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This invention relates to a multi-piece golf ball comprising an elastic solid core and a resin cover of at least two different hardness layers and exhibiting uniform flight performance. Known golf balls are generally classified into wound golf balls in which a center is wound with rubber thread and further enclosed with a balata or resin cover, and solid golf balls which, in turn, include one-piece golf balls in the form of a single elastic sphere made entirely of rubber or the like, and multi-piece golf balls in which an elastic core is enclosed with a resin cover consisting of plural layers having different physical properties. These golf balls are provided on the surface with a plurality of dimples for imparting desirable flight characteristics. The arrangement of dimples on the ball surface is generally determined independent of the ball construction. In the traditional technology employed in the art for arranging dimples uniformly on the entire ball surface and in a high density, the ball""s spherical surface is assumed to be a polyhedral body such as an octahedral, dodecahedral or icosahedral body presenting a corresponding number of polygons, circular-in-plane dimples of two to four types which typically differ in diameter are arranged in each of the polygons, and this grouping of dimples as a unit is distributed over the entire ball surface. This technology, however, suffers from several problems. In the octahedral or icosahedral arrangement, for example, dimples are arranged in a unit triangle. Due to the technical or economical limitations associated with the manufacture of ball molds, the arrangement of dimples on the sides of a triangle must be avoided. As a result, dimples are arranged only inside the triangle. Sometimes the arrangement density of dimples lacks uniformity between a portion adjacent the side and a central portion of the triangle. Alternatively, the arrangement of dimples at the parting plane of the mold must be avoided. When dimples are distributed over the entire spherical surface using such unit triangles, the resulting arrangement of dimples apparently looks uniform. However, a precise observation revealed that the planar and steric densities of dimple arrangement had fairly large variations. When the golfer hits a ball with a club, any position on the ball spherical surface has a substantially equal chance of impact. Due to the lack of uniformity of dimple arrangement, there is a possibility that a portion of the ball surface where dimples are distributed in a relatively high or low density be hit with the club or contacted with the club face. As far as the inventor""s precise examination is concerned, the influence of dimples on the club face upon impact (revealing itself as a deviation of the ball in flight) contains a component in the lateral or vertical direction, which is not negligible. Additionally, the dimples also affect the feel and initial velocity of the ball. In golf balls having a cover of two or more layers wherein the surface hardness of the cover outermost layer is lower than the surface hardness of a cover inner layer next to the cover outermost layer, there is a tendency that dimples affect the launch angle, initial velocity and spin of the ball. Among others, a deviation of the launch angle in the lateral direction is likely to affect the ball flight to induce variations. When golf balls bear many dimples having an acute edge angle, such dimples have a more influence. An object of the invention is to solve the above-discussed problems and to provide a multi-piece solid golf all having uniform flight performance. The present invention provides a golf ball comprising an elastic core and a resin cover bearing a plurality of dimples and including a cover outer layer having a surface Shore D hardness of at least 50 and a cover inner layer disposed inside the cover outer layer and having a higher surface Shore D hardness than the cover outer layer. The cover defines a ball circumference and an extension thereof, and a phantom ball is given on the assumption that the ball is free of dimples. Provided that a phantom circumference is radially inwardly spaced 0.08 mm from the ball circumference, and as viewed in a radial cross section of a dimple, a tangent A is drawn to the dimple wall at an intersection of the dimple wall surface with the phantom circumference, the edge of the dimple is given by the intersection between the tangent A and the ball circumference or the extension thereof, and a tangent B is drawn to the ball circumference or the extension thereof at the dimple edge, those dimples in which the angle of inclination of the tangent A relative to the tangent B is at least 13xc2x0 account for at least 50% of the entire dimples. Provided that SR is the ratio of the total area of dimples to the entire surface area of the phantom ball, a dimple-free circle having a diameter of 20 mm is drawn on an arbitrary portion of the ball surface, and sr is the ratio of the total area of those dimples residing in the circle to the area of the circle, a ratio sr/SR has a variation in the range of 0.93 to 1.07 depending on the difference of position on the ball surface. Provided that each dimple defines a cavity between the dimple wall surface and the extension of the ball circumference extending over the portion circumscribed by the dimple edge, CV is the ratio of the total cavity volume of the dimples over the entire ball to the volume of the phantom ball, and cv is the ratio of the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in the 20-mm diameter circle to the volume of a dimple-free cone diverging radially outward from the ball center to the 20-mm diameter circle, a ratio cv/CV has a variation in the range of 0.95 to 1.05 depending on the difference of position on the ball surface. Preferably, when the 20-mm diameter circle drawn on an arbitrary portion of the ball surface is bisected into two semicircles, the difference between the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in one semicircle and the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in the other semicircle is up to 0.88 mm3. Typically, the cover outer layer has a thickness of 0.8 to 2.0 mm, and the cover inner layer has a thickness of 1.0 to 2.0 mm. Most often, the cover outer layer is formed mainly of a thermoplastic or thermosetting polyurethane elastomer, and the cover inner layer is formed mainly of an ionomer resin. In a preferred embodiment, the cover outer layer has a surface Shore D hardness of at least 52 and the cover inner layer has a surface Shore D hardness of at least 62 and higher than the cover outer layer. The cover defines a ball circumference or an extension thereof, and a phantom ball is given on the assumption that the ball is free of dimples. Provided that a phantom circumference is radially inwardly spaced 0.08 mm from the ball circumference, and as viewed in a radial cross section of a dimple, a tangent A is drawn to the dimple wall at an intersection of the dimple wall surface with the phantom circumference, the edge of the dimple is given by the intersection between the tangent A and the ball circumference or the extension thereof, and a tangent B is drawn to the ball circumference or the extension thereof at the dimple edge, those dimples in which the angle of inclination of the tangent A relative to the tangent B is at least 13xc2x0 account for at least 50% of the entire dimples. Provided that SR is the ratio of the total area of dimples to the entire surface area of the phantom ball, a dimple-free circle having a diameter of 18 mm is drawn on an arbitrary portion of the ball surface, and srxe2x80x2 is the ratio of the total area of those dimples residing in the circle to the area of the circle, a ratio srxe2x80x2/SR has a variation in the range of 0.93 to 1.07 depending on the difference of position on the ball surface. Provided that each dimple defines a cavity between the dimple wall surface and the extension of the ball circumference extending over the portion circumscribed by the dimple edge, CV is the ratio of the total cavity volume of the dimples over the entire ball to the volume of the phantom ball, and cvxe2x80x2 is the ratio of the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in the 18-mm diameter circle to the volume of a dimple-free cone diverging radially outward from the ball center to the 18-mm diameter circle, a ratio cvxe2x80x2/CV has a variation in the range of 0.95 to 1.05 depending on the difference of position on the ball surface. In a further preferred embodiment, when the 18-mm diameter circle drawn on an arbitrary portion of the ball surface is bisected into two semicircles, the difference between the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in one semicircle and the total cavity volume of those dimples residing in the other semicircle is up to 0.88 mm3.

The present invention relates to wireless cellular and Personal Communications Services ("PCS") telephones, fixed telephones, and pagers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rigid outer cover designed to fit over existing wireless or fixed telephones, pagers, or other personal communication devices. Wireless cellular and PCS telephones, fixed telephones, pagers, and other personal communication devices are typically available in one color. Although there are various color telephones and pagers available, the predominant color of telephones and pagers is black. The user must choose a specific color phone or pager and remain with that color phone or pager until a new unit is purchased. At the current price for such devices, this is expensive and impractical. No practical alternatives are available to change the color of the phone or pager. Protective covers are available for such telephones and pagers. These covers are typically soft, manufactured from leather or other similar material, and include cutout portions corresponding to control buttons and other external features of the phone or pager. Due to the supple characteristic of leather and other similar materials, these covers do not maintain their shape well, causing the covers to slip, cover the external features and controls, and disrupt connection to external equipment. Soft leather covers are also difficult to clean and slippery to hold.

Brachytherapy, also known as internal radiotherapy, sealed source radiotherapy, curietherapy or endocurietherapy, is a form of radiotherapy where a radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment either permanently or temporarily. The two most common forms of brachytherapy are Low-Dose-Radiation (hereafter referred to as “LDR”) and High-Dose-Radiation (hereafter referred to as “HDR”). Prior systems, in the HDR treatment, the radioactive source is located in an afterloader machine. The afterloader machine contains a single highly radioactive pellet at the end of a wire. The pellet is pushed into each of the catheters one by one under a computer control. The computer system is operated by medical personnel who control the afterloader machine to determine the amount of time the pellet stays in each catheter and also determines the location of the pellet as predetermined by a radiation plan and radiation prescription. With a few well-placed catheters in or near the target, HDR brachytherapy can provide a very precise and effective treatment that takes only a few minutes. In contrast to LDR brachytherapy where treatment may take up 2 to 3 days or external beam radiation which can take up to 6 weeks, the HDR treatment is delivered over a period of minutes, either for a single treatment, or a plurality of treatments as prescribed by the radiation oncologist. This type of treatment has many benefits, since the afterloader controls the radiation source, and radiation exposure to the patient, doctors, and hospital staff is reduced. After the HDR treatment, the pellet retracts into the afterloader. The patient is not exposed to radiation. However, a disconcertingly larger number of misadministration of radiation with HDR machines have been documented. Specifically, if a pellet is programmed to dwell at a position not indicated by the prescription, the patient will receive a large dose of radiation to healthy tissue and not receive any therapeutic radiation to the targeted region, and likely injuring the patient. Therefore, there is a need to have a device that can report a problem with the programming of the HDR machine. Additionally, federal and state law dictate that HDR machines must be tested every day prior to treatment, and every month. Currently, the tests are done through the use of either radiochromic film or radiographic film. Radiographic film requires the radioactive pellet to be programmed to dwell at a specific position on the film. The film is then developed, and the positional accuracy ascertained subsequently. With radiochromic film, the procedure is identical except that the film does not require development. Both quality assurance procedures incur significant costs as radiochromic film is expensive, and a film development room is expensive to maintain. Additionally, this quality assurance routine is contraindicative of the federal mandate to transition to a paperless hospital environment. Hence, there is a need in the art for a digital, cost-effective solution to the quality assurance of the HDR unit. The afterloader machine has many different parts. Currently, the afterloader machine has a computer control, a vault, a driving system that is connected to the computer control, a plurality of connection ports that is attached to transfer tubes, and cable wires or solid metal wires. The afterloader machine has a long cable wire or solid metal wire attached to a radioactive source located inside the vault. The computer system will initiate the drive system, which is a very large motor that pushes the metal wire outside of the connection port and then into a transfer tube and eventually to a catheter inserted in a patient for irradiation. The vault is located at the base, and is the starting point from where the driving system pushes out the cable wire or solid metal wire outside the connection ports. The vault is a shielded container designed to protect individuals from radiation of the pellet while no treatment is being delivered. The computer system can push a single or multiple wires concurrently into the catheter therefore irradiating a volume. The afterloader can place a radioactive pellet within less than one millimeter accuracy, but its accuracy must be confirmed prior to patient treatments, every month, and every time maintenance operations are performed on the unit as per federal and state regulations. Since the pellet's radioactivity will decay, source changes occur every two to six months. After every source change, a large number of tests must be performed to ascertain the accuracy of the device has not been compromised. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate a system that can test the pellets that have being changed in the afterloader. Current methods in ascertaining the spatial accuracy of the radioactive pellet implement the use of radiographic or radiochromic film. In either case, the film is placed on a ruler-based jig and the radioactive pellet is sent into the jig for a predetermined time. The radiation darkens the film, which is then analyzed that the darkening is in the correct place. Both films suffer from costs (radiochromic film is expensive while radiographic film requires a film development dark room with regular maintenance). Additionally, whereas the procedure allows for a qualitative pass-fail assessment, a quantitative measurement of the accuracy of the pellet placement cannot be readily ascertained. Government regulations such as 10 CFR Part 35, Medical Use of a Byproduct Material require facilities to test the temporal and positional accuracy of the pellet prior to patient treatments. With using radiocromic or radiographic film for testing, significant costs are incurred due to the time and equipment necessary to satisfy the mandate. Therefore, there is a need to one of ordinary skill in the art to have a testing machine that can quickly test HDR afterloader precision while reducing the cost of regulated government testing. Also to maintain government licenses, each facility is required to produce documentation for required testing. Film inherently decomposes over time, and hence the testing record can be compromised. Additionally, film and film development equipment is expensive to obtain and to maintain, additionally, by having film as the testing device, a digital record of the testing is highly inconvenient due the necessitation of scanning the films. All these factors result in additional expenditures to maintain records and perform the necessary tests, and indirectly affect the patients' treatment costs. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate a need for a digital system that conveniently stores, records and performs all the necessary testing prior to patient delivery.

This invention relates to chemical fire retardant systems and, more particularly, to a silicone base intumescent fire retardant system having a temperature capability to at least about 450.degree. F (230.degree. C). In the storage or use of flammable liquids, the problem of preventing, containing and extinguishing a fire must be considered. In such apparatus as relatively high temperature operating gas turbine engines, the problems are further complicated by the fact that the system must be able to withstand temperatures up to at least about 450.degree. F (230.degree. C) without decomposing or becoming ineffective. This limits the effectiveness of certain chemical reactions and organic compounds, useful at lower temperatures. For such applications in aircraft, the bulky, heavy, relatively inefficient passive systems are impractical. In addition, the active systems such as those involving chemical reactions are deficient for one or more of the reasons of weight, thermal stability, environmental resistance, adhesion, abrasion and flame erosion.

