagation of the state change along the route, herein after referred to as a two-way route.
Note that the invention is not restricted to COM, but can be used in any object-oriented software environment where changes in states can be propagated among objects without the need for a running client application.

Synchronizing property changes to enable multiple control options


A cell broadcasting service system includes: a terminal for generating a short message service (SMS) type message and a cell broadcasting service (CBS) type message; an SMS center for transmitting a CBS type message to a CB center when receiving the CBS type message from the terminal; and a CB center for broadcasting a received message to a corresponding range area by referring to broadcast range information of the message when receiving the message from the SMS center. By assigning a CB ID to a specific subscriber group (a small circles or a local group), a general subscriber can broadcast a short message in the position of the CB entity. In addition, various get-together information and local information can be easily provided to subscribers of a group located within a broadcast range, and more efficient and substantial information can be provided at a low cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a message service of a mobile communication, and more particularly, to a cell broadcasting service system and method.
2. Description of the Background Art
An SMS, an abbreviate for short message services, refers to a service for transmitting a data with a comparatively short length (usually from 80 byte to 160 byte) in a mobile communication network.
The SMS has been set up as the mobile communication network is developed to a digital method and a digital data is transmitted among inside the mobile communication network, a base station and a terminal. For the SMS, a terminal of a subscriber should have software supporting the SMS.
According to a transmission method, the SMS includes a point-to-point (p-t-p) type and a point-to-multipoint (broadcasting) type, based on which many SMS-related supplementary services are being developed.
As noted from what we call the two types, the point-to-point type is an SMS center to terminal type. More specifically, it signifies that a final destination is one terminal.
Meanwhile, in case of the broadcasting type, a final destination is every terminal, not a specific one terminal, if it can receive a message.
Especially, a minimum unit of the broadcasting in the CDMA network is a base station (cell), so that it is called 'cell broadcasting'.
Another difference between the two types lies in a reliability in a data transmission. The point-to-point type can make a reliable data transmission. That is, a message center takes the responsibility of completely performing the transmission. However, in case of the cell broadcasting, if a user's terminal is in an OFF state or the line is busy, the user would fail to receive a corresponding message.
FIG. 1 is a drawing illustrating the construction of a general mobile communication system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the short message service system includes: a plurality of mobile stations (MSs) 50 for transmitting and receiving a short message; a base station 300; a mobile station center 400; a short message service center 500 for receiving the short message of the MS 50 and p-t-p transmitting it to a destination MS through the MSC 400; and a cell broadcast (CB) center 600 for broadcasting supplementary service information (weather information, traffic information and stock information, etc.) provided from each cell broadcast entity (CBE) 700 to an area where a service subscriber is located.
The CBE 700 is a sort of a server providing supplementary service information.
FIG. 2 is block diagram of a mobile communication terminal in accordance with a conventional art.
As shown in FIG. 2, the MS 50 includes: a key input unit 110 for generating a message data according to a key value inputted through a key pad; a controller 120 for converting the generated data according to a short message transmission protocol and generating a data burst message; and a radio module 150 for processing the generated data burst message so as to be wirelessly transmitted and transmitting it to the base station 300.
A short message transmitting process will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
When the user of the MS 50 depresses the key pad, the key input unit 100 generates a message data according to an inputted key value.
When the message data is generated, the controller 120 generates a transport layer message.
As the transport layer message is generated, the controller 120 generates a data burst message according to a GSM 04.1 and carries the transport layer message in the information field of the data burst message.
The radio module 150 processes the data burst message so as to be wirelessly transmitted and transmits it to the base station 300.
