A method and apparatus for minimizing excess aluminum deposition that can build up inside a substrate processing chamber during an aluminum CVD substrate processing operation. The method of the present invention periodically introduces nitrogen into the processing chamber after aluminum CVD processing of at least a single wafer in order to minimize unwanted aluminum accumulation in various parts of the chamber. According to one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of minimizing excess metal deposition inside a substrate processing chamber after a substrate processing operation. The method includes the steps of introducing a nitrogen-containing passivating gas into a chamber after the substrate processing operation, and maintaining at least a portion of the chamber at a second temperature during the introducing step thereby reducing excess metal build up within the chamber. In preferred embodiments, the method is performed after removal of the substrate from the processing chamber. In other preferred embodiments, the second temperature ranges from about 200.degree.-300.degree. C.

The present invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, the invention provides methods and apparatus for preventing undesired aluminum deposition build-up that occurs during substrate processing. The present invention is particularly useful for aluminum chemical vapor deposition processing, but may also be useful for other types of substrate processing.
One of the primary steps in the fabrication of modern semiconductor devices is the formation of a metal film, such as an aluminum film, on a semiconductor substrate. Processes to form an aluminum film are often used in deposition of a metal layer or as part of the deposition process of metal interconnects between one metal layer and either the substrate or another metal layer. Conventionally, an aluminum film is formed on a substrate either by a sputter deposition process or by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. In an exemplary sputter deposition system, a target (a plate of the aluminum material that is to be deposited) is connected to a negative voltage supply (direct current (DC) or radio frequency (RF)) while a substrate holder facing the target is either grounded, floating, biased, heated, cooled, or some combination thereof. A gas such as argon is introduced into the system, typically maintained at a pressure between a few millitorr (mtorr) and about 100 mtorr, to provide a medium in which a glow discharge can be initiated and maintained. When the glow discharge is started, positive ions strike the target, and target aluminum atoms are removed by momentum transfer. These target atoms subsequently condense into a thin aluminum film on the substrate, which is on the substrate holder. In a conventional thermal CVD process, reactive gases are supplied to the substrate surface where heat-induced chemical reactions take place to form the thin aluminum film over the surface of the substrate being processed. One exemplary thermal aluminum CVD process deposits aluminum over a semiconductor substrate from a process gas that includes dimethylaluminum hydride (DMAH) and a carrier gas such as argon. As is well known, aluminum CVD is a "selective" process in that aluminum prefers to deposit on a metallic surface. Once the deposition of aluminum on a metallic surface has begun, the deposited aluminum, itself a metal, supports further growth of aluminum. Although aluminum deposits on a metallic surface more rapidly than on an insulating surface, aluminum also will deposit on an insulator after a long incubation time.
One problem that arises during aluminum sputtering or aluminum CVD processes is that unwanted aluminum deposition occurs in the processing chamber and leads to potentially high maintenance costs. During aluminum deposition of a single wafer, some aluminum deposition is likely to occur on the heater and/or process kit if these are made of metal and even if these are partially or wholly made of an insulating material. During subsequent wafer depositions, this excess aluminum growth on the heater and/or process kit will accelerate until a continuous aluminum film is grown on the heater and/or process kit. Over time, this unwanted aluminum deposition, unless removed, may interfere with the performance of the processing chamber. To prevent chamber performance from being adversely affected by the accumulated aluminum, portions of the processing chamber (such as the heater, shadow ring, and/or gas distribution faceplate) may need to be removed and replaced periodically. Depending on which and how many parts need replacing and the frequency of the replacement, the cost of maintaining the deposition system can be very high.
This unwanted aluminum deposition problem is fairly easily solved for sputtering deposition systems. With sputtering deposition, aluminum deposition is limited to areas of the chamber which have an uninterrupted "line of sight" to some part of the target. Therefore, sputtering systems often utilize a shield ring or clamp ring to accumulate excess aluminum deposition and to protect the heated substrate holder from unwanted aluminum deposition. Typically about 3000-6000 wafers may be processed (about 0.3-0.6 mm total deposition) with an aluminum sputtering deposition system before excess deposition starts to interfere with the system's performance. Then, only the shield ring or clamp ring and one or two other process kit parts, not including the expensive heater, need to be removed and replaced to remove unwanted accumulations of aluminum in the sputtering system.
However, the problem of unwanted aluminum deposition is not so easily solved for aluminum CVD systems. Unlike sputtering deposition, aluminum deposition in CVD systems is not limited to certain areas of the chamber. With CVD, aluminum deposition can occur on any hot surface including the shadow ring and the heater, because the reactive gases can diffuse everywhere in the processing chamber, even between cracks and around corners in the processing chamber. Typically, about 5000 wafers may be processed (about 0.5 mm total deposition) with an aluminum CVD system before excess deposition starts to interfere with the system's performance. Then, the heater and other process kit parts (such as the shadow ring and gas distribution faceplate) may need to be removed and replaced to remove unwanted accumulations of aluminum in the CVD system. If not protected in some way from unwanted aluminum deposition, the heater and other process kit parts would become expensive consumable items that need to be replaced periodically in order to prevent chamber performance from being adversely affected.
Typical solutions to similar unwanted deposition problems faced in other non-aluminum CVD processes have been considered but found inadequate for solving the problem in aluminum CVD process. With these non-aluminum CVD processes, similar problems with excess deposition on the inside surfaces of the chamber have been minimized by utilizing reactive plasma cleaning and by using process kit parts constructed of materials resistant to the etching gas used in the cleaning. In these CVD processes, a reactive plasma cleaning is regularly performed to remove the unwanted deposition material from the chamber walls, heater, and other process kit parts of the processing chamber. Commonly performed between deposition steps for every wafer or every n wafers, this cleaning procedure is performed as a standard chamber cleaning operation where the etching gas is used to remove (etch) the unwanted deposited material. Common etching techniques include plasma CVD techniques that promote excitation and/or disassociation of the reactant gases by the application of RF energy to a reaction zone proximate the substrate surface. In these techniques, a plasma of highly reactive species is created that reacts with and etches away the unwanted deposition material from the chamber walls and other areas. However, with aluminum CVD processes, etching gases useful for etching aluminum contain chlorine, which is very reactive to many, if not most, of the materials which make up the chamber, heater, and process kit parts of the processing chamber. Therefore, using chlorine-containing etching gases makes it virtually impossible to effectively clean excess CVD aluminum film from an aluminum heater without also damaging the heater in the cleaning process. Even if the heater and/or process kit parts are constructed of materials resistant to the chlorine-containing etching gas used in the cleaning, unwanted aluminum deposition could still occur although at a slower rate. Thus, maintaining chamber performance may result in damage to expensive consumable items which need to be replaced frequently as a result.
From the above, it is seen that a method and apparatus are needed to minimize unwanted aluminum deposition on the heater, process kit parts, and chamber walls in aluminum CVD systems without causing damage to these components. Further, it is desirable that the method and apparatus extend the life span of these components to thereby reduce the need for and/or frequency of replacing expensive consumable items.

Methods and apparatus for minimizing excess aluminum accumulation in CVD chambers


A modular high-density computer system has an infrastructure that includes a framework component forming a plurality of bays and has one or more cooling components. The computer system also has one or more computational components that include a rack assembly and a plurality of servers installed in the rack assembly. Each of the one or more computational components is assembled and shipped to an installation site separately from the infrastructure and then installed within one of the plurality of bays after the infrastructure is installed at the site.