The invention relates generally to magnetic recording devices and specifically to a system and a method for using a magnetoresistive head within an integrated magnetic memory device. The magnetoresistive sensors in use today are capable of spatial resolution only in the order of magnitude of their size. A typical sensor may be comprised of a single sensing element, or may comprise a large number of discrete sensing elements which are individually controlled and accessed by the system. The need to access the sensor elements individually poses limitations on the areal density in MRAM devices. In magnetoresistive (MR) heads, the trackwidth is ultimately determined by the length of the sensor element, which, for several reasons, cannot be reduced sufficiently to take full advantage of the modern magnetic storage media. Conventional magnetic memory recording techniques, devices, and sensors are discussed in the following references, hereby incorporated by reference: 1. H. Neal Bertram, Theory of Magnetic Recording, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 2. Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol.2, Moscow: Mir, 1966 3. M. I. Kaganov, V. M. Tsukernik, Priroda Magnetizma, Moscow: Nauka, 1982 4. John C. Mallinson, The Foundations of Magnetic Recording, San Diego: Academic Press, 1987 5. C. Denis Mee, Eric D. Daniel, Magnetic Recording Technology, McGraw-Hill, 1996 6. M. Prutton, Thin Ferromagnetic Films, Washington, Butterworths, 1964 7. Karlheinz Seeger, Semiconductor Physics, An Introduction, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1985 8. Ronald F. Soohoo, Magnetic Thin Films, New York: Harper and Row, 1965 9. R. S. Tebble, Magnetic Domains, London: Methuen, 1969 10. S. Tehrani, J. M. Slaughter, E. Chen, M. Durham, J. Chi, and M. DeHerrera, xe2x80x9cProgress and Outlook for MRAM Technologyxe2x80x9d, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 35, No. 5, p. 2814 (1999) 11. Hans Boeve, Christophe Bruynseraede, Jo Das, Kristof Dessein, Gustaaf Borghs, Jo De Boeck, xe2x80x9cTechnology assessment for the implementation of magnetoresistive elements with semiconductor components in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) architecturesxe2x80x9d, IEEE Trans. Magn. 35 (5), 2820 (1999) 12. J. L. Brown, A. V. Pohm, xe2x80x9c1-Mb Memory Chip Using Giant Magnetoresistive Memory Cellsxe2x80x9d, IEEE Trans. Comp., Pack. and Man. Techn.xe2x80x94Part A, 17 (3), 373 (1994) 13. E. Atarashi and K. Shiiki, xe2x80x9cRecording process and feasibility of transverse magnetic recordingxe2x80x9d, J. Appl. Phys. 86 (10), 5780 (1999) 14. Sees Dekker, xe2x80x9cCarbon Nanotubes as Molecular Quantum Wiresxe2x80x9d, Physics Today, May 1999, p. 27 The invention addresses these goals. In one embodiment the invention includes a novel method of enhancing or suppressing the sensitivity of a part of magnetoresistive film area in a sensor by applying an external control field (to follow convention, we will use the term bias for a uniform external field, which is not applicable in this case). The response of the saturated part is significantly suppressed. Then, for example, expanding the saturated zone while monitoring the sensor response will allow us to scan the magnetization of the storage medium. The medium may be scanned with a single spot of saturation in the MR sensor film plane or, conversely, most of the film may be saturated, leaving one spot unaffected. In this manner no moving parts are necessary to perform the scan of the storage medium. In another embodiment, the invention comprises a data storage device comprising: a magnetic storage medium; a magnetoresistive element; and, means, operatively coupled to said magnetoresistive element, for selectively controlling the sensitivity of a selected region of said magnetoresistive element to the magnetic field presented by the magnetic storage medium. In a further embodiment, the invention comprises a data storage device comprising: a magnetic storage medium; a magnetoresistive element, the location of said magnetoresistive element being fixed relative to said magnetic storage medium; and, means, operatively coupled to said magnetoresistive element, for selectively controlling the sensitivity of a selected region of said magnetoresistive element to the magnetic field presented by a corresponding region of the magnetic storage medium wherein said corresponding region of the magnetic storage medium comprises a plurality of data storage locations. In a further embodiment, the invention comprises a method for reading information stored on a magnetic storage medium with a magnetoresistive element, comprising the steps of: (a) altering the sensitivity of a selected region within the magnetoresistive element to an incident magnetic field; and, (b) reading information stored on the magnetic storage medium by sensing the effect of the incident magnetic field on the selected region of the magnetoresistive element.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to masking members for forming fine electrodes and manufacturing methods therefor, methods for forming electrodes, and field effect transistors, and more particularly, relates to a technique capable of forming finer electrodes usable, for example, as gate electrodes of field effect transistors. The present invention is advantageously applied to the fields of field effect transistors having hetero structures, which are operated in microwave or milliwave bands, and integrated circuit devices formed by integration thereof with other components. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, concomitant with the advancement of information technology (IT), higher capacity and higher speed communication systems have been increasingly requested, and improvements in transmission speed of communications have been further desired. In addition, in radio communications, radar and fixed communication systems used in milliwave bands have been increasingly demanded. Under these industrial circumstances, for example, a compound semiconductor field effect transistor (FET) having a higher operation speed has been desired in recent years. In general, in order to improve the operation speed of an FET, in addition to increasing the electron speed in an active layer material, it can be highly effective to decrease the gate length of an FET. In the past, gate lengths of approximately 500 nm and approximately 200 to 100 nm have frequently been used in a microwave band (up to several GHz) and a quasi-milliwave band (up to 30 GHz). However, in recent years, because of advancements in exposure methods and in fine processing techniques for resist material, by using an electron beam exposure method, for example, a gate length of 100 nm or less (a sub-hundred nanometer range of approximately 20 to 50 nm) has been realized. Actually, an FET using an extremely short gate has been experimentally formed, and high-speed properties and high-gain properties thereof have been confirmed in a milliwave band. A gate electrode having the sub-hundred nanometer range described above is generally formed by a lithographic technique using an electron beam exposure method as described above, and in order to obtain a fine opening width using an opening pattern capable of forming a shape in conformity with a gate electrode to be formed, a resist material having a high electron beam sensitivity is used, and in order to form a gate electrode having a cross-sectional T-shape, a multilayer resist structure is used. The gate electrode is generally formed by deposition/lift-off, sputtering, or the like. In the electron beam exposure method described above, since electron beams serve as the exposure source, and since the diameter of a convergent spot can be decreased by this method, it has been believed that the electron beam exposure method is most suitable for forming an extremely fine opening pattern having a length in the sub-hundred nanometer range. However, according to this electron beam exposure method, since electron beams are converged and are then radiated, direct drawing must be performed at a position at which an opening portion is desired to be formed. That is, several thousand to several tens of thousands of areas at which gate electrodes of FETs are to be formed are present on one wafer, and all the areas mentioned above must be sequentially irradiated with electron beams to draw the patterns. In addition, if two or more gate electrodes are to be formed in one FET, it is easily estimated that an extremely long period of time is necessary to complete the exposure on one wafer. On the other hand, according to a light exposure method, since exposure can be simultaneously performed in more than one chip area formed on a wafer, in contrast to the electron beam exposure method, exposure can be performed in an extremely short period of time. However, in the light exposure method, since a light source having a wavelength of several hundred nanometers is used as an exposure source, the dimensions of an opening pattern to be formed are liable to be influenced by this wavelength, and hence it has been believed that the formation of a very fine pattern cannot be advantageously performed by a light exposure method. Under the circumstances described above, attempts have been made to use a light exposure method for forming very fine patterns. According to a light exposure method using a conventional type of photomask (reticle), the limitation of fine pattern formation is approximately 300 nm; however, when an excimer laser (ArF or KrF) which is a short wavelength light source, a phase shift mask, a dummy gate process, or the like is used, the formation of a fine opening pattern having a length in the 100 to 200 nm range can be achieved even when a light exposure method is used. In addition, according to patent publication 1, a method for decreasing an opening width of an opening pattern has been disclosed. The method comprises the steps of forming an opening pattern in a photoresist film formed on a semiconductor substrate by a photolithographic technique, and then performing heat treatment of the photoresist film at a temperature higher than a conventional post-baking temperature so that sidewall portions of the opening pattern formed in the photoresist film are distorted by being heated sufficiently to flow. Furthermore, according to patent publication 2, a method has been disclosed in which a wall angle of a patterned resist film is controlled to be inclined by performing heat treatment of the patterned resist film. The purpose of this method is that when a gate electrode is formed by deposition, the opening formed in the resist film is not blocked by a gate metal material. Patent publications 1 and 2 described above are Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 6-104285 and 6-53251, respectively. However, in the light exposure method, even when the technique described above capable of forming a finer pattern is used, opening dimensions having the sub-hundred nanometer range have still not been obtained as is the case in the past. In particular, according to the technique disclosed in patent publication 1, since the side wall portions of the opening pattern are approximately uniformly distorted by heat, the thickness of an upstanding portion of the gate electrode is decreased, whereby disconnection of the gate electrode is liable to occur in the height direction, and in addition, the gate resistance may also be increased in some cases. In addition, according to the technique disclosed in patent publication 2, since the wall angle of the resist film is controlled to be inclined, the opening width of the opening pattern formed in the resist film may be undesirably increased in some cases, and as a result, the object of forming finer electrodes cannot be obtained. Accordingly, the present invention was made to solve the problems described above, and is able to provide a masking member (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cfine electrode-forming masking memberxe2x80x9d) for forming fine electrodes and a manufacturing method therefor, a method for forming electrodes, and a field effect transistor. According to the present invention, although a light exposure method is used, a fine electrode-forming masking member having an opening width of 100 nm or less can be obtained, and when this fine electrode-forming masking member is used, a finer electrode, such as a gate electrode used for a field effect transistor or the like, can be formed without substantial increase in disconnection or resistance. First, the present invention is used for forming fine electrodes on a substrate and relates to a method for manufacturing a fine electrode-forming masking member having opening patterns in conformity with the shape of the fine electrodes. In order to solve the technical problems described above, the method of the present invention comprises a step of forming a first masking member having penetrating portions to be formed into the opening patterns on the substrate using a photosensitive resin; and a step of heat treating the first masking member so that parts of sidewalls, which are in contact with the substrate, of the penetrating portions formed in the first masking member, are extended along the substrate by the heat treatment to form extension portions. As a result, the widths of the penetrating portions at the bottom surface side are decreased so as to form the opening patterns. The step of forming the first masking member described above may comprise a step of forming dummy patterns in conformity with the shape of the penetrating portions on the substrate; a step of forming a second masking member on the substrate except for regions covered with the dummy patterns; and a step of removing the dummy patterns for forming the penetrating portions. The second masking member described above preferably comprises a negative type photosensitive resin, and the dummy pattern preferably comprises a positive type photosensitive resin. In addition, after the step of forming the second masking member, a step of performing heat treatment of the negative type photosensitive resin and the positive type photosensitive resin is preferably performed so that mixed layers each composed of both the negative type photosensitive resin and the positive type photosensitive resin are formed along the boundaries between the second masking member and the dummy patterns. In the method for manufacturing the fine electrode-forming masking member, according to the present invention, each of the penetrating portions formed in the forming step preferably has a width of 0.1 to 0.2 xcexcm between sidewalls opposing each other. In the heating step for decreasing the widths of the penetrating portions at the bottom surface side, each of the extension portions preferably has an extension width of 0.01 to 0.05 xcexcm along the substrate. In addition, each of the opening patterns obtained in the heating step preferably has a width of 0.1 xcexcm or less at the bottom surface side. The heating step for decreasing the widths of the penetrating portions at the bottom surface side is preferably performed at a temperature of 160 to 200xc2x0 C. The present invention may also be applied to the fine electrode-forming masking members manufactured by the methods described above. In this fine electrode-forming masking member, the opening patterns each have a small width at the bottom surface side as compared to that at the open end side. The present invention is also applied to a method for forming fine electrodes using the fine electrode-forming masking member described above. The method for forming the fine electrodes of the present invention comprises a first step of preparing one of the fine electrode-forming masking members described above; a second step of forming fine electrodes on regions of the substrate exposed through the opening patterns while the substrate is masked with the fine electrode-forming masking member; and a third step of removing the fine electrode-forming masking member. Before the second step is performed, a step of performing recess etching may be further performed on the regions of the substrate exposed through the opening patterns while the substrate is masked with the fine electrode-forming masking member. The method for forming the fine electrodes described above is preferably applied to the formation of gate electrodes for field effect transistors. In this case, the substrate may be a semiconductor substrate, and the fine electrode may be a gate electrode used in a field, effect transistor. Furthermore, the present invention is applied to a field effect transistor using the gate electrode formed by the method for forming the fine electrodes described above. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.

Battery clamps for securing electrical leads to the terminal posts of motor vehicle batteries generally have securing means comprising an "U" shaped body having a bolt passing through the legs and secured by a nut on the threaded end of the bolt. This system suffers from the disadvantage of requiring a spanner of the correct size to connect or disconnect the clamp and further, the bolt being of a corrosive material, tends to corrode, resulting in difficulty in removal and possible damage to the clamps or terminal post. Although other types of clamp have been used, e.g. a spring release clamp, these suffer from one or other of these disadvantages, resulting in delays when connecting or disconnecting batteries in service.

The present invention relates to a suction pipe for suction dredgers with mechanical feeder and cutter means adapted to handle the material dredged. Suction dredgers of this type are adopted in large numbers to condition the beds of lakes and stream courses. It is already known in the art to associate mechanical feeder and cutter means with the suction pipes for dredging purposes. It is likewise known in the art that these feeder means as such impose a load torque on the suction pipe which the pipe would pass on to the bottom of the dredge vessel so that suction pipe and vessel bottom must be of greater size than otherwise required. On the other hand there are deadcycle times involved in the process for sucking material from below the water surface for suction dredgers and other hydraulic conveyors whenever larger size rocks are caught in front of the suction pipe, and in general wherever rock and clay material is to be handled. It is a purpose therefore of hydraulic bottom rippers or dredgers and stone crushers to excavate rocks and clay formations directly in front of the suction pipe and at the same time crush larger size rocks so that they conveniently can be conveyed through the suction pipe. Equipment of this type is also known as cutters. The dredgers on the market at present are called cutter-head dredgers because their cutter equipment is adapted to rip the bottom by rotational movement in front of or adjacent the suction pipe. Their general drawback resides in that resultant load torques are transferred either upon the suction pipe proper or, by means of a lattice construction, upon the dredge vessel.

1. Technical Field Inventive embodiments of the invention disclosed generally relate to communication systems. More particularly, the invention relates to providing alert functionality in a mobile communications environment. 2. Description of the Related Art Communications networks and devices for transmitting voice data are well known. In the field of mobile telecommunications, end-user mobile devices (such as cellular telephones) are linked to one another via well known communications network infrastructures. Typically in such systems, a mobile device can receive oral speech as input, which is processed into voice data that is eventually transmitted to another mobile device. Cellular telephones, by way of a specific example of mobile devices, are provided with various functions to enhance user experience. One example of such functionality is the provision of a calendar, along with option to set alerts. As used here, the term “alert” is synonymous with the terms “alarm” and “reminder.” Some cellular phones (“cell phone” or “phone”) are configured to allow the setting of a reminder, which is frequently associated with some specified future time. When the specified time arrives, the device (in this example, the cell phone) provides an indication alerting of the event, which indication can be a ring, vibration, blinking light, etc. In the general field of data processing, it is well known to receive oral speech input and to process said input for a variety of purposes. A system that performs such functionality is sometimes referred to as a voice/speech recognition system (“SRS” or “speech recognition technology”). Typically, a SRS accepts oral speech input, processes the speech input into voice data to detect input voice data that matches pre-determined data of interest, and provides the output of the matching operation for further processing or desired actions to be taken by other systems. The use of SRS in cooperation with telecommunications systems (such as telephony) is well known. For example, it is known for a user to make a cell phone call and interact with a data processing system that uses a SRS. A very specific instance of this is when a user places a call to a banking institution. In such an instance, typically, the banking institution's data processing system is configured to use a SRS to guide the user experience or actions, either completely or only partially, in preparation for a human-to-human interaction. However, a very typical use of cell phones (that is, communication between one user and another user) does not involve use of a SRS.

The present invention relates to collapsible tubes for containing and dispensing pastes, creams, gels and the like and, more particularly, to resilient collapsible tubes which have a tendency to unroll after being rolled in connection with the dispensing of their contents. Tubes for containing and dispensing viscous materials, such as toothpaste, have a central dispensing spout and surrounding collar at one end of a resilient body. The other end of the tube body is closed and flat, defining a line. The contents of such tubes are commonly dispensed by squeezing the sides of the tube when a cap is removed from the spout. In order to prevent the contents of the tube from moving into previously emptied portions of the tube rather than toward the spout when the sides are squeezed, the closed end is rolled progressively toward the spout as the contents are dispensed. A problem with resilient collapsible tubes is that the closed end does not stay rolled, but instead unrolls due to the resiliency of the tube.

I. Field of the Present Invention The present invention relates generally to cleaning devices which hydraulically or mechanically abrade the surface of a ship's hull to remove any accumulated deposits therefrom and, more particularly, to a carriage for controlling the movement of such cleaning devices across the hull surface of a ship. II. Description of the Prior Art A well-known problem encountered by seagoing vessels is that foulant such as barnacles, marine plant growth and the like accumulate upon the ship's hull. Such foulant increases the drag as the ship moves through water and therefore increases fuel comsumption and reduces the top speed of the ship. Consequently, the hulls must be cleaned periodically to remove the foulant and thus avoid the high cost of inefficient operation of the vessel. In addition to the energy savings, hull cleaning maintains the productivity of each vessel, and as a result, initial fleet investment can be minimized. A known means for removing the foulant comprises scrapping or chiseling the foulant from the hull surface. However, manual scraping of the hull surface is extremely tedious and time comsuming. Moreover, manual scraping is best accomplished in dry dock and, therefore, prolongs the time during which the ship is not available for service. An improved means for scraping the hull comprises the use of powered rotating brushes which are mounted on a manually guided, wheeled platform. Although such scrubbing devices have been adapted for use below the waterline while the ship is achored, they are difficult to control. Consequently, they are typically transported and controlled by a vessel separate from the vessel to be cleaned. Another previously known manner for removing foulant comprises the use of a highly pressurized flow of fluid through a hose and against the foulant on the hull surface. The fluid can be water, or a combination of particulate matter and water, although it is typically highly pressurized air containing particulate matter which is discharged with great force against the foulant. The use of particulate matter as an abrasive medium is disadvantageous in that the particles can pit the surface of the hull and remove the paint from the surface. In addition, as the particles are deflected from the surface, they are released into the atmosphere and present undesirable safety and environmental consequences. Thus, another previously known means for removing foulant comprises the use of only pressurized water. The pressurized water is delivered through a hose having a nozzle at the end which increases the force of the fluid stream discharge. Moreover, due to the fact that foulant tightly adheres to the surface of the ship's hull, extremely high pressures must be generated in order to blast the foulant from the hull. Thus, although a single hose can be manipulated rather easily, and is typically held by a worker who directs the flow against the hull of the ship, it is only practical for each worker to control a single nozzle. Although the use of high pressure water is highly effective in removing barnacles from the hull of a ship, the flow from the single nozzle contacts only a very limited area of the hull's surface. Thus, the cleaning of large vessels remains extremely time-consuming. Although this downtime is extremely costing in terms of the service lost as well as storage costs, the necessity for removing the foulant dictates that the delay be tolerated. Of course, it would be advantageous to increase the area contacted by the pressurized fluid stream. However, the pressure required to remove the foulant causes a large force to be exerted against the hull of the ship which pushes the nozzle away from the hull. Resistance to this pushing force is provided by the worker who handles the nozzle. Because of the magnitude of the force which must be resisted by the worker, it has not been practical or possible for the worker to operate more than one nozzle in order to increase the cleaning swath and thereby decrease cleaning time. Moreover, the large forces created by nozzles presents a serious risk that two or more workers working together, each operating a single nozzle, can cause serious injury to co-workers. Consequently, it has not been practical to utilize more than a single nozzle at one location during the hull cleaning operation.

This invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for testing flexible containers. More specifically, this invention relates to apparatus and methods for testing the seal integrity of containers and especially, but not exclusively, is intended for use in testing containers comprising a container body having an aperture or opening which is sealed by a flexible lid or cover. In many industries, it is important to test the seal integrity of containers. For example, in the food industry, it is desirable to ensure that containers in which food products are packed are completely sealed to ensure that the contents are in good condition, free from molds, bacteria and other pathogenic organisms, so that they will be safe when used by consumers. The pharmaceutical industry similarly requires that containers for medications, especially solutions intended for injection or intravenous administration, be protected from contamination or serious danger to public health may result.

1. Technical Field The invention relates to novel statine derivatives and to their use for treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease and other similar diseases. 2. Background Information Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain primarily associated with aging. Clinical presentation of AD is characterized by loss of memory, cognition, reasoning, judgement, and orientation. As the disease progresses, motor, sensory, and linguistic abilities are also affected until there is global impairment of multiple cognitive functions. These cognitive losses occur gradually, but typically lead to severe impairment and eventual death in the range of four to twelve years. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by two major pathologic observations in the brain: neurofibrillary tangles and beta amyloid (or neuritic) plaques, comprised predominantly of an aggregate of a peptide fragment know as A beta. Individuals with AD exhibit characteristic beta-amyloid deposits in the brain (beta amyloid plaques) and in cerebral blood vessels (beta amyloid angiopathy) as well as neurofibrillary tangles. Neurofibrillary tangles occur not only in Alzheimer's disease but also in other dementia-inducing disorders. On autopsy, large numbers of these lesions are generally found in areas of the human brain important for memory and cognition. Smaller numbers of these lesions in a more restricted anatomical distribution are found in the brains of most aged humans who do not have clinical AD. Amyloidogenic plaques and vascular amyloid angiopathy also characterize the brains of individuals with Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome), Hereditary Cerebral Hemorrhage with Amyloidosis of the Dutch-Type (HCHWA-D), and other neurodegenerative disorders. Beta-amyloid is a defining feature of AD, now believed to be a causative precursor or factor in the development of disease. Deposition of A beta in areas of the brain responsible for cognitive activities is a major factor in the development of AD. Beta-amyloid plaques are predominantly composed of amyloid beta peptide (A beta, also sometimes designated betaA4). A beta peptide is derived by proteolysis of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and is comprised of 39–42 amino acids. Several proteases called secretases are involved in the processing of APP. Cleavage of APP at the N-terminus of the A beta peptide by beta-secretase and at the C-terminus by one or more gamma-secretases constitutes the beta-amyloidogenic pathway, i.e. the pathway by which A beta is formed. Cleavage of APP by alpha-secretase produces alpha-sAPP, a secreted form of APP that does not result in beta-amyloid plaque formation. This alternate pathway precludes the formation of A beta peptide. A description of the proteolytic processing fragments of APP is found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,441,870; 5,721,130; and 5,942,400. An aspartyl protease has been identified as the enzyme responsible for processing of APP at the beta-secretase cleavage site. The beta-secretase enzyme has been disclosed using varied nomenclature, including BACE, Asp2, am Memapsin2. See, for example, Sindha et. al., 1999, Nature 402: 537–554 and published PCT application WO00/17369. Several lines of evidence indicate that progressive cerebral deposition of beta-amyloid peptide (A beta) plays a seminal role in the pathogenesis of AD and can precede cognitive symptoms by years or decades. See, for example, Selkoe, 1991, Neuron 6: 487–498. Release of A beta from neuronal cells grown in culture and the presence of A beta in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of both normal individuals and AD patients has been demonstrated. See, for example, Seubert et al., 1992, Nature 359: 325–327. It has been proposed that A beta peptide accumulates as a result of APP processing by beta-secretase, thus inhibition of this enzyme's activity is desirable for the treatment of AD, see for example Vassar, R. 2002, Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 54, 1589–1602 In vivo processing of APP at the beta-secretase cleavage site is thought to be a rate-limiting step in A beta production, and is thus a therapeutic target for the treatment of AD. See for example, Sabbagh, M., et al., 1997, Alz. Dis. Rev. 3,1–19. BACE1 knockout mice fail to produce A beta, and present a normal phenotype. When crossed with transgenic mice that overexpress APP, the progeny show reduced amounts of A beta in brain extracts as compared with control animals (Luo et. al., 2001 Nature Neuroscience 4: 231–232). This evidence further supports the proposal that inhibition of beta-secretase activity and reduction of A beta in the brain provides a therapeutic method for the treatment of AD and other beta amyloid disorders. The International patent application WO00/47618 identifies the beta-secretase enzyme and methods of its use. This publication also discloses oligopeptide inhibitors that bind the enzyme's active site and are useful in affinity column purification of the enzyme. In addition, WO00/77030 discloses tetrapeptide inhibitors of beta-secretase activity that are based on a statine molecule. Various pharmaceutical agents have been proposed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease but without any real success. U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,281 discloses aminosteroids as being useful for treating Alzheimer's disease. U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,187 discloses bicyclic heterocyclic amines as being useful for treating Alzheimer's disease. EP 652 009 A1 discloses inhibitors of aspartyl protease which inhibit beta amyloid peptide production in cell culture and in vivo. The compounds which inhibit intracellular beta-amyloid peptide production are useful in treating Alzheimer's disease. WO00/69262 discloses a new beta-secretase and its use in assays to screen for potential drug candidates against Alzheimer's disease. WO01/00663 discloses memapsin 2 (human beta-secretase) as well as catalytically active recombinant enzyme. In addition, a method of identifying inhibitors of memapsin 2, as well as two inhibitors are disclosed. Both inhibitors that are disclosed are peptides. WO01/00665 discloses inhibitors of memapsin 2 that are useful in treating Alzheimer's disease. At present there are no effective treatments for halting, preventing, or reversing the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need for pharmaceutical agents with sufficient plasma and/or brain stability capable of slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease and/or preventing it in the first place. Compounds that are effective inhibitors of beta-secretase, that inhibit beta secretase-mediated cleavage of APP, that are effective inhibitors of A beta production, and/or are effective to reduce amyloid beta deposits or plaques, are needed for the treatment and prevention of disease characterized by amyloid beta deposits or plaques, such as AD.