After being transmitted to the base station 300, the data burst message is transmitted to the SMS center 500 through the MSC 400.
Upon receiving the data burst message from the MSC 400, the SMS center 500 stores the received message in a memory and checks a destination address field of the data burst message. And then, the SMS center 500 checks whether a destination MS is in a receiving available state and transmits the data burst message to a corresponding MS.
FIG. 3 is an SMS protocol stack.
The SMS protocol stack is defined by a global system for mobile communications (referred to as 'GSM', hereinafter) standard (GSM 03.4), and as shown in FIG. 3, the SMS protocol stack should be implemented in each of the MS 50, the MSC 400 and the SMS center 500. Basically, the SMS protocol stack is a principle protocol between the MS 50 and the SMS center 500.
Functions for the SMS are implemented in the MS 50 and the SMS center 500, and the MSC 400 handles a relay function therebetween. By means of the relay function, an SMS message is transmitted to a base station that currently handles a service even in a hand-off situation or the like.
Each layer of the SMS protocol stack will now be described with respect to the operation of the MS 50.
First, the user inputs a message desired to be transmitted. Then, in an application layer, the inputted message is put together with various parameter values according to the type of message and transmitted to a transport layer.
In the transport layer, information on 'to where the inputted message is to be transmitted' or 'whether a response is necessary' is added to the message of the application layer to thereby generate a transport layer message.
The transport layer message is transmitted to a relay layer and carried on the data burst message of the GSM standard (GSM 04.1) in the relay layer.
The data burst message is transmitted to the base station according to a call processing routine defined in the GSM standard (GSM 04.1).
One of messages defined in the GSM 04.1, the data burst message is generated in the relay layer and a sort of container transmitting the SMS message (or a CB message). That is, it signifies an SMS message (or a CB message) created according to the GSM 03.4 (SMS standard) is carried on the data burst message defined by the GMS standard (GSM 04.1) and transmitted.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional cell broadcasting service system includes: a plurality of mobile stations (MSs) 50 for transmitting and receiving a short message; a base station 300; a mobile station center (MSC) 300; and a cell broadcast (CB) center 600 for broadcasting supplementary service information (weather information, traffic information, stock information, and the like) provided through the MSC 400 by each cell broadcast entity (CBE) 700 to an area where a service subscriber is located.
The CBE 700 is a sort of a server providing supplementary service information.
In order to do information providing business for subscribers, each supplementary service provider is allocated a cell broadcast identifier (CB ID) by a mobile communication provider, and a CB ID of a corresponding supplementary service provider is also stored in the service subscriber's terminal.
A general cell broadcasting service (CBS) process will now be described.
The CBE 700 generates a CB message in which supplementary information (i.e., weather information, etc), a CB ID value, broadcast range value, and the like, are stored.
And then, when the CBE 700 carries the generated CB message on the data burst message and transmits it to the CB center 600, the CB center 600 transmits the data burst message to a base station where the weather information service subscriber is located through the MSC 400.
Then, the base station broadcasts the data burst message to a plurality of unspecified MSs within the service area.
Each MS 50 determines whether to receive the message by referring to the CB ID of the broadcast message. That is, the MS 50 compares the CB ID of the broadcast message with its own CB ID, and if the two CB IDs are the same to each other, the MS receives the message.
In case of an MS that has not been subscribed for the weather information, it discards the broadcast message. If, however, an MS that has been subscribed for the weather information service, it receives the message.
As mentioned above, the SMS is a bidirectional transfer system while the CBS is a unidirectional transfer (from a provider to a subscriber) system.
Thus, the conventional cell broadcasting service (CBS) is of a passive transmission form that the subscriber is provided with information by the supplementary service provider, and since it is mostly provided for pay, it is less favored by subscribers. Also, at the side of the mobile communication providers, they are to be satisfied by a low business productivity.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

