The present invention relates to a coupler verification test circuit designed to assist personnel in installing a subscriber interface unit (SIU) on an optical fiber distribution network which does not have an operating head end, e.g. an operating office interface unit (OIU), during the installation procedure.
Optical fiber is becoming widely preferred over electrical wires for use in telecommunication networks, e.g. telephony and video. Though optical fiber has far superior bandwidth than electrical wires and is also immune to electromagnetic and radio magnetic interference, problems exist with optical fiber networks during installation and configuration thereof. Specifically, when installing a subscriber to an optical fiber system during initial system installation, oftentimes the system does not have an operating head end. Accordingly it is difficult to impossible for a craftsman to readily determine if SIUs are being correctly installed onto the network during SIU installation. After the head end has been installed and is operating it can easily be determined if any or all the SIUs are functioning properly. However, at that time, though it is possible to determine which if any SIUs have been improperly installed, it is troublesome and expensive to detach personnel to correct the problems causing severe inconvenience.


A technique for imaging the distribution of molecular species in a living body is an important tool used in medical and biological research. Imaging of molecular species at the cellular level has been widely performed using a microscope and a molecular probe such as a molecular probe labeled with a fluorescence pigment or a chemiluminescence molecular probe. However, recently, there is a growing demand for devices for observing in vivo the distribution of molecular species of interest at the organ or whole-body level rather than the cellular level. For example, such an observation device allows the imaging of the distribution of target cancer cells labeled with a fluorescence probe in the body of a small living animal, such as a mouse, to monitor the growth of the target cancer cells over a fixed period of time, such as every day or every week. In a case where the growth of cancer cells in the body of an animal is monitored using a conventional device for cellular-level imaging, the animal is killed to stain or fluorescently-label cancer cells in a predetermined part of the body of the animal. In this case, the growth of cancer cells in the same individual cannot be monitored over a long period of time. For this reason, there is a demand for the development of a device capable of observing the distribution of molecular species in the body of a small living animal to obtain internal information about the body of the small animal.
As an exciting light-irradiating device for exciting fluorescence, one shown in FIG. 9 is known. As shown in FIG. 9, the exciting light-irradiating device has a filter wheel 8 and a multi-branched optical fiber bundle 16 to irradiate an object with light having a wavelength selected by the filter wheel 8 and the multi-branched optical fiber bundle 16. More specifically, light is emitted from a light source 2 such as a tungsten halogen lamp, collected by a lens 4 so as to enter an optical guide 6, and guided to a filter 10 mounted on the filter wheel 8 by the optical guide 6 so that only light passed through the filter 10 is guided to an entrance portion 16A of the multi-branched optical fiber bundle 16. Optical fibers constituting the multi-branched optical fiber bundle 16 are tied in a bundle at the entrance portion 16A, and are separated into four bundles at the position of a ring 16B provided on the way to a dark measurement chamber (not shown). The distal ends of these four optical fiber bundles are placed in the dark measurement chamber. The filter wheel 8 has a plurality of filters, and a desired excitation wavelength is selected by switching among these filters. Exciting light is guided by the multi-branched optical fiber bundle 16 to predetermined positions in the dark measurement chamber for measuring fluorescence. A device similar to the exciting light-irradiating device shown in FIG. 9 is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,894,289.


The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for performing data placement optimization using data context information collected during garbage collection operations.
Data context information represents object reference patterns during the execution of a program. Data context information provides valuable information for program understanding, performance analysis, and runtime optimizations. For object oriented applications, numerous objects are created, among which complicated reference patterns may occur. Therefore, data context information is very important for program understanding and optimizations.
However, building data context information can be very expensive given the fact that (1) data accesses are highly frequent (a program can access a huge number of objects in a short period of time); and (2) the access patterns among objects are complex. Therefore, it is desirable to establish a program paradigm that can collect such information efficiently. Sacrificing some accuracy is affordable as long as enough information is available for the purpose of program understanding and optimization.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a cap having a very small thickness to be fitted around a neck portion of a drink bottle such as a wine bottle or the like. Further, the present invention relates to a cap having a very small thickness to be fitted around a neck portion of a drink bottle such as a wine bottle or the like wherein the cap is produced using aluminum or aluminum alloy as a blank.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To protect a neck portion of a drink bottle such as a wine bottle or the like from damage or injury, and moreover, maintain the neck portion in a clean state, a cap made of a metallic material is normally fitted around the neck portion of the bottle. Generally, the metallic cap is produced using a sheet of lead having both surfaces covered with tin foil. To plastically deform the sheet of lead to a contour corresponding to a cap product, a so-called spinning process has been heretofore employed wherein the sheet of lead is spun by manually actuating a specially designed tool while the sheet is rotated.
When a metallic cap is produced by employing the foregoing spinning process, the thickness of a blank can not usually be reduced to 0.2 mm or less. Thus, with the conventional spinning process, there arises a drawback that material cost is increased because of the comparatively heavy thickness and the employment of an expensive metallic material like tin. Another drawback is that the surface of the cap produced by the spinning process can not exhibit a brilliant appearance. In addition, careless disposal after removal of the lead cap from the neck portion of a drink bottle may cause pollution. For this reason, it is anticipated that employment of lead for the cap will be prohibited in the future.
Given the circumstances described above, attention has recently turned to aluminum as a metallic material to be fitted around the neck portion of a bottle, because aluminum is a cheap metallic material, does not cause any public pollution after disposal and, moreover, can be reused by melting it.
With the conventional process, however, a cap having a very small thickness can be produced using a soft metallic material like lead but can not be produced when a comparatively hard metallic material like aluminum is employed as a raw material.


This invention relates generally to high voltage breakdown semiconductor devices and fabrication techniques therefor, and more particularly to a structure in which the lower junction termination of a multilayer semiconductor device formed in a wafer is extended to the top surface of the wafer, and a method of fabricating such structure.
There are many circuit applications for semiconductor devices which provide symmetrical blocking of applied voltages of different polarities and which exhibit high reverse breakdown voltages. In fabricating such device, it is necessary to control the geometries and characteristics of the device junctions. This can be accomplished by fabricating the device with a lateral, rather than vertical, structure. By bringing the lower junction termination of the device to the top surface of the wafer, better control of the symmetry and breakdown characteristics of the device can be achieved; however, this requires that the substrate of the device be electrically connected to the top surface of the wafer. While there are known ways to connect the substrate of a semiconductor device to its top surface, they generally have disadvantages which complicate the manufacture of semiconductor devices, such as the necessity of performing processing steps on each individual die. This is difficult and hence disadvantageous from a manufacturing standpoint.
It is desirable to provide a semiconductor device of relatively simple construction, having symmetrical blocking and high voltage breakdown characteristics, with its substrate being electrically connected to active layers on its upper surface, and a method of fabricating such a device which is suitable for large scale production. It is to this end that the present invention is directed.


Anti-glare (or antireflection) coatings on transparent substrates (e.g., glass) are important components for a large number of optical and optoelectronic devices, such as displays, lenses, and photovoltaic (PV) panels [1-10]. For instance, the unwanted optical reflection from the encapsulation glass layer of a PV panel could reduce the overall conversion efficiency of the solar device [11-13]. Anti-glare coatings are therefore widely applied on optical glass surfaces to reduce the reflection loss and increase the light transmission of the optical components [1,14]. Traditional quarter-wavelength antireflection coatings can effectively suppress optical reflection by satisfying the destructive interference conditions for the reflected light from the air/coating and the coating/substrate interfaces, thus decreasing the reflection and increasing the transmission of the substrate [14]. To satisfy the destructive interference conditions, the coating thickness needs to be close to one-fourth of the operating wavelength, while the refractive index of the coating (nc) needs to meet nc=√{square root over (nair×ns)}, when nair is the refractive index of air (1.0) and ns is the refractive index of the substrate [6,14]. For a typical glass substrate with a refractive index of 1.5, the anti-glare coating material needs to have a refractive index of ˜1.225. Low-refractive-index materials, such as MgF2 (with a refractive index of ˜1.37), are usually deposited on glass substrates by vacuum-based physical vapor deposition (PVD) technologies (e.g., sputtering) to achieve a precise control over the coating thickness [14-15]. Unfortunately, conventional PVD techniques suffer from high operating and equipment costs, limited material selection, low throughput, and small coating areas. These drawbacks particularly affect the applications where inexpensive anti-glare coatings on large-area glass substrates are needed, such as in solar industry.
To address the high costs and the low throughput issues of the vacuum-deposited anti-glare coatings, various simple solution processing technologies have been developed [1, 6, 16-25]. In many of these methods, nanoporous coatings with a large fraction of entrapped air and thus a low effective refractive index, which could satisfy the aforementioned ideal quarter-wavelength refractive index requirement, were extensively explored [1, 6, 16, 21, 26]. For example, nanoporous polymer coatings created by phase separation of spin-coated polymer blends, followed by selective removal of one component, have been demonstrated to show good anti-glare performance on glass substrates [1]. Multilayer silica nanoparticle coatings on glass substrates applied through common spin, dip, or roller coating techniques have already been commercialized for improving the efficiencies of PV panels (e.g., Honeywell's SOLARC RPV products) [27-29]. Electrostatics-assisted layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition of nanoparticles and polyelectrolyte multilayers is another popular approach in assembling anti-glare coatings on a variety of substrates [21, 30-31]. Monolayers of colloidal nanoparticles created by convective self-assembly [32-33], spin-coating [18, 29, 34-36], or Langmuir-Blodgett deposition [20, 37-38] have also been widely utilized as antireflection coatings on silicon and glass substrates. However, many of these existing wet-processing technologies involve multiple steps (e.g., LBL assembly) [19], are limited to single-sided coatings on planar substrates (approaches involving spin coating) [18], are not very reproducible over large areas [20], and/or are not inherently parallel for industry-scale manufacturing [32]. Thus, there is a need to overcome these deficiencies.