As enterprise applications continue to increase in complexity, a commensurate increase in computational power is required to perform those applications. Because data centers continuously strive to achieve efficiencies in floor space, in power and data distribution, and in system management in the face of the ever increasing number of servers deployed, a trend has emerged toward greater densification in the manner in which those servers are physically configured. For example, servers are currently available with multiple processors in very low profile configurations that can be deployed in rack structures. One example is the Proliant®1 DL360 G4 server available from Hewlett Packard Company, which has a height of one rack unit and employs two processors. Thus a single 42 U (unit) rack can contain as many as 42 such servers. An even denser configuration can be achieved using a 1/2U Proliant® BL p-Class blade server from Hewlett Packard Company, of which up to 96 such blade servers can populate a 42 U rack. 1Proliant is a trademark of the Hewlett Packard Company.
With increased density in processing power also comes a commensurate increase in the amount and density of power dissipated by the computational components in the form of heat. One of the challenges faced by data centers deploying these densely configured servers is how to provide sufficient cooling to these densely populated racks. Without sufficient cooling, the servers and particularly their components are prone to reduced performance, shorter life and outright failure, which can lead to higher costs and even catastrophic results for the data center.
Historically, a room oriented cooling infrastructure was sufficient to handle this cooling problem. Such an infrastructure was typically made up of one or more bulk air conditioning units designed to cool the room to some average temperature. This type of cooling infrastructure evolved based on the assumption that the computer equipment is relatively homogenous and that the power density is on the order 1-2 Kilowatts per rack. The high density racks mentioned above, however, can be on the order of 20 Kilowatts per rack and above. This increase in power density, and the fact that the equipment can be quite heterogeneous leads to the creation of hotspots that can no longer be sufficiently cooled with simple room-oriented cooling systems.
This increase in local power density has led to the development of numerous localized cooling components that can be deployed more proximately to the racks containing the computational components themselves. These infrastructure components include cooling units that employ fans and heat exchangers that can be distributed locally within rows of racks to meet the specific cooling requirements of the computational components within the rows. Cooling components have also been integrated within individual rack assemblies. These newer cooling components allow data centers to build a cooling infrastructure that is locally distributed throughout the computational components, and which is tailored to the specific computational components deployed by the data center. Given the often heterogeneous nature of a data center's computational components, its overall cooling infrastructure may consist of a combination of room-oriented, row oriented and/or rack-centric cooling components.
A further trend that has emerged from the densification of computer components is that data centers have begun seeking fully assembled and tested computational system components as lieu of purchasing individual servers, assembling them into racks on site, loading the operating system software, and bringing the system up to an operational condition. They may even seek to have their own application software installed and fully tested on the system before taking delivery. Additionally, today's data centers are seeking to have the requisite cooling infrastructure provided with its purchase of computational component(s). In-row and rack-oriented cooling components developed for high density racks, such as those that employ heat exchangers using water or refrigerants, constitute a complex and bulky infrastructure that is added to the computational component to be cooled.
This cooling infrastructure, combined with an already heavy rack of computational components creates a very large, very cumbersome integrated system that presents an enormous challenge to ship to the data centers and then to install them. Data center hallways, doors and isles are simply not typically designed to facilitate their delivery and installation in this newly desired level of integration. Moreover, high-density computational components present significant challenges at the time of installation in providing power and data distribution infrastructure as well. The sheer number of connections required to these dense configurations can create enormous amounts of cabling. Finally, because today the infrastructure is delivered fully integrated with the computational components, a considerable amount of time is still required to bring the systems up after delivery. Power lines, data lines, air duct and coolant lines must all still be interfaced to the infrastructure before the systems can be brought up to an operational level.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Provided is a method for channel searching for enabling a medical body area network (MBAN) terminal, which operates in an allocated frequency band, to use another frequency band. The method may comprise the steps of receiving an identifier of a specific channel group, from among a plurality of channel groups, from an MBAN coordinator in the allocated frequency band; and searching for a channel in a channel group relating to the received identifier of the channel group in a different frequency band. The identifier of the channel group indicates a channel group including channels that the terminal preferentially searches for in the other frequency band.

A medical body area network (MBAN) system has been devised to provide a flexible platform for wireless networking of a plurality of sensors used to monitor biological data of a patient in a health care facility such as a hospital.
The MBAN system is operated at bands of 2360 MHz to 2400 MHz on the basis of the IEEE 802.15.4, and its maximum emission bandwidth is limited to 5 MHz.
If the MBAN system is operated at 2360 MHz to 2390 MHz, its transmission power has the smaller value of 1 mW and 10*log(B)dBm. At this time, B is the emission bandwidth of 20 dB. If the MBAN system is operated at 2390 MHz to 2400 MHz, its transmission power has the smaller value of 20 mW and 10*log(B)dBm, wherein B is the emission bandwidth of 20 dB.
2360 MHz to 2400 MHz is the frequency bandwidth already allocated for another wireless communication system. The MBAN system is operated on the basis of the cognitive radio technology. The cognitive radio technology means that a network or wireless communication device actively senses and determines its neighboring communication environment to adaptively change transmission and reception properties, such as frequency bandwidth, transmission power and coding scheme, which are intended for optimized communication. In this case, if the cognitive radio device senses use of another licensed user (or primary user) at a desired frequency bandwidth, the cognitive radio device is preferentially operated so as not to disturb communication of the corresponding users.
To this end, the MBAN devices are basically operated inside a registered health care facility if they are operated at 2360 MHz to 2390 MHz. In other words, the MBAN devices should control use for 2360 MHz to 2390 MHz through cooperation with another licensed user, and if another licensed user uses the corresponding bandwidth, the MBAN devices should reset all the operations at this bandwidth and resume the operation by newly using the bandwidth of 2390 MHz to 2400 MHz.
If the MBAN devices move outdoor, they should stop their operations or change a transmission bandwidth to the bandwidth of 2390 MHz to 2400 MHz used as the basic bandwidth. If the MBAN devices are operated at the bandwidth of 2390 MHz to 2400 MHz, they may be used indoor and outdoor without limitation.
However, a detailed channel arrangement and a method for searching for a channel at each frequency bandwidth have not been defined for the MBAN system.

Method for channel searching in a medical body area network


In an operating table comprising a table column (10) with a column foot (14) and with a column head (16) and also a patient bed (12) which is connectable to the column head (16) and which is pivotable in relation to the table column (10) about at least one axis parallel to the bed plane, the column head (16) has provided on it a guide track (42) which is curved continuously about an axis of curvature and on which a saddle coupleable to the bed (12) is mounted such that it can be adjusted along the guide track (42) by means of a saddle drive.

Operating tables of the abovementioned type are, as a rule, mounted on the column head pivotably both about an axis (axis of inclination) directed transversely to the longitudinal direction of the patient bed and about an axis (axis of tilt) directed parallel to the longitudinal direction of the patient bed.
The bed must be at a relatively great distance from its pivot axes, so that it can execute a sufficiently large pivoting movement in the tilt direction or inclination direction before it butts against the column head. If the pivot axes are arranged above the lift guide in order to achieve sufficient freedom for the pivoting movements in the tilt and inclination directions, a lowering of the operating table to a low level is greatly restricted. If, on the other hand, the pivot axes are arranged such that they pass through the lift guide, this results in severe restrictions of at least one pivoting movement. This arises from the situation where, with the pivoting of the bed about the first pivot axis mounted on the column head, the mounting of the second pivot axis is pivoted in accompaniment. This then collides quickly with the lift guide.


A shearing device for cutting boards of particulate material, or similar, having a body adapted for fastening to a drill, and first and second cutting blades fixed to the body, each cutting blade having a curved cutting edge extending to a forward tip of its respective cutting blade. A third cutting blade is pivotably mounted to reciprocate in a plane between the first and second cutting blades the third cutting blade having curved cutting edges extending to a forward tip of the third cutting blade so as to cooperate with the first and second cutting blades to perform the cutting operation. The third cutting blade is spaced from the first and second blades by spaces to provide a clearance of 1 to 3 mm.

There is currently available a shearing device for cutting boards of particulate material and the like, which attaches to the chuck end of a drill. Two fixed outer cutting blades are attached to a body with a third movable centre cutting blade adapted to pivot in a plane centrally between the outer cutting blades, such that the device performs a scissor cutting action with the centre blade moving relative to the outer cutting blades. The centre cutting blade is pivotally driven by an eccentric cam driving cam following surfaces on arms extending from an end of the centre cutting blade. The eccentric cam is fastened to, and driven by, a drill attached to the body.
The cutting blades are positioned closely together such that there is minimal clearance between the cutting edges of the blades as the centre cutting blade pivots. The cutting edges are straight or substantially straight and manufactured from steel.
The prior art device is capable of cutting through material only up to about 4 mm thick and produces dust from the material when cutting, which can be a serious respiratory hazard. The cutting edges and cam following surfaces are also subject to high wear rates.


Use of factor XIII for treating coumarin-induced hemorrhage or bleeding. The coumarin may be warfarin or dicoumarol. A patient having coumarin-induced bleeding is treated with factor XIII alone or in conjunction with vitamin K.

Vitamin K controls the formation of prothrombin, factor VII, factor IX, and factor X by acting as a substrate for the enzyme γ-glutamyl carboxylase. This enzyme catalyzes the addition of carbon dioxide to the γ-carbon of protein-bound glutamic acid in the gla regions of the coagulation factors.
Coumarin anticoagulants, which include warfarin and dicumarol (dicoumarol), prevent the reduction of vitamin K epoxides in the liver microsomes and induce a state of vitamin K deficiency. A side effect of such anticoagulants is hemorrhage. If hemorrhage does occur, there is a need for a substance to inhibit the coumarin anticoagulant-induced bleeding.

Method for treating coumarin-induced hemorrhage


A liquid absorbent structure is made by dry laying a fibrous web having incorporated therein a superabsorbent material, and applying an aqueous composite stabilizer to at least one surface of the web. The aqueous composite stabilizer imparts integrity to the resulting structure without substantially impairing the effectiveness of the superabsorbent material to absorb liquid while forming the absorbent structure without removing the water from aqueous composite stabilizer or drying out the absorbent structure. The absorbent composite absorbs the water from the aqueous composite stabilizer. The absorbent composite comprises about 70% by weight of a superabsorbent material.