Cell broadcasting service system and method


A power lateral PNP device is disclosed which includes an epitaxial layer; a first and second collector region embedded in the epitaxial layer; an emitter region between the first and second collector regions. Therefore slots are placed in each of the regions. Accordingly, in a first approach the standard process flow will be followed until reaching the point where contact openings and metal are to be processed. In this approach slots are etched that are preferably 5 to 6 um deep and 5 to 6 um wide. These slots are then oxidized and will be subsequently metalized. When used for making metal contacts to the buried layer or for ground the oxide is removed from the bottom of the slots by an anisotropic etch. Subsequently when these slots receive metal they will provide contacts to the buried layer where this is desired and to the substrate when a ground is desired. In a second approach the above-identified process is completed up through the slot process without processing the lateral PNPs. With a separate masking and etching the oxide is removed from the PNP slots and boron is deposited in a diffusion furnace and driven in a non oxidizing atmosphere.

Lateral PNP transistors are utilized extensively in high power applications. They are typically deeply diffused devices that carry very high current (1–5 amps or higher). FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of a standard deep diffused PNP device 10. The emitter 14 is the inside electrode. As shown, this can represent a bulls-eye pattern with the emitter as the bulls-eye and the collector surrounding it, or double collector lines adjacent to each side of an emitter. The device 10 includes two P+ collectors 12a and 12b and P+ emitter 14 between. The two P+ collectors 12a, 12b and the P+ emitter 14 are diffused in an N epitaxial layer 15. An N+ layer 18 (the buried layer) is deposited in a P− substrate 20 which is coupled to the N epitaxial layer 15. An N+ base contact 16 is coupled to the surface of the N epitaxial layer 15 and coupled electrically via the N+ buried layer to apply a voltage between the N base and the P+ emitter 14. The collectors 12a and 12b include a metal layer 12a and 12b respectively on the surface thereof. The collectors TCF 12a and 12b are outside circular electrodes when a bulls-eye pattern is used and are parallel separate structures when parallel inline design is used. The base 16 is contacted via a metalized N diffusion that is placed in the N epitaxial layer 15. For some applications it is tied to the N+ buried layer.
Injection from the emitter 14 is from the total outside periphery of the emitter for the total depth of the emitter. This results in a tremendous difference in the base widths since the surface portion of the emitter 12 is closest to the edge of the surface of the collectors and therefore has the shortest base width. Moving down the periphery of the emitter 12a and 12b, the base width becomes longer and longer and reaches its maximum base width at the deepest point 23.
Referring back to FIG. 1, it is obvious that most of the injection and collection could be considered coming from two transistors in parallel. Transistor XR being on the right half of the emitter and its injection being collected by transistor XR. While at the same time transistor YL on the left half of the emitter has its injection being collected by YL, the collector on the left side. To give some general quantitative idea of the basewidths, assume that the distance from the emitter to collector is 8 μm on the mask. If, for example, the P diffusions are 2.5 μm deep and the side diffusion is 2.0 μm around the total periphery of the emitter and collector, then this leaves the basewidth approximately 4 μm long at the surface and approximately 8 μm long from point 23. In fact, these effective basewidths are much less due to the depletion region extending from the collectors into the base region 16 (N epitaxial layer) and the depletion region of the emitters extending into the base region 16 (N epitaxial layer). This particular example may not be able to work at very high voltages due to punch-through. It is very easy to have depletion widths of a micron or more. This leaves the surface with a basewidth of approximately 2 μm and the basewidth of the bottom of approximately 6 μm.
Without surface effects, this means the surface portion of these two transistors in parallel have the highest beta and the best frequency response, while the deep points have the lowest beta and the worst frequency response.
In general, the beta coming from the bottom point 23 of these transistors can be ignored. Beta is much lower than is achieved at the surface mainly limited by recombination in the bulk as well as the fact that the base emitter voltage (Vbe) is somewhat less at the bottom due to some additional drop from the base contact to the actual base. Likewise, it can be assumed that some of the surface beta is lost due to surface recombination velocity. It can then be assumed that the beta is the average beta with a base width of approximately 3 μm. However, beta is a function of the amount of current collected versus the amount of current emitted. The current being emitted is along the total periphery of the two transistors in parallel as determined by the base emitter voltage (Vbe) and the resultant low base current. The current being collected as a result of this emission is much less due to the issues just discussed, therefore resulting in a beta that is much lower.
The frequency response of the standard lateral PNP is determined by the worse response of the structure. This means the bottom of the radial structure is determining the frequency response of the device due to its long basewidth. Frequency response is determined by where the output is down to 0.707 of the low frequency output. At low frequency the current, and therefore the beta is made up of all the varying basewidths from top to bottom of the structure.
As the frequency increases the bottom of the structure with the long basewidth has recombination occurring on the long basewidths and the output current for a given input current goes down. This shows the total structure as having a lower output current as the frequency increases. The long basewidth device is therefore determining when the overall output is down to 0.707 of the low frequency output. For a power lateral PNP device, where frequency response may not be an issue this is of secondary concern; gain is the primary concern.
Another issue with the standard approach relates to debiasing of the emitter when carrying high current. This occurs because metal is on top of the emitter and therefore the maximum voltage is applied on the surface and the voltage drops to lower values as one goes along the depth of the emitter due to drops in the resistance of the emitter. This drop can be very high since the current may run lamp to greater than 5 amps and any amount of resistance will result in significant debiasing.
An ideal lateral PNP would have a profile as shown in FIG. 2, where the emitter and collectors are vertical spikes that have the same basewidth from top to bottom. It would also have metal the full depth to reduce debiasing.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for providing a power lateral PNP that approaches this ideal structure. This lateral PNP would have an improved beta and frequency response. The present invention addresses such a need with two approaches.