1. Field of the Invention This invention generally relates to voice communications. More specifically, aspects of the invention relate to voice communications over a network. 2. Description of Background Information Voice communications systems enable at least two people who are not face-to-face to communicate as if they were. Latency, or delay, is an important consideration in the design and evaluation of such systems. Because voice communications systems seek to emulate face-to-face communication, latency between a voice signal originating at the first person and the signal as it arrives at the second person must be kept to a minimum. When latency is below 100 milliseconds (ms), for instance, most people do not notice a delay when conversing with another person. Between approximately 100 ms and 300 ms, however, most people perceive a slight hesitation in the other person""s response. Above 300 ms, most people are very aware of the delay, and effective communication is inhibited. When a voice communications system becomes loaded with multiple connections, latency values may increase. Voice communications are increasingly being realized over networks. For instance, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) involves sending voice information in digital form in xe2x80x9cpacketsxe2x80x9d using the Internet Protocol. A number of factors contribute to latency in VoIP networks, including delays inherent in the physical transmission media, compression and decompression delays, and routing and other such network delays. An attempt to measure latency due to compression and decompression in a VoIP network has been made in the art. DTMF tones are played and time-stamped by software at an originating channel, and the tones are time-stamped by software at a receiving channel following compression and decompression phases. The difference between the time stamps is designated as the latency. However, when designing and evaluating voice communications systems, engineers require more exacting latency measurements than those afforded by software methodologies. Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that accurately measures latency in voice communications systems.

This invention relates to an improvement in linear bearing assemblies and is particularly directed to a means of restraining rolling element cages and rolling elements to prevent their migration away from the center position. In linear bearing assemblies with roller elements (rollers or ball bearings), the rolling elements tend to migrate. Migration is caused primarily by imperfections in the components, misalignment, and/or variations in the load on the rolling elements and cage. This may not be a problem in leadscrew or other high force drive systems as stops at the ends of the bearings will relocate the rolling elements and their cage. When it is not permissable to hit stops at the end of travel or, if the drive forces are not strong enough, to keep the rolling elements and cages in place, rack and pinions, pulleys and filaments have been used. These mechanisms are bulky and have rubbing surfaces requiring additional forces to be applied. When the available driving force is limited, however, another means is necessary to keep the rolling elements from migrating very far or not at all and this invention is directed toward this end. This is particularly important where movement of the apparatus is controlled to submicron distances, step-by-step, as in an X-Y table in an inspection microscope or a particle beam machine for making semiconductor wafers and masks. It is therefore an object of this invention to improve linear bearing assemblies by providing a means for reducing or preventing migration of the rolling elements. Another object of this invention is to provide a means in a linear bearing assembly which reduces or prevents migration of the rolling elements without providing bulk and without rubbing surfaces which require additional forces to be applied to overcome the friction of the rubbing surfaces. Another object of this invention is to improve an X-Y table for a particle beam machine for precise positioning of the top surface of the table which is critical to the proper operation of the particle beam machine.

The present invention relates to a carrying apparatus for conveying a paper sheet and an image forming apparatus which are comprised, for example, in an electrophotographic copying machine. In many electrophotographic copying machines, images can be formed on both surfaces of a paper sheet. To form images on both surfaces in this kind of copying machine, a paper sheet is supplied from a paper sheet feed cassette to an image forming section through a paper sheet carrying route (hereinafter simply called an ADU), and an image is formed on one surface. The paper sheet on which an image has been formed is then stacked and contained in an intermediate tray. Subsequently, the paper sheet stacked and contained in the intermediate tray is fed again to the image forming section, and an image is then formed on its back surface. Thus, images are formed on both surfaces of a paper sheet which is then fed out onto a sheet discharge tray. Meanwhile, electrostatic charges have been applied to paper sheets stacked on the intermediate tray, for example, through a transfer process at the image forming section. Therefore, paper sheets easily tend to be fed stuck together when they are fed again from the intermediate tray. In addition, since a paper sheet having a surface on which an image has been formed must once be stacked and contained in the intermediate tray, an image cannot be formed sequentially on its back surface. Time loss is therefore caused so that the image forming efficiency is lowered. To solve the above-described problems that layered paper sheets are fed and the image forming efficiency is lowered, a development has been made in an electrophotographic copying machine which adopts so-called non-stack ADU. That is, this kind of electrophotographic copying machine carries out continuous image formation on surfaces of a plurality of sheets, excluding the intermediate tray from the ADU. Then, these paper sheets are directly sent to the image forming section, reversed by reverse carrying means, and an image is formed on the back surface of the paper sheet. In some cases, the non-stack ADU is used with an accounting device such as a coin controller attached thereto. If data of total 4 pages are double-side-printed on two paper sheets in an electrophotographic copying machine attached with the accounting device, for example, there may be a case that inserted money runs short at the time point when printing on pages 1, 2, and 4 pages. In this case, the paper sheet on which the third page should be printed should be discharged without carrying out printing or should be kept in the ADU in the apparatus. However, the non-stack ADU includes a curved corner part. If a paper sheet is kept at this corner part, the paper sheet is curled into the shape of the corner part. The appearance of the paper sheet is deteriorated and a transfer failure may occur. In addition, paper sheets cannot be discharged, with their order arranged properly, and there may be a drawback that paper sheets jam while conveying them. The present invention has been made in view of the actual situation as described above, and has an object of providing a carrying apparatus and an image forming apparatus which are capable of carrying an object to be carried (to which an image should be transferred) in excellent condition, without curling the object, even if the object is temporarily stopped and held. A carrying apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a carrying device for carrying an object to be carried, along a carrying route having a corner part; a control device for temporarily stopping and holding the object carried by the carrying device; and a detection device for detecting the object positioned at a corner part of the carrying route, wherein if the detection device detects the object when the control device stops carrying the object, the control device controls the carrying device such that the carrying device carries the object until the detection device does not detect the object any more and the carrying device then stops carrying the object. An image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an image forming device for forming an image on an image carrier; a transfer device for transferring the image formed by the image forming device, to an object to which the image should be transferred; a reverse carrying device for carrying the object having a surface to which the image has been transferred, along a reverse carrying route having a corner part, thereby to reverse and feed the object again to the transfer device; a control device for temporarily stopping and holding the object carried by the reverse carrying device, if necessary; and a detection device for detecting the object positioned at the corner part of the reverse carrying route, wherein if the detection device detects the object when the control device stops carrying the object, the control device controls the carrying device such that the carrying device carries the object until the detection device does not detect the object any more and the carrying device then stops carrying the object. Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

1. Field of the Invention The invention concerns a frequency shifter for a medium infrared range wave, i.e. one with a wavelength of more than three microns. A device of this type has many applications in systems for data transmission by frequency modulation, systems for coherent detection by hetrodyning etc. Standard shifters are either of the acousto-optical type, using an interaction between an optical wave and a diffraction grating in motion in the propagation medium of the wave, or of the type with rotating birefringent plates, the rotation being mechanical or electro-optical. 2. Description of the Prior Art The most commonly used devices in the medium infrared range are of the acousto-optical type. A device of this type has a crystal which is mechanically coupled with an acoustic transducer. The vibrations produced by the transducer are propagated in the crystal, creating local variations in its refractive index. The propagation of these local variations constitutes a diffraction grating which shifts at a constant speed. The wave which has to have its frequency shifted is projected to the surface of the crystal where it is diffracted in undergoing a frequency shift by Doppler effect. A drawback of this type of shifter is that the diffracted wave has an angle of emergence which is a function of the value of the frequency shift. However, to cope with this drawback, it is possible to use prior art shifters, associating them, for example, in pairs. The shifted wave is then no longer deflected but this does not eliminate a shift by the beam parallel to itself. This fact raises a great many problems in systems since this shift depends on the frequency variation undergone by the beam. Furthermore, the association of these shifters increases the complexity of systems. The aim of the invention is to propose a frequency shifter, operating in the medium infrared range, which does not have these drawbacks and can be easily integrated into an optical device integrated in a semiconductor substrate.

Documents are often defined as nothing more than a collection of primitive elements that are drawn on a page at defined locations. For example, a PDF (portable document format) file might have no definition of structure and instead is nothing more than instructions to draw glyphs, shapes, and bitmaps at various locations. A user can view such a document on a standard monitor and deduce the structure. However, because such a file is only a collection of primitive elements, a document viewing application has no knowledge of the intended structure of the document. For example, a table is displayed as a series of lines and/or rectangles with text between the lines, which the human viewer recognizes as a table. However, the application displaying the document has no indication that the text groupings have relationships to each other based on the rows and columns because the document does not include such information. Similarly, the application has no indication of the flow of text through a page (e.g., the flow from one column to the next, or the flow around an embedded image), or various other important qualities that can be determined instantly by a human user. This lack of knowledge about document structure will not always be a problem when a user is simply viewing the document on a standard monitor. However, it would often be of value to a reader to be able to access the file and edit it as though it were a document produced by a word processor, image-editing application, etc., that has structure and relationships between elements. Therefore, there is a need for methods that can reconstruct an unstructured document. Similarly, there is a need for methods that take advantage of such reconstructed document structure to idealize the display of the document (e.g., for small-screen devices where it is not realistic to display the entire document on the screen at once), or to enable intelligent selection of elements of the document. In the modern world, more and more computing applications are moving to handheld devices (e.g., cell phones, media players, etc.). Accordingly, document reconstruction techniques must be viable on such devices, which generally have less computing power than a standard personal computer. However, document reconstruction often uses fairly computation and memory intensive procedures, such as cluster analysis, and the use of large chunks of memory. Therefore, there is further a need for techniques that allow for greater efficiency in document reconstruction generally, and cluster analysis specifically.

In view of the importance of the sealing performance, elastic bodies (e.g. rubber) are used for parts that slide while maintaining the sealing performance, such as a gasket which is integrated with a plunger of a syringe and forms a seal between the plunger and the barrel. Such elastic bodies, however, have a slight problem in their sliding properties (see Patent Literature 1). Thus, a sliding property improving agent (e.g. silicone oil) is applied to the sliding surface. It is, however, pointed out that silicone oil may have a negative influence on recently marketed bio-preparations. Meanwhile, gaskets to which no sliding property improving agent is applied are poor in the sliding properties. Thus, such a gasket does not allow the plunger to be pushed smoothly but causes it to pulsate during administration. Hence, some problems occur, such as inaccuracy in the injection amount and pain for patients. A technique of applying a self-lubricating PTFE film is proposed to simultaneously satisfy these conflicting requirements, that is, the sealing properties and the sliding properties (see Patent Literature 2). The film, however, is generally expensive and thus increases the production cost of processed products, limiting its application range. Moreover, reliability concerns exist with the use of PTFE film-coated products in applications where durability against repeated sliding motion is required. Another problem is that as PTFE film are vulnerable to radiation, PTFE film-coated products cannot be sterilized by radiation. Furthermore, the use in other applications where sliding properties in the presence of water are required can be considered. Specifically, water can be delivered without a loss by reducing the fluid resistance of the inner surface of a pre-filled syringe or of the inner surface of a pipe or tube for delivering water, or by increasing or greatly reducing the contact angle with water. Moreover, drainage of water on wet roads and of snow on snowy roads can be improved by reducing the fluid resistance of the groove surfaces of tires, or by increasing or greatly reducing the contact angle with water. This leads to enhanced hydroplaning performance and grip performance, and therefore better safety. In addition, less sticking of wastes and dusts can be expected by reducing the sliding resistance of the sidewall surfaces of tires or walls of buildings, or by increasing their contact angle with water. Further advantageous effects can be expected, such as: less pressure loss in delivering water, an aqueous solution or the like through a diaphragm such as diaphragm pumps or valves; easy sliding of skis or snowboards achieved by enhancing the sliding properties of the sliding surfaces thereof; better noticeability of road signs or signboards achieved by enhancing the sliding properties thereof to allow snow to slide easily on the surface; reduction in water drag and thus less sticking of bacteria to the outer peripheries of ships, achieved by reducing the sliding resistance of the outer peripheries or by increasing the contact angle with water; and reduction in water drag of swimsuits by improving the sliding properties of the thread surfaces thereof.

This invention relates to apparatus and methods for inserting an angle plate in channel shaped flanges of a duct. A typical sheet metal duct section of the type used in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems (HVAC systems) is usually square or rectangular in cross-sectional shape. Such a duct section usually has channel-shaped flanges extending outwardly from its end edges for end-to-end attachment to another duct section. Corner (or angle) plates having first and second legs are inserted into adjacent flanges in a manner so that the first leg is in one flange and the second leg is in the other flange. The flanges are then crimped to secure the angle plates in the flanges. Each angle plate has at least one aperture therethrough. When duct sections are positioned end-to-end, then the angle plate apertures of one duct section align with the angle plate apertures of the other duct section. The aligned apertures are configured for receiving threaded fasteners (e.g., bolts and nuts) to clamp the duct sections together. Insertion of the angle plates into the flanges is typically performed manually. A technician places the angle plate on the flanges, forces the angle plates into the channel shaped flanges with a hammer or other suitable tool, and then manually crimps the flanges. The primary problems associated with such manual insertion is that this operation is labor intensive and time consuming. Machines have been used to automatically remove an angle plate from a stack of angle plates and insert it into duct flanges. A problem associated with such machines is that only special types of angle plates can be used with such machines. Conventional angle plates come in a wide variety of shapes and configurations, and most of these angle plates are configured to nest with identical angle plates. The only angle plates which can be used with the prior machines must be shaped so that they do not nest with other angle plates in the stack of angle plates. If the angle plates nest in the stack, the machines are incapable of removing the plates from the stack. Thus, most types of angle plates cannot be used with the machines. Another problem associated with such machines is that different drive mechanisms are needed to perform the various operations of the machines. For example, a machine might need one drive mechanism for positioning the duct on the machine, another drive mechanism for aligning the angle plate with the flanges, another drive mechanism for pressing the angle plate into the flanges, and another drive mechanism for crimping the flanges. These multiple drive mechanisms complicate the operation of a machine and increase the likelihood of machine failure.

In packet switching networks, a connectionless network is a data network in which each data packet carries information in a header that contains a destination address sufficient to permit the independent delivery of the packet to its destination via the network. In a connection-oriented network, the communicating peers must first establish a logical or physical data channel or connection in a dialog preceding the exchange of user data. A connectionless network has an advantage over a connection-oriented mode in that it has low overhead. It also allows for multicast and broadcast operations, which may save even more network resources when the same data needs to be transmitted to several recipients. In contrast, a connection is always unicast (point-to-point). A router is a network device configured to route and forward information contained in network packets to another network device. Data networks are highly meshed to provide redundancy. This redundancy means there are multiple routers and multiple paths through the network to get a data packet from a source to a destination. Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a scheme typically used to enhance an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Routers on the incoming edge of the MPLS network add an ‘MPLS label’ to the top of each packet. This label is based on some criteria (e.g. destination IP address) and is then used to steer it through the subsequent routers. The routers on the outgoing edge strip it off before final delivery of the original packet. MPLS can be used for various benefits such as multiple types of traffic coexisting on the same network, ease of traffic management, faster restoration after a failure, and, potentially, higher performance. RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol), also known as Resource Reservation Setup Protocol is protocol that supports the reservation of resources across an IP network. Applications running on IP end systems can use RSVP to indicate to other nodes the nature (bandwidth, jitter, maximum burst, and so on) of the packet streams they want to receive. Networking providers such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) operate one of the largest collections of electrical equipment in the world. NTT is estimated to consume approximately 8.5% of the total power in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. According to some estimates, 15% of all operational expenditures are power-related. The amount of electrical equipment used by networking providers is due in part to over provisioned networks and additional hardware used for High-Availability requirements. Current network-level optimization solutions focus on bandwidth and quality of service considerations. Additionally, solutions exist for optimizing power usage at an individual network device level (e.g. switch or router). However, these solutions fail to address power usage of an entire network. Accordingly, an improved solution for power usage for data networks would be desirable.

Today's datacenters include many different networking, processing and other devices. These devices need to be automatically monitored, patched and tested. The redundancy of these devices is also managed to ensure that failovers occur automatically.

The herbicidal properties of 3-alkylthio-4-amino-6-alkyl-1,2,4-triazine-5-ones are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,220. Among these compounds is metribuzin, 3-methylthio-4-amino-6-t-butyl-1,2,4-triazine-5-one. These compounds, however, even with their relatively low water solubility, are subject to leaching in the soil and run-off during rainstorms. The N-methylol derivatives of these compounds, which regenerate the parent compounds slowly upon exposure to water, are less soluble. These derivatives provide a slow or controlled release version of the herbicidal compounds themselves. They are, therefore, useful forms of the herbicide in that they resist leaching and run-off and, among other benefits, provide greater residual activity. The preparation of aldehyde derivatives is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,523, and the preparation in particular of N-methylol metribuzin is disclosed in "Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, III", pages 7-11, A. B. Peppermen, Jr. and K. E. Savage (1979). The methods disclosed in the references involve the use of organic solvents, which are inflammable and relatively expensive. These methods also present economic disadvantages based on the need to recover and recycle the solvent in a commercial process. Other methods of N-methylolation of amino compounds with aqueous formaldehyde require complete dissolution of the compounds. This also can lead to an economic penalty because of large volumes that must be handled in the manufacturing operation.

Boilers that provide hot water and steam for heating and processing of manufactured goods must be carefully monitored to ensure the presence of adequate water. The failure to maintain an adequate water supply in a boiler can be hazardous. If the water level in a boiler drops below a safe level the boiler can be damaged, and even more seriously it can explode. In view of this, the monitoring of the water level in boilers is a rather critical control function. In a typical boiler there are two boiler water sensing devices. Normally one device monitors the level of the boiler water and controls the burner that fires the boiler. The other sensing device normally monitors the water level and controls a feedwater pump or valve to add water to the boiler when necessary. These two functions cannot normally be combined due to the spontaneous variations in boiler water level due to the heating of the water, which causes an erradic flow or change in the water level. If a typical single probe is used to control the burner and the feedwater source, the moment the sensing mechanism determines that more water is necessary, the burner is turned off. If the water at the sensing means or probe is quickly restored, the feedwater is turned off and the burner is reignited. This function can oscillate causing a very undesirable cycling of the entire system. In prior art systems thermal types of delays have been used for control with one of the two normal sensing probes. The thermal type delays have a relatively long delay time in operation, and further have the undesirable function of requiring a recycled time due to the thermal mass of the delaying element. Due to the nature of a thermal delay and its cycling rate, the application of a thermal time delay device to the probes used in a boiler limit their application.