Many cardiac arrhythmias are caused by conduction defects that interfere with the propagation of normal electrical signals within the heart. The method adopted to treat arrhythmia is dependent on the nature and position of the underling conduction defect. Thus, electrophysiological mapping plays an important role in measuring the electrical activity of the heart. These techniques often require specialized equipment to locate the position of catheters in physical space and reconstructing the shape of the chamber from multiple site recordings. It would be desirable to provide 3D mapping without such equipment.
State of the Art 3D mapping systems use magnetic fields, electrical fields or ultrasound to localize catheters. The main disadvantage of these systems is the prohibitive cost involved with the equipment and the need for both a conventional EP recording system and a separate 3D mapping/localization system. While manual positioning is not as accurate as current technologies, it is significantly more cost effective than conventional EP mapping systems and can be performed more rapidly.
It remains necessary to locate a target (active) site if an arrhythmia is to be terminated. A number of catheter locating systems are known in the art, but each introduces components and complexity to EP procedures. EP operators, however, are usually quite capable of piloting an EP catheter to a desired site within a patient's vasculature, particularly with fluoroscopic assistance. A difficulty remains, even if the location of the catheter is estimated based on fluorscopic guidance, in matching indwelling EP electrodes to sites on a cardiac model. This problem is all the more difficult when the model is rendered in 3D.
In part, the operator has data captured by a variety of systems. For example, electrogram channels monitor signals from indwelling electrodes, such as intracardiac electrodes and reference electrodes, and that information has to be coordinated with an anatomical (e.g., cardiac) model. Fluoroscopic images of the anatomy generally have no connection to other systems in the EP lab, and so piloting a catheter that lacks a locating system is done as a parallel, distinct part of the EP procedure. Cardiac mapping, therefore, has required great effort at a time when the operator's attention needs to focus on the patient or in labs where cost is an impediment and a highly trained technician is not available to operate a complex 3D mapping system.
The present invention addresses one or more of these problems.


Current architectures of projectors mainly include an illumination system, a light valve, and a projection lens. The illumination system is used for providing an illumination beam. The light valve is used for converting the illumination beam into an image beam. The projection lens is used for projecting the image beam onto a screen to form image pictures on the screen. The illumination system can generate illumination beams of different colors. A main principle is to excite phosphors on phosphor wheels through the light emitted from laser diodes having good luminous efficiency, and thereby to generate a desired pure color light source.
In light path architectures of projectors, a source of blue color light in the image pictures is a blue laser diode. In order to excite the phosphors on the phosphor wheels and achieve good efficiencies for conversion to different color lights, laser diodes that can emit short-wavelength blue light (i.e., blue light with a wavelength less than 445 nm) are used. But the short-wavelength blue light is a purplish blue light in the sense of human eyes. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of the image pictures, the purplish blue light must be adjusted to a blue light close to bluish. However, laser diodes have extremely narrow bandwidth with monochromaticity. Chromaticity coordinate values of the blue light, emitted by the laser diodes, in CIE1931 color space have been very close to critical values of the color space. Thus, the purplish blue light cannot be further purified through multicolor light filters to achieve desired chromaticity coordinate values in the color space.
Therefore, how to improve above-mentioned problems is really a focus for relevant people in the field.
The information disclosed in this “BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION” section is only for enhancement understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, the information disclosed in this “BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION” section does not mean that one or more problems to be solved by one or more embodiments of the invention were acknowledged by a person of ordinary skill in the art.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light adjusting apparatus that adjusts light by inserting/removing a light adjusting section into/from an optical path.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image pickup devices having an image pickup function are widely used in various fields, and among those fields, there is a field of small image pickup devices having a relatively small shape. Examples of such small image pickup devices include electronic endoscopes including a micro-video scope, optical microscopes provided with an image pickup function and portable devices provided with an image pickup function.
Since downsizing is given priority in conventional small image pickup devices, a fixed focus lens, a fixed opening diaphragm, a fixed characteristic filter and the like are adopted as optical elements such as a lens, a diaphragm or an optical filter.
In contrast, high image quality is required also for such small image pickup devices in recent years, and there is a growing demand for adopting a focus lens, a variable diaphragm, and a variable characteristic filter as the aforementioned optical elements of light adjusting apparatuses, that is, functioning as a light adjusting apparatus that adjusts light.
Thus, many techniques are proposed which seek to downsize light adjusting apparatuses so as to be applicable to small image pickup devices.
As an example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 9-22042 describes an electromagnetic drive apparatus disposed around a taking lens which is provided with a yoke, a coil and a permanent magnet opposed to the yoke, the electromagnetic drive apparatus being configured to generate a magnetic force in the yoke by energizing the coil to cause the permanent magnet to rotate. By attaching, for example, a shutter blade rotatably and integrally to the permanent magnet as a light adjusting section, it is possible to switch between a state in which the shutter blade is positioned on an optical path and a state in which the shutter blade is retracted from the optical path.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a phase-converter for converting a three phase motor to one phase operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many rural areas, the only electrical power available is single phase power from REA lines. In many cases, large electrical motors are required, for example, for operating pump jacks of oil pumping units. Large single phase electrical motors, however, are not available, and phase converters are required for converting large three phase motors to single phase operation. In the past, the control relay for switching the large starting capacitors out of the circuit after start up of the motor have been operated by A-C power from the motor which reacts to the line voltage. Problems have occurred in that there is much voltage fluctuation on the rural lines which causes the control relay to repetitively switch the large starting capacitors in and out of the circuit. In many cases this has caused the starting capacitors or motor to be destroyed.


1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an adhesive composition for polarizing plates, a polarizing plate including the same, and an optical display including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel and polarizing plates formed on both surfaces of the liquid crystal display panel. The polarizing plates may be stacked on the liquid crystal display panel via adhesive films for polarizing plates. Each of the adhesive films may be formed by coating an adhesive composition for polarizing plates onto one surface of the polarizing plate or a release film, followed by aging for a predetermined period of time.
The adhesive composition for polarizing plates is generally aged in an aging chamber for 3 to 7 days, or for 10 days or longer, as needed. As such, aging costs time and money. If the adhesive composition for polarizing plates is not subjected to sufficient aging, however, the properties of the adhesive film are poor (such as poor creep characteristics, peel strength, reliability, light leakage and reworkability), and the adhesive film therefore cannot be used in a polarizing plate. In addition, if the aging time is reduced, the adhesive composition can have poor pot-life, thereby causing poor coatability.


Sheets of material are often used in various industries and in a variety of ways. These materials can include paper, plastic, and other materials manufactured or processed in webs or sheets. As a particular example, long sheets of paper or other single layer or multi-layer products can be manufactured and collected in reels.
The “Z-structure” or cross-sectional structure of paper and other sheet materials is often a determining factor in numerous quality properties for the materials. For example, the distribution of voids between fibers in paper products typically affects bulk and opacity, and the distribution of fillers in paper products typically affects printing quality. Only fillers near the surface typically affect surface smoothness and ink permeability, and asymmetric filler distribution can cause the color of the surfaces of a paper sheet to differ.
Papermakers are often interested in the distribution of fillers because there are several process adjustments available to influence it. As a result, accurate measurements of the Z-structure of a paper sheet could lead to the identification of filler distribution problems and allow timely adjustments to the paper-making process. Another issue may arise for intrinsically multi-layer sheets of material, such as those formed by splicing together multiple formed sheets or by coating a formed sheet with a polymer. In these cases, it is often desirable to know the thicknesses of individual layers or differences between exterior layers and interior layers.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns keeping track of online research.
2. Background Information
Online research has become a powerful tool for obtaining information on virtually any topic. Search engines provide an easy way to find information on Web pages. While finding the information may be relatively straightforward, capturing, saving, and organizing the information for later reference can be tedious. As a consequence, software tools have been developed that configure a computer to act as a Web-information manager, i.e., as a tool that performs in an automated fashion many of the tasks that people doing Web research had previously performed more manually.