Absorbent composites containing high levels of superabsorbent polymer exhibit increased problems maintaining composite integrity. This is due to insufficient fiber to contain and restrict the mobility and migration of superabsorbent material in the composite. This is a problematic situation, since there is a very strong motivation to design and produce thin, flexible, comfortable absorbent products. The lack of integrity in an absorbent composite also challenges the ability to manufacture products with high superabsorbent material composites at fast line speeds. In addition, upon initial product use, migration of the superabsorbent material in the product can compromise fluid performance and product comfort during extended use including issues such as sagging and drooping.
In addition, with more mobile superabsorbent material, gel on skin can become an increased problem that needs to be avoided. Integrity has been improved at higher superabsorbent material via either an embossing pattern on the composite or debulking the composite or using hot melt adhesives. However, embossing or debulking damages the superabsorbent, compromising fluid properties of the absorbent product.
Therefore, a method of forming a soft, absorbent structure that exhibits high integrity and relatively low bulk is needed.

Method of forming an absorbent structure


A high-frequency testing probe having a probe substrate and at least two probe tips. The probe substrate is a printed circuit board and the probe tips are coupled to and extend outward from the printed circuit board. The first and second probe tips are each communicatively coupled to respective first and second probe connectors through respective first and second conducting traces disposed upon the printed circuit board. The probe connectors are configured to couple the testing probe to at least one of a high-frequency vector network analyzer and a high-frequency time domain reflectometer. The probe tips translate along their respective central longitudinal axes through respective adjustable couplings to modify respective distances the probe tips extend outward from the printed circuit board.

With the increasing bandwidth demands of internet connectivity, cloud computing, and wireless communications, the demand for extremely high frequency radio data transmission continues to grow. In addition to radio frequency transmissions through antennas, transmission of data on a circuit board from one chip to another and over a cable or backplane from one device to another, as well as transmission through fiber optics also involves and benefits from extremely high frequency data transmission.
Such extremely high frequency data transmission requires components, including semiconductor devices, capable of processing these high frequency data signals. During development of these high-frequency components it is generally necessary for researchers to test the functionality of the component under design over its intended frequency range. Once developed, it is also desirable to test manufactured components to verify frequency response and other functionality in accordance with specified tolerances. In both cases, the testing of the component is typically accomplished through the use of testing probes connected to a vector network analyzer (VNA), time domain reflectometer (TDR), oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, bit error rate tester (BERT) or other measurement equipment.
Conventional testing probes typically include two or more electrodes which are placed on conducting contact points on the surface of the component being tested. The electrodes are attached to a single cable composed of multiple conductive wires for transmitting electrical signals to and from connected measurement equipment. Such cable testing probes have been used to reliably test signal frequencies of up to 25 GHz.
Working within the extremely high frequency regime has its own set of difficulties. Testing equipment, particularly testing probes that interface the test equipment with the device been evaluated, are particularly sensitive to deviations from an often tight set of tolerances. High frequency testing probes can be expensive and slow to develop and manufacture with consistent, reliable performance at high frequencies.

High-frequency data differential testing probe


Embodiments of garment hangers retail package comprising a display tag having a substantial display area located on top of the garment hanger supporting arms for illustrating the specialty features of the garment hanger. The display tag is sandwiched in between the first two hangers in a retail package of multiple hangers.

Garment hanger is a commodity houseware product having a long history. Typically a garment hanger comprises of a suspension member represented by a hook and a pair of supporting arms extending from the two sides of the suspension member for supporting a garment. Optional features of garment hangers comprise of pant bars or clips. High-end garment hangers are mostly sold piece by piece. Lower cost hangers are mostly bundled from two to ten hangers per pack for retail. Since garment hangers are commodity item that most people understand how to use, the prior art packaging designs of garment hangers are usually kept simple to minimize the product cost. Besides most consumer understands the look of a garment hanger, there is little incentive for packaging designer to provide a packaging design that gives the full frontal view of the hanger. Accordingly the packaging designs of most single pack retail hangers are in the form of a small freely suspended hang tag. The most common prior art packaging design for multiple hangers is simply a card wrapped around the arms or the medial portions of the hangers stacked together. When a sophisticated reciprocal adjustable garment hanger was promoted, it was discovered that the low cost garment hanger packaging designs commonly used in the art do not provide adequate display area to illustrate sales related information, such as the special benefits, features and operation of the reciprocal adjustable garment hangers. The need of a substantially larger display area on the packaging without affecting the display arrangements in the retail stores is identified for educating the consumer the benefits of a personalized fitted hangers.
It is the goal of the subject invention to provide a retail packaging assembly unique to the structures of garment hangers, particularly a design having a significantly large display area to illustrate the operation of specialty garment hangers, such as an adjustable hanger. The second objective is to offer a low cost packaging design allowing the full frontal view of the adjustable hanger to be shown to the customers visiting the stores, so as to stimulate their attention about the special features offered by the hangers, such as the see through adjusting mechanism, or the movable arms of an adjustable garment hanger, as illustrated in applicants issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,511,701 and 5,644,710. It is also an objective of the invention to provide a most suitable position on the display tag to print the "Try-Me" message which directs the attention of the consumer to the moving arms of an adjustable garment hanger.


Various multisided thermal media image elements, and methods of manufacture thereof, are presented. In one embodiment, a first media substrate is at least partially coated with thermally sensitive ink on one or more of its sides. A second media substrate is coated with the thermally sensitive ink on at least one of its sides. The second media substrate is at least partially integrated with the first media substrate to form a multisided thermal media image element, wherein at least a portion of the second media substrate is capable of being removed for independent use. The multisided first and second media substrates are adapted to be imaged via a thermal printer individually and together upon integration into the image element.

Thermal printing is becoming increasingly popular and cost effective in the retail industry. With thermal printing, the ink is pre-coated on paper-based media where it is subsequently and selectively revealed by applying heat from a thermally-enabled printer (thermal printer). One obvious benefit to this technique is the lack of a need to purchase consumables, such as ink or laser cartridges. Another benefit is that the thermal printer may require less maintenance and may not have to be serviced as often, since there is no ink running through components of the printer and no cartridges to continually remove and install within the printer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention provides a method of producing a recombinant polypeptide having β-glucosidase enzymatic activity, a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide, nucleic acid constructs carrying the polynucleotide, transformed cells, such as yeast cells, and transgenic organisms expressing the polynucleotide. The invention provides various uses of the polypeptide, the polynucleotide, cells and/or organisms, including producing a recombinant polypeptide having β-glucosidase enzymatic activity, increasing the level of aromatic compounds in alcoholic beverages, as well as other fermentation products of plant material, hydrolyzing cellobiose and thus increasing the level of fermentable glucose, increasing the production of alcohol; such as ethanol from plant material, increasing the aroma released from a plant, or a plant, product, and hydrolysis or transglycosylation of glycosides.