Thermal printing is a term broadly used to describe several different families of technology for making an image on a substrate. Those technologies include hot stamping, direct thermal printing, dye diffusion printing and thermal mass transfer printing. Hot stamping is a mechanical printing system in which a pattern is stamped or embossed through a ribbon onto a substrate, such as disclosed in WO95/12515. The pattern is imprinted onto the substrate by the application of heat and pressure to the pattern. A colored material on the ribbon, such as a dye or ink, is thereby transferred to the substrate where the pattern has been applied. The substrate can be preheated prior to imprinting the pattern on the substrate. Since the stamp pattern is fixed, hot stamping cannot easily be used to apply variable indicia or images on the substrate. Consequently, hot stamping is typically not useful for printing variable information, such as printing sheets used to make license plates. Direct thermal printing was commonly used in older style facsimile machines. Those systems required a special substrate that includes a colorant so that localized heat can change the color of the paper in the specified location. In operation, the substrate is conveyed past an arrangement of tiny individual heating elements, or pixels, that selectively heat (or not heat) the substrate. Wherever the pixels heat the substrate, the substrate changes color. By coordinating the heating action of the pixels, images such as letters and numbers can form on the substrate. However, the substrate can change color unintentionally such as when exposed to light, heat or mechanical forces. Dye diffusion thermal transfer involves the transport of dye by the physical process of diffusion from a dye donor layer into a dye receiving substrate. Typically, the surface of the film to be printed further comprises a dye receptive layer in order to promote such diffusion. Similar to direct thermal printing, the ribbon containing the dye and the substrate is conveyed past an arrangement of heating elements (pixels) that selectively heat the ribbon. Wherever the pixels heat the ribbon, solid dye liquefies and transfers to the substrate via diffusion. Some known dyes chemically interact with the substrate after being transferred by dye diffusion. Color formation in the substrate may depend on a chemical reaction. Consequently, the color density may not fully develop if the thermal energy (the temperature attained or the time elapsed) is too low. Thus, color development using dye diffusion is often augmented by a post-printing step such as thermal fusing. Thermal mass transfer printing, also known as thermal transfer printing, non-impact printing, thermal graphic printing and thermography, has become popular and commercially successful for forming characters on a substrate. Like hot stamping, heat and pressure are used to transfer an image from a ribbon onto a substrate. Like direct thermal printing and dye diffusion printing, pixel heaters selectively heat the ribbon to transfer the colorant to the substrate. However, the colorant on the ribbon used for thermal mass transfer printing comprises a polymeric binder having a wax base, resin base or mixture thereof typically containing pigments and/or dyes. During printing, the ribbon is positioned between the print head and the exposed surface of the polymer film. The print head contacts the thermal mass transfer ribbon and the pixel heater heats the ribbon such that it transfers the colorant from the ribbon to the film as the film passes through the thermal mass transfer printer. Thermal mass transfer has been described for imaging retroreflective sheeting. See for example WO 94/19769 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,105. U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,376 describes a photocurable thermally transferable composition containing a multifunctional monomer that is substantially non-liquid at room temperature and a thermoplastic binder. The composition is suitable to use in thermal transfer ribbons. After thermal transfer, the compositions are photocured to provide a durable, weatherable image, on a graphic article. U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,982 describes thermal transfer articles comprising a carrier, optional release layer, a color layer releasably adhered thereto, and optionally an adherence layer on the bottom side of the color layer. The transfer articles are radiation crosslinked after transfer such that a durable image is formed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,757 describes coatable thermal mass transfer precursor compositions comprising a polyalkylene binder precursor, an acrylic binder precursor, an effective amount of pigment and a diluent (preferably water). As described at column 4, lines 54-56, the polyalkylene latex and acrylic latex binder precursors are immiscible. The acrylic latex binder forms islands in the film formed by the polyalkylene binder.

1. Technology Field The present invention generally relates to x-ray tubes. In particular, embodiments of the present invention are directed to x-ray tube configurations that reduce the distance between the focal spot of an anode and an adjacent end of the evacuated enclosure in which the anode is disposed. 2. The Related Technology X-ray generating devices are extremely valuable tools that are used in a wide variety of applications, both industrial and medical. For example, such equipment is commonly employed in areas such as medical diagnostic examination, therapeutic radiology, semiconductor fabrication, and materials analysis. Regardless of the applications in which they are employed, most x-ray generating devices operate in a similar fashion. X-rays are produced in such devices when electrons are emitted, accelerated, and then impinged upon a material of a particular composition. This process typically takes place within an x-ray tube located in the x-ray generating device. The x-ray tube generally comprises a vacuum enclosure, a cathode, and an anode. The cathode, having a filament for emitting electrons, is disposed within the vacuum enclosure, as is the anode that is oriented to receive the electrons emitted by the cathode. The vacuum enclosure may be composed of metal such as copper, glass, ceramic, or a combination thereof, and is typically disposed within an outer housing. Aside from a window region that allows for the passage of x-rays, the outer housing is typically covered with a shielding layer (composed of, for example, lead or similar x-ray attenuating material) for preventing the escape of x-rays produced within the vacuum enclosure. In addition a cooling medium, such as a dielectric oil or similar coolant, can be disposed in the volume existing between the outer housing and the vacuum enclosure in order to dissipate heat from the surface of the vacuum enclosure. Depending on the configuration, heat can be removed from the coolant by circulating it to an external heat exchanger via a pump and fluid conduits. In operation, an electric current is supplied to the cathode filament, causing it to emit a stream of electrons by thermionic emission. An electric potential is established between the cathode and anode, which causes the electron stream to gain kinetic energy and accelerate toward a target surface disposed on the anode. Upon impingement at the target surface, some of the resulting kinetic energy is converted to electromagnetic radiation of very high frequency, i.e., x-rays. The specific frequency of the x-rays produced depends at least partly on the type of material used to form the anode target surface. Target surface materials having high atomic numbers (“Z numbers”) are typically employed, and are usually selected based on the application and characteristic x-ray that is desired. The resulting x-rays can be collimated so that they exit the x-ray device through predetermined regions of the vacuum enclosure and outer housing for entry into the x-ray subject, such as a medical patient. One challenge encountered with the operation of x-ray tubes, particularly tubes employed in the field of mammography, relates to the optimum positioning of the tube with respect to the patient's body (and in particular, the portion of the patient's body that is of interest) during x-ray imaging. For example, when performing a mammography, it is beneficial to position the focal spot of the x-ray tube, i.e., the point on the anode target surface where the electrons emitted and focused by the cathode impinge, as close to the chest wall as possible. Such positioning is desirable to overcome “heel effect”—a characteristic of anode-based x-ray imaging that produces non-uniformity in the imaging x-ray beam—in order to acquire as precise an image of the breast tissue as is possible. Conversely, should the focal spot be located a relatively large distance away from the chest wall, image quality will consequently suffer. The above notwithstanding, known tube designs are not configured to minimize spacing between the chest wall and the focal spot of the anode. In particular, known tube designs are typically configured with part or all of the cathode assembly being interposed between the anode and the nearest end wall of the vacuum enclosure. This configuration, while beneficial in some respects, nonetheless prevents placement of the focal spot desirably close to the chest wall. The above imaging challenges present with known tube designs are exacerbated when the breast or other subject to be imaged is relatively large, thereby requiring a correspondingly large anode target surface focal track angle to be employed. Use of large focal track angles undesirably increases the size of the focal spot, and therefore is undesirable for many mammography applications. Moreover, high voltage tubes, i.e., tubes having operating voltages greater than 50 kV, may increase chest wall-to-focal spot spacing. Specifically, as operating voltage of an x-ray tube increases, the anode-to-cathode spacing requirements necessarily also increase to provide adequate voltage standoff This increased separation of the cathode from the anode target surface correspondingly increases the distance from the focal spot on the target surface to the nearest end of the x-ray tube, and thus the chest wall of the patient, thereby producing the undesirable effects discussed above.

(a) Field of the Invention The invention relates to a chuck of an electric drilling tool, more particular to an anti-slip type electric drill chuck. (b) Description of the Prior Art A conventional electric drill chuck structure generally has a body connected to a rotary shaft of a motor. The motor is externally provided with an adjusting housing for local rotation. The body has a plurality of slanting pawls annularly disposed thereon. The user can adjust the adjusting housing with his/her hand to control the advancement or retraction of the pawls in an oblique direction to thereby clamp or release a drill head. Such a mechanism of using the hand to manipulate of the adjusting housing so as to control advancement or retraction of the pawls may, due to factors such as vibration of the drill head, torque, resistance on drill surface, etc. during the drilling operation, cause the engagement between the pawls and the drill head to become loosened so that it is necessary to stop the machine and lock the drill head again. Otherwise, the drill head will deviate and is likely to be damaged. The drill surface is also likely to be damaged. The primary object of the invention is to provide an anti-slip type electric drill chuck, in which a front housing sleeve of a chuck unit is rotated by hand to control the chuck unit to clamp or release a tool such as drill head. When the chuck unit clamps the tool during operation, the chuck can prevent slippage of the drill head due to counteractions of vibration, torque, resistance, etc., resulting from the drilling operation. In order to achieve the abovementioned object, an anti-slip type electric drill chuck of the present invention mainly includes a body which is obliquely provided with three pawls for clamping a drill head. The outer surface of one end of the three pawls is provided with a threaded surface for engaging a tapered threaded hole in a bearing nut, which has an outer end with teeth, an end portion provided with a ball ring. A check nut protective sleeve encloses the ball ring and bearing nut, and has elastic pointed portions engage the teeth. A drive annular block engages the inner wall of the bearing nut. A front housing sleeve engages the drive annular block and surrounds the aforesaid components.

1. Field of Invention The present invention relates to a bread toaster, and more particularly to a bread toaster comprising a lid arrangement. 2. Description of Related Arts A conventional bread toaster usually comprises a toaster casing, a toaster base, an electronic timer, and a toasting rack which is movably mounted in the toaster casing and defines two toasting slots, a handle coupled with the toasting rack, and a plurality of heating elements received in the toaster casing. Its primary function is to toast at least one bread slice for a predetermined period of time preset by the timer. Conventionally, the bread toaster has a plurality of elongated openings formed on a top side of the toaster casing and aligned with the two toasting slots respectively. The operation of the convention bread toaster is as follows: a user may connect the bread toaster to an external electricity source and put two bread slices into the two toasting slots through the elongated openings respectively. When the bread slices are received in the toasting slots, the user may downwardly depress the handle so as to move the toasting rack downwardly. The heating element is then activated for a time period determined by the electronic timer so as to toast the bread slices for the corresponding period of time. The major disadvantage of this type of conventional bread toaster is that the elongated openings face upwardly which make dusts and dirt enter the toasting slots very easily. Moreover, since the elongated openings are the major channels communicating the toasting slots and an exterior of the bread toaster, when the toaster is operating, heat generated in the toasting slots will dissipate very rapidly through the elongated openings, making the bread toaster to be very inefficient. One further problem is that due to the existence of the elongated openings, heat distribution along a vertical direction of the toasting slots is very uneven, making uneven toasting performance on the part of the bread toaster.

CCR2 is a member of the GPCR family of receptors, as are all known chemokine receptors, and are expressed by monocytes and memory T-lymphocytes. The CCR2 signaling cascade involves activation of phospholipases (PLCβ2), protein kinases (PKC), and lipid kinases (PI-3 kinase). Chemoattractant cytokines (i.e., chemokines) are relatively small proteins (8-10 kD), which stimulate the migration of cells. The chemokine family is divided into four subfamilies based on the number of amino acid residues between the first and second highly conserved cysteines. Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is a member of the CC chemokine subfamily (wherein CC represents the subfamily having adjacent first and second cysteines) and binds to the cell-surface chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2). MCP-1 is a potent chemotactic factor, which, after binding to CCR2, mediates monocyte and lymphocyte migration (i.e., chemotaxis) toward a site of inflammation. MCP-1 is also expressed by cardiac muscle cells, blood vessel endothelial cells, fibroblasts, chondrocytes, smooth muscle cells, mesangial cells, alveolar cells, T-lymphocytes, marcophages, and the like. After monocytes enter the inflammatory tissue and differentiate into macrophages, monocyte differentiation provides a secondary source of several proinflammatory modulators, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-8 (a member of the CXC chemokine subfamily, wherein CXC represents one amino acid residue between the first and second cysteines), IL-12, arachidonic acid metabolites (e.g., PGE2 and LTB4), oxygen-derived free radicals, matrix metalloproteinases, and complement components. Animal model studies of chronic inflammatory diseases have demonstrated that inhibition of binding between MCP-1 and CCR2 by an antagonist suppresses the inflammatory response. The interaction between MCP-1 and CCR2 has been implicated (see Rollins B J, Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1: a potential regulator of monocyte recruitment in inflammatory disease, Mol. Med. Today, 1996, 2:198; and Dawson J, et al., Targeting monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 signaling in disease, Expert Opin. Ther. Targets, 2003 Feb. 7 (1):35-48) in inflammatory disease pathologies such as psoriasis, uveitis, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis, Crohn's Disease, nephritis, organ allograft rejection, fibroid lung, renal insufficiency, type II diabetes and diabetic complications, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic retinitis, diabetic microangiopathy, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, invasive staphyloccocia, inflammation after cataract surgery, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, chronic urticaria, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), allergic asthma, periodontal diseases, periodonitis, gingivitis, gum disease, diastolic cardiomyopathies, cardiac infarction, myocarditis, chronic heart failure, angiostenosis, restenosis, reperfusion disorders, glomerulonephritis, solid tumors and cancers, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myelocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma, malignant myeloma, Hodgkin's disease, and carcinomas of the bladder, breast, cervix, colon, lung, prostate, and stomach. Monocyte migration is inhibited by MCP-1 antagonists (either antibodies or soluble, inactive fragments of MCP-1), which have been shown to inhibit the development of arthritis, asthma, and uveitis. Both MCP-1 and CCR2 knockout (KO) mice have demonstrated that monocyte infiltration into inflammatory lesions is significantly decreased. In addition, such KO mice are resistant to the development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE, a model of human MS), cockroach allergen-induced asthma, atherosclerosis, and uveitis. Rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's Disease patients have improved during treatment with TNF-α antagonists (e.g., monoclonal antibodies and soluble receptors) at dose levels correlated with decreases in MCP-1 expression and the number of infiltrating macrophages. MCP-1 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of seasonal and chronic allergic rhinitis, having been found in the nasal mucosa of most patients with dust mite allergies. MCP-1 has also been found to induce histamine release from basophils in vitro. During allergic conditions, both allergens and histamines have been shown to trigger (i.e., to up-regulate) the expression of MCP-1 and other chemokines in the nasal mucosa of people with allergic rhinitis, suggesting the presence of a positive feedback loop in such patients. There remains a need for small molecule CCR2 antagonists for preventing, treating or ameliorating a CCR2 mediated inflammatory syndrome, disorder or disease resulting from MCP-1 induced monocyte and lymphocyte migration to a site of inflammation. All documents cited herein are incorporated by reference.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electroluminescent (EL) device having an emitting layer made of an emitting substance, which utilizes an electroluminescence phenomenon that the emitting substance emits light by applying an electric current to the emitting layer. More particularly, it is concerned with an organic EL device in which the emitting layer is made of an organic emitting substance. 2. Description of the Prior Art As such type of EL devices, there have been known a device having two layers each made of an organic compound, as shown in FIG. 1, in which an organic fluorescent film or emitting layer 3 and an organic positive-hole transport layer 4 are arranged between a metal electrode or cathode 1 and a transparent electrode or anode 2, the two layers being layered on each other. There have been also known an EL device of three-layer structure, as shown in FIG. 2, in which an organic electron transport layer 5, an organic fluorescent film 3 and an organic positive-hole transport layer 4, are arranged between a metal electrode 1 and a transparent electrode 2. The organic positive-hole transport layer 4 herein has a function to facilitate the injection of positive holes from an anode as well as another function to block electrons, while the organic electron transport layer 5 has a function to facilitate the injection of electrons from a cathode. In these EL devices where a glass substrate 6 is arranged outside the transparent electrode 2, excitons are generated from the recombination of the electrons injected from the metal electrode 1 with the positive holes injected to the organic fluorescent film 3 from the transparent electrode 2. At the stage where the excitons are inactivated through radiation, they emit light radiating toward outside through the transparent electrode 2 and the glass substrate 6 (the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 59-194393). As is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 264692/1988, there have been also known stably emitting el devices comprising a fluorescent film formed from an organic host material and a fluorescent guest material. It is however expected to develop an EL device capable of emission at a further high luminance, although the conventional EL devices with such aforementioned composition comprising organic compounds can emit light at a lower voltage.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to processes and methods for forming electronic devices and the like. More particularly, the present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for effecting the creation of via holes in semiconductors and other thin substrates and, more specifically, to methods and apparatus for forming insulative coatings of via holes. The present invention also pertains to the use of stereolithography techniques to form insulative coatings with small diameter via holes extending therethrough. 2. Background of Related Art Over the past decade or so, a manufacturing technique which has become known as “stereolithography” and which is also known as “layered manufacturing” has evolved to a degree where it is employed in many industries. Basically, stereolithography, as conventionally practiced, involves utilizing a computer, typically under control of three-dimensional (3-D) computer-aided design (CAD) software, to generate a 3-D mathematical simulation or model of an object to be fabricated. The computer mathematically separates or “slices” the simulation or model into a large number of relatively thin, parallel, usually vertically superimposed layers. Each layer has defined boundaries and other features that correspond to a substantially planar section of the simulation or model and, thus, of the actual object to be fabricated. A complete assembly or stack of all of the layers defines the entire simulation or model. A simulation or model which has been manipulated in this manner is typically stored and, thus, embodied as a CAD computer file. The simulation or model is then employed to fabricate an actual physical object by building the object, layer by superimposed layer. Surface resolution of the fabricated object is, in part, dependent upon the thickness of the layers. A wide variety of approaches to stereolithography by different companies has resulted in techniques for fabricating objects from various types of materials. Regardless of the material employed to fabricate an object, stereolithographic techniques usually involve disposition of a layer of unconsolidated or unfixed material corresponding to each layer of the simulation or model. Next, the material of a layer is selectively consolidated or fixed to at least a partially consolidated, partially fixed, or semisolid state in those areas of a given layer that correspond to solid areas of the corresponding section of the simulation or model. Also, while the material of a layer is being consolidated or fixed, that layer may be bonded to a lower layer of the object which is being fabricated. The unconsolidated material employed to build an object may be supplied in particulate or liquid form. The material may itself be consolidated or fixed. Alternatively, when the unconsolidated material comprises particles, a separate binder material mixed therein or coating the particles may facilitate bonding of the particles to one another, as well as to the particles of a previously formed layer. Surface resolution of the features of a fabricated object depends, at least in part, upon the material being used. For example, when particulate materials are employed, resolution of object surfaces is highly dependent upon particle size, whereas when a liquid is employed, surface resolution is highly dependent upon the minimum surface area of the liquid which can be consolidated or fixed and the minimum thickness of a material layer that can be generated. Of course, in either case, resolution and accuracy of the features of an object being produced from the simulation or model is also dependent upon the ability of the apparatus used to consolidate or fix the material to precisely track the mathematical instructions indicating solid areas and boundaries for each layer of material. Toward that end, and depending upon the type and form of material to be fixed, stereolithographic fabrication processes have employed various fixation approaches. For example, particles have been selectively consolidated by particle bombardment (e.g., with electron beams), disposition of a binder or other fixative in a manner similar to ink-jet printing techniques, and focused irradiation using heat or specific wavelength ranges. In some instances, thin, preformed sheets of material may be superimposed to build an object, each sheet being fixed to a next lower sheet and unwanted portions of each sheet removed, a stack of such sheets defining the completed object. Early on in its development, stereolithography was used to rapidly fabricate prototypes of objects from CAD files. Prototypes of objects might be built to verify the accuracy of the CAD file defining the object (e.g., an object or negative of a mold to be machined) and to detect any design deficiencies and possible fabrication problems before a design was committed to large-scale production. Stereolithographic techniques have also been used in the fabrication of molds. Using stereolithographic techniques, either male or female forms on which mold material might be disposed could be rapidly generated. In more recent years, stereolithography has been employed to develop and refine object designs in relatively inexpensive materials. Stereolithography has also been used to fabricate small quantities of objects for which the cost of conventional fabrication techniques is prohibitive, such as in the case of plastic objects that have conventionally been formed by injection molding techniques. It is also known to employ stereolithography in the custom fabrication of products generally built in small quantities or where a product design is rendered only once. Finally, it has been appreciated in some industries that stereolithography provides a capability to fabricate products, such as those including closed interior chambers or convoluted passageways, which cannot be fabricated satisfactorily using conventional manufacturing techniques. It has also been recognized in some industries that a stereolithographic object or component may be formed or built around another, pre-existing object or component to create a larger product. Conventionally, stereolithographic apparatus have been used to fabricate freestanding structures. Such structures have been formed directly on a platen or other support system of the stereolithographic fabrication apparatus, which is located within the fabrication tank of the stereolithographic apparatus. As the freestanding structures are fabricated directly on the support system, there is typically no need to precisely and accurately position features of the stereolithographically fabricated structure. As such, conventional stereolithographic apparatus lack machine vision systems for ensuring that structures are fabricated at certain locations. Moreover, conventional stereolithographic apparatus lack support systems, handling systems, and cleaning equipment which are suitable for use with relatively delicate structures, such as semiconductor substrates and semiconductor devices that have been fabricated thereon. Recently, improved stereolithographic apparatus have been configured to form structures on fabrication substrates, such as semiconductor substrates and semiconductor device components, and include systems for accurately positioning the fabricated structures, supporting and handling the fabrication substrates, and cleaning excess and residual material from the fabrication substrates. In the construction of semiconductor devices and the like, apertures may be formed into or through the object for various reasons. For example, apertures known as “via holes” may be formed in various components of an electronic device for the purpose of forming electrical conductors, or “vias,” that extend within the aperture, typically in a direction which is generally perpendicular to a plane in which a surface of the component is located. Where the component itself is electrically conductive, the via must be insulated from the component to avoid short-circuiting. In state-of-the-art semiconductor devices, the vias are formed to have a very small diameter, generally about 17 μm to about 150 μm. In some cases, the via hole length is significantly greater than the diameter thereof, whereby the hole is said to have a high aspect ratio. While higher circuit densities are possible where the via hole diameter is very small, suitably filling high aspect ratio via holes with a conductive metal is difficult. Where a via is to be formed in a semiconductive material, such as silicon, gallium arsenide, or indium phosphide, or a conductive material, such as a metal, a first or precursor hole is typically formed by a so-called “trepan” process, whereby a very small bit of a router or drill, a laser beam or other energy beam, or the like is moved in circular paths of increased distance to create the precursor hole. The precursor hole is larger in diameter than the desired completed via to be formed. Following precursor hole formation, a thin silicon oxide or other insulating layer is formed on the inner surface of the hole by exposure of the inner surface to an oxidizing atmosphere. When a polymeric insulative coating is desired, a thin oxide layer may be formed prior to vapor depositing a suitable polymer, such as parylene resin, over the substrate and within each precursor hole. Oxidation or adhesion promotion of the inner surfaces of the precursor hole is required because adhesion of polymer directly to silicon is relatively poor compared to adhesion to an oxide or adhesion promoter. A negative pressure (e.g., a vacuum) may be applied to an end of each precursor hole to draw the polymer therein. The polymer is then cured or otherwise hardened or permitted to harden. Next, a small via hole of desired diameter is drilled (e.g., by percussion drill or continuous laser) or otherwise formed in the hardened polymer. The via hole is then filled with a conductive material, such as conductively doped polysilicon, a metal, a metal alloy, or a conductive or conductor-filled elastomer, to form a via that provides a conductive path through the via hole, which conductive path may extend between opposed surfaces of the substrate. The polymer insulates the conductive via from the substrate. The steps taken in the prior art to form a via in a semiconductive or conductive substrate are depicted in the flowchart of FIG. 1. A substrate, such as a full or partial silicon wafer, is subjected to a first hole-forming process, at reference character 10. The first hole-forming process may be effected by a laser, drill, or router in a so-called “trepan” process, in which a bit of the drill or router is rotated and moved laterally along a plurality of circular paths of increasing diameter to form a precursor hole of a desired diameter, which is greater than the desired diameter for the final via hole. The substrate is then cleaned to remove any debris, as indicated at reference character 11. Next, as shown at reference character 12, the substrate is then exposed to a passivating (e.g., oxidizing or nitridating) atmosphere to passivate the inner surfaces of the precursor hole. For example, silicon may be oxidized to form silicon dioxide, nitridated to form a silicon nitride, or otherwise passivated to form a silicon oxynitride, all as known in the art. Passivation is useful for providing an adhesion base for an insulative polymer since the adhesion of many polymers to various materials, including unoxidized silicon, may be poor. Next, at reference character 14, an insulative resin polymer is deposited in the precursor hole, such as by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique or in a dissolved, atomized form. A pressure may be required to force the polymer into the precursor hole. Typically, the precursor hole is completely filled with polymer. In addition, the polymeric resin forms a coating over the exposed major surfaces of the substrate, from which it must be cleaned. The substrate is then subjected to thermal curing, as indicated at reference character 16, to cure and, thus, solidify the polymer within the precursor hole. Then, at reference character 18, the substrate surfaces are cleaned of polymer. In addition, the chamber in which the insulative coating is formed (e.g., a CVD chamber) requires cleaning of polymer and polymer condensation products from its interior surfaces. At reference character 20, a final via hole is formed through the hardened polymer by a small diameter drill such as a laser drill. After cleaning debris from the substrate following the drilling process, as indicated at reference character 21, the final via hole is filled with a conductive material, as shown at reference character 22. The conductive material forms the conductive via between opposite surfaces of the substrate. When the substrate in which the via hole and via are formed comprises a different type of material, such as the resin of a printed circuit board (PCB), for example, the surface oxidation step may not be required to increase adhesion of the via hole-lining polymer to the surface of the via hole. Inasmuch as most semiconductor devices are formed as part of a multicomponent substrate, it is advantageous to form vias in such devices prior to separation (e.g., by use of a singulation saw) of the devices from the wafer. Current methods of forming vias in conductive or semiconductive materials are time-consuming, are cumbersome, and waste resin. Thus, application and curing of the parylene resin or other nonconductive polymer creates a solid layer over the entire substrate, and the walls and other surfaces within the application chamber become covered with the polymer and pyrolysis products thereof. Thus, the substrate and the chamber require extensive cleaning. Moreover, parylene resin is relatively expensive. Nonetheless, a majority of the applied parylene resin is not applied to the surfaces of the via holes, where application is actually desired, but is deposited onto surfaces from which it will subsequently be removed, then discarded. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method for lining the surfaces of via holes with electrically insulative materials, particularly via holes that have been formed in substrates which comprise semiconductive or conductive materials.