The invention is generally related to mounting hardware, and more particularly to an extendable bracket for mounting window shades, curtain rods, and the like.
There are countless different kinds of bracket hardware for mounting or hanging window coverings such as shades, blinds, curtain rods, and the like. Many of the hardware designs are fabricated having a number of components including a mounting base for securing the hardware to a surface, and a support bracket for supporting the window covering components. Many of these hardware components are typically fabricated from metal and utilize several fastener components to complete a hardware assembly. Often, hardware brackets for hanging window coverings are not adjustable in any way.
The mounting base and support bracket are also typically fabricated separately and provided as a loose assembly to the consumer. The consumer then must install the mounting base, mount or attach the support bracket, and secure the mounting base and support bracket together using one or more additional fasteners. The installation process can therefore be quite cumbersome. In addition, the metal parts can be relatively costly to manufacture, both relative to labor, material expense, and tooling costs. In some cases, numerous parts are provided separately to the consumer, who must then assemble the parts prior to installation.
Many bracket hardware designs are also adjustable in length to permit the installer to hang the window coverings at a desired distance from the mounting surface. Most of these bracket designs also utilize at least two separate components that telescope relative to one another and are thus slidable relative to one another to provide the length adjustability. Most of these designs have two or more metal parts that require multiple stamping operations to fabricate each part.
Several known hardware brackets are length adjustable and utilize only a single bracket component per side of a window covering support rod. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,162 discloses a unitary hardware bracket for mounting window shades. The bracket is length adjustable by snapping or breaking off portions of the mounting end of the bracket. The wall mounting end can be shortened by breaking off one section of mounting holes and tangs. Another set of holes and tangs is left behind for mounting the bracket. However, if a consumer breaks off too much of the bracket during installation, rendering the bracket too short for the particular application, the only remedy is to purchase another bracket set.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,752,991 discloses a window cornice mounting bracket assembly that also can be length adjusted at the wall mounting end by snapping off pieces of the bracket. Again, however, too much of the bracket can be accidentally or unintentionally broken off during installation.
Another problem with many current mounting hardware designs is that the brackets come only with a fixed length. A retailer and/or a manufacturer typically may offer a number of different bracket options. A series of similar brackets may be offered where each bracket in the series has a different, fixed length. In many cases, a retailer will offer, for example, four similar brackets having different lengths. The consumer must select the proper one, take it home, and install it. Many times, the selected bracket is either too short or too long for a particular job.
To illustrate, a consumer may be installing a curtain rod over a window that already has a blind installed. The curtain rod may need to extend further from the wall surface than the blind mounting brackets. The consumer therefore must either select the correct brackets the first time. If not, the consumer must return to the store, return the incorrect brackets, and re-purchase the correct brackets. This results in unnecessary extra effort for both the consumer and retailer. Alternatively, a consumer may choose to purchase a number of the different length brackets and use only the correct ones. The unused brackets likely will not be used, resulting in unnecessary expense and waste of resources.
Either or both the manufacturer and retailer must also manufacture, stock, sip, unload, and keep track of each of the bracket options. Manufacturers and retailers often stock, store, display, and track product quantities and qualities according to computerized data, such as SKU numbers. Having four different brackets requires storage and shelf space for four different products and also requires tracking four different SKU numbers. This simply adds cost and complexity for both the manufacturer and the retailer.


An electromagnetic fuel injector comprises a cylindrical tubular body displaying a central feeding channel, which functions as a fuel conduit and ends with an injection nozzle regulated by an injection valve controlled by an electromagnetic actuator. The injection valve is provided with a needle, which is rigidly connected to a mobile keeper of the electromagnetic actuator in order to be displaced by the action of the electromagnetic actuator between a closed position and an open position of the injection nozzle against the bias of a spring which tends to hold the needle in the closed position. The valve seat is defined in a sealing element, which is shaped as a disc, lowerly and fluid-tightly closes the central channel of the support body and is crossed by the injection nozzle.
Patent application EP1635055A1 describes an electromagnetic fuel injector in which a guiding element rises from the sealing element, such guiding element having a tubular shape, accommodating the needle therein in order to define a lower guide of the needle itself and displaying a smaller external diameter with respect to the internal diameter of the feeding channel of the supporting body so as to define an external annular channel through which pressurised fuel flows. Four through feeding holes, which lead towards the valve seat to allow the flow of pressurised fuel towards the valve seat itself, are obtained in the lower part of the guiding element. The needle ends with an essentially spherical shutter head, which is adapted to fluid-tightly rest against the valve seat and slidingly rests on an internal cylindrical surface of the guiding element so as to be guided in its movement. The injection nozzle is of the “multi-hole” type, i.e. it is defined by a plurality of through injection holes, which are obtained from a chamber formed downstream of the valve seat; in this way, the optimal geometries of the injection nozzle may be obtained for the various applications by appropriately orienting the single injection holes.
Experimental tests have shown that the drive time-injected fuel quantity curve (i.e. the law linking the drive time to the quantity of injected fuel) of the electromagnetic injector described above is on the whole rather linear, but displays an initial step (i.e. displays a step increase for short drive times and therefore for small quantities of injected fuel); furthermore, the extent of such initial step is higher proportionally to the fuel feeding pressure.
Consequently, the electromechanical injector described above may be used in a direct injection internal combustion Otto cycle engine (i.e. fed with petrol, LPG, methane or the like), in which the fuel feeding pressure is limited (lower than 200-250 bars) and the injector is not normally driven to inject small amounts of fuel). However, the electromagnetic injector described above cannot be used in a small direct injection internal combustion Diesel cycle engine (i.e. fed with Diesel fuel or the like), in which the feeding pressure of the fuel is rather high (up to 800-900 bars) and the injector is constantly driven so as to perform a series of pilot injectors before a main injection.


In the last few decades, the market for wireless communications devices has grown by orders of magnitude, fueled by the use of portable devices, and increased connectivity and data transfer between all manners of devices. Digital switching techniques have facilitated the large scale deployment of affordable, easy-to-use wireless communication networks. Furthermore, digital and radio frequency (RF) circuit fabrication improvements, as well as advances in circuit integration and other aspects have made wireless equipment smaller, cheaper, and more reliable. Wireless communication can operate in accordance with various standards such as IEEE 802.11x, Bluetooth, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA). As increased data throughput and other developments occur, updates and new standards are constantly being developed for adoption, such those associated with the third generation partnership project (3GPP).
The details of various embodiments of the methods and systems are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.


The invention is based on an apparatus for the air-injection of liquid gas. An apparatus for the air-injection of liquid gas is already known but in which the intake tube pressure downstream of the throttle valve has an undesirable influence on the regulated mixture of liquid gas and air.


As a method for forming a high-quality semiconductor film, there is an epitaxial growth technique which forms a film on a substrate, using vapor phase growth. In a vapor phase growth apparatus using the epitaxial growth technique, a substrate is placed on a support portion in the vapor phase growth apparatus which is maintained at normal pressure or reduced pressure. Then, a reaction gas, which is a raw material, is supplied to the substrate while the substrate is being heated. For example, the thermal reaction of the reaction gas occurs on the surface of the substrate and an epitaxial single-crystal film is formed on the surface of the substrate.
When a film is formed, the support portion is supported by a rotating body and the substrate is rotated by a bearing and a rotating mechanism which support a rotating shaft connected to the rotating body. When a film is formed, there is a concern that contaminants generated from the bearing or the rotating mechanism will be mixed with the film and will prevent a high-quality film from being formed.