Method and system for providing a power lateral PNP transistor using a buried power buss


An field effect transistor has a plurality of cells provided on a first straight line. Each cell has a plurality of multi-finger electrodes and is connected to a gate terminal electrode and a drain terminal electrode. The multi-finger electrode has at least two finger gate electrodes, a finger drain electrode, and a finger source electrode. The gate terminal electrode connects the finger gate electrodes of two adjoining cells in common. The drain terminal electrode connects the finger drain electrodes of two adjoining cells in common. The finger gate electrode of one cell of two adjoining cells and the finger gate electrode of another cell of the two adjoining cells cross perpendicularly. The gate terminal electrode and the drain terminal electrode are provided alternately in a region where the finger gate electrodes of the two adjoining cells cross.

When an operation region (a gate width) of a field effect transistor which uses GaAs, SiC, GaN and so on is broadened, output power of devices, such as an inverter circuit, a switching circuit and a radio frequency amplification circuit, can be increased easily.
When a plurality of cells is arranged in parallel, the operation region can be broadened without lowering power gain. In this case, thermal resistance can be reduced by keeping properly intervals between each the cells which are the operation regions.
When a radio-frequency and high-power amplification circuit using an HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) etc. comprises a plurality of cells, it is preferred to arrange the cells so that a loop oscillation may not be produced.

Field effect transitor and semiconductor device using the same


A fracture fixation plate with cover sheath having a head element that is rigidly connected to a plate element in an upwardly angled direction. The head element is anatomically shaped and includes medial and lateral sheath recesses wherein non-threaded bone screw holes and a threaded sheath screw hole are located. Cylindrical head bone screws are inserted through the sheath recess and oriented at set angles allowing for bone fragment fixation and fracture reduction. Medial and lateral sheath elements are placed within the boundaries of their respective sheath recesses and are secured with a sheath screw. The sheath elements contact the heads of the inserted bone screws restricting and maintaining their implanted positions. Alternative sheath elements with outreaching medial, lateral and distal fragment capture flanges may also be utilized. The plate element includes at least one longitudinal slot with several bone screw holes for use with pivotable spherical headed bone screws.

Proper securement of metaphyseal fractures in long bones is critical to ensuring restoration of pain free range of motion and full anatomic function. External fixation, casting and a variety of intra-operative techniques using various surgical implants have been used successfully to treat displaced metaphyseal fractures in long bones. Historically, open reduction and internal fixation, though highly invasive, has been the most successful treatment modality with these types of fractures. Various designs and shapes of metallic plates, pegs, wires and screws have been surgically implanted to stabilize and fix metaphyseal fractures. Examples of these surgical implants include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,623,486, 6,866,665, 6,440,135, 6,364,882, 6,508,819, 6,358,250, 6,893,444, 6,767,351 and 6,712,820.
For a surgeon to be success in performing an open reduction and internal fixation of a metaphyseal fracture, the surgical implant must be designed to: allow for proper anatomical alignment restoration of the long bone, minimize soft-tissue disruption and allow for variable sturdy support of all displaced bone fragments. The prior art inventions do not include all of the necessary design attributes to allow the surgeon to accomplish all of these surgical goals.
Most prior art surgical implants utilize threaded head screws and/or threaded head pegs to secure displaced bone fragments. Implants utilizing this design concept are restricted to pre-set angular orientations for inserted screws and pegs, thereby inhibiting the surgeon from adequately securing loose bone fragments and restoring anatomical alignment. Further, the prior art surgical implants utilizing a threaded head design for screws and pegs does not allow the surgeon to draw or lag the bone fragments close to the implant. Resultant gaps between bone fragments and the implant increase the likelihood of decreased fracture site stabilization and incomplete fracture reduction. Possible post-operative complications resulting from such events include non-unions, malignment and reduced range of motion of the healed appendage. Additionally, the design of many prior art surgical implants may lead to other postoperative complications. The potential for tendonitis, tendon rupture and other soft-tissue impingement complications is increased by incongruent surfaces of an implant including exposed heads of fixation pegs and screws that have been inserted. The invention described herein addresses these and other design shortcomings of the prior art implants and provides the surgeon with the design attributes to allow for successful treatment of metaphyseal fractures in long bones.