Field of the Invention Embodiments presented in this disclosure generally relate to techniques for recharging battery-operated devices, and more specifically, to integrating recharging into the patterns of normal usage of the devices, and to systematic detection and recharging of devices. Description of the Related Art Battery-operated devices are ubiquitous in today's technologically-oriented and increasingly mobile society. However, certain characteristics inherent to battery-operated devices can be substantially disruptive to consumers' use and enjoyment of these devices, and at the very least may be annoying to consumers. Many devices use traditional battery technologies, such as alkaline or zinc-chloride cells that are intended to be discarded after a single use, and are available in well-known standardized sizes, such as “AA,” “AAA,” “C,” and “D.” While fairly easy to obtain batteries in these standard sizes, the batteries must be changed in devices relatively frequently, imposing a cost and a hassle on consumers. Rechargeable batteries, which are typically available in the same standard sizes, can alleviate some of the recurring costs of purchasing new batteries, but can introduce different issues. For instance, unless multiple sets of rechargeable batteries are available, the device will be unusable during the period when the batteries are being recharged, and the device may also lose any information stored in volatile memory. Even rechargeable batteries that are integrated into the devices, which are not designed for frequent removal or replacement, often still make using the device inconvenient during the recharging process, if the device is not entirely unusable.

Rieche et al. (Arch. Pharmaz. 293, 957 (1960) and 296,770 (1963) disclose the antifungal properties of 3 -(phenylalkyl)tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thiones. In (Arzneimittel Forschung, 19, 1807 (1969), Schorr et al. report that they prepared certain derivatives of tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione and conducted various chemotherapeutic studies with many of these compounds. These studies indicate that tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thiones possess antifungal and antibacterial activity. Interestingly, Schorr et al. also found that derivatives of tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thiones containing heteroaromatic substituents are markedly less active than the corresponding compounds in which the heteroaromatic ring has been replaced by an aromatic ring. For instance, replacement of a pyridylmethyl group with benzyl in said derivatives will significantly increase the biological activity. It has been unexpectedly found that certain 5-substituted-tetrahydro-3(4-pyridylmethyl)-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine2-thiones are highly effective fungicides characterized by markedly low phytotoxicity. The 3-(4-(pyridylmethyl)-tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione compounds of the present invention are represented by formula (I): ##STR1## wherein R is a member selected from the group consisting of alkyl C.sub.1 -C.sub.12, hydroxyethyl, --CH.sub.2 COOH, --CH.sub.2 COONa, --CH.sub.2 CONH.sub.2 and the radical ##STR2## wherein X is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxy and chloro, Y is hydrogen or methyl. The compounds are useful for the control of pathogenic fungi of agricultural crops being especially effective for the control of rice blast, tomato late blight, and apple scab. Preferred compounds for the control of pathogenic fungi of agricultural crops are those of the above formula (I) wherein R is a member selected from the group consisting of methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, n-butyl, t-butyl, n-dodecyl, .beta.-hydroxyethyl, ##STR3## Illustrative of a method for preparing the compounds of the present invention involves reacting approximately equimolar amounts of 4-(aminomethyl)pyridine and and carbon disulfide in aqueous acetonitrile in the presence of a one molar equivalent of an alkali metal hydroxide, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, at a temperature from about 15.degree. to about 30.degree. C for a period from about 1 to 3 hours. There is then obtained the corresponding pyridylmethyldithiocarbamate of formula (II) as graphically illustrated hereinbelow: ##STR4## Next, the so-obtained dithiocarbamate is reacted with an aqueous solution of two molar equivalents of formaldehyde and an aqueous solution of a one molar equivalent of the appropriate R-NH.sub.2 amine acid salt to yield the desired formula (I) tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione as graphically illustrated below: ##STR5## wherein R is as defined hereinabove. In general, the fungicidal method of control of the present invention involves applying a fungicidally effective amount of a formula (I) compound to the foliage of agricultural crops where control of phytopathogenic fungi is desired. Application of a formula (I) tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione compound at a rate of from about 0.04 kg to about 8.96 kg per hectare and, preferably, from about 0.09 kg to about 4.48 kg per hectare is usually sufficient to achieve satisfactory control of said fungi without significant phytotoxic damage to the host crops. Advantageously, the novel tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione compounds of the present invention represented by formula (I) above may be formulated as liquid or emulsifiable concentrates, wettable powders, dusts, dust concentrates and the like by well-known and commercially accepted methods. Liquid and/or emulsifiable concentrates may be conveniently prepared by dissolving the appropriate formula (I) compound in amounts of about from 5 to 95% by weight and, preferably, 15 to 75%, by weight, in a solvent selected from the group consisting of water: C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 aliphatic alcohols; ketones such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl butyl isobutyl ketone, or cyclohexanone and the like; aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene and xylene, aromatic petroleum distillates, or mixtures thereof. Additionally, 1% to 5% by weight of a surfactant, e.g. a polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate surfactant or the like is incorporated into the above formulation. Application of the material is made by adding a predetermined quantity of the above concentrate as such or in combination with an additional quantity of water or another suitable inert solvent, e.g. deodorized kerosene. Wettable powders can be prepared by milling and blending together between about 25% to 85% by weight of a compound of formula (I), a solid carrier such as attapulgite, kaolin, diatomaceous earth, silica and the like and about 1% to 5% by weight of a dispersing or wetting agent or mixtures thereof, such as sodium lignin sulfonate, N-methyl- N-oleoyltaurate and the like. In the above formulations the amount of solid carrier used is variable and obviously its value given in percent, by weight, is dependent on the amount of active ingredient and dispersing or wetting agent chosen for that particular formulation. Dusts are generally prepared by blending and milling together from about 0.5% to 20%, by weight, of a tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione of formula (I) with an inert diluent such as an attapulgite type of clay, kaolin, diatomaceous earth, talc, fuller's earth and the like. Preferably, the dust contains from about 5 to 10%, by weight, of active ingredient and about 95 to 90%, by weight, of said inert diluent. Dust concentrates are prepared similarly except that they contain usually from about 25 to 75% by weight of active ingredient and from 75 to 25% by weight of diluent. The above formulations containing the appropriate formula (I) compounds of the present invention may be applied to the foliage of the agricultural crops to be protected by commercially available spraying and dusting equipment. For spraying, liquid or emulsifiable concentrates and wettable powders are diluted with water or another suitable inert solvent, such as deodorized kerosene, and applied as spray preparations of 100 ppm to 4800 ppm; or 0.090 kg to 4.48 kg per hectare. The invention is further illustrated by the non-limiting examples set forth below.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an adaptive-learning type product-sum operation circuit element, an adaptive-learning type product-sum operation circuit and an adaptive-learning type product-sum operation circuit array for weighing and adding a number of signals input into a plurality of neuron circuits in a neural network. 2. Related Art Statement As a method of giving a weight function to the input portion of a neuron circuit, i.e., synaptic connection, there are two methods of giving a value obtained by software simulation as a certain value and of determining the optimum value by learning with a teacher after the construction of a network. Both methods have a problem of enormously increasing learning time in a practical network having more than 10,000 neurons. The present invention is to obviate the aforesaid shortcoming. The present invention relates to a circuit for making the weight of synaptic connection the optimum by adaptive-learning with the aid of residual polarization of a ferroelectric film, and when this circuit is used, even if the use of a network is started under such a condition that the weight of synaptic connection is not the optimum, a function of making the weight of synaptic connection the optimum as the use is progressed can be expected. A specific circuit constructs a matrix of synaptic connection of m.times.n by connecting in parallel adaptive-learning type MISFET (metal-insulator-semiconductor field effect transistors) with the use of a ferroelectric thin film as a gate insulating film by m stages equal to a number of input signals to form synaptic connection of one neuron circuit, and further aligning the MISFETs for other neuron circuits so that n rows are formed in total.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet-supplying device employed in an image-forming device. 2. Description of the Related Art Sheet-supplying devices using air suction are well known in the art as sheet-supplying devices used in printers, photocopiers, and other image-forming devices. FIG. 1 illustrates the function of a sheet-supplying device 101 of this type. As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet-supplying device 101 includes a sheet-accommodating tray 111 and a sheet-feeding device 112 disposed above the sheet-accommodating tray 111. The sheet-feeding device 112 includes a sheet-feeding belt 112C and an air suction device 113. A plurality of sheets 102 is stacked on top of the sheet-accommodating tray 111. The sheet 102 positioned on the top of the stack is referred to as a topmost sheet 102A. When the air suction device 113 draws the topmost sheet 102A up to the sheet-feeding belt 112C, the sheet-feeding belt 112C conveys the topmost sheet 102A to a prescribed position. An air-jetting device 114 is disposed on the front side of the sheet-accommodating tray 111, that is, on the left side in FIG. 1. The air-jetting device 114 blows a jet of air onto one end of the sheets 102, causing a few sheets 102 stacked on the sheet-accommodating tray 111 to float and separate. A position sensor 116 is disposed on the other end of the sheets 102, which end is unaffected by the air blown from the air-jetting device 114 and does not float. The position sensor 116 includes a digital sensor 116A and a surface position-detecting lever 116B. A raising/lowering device (not shown) is connected to the sheet-accommodating tray 111 and is capable of raising and lowering the same. The raising/lowering device raises the sheet-accommodating tray 111 until the topmost sheet 102A contacts the surface position-detecting lever 116B. At this time, the surface position-detecting lever 116B is displaced vertically upward, enabling the position sensor 116 to detect the position of other end of the topmost sheet 102A based on the position of the surface position-detecting lever 116B. A plurality of suction holes (not shown) is formed over the entire surface of the sheet-feeding belt 112C. By means of these suction holes and the air suction device 113, sheets can be drawn to and conveyed by the sheet-feeding belt 112C. Next, steps in a control process of the controlling device (not shown) for controlling operations of this conventional sheet-supplying device will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 2. A controller (not shown) monitors whether the position sensor 116 has detected that the topmost sheet 102A has contacted the surface position-detecting lever 116B (S101). If the position sensor 116 has not detected this contact (S101: NO), the controller raises the sheet-accommodating tray 111 (S102), and then the controller monitors again whether the position sensor 116 has detected this contact (S101). When the position sensor 116 detects that the topmost sheet 102A has contacted the surface position-detecting lever 116B (S101: YES), then the controller judges whether the sheet-accommodating tray 111 has stopped (S103) When the sheet-accommodating tray 111 has not stopped (S103: NO), the controller stops the raising of the sheet-accommodating tray 111 (S104). Then, the controller controls the air-jetting device 114 to blow air onto the one end of the sheets 102 stacked on the sheet-accommodating tray 111 and the air suction device 113 to draw air (S105). The air blown from the air-jetting device 114 floats and separates a few of the top sheets 102. The topmost sheet 102A that is among the separated sheets 102 is drawn to the sheet-feeding belt 112C by the air suction device 113. The topmost sheet 102A that has been drawn to the sheet-feeding belt 112C is conveyed to a prescribed position by the rotation of the sheet-feeding belt 112C. When the topmost sheet 102A has been conveyed in this way, the controller repeats S101-S105 with respect to the following topmost sheet 102A. By the way, when the number of sheets 102 stacked on the sheet-accommodating tray 111 decreases and the vertical position of the topmost sheet 102A becomes lower. Then, the topmost sheet 102A cannot be detected by the position sensor 116 (S101: NO). In such a case, the controller raises the sheet-accommodating tray 111 (S102). On the other hand, when the number of sheets 102 has not likely decreased by much and the vertical position of the topmost sheet 102A has not dropped that much, the topmost sheet 102A is detected soon by the position sensor 116 (S101: YES). Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. HEI-7-187422 discloses a sheet-supplying device that can adjust the position and angle of the jetted air based on the vertical position of the topmost sheet. Accordingly, this sheet-supplying device can separate floating sheets from one another, even when the sheets have a tendency to curl. Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. HEI-7-89625 discloses a sheet-supplying device 201 as shown in FIG. 3 that includes an air-jetting device 214 for blowing a jet of air, and a reflecting type distance-measuring sensor 215 for measuring part of a topmost sheet 202A that is floated by air blown from the air-jetting device 214. With this construction, the sheet-supplying device 201 can adjust the amount of jetted air from the air-jetting device 214 based on the vertical position of the topmost sheet 202A measured by the reflecting type distance-measuring sensor 215. However, when there is a curl in the sheets, the vertical position of the topmost sheet differs between its front end and rear end, that is, between the left and right ends in FIG. 1. Since the conventional sheet-supplying devices as shown in FIG. 1 use a position sensor to detect only the position of the sheet at the rear end thereof, the front end of the topmost sheet may not be in an optimal position for being drawn to and conveyed by the sheet-feeding device, even if the vertical position of the topmost sheet at the rear end thereof is in the optimal position. This may result in such problems as a plurality of sheets being fed simultaneously in the sheet-feeding operation or the feeding belt being unable to draw the topmost sheet by air suction and therefore failing to feed the sheet. Further, although the sheet-supplying device disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. HEI-7-187422 can adjust the position and angle of the jetted air based on the vertical position of the topmost sheet, this construction is complex and increases the manufacturing costs of the device. Further, since the optimal vertical position of the topmost sheet for pickup by air suction differs based on the sheet weight and quality, feeding failures and the feeding of multiple sheets simultaneously may occur when different types of sheets are used. The sheet-supplying device disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. HEI-7-89625 uses a reflective type distance-measuring sensor to measure the vertical position of the topmost sheet on the end of the sheet that is floating and fluttering by the jetted air. Such measurements are unreliable and do not produce accurate values. Therefore, this device cannot reliably output an optimal volume of air.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to hard-disk drive systems, and, in particular, to detecting defects on the surface of hard-disk drive platters. 2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of a prior-art hard-disk drive (HDD) system 100. HDD system 100 has hard-drive (HD) controller 104, which manages a number of functions of HDD system 100. One function is handling the transfer of data to and from HDD system 100 during read and write operations. During write operations, incoming digital data is received from external hardware through a user interface 102, such as a SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) or IDE (integrated or intelligent drive electronics) interface. The incoming data is stored in queues in HD controller 104 and scheduled for write operations. After a write operation is scheduled, the incoming data is provided to recording channel 108 via non-return-to-zero (NRZ) bus 106, and HD controller 104 directs recording channel 108 to begin the writing operation. The incoming data is encoded by recording channel 108 and converted from digital to analog format to generate an analog signal. Encoding may be performed using, for example, run-length limited (RLL) encoding techniques, error-correction encoding techniques such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoding or Reed Solomon encoding, a combination of the above, or other suitable techniques for encoding data that is to be written to an HD platter. Recording channel 108 then directs preamplifier 112 to enter into a writing mode using one or more control signals 110 that are transmitted directly between recording channel 108 and preamplifier 112. Alternatively, HD controller 104 could direct preamplifier AD to enter into the writing mode. Preamplifier 112 amplifies the analog signal such that the resulting amplified signal has sufficient power to drive write head 118. Write head 118 is typically constructed with an inductive element that produces a magnetic field when powered. The magnetic field, which varies with the amplified signal level (e.g., high or low), writes data to platter 124 by altering a magnetic recording material that is coated on the face of platter 124. Typically, platter 124 is partitioned into concentric rings called tracks, and each track is further partitioned into smaller sections called sectors. The incoming data is written to the sectors, each of which holds a specified amount of data (e.g., 512 bytes). Although only one platter is shown in FIG. 1, conventional HDD systems may have more than one platter and each additional platter may be served by additional write and read heads. During read operations, HD controller 104 (i) receives a request for data from external hardware through user interface 102 and (ii) directs recording channel 108 to begin read operations. Recording channel 108 in turn directs preamplifier 112 to enter into a reading mode using the one or more control signals 110 that are transmitted directly to preamplifier 112. Preamplifier 112 provides a bias current to read head 120, which reads data from the sectors on platter 124. Read head 120 is typically constructed with a magneto resistive (MR) element having resistive properties that change as the magnetic field of platter 124 changes. As the resistive properties of the MR element change, a corresponding change in voltage is recorded as a reproduced, or playback, analog data signal. The outgoing analog data signal is then amplified by preamplifier 112 and provided to recording channel 108. Recording channel 108 (i) converts the outgoing analog data signal from analog to digital format, (ii) filters the outgoing digital signal, and (iii) decodes the outgoing digital signal. Decoding may be performed using, for example, RLL decoding, partial-response maximum-likelihood (PRML) decoding, Viterbi decoding, and error-correction decoding techniques such as Reed Solomon decoding or LDPC decoding, or a combination of the above methods. The decoded data is then provided to HD controller 104 via NRZ bus 106 for transfer to external hardware through user interface 102. Another function of HD controller 104 is the radial positioning of write head 118 and read head 120 relative to platter 124. Servo data on platter 124 (i.e., positioning data that is prerecorded on and subsequently read from platter 124) is used to determine the location of write head 118 and read head 120 over platter 124. This data is interpreted by HD controller 104, which generates and provides positioning commands to motor controller 126. Motor controller 126 drives spindle motor 128, which maintains a desired (e.g., constant) rotation speed of platter 124 about its axis. Motor controller 126 also drives voice coil motor (VCM) 114, which positions write head 118 and read head 120 radially over platter 124. Write head 118 and read head 120 are typically separate components that are fabricated together on a head assembly 122, which is attached to VCM 114 via a single positioning arm 116. During the manufacturing process, a number of defects may arise in the magnetic recording material on platter 124. When a user writes data to or reads data from defective areas on platter 124, errors may arise in storing or recovering the data. To minimize the likelihood of these errors, HDD system manufacturers typically flag defects during the manufacturing process. Flagged defects that negatively affect reading and writing operations are removed from the final usable storage space of the HDD system by placing the defect locations in a table. During subsequent read and write operations, the HDD system references this table to avoid using the defective locations. Determining which defects merit mapping out of the final usable space is a balancing act. On one hand, mapping too few areas of the platter out of the final usable storage space could result in reliability issues. If sufficient areas are not mapped out, then the manufacturer will incur costs and other problems due to failing HDD systems. On the other hand, mapping too many areas of the platter out of the final usable storage space could result in yield problems. In such a case, the intended capacity of the HDD system might not be achievable. Traditionally, HDD system manufacturers have employed a prior-art two-pass method to detect defects on the face of a platter. The first pass is performed using a non-final disk formatting and the second pass is performed using a subsequent (and possibly final) disk formatting. In general, the first defect-detection pass is performed by writing a fixed data pattern to a track on the disk. The track is then read back and the recovered (i.e., outgoing) signal is analyzed for defects using traditional flaw-scan techniques (as described below). Relatively major defects are flagged and mapped out of the final usable space of the HDD system. Defects that are marginal (i.e., not relatively major and not relatively minor) are flagged and mapped to the subsequent drive formatting so that they may be tracked during the second pass or processed differently with other techniques. This process is repeated for all tracks on the platter, and the first pass is completed once all tracks have been analyzed. The second defect-detection pass is performed by writing a real user data pattern to a track on the platter. Prior to writing the user data pattern, the data is encoded by the recording channel using, for example, run-length limited (RLL) encoding techniques, error-correction encoding techniques such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoding or Reed Solomon encoding, a combination of the above methods, and/or other suitable techniques for encoding data that is to be written to an HD platter. The track is then read back and a data-integrity check is performed by decoding the encoded user data pattern to recover the original user data pattern. Portions of the user data pattern that may be properly decoded are maintained in the final usable space, while portions of the user data pattern that cannot be properly decoded are flagged as defective. To further understand the prior-art two-pass defect-detection method, consider FIGS. 2-7. FIG. 2 shows a simplified representation of one section 200 of a track on a HDD platter having a non-final disk formatting. This non-final disk formatting is typically used for the first pass of the prior-art two-pass defect-detection method. As shown, section 200 is partitioned into several areas. These areas, which are not actually marked on the face of the disk, are each mapped to one of three types of fields: a fixed-pattern field, an inter-sector gap, or a servo field. Each fixed-pattern field is reserved for writing a fixed data pattern during the first defect-detection pass. Each servo field is reserved for storing servo (i.e., positioning) data. Typically, the servo data is written at the time of the non-final formatting or sometime prior to the start of the first defect-detection pass. Each inter-sector gap serves as a buffer between two other types of fields, such as between a servo field and a fixed-pattern field. These gaps are not intended for writing data; however, at times, data may be inadvertently written over the inter-sector gaps due to, for example, the effects of jitter. As shown in FIG. 2, section 200 is formatted to have two fixed-pattern fields 206-1 and 206-2, four inter-sector gaps 204-1, 204-2, 204-3, and 204-4, and three servo fields 202-1, 202-2, and 202-3. First fixed-pattern field 206-1 is flanked by first and second inter-sector gaps 204-1 and 204-2, and second fixed-pattern field 206-2 is flanked by third and fourth inter-sector gaps 204-3 and 204-4. First inter-sector gap 204-1 serves as a buffer between first servo field 202-1 and first fixed-pattern field 206-1, second inter-sector gap 204-2 serves as a buffer between first fixed-pattern field 206-1 and second servo field 202-2, third inter-sector gap 204-3 serves as a buffer between second