1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a system for manufacturing an instrument panel which is primarily used in the interior construction of an automobile.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
In general, an instrument panel is constructed such that a foamed resin of polypropyrene or the like is placed between a hard core material (aggregate) of ABS resin or the like and a soft covering material such as polyvinyl chloride. In a conventional manufacturing process for such an instrument panel, beads of a foaming resin material are filled in a space between the core member and the covering material when formed, and are then heated and foamed. Due to this process, the prior art has various attendant problems in as much as a longer period of operation is required for making a foamed resin, and further, irritating gas is produced when the resin is foamed. In order to resolve such problems, proposals have been made by the present applicants in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-144, 478.
In the aforesaid known system a composite sheet having a semi-hard covering material and a foamed sheet adhered to each other in advance is cut to a desired length of a unit sheet and the unit sheet is guided to the heating station where it is heated to its softening point, thereafter the heated unit sheet is fed to the forming station where it is pressed against the core member set on the lower die in advance, through adhesive, and then finally it is pressed between the upper and lower dies. Further, in this prior art system of manufacturing an instrument panel, endless conveying chains are arranged to run through the feeding, heating and forming stations, respectively, and during this passage of the sheet panel, the sheet is spiked by some needles formed on the running chain the conveyed through each of the stations in sequence while being spiked. Due to this operational arrangement, the sheet should be conveyed through each of the stations with its positional relation to each of them being retained therein, and thus an independent processing of the sheet in each of the stations cannot be performed. Because the conveying chains pass through the heating station, they are always required to be cooled thus influencing the durability of the conveying chains. Further, an arrangement of the conveying chains in the forming station causes problems in that a sheet forming process is restricted and the like. With such arrangement as set forth above, two devices, one for drying the adhesive applied to the surface of the core member and the other for additionally heating the dried adhesive to melt it, are installed for processing the core member before the forming of the sheet material due to different temperature conditions therebetween.
Due to this fact, an additional process for taking the core member from the drying device and transferring it to the melting device is required, and the area occupied by these devices is excessive, resulting in a decreased efficiency of the entire system. Further, because the heater, etc. should be arranged for each of the devices, the prior art system has the problem that a desirable thermal efficiency cannot be retained.
Further, in such a prior art system, the feeding station has a suction device for sucking the unit sheet cut to a desired length and a bogie device for transferring said unit sheet to the subsequent heating station at respective different locations. Due to this fact, an operation required for transferring the unit sheet to the bogie additionally requires time for transferring the sheet from the suction device to the bogie device, and further occupies an excessively large area the feeding station.
Further, in such a prior art system, problems arise in that the conveying chains themselves cannot be lifted up and down, and alternatively the upper and lower dies are required to be moved up and down and the lower die should be movable, resulting in a complex and large-sized device.
In the forming station, in order to set the core member on the lower die, an operator sets the core member while he enters a space between the dies and also in case of taking out the formed product of the instrument panel upon completion of the forming process, the product is pushed up by the ejector and the operator enters the space between the dies to take the product. Therefore, this is undesirable in view of workability and safety of the operator.
The present invention effectively overcomes the above problems found in a conventional type of an instrument panel manufacturing system as described above.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resist composition and a method of forming a resist pattern that uses the resist composition.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-273759, filed Dec. 14, 2011, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In lithography techniques, for example, a resist film composed of a resist material is formed on a substrate, and the resist film is subjected to selective exposure followed by development, thereby forming a resist pattern having a predetermined shape on the resist film. A resist material in which the exposed portions of the resist film become soluble in a developing solution is called a positive-type, and a resist material in which the exposed portions become insoluble in a developing solution is called a negative-type.
In recent years, in the production of semiconductor elements and liquid crystal display elements, advances in lithography techniques have led to rapid progress in the field of pattern miniaturization. Typically, these pattern miniaturization techniques involve shortening the wavelength (and increasing the energy) of the exposure light source. Conventionally, ultraviolet radiation typified by g-line and i-line radiation has been used, but nowadays KrF excimer lasers and ArF excimer lasers are starting to be introduced in the mass production of semiconductor elements. Furthermore, research is also being conducted into lithography techniques that use an exposure light source having a shorter wavelength (and a higher energy level) than these excimer lasers, such as extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV), electron beam (EB), and X-ray.
Resist materials for use with these types of exposure light sources require lithography properties such as a high resolution capable of reproducing patterns of minute dimensions, and a high level of sensitivity to these types of exposure light sources. As a resist material that satisfies these conditions, conventionally a chemically amplified resist composition has been used, which includes an acid generator component that generates acid upon exposure, and a base component that exhibits changed solubility in a developing solution under the action of acid.
Numerous compounds have already been proposed for the acid generator component for chemically amplified resist compositions, including onium salt-based acid generators, oxime sulfonate-based acid generators, diazomethane-based acid generators, nitrobenzylsulfonate-based acid generators, iminosulfonate-based acid generators, and disulfone-based acid generators.
Resins (base resins) are typically used as the base components of chemically amplified resist compositions.
For example, in an alkali developing process where an alkali developing solution is used as a developing solution, a chemically amplified resist composition for forming a positive-type resist pattern typically contains an acid generator component and a resin component that exhibits increased solubility in an alkali developing solution under the action of acid. If the resist film formed using this resist composition is selectively exposed during formation of a resist pattern, then acid is generated from the acid generator component within the exposed portions, and the action of this acid causes an increase in the solubility of the resin component in an alkali developing solution, making the exposed portions soluble in the alkali developing solution. As a result, by performing alkali developing, the unexposed portions remain as a pattern, resulting in the formation of a positive-type pattern.
As the resin component, a resin that exhibits increased polarity under the action of acid is typically used. When the polarity of the resin is increased, the solubility in an alkali developing solution increases. On the other hand, when the polarity is increased, the solubility in an organic solvent decreases, and therefore if a solvent developing process that uses a developing solution containing an organic solvent (an organic developing solution) is employed instead of the alkali developing process, then within the exposed portions of the resist film, the solubility in the organic developing solution decreases relatively, meaning that during the solvent developing process, the unexposed portions of the resist film are dissolved in the organic developing solution and removed, whereas the exposed portions remain as a pattern, resulting in the formation of a negative-type resist pattern. This type of solvent developing process that results in the formation of a negative-type resist pattern is sometimes referred to as a negative-type developing process (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Currently, resins that contain structural units derived from (meth)acrylate esters within the main chain (acrylic resins) are widely used as base resins for chemically amplified resist compositions designed for use in ArF excimer laser lithography or the like, as they exhibit excellent transparency in the vicinity of 193 nm (for example, see Patent Document 2). Here, the term “(meth)acrylate ester” is a generic term that includes either or both of the acrylate ester having a hydrogen atom bonded to the α-position and the methacrylate ester having a methyl group bonded to the α-position. The term “(meth)acrylate” is a generic term that includes either or both of the acrylate having a hydrogen atom bonded to the α-position and the methacrylate having a methyl group bonded to the α-position. The term “(meth)acrylic acid” is a generic term that includes either or both of acrylic acid having a hydrogen atom bonded to the α-position and methacrylic acid having a methyl group bonded to the α-position.
In order to improve the lithography properties and the like, the base resin typically includes a plurality of structural units. For example, in the case of an aforementioned resin component that exhibits increased polarity under the action of acid, typically, a base resin is used that contains a structural unit having an acid-decomposable group that decomposes under the action of the acid generated from the acid generator component, resulting in increased polarity, and also contains a structural unit having a polar group such as a hydroxyl group, and a structural unit having a lactone structure and the like.
One known technique for further improving the resolution is a lithography technique known as liquid immersion lithography (hereafter also referred to as “immersion exposure”), in which exposure (immersion exposure) is conducted in a state where the region between the objective lens of the exposure apparatus and the sample is filled with a liquid (an immersion medium) that has a larger refractive index than the refractive index of air.
By using immersion exposure, it is considered that higher resolutions equivalent to those obtained using a shorter wavelength light source or a higher NA lens can be achieved using the same exposure light source wavelength, with no reduction in the depth of focus. Furthermore, immersion exposure can be conducted using existing exposure apparatus. As a result, it is expected that immersion exposure will enable the formation of resist patterns of higher resolution and superior depth of focus at lower costs, and in the production of semiconductor elements, which requires enormous capital investment, immersion exposure is attracting considerable attention as a method that offers significant potential to the semiconductor industry, both in terms of cost and in terms of lithography properties such as resolution.
Immersion lithography is effective in forming patterns having all manner of shapes. Further, immersion exposure is capable of being used in combination with super-resolution techniques such as phase shift methods and modified illumination methods that are currently under investigation. Currently, techniques using an ArF excimer laser as the exposure source are the most actively researched immersion exposure techniques. Further, water is mainly being investigated as the immersion medium.
In recent years, the addition of a photoreactive quencher to a chemically amplified resist composition has also been proposed (for example, see Patent Documents 3 and 4). A photoreactive quencher is a salt formed from an anion and a cation, which, prior to exposure, has a quenching action that traps acid generated from the acid generator or the like via an ion exchange reaction, but which decomposes upon exposure, resulting in a loss of the quenching action. Accordingly, when a resist film formed using a chemically amplified resist composition containing such a photoreactive quencher is subjected to exposure, in the exposed portions, the photoreactive quencher loses its basicity relative to the acid generated from the acid generator or the like, whereas in the unexposed portions, the photoreactive quencher traps the acid, thereby suppressing the diffusion of acid from the exposed portions into the unexposed portions, resulting in improved lithography properties.


1. Field
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to glucose sensor signal stability analysis including, by way of example but not limitation, analyzing a reliability of a glucose sensor signal by attempting to detect a change in responsiveness of the sensor signal.
2. Information
The pancreas of a normal healthy person produces and releases insulin into the blood stream in response to elevated blood plasma glucose levels. Beta cells (β-cells), which reside in the pancreas, produce and secrete insulin into the blood stream as it is needed. If β-cells become incapacitated or die, which is a condition known as Type I diabetes mellitus (or in some cases, if β-cells produce insufficient quantities of insulin, a condition known as Type II diabetes), then insulin may be provided to a body from another source to maintain life or health.
Traditionally, because insulin cannot be taken orally, insulin has been injected with a syringe. More recently, the use of infusion pump therapy has been increasing in a number of medical situations, including for delivering insulin to diabetic individuals. For example, external infusion pumps may be worn on a belt, in a pocket, or the like, and they can deliver insulin into a body via an infusion tube with a percutaneous needle or a cannula placed in subcutaneous tissue.
As of 1995, less than 5% of the Type I diabetic individuals in the United States were using infusion pump therapy. Over time, greater than 7% of the more than 900,000 Type I diabetic individuals in the U.S. began using infusion pump therapy. The percentage of Type I diabetic individuals that use an infusion pump is now growing at a rate of over 2% each year. Moreover, the number of Type II diabetic individuals is growing at 3% or more per year, and increasing numbers of insulin-using Type II diabetic individuals are also adopting infusion pumps. Physicians have recognized that continuous infusion can provide greater control of a diabetic individual's condition, so they are increasingly prescribing it for patients.
A closed-loop infusion pump system may include an infusion pump that is automatically and/or semi-automatically controlled to infuse insulin into a patient. The infusion of insulin may be controlled to occur at times and/or in amounts that are based, for example, on blood glucose measurements obtained from an embedded blood-glucose sensor, e.g., in real-time. Closed-loop infusion pump systems may also employ the delivery of glucagon, in addition to the delivery of insulin, for controlling blood-glucose and/or insulin levels of a patient (e.g., in a hypoglycemic context). Glucagon delivery may also be based, for example, on blood glucose measurements that are obtained from an embedded blood-glucose sensor, e.g., in real-time.