Fracture fixation plate with cover sheath


A method segments an audio signal including frames into non-speech and speech segments. First, high-dimensional spectral features are extracted from the audio signal. The high-dimensional features are then projected non-linearly to low-dimensional features that are subsequently averaged using a sliding window and weighted averages. A linear discriminant is applied to the averaged low-dimensional features to determine a threshold separating the low-dimensional features. The linear discriminant can be determined from a Gaussian mixture or a polynomial applied to a bi-model histogram distribution of the low-dimensional features. Then, the threshold can be used to classify the frames into either non-speech or speech segments. Speech segments having a very short duration can be discarded, and the longer speech segments can be further extended. In batch-mode or real-time the threshold can be updated continuously.

Most prior art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems generally have little difficulty in generating recognition hypotheses for long segments of a continuously recorded audio signal containing speech. When the signal is recorded in a controlled, quiet environment, the hypotheses generated by decoding long segments of the audio signal are almost as good as those generated by selectively decoding only those segments that contain speech. This is mainly because when the audio signal is acoustically clean, silence is easily recognized as such and is clearly distinguishable from speech. However, when the signal is noisy, known ASR systems have difficulties in clearly discerning whether a given segment in the audio signal is speech or noise. Often, spurious speech is recognized in noisy segments where there is no speech at all.
Speech Segmentation
This problem can be avoided if the beginning and ending boundaries of segments of the audio signal containing speech are identified prior to recognition, and recognition is performed only within these boundaries. The process of identifying these boundaries is commonly referred to as endpoint detection, or speech segmentation. A number of speech segmentation methods are known. These can be roughly categorized as rule-based methods and classifier-based methods.
Rule-Based Segmentation
Rule-based methods use heuristically derived rules relating to some measurable properties of the audio signal to discriminate between speech and non-speech segments. The most commonly used property is the variation in the energy in the signal. Rules based on energy are usually supplemented by other information such as durations of speech and non-speech events, see Lamel, L., Rabiner, L. R., Rosenberg, A., and Wilpon, J., "An improved endpoint detector for isolated word recognition," IEEE ASSP magazine, Vol. 29, 777-785, 1981, zero crossings, Rabiner, L. R. and Sambur, M. R., "An algorithm for determining the endpoints of isolated utterances," Bell Syst. Tech. J., Vol. 54, No. 2, 297-315, 1975, pitch Hamada, M., Takizawa, Y. Norimatsu, T., "A noise-robust speech recognition system," Proceedings of the International conference on speech and language processing ICSLP90, pp. 893-896, 1990.
Other notable methods in this category use time-frequency information to locate segments of the signal that can be reliably tagged and then expanded to adjacent segments, Junqua, J.-C., Mak, B., and Reaves, B., "A robust algorithm for word boundary detection in the presence of noise," IEEE trans. on Speech and Audio Proc., Vol. 2, No. 3, 406-412, 1994.
Classifier-Based Segmentation
Classifier-based methods model speech and non-speech events as separate classes and treat the problem of speech segmentation as one of classification. The distributions of classes may be modeled by static distributions, such as Gaussian mixtures, Hain, T., and Woodland, P. C., "Segmentation and classification of broadcast news audio," Proceedings of the International conference on speech and language processing ICSLP98, pp. 2727-2730, 1998, or the models can use dynamic structures such as hidden Markov models, Acero, A., Crespo, C., De la Torre, C., and Torrecilla, J. C., "Robust HMM-based endpoint detector," Proceedings of Eurospeech'93, pp. 1551-1554, 1993. More sophisticated versions use the speech recognizer itself as an endpoint detector.
Generally, these methods use a priori information about the signal, as stored by the classifier, for endpointing. Hence, these methods are not well-suited for real-time implementations. Some endpointing methods do not clearly belong to either of the two categories, e.g., some methods use only the local variations in the statistical properties of the incoming signal to detect endpoints, Siegler, M., Jain, U., Raj, B., and Stern, R. M., "Automatic segmentation, classification and clustering of broadcast news audio," Proceedings of the DARPA speech recognition workshop February 1997, pp. 97-99, 1997.
Rule-based segmentation has two main problems. First, the rules are specific to the feature set used for endpoint detection, and new rules must be generated for every new feature considered. Due to this problem, only a small set of features for which rules are easily derived is commonly used. Second, the parameters of the applied rules must be fine tuned to the specific acoustic conditions of the signal, and do not easily generalize to other recording conditions.
Classifier-based segmenters, on the other hand, use feature representations of the entire spectrum of the signal for endpoint detection. Because classifier-based methods use more information, they can be expected to perform better than rule-based segmenters. However, they also have problems. Classifier-based segmenters are specific to the kind of recording environments for which they are trained. For example, classifiers trained on clean speech perform poorly on noisy speech, and vice versa. Therefore, classifiers must be adapted to a specific recording environments, and thus, are not well suited for any recording condition.
Because feature representations usually have many dimensions, typically 12-40 dimensions, adaptation of classifier parameters requires relatively large amounts of data. Even then, large improvements in speech and non-speech segmentation is not always observed, see Hain et al, above.
Moreover, when adaptation is to be performed, the segmentation process becomes slower and more complex. This can increase the time lag or latency between the time at which endpoints occur and the time at which they are detected, which may affect real-time implementations. When classes are modeled by dynamic structures such as HMMs, the decoding strategies used can introduce further latencies, e.g., see Viterbi, A. J., "Error bounds for convolutional codes and an asymptotically optimum decoding algorithm," IEEE Trans. on Information theory, 260-269, 1967.
Recognizer-based endpoint detection involves even greater latency because a single pass of recognition rarely results in good segmentation and must be refined by additional passes after adapting the acoustic models used by the recognizer. The problems of high dimensionality and higher latency make classifier-based segmentation less effective for most real-time implementations. Consequently, classifier-based segmentation is mainly used in off-line or batch-mode implementations.
Therefore, there is a need for a speech segmentation method that can be applied, in batch-mode and real-time, to a continuous audio signal recorded under varying acoustic conditions.