servo field 202-2 and second fixed-pattern field 206-2, and fourth inter-sector gap 204-4 serves as a buffer between second fixed-pattern field 206-2 and third servo field 202-3. This formatting is repeated for the remainder of the track on which section 200 resides and is similar throughout the remainder of platter 124 (i.e., the remaining tracks). Tracks that are located closer to the center of platter 124 than section 200 may have smaller fixed-pattern fields due to their smaller circumferences, while tracks located farther from the center of platter 124 than section 200 may have larger fixed-pattern fields due to their larger circumferences. FIG. 3 graphically illustrates a prior-art sequence 300 for writing a fixed data pattern to first fixed-pattern field 206-1 of section 200 shown in FIG. 2. At time t1, HD controller 104 enables the servo mode and performs a servo operation from times t1 to t2 to locate first servo field 202-1. After the servo mode is disabled at time t2, HD controller 104 of FIG. 1 directs recording channel 108 to enable the write mode at time t3. The relatively brief delay from times t2 to t3 corresponds to write head 118 passing over inter-sector gap 204-1 without writing the fixed data pattern. As shown in close-up 302, once the write mode is enabled at time t3, writing of the fixed data pattern to platter 124 may be further delayed until time t3a due to a delay in powering up pre-amplifier 112. The powering up of preamplifier 112 may be timed such that write head 118 begins writing the fixed data pattern as soon as inter-sector gap 204-1 has passed. The write mode is asserted until time t4, and during this time, the fixed data pattern is written to first fixed-pattern field 206-1. The fixed data pattern, which may be generated by recording channel 108, does not pass through the normal encoding path of recording channel 108 before it is written (e.g., the fixed data pattern doesn't undergo encoding such as error-correction encoding and RLL encoding). The fixed data pattern may be a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data pattern, such as an iT data pattern that alternates every i bits, where i is an integer. For example, a 2T pattern (i.e., i=2), having a pattern that alternates every two bits (i.e., 11001100 . . . ), is often used. As shown in close-up 304 of FIG. 3, once the writing mode is disabled at time t4, writing of the fixed data pattern to platter 124 may continue for a relatively brief period of time until writing of the fixed data pattern is completed (i.e., at time t4a). Termination of the write mode may be planned such that the writing of the fixed data pattern is completed in time to leave inter-sector gap 204-2 between first fixed-pattern field 206-1 and second servo field 202-2. At time t5, the servo mode is again enabled and a servo operation is performed to locate the next fixed-pattern field for writing (e.g., second fixed-pattern field 206-2). The writing process described above is repeated for the next fixed-pattern field, and then is subsequently repeated for the remainder of the track in which section 200 resides. After the entire track has been written, the track is read back in a clockwise direction and analyzed by recording channel 108. FIG. 4 graphically illustrates a prior-art sequence 400 for reading a fixed data pattern from first fixed-pattern field 206-1 of section 200 shown in FIG. 2. At time t1, HD controller 104 enables the servo mode and performs a servo operation from times t1 to t2 to locate first servo field 202-1 corresponding to fixed-pattern field 206-1. After the servo mode is disabled, the read mode is enabled at time t3. The relatively brief delay from times t2 to t3 corresponds to read head 120 passing over inter-sector gap 204-1 without reading the gap. Since inter-sector gap 204-1 is not read, it is also not analyzed for defects. Once the read mode is enabled, there is a lock period 208-1, as shown in close-up 402, in which recording channel 108 performs a zero-phase start, timing acquisition, and gain acquisition to lock on the fixed data pattern written to fixed-pattern field 206-1. During lock period 208-1, the defect-detection capabilities of recording channel 108 are limited, and thus, defect detection is not as effective during lock period 208-1 as it is after recording channel 108 has locked on the fixed data pattern. Optimally, recording channel 108 would begin acquiring the lock at the beginning of the fixed data pattern. However, as shown in close-up 402 of FIG. 4, the read mode might not be enabled until after the beginning of the fixed data pattern has actually passed (i.e., read mode might be enabled at time t3 as opposed to time t2a). This relatively short delay between the beginning of the fixed data pattern and the assertion of the read mode may be introduced to ensure that recording channel 108 does not inadvertently attempt to perform the lock over inter-sector gap 204-1. In the event of such a delay, the portion of the fixed data pattern passed over from times t2a to t3 will not be read, and consequently, will not be analyzed for defects. Once recording channel 108 has obtained a lock on the fixed data pattern in first fixed-pattern field 206-1, the fixed data pattern is read back and analyzed. When a 2T pattern has been written to platter 124, the recovered (i.e., outgoing) signal generally forms a sine wave. In analyzing the recovered signal, recording channel 108 does not process the signal through the normal decoding path of recording channel 108. In other words, recording channel 108 does not process the recovered signal using decoding such as error-correction decoding, PRML decoding, RLL decoding, or other typical decoding because the fixed data pattern was not encoded during the write operation. Note, however, that the recovered signal may still be processed using a Viterbi detector. Recording channel 108 may analyze the recovered signal using any of a number of traditional flaw-scan techniques that exploit the recording channel's knowledge of the repetitive pattern. These flaw-scan techniques, which are typically performed after the recovered signal has been converted from analog-to-digital format, may include, for example, looking for distortions in the recovered signal (i) by cross-correlating the recovered signal with the expected signal, (ii) by verifying that the peaks of the recovered signal are in the proper position, and (iii) by comparing the peaks of the recovered signal to a threshold. If the peaks are not in the proper position or are below the threshold, then the area is flagged as defective. Further, the log-likelihood ratios that are generated by a Soft Output Viterbi detector or other soft detector may be used as potential flags for defective areas. Relatively long regions of defects in the recovered signal are flagged and may be mapped out of the usable disk space altogether. Areas of defects that are marginal (i.e., not relatively major and not relatively minor) are flagged and mapped to the subsequent (and possibly final) drive formatting so that they may be appropriately processed during the second defect-detection pass described below or may be more thoroughly examined by other defect detection methods. As an example, FIG. 2 shows the location of three exemplary marginal defects 210-1, 210-2, and 210-3 flagged on section 200 relative to the non-final formatting. First and second defects 210-1 and 210-2 are located in first fixed-pattern field 206-1 and third defect 210-3 is located in second fixed-pattern field 206-2. Referring again to FIG. 4, the reading mode is disabled at time t4, which, as shown in close-up 404, corresponds to the end of the fixed data pattern and to the beginning of inter-sector gap 204-2. Note that inter-sector gap 204-2 does not contain the fixed data pattern, and consequently, this gap is neither read nor analyzed for defects. At time t5, the servo mode is enabled, and a servo operation is performed to locate the next fixed-pattern field to analyze for defects (e.g., second fixed-pattern field 206-2). The reading operation described above is repeated for the next fixed-pattern field, and then is subsequently repeated for the remainder of the track in which section 200 resides. After the full track has been analyzed, the writing and reading operations of the first defect-detection pass are repeated on a track-by-track basis for the remaining tracks on platter 124. The first defect-detection pass is completed once all tracks on platter 124 have been analyzed for defects. After the first pass is completed, platter 124 is formatted using a subsequent formatting, and the second defect-detection pass is performed using the subsequent formatting. FIG. 5 shows a simplified representation of a subsequent disk formatting on the same section 200 of a track shown in FIG. 2. This subsequent formatting is typically the final formatting that is used by a consumer to write and read data. As shown, servo fields 202-1, 202-2, and 202-3 and the inter-sector gaps 204-1, 204-2, 204-3, and 204-4 remain unchanged from the non-final formatting of FIG. 2. Fixed-pattern fields 206-1 and 206-2 on the other hand are partitioned into a number of sectors (i.e., sectors 212-1, . . . , 212-5), which are separated from one another by inter-sector gaps (i.e., inter-sector gaps 204-5, . . . , 204-8). Generally, each sector comprises, from left to right, a preamble field, a sync-mark field, a user-data field, and a data-pad field. The user-data field is reserved for writing a fixed amount of actual user data, such as 512 bytes, and is framed by a sync-mark field and a data-pad field. The sync-mark field is reserved for writing a sync mark, which is used by recording channel 108 to determine the beginning of actual user data. The data-pad field is reserved for writing a data pad, which is used by recording channel 108 to close out detection of the user data. The preamble field, which precedes the sync-mark field, is reserved for writing preamble data, which is used by recording channel 108 to perform zero-phase starts, timing acquisition, and gain acquisition to lock on the user data stored on the corresponding sector. The preamble data, sync mark, and data pad are written each time that user data is written to a particular sector or a fragment of a sector. As shown in FIG. 5, first fixed-pattern field 206-1 of FIG. 2, is partitioned into two full sectors 212-1 and 212-2, a first half of sector 212-3, and two inter-sector gaps 204-5 and 204-6. First full sector 212-1 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-1 and 204-5, second full sector 212-2 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-5 and 204-6, and the first half of sector 212-3 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-6 and 204-2. Note that, while the first half of sector 212-3 is not a full sector, it still has a preamble field, sync-mark field, user-data field, and data-pad field. Second fixed-pattern field 206-1 of FIG. 2 is similarly partitioned into a second half of sector 212-3, two full sectors 212-4 and 212-5, and two inter-sector gaps 204-7 and 204-8. The second half of sector 212-3 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-3 and 204-7, fourth sector 212-4 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-7 and 204-8, and fifth sector 212-5 is flanked by inter-sector gaps 204-8 and 204-4. Similar to the first half of sector 212-3, the second half of sector 212-3 has a preamble field, sync-mark field, user-data field, and data-pad field. This formatting is repeated for the remainder of the track on which section 200 resides and is similar throughout the remainder of platter 124 (i.e., the remaining tracks). Tracks that are located closer to the center of platter 124 than section 200 may have smaller numbers of sectors due to their smaller circumferences, while tracks located farther from the center of platter 124 than section 200 may have larger numbers of sectors due to their larger circumferences. Further, depending on their circumferences, some tracks might not have sectors such as sector 212-3 that are split by a servo field. FIG. 5 also shows the location of the three exemplary marginal defects of FIG. 2, relative to the subsequent drive formatting. First defect 210-1 is located in the sync-mark field of sector 212-2, second defect 210-2 is located in the user-data field of the first half of sector 212-3, and third defect 210-3 is located in the user-data field of sector 212-4. These defects may be tracked during the second defect-detection pass to determine whether they warrant being mapped out of the final usable storage space of platter 124. FIG. 6 graphically illustrates a prior-art sequence 600 for writing a user data pattern to the first two and one-half sectors of section 200 shown in FIG. 5. At time t1, HD controller 104 enables the servo mode and performs a servo operation from times t1 to t2 to locate first servo field 202-1. After the servo mode is disabled, the write mode is enabled at time t3. The relatively brief delay from times t2 to t3 corresponds to write head 118 passing over inter-sector gap 204-1 without writing the user data pattern to the gap. Once the write mode is enabled, writing may be further delayed due to a delay in powering up preamplifier 112. Thus, as shown in close-up 602, although write mode is enabled at time t3, write head 118 might not begin writing the preamble until time t3a. The powering up of preamplifier 112 may be timed such that write head 118 begins writing the preamble as soon as inter-sector gap 204-1 has passed. Once actual writing begins, write head 118 writes a preamble and sync mark, which are generated by recording channel 108, to sector 212-1. The preamble and sync marks are typically fixed patterns and are not usually encoded. After the sync mark has been written, the user data pattern is written to the user-data field of first sector 212-1 so that the user data pattern is in phase lock with the preamble and sync mark. The user data pattern, which is provided to recording channel 108 by HD controller 104 via NRZ bus 106, passes through the normal encoding path of recording channel 108 before it is written (e.g., the user data pattern undergoes encoding such as RLL encoding, error-correction encoding, or other suitable coding). At the end of the user-data field of first sector 212-1, a data pad is generated by recording channel 108 and written to the end of sector 212-1. Write mode is disabled at time t4; however, writing may continue for a brief period of time until the data pad is complete (i.e., at time t4a) as shown in close-up 604. Termination of the write mode may be planned such that the writing of the data pad is completed in time to leave inter-sector gap 204-5 between sectors 212-1 and 212-2. Note that, when jitter is present, a portion of the data pad could actually overwrite some or all of inter-sector gap 204-5. If jitter is not present, then nothing is written to inter-sector gap 204-5; however, inter-sector gap 204-5 could have a varying polarity or phase from a previous write operation (e.g., the first defect-detection pass) or have no signal at all. The effects of jitter and previous writes apply to all inter-sector gaps, not just inter-sector gap 204-5. From times t5 to t8, full sector 212-2 and the first half of sector 212-3 are written in the same manner described above, without writing data to inter-sector gap 204-6. Once the first half of sector 212-3 has been written, the write mode is disabled at time t8 such that nothing is written to inter-sector gap 204-2. At time t9, the servo mode is enabled and a servo operation is performed to locate the next sectors for writing. The writing process described above is repeated for the remainder of sectors on the track in which section 200 resides. After the entire track has been written, the track is read back in a clockwise direction and analyzed by recording channel 108. FIG. 7 graphically illustrates a prior-art sequence 700 for reading a user data pattern stored on the first two and one-half sectors of section 200 shown in FIG. 5. At time t1, HD controller 104 enables the servo mode and performs a servo operation from times t1 to t2 to locate first servo field 202-1. After the servo mode is disabled, the read mode is enabled at time t3. The relatively brief delay from times t2 to t3 corresponds to read head 120 passing over inter-sector gap 204-1 without reading the gap. Since inter-sector gap 204-1 is not read, it is also not analyzed for defects. Once the read mode is enabled, there is a lock period 208-1, as shown in close-up 702, in which recording channel 108 performs a zero-phase start, timing acquisition, and gain acquisition to lock on the preamble of sector 212-1. Optimally, recording channel 108 would begin acquiring the lock at the beginning of the preamble. However, as shown in close-up 702 of FIG. 7, the read mode might not be enabled until after the beginning of the preamble has actually passed (i.e., read mode might be enabled at time t3 as opposed to time t2a). This relatively short delay between the beginning of the preamble and the enabling of the read mode may be introduced to ensure that recording channel 108 does not inadvertently attempt to perform the lock over inter-sector gap 204-1. Once recording channel 108 has obtained a lock on the preamble of sector 212-1, recording channel 108 uses the sync mark to locate the beginning of the user data pattern and then begins reading and analyzing the user data pattern at time t3a. The signal recovered from platter 124 at this time (i.e., the user data pattern) is converted from analog to digital format and a data-integrity check is performed on the recovered signal by processing the signal through the decoding path of recording channel 108 (e.g., the recovered signal undergoes error-correction, RLL decoding, and other suitable decoding). The decoding path is capable of correcting some errors in the recovered signal that may occur as a result of, for example, defects in the magnetic recording material that is coated on the face of platter 124. To create some margin for further degradation of the magnetic recording material in the field, the error-correction capabilities of the decoding path are typically reduced intentionally. If errors are present after decoding, then sector 212-1 is flagged as defective and mapped out of the final usable drive storage space. If the user data pattern is correctly recovered, then sector 212-1 is not mapped out of the final usable drive storage space. Note that, as explained above, the preamble, sync mark, and data pad are not processed through the decoding path of recording channel 108. As a result, a data-integrity check is not performed for these areas, and consequently, these areas are not analyzed during the second pass. At time t4, the reading mode is disabled, and just prior to this time, there is a close-out period 706 as shown in close-up 704 in which recording channel 108 uses the data pad to close out the reading operation. During close-out period 706, the data pad is not analyzed, and thus, this area is not checked for defects. After time t4, read head 120 passes over inter-sector gap 204-5, which is not read, nor analyzed for defects, assuming that the gap has not been overwritten due to jitter. As described above, inter-sector gap 204-5 could contain data that was recorded to the gap during a previous write. However, this data typically does not effect the reading operation since the user data pattern is framed by the sync mark and data pad. From times t5 to t8, full sector 212-2 and the first half of sector 212-3 are read in the same manner described above, without reading inter-sector gap 204-6. Once the first half of sector 212-3 has been read, the read mode is disabled at time t8 such that inter-sector gap 204-2 is not read. At time t9, the servo mode is enabled, and a servo operation is performed to locate the next sectors for reading. The reading process described above is repeated for the remainder of sectors on the track in which section 200 resides. After the entire track has been read, the writing and reading operations of the second defect-detection pass are repeated on a track-by-track basis. The second pass is completed once all tracks on platter 124 have been analyzed for defects. After the second pass, further analysis may be performed on the flagged defects to further determine whether the flagged defects warrant mapping out of the final usable disk storage space. The two-pass defect-detection method is relatively reliable for detecting defects during manufacturing. However, performing two passes may be relatively time consuming and costly to the manufacturer. To save time and cost, some manufactures have begun to use a single-pass method for detecting defects. In general, the prior-art single-pass defect-detection method omits the first pass of the two-pass method which is performed using the non-final formatting shown in FIG. 2, and instead performs a single pass using the subsequent formatting shown in FIG. 5. The single pass is performed by (i) writing a real user data pattern to a track of platter 124 in a manner similar to that described above in relation to FIG. 6. The track is then read back in a manner similar to that described above in relation to FIG. 7, and the user data pattern is analyzed using both data-integrity and flaw-scan techniques. This is in contrast to the second pass of the two-pass method which analyzes the user data using only data-integrity techniques. The flaw-scan techniques used in the prior-art single-pass method may be different from those described above in relation to the first pass of the prior-art two-pass method because the prior-art single-pass method analyzes a real user data pattern as opposed to a repetitive, fixed data pattern. As described above, the flaw-scan techniques used for the first pass exploit the recording channel's knowledge of the repetitive analog signal that is recovered when the fixed data pattern is read back from disk platter 124. Thus, the prior-art single-pass method may employ different techniques, such as windowing of the mean-squared-error, windowing of the gain error, and windowing of the phase error to analyze the analog signal that is recovered when a user data pattern, having encoding such as RLL and ECC encoding, is read back from disk platter 124. In addition to performing both data-integrity and flaw-scan techniques, the prior-art single-pass method may analyze some areas of disk platter 124 that are not analyzed during the second pass of the prior-art two-pass method. As described above, the prior-art second pass does not analyze the preamble, sync mark, and data pad of each sector, or the inter-sector gaps that separate consecutive sectors such as inter-sector gaps 204-5, 204-6, 204-7, and 204-8. To minimize these gaps in defect-detection coverage, the prior-art single-pass method may provide some limited coverage over the preamble. For example, recording channel 108 may use gain and timing lock metrics generated during lock periods 208-1, 208-2, . . . , 208-6 to analyze these areas of the preambles. The ability of recording channel 108 to analyze these lock periods, however, is generally limited to these techniques, and thus, defect detection is not as reliable during the lock periods as it would be if other flaw-scan techniques could be used.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an illumination optical system and a projection exposure apparatus using the same. 2. Related Background Art In recent years, the micropatterning techniques of semiconductor wafers have been greatly improved to realize highly integrated semiconductor devices such as ICs, LSIs, and the like. As principal projection exposure apparatuses of such micropatterning techniques, known are an equal-magnification projection exposure apparatus (mirror projection aligner) that performs exposure while scanning a reticle and a photosensitive substrate with respect to an equal-magnification mirror optical system having an arcuate exposure range, a reduction projection exposure apparatus (stepper) that forms a pattern image of a reticle on a photosensitive substrate by a refractive optical system to expose the photosensitive substrate by a step-and-repeat scheme, and the like. Also known is a step-and-scan type scanning projection exposure apparatus that can obtain a high resolution and can increase the screen size. In the stepper, a reticle on which an electronic circuit pattern is formed to have a size m times the required size is illuminated by an illumination optical system, and the pattern on the reticle is projected onto the wafer surface at a reduced scale of 1/mx by a projection optical system. The scanning projection exposure apparatus employs a projection optical system for transferring a portion of the pattern on the reticle onto the wafer, an illumination optical system for illuminating the portion of the pattern on the reticle by forming a slit-like light beam, and a scan mechanism for scanning the reticle and wafer at a predetermined speed ratio with respect to the slit-like light beam and the projection optical system so as to scan and expose a pattern on a reticle onto a wafer. A reticle formed with an electronic circuit pattern normally has a rectangular shape, and its pattern region has various sizes. On the other hand, the effective illumination range of the illumination optical system that illuminates the reticle surface in the projection exposure apparatus normally has a circular shape. For this reason, upon projecting and exposing the reticle pattern onto the wafer surface, a portion of the effective illumination range is shielded by a masking mechanism or the like to obtain a rectangular light beam similar to the reticle pattern shape. As described above, in the conventional projection exposure apparatus, since the portion of the effective illumination range is shielded by the masking mechanism to illuminate the reticle surface, the illumination efficiency is low. In order to solve this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,885 discloses an optical integrator in which cylindrical lenses are arranged to cross each other so as to obtain an illumination range corresponding to an arcuate slit. On the other hand, in recent years, in order to improve the resolution and focal depth, modified illumination stops having various shapes (e.g., a ring like shape) are arranged at the light exit side of the optical integrator. The optical integrator is used as a member for forming a plurality of secondary light sources in the vicinity of the exit sides of the individual elementary lenses that make up the integrator, and for forming a uniform illumination region by integrating light emanating from these secondary light sources. However, when the number of the elementary lenses (corresponding to the number of secondary light sources) used in the optical integrator is reduced using a modified illumination stop, the uniformity of illumination lowers. In order to improve the uniformity of illumination, the diameters of the elementary lenses are reduced, and the number of elementary lenses used is increased. However, since the size of an elementary lens that can be manufactured is limited, it is difficult to increase the number of elementary lenses as conventional refractive optical elements.

1. Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to communication systems; and more particularly to high-speed serial bit stream communications. 2. Description of Related Art The structure and operation of communication systems is generally well known. Communication systems support the transfer of information from one location to another location. Early examples of communication systems included the telegraph and the public switch telephone network (PSTN). When initially constructed, the PSTN was a circuit switched network that supported only analog voice communications. As the PSTN advanced in its structure and operation, it supported digital communications. The Internet is a more recently developed communication system that supports digital communications. As contrasted to the PSTN, the Internet is a packet switch network. The Internet consists of a plurality of switch hubs and digital communication lines that interconnect the switch hubs. Many of the digital communication lines of the Internet are serviced via fiber optic cables (media). Fiber optic media supports high-speed communications and provides substantial bandwidth, as compared to copper media. At the switch hubs, switching equipment is used to switch data communications between digital communication lines. WANs, Internet service providers (ISPs), and various other networks access the Internet at these switch hubs. This structure is not unique to the Internet, however. Portions of the PSTN, wireless cellular network infrastructure, Wide Area Networks (WANs), and other communication systems also employ this same structure. The switch hubs employ switches to route incoming traffic and outgoing traffic. A typical switch located at a switch hub includes a housing having a plurality of slots that are designed to receive Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) upon which integrated circuits and various media connectors are mounted. The PCBs removably mount within the racks of the housing and typically communicate with one another via a back plane of the housing. Each PCB typically includes at least two media connectors that couple the PCB to a pair of optical cables and/or copper media. The optical and/or copper media serves to couple the PCB to other PCBs located in the same geographic area or to other PCBs located at another geographic area. For example, a switch that services a building in a large city couples via fiber media to switches mounted in other buildings within the city and switches located in other cities and even in other countries. Typically, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) mounted upon the PCBs of the housing. These ASICs perform switching operations for the data that is received on the coupled media and transmitted on the coupled media. The coupled media typically terminates in a receptacle and transceiving circuitry coupled thereto performs signal conversion operations. In most installations, the media, e.g., optical media, operates in a simplex fashion. In such case, one optical media carries incoming data (RX data) to the PCB while another optical media carries outgoing data (TX data) from the PCB. Thus, the transceiving circuitry typically includes incoming circuitry and outgoing circuitry, each of which couples to a media connector on a first side and communicatively couples to the ASIC on a second side. The ASIC may also couple to a back plane interface that allows the ASIC to communicate with other ASICs located in the enclosure via a back plane connection. The ASIC is designed and implemented to provide desired switching operations. The operation of such enclosures and the PCBs mounted therein is generally known. The conversion of information from the optical media or copper media to a signal that may be received by the ASIC and vice versa requires satisfaction of a number of requirements. First, the coupled physical media has particular RX signal requirements and TX signal requirements. These requirements must be met at the boundary of the connector to the physical media. Further, the ASIC has its own unique RX and TX signal requirements. These requirements must be met at the ASIC interface. Thus, the transceiving circuit that resides between the physical media and the ASIC must satisfy all of these requirements. Various standardized interfaces have been employed to couple the transceiving circuit to the ASIC. These standardized interfaces include the XAUI interface, the Xenpak interface, the GBIC interface, the XGMII interface, and the SFI-5 interface, among others. The SFI-5 interface, for example, includes 16 data lines, each of which supports a serial bit stream having a nominal bit rate of 2.5 Giga bits-per-second (GBPS). Line interfaces also have their own operational characteristics. Particular high-speed line interfaces are the OC-768 interface and the SEL-768 interface. Each of these interfaces provides a high-speed serial interface operating at a nominal bit rate of 40 GBPS. Particular difficulties arise in converting data between the 40×1 GBPS line interface and the 16×12.5 GBPS communication ASIC interface. In particular, operation on the 40 GBPS side requires the ability to switch data at a very high bit rate, e.g., exceeding the bit rate possible with a CMOS integrated circuit formed of Silicon. While other materials, e.g., Indium-Phosphate and Silicon-Germanium provide higher switching rates than do Silicon based devices, they are very expensive and difficult to manufacture. Further, the functional requirements of interfacing the 40×1 GBPS line interface and the 16×12.5 GBPS communication ASIC interface are substantial. Thus, even if a device were manufactured that could perform such interfacing operations, the effective yield in an Indium-Phosphate or Silicon-Germanium process would be very low. Thus, there is a need in the art for low cost and high speed interface that couples a high-speed line side interface to a communication ASIC.

The prior art is already aware of safety mechanisms, such as safety controls, for use in hydraulic equipment wherein the hydraulic line is broken or the hydraulic pump is turned off. One such example of a control is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,964,016, and that patent is showing apparatus useful in retaining a lifted load in an elevated position even though the hydraulic pressure is inadvertently reduced. The present invention is an improvement upon this type of apparatus, and it accomplishes the arrangement of a hydraulic safety system which is self-actuating and is reliable and operative in the event that the hydraulic pressure is inadvertently reduced, and the lifted load or the like will not be immediately released in response to the reduced hydraulic pressure. Another object of this invention is to provide a hydraulic safety system which is simplified in its apparatus and in its installation, and to provide one which can be readily and easily installed in a hydraulic system and is constantly available and is reusable for locking the system in an operative position when the hydraulic pressure is inadvertently reduced, such as by having a hydraulic line break. As such, the present invention provides a fail-safe system, for the purposes mentioned above. Still further, the present invention provides a hydraulic safety system which is automatically operative, under the conditions and for the reasons mentioned above, and one which can also be manually operated to release it from a locked position wherein the work load is being supported even though the hydraulic line or the like has failed to retain hydraulic pressure. In accomplishing this object, the manual release is arranged so that it can be operated to gradually release the hydraulic pressurizing and sustaining of the lifted load, for instance, and thus the safety lock or like element of this invention provides for automatic safety and also for controlled manual release of same. Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings.

In the early stage of drug development a vast number of new chemical compounds frequently are synthesized, often using pioneering chemistry at considerable effort and expense in order to supply various preclinical test programs with raw material. It is easy to perceive that these newly synthesized materials may appear in both extremely limited quantities and in forms which are difficult to handle. It is therefore a demand to bring such raw drug candidates into a manageable form more adapted to the models already developed for making the initial necessary steps to study their characteristics. A number of general requirements may already generally be set on such a methodology for improving the manageability. The methodology shall increase the dissolution rate of the compound, preferably in an aqueous system. The methodology shall admit low process losses, it shall preferably be operable at ambient temperature and it shall result in a highly defined form of the compound. A very desirable preclinical model is represented by systems arranging inhalation exposures both for outlining the suitability of drug candidates for pulmonary delivery and for studying clinical and toxicological effects. A suitable such exposure system employing an aerosolized drug candidate is described in the Swedish Patent application No. 0701569-6, while a target pulmonary model is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 60/934,070 and a useful aerosolizing device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,512. Together, this technology, hereinafter referred to as the dustgun technology, provides a powerful tool in drug development capable of handling low amounts of powdered compound, i.e. in the mg scale. Yet, this technology, allowing an effective deagglomeration of powders, still require a substrate particle size that is smaller or equal to the desired particle size distribution of the generated aerosols. There are several methods available to provide the dustgun system with powders fine enough to allow generation of respirable aerosols including milling, spray drying and supercritical spray drying. Of these methods, conventional spray drying is the one that has the potential to allow production of very small batches of powder with yields high enough for use with very expensive drug candidates. In milling procedures there are too large losses to the vessel walls and for supercritical spray drying the adjustment of the relatively complicated process tend to consume too much substance before a sufficient quality and quantity of the materials have been obtained. Even with conventional spray drying systems, commercial as well as custom made ones (Lädhe et al., 2006), the production goal is usually in the scale of grams and upward. This is too much for being optimal for the early synthesis steps in preclinical development. To be optimal for utilizing the dustgun system in early drug development a suitable quantity for powder formulation in a spray dryer system would be in the range of 20-100 mg. With such a small production goal it is possible to reach one important advantage over higher capacity system: to remove most of the solvent vapors from the aerosol stream in the drying column before the particles are separated. Most commercial systems with higher production goals rely on using heated drying gas to quickly evaporate the solvent from the particles before separation of particles from the process stream using filters or cyclones (Lädhe et al., 2006). However, the high volumetric flow rate through the apparatuses is unsuitable for production goals around 100 mg. Already at higher production goals the product yield of cyclones is usually considerably lower than 60% (Prinn et al., 2002; Maury et al., 2005). The removal of solvent vapors before direct use of the resulting aerosol for inhalation exposures has been previously described (Pham and Wiedmann, 1999; Wiedmann and Ravichandran, 2001). These systems have relied on diffusional drying by passing the process aerosol through a column with vapor-absorptive material accessible through the perforated walls of the drying column. The draw backs of this system are the complicated method by which the absorptive pellets of the drying column regularly must be changed, and the fact that the absorptive material will be contaminated with the dried substances. Countercurrent drying is commonly used in the food industry for manufacturing of for example powdered milk. However in these examples the product particles are dried by gravitational settling within the ascending dry air stream (Piatkowski and Zbicinski, 2007). The settling rate of the particles must then be on the order of 10 cm/sec, which limit production to particles >50 μm. This countercurrent method cannot be used for pharmaceutical agents with a desired product particle size of <5 μm, where settling speeds are in the range of mm/min. Accordingly, there is need for a spray drying system and system that is adapted for obtaining small quantities of suitably manageable formulation of drug candidates in the form of dry, near solvent free powder, especially a powder with particle size in the range of 1-5 suitable for generating respirable aerosols with the dustgun technology. The present invention as it is described in the following section aims at providing a dry, solvent free powder from small amounts of raw, freshly synthesized chemical compounds suitable for aerosol generation, but also potentially useful for a number other applications also outside the context of drug development.

This invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for the fabrication of a spiral fin wherein a strip of material of rectangular cross section is formed into a spiral shape and wound on the outer periphery of a tube in one operation. One constituent element of a heat exchanger is a finned tube having a spiral fin wound on the outer periphery of the tube. The finned tube is produced by what is generally referred to as a rolling and bending operation whereby a strip of metal of rectangular cross section payed out of a supply reel is rolled by a roll of a larger diameter, referred to as a rolling pan (or a pan roll), and a roll of a smaller diameter, referred to as a spindle roll, arranged in predetermined spacing relation with respect to the former roll with the rolling reduction being increased linearly in going from the inner edge of the spiral fin in contact with a tube toward the outer edge thereof, so that the strip is bent spirally and at the same time wound on the tube. It is known that the inner diameter of a spiral fin is determined by the difference in rolling reduction between the inner edge portion and the outer edge portion of the fin when the width of the strip is constant. Thus, to fabricate a spiral fin of a small inner diameter by using a strip of a constant width, it is necessary that the difference in rolling reduction between the inner edge portion and the outer edge portion of the strip be increased. That is, the outer edge portion should have a larger rolling reduction. Generally, in a rolling operation, the strip can be bitten well by the rolls and drawn quickly between the rolls when a rolling reduction is small. However, as a rolling reduction increases, slip would occur between the strip and the rolls, so that the strip would not be bitten well by the rolls and would be drawn with difficulty between the rolls. In rolling and bending a strip to fabricate a spiral fin, the strip is drawn between the rolls at a speed close to the drawing speed at which the widthwise central portion of the strip, having a substantially mean rolling reduction, is drawn and rolled by the rolls, because the inner edge portion and the outer edge portion of the spiral fin have different rolling reductions. Because of this, slip has tended to occur between the rolls and the strip in a portion thereof corresponding to the inner edge portion of the spiral fin. Meanwhile, the strip has a tendency to be subjected, in a portion thereof corresponding to the outer edge portion of the spiral fin, to a compressive force which forces the strip between the rolls, due to the fact that the strip is fed between the rolls in this portion at a speed higher than the rolling speed of the strip as a whole. When the spiral fin to be fabricated has a small inner diameter as compared with the width of the strip used, the compressive force applied to a portion of the strip corresponding to the outer edge portion of the spiral fin, as described hereinabove, would increase in intensity, so that partial buckling would occur in the strip immediately before being drawn between the rolls. Thus, the fabricated spiral fin would have riffles in its outer edge portion which would render the spiral fin unacceptable for specifications. When such riffles occur in the outer edge portions, processing of the spiral fin in the following steps would be interferred with, thereby reducing the operation efficiency in the fabrication of the spiral fin. When the difference in rolling reduction between the inner edge portion and the outer edge portion of the spiral fin is increased to obtain a small inner diameter in the spiral fin, the compressive force applied to the outer edge portion of the spiral fin is increased in intensity as aforesaid, and this would increase the thickness of the strip before it is drawn between the rolls. Combined with deformation of the rolls due to an increase in rolling load, this would result in the strip being bitten intermittently by the rolls or the strip not being bitten at all. When the strip is intermittently bitten by the rolls, rupture would occur in the outer edge portion of the fabricated spiral fin. When the strip is bitten by the rolls, it would be impossible to continue the rolling and bending operation. Under these circumstances, it has not been the performance which a finned tube of a heat exchanger is required to show but the limitations placed by the operation to be performed on a strip for fabricating a spiral fin that have been a predominant factor in deciding the dimensions of the spiral fins and tubes. Thus, the present tendency is to use tubes and spiral fins of larger dimensions than are necessary, raising the serious problem of wasting material from the point of view of conserving natural resources and reducing production cost.

Conventionally, a power management system reacts to power outages by utilizing backup power provided by the backup generators, batteries, or other backup power sources. The conventional power management system generates a notification to inform a remote client that the power source supplying a collection of servers has changed over to a backup power source from a primary power source. An administrator that receives the notification from the remote client decides how to react to the switch from the primary power source while the collection of servers continue to operate on the backup power sources, which have a limited supply of power. Typically, the conventional power management systems continue operating the collection of servers on the backup power source until the primary power source is reestablished or until the backup power source is exhausted. In some instances, the conventional power management systems are configured with shutdown threshold power levels that are associated each backup power source. When the collection of servers operating on the backup power sources consume backup power to the extent that power levels of the backup power sources reach the shutdown threshold power level, all servers in the collection of servers are shutdown by the conventional power management systems. The conventional power management systems only perform a logical shutdown on all servers in the collection of servers and do not continue operating critical servers on the backup power source after the shutdown threshold is satisfied. In other words, the conventional power management systems fail to consider the relative importance of each server in the collection of servers during a power outage.

Protective packaging structures are often used when an object to be packaged requires protection from physical shock, dust, dirt and other contaminants. For example, when shipping objects which may be relatively fragile, it is often desirable to package the object inside a box to protect the object from physical impacts to the box which may occur during loading, transit and unloading. In addition, when shipping objects such as computer components, it is often desirable to protect those components from dust and dirt. Additionally, in most cases, some additional structure is used to keep an object within a box from moving uncontrollably in the box and thus incurring damage. Such additional structures include paper or plastic dunnage, structured plastic foams, and foam filled cushions, among others. One useful form of packaging for especially fragile objects is referred to as suspension packaging, and examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,743 issued to Louis H. Ridgeway and U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,701 issued to Devin C. Ridgeway. In suspension packaging, the object is suspended between two sheets of plastic film material in a face-to-face relationship. The sheets are usually attached to frames which are sized to fit securely within a selected size box. Thus, the object is not in contact with any substantially rigid surfaces and is protected from physical shock. It is not necessary in all cases, however, for the object to be entirely suspended within the box, such as when packaging less fragile objects. In such cases, the extra space required for full suspension packaging becomes a less efficient use of materials. A different type of packaging system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,896 to Jones. The packaging system includes a sheet material of corrugated cardboard having a central fold line extending longitudinally along the sheet material, and two fold lines extending transversely thereto. A sleeve or tube made of a flexible and stretchable material is disposed around the sheet material and is of sufficient dimensions to fit in a flat condition loosely over the width of the sheet material. The sheet material is first folded along the central fold line, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the object to be packaged is inserted between the sheet material and the flexible tube. The end portions are then folded upwardly along the transverse fold lines into a generally perpendicular position to cause the sheet material to flatten out and hold the object against the sheet material. The assembly may then be placed in a box as shown in FIG. 6. To ensure that the object is securely held, the tube must be properly dimensioned to fit the particular object being packaged. Thus, objects that vary somewhat in size from the size for which the package is designed (i.e., slightly smaller objects), would not be held securely in the package. Another type of packaging structure is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,307,804 to Benham and has a paperboard main panel with a cut-out and first and second side support panels defined by parallel hinge lines. A heat shrinkable film is bonded to the support panel so that the article to be packaged may be inserted in the manner shown in FIG. 3. The package must then be heated so that the heat shrinkable film draws the support panels together to secure the object being packaged.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an aluminum nitride sintered body and a method of producing the same, and to a metal including member used as a function gradient member in which a metal member is embedded in an aluminum nitride sintered body. Moreover, the present invention especially relates to an electrostatic chuck preferably used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. 2. Related Art Statement Generally, an electrostatic chuck is used for chucking a semiconductor wafer in film forming steps of transferring, exposing, chemical vapor depositing, and spattering the semiconductor wafer, or in steps of micro-machining, washing, etching, and dicing. As a substrate member of the electrostatic member, a densified ceramics is sometimes used. Particularly, in a field of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses, a halogen corrosive gas such as ClF is frequently used as an etching gas or a cleaning gas. Moreover, in order to rapidly heat or cool the semiconductor wafer while the semiconductor wafer is chucked, it is desirable that the substrate member of the electrostatic chuck has a high thermal conductivity. Further, in order not to fracture the substrate member due to a rapid temperature variation, it is desirable that the substrate member has a thermal shock resistivity. A densified aluminum nitride has a high corrosion resistivity with respect to the halogen corrosive gas mentioned above. Moreover, it is known that aluminum nitride has a high thermal conductivity and its volume resistivity is greater than 10.sup.14 .OMEGA..multidot.cm. Further, it is known that aluminum nitride has a high thermal shock resistivity. Therefore, it is preferred to form the substrate member of the electrostatic chuck for the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus using an aluminum nitride sintered body. On the other hand, in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, in order to use the electrostatic chuck as a suscepter for holding the semiconductor wafer, it is necessary to decrease the resistivity of the substrate member. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-19831, in order to improve a chucking property of the electrostatic chuck, the volume resistivity of an insulation dielectric layer of the electrostatic chuck is decreased to smaller than 10.sup.13 .OMEGA..multidot.cm by mixing a conductive material or a semiconductive material into an insulation member having a high volume resistivity. Moreover, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-22166, ceramic raw materials made of alumina as a main ingredient are sintered under a reduction atmosphere to produce a dielectric ceramic for the electrostatic chuck. In this case, 1-6 wt % of alkali earth metal and 0.5-6 wt % of transition metal, both shown as a weight of oxide, are included in the ceramic raw materials. In this method, for example, a dielectric rate is improved by mixing TiO.sub.2 into alumina ceramics and a volume resistivity is decreased to 10.sup.12 -10.sup.18 .OMEGA..multidot.cm, to obtain a high chucking property. However, the volume resistivity of a highly purified alumina nitride sintered body is greater than 10.sup.14 .OMEGA..multidot.cm, and thus it is too high to use as the substrate member of the electrostatic chuck for the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. In this case, in order to obtain a sufficient chucking property, it is necessary to form an extremely thin insulation dielectric layer having a thickness smaller than 300 .mu.m. However, if the insulation dielectric layer is thin as mentioned above, there is a possibility of generating an insulation fracture and so on from one of the reaction layers in a surface of the insulation dielectric layer. From this point of view, we understand that it is preferred to make the thickness of the insulation dielectric layer greater than 500 .mu.m. However, in the known electrostatic chuck made of aluminum nitride, if the insulation dielectric layer is made thick as mentioned above, a chucking property of the electrostatic chuck is decreased, and thus it is difficult to obtain a sufficient chucking property particularly in a low temperature region in which a volume resistivity is high. Usually, a dry etching process is performed under a low temperature of -50.degree. C..about.-60.degree. C., and a highly densified plasma CVD process is performed at about 100.degree. C. In these low temperature processes, it is difficult to obtain a predetermined chucking property stably. In the electrostatic chuck in which aluminum nitride is used for a material of the substrate member, we think it is effective to add a metal member having a low resistivity in the substrate member as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-19831. However, in the electrostatic chuck mentioned above, the metal member having a low resistivity and so on is detached from a surface of the substrate member, and thus there is a possibility of being a cause of semiconductor pollution. Therefore, it is not preferred to use the electrostatic chuck mentioned above for a highly purified semiconductor process such as a process for 8 inch wafer.

The present invention relates to mounting and connection devices for use with microelectronic elements such as semiconductor chips. Complex microelectronic devices such as modern semiconductor chips require numerous connections to other electronic components. For example, a complex microprocessor chip may require hundreds of connections to external devices. Semiconductor chips have commonly been connected to electrical traces on mounting substrates using several alternative methods, including wire bonding, tape automated bonding and flip-chip bonding. Each of these techniques presents various problems including difficulty in testing the chip after bonding, long lead lengths, large areas occupied by the chip on the microelectronic assembly, and fatigue of the connections due to changes in the sizes of the chip and the substrate under thermal expansion and contraction. Structures that have been used to successfully address the foregoing problems are disclosed in commonly assigns U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,148,265; 5,148,266; and 5,455,390. Structures according to the embodiments taught in these patents comprise a flexible, sheet-like element having a plurality of terminals disposed thereon. Flexible leads are used to connect the terminals with contacts on a first microelectronic element such as an integrated circuit. The terminals may then be used to test the microelectronic chip, and may be subsequently bonded to a second microelectronic element. The flexible leads permit thermal expansion of various components without inducing stresses in the connection. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,964 (xe2x80x9cthe ""964 patentxe2x80x9d), hereby incorporated in its entirety herein, discloses further improvements in microelectronic connections. In certain embodiments of the ""964 patent, a flexible, sheet-like element has a first surface with a plurality of elongated, flexible leads extending from a terminal end attached to the sheet-like element to a tip end offset from the terminal end in a preselected, first horizontal direction parallel to the sheet-like element. The tip ends have bond pads for connection to a microelectronic element. As the term is used herein, xe2x80x9cmicroelectronic elementxe2x80x9d encompasses circuit boards, integrated circuits, connection components such as polyimide or other dielectric sheets, and other components used in microelectronic circuitry. Each of the plurality of leads is simultaneously formed by moving all of the tip ends of the leads relative to the terminal ends thereof so as to bend the tip ends away from the sheet-like element. This is accomplished by relative movement between the sheet-like element and the microelectronic element. The tip ends of the leads are initially attached to the sheet-like element. The initial position of the bond pad on the tip ends is thereby fixed with respect to the terminal ends in order to facilitate attachment to the microelectronic element. Various lead configurations are disclosed in the ""964 patent. In one such configuration, the leads comprise straight, elongated bodies of conductive material extending between terminal ends connected to a dielectric sheet-like element and tip ends to be connected to a microelectronic element. The terminal end of the lead is attached through a via in the sheet-like element to another microelectronic element on the other side of the sheet-like element. The attachment of the tip ends of the leads to the sheet-like element is releasable. After bonding the tip ends to the microelectronic element, the leads are formed in their final configuration by moving the sheet-like element and the microelectronic elements relative to each other in two directions: in a vertical direction away from each other, and in a horizontal direction parallel to the sheet-like element. As a result, the tip end of the lead is separated from the sheet-like element and traces an arcuate path relative to the other end of the lead. That movement prevents stretching of the lead during formation and results in an S-shaped configuration of the lead that is advantageous in absorbing further relative movement between the sheet-like element and the microelectronic element due to thermal expansion/contraction during operation of the resulting device. In another lead configuration taught in the ""964 patent, the lead is initially a curved strip disposed on a surface of the sheet-like element. A terminal end of the lead is connected to a terminal through a via in the sheet-like element and a tip end is bonded to a microelectronic element. In forming those leads to a final configuration, the sheet-like element and the microelectronic element are moved away from each other in a vertical direction only. The curve of the lead is partially straightened by the relative movement of the elements. The xe2x80x9cslackxe2x80x9d created by the initial curve in the lead permits vertical displacement of the microelectronic components without the necessity of providing additional lead length by horizontally displacing the components. A number of such configurations of curved leads are disclosed in the ""964 patent. An S-shaped lead structure permits nesting of adjacent leads in configurations requiring a high lead density. A U-shaped lead configuration permits a larger relative displacement of the microelectronic components in a vertical direction without a corresponding horizontal displacement. Numerous other lead configurations are contemplated in the ""964 patent. Still further improvement in the above-described configurations and processes would be desirable. One aspect of the present invention provides a microelectronic lead element for connecting first and second microelectronic elements. The lead element comprises a body section and two strip-like flexible leg sections. Each leg section has a base end connected to the body section and a tip end offset from the body section in a horizontal offset direction. Each tip end is attached to a corresponding one of the two microelectronic elements. The leg sections are substantially parallel to one another so that movement of one of the tip ends with respect to the other in a vertical direction perpendicular to the horizontal offset direction causes flexure of the leg sections in opposite directions relative to the rigid body. The tip ends may have bonding material thereon facing in opposite vertical directions. The body may be rigid and may have a thickness greater than or the same as the thickness of the leg sections, and the leg sections and the body section may be gold, copper, nickel or similar materials or composites thereof. A microelectronic assembly is formed by a plurality of such lead elements connecting first and second microelectronic elements having horizontal surfaces facing one another. One tip end of each lead element is connected to one of the microelectronic elements, and a second tip end is connected to the other microelectronic element so that the lead elements electrically interconnect the microelectronic elements. A dielectric sheet may overlie a surface of one of the microelectronic elements, with the rigid body and leg sections of the lead elements have coplanar surfaces releasably attached to the dielectric sheet. The dielectric sheet has a via proximate to one of the tip ends for connection of that tip end to one of the microelectronic elements. The microelectronic assembly may be processed by moving the first and second microelectronic elements away from one another in a vertical direction to bend the leg sections of the lead elements. In another aspect of the invention, a microelectronic assembly has first and second microelectronic elements with horizontal surfaces facing one another, and a plurality of lead elements disposed between those surfaces. Each lead element includes two elongated, flexible leads, each lead having a terminal end connected to a horizontal surface of the corresponding microelectronic element, and a tip end movable away from that microelectronic element and offset from the terminal end in a horizontal direction, also referred to herein as the xe2x80x9coffset direction.xe2x80x9d The tip ends of the two flexible leads are in registry and are connected. The terminal ends of the two leads in each of the lead elements may be aligned with one another. Upon movement of the microelectronic elements away from one another, the lead elements deform. The connected tip ends of the leads are pulled away from the microelectronic elements, and may lie approximately midway between the microelectronic elements in the finished assembly. The offset directions of the two lead elements may be the same. Further, offset directions of different ones of the lead elements may be different from one another. In that case, there may be a substantially equal number of lead elements having opposite offset directions. The assembly may further comprise a first dielectric sheet overlying the facing surface of the first microelectronic element; a similar dielectric sheet may overlie the facing surface of the second microelectronic element. The leads are releasably attached to the dielectric sheets, and the dielectric sheets have vias near the terminal ends of the leads for connection of the leads to the microelectronic elements. In another embodiment of the invention, a connector element for connecting first and second microelectronic