The present invention relates to a polypeptide having β-glucosidase enzymatic activity, to a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide, to nucleic acid constructs carrying the polynucleotide, to transformed or infected cells, such as yeast cells, and organisms expressing the polynucleotide and to various uses of the polypeptide, the polynucleotide, cells and/or organisms, including, but not limited to, producing a recombinant polypeptide having β-glucosidase enzymatic activity, increasing the level of aroma compounds in alcoholic beverages, as well as other fermentation products of plant material, hydrolyzing cellobiose and thus increasing the level of fermentable glucose, to increase production of alcohol, such as ethanol from plant material, increasing the aroma released from a plant or a plant product, and hydrolysis or transglycosylation of glycosides.
Abbreviations used herein include: BGL1—Aspergillus niger B1 β-glucosidase; bgl1—a cDNA encoding same; 2FGlcF—2-deoxy-2-fluoro β-glucosyl fluoride; DNP—2,4-dinitrophenol; DNPGlc—2,4-dinitrophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside; pNP—p-nitrophenol; pNPGlc—p-nitrophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside; MUGlc—4-methylumbeliferyl-β-D-glucopyranoside; YNB—yeast nitrogen base without amino acids; and X-glu—5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl β-D-glucopyranoside.
β-Glucosidases (EC 188.8.131.52; β-D-glucoside glucohydrolase) play a number of different important roles in biology, including the degradation of cellulosic biomass by fungi and bacteria, degradation of glycolipids in mammalian lysosomes and the cleavage of glucosylated flavonoids in plants. These enzymes are therefore of considerable industrial interest, not only as constituents of cellulose-degrading systems, but also in the food industry (2, 3).
Aspergillus species are known as a useful source of β-glucosidases (4-6), and Aspergillus niger is by far the most efficient producer of β-glucosidase among the microorganisms investigated (4). Shoseyov et al. (7) have previously described a β-glucosidase from Aspergillus niger B1 (CMI CC 324626) which is active at low pHs, as well as in the presence of high ethanol concentrations. This enzyme effectively hydrolyzes flavor-compound glycosides in certain low-pH products, such as wine and passion fruit juice, thereby enhancing their flavor (8-12), and is particularly attractive for use in the food industry, as A. niger is considered non-toxic (3). In addition, β-glucosidase was found useful in enzymatic synthesis of glycosides (13-15). Other A. niger β-glucosidases have also been purified (16-18), however, differences in their properties have been reported, including ranges of molecular weights (116-137 kDa), isoelectric points (pI values of 3.8-4) and pH optima (3.4-4.5). Indeed, at least two β-glucosidases, with distinct substrate specificities, have been identified in commercial A. niger β-glucosidase preparations (19). Attempts to clear this confusion by cloning and expression of a functional A. niger β-glucosidase gene in S. cerevisiae has been previously reported (20), however the protein was not characterized, and the sequence was not published.
Glycosidases have been assigned to families on the basis of sequence similarities, there now being some 77 different such families defined containing over 2,000 different enzymes (21, see also the CAZy (Carbohydrate Active EnZymes) website, at the Architecture of Fonction de Macromolecules Biologiques of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique website. With the exception of the glucosylceramidases (Family 30), all simple β-glucosidases belong to either Family 1 or 3. Family 1 contains enzymes from bacteria, plants and mammals, including also 6-phospho-glucosidases and thioglucosidases. Furthermore, most Family 1 enzymes also have significant galactosidase activity. Family 3 contains β-glucosidases and hexosaminidases of fungal, bacterial and plant origin. Enzymes of both families hydrolyze their substrates with net retention of anomeric configuration, presumably via a two-step, double-displacement mechanism, involving two key active site carboxylic acid residues (for reviews of mechanism, see 22-24). In the first step, one of the carboxylic acids (the nucleophile) attacks at the substrate anomeric center, while the other (the acid/base catalyst) protonates the glycosidic oxygen, thereby assisting the departure of the aglycone. This results in the formation of a covalent α-glycosyl-enzyme intermediate. In a second step this intermediate is hydrolyzed by general base-catalyzed attack of water at the anomeric center of the glycosyl-enzyme, to release the β-glucose product and regenerate free enzyme. Both the formation and the hydrolysis of this intermediate proceed via transition states with substantial oxocarbenium ion character.
Given that Family 3 contains fungal enzymes of similar mass, including those from other Aspergillus sp., it is likely that the Aspergillus niger β-glucosidase would be a member of this family. Mechanistic information on this family is relatively sparse: the best characterized being the glycosylated 170 kDa β-glucosidase from Aspergillus wentii. By labeling the active site with conduritol B-epoxide, this enzyme was shown to carry out hydrolysis, with net retention of anomeric configuration. This study has demonstrated that the labeled aspartic acid residue was the same as that derivatized by the slow substrate D-glucal (1, 25). Furthermore, it was shown that the 2-deoxyglucosyl-enzyme, trapped by use of D-glucal, was kinetically identical to that formed during the hydrolysis of PNP-2-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranoside (26). Further detailed kinetic analysis of the enzyme was performed by Legler et al. (27), including measurement of Hammett relationships, kinetic isotope effects and studies of the binding of potent reversible inhibitors, such as gluconolactone and nojirimycin.
While reducing the present invention to practice, the β-glucosidase protein was isolated from Aspergillus niger, purified, cloned, sequenced, expressed in yeast host cells and its enzymatic function characterized. In addition, the protein as well as signal peptide fused thereto and optionally an endoplasmic reticulum retaining peptide fused thereto were expressed in transgenic plants and the release of aroma substances therefrom following homogenization monitored. The enzyme encoded by the isolated gene, as described above, is of known usefulness in plant and/or plant products, as well as in biotechnological processes, including the food industry. Several unexpected advantages were uncovered, including, but not limited to, pH and temperature stability of the β-glucosidase from Aspergillus niger, requirement for a signal peptide for obtaining catalytic activity when expressed in plants. Advantage for an endoplasmic retaining peptide or for a lack thereof when expressed in plants, depending on the application.

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem


A tremolo locking device for an electric guitar or similar stringed instrument has a lower part that is fastened to the guitar body and an upper part that can be pivoted by use of the guitarist's fingers into or out of engagement with an edge of the tremolo base plate. The upper part can have a threaded barrel member into which a knurled screw is adjustable to establish a gap or recess that engages the base plate.

This invention relates to musical instruments, and in particular to stringed instruments such as electric guitars having a tremolo bar. The invention is more specifically concerned with a tremolo stop device that permits the performer to enable or disable the tremolo feature of his or her instrument during performance and without interfering with the playing of the instrument.
Many modern electric guitars are fitted with a tremolo attachment mounted in the body of the guitar. The body ends of the guitar strings are mounted on a tremolo plate which is mounted in the guitar body for pivoting. A system of adjustable springs tensions the tremolo plate to balance the tension of the guitar strings. The player moves a tremolo bar, or lever, that is attached to the tremolo plate to change the tension on the strings, and thus to change the pitch of the notes, i.e., to "bend" the notes. Guitars with tremolo attachments are well known and several are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,025 to Steinberger, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,448 to Hennessey, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,298 to Schaller et al. For some musical selections, it is required that the performer employ the tremolo feature, and for other selections it is required not to use the tremolo feature. There are instances where there are some passages that require tremolo, and other sections or passages where tremolo would not be used. Unfortunately, when tremolo is not needed, the tremolo system is still "active" and can change the pitch of the strings even when not desired. Also tremolo systems provide some problems for guitarists. Some string bends cannot always be played in tune. If a string breaks, the instrument is rendered unplayable on the remaining strings, because the loss of string tension upsets the equilibrium necessary for proper tuning and proper function of the tremolo. Players cannot rest their hands firmly on the bridge, as they are inclined to do, because this also upsets the equilibrium of the tremolo. For these reasons, guitarists have needed a simple, effective tremolo lock that permits the guitar to be changed over easily between a tremolo mode and a normal or non-tremolo mode. There have been various proposals to lock the tremolo arm of a tremolo attachment, involving turning or twisting the tremolo arm or lever one way to lock the tremolo attachment and to turn it the other way to unlock it. Two of these are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,804 to Wilkinson and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,493 to Ralston. These locking mechanisms tend to be large and cumbersome, and can make the playing of the guitar somewhat more difficult. It is also difficult for the guitarist to change over between the tremolo and non-tremolo while continuing to play the guitar. In particular, the industry has failed to provide a tremolo locking device mounted unobtrusively on the front of the guitar body and which can be easily engaged and disengaged while playing the guitar.

Locking device for tremolo systems for stringed instruments


Automated program testing is facilitated. Test results generated based on performance of one or more tests by a program are obtained, where a test passes or fails based on output obtained based on performance of the test by the program. A failure output of the test results is identified, the failure output being of a failing test that includes at least one command, and the failure output being obtained based on performing the at least one command. A modified test is automatically generated based on the failing test, where the modified test is provided for performance thereof by the program to facilitate testing of the program. The modified test includes the at least one command of the failing test, and the modified test passes based on obtaining the identified failure output of the failing test.

In an automated software test environment for testing a software program, typically thousands of tests are run daily. A test can include one or more commands and expected or non-expected outputs from the performance of those commands. One or more tests can be combined and included in a test script, and execution of the program follows the test(s) laid out in the test script. Performance of a test is automated and the outcome of performing the test is either a pass or failure, determined by whether the specified expected (or non-expected) output is obtained. After performance of the tests, test failures are typically analyzed, however this is often an inefficient expenditure of resources.