Classifier-based non-linear projection for continuous speech segmentation

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


Described is a battery powered, four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle, with independently operable, variable speed, bi-directional electric motors, one of which may selectively used to drive the front wheels of the vehicle, the other of which may be selectively used to drive the rear wheels of the vehicle. A front differential drive mechanism allows the front wheels to operate at different speeds. Front wheels of the vehicle are steerable through universal joints disposed between the front differential mechanism and each front wheel. A rear differential drive mechanism allow the rear wheels to rotate at different speeds. By selectively choosing whether to engage front and rear wheels and the direction they rotate, the vehicle may be operated as a four-wheel drive vehicle, a front-wheel drive vehicle, a rear wheel drive vehicle, with all four wheels disengaged, or even with front and rear wheels rotating in opposite directions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to battery powered, electrically motored, four wheel personnel carriers designed for off-road use in rough terrain. With more particularity, the invention relates to a vehicle in which may be selectively operated in "four wheel drive" (all four wheels are driven), "front wheel drive" (the front two wheels are driven) or "rear wheel drive" (the rear two wheels are driven). The vehicle of the invention is equipped with two independently operable electric motors, one of which powers the front wheels and one of which powers the front wheels. Constant velocity ("CV") joint is used on the front wheels to make them steerable.
2. Description of Related Art
There are millions of motorized vehicles, of various shapes, forms, purposes and designs. Some of said designs relate to four wheel drive all terrain vehicles. Most are driven by single internal combustion engine. Some may be selectively operated with all four wheels driven, or only the two rear wheels driven. None are known which may be selectively operated with all four wheels driven, with only the rear wheels driven, or with only the front wheels driven.
As to off the road vehicles, driven by single electric motor, powered by a battery, such as rear wheel driven golf carts, are known. None of these type of vehicles are known to have four-wheel drive capability. None of these types of vehicles are known to employ dual, independently operable, selectively disengagable, electric motors, one for driving the front wheels, the other for driving the rear wheels, thereby the vehicle may be operated as a four-wheel drive vehicle, a front-wheel drive vehicle, a rear wheel drive vehicle, with all four wheels disengaged, or even with front and rear wheels rotating in opposite directions.
The invention disclosed and claimed herein is equipped with dual, independently operable electric motors. One is for driving the front wheels of the vehicle, the other for driving the rear wheels. Therefore the vehicle disclosed and claimed herein may be selectively operated as a four-wheel drive vehicle, a front wheel drive vehicle, or a rear wheel drive vehicle. The vehicle could even be operated with the front wheels driving in one direction, the rear wheels driving in the opposite direction, which does have some utility, such as making the vehicle track sidewards when on an transversely inclined slope. When operated in the two-wheel drive mode (either front-wheel drive or rear wheel drive) the non-driven motor may be mechanically disconnected from the wheels, thereby eliminate drag of the non-driven motor as an energy saving mean.

Dual electric motor four wheel drive personnel carrier