This invention relates, in general, to transmitter optoelectronic integrated circuits, and more particularly to a distributed drive, vertically integrated, transmitter optoelectronic integrated circuit for mating with a plastic optical fiber.
Optoelectronic transmission systems have emerged as a prominent technology in a variety of disciplines including: automotive, computer, medical, and communications. Typically, an optoelectronic system comprises a transmitting optoelectronic integrated circuit, or transmission source, coupled to a receiving integrated circuit via an optical fiber. Two key indices of an optoelectronic signal transmission system are the coupling efficiency between the transmission source and the fiber optic cable, and the power level of the signal generated by the transmission source.
Coupling efficiency is a figure of merit that indicates how much of the optical signal generated by the transmission source is conducted by the optical fiber. The theoretical maximum coupling efficiency is a function of the dimensions of both the optical fiber and the transmission source as shown by Hudson in his paper "Calculation of the Maximum Optical Coupling Efficiency into Multimode Optical Waveguides" (Applied Optics Vol. 13, No. 5, May 1974). In particular, the maximum coupling efficiency is determined by the diameter and numerical aperture of the optical fiber as well as the diameter of the emission source. Hence, the optical fiber is an important component in the optoelectronic transmission system.
Generally, optical fibers are cylindrically shaped with an inner core surrounded by an outer core, commonly referred to as a cladding layer. Two optical fiber parameters which strongly influence maximum coupling efficiency are the inner core diameter and the numerical aperture. In the past, the preferred material for the optical fiber has been glass; a material in which both the inner core diameter and numerical aperture are relatively small. Further, the use of glass optical fibers requires that the transmitting and receiving portions of these systems employ expensive packaging materials to ensure adequate coupling between these two components.
According to the mathematical relationship derived by Hudson, selecting an inner core diameter and a numerical aperture of the optical fiber constrains the diameter of the transmission source for a selected maximum coupling efficiency. Further, to obtain an acceptable maximum coupling efficiency, the relationship between the inner core diameter and the numerical aperture of the optical fiber limits the transmission source diameter to be a small percentage of the inner core diameter. As an example, for a typical glass fiber with an inner core diameter of 50 micrometers and an numerical aperture of 0.21, the transmission source diameter is limited to 20 percent of the optical fiber inner core diameter for the theoretical maximum coupling efficiency.
The primary disadvantage of a small transmission source diameter is that the injection current density in the transmitting device must be relatively high to achieve an acceptable minimum coupled power from the transmitting optoelectronic integrated circuit to the optical fiber. Moreover, thermal properties of both transmitter optoelectronic semiconductor devices, and the lower cost plastic packages used for encapsulating the devices, limit the maximum injection current. Hence, theoretical maximum coupled power has been constrained by physical limitations of the transmitting semiconductor device in addition to those posed by the optical fiber cable.
Further, the use of glass optical fibers has limited the topography of the circuitry associated with transmitter optoelectronic integrated circuits such that current must be collected at contact regions of a transmission source transistor, and transported through metal interconnects. Ultimately, the current must be redistributed by an optimized ohmic contact pattern on an optical emission device. Associated with this current distribution scheme are parasitic resistances and capacitances that degrade the performance of the transmitter optoelectronic integrated circuit. And as discussed previously, the use of glass optical fibers requires very sophisticated and expensive optoelectronic circuit packaging material to achieve the theoretical maximum coupling efficiency.
More recently plastic optical fibers have gained widespread acceptance as an alternative to glass optical fibers. Plastic optical fibers have both a larger inner core diameter and numerical aperture than do their glass counterparts. Hence, for a similar maximum coupling efficiency, the transmission source diameter for a plastic optical fiber may be greater than that of a glass optical fiber. As an example, to achieve the theoretical maximum coupling efficiency, a typical plastic optical fiber with an inner core diameter of 1000 micrometers and a numerical aperture of 0.47 the transmission source diameter can be up to 50 percent of the diameter of the plastic optical fiber. Hence, one advantage derived by using plastic optical fibers is that the larger allowable transmission source diameter provides the option for a lower injection current density. Further, plastic optical fibers make the use of lower cost plastic packaging for the transmission optoelectronic devices feasible. Unfortunately, the present methods for fabricating the transmission optoelectronic devices still renders the use of high current densities in localized portions of the optoelectronic devices. Further, the parasitic resistances and capacitances associated with current collection, transport, and redistribution in the optoelectronic devices still exist.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have a transmitter optoelectronic integrated circuit capable of achieving high output current levels with relatively low current densities; while simultaneously taking advantage of the increased transmission source area afforded by using plastic optical fibers to optimize the optoelectronic integrated circuit layout wherein the circuit does not suffer from the performance degradations caused by parasitic resistances and capacitances associated with current collection, transport, and redistribution.


There is a need to identify objects and people (“objects”) automatically. Automatically determining identity eliminates human error, makes the identification process faster, and allows direct interfacing with computing systems and related applications. The most common types of automatic identification in use today include barcodes, RFID labels, and magnetic cards. Automatic identification is used for applications such as identifying items in inventory or for checkout, providing entry into secured areas, logging into a computer system, facilitating rental card returns, positively identifying patients in hospitals, ensuring the proper medication is being delivered, and numerous other applications. Unfortunately the systems used today have many drawbacks and inadequacies. Conventional systems typically require the user to hold a reading device (such as a barcode scanner), or to hold an identification device (such as an ID card) thus tying up the user's hands. In addition, these systems only work when a barcode, RFID tag, or magnetic card is properly scanned. Most scanners only work a very short distance, require that the barcode, RFID tag, or magnetic card be correctly oriented to the reader, and frequently do not read correctly on the first scan, making them inadequate for many applications. Real time location systems (“RTLS”) can also provide automatic identity, but are large and complex systems that are expensive and difficult to install and maintain. In addition most location systems do not have the spatial or temporal accuracy required for most automatic identification applications.
The drawbacks and inadequacies of current systems create significant compromises in many applications. For example ID cards containing a barcode, magnetic strip, or RFID chip are commonly used to unlock a door for access to restricted areas. People desiring to enter the area must scan the card at a reader near the door. The person must retrieve the ID card from a pocket, wallet, or purse, and orient it correctly to the reader. If the card is not oriented correctly or not read properly by the reader, the person must repeat the operation. This process can be time consuming and frustrating to the user.
Similar ID card systems are used to authorize access to computer systems. Frequently these systems are used together with a password to provide positive user identification and access to the system. These systems have many of the same problems as entry access systems. People desiring to access the computer must scan the card at a reader. The person must retrieve the card from a pocket, wallet, or purse, and orient it correctly to the reader. If the card is not oriented correctly or not read properly by the reader, the person must repeat the operation. This process can be time consuming and frustrating to the user. Frequently the user will set the ID card down on the work surface next to the computer and forget to pick it up when they are finished with their task, which can lead to a lost card and/or a security risk. Another problem with these systems is that people frequently forget to logoff when they have completed their tasks and simply walk away from the computer. When this happens, an unauthorized person can then walk up to the computer and have unauthorized access. In an attempt to prevent this problem from occurring some computer systems automatically log a user off if there is isn't keyboard activity for some period of time. If the timeout period is too short then users gets logged off inadvertently. A user may turn to talk briefly to a colleague and turn back to the computer only to find that they have been logged off. If the timeout period is too long and the user forgets to logoff then there is a period of venerability for unauthorized access.
The need for an improved computer authorization system is particularly evident in hospitals where mobile care providers access many different computer systems on a frequent basis and are faced with strict HIPPA rules for patient confidentiality. Hospitals can also benefit from other applications of automatic identification systems. Another example is positive patient identification. Clinical personnel need to positively identify patients prior to administering medication or performing procedures. Hospitals have tried to utilize barcodes and RFID tags located on patient's wrist bands for this purpose. This requires that the clinician use a reading device which means the clinician must be located next to the reading device, search for a portable device, or ensure that he has a portable reader on him at all times. This creates issues in spending time searching for a reader, or the hassle of carrying a reader. There is also the issue of limited battery life in portable readers, where even if the clinician has a device available it might not be usable due to a low battery. In addition it can be difficult to scan the barcode or RFID tag since it is located on the patient's wrist and can be in a variety of positions making it difficult to properly align the reader or even get the reader near the ID band.
A touch identification system could also enable new applications such as automatically determining whether personnel are complying with hand washing requirements. In many jobs such as food-workers and hospital-workers there are requirements for hand-washing to ensure public safety. Unfortunately these policies are frequently not followed. To ensure compliance it would be desirable to have a system that automatically determined that an employee activated the soap dispenser and logged the event.
Technologies and products have been developed to provide communication of information through or on the body of a user, but these technologies and products have not been broadly adopted due to their significant drawbacks and inadequacies. Many of these technologies and products require very specific placement of devices on the body of the user and/or require multiple contact points—some including ground connections—making them impractical to use. Most of these technologies and products do not address the issue of communication signals inadvertently radiating or coupling from the devices or the user, which could result in signals being wrongly communicated creating security issues with the system. There is also the issue of unreliable performance due to users having different body characteristics such as body mass and skin impedance and environmental issues causing variable stray coupling of the user to objects in the environment.