Automated program testing to facilitate recreation of test failure

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A method for preventing refined edible oils and fats from deteriorating during transportation and/or storage thereof over a prolonged period of time, wherein the refined edible oils and fats are stored and/or transported at all times under an atmosphere rich in nitrogen gas. This nitrogen-enriched atmosphere contains nitrogen in a concentration not lower than 99.5%.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for avoiding a deterioration of refined edible oils and fats during transportation and/or storage thereof over a prolonged period of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is generally well known that, when edible oils and fats are exposed to oxygen in the air during the storage thereof over a substantially prolonged period of time, deterioration of the quality of the edible oils and fats takes place. It is a recent trend that the refined edible oils and fats are not only circulated for domestic consumption, but also imported from or exported to foreign countries. Japan has long imported materials for the edible oils and fats for pression, extraction and refinement to produce refined edible oils and fats that can be used for domestic consumption. In recent years, however, importation of the refined edible oils and fats readily available for domestic consumption is progressively, but steadily gaining a major role because some foreign countries of origin of the material for the edible oils and fats have pursued a national policy for the material to be refined there prior to exportation thereof, or because of an attempt to minimize the transportation cost.
In any event, when the oils and fats are to be exported or imported, much tune is spent during transportation thereof from the port of dispatch to the port of destination, for example, in storing them at a wharf prior to shipment, loading them into a tanker, voyage, unloading them from the tanker at a wharf at the port of destination and storing them subsequent to the discharge from the tanker. Although the length of time spent during the transportation varies with the amount of the crude oils and fats handled, it often amounts to weeks and, in the worst case it may take about half a year subsequent to the refinement and prior to the actual use.
During the period subsequent to the refinement and prior to the actual use, the refined oils and fats may be oxidized in contact with oxygen in the air to produce peroxides or similar substances and the peroxide number of the refined oils and fats increases consequently. At the same time, the amount of free fatty acid in the refined oils and fats tends to increase, resulting in both coloring of the oils and fats and reduction in taste thereof to such an extent as to bring about a reduction in value thereof. For example, in the case of palm oil which is relatively stable because of a high content of saturated fatty acid, the storage thereof in a tank at 60.degree. C. for five days has been observed to result in an increase of the peroxide number over 1 meq/kg, accompanied by regaining the inherent color and, also, a reduction in taste. Once this happens, the palm oil is required to be refined prior to the actual use at the cost of facilities and expenditures similar to those utilized at the time of the initial refinement. In view of the foregoing, numerous attempts have long been made to avoid any possible deterioration in quality of the refined edible oils and fats during the storage and transportation.
By way of example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. -02-28505, published Mar. 3, 1977, discloses a method wherein, in order to stabilize the quality of edible oil such as, for example, soybean oil or rapeseed oil during the storage thereof, the edible oil contains a gaseous nitrogen dissolved therein in a saturated state prior to being filled in a sealed vessel such as a can. This known method does indeed contribute to minimization of the spoilage of the edible oil during the storage and transportation thereof, as the edible oil is placed in an atmosphere rich in nitrogen gas.
However, it has been found that the known method discussed above is still far from a complete avoidance of spoilage of the edible oils and fats despite the fact that the edible oils and fats are stored and transported under the atmosphere rich in nitrogen gas. By way of example, it has been observed that the storage of the edible oil under the atmosphere rich in nitrogen gas for 15 days resulted in an increase of the peroxide number over about 0.5 meq/kg, accompanied by a considerable reduction in taste and, fiance, in quality. While the above discussed method has exhibited an effective improvement over the conventional method in which the edible oils and fats are stored under the ambient atmosphere, the method is ineffective and requires an aftermath refinement immediately before the actual use particularly where storage and transportation takes a relatively long time prior to the actual use. The term "aftermath" used in conjunction with the refinement of the edible oils and fats means a refinement to be done the second time, before the actual use and after the storage for a substantial period of time, due to deterioration in quality.

Method of preventing edible oils and fats from deteriorating


Embodiments of a cryopreservation device and method of use are described that allow cryopreserved samples to be transferred from one location to another. In one embodiment, a cryopreservation device comprises two, telescoping tubes; one for plunging biological material into a reservoir of cryogenic liquid refrigerant, and the other for capturing the biological material along with some of the liquid refrigerant, for transferring the biological material to another location.

Field of Use
The present application relates generally to cryopreservation and generally to fast cooling of biological material for use in industries such as medicine, animal husbandry, and biomedical science.
Description of the Related Art
Cryopreservation is a process where biological materials, such as cells, tissues, or entire organs are preserved by cooling them to sub-zero temperatures. At low enough temperatures, any enzymatic or chemical activity which might cause damage to the biological material is effectively halted. Cryopreservation methods seek to reach low temperatures without causing additional damage caused by the formation of ice during freezing. Traditional cryopreservation has relied on coating the material to be frozen with a class of molecules termed cryoprotectants.
Cryofixation is a similar technique for fixation or stabilization of biological materials at ultra-freezing temperatures. This method involves ultra-rapid cooling of small biological samples to the temperature of liquid nitrogen (−196° C.) or below, stopping all motion and metabolic activity, and preserving the internal structure of cells by freezing all fluid phases solid. The ultimate objective is to freeze the specimen so rapidly (at 104 to 106 K per second) that ice crystals are unable to form, or are prevented from growing big enough to cause damage to the specimen's ultrastructure. The formation of samples containing specimens in amorphous ice is considered by some to be the holy grail of biological cryomicroscopy.
One method used to accomplish cryofixation is literally "plunging" biological material into to vial of very cold liquid refrigerant. In this technique, a small vial of ethane may be placed inside a larger liquid nitrogen reservoir. Then, a plunger is positioned over the reservoir, the plunger having an electron microscopy (EM) grid positioned at the bottom of the plunger. The EM grid comprises biological material to be frozen. The plunger has a heavy weight at the top that drives the plunger in a downward direction, forcing the EM grid into the ethane very quickly. When the EM grid enters the liquid ethane, the biological sample is frozen very rapidly, and then the grid can be moved to a storage box in liquid nitrogen for later use, for example, examination under an electron-microscope.
There are a number of drawbacks, however, to the technique described above. First and foremost, the plunger and reservoir must be precisely aligned with one another, and the length of travel by the plunger must be precisely controlled. This often results in a bulky, fixed device (e.g., non-portable) that is not capable of transferring the biological material to another location. Transferability may be desired, for example, the ability to transfer the biological material to another location along with some of the liquid refrigerant to keep the biological material as cold as possible during the transfer.

Portable device and method for cryopreservation of cells encapsulated in immunoisolating devices


The invention is directed to a process for the manufacture of a metallic molded structural part (1) for motor vehicle components such as door impact girders or bumpers with areas (2) with a higher ductility in relation to the rest of the structural component part. For this purpose, partial areas (2) of a plate (5) are initially heated to a temperature of 900.degree. C. within a period of less than 30 seconds. Subsequently, the thermal-treated plate (5') is shaped in a pressing tool (7) to form the molded structural part (1) and is heat-treated in the pressing tool (7).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a process for the manufacture of a metallic molded structural part for motor vehicle components which has areas with a higher ductility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tool-heat-treated molded structural parts for motor vehicle components such as door impact girders or bumpers are manufactured with material characteristics which are distributed uniformly over the molded structural part. This is effected by means of a complete heat treatment of the molded structural parts. However, the ductility of the material decreases as a result of the high strength values achieved by the heat treatment with tensile strengths R.sub.m of approximately 1500 N/mm.sup.2. The material accordingly loses its capacity to deform in a permanent manner. The breaking elongation A.sub.5 is usually approximately 10%.
A varying plastic stiffness behavior of tool-heat-treated pressed molded structural parts is currently achieved by means of a partial rolling of the starting plates prior to shaping so that the thickness is reduced by area.
In different cases of application in automobile engineering, there is a need to provide areas with greater ductility in the molded structural parts. For this purpose, for example, closing plates, that is, inserts of softer steel quality, are integrated in the molded structural part. However, this procedure leads to a substantially more complicated manufacture and higher costs. Moreover, this adds appreciably to the weight of the molded structural part.
Also, the partial reduction in thickness using rolling technique to produce areas with different stiffness behavior entails high overhead and manufacturing costs. Further, depending on the configuration of the area to be rolled, the technological limits of processing by means of rolling techniques are restrictive. This is particularly true when rolling narrow regions.

Manufacture of a metallic molded structural part


A permeation resistant polymer fuel tank having a multilayer wall that includes a structural layer and a vapor barrier layer. A secondary barrier layer is attached to the multilayer wall wherein the vapor barrier layer and the second barrier layer have a permeation rate less than the structural layer. A protective coating may be applied over the secondary barrier layer to add durability and prevent degradation of the secondary barrier layer from environmental hazards that fuel tanks may be exposed to.