Citalopram and its pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts, such as its hydrogen bromide salt (Formula (I)) as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,193, are anti-depressant drugs with few side effects.

Various processes for the preparation of citalopram have been described in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,193 describes the alkylation of cyanophthalane with 3-dimethylaminopropylchloride, using sodium hydride as a base in a dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) medium (Scheme-1). The reaction mixture is poured into ice water and extracted with ether. Then, after standard acid-base work-up, crude citalopram base is isolated as an oil. The isolated oil is purified by high vacuum distillation, (0.03 mm at 175-180° C.) and then converted to the hydrobromide salt.

Another process, as described in WO-A-98/19511, is the alkylation of cyanophthalane with 3-dimethylaminopropylchloride in the presence of a strong base (such as n-butyl lithium) and diisopropylamine in a dimethoxyethane medium at −50° C. (Scheme-2). After completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture is poured into ice water and extracted with toluene. After standard acid-base work-up using toluene as solvent, citalopram base is isolated as an oil. The oily base is then converted to acid addition salts such as citalopram hydrobromide and hydrochloride by conventional methods.

A drawback of the above two processes is that the citalopram base is isolated as an oil. Purification of citalopram oily base is carried out by high vacuum distillation (0.03 mm) at 175-181° C. Achieving such a very high vacuum at plant level is difficult and hence the process described is not easily transferable to the commercial scale. Apart from these constraints, citalopram base having a cyano group at the 5th position of the bicyclic ring system may decompose during high vacuum distillation at high temperature to form citalopram carboxamide as an impurity, resulting in poor quality and yield.
In yet another process, citalopram is made as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,884. The process involves the successive Grignard reaction of 5-cyanophthalane with 4-fluorophenylmagnesiumbromide and N,N-dimethylaminopropylmagnesiumchloride and the cyclization of the resulting diol to obtain citalopram base as an oil (Scheme-3). The oily base is converted to the hydrobromide salt using anhydrous hydrogen bromide gas in acetone medium. Due to the poor quality of the oily base, repeated crystallization of the hydrobromide was necessary to obtain a pharmaceutically acceptable quality of citalopram hydrobromide.

Using the same strategy, citalopram base may be made as described in CA-A-1,339,452 [equivalent to U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,590, EP-A-347066 & GB-A-8,814,057 Scheme-3]. The racemic diol base, as described in the patent, is dissolved in dichloromethane. Triethylamine and methane sulphonyl chloride are added over a period of 1 hour. The reaction mixture is then washed twice with 0.1M sodium hydroxide solution, the organic phase is separated and dried over anhydrous magnesium sulphate followed by solvent concentration under reduced pressure, and the citalopram base is isolated as a crystalline solid. For the first time, citalopram base has been reported as a crystalline solid. However, no physical data are described here [EP-A-347066]. The solid base is converted to the hydrobromide salt using anhydrous hydrogen bromide gas in acetone medium.
DE-A-20 007 303 discloses yet another process for the isolation of citalopram base, as a solid, from citalopram hydrobromide. However, the process for making citalopram hydrobromide is not described. The isolated crystalline base is then converted into the desired salt. According to the process described here, pure citalopram hydrobromide is dissolved in 5 volumes of water and the pH is adjusted to about 10 with 6N sodium hydroxide. Citalopram base is then extracted into a non-polar organic solvent, such as toluene. The toluene is distilled off under reduced pressure and the resulting residue is triturated with n-heptane to precipitate citalopram base as a solid. The solid is then filtered to produce crystalline citalopram base.
The main disadvantage of this process is that citalopram hydrobromide has to be made first from the crude oily base isolated from the prior art process and then converted back to solid citalopram base. Then, the solid base is again converted to its corresponding hydrobromide salt. Thus, the process involves multiple operations which are tedious and time consuming. In addition, prolonged heating of citalopram base may increase the carboxamide impurity, resulting in poor quality citalopram.


The present invention is directed to a communication cable with a cable core provided in the center surrounded by an outside cladding as well as strain relief elements applied in the region of the outside cladding.
Allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/646,322 which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,381, whose disclosure is incorporated by reference and which is a national phase application based on WO-A1 95/13556, discloses a cable having strain relief elements adjacent the outside surface of the cable. The tensile elements are arranged in the cladding region and lie in a symmetrical plane that simultaneously forms the bending plane for the cable. The tensile elements lie diametrically opposite one another and thus are offset by 1800 from one another. The light waveguides are arranged in the center of the cable in a single layer or in a multi-layer envelope.
In many instances, it is desirable to construct cables in a type of hybrid structure, for example to arrange a plurality of transmission elements that are at least partially independent of one another in the cable. For example, this is the case where both electrical as well as optical transmission elements are employed. However, applications with two or more optical transmission elements are also conceivable in this context.


This disclosure relates to a method of making an antistatic agent.
Thermoplastics are useful in the manufacture of articles and components for a wide range of applications, from automotive parts to electronic appliances. Because of their broad use, particularly in electronic applications, it is desirable to provide thermoplastic resins with antistatic agents. Many polymers or blends of polymers are relatively non-conductive, which can lead to static charge build-up during processing and use of the polymer. Charged molded parts, for example, may attract small dust particles, and may thus interfere with a smooth surface appearance, for example by causing a decrease in the transparency of the article. In addition, the electrostatic charge may be a serious obstacle in the production process of such polymers.
Anti-static agents are materials that are added to polymers to reduce their tendency to acquire an electrostatic charge, or, when a charge is present, to promote the dissipation of such a charge. Organic anti-static agents are usually hydrophilic or ionic in nature. When present on the surface of polymeric materials, they facilitate the transfer of electrons and thus eliminate the build up of a static charge. Anti-static agents have also been added to the polymer composition before further processing into articles, and may thus be referred to as “internally applied.” Useful anti-static agents applied in this manner are thermally stable and able to migrate to the surface during processing.
A large number of anti-static agents having surfactants as their main constituent have been considered and tried. Many suffer from one or more drawbacks, such as lack of compatibility with the polymer (which interferes with uniform dispersibility), poor heat stability, and/or poor antistatic characteristics. Poor heat resistance in particular can adversely affect the optical properties of engineering thermoplastics such as aromatic polycarbonates.
Particular phosphonium salts of certain sulfonic acids, however, have been shown to be useful antistatic agents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,380 discloses reducing the static charge on polycarbonate resins with an anti-static composition containing 90-99.9 weight % of polycarbonate and 0.1-10 weight % of a heat resistant phosphonium sulfonate having the general formula:
wherein R is a straight or branched chain alkyl group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms; R1, R2 and R3 are the same, each being an aliphatic hydrocarbon having 1 to 8 carbon atoms or an aromatic hydrocarbon group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms; and R4 is a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,497 discloses antistatic resin compositions, particularly transparent resin compositions, comprising a thermoplastic polymer and a halogenated medium- or short-chain alkylsulfonic acid salt of a tetrasubstituted phosphonium cation. The antistatic agent described therein is prepared by ion exchange of a potassium haloalkylsulfonate to produce the corresponding acid. The haloalkylsulfonic acid is then reacted with tetrabutylphosphonium hydroxide to product the antistatic agent.
An advantage of this synthesis is that use of an ion exchange step during synthesis results in a product that is very pure, i.e., contains little to no halogenated compounds that may ultimately lead to degradation of resins such as polycarbonates. However, while suitable for its intended purposes, this particular synthesis also has a number of drawbacks. For example, use of an ion exchange step increases the expense of the process, and may lead to the production of waste requiring disposal procedures. The synthesis also uses the potassium salt as a starting product, which is prepared from the corresponding sulfonylfluoride. Since the solubility of potassium peralkylsulfonates is relatively low, e.g., on the order of 5% at 20° C., a water/ethanol mixture is needed in the ion exchange. The flammability of ethanol requires the implementation of significant safety precautions during the synthesis. In addition, selecting the appropriate water/ethanol ratio is also important. An excess of alcohol may render the final product soluble in the reaction solvent, such that isolation of the product may require a further extraction step.
There accordingly remains a demand in the art for more efficient processes, particularly one-step processes, for making phosphonium sulfonate antistatic agents, as well as thermoplastic resin compositions that incorporate these antistatic agents. It would further be desirable for such processes to produce the antistatic agent in good yields without having a detrimental effect on the safety of the process and/or the purity of the product.


A social network is a set of people (or organizations or other social entities) connected by a set of social relationships, such as friendship, co-working or information exchange relationship. There has been a recent unprecedented increase in the use of Online Social Networks (OSNs) to expand our social life, such as finding others of a common interest, discussing and sharing information in forums, and exchanging photos and personal news. The OSNs have become a large-scale distributed system providing services to hundreds of millions of users and delivering messages at very high rate.
Besides handling traditional client-to-server requests, OSNs also need to handle highly interconnected data due to the strong community structure and human relationships among their end users, which often results in complex data sharing among users. Given the tremendous user population and frequent data access by these users, effective resource planning and provisioning strategies are of extreme importance to the performance and revenue of an OSN. In particular, selecting the most suitable locations to deploy server farms is one of the key steps in such resource management.
The development of placement strategies for resources including servers and bandwidth affects the performance of any online web services. An appropriate allocation of resources benefits content providers by reducing latency for their clients and balancing the bandwidth consumption. The goal is to provide content distribution to clients with good Quality of Service (QoS) while retaining efficient and balanced resource consumption of the underlying network infrastructure. Thus, existing server placement proposals mainly focus on minimizing the average latency between the server and the users, given the nature of client/server communication patterns in traditional web services.
Many proposals on the server placement problem rely on extracting clients' requests from history traces collected on the web servers, and then searching for the best placement given the particular client and load distribution. While these proposals might be plausible in improving performance of existing OSN services, these proposals are less helpful to new OSNs that are starting afresh. Thus, a problem arises in that it is difficult for a new born Internet application service to make a decision on where to deploy its servers.
Moreover, much existing work on server placement casts the problem as an integer linear program where a binary decision variable bij is used to denote if user i is assigned to server j; and the total number of selected servers should be a predetermined input M. One of the best known approximation algorithms for this problem (presented by M. Charikar and S. Guha in “Improved combinatorial algorithms for the facility location and k-median problems” in Proceedings of the 40th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1999) achieves a very large time complexity of O((N+P)3), where N is the number of servers and P is the number of users. To make the problem more manageable in reality, a number of approximation and heuristics have been proposed such as the use of a greedy algorithm (by L. Qiu, V. N. Padmanabhan, and G. M. Voelker, in “On the Placement of Web Server Replicas,” in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM 2001, 1587-1596). However, these approaches are mainly based on theoretical analysis and are only validated using simulation in very small graphs. Further, such methods have fundamental issues in scaling to a large value of N. Accordingly, there is a need for methods to efficiently and flexibly determine, for existing or new OSNs and any value of N, where to place servers.


Most refrigerators intended for household use include an ice maker and an ice bin, which generally both stores the ice and provides access to the ice. Depending on the configuration of the refrigerator and/or the placement of the ice maker, accessing or reaching the ice may be difficult. Also, the amount of ice that can be produced and stored at one time is limited by the size of the ice bin.
A number of refrigerators include an ice dispenser coupled to the ice bin that dispenses ice from the ice bin through a refrigerator door. Typically, the user operates the ice dispenser by pushing a drinking glass against a paddle or other lever. When the lever is depressed, ice is released directly from the ice bin into the glass. While this may simplify accessing the ice, retrieval of the ice is limited to the dispenser's speed (and the size of the glass). As a result, removal of large amounts of ice using the dispenser is difficult and time-consuming.


In data-type image processing, high demands are made on a very fast performance of the image-associated operations. A way of achieving a high processing speed is to use units with an integrated unit solution comprising both a camera in the form of a photodiode matrix and an image processor. Such an arrangement is known from, e.g., SE, B, 431 145 which presents an image processor which contains a device able to indicate the image dots belonging to a connected object, and produces a binary signal corresponding to the object when the relevant image dot, on the one hand, meets a condition specific to the object, and, on the other hand, is indicated as entering the object, or when the closest adjacent image dots are distinguished. By means of this known technique the need is reduced for a serial output of image data, and a substantially reduced amount of information is obtained which, with less time consumption than for the known image processing systems, can be output for further image processing.
Another example of corresponding parallel signal processing is described in Swedish Patent No. 9001556-1. The intention here is to be able to carry out computations on radar signals in addition to image processing.
A drawback with the known technique is that the known processors cannot perform so-called arithmetic global operations with the same efficiency, for example determine the centre of median for every object in a read-in vector. In the known device, there takes place with this type of operation a serial outputting of image data which, in per se time terms, reduces the advantages of the fast image processors.


Agents, such as therapeutic agents, can be delivered systemically, for example, by injection through the vascular system or oral ingestion, or they can be applied directly to a site where treatment is desired. In some cases, particles are used to deliver a therapeutic agent to a target site.


Patient vital sign monitoring may include measurements of blood oxygen, blood pressure, respiratory gas, and EKG among other parameters. Each of these physiological parameters typically requires a sensor in contact with a patient and a cable connecting the sensor to a monitoring device. For example, FIGS. 1-2 illustrate a conventional pulse oximetry system 100 used for the measurement of blood oxygen. As shown in FIG. 1, a pulse oximetry system has a sensor 110, a patient cable 140 and a monitor 160. The sensor 110 is typically attached to a finger 10 as shown. The sensor 110 has a plug 118 that inserts into a patient cable socket 142. The monitor 160 has a socket 162 that accepts a patient cable plug 144. The patient cable 140 transmits an LED drive signal 252 (FIG. 2) from the monitor 160 to the sensor 110 and a resulting detector signal 254 (FIG. 2) from the sensor 110 to the monitor 160. The monitor 160 processes the detector signal 254 (FIG. 2) to provide, typically, a numerical readout of the patient's oxygen saturation, a numerical readout of pulse rate, and an audible indicator or “beep” that occurs in response to each arterial pulse.
As shown in FIG. 2, the sensor 110 has both red and infrared LED emitters 212 and a photodiode detector 214. The monitor 160 has a sensor interface 271, a signal processor 273, a controller 275, output drivers 276, a display and audible indicator 278, and a keypad 279. The monitor 160 determines oxygen saturation by computing the differential absorption by arterial blood of the two wavelengths emitted by the sensor emitters 212, as is well-known in the art. The sensor interface 271 provides LED drive current 252 which alternately activates the red and IR LED emitters 212. The photodiode detector 214 generates a signal 254 corresponding to the red and infrared light energy attenuated from transmission through the patient finger 10 (FIG. 1). The sensor interface 271 also has input circuitry for amplification, filtering and digitization of the detector signal 254. The signal processor 273 calculates a ratio of detected red and infrared intensities, and an arterial oxygen saturation value is empirically determined based on that ratio. The controller 275 provides hardware and software interfaces for managing the display and audible indicator 278 and keypad 279. The display and audible indicator 278 shows the computed oxygen status, as described above, and provides the pulse beep as well as alarms indicating oxygen desaturation events. The keypad 279 provides a user interface for setting alarm thresholds, alarm enablement, and display options, to name a few.


Various methods and apparatus for performing knee arthroplasty and unicondylar knee arthroplasty in particular, are known in the art. The known methods involve resection of the tibia and femur for fitting of trial tibial and femoral implants, respectively. Once the bone has been resected and the trial implants are secured in place, the surgeon then assesses the kinematics of the knee joint. At this stage, the surgeon may transect, elevate and/or release ligaments and other soft tissue structures to achieve the desired level of deformity correction, balance in the tension of relevant ones of the ligaments and other stabilising soft tissue structures, and an acceptable range of motion of the knee joint. Additional bone resection may also be required to achieve the desired outcome. This leads to an increase in operation time with an associated increase in the risk of surgery related complications. Moreover, such additional surgical intervention following fitting of the trial implants potentially leads to subsequent increased discomfort for the patient and increased healing times. Methods and apparatus for use in arthroplasty of a knee joint are exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,244 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,695.


When the current network multi-media broadcasting device is providing online program contents for users, the intelligent mobile terminal cannot be used to control the network multi-media broadcasting. Users are not able to use the intelligent mobile terminal to perform content menu control of the network multi-media broadcasting device. It is not possible for the users to add favorite channels and application list and set auto launch items. Furthermore, the above cannot provide users with program contents in a user-friendly manner. Typically, when users obtain programs through network TV online, a downloading bar for the buffering and loading progress will be shown, meaning that certain amount of waiting time is required to receive the information before the broadcasted program can be viewed.