The present invention relates to fuel tanks and more particularly to polymer fuel tanks, and a method for reducing permeation of gaseous fluids.
Historically, fuel tanks have been manufactured from stamped metal shell halves. Metal fuel tanks are not only expensive, but add weight to a vehicle and are subject to corrosion. To reduce cost, weight, and avoid corrosion problems associated with metal fuel tanks, manufacturers have switched to using polymer fuel tanks in vehicles.
Polymer or plastic fuel tanks are corrosion resistant and weigh less than metal fuel tanks. One problem with polymer fuel tanks is that fuel vapor may permeate through the polymeric container walls. A polymer fuel tank formed from a thermoplastic resin such as polyethylene or polypropylene can have fuel permeability up to several grams per day, releasing hydrocarbon molecules typically comprising aromatic, aliphatic, oxygenate, alcohol, etc. or mixtures thereof. Polymer fuel tanks made of other materials may release these and other components of fuel.
Manufacturers have attempted a variety of techniques to reduce the permeation of polymer fuel tanks. One technique used to improve the barrier properties of fuel tanks is to electroplate the polymeric fuel tank with a layer of copper, nickel, and chrome. The problem with electroplating a polymer fuel tank is that an electroplatable polymer must be used or the polymer must be pre-treated for electroplating. The electroplating of three successive layers of different metals is also expensive, time consuming, and the electroplated layers may be subject to corrosion.
Yet another way of reducing fuel vapor emissions through polymer fuel tanks is to use a primary vapor barrier layer such as an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH). EVOH provides an effective barrier layer to prevent fuel emissions, is somewhat flexible, and is relatively inexpensive. One problem with EVOH is that while it has some flexibility it is too brittle for many applications and may be subject to degradation when exposed directly to fuels containing alcohol or other fuel additives. Therefore, EVOH barrier layers are commonly placed between layers of polymeric material. However, EVOH, like most primary barrier layers, is not able to bond to itself to form a continuous layer when formed shell halves are joined to form the fuel tank. Typically, when the flanges are heat welded together, polyethylene from each shell half is welded together to form the fuel tank. Because the layers of EVOH do not bond to each other, these fuel tanks allow fuel vapors to permeate in areas where the EVOH or primary vapor barrier layer does not meet or bind to itself. Polymer fuel tanks formed from polyethylene with a central EVOH barrier layer may transmit up to 50 mgs of fuel vapor per day.
A polymer fuel tank may include additional areas of permeation. After the shell of the fuel tank is formed, various items such as vapor valves, fill check valves, fill nipples, recirculation nipples, or fuel filler necks may be attached to the fuel tank. Even if the fuel tank contains a primary barrier layer, this layer is breached when cutting holes to attach the valves, nipples, and necks. Because these attached items are generally formed from the same polymeric materials as the fuel tank to allow them to be welded to the fuel tank, they provide a permeation pathway for fuel vapors to exit the tank.
Even if a barrier layer is added to the attached item, for example, to the fuel filler neck, permeation may still occur. Permeation occurs because the primary barrier layer in the fuel tank is not able to bond to the barrier layer in the attached item to form a continuous barrier layer. The resulting diffusion pathway near attached items is relatively short, allowing easy permeation. The amount of permeation is inversely proportional to the length of the dispersion pathway.


A wireless communications device is provided with a Baseband chip capable of coordinating operations between circuit switched (CS) and packet switched (PS) services with different subscriber identity cards. The Baseband chip is configured to receive a request for making a mobile originated (MO) call with a first subscriber identity card when performing a background PS data service with a second subscriber identity card. The Baseband chip suspends or terminates the background PS data service in response to the request, and further makes the MO call with the first subscriber identity card when the background PS data service is suspended or terminated.

Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to the coordination of operations between communication services, and more particularly, to the coordination of the operations between CS and PS services with different subscriber identity cards.
Description of the Related Art
With growing demand for ubiquitous computing and networking, various wireless communication technologies have been developed, such as the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000) technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, Time-Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology, and others. Generally, a cellular phone only supports one wireless communication technology and provides the user the flexibility of mobile communications at all times via the supported wireless communication technology, regardless of his/her geographic location. Especially in today's business world, a cellular phone is becoming a necessary business tool for conducting business conveniently. For business people, having an additional cellular phone exclusive for business matters is a common choice, since they need to conduct business while out of the office or even out of the city/country. Others may find having an additional cellular phone is a good way to save/control the budget for wireless service charges (including phone services and/or data services). However, having two or more than two cellular phones may be troublesome when one has to switch frequently between the cellular phones and carry around all the cellular phones with himself/herself. In order to provide a convenient way of having multiple subscriber numbers, dual-card cellular phones have been developed, which generally have two wireless communications modules for respectively performing wireless transmission and reception with an individual subscriber number. The dual-card design allows both wireless communications modules to be active simultaneously and allows calls to be received on either subscriber numbers associated with one of the wireless communications modules at any time. Thus, a dual-card cellular phone may be used for business and personal use with separate subscriber numbers and bills, or for travel with the second subscriber number for the country visited.
For the dual-card cellular phones with one single transceiver, only one wireless communications module is allowed to obtain network resources using the single transceiver, while the other wireless communications module has no control over the single transceiver. Specially, the wireless communications module with no control over the single transceiver is not aware that the single transceiver is occupied by the other wireless communications module, because the two wireless communications modules operate independently and lack a proper communication mechanism there-between. For example, a dual-card cellular phone may be configured such that the single transceiver is occupied by the first wireless communications module for performing a data service, e.g. the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). When a Mobile Originated (MO) call for the second wireless communications module is requested by a user, an error message, such as "Network Failed", may be shown on the screen of the dual-card cellular phone since the second wireless communications module has no access to the single transceiver, nor has shown information about the statuses of the first wireless communications module and the single transceiver.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a flexible way of managing the operations between the multiple wireless communications modules for multiple subscriber identity cards, so that the operations of the multiple wireless communications modules may be coordinated to respond to users' MO requests.

Apparatuses and methods for coordinating operations between circuit switched (CS) and packet switched (PS) services with different subscriber identity cards, and machine-readable storage medium


To provide a semiconductor device having improved characteristics. The semiconductor device has a substrate and thereon a buffer layer, a channel layer, a barrier layer, a trench penetrating therethrough and reaching the inside of the channel layer, a gate electrode placed in the trench via a gate insulating film, and drain and source electrodes on the barrier layer on both sides of the gate electrode. The gate insulating film has a first portion made of a first insulating film and extending from the end portion of the trench to the side of the drain electrode and a second portion made of first and second insulating films and placed on the side of the drain electrode relative to the first portion. The on resistance can be reduced by decreasing the thickness of the first portion at the end portion of the trench on the side of the drain electrode.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which can be preferably used for, for example, a semiconductor device using a nitride semiconductor and a method of manufacturing the device.
In recent years, semiconductor devices using a group III-V compound having a band gap greater than that of Si have attracted attentions. Among them, semiconductor devices using gallium nitride (GaN) having the following advantages is under development: 1) having a great dielectric breakdown field, 2) having a great electron saturation velocity, 3) having a great thermal conductivity, 4) capable of forming a good hetero junction between AlGaN and GaN, and 5) they are non-toxic and highly safe materials.
Further, semiconductor devices which are power MISFETs (metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistors) using gallium nitride and capable of a normally-off operation are under development from the standpoint of its high breakdown voltage and fast switching characteristics.
For example, the following Non-patent Document 1 discloses a MISFET using a hetero junction between AlGaN and GaN and having a structure in which a gate recess is made on the back side relative to the hetero junction in order to achieve a normally-off operation.
The following Non-patent Document 2 discloses a MISFET fabricated by, when making a gate recess on the back side relative to a hetero junction, using an insulating film having a patterned opening as a mask and leaving the insulating film in the device.
The following Non-patent Document 3 includes a description on an effect of reducing the surface potential of AlGaN when a nitride film is used as a surface protective film of an AlGaN/GaN hetero-junction type epi. It discloses, for example, that the surface potential reducing effect is markedly large when the nitride film is formed using Cat-CVD (catalytic chemical vapor deposition.
The following Non-patent Document 4 includes a description on, when various protective films formed by ECR sputtering are used as a surface protective film of an AlGaN/GaN hetero-junction type epi, a surface potential barrier height and an interfacial sheet charge density at the interface between the surface protective film and AlGaN.
The following Patent Document 1 discloses a hetero-junction field effect transistor which is not a transistor with a gate recess but has a field plate layer whose thickness shows a stepwise change.
The following Patent Documents 2 and 3 disclose a semiconductor device which is not a transistor with a gate recess but has a first field plate electrode integrated with a gate electrode and a second field plate electrode integrated with a source electrode.
Patent Documents
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent No. 4888115
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 4417677
[Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,125
Non-Patent Documents
[Non-patent Document 1] N. Ikeda et al., "Over 1.7 kV normally-off GaN hybrid MOS-HFETs with a lower on-resistance on a Si substrate", IE3 International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), pp. 284-287, 2011.
[Non-patent Document 2] K. Ota et al., "A Normally-off GaN FET with High Threshold Voltage Uniformity Using A Novel Piezo Neutralization Technique", International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) 2009, IEDM09-154, 2009.
[Non-patent Document 3] N. Onojima et al., "Reduction in potential barrier height of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures by SiN passivation", J. Appl. Phys. 101, 043703 (2007).
[Non-patent Document 4] N. Maeda et al., "Systematic Study of Deposition Effect (Si3N4, SiO2, AlN, and Al2O3) on Electrical Properties in AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 46, No. 2 (2007), pp. 547-554

Semiconductor device with varying thickness of insulating film between electrode and gate electrode and method of manufacturing semiconductor device


An arc discharge lamp (10) has an envelope (12) including a base (14) containing lead-ins (16, 18). An arc tube (20) is positioned within the envelope (12) and has electrodes (22, 24) sealed therein. The electrodes have connection ends (26, 28) extending outside of the arc tube (20). A flexible primary electrical connector (30) is fixed between one of the lead-ins (16) and one of the connection ends (26) of one of the electrodes (22), the flexible primary electrical connector (30) having an area “A” subject to intergranular corrosion in the presence of oxygen and arc tube operating temperatures. A rigid secondary, intergranular-corrosion-resistant electrical connector (32) is electrically connected between the lead-in (16) and the one of the connection ends (26) of the one of the electrodes (22), the rigid secondary electrical connector (32) by-passing the area “A” that is subject to intergranular corrosion.

High pressure discharge lamps are efficient sources of light and are adaptable to use in many locations; however, in some locations, where the lamp encompasses higher than normal operating temperatures, failure of the lamp occurs well before its programmed life expectancy. At least one cause of failure derives from breakdown of one of the electrical connections due to a phenomenon known as intergranular corrosion.

High intensity discharge lamp with corrosion-resistant electrical connector


A steerable vehicle knuckle has an inboard portion defining upper and lower arms, with a kingpin between them, and has an outboard portion defining a spindle that cooperates with a fluid driven motor. The arms define a cavity where an axle end portion is pivotally received. Fluid supply ports, which supply fluid to energize the motor, are located on an upper surface of the knuckle's inboard portion. Fluid drain lines extend within the knuckle from the motor to the cavity and are utilized to drain fluid from the motor. The supply ports and drain lines are each connected to separate hoses formed in a small arc that follows closely the circular curvature of the kingpin. This arrangement of port, lines, and hoses is less expensive to produce, easier to package, more robust, allows for faster steering reaction, and is easier to assemble than conventional arrangements.

Those skilled in the art know that some vehicles, such as trucks, farm vehicles, and heavy duty construction vehicles, have wheels that are driven by hydraulic drive motors located at the wheels. Typically, each wheel end has a knuckle that utilizes a plurality of large hydraulic fittings that function as supply, return and drain ports. The ports are typically located all about the knuckle. Hoses, which are connected to these fittings at these locations, are required to traverse a large arc when the axle is steered. Such an arrangement of fittings and hoses, however, is difficult to package within the vehicle and uses large amounts of hose material.
A few examples of methods of providing fluid to a hydraulically driven wheel include devices described in the following patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,732 discloses a fluid supply port on an upper surface of an inboard portion of a knuckle. The fluid return port, however, is located on a lower surface of the inboard portion. This design causes significant problems in packaging the hoses attached to these ports. Additionally, the fluid return hose, being located below the spindle, is highly susceptible to damage from items on the ground and from the ground itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,204 teaches a rigid fluid supply and return lines fixedly attached to an upper portion of a boss. The motor may pivot about the boss to provide steering to a wheel. As can be appreciated by FIG. 7 of this patent, the fixed fluid lines take up a tremendous amount of space at the wheel end.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,618 discloses supply and return lines all entering the spindle substantially parallel with the spindle centerline. The supply lines are located above/below the drain line, the drain line is at the centerline. All fluid lines are arranged about the centerline of the spindle and enter the spindle at this point as well.
As can be appreciated from the above discussion, some designs require a large amount of hose material and require that the fluid hoses traverse a large arc when the axle steers, which is difficult to package. Thus, a vehicle having hydraulic hoses connected to a wheel end having a hydraulic motor disposed thereon, may benefit from an arrangement of hydraulic hoses that does not require a large amount of hose material and does not require a wide arc for the hoses to traverse when the wheel end is steered in various directions. Such an arrangement would be less expensive to produce, easier to package, more robust, allow for faster steering reaction, and would be more easily connectable at the time of assembly of the vehicle.


It is presented a method for detecting a gas (G). Acoustic waves (Wt) are generated and transmitted via a wave generating and sensing means (2) towards a reflecting wall (3) and thereafter reflected acoustic waves (Wt) are detected by the wave generating and sensing means (2) wherein a presence of the gas (G) is detected by determining a change in an output signal of the wave generating and sensing means (2). A gas detector (1) is also presented.

Gas is a valuable natural resource and it is of interest to detect leakage of gas both from an economic aspect as well as for the hazard a leaking gas may present to its surroundings.
Current gas detection methods may for instance depend on absorption of e.g. wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, with different gases having different absorption spectra, on chemical reactions, changes in electrical conductivity or in the capacitance of thin film.
A drawback with these methods is that the kinetic of gas absorption is quite slow, thereby limiting the field of application of these absorption methods.
Faster methods are based on the physical properties of various gases. Thermal conductivity is used for gas sensing in chromatography and optical absorption in the infrared region of the spectrum is used for carbon dioxide detection. For hydrogen detection there are methods that use catalysts. However, in contact with other gases the catalyst can be poisoned and the response of the detector is dramatically reduced.
Some known methods utilize the phenomenon of resonance in a resonance cavity to detect the presence of a gas in the resonance cavity. Resonance occurs when a distance d between a reflecting wall and e.g. an oscillator that transmits waves in the cavity, is an integer of half wavelengths, i.e.
                    d        =                  n                                λ            2                                              (        1        )            where n=1, 2, 3 . . . . The wavelength of a vibration in a gas is dependent of the gas because the sound velocity is different in different gases, the wavelength being given by the relation:
                    λ        =                  v          f                                    (        2        )            where v is the sound velocity and f is the vibration frequency.
An ultrasonic method utilizing resonance has been described in the article "A gas analysis instrument based on sound velocity measurements" by E. Griffiths published in the Proceedings of the Physical Society, 1926. The article describes a quartz crystal and a reflecting wall parallel to the quartz crystal, which together form a resonance cavity. The quartz crystal can generate mechanical longitudinal waves in the cavity, with a 40 kHz frequency. Resonance in the cavity is detected by an increase in the anode current of an oscillating circuit which comprises the quartz crystal. By measuring the distance between adjacent resonances, i.e. a half wavelength, sound velocity in different gases is determined as well as the concentration of a gas in a gas mixture.
However, none of the above presented methods can be used for measurements of low gas concentration.

Method for detecting gas and a gas detector therefor


A magnetic enclosure providing a uniform magnetic field in a test chamber and comprising substantially identical first north magnetic structure and second south magnetic structures that are disposed in geometric mirroring symmetry opposite to each other and separated by an air gap forming the test chamber. Each magnetic structure includes a cap-like permanent magnet assembly covering a convex ferromagnetic pole piece, a ferromagnetic cap-like shield covering the magnet assembly, and a ferromagnetic ring. The ring is in contact with and intermediate the shield of the first and of the second magnetic structure, and has at least one aperture allowing access to the test chamber.

Magnetic enclosures per se are well known in the art, such as disclosed in the background patents hereinbelow.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,976 to Uri Rapoport, discloses a principal permanent magnet and auxiliary permanent magnet means disposed perpendicular to one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,032 to Guy Aubert recites a cylindrical permanent magnet with a longitudinally induced magnetic field having two annular structures magnetized on the one hand radially with respect to the cylinder axis and on the other hand anti-symmetrically, but is silent about any pole piece for the return of the induction flux from one pole to the other pole.
US Patent Application No. 2005/258833 to Goto Takao et al. discloses use of a plurality of auxiliary magnets that are disposed around main magnets to adjust the interval between the main magnet and the auxiliary magnets and to shape static magnetic fields.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,472 to Herbert A. Leupold divulges methods of manufacturing rings, cylinders, hemispheres and spheres having a relatively strong central working field within a central working space.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,324 to Kimiharu Ota et al. recite a magnet field generating apparatus comprising a plurality of permanent magnet assemblies disposed continuously around the angular inner circumference of a hexagonal tubular yoke to provide a uniform magnetic field at the center portion of the hollow space inside said permanent magnet assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,199,689 to Manlio Abele divulges a magnetic structure for generating a uniform magnetic field without the need of an external ferromagnetic yoke, where the magnetic structure serves to carry only part of the return flux of the induction from one pole of the magnetic structure to the other pole.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,400,147 to Uri Rapoport, there is recited an arrangement of at least six side-magnets and at least two main-magnets.
U.S. Patent No. 2009/0085700 to Jianyu Lian et al. divulges a main assembly of cylindrical geometry with permanent magnets for magnetic field sources that are composed of two regions, a central disk-like portion magnetized substantially along the axial direction and an outer ring-like region magnetized substantially along the radial direction extending axially to form part of a pole.
However, relative to the background art, the embodiments described hereinbelow provide a better ratio of energy stored in magnetic material over magnetic field intensity in a volume of interest.


A reagent for introducing a nucleic acid into an animal cell. The reagent comprises (a) a neutral lipid such as dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine and (b) a cationic lipid selected from the group consisting of an ammonium salt such as dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide or cetyldimethylethylammonium bromide, an amine such as stearylamine, and a benzethonium salt such as methylbenzethonium chloride

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a reagent and a method for introducing nucleic acid into animal cells.
2. Background Information
There are currently four major reagents or methods used to introduce DNA into animal cells. These are (1) CaPO.sub.4 -DNA precipitates, (2) DEAE dextran-DNA complexes, (3) electroporation and (4) "LIPOFECTIN".TM. reagent, a transfection reagent marketed by BRL (Life Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md).
Recently, a liposome-mediated transfection protocol ("LIPOFECTION".TM.) has been reported for the introduction of DNA into animal cells (Philip L. Felgner, Thomas R. Gadek, Marilyn Holm, Richard Roman, Hardy W. Chan, Michael Wenz, Jeffrey P. Northrop, Gordon M. Ringold and Mark Danielsen, "Lipofection: A Highly Efficient, Lipid-Mediated DNA-Transfection Procedure," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84, 7413-7417 (1987)). This protocol uses the synthetic cationic lipid DOTMA (N-[1-(2,3-dioleyloxy)propyl] -N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride). Liposomes composed of DOTMA and a neutral lipid PtdEtn (dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine) form stable complexes with DNA, and deliver DNA into several eukaryotic cells with higher efficiency and reproducibility than other methods.
A transient expression system that requires transfected DNA to be present in the cytoplasm has recently been described by T.R. Fuerst, E.G. Niles, W. Studier and B. Moss, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 8122-8126 (1986). This system is based on use of a recombinant vaccinia virus that synthesizes bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase. The plasmid DNA containing the gene of interest under control of the T7 promoter is transfected as a CaPO.sub.4 precipitate into the cytoplasm of the vaccinia infected cells where it is transcribed efficiently by the T7 RNA polymerase. The mRNA derived from the transfected gene can be as much as 10% of the total cytoplasmic RNA. This system has facilitated studies of viral glycoprotein translocation (A.S. Shaw, P.J.M. Rottier and J.K. Rose, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85, 7592-7596, (1988)) and virus assembly (M. Whitt, L. Chong and J.K. Rose, J. Virol., 63, 3569-3578 (1989)), and has allowed for the definition of interacting domains of the lymphocyte glycoprotein CD4 and an intracellular tyrosine protein kinase (A. Shaw, K. Amrein, C. Hammond, D.F. Stern, B.M. Sefton and J.K. Rose, Cell, 59, 627-636 (1989)). A major difficulty with this system was the lack of reproducibility of the transfection step using CaPO.sub.4 precipitates of DNA (Fuerst et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 8122-8126, (1986) and F.L. Graham and A.J. Van Der Eb, Virology, 52, 456-467, (1973)). The percentage of cells expressing protein showed a high degree of day-to-day variability, some plasmid DNA preparations were inactive for unknown reasons, and it was not possible to use impure plasmid DNA preparations containing large amounts of RNA (DNA from minipreps).
The variability in the transfection was overcome by using lipofection instead of the CaPO.sub.4 procedure (M. Whitt et al, J. Virol., 63, 3569-3578, (1989)) and a threefold increase over the best expression levels obtained with CaPO.sub.4 was found.
A major drawback to the DOTMA transfection procedure is that the compound itself is not commercially available, and the preformed liposomes containing DOTMA ("LIPOFECTIN".TM. reagent, Life Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md.) are too expensive for large scale use in transient assays. The cost of lipofection is prohibitive ($145/ml or about $10 per transfection) to laboratories, especially to laboratories which perform thousands of transfections per year.
P.L. Felgner and G.M. Ringold, "Cationic Liposome-Medicated Transfection," Nature, 337, 387-388, (1989) at page 387 report that liposomes comprised of stearylamine or dioctaldecyl-dimethylammonium bromide were inactive in transfection assays.
J.-P. Behr, B. Demeneix, J-P. Loeffler and J.P. Mutul, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 86, 6982-6986, (1989) described a transfection procedure using compacted lipopolyamine-coated plasmids.
It would be advantageous to have a reagent and method for introducing nucleic acids into animal cells using readily available and relatively inexpensive compounds.

Liposomal transfection of nucleic acids into animal cells


Methods, systems and devices for efficiently performing a read fail recovery operation are described. An exemplary data storage device includes a nonvolatile memory device including a page group in which program-completed pages and program-in-progress pages are mixed, a buffer memory configured to buffer data and an XOR parity to be stored in pages of the page group. The data storage device also includes a recovery circuit configured to recover an error of read-failed data, and a processor configured to control the recovery circuit to read data and an XOR parity corresponding to the program-in-progress pages from the buffer memory. The processor is also configured to recover the error of the read-failed data using data corresponding to remaining program-completed pages other than a page in which the read-failed data is stored among the program-completed pages, and the data and the XOR parity read from the buffer memory.

In recent years, the paradigm for computer environments has changed from desktop computing to ubiquitous computing, which enables the use of computer systems anytime and everywhere. As a result, the use of portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and laptop computers has been increasing rapidly. Typically, portable electronic devices use data storage devices that employ memory devices, which may be used to store data used in the portable electronic devices.
Data storage devices using memory devices have no mechanically driven units and exhibit good stability and endurance, fast information access rate, and low power consumption. Such data storage devices may include universal serial bus (USB) memory devices, memory cards having various interfaces, universal flash storage (UFS) devices, solid state drives (SSDs), and the like.

Data storage device and operating method thereof


Described herein is a method for isolating microbial DNA from a sample that comprises host DNA and microbial DNA. In some embodiments, the method may comprise: obtaining a tagged DNA sample, wherein the tagged DNA sample contains host DNA and microbial DNA, both comprising an appended universal adaptor; b) hybridizing the extracted DNA, in solution, with affinity-tagged RNA probes generated by in vitro transcribing, in the presence of an affinity-tagged ribonucleotide, a library of fragmented host DNA that has been ligated to an RNA promoter adaptor; c) binding the product of step b) with a capture agent that is tethered to a substrate, in the presence of RNA oligonucleotides that are complementary to or have the same sequence as one or more strands of the universal adaptor, thereby capturing the host DNA on the substrate; and d) collecting the unbound DNA, wherein the unbound DNA comprises the microbial DNA.

Low levels of microbial DNA in many human tissues has precluded the shotgun sequencing of many interesting samples for metagenomic analysis due to cost. For example, DNA libraries derived from whole human blood often contain >99% human DNA. Therefore, to detect an infectious agent circulating in human blood from shotgun sequencing, one would need to sequence to very high coverage in order to ensure sufficient coverage. Thus much of the cost associated with sequencing high human DNA samples provides relatively little metagenomic data. As a result many human tissue DNA samples are considered unsuitable for metagenomic sequencing merely because the data yield is low compared to the sequencing resources required. Thus there is a need in the art to increase microbial DNA yield in high host DNA samples and specifically to increase the percent of microbial DNA being sequenced when sequencing high host endogenous (HHE) DNA samples.
Recent developments in DNA extraction have provided lower cost next-generation sequencing techniques to the point that the field of metagenomics has transitioned from focusing on PCR-amplified 16S ribosomal RNA markers to shotgun sequencing of the whole metagenome. However shotgun sequencing can yield less than desirable results when sequencing HHE DNA samples due to the low percentage of microbial DNA in the overall sample material. Moreover, shotgun sequencing often fails to provide enough information to make an accurate resolution in metagenomic analysis especially when the selected molecules (e.g., 16S ribosomal RNA) represent only a single lineage. Furthermore, 16S ribosomal RNA lineages cannot often differentiate pathogenic from non-pathogenic strains of closely related bacteria, a key goal of clinical metagenomic analysis.
Instead the use of whole genome DNA and RNA sequences is preferred for metagenetic analysis because it provides information from the entire metagenome. Thus there is a need in the art to provide a DNA and RNA sequencing technique for metagenomic analysis in order to derive improved resolution. For example, whole genome analysis of metagenomes from the fecal material of obese and normal weight patients has revealed highly reproducible differences in microbial community structure. However, these materials tend to have very high microbial DNA content (>99% microbe and <1% human). In contrast, sequencing libraries derived from many other tissues including human blood, vagina, nasal mucosal membrane, and lung typically contain >90% human and <10% microbial DNA. While samples with <10% microbial DNA can still, with sufficient sequencing, yield enough information for metagenomic analyses, the required amount of sequencing of specimens with less target DNA is costly and thus untenable for many researchers.

Partitioning of DNA sequencing libraries into host and microbial components

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