The present invention generally relates to a device which eliminates wind rushing noise between a crash helmet and face shield structures.
With the ever increasing popularity of relatively high speed motorcycles, conventional protective helmets, while satisfactory to a certain degree, do not satisfy the requirements of all users of such equipment. One type of helmet commonly used is a type which protects the face of the motorcycle operator by providing a partial cylindrical transparent face shield. The periphery of the face shield overlaps the helmet shell and is fixedly secured thereto by a plurality of fasteners such as rivets or any suitable type of releasable fastener such as a screw threaded fastener, snap fastener or the like which would enable the face shield to be removed or replaced in the event of damage thereto. The bottom edge of the face shield and the crash helmet surrounding the rider's upper neck are open so as to provide access to the interior of the helmet and face shield assembly to facilitate it being placed on the head of the wearer and removed therefrom.
With the most common types of crash helmets equipped with transparent face shields available today, a gap or space up to one-half (1/2) inch in width exists between the periphery of the face shield where it overlaps and is affixed to the helmet with fasteners, and the underlying front leading edge of the helmet itself. As the cyclist proceeds forward, wind rushing through this gap passes down over the face and ears as it exits out of the bottom of the helmet and affixed face shield surrounding the upper neck. This wind flow disturbance behind the face shield and surrounding helmet results in eye irritation and annoying noise which increases in intensity as the cyclist goes faster and faster. The present invention eliminates this eye irritating and noisy wind flow disturbance while still allowing a milder airflow to promote comfort and help prevent fogging of the face shield.


Transistors such as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) or simply field effect transistors (FETs) are the core building blocks of the vast majority of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs). A FET includes source and drain regions between which a current can flow through a channel under the influence of a bias applied to a gate electrode that overlies the channel. Some semiconductor ICs, such as high performance microprocessors, can include millions of FETs. For such ICs, decreasing transistor size and thus increasing transistor density has traditionally been a high priority in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Transistor performance, however, must be maintained even as the transistor size decreases.
A Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) is a type of transistor that lends itself to the dual goals of reducing transistor size while maintaining transistor performance. The FinFET is a three dimensional transistor formed using a thin fin that extends upwardly from a semiconductor substrate. Transistor performance, often measured by its transconductance, is proportional to the width of the transistor channel. In a FinFET the transistor channel is formed along the vertical sidewall surfaces of the fin or on both vertical sidewall surfaces and the top horizontal plane of the fin, so a wide channel, and hence high performance, can be achieved without substantially increasing the area of the substrate surface required by the transistor.
FinFETs provide a promising candidate for small line width technology (e.g., approximately 22 nm and below) because of their excellent short channel effect control and scalability. However, FinFETs are often formed as an array on a bulk substrate or a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate in an integrated circuit, with the FinFETs densely formed on the substrates and with the substrates including a base that connects the fins. The integrate circuits that include the FinFETs often suffer from sub-fin current leakage, especially when the FinFETs are formed on a bulk substrate, whereby some of the current that is passed between a source and drain for one FinFET passes through a body of the fin to other FinFETs that are formed on the fin, thereby affecting operation of the FinFETs on the fin.
Various solutions to minimize or prevent current leakage have been proposed. For example, silicon-on-insulator configurations have been employed to hinder current leakage between fins. Dopant implantation has also been applied to hinder current leakage in configurations where the fins are formed in bulk semiconductor material. In particular, with dopant implantation to hinder current leakage, bulk semiconductor material between fins and at a bottom of the fins, where the fins attach to the bulk substrate, is doped with a dopant that hinders flow of current therethrough. However, dopant implantation to hinder current leakage is difficult to accurately control and may adversely impact desired operation of the FinFETs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide integrated circuits that have FinFETs and methods of fabricating the integrated circuits that have FinFETs that resist sub-fin current leakage without adversely impacting desired operation of the FinFETs in the integrated circuits. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.


1. Field of the Invention
This specification relates to a terminal and a wire with terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Utility Model Application No. H07-36364 discloses a terminal connected to a wire. The terminal includes a barrel to be crimped to the wire, and the barrel is formed with through holes. The terminal is crimped to the wire by fastening the barrel so that a folded part of a conductor is pressed into contact with a bottom part of the terminal by an insulation coating.
In the above configuration, if a cross-sectional area of the conductor becomes smaller, a force for holding the conductor is reduced and a force exerted to the insulation coating gradually increases when the wire is pulled. Then, edge parts of the through holes of the barrel easily bite into the insulation coating to tear the insulation coating. Although the barrel is crimped to the insulation coating in this way, the crimping of the insulation coating does not contribute to an improvement in the impact resistance of the wire at all and the insulation coating could not compensate for a reduction of the conductor holding force.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoconductor comprising an electroconductive support and a photoconductive layer formed thereon, containing lignin.
2. Discussion of Background
Conventionally, inorganic materials such as selenium, cadmium sulfide and zinc oxide are used as photoconductive materials for electrophotographic photoconductors for use in electrophotography. Electrophotography is one of the image formation processes, through which the surface of a photoconductor is charged uniformly in the dark to a predetermined polarity, for instance, by corona charge. The uniformly charged photoconductor is exposed to a light image to selectively dissipate the electric charges of the exposed areas, so that a latent electrostatic image is formed on the photoconductor. The thus formed latent electrostatic image is developed into a visible image with a developer comprising a coloring agent such as a dye or a pigment, and a binder agent such as a polymeric material.
Fundamental characteristics required for the photoconductor for use in such electrophotography are: (1) chargeability to an appropriate potential in the dark, (2) minimum dissipation of electric charges in the dark, and (3) rapid dissipation of electric charges when exposed to light.
However, while the above-mentioned inorganic materials have many advantages over other materials, they have several shortcomings from the viewpoint of practical use.
For instance, a selenium photoconductor, which is widely used at present, satisfies the above-mentioned requirements (1) to (3) completely, but it has the shortcomings that its manufacturing conditions are difficult and, accordingly, its production cost is high. In addition, it is difficult to work it into the form of a belt due to its poor flexibility. Furthermore, the selenium photoconductor is so vulnerable to heat and mechanical shocks that it must be handled with the utmost care.
A cadmium sulfide photoconductor and a zinc oxide photoconductor can be respectively produced by dispersing cadmium sulfide particles and zinc oxide particles in a binder resin. However, they are poor in mechanical properties such as surface smoothness, hardness, tensile strength and wear resistance. Therefore, they cannot be used repeatedly, as they are.
To solve the problems of such inorganic materials, various electrophotographic photoconductors employing organic materials are recently proposed. For example, there are known a photoconductor comprising poly-N-vinylcarbazole and 2,4,7-trinitrofluorenone-9-on as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,237; a photoconductor prepared by sensitizing poly-N-vinylcarbazole with a pyrylium-salt-based pigment as described in Japanese Patent Publication 48-25658; a photoconductor comprising as a main component an organic pigment as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 47-37543; a photoconductor comprising as a main component a eutectic crystal complex composed of a dye and a resin as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 47-10735; a photoconductor prepared by sensitizing a triphenylamine compound with a sensitizer pigment as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,730; a photoconductor comprising an amine derivative as a charge transporting material as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 57-195254; a photoconductor comprising poly-N-vinylcarbazole and an amine derivative as charge transporting materials as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 58-1155; and a photoconductor comprising as a photoconductive material a polyfunctional tertiary amine compound, in particular, a benzidine compound, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,496, Japanese Patent Publication 39-11546 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 53-27033.
These organic electrophotographic photoconductors are still unsatisfactory for use in practice, especially with respect to the durability thereof. As the demand for a photoconductor with higher durability is increasing year by year, ensuring the charging stability in the photoconductor has become a requirement that cannot be ignored. When a photoconductor with a decreased charging stability is employed, in the case of an electrophotographic copying machine, the lowering of image density is caused; and in the case of a laser printer employing the reversal development method, image quality is lowered, for instance, with the occurrence of toner deposition on the background of printed images. In order to solve these problems, it is proposed to provide an intermediate layer between an electroconductive support and a photoconductive layer. However, in the case where a material with high resistivity, having high barrier properties, is employed for the intermediate layer, the photosensitivity of the photoconductor decreases and the residual potential thereof increases although the charging characteristics are improved. When a material with relatively low resistivity is employed for the intermediate layer to prevent the increase of the residual potential, the charging stability of the photoconductor is still insufficient.
When a photoconductor is incorporated into a copying machine in practice, the photoconductor is exposed to ozone generated from a corona charger. By the ozone thus generated, organic materials such as a charge transporting material contained in a photoconductive layer of the photoconductor are oxidized, so that there are caused the problems that the photosensitivity is decreased, the residual potential is increased, and the charging potential is decreased.
To solve such problems, the addition of an antioxidant to the photoconductive layer is proposed as in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 57-122444, 50-33857, 63-18355, 63-18356 and 3-172852; and the provision of a gas-barrier resin layer on the charge transport layer is also proposed as in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-135955.
The above-mentioned countermeasures, however, have not yet solved the problems of the conventional photoconductors, such as the increase of the residual potential, the lowering of the photosensitivity, and the insufficient improvement of the durability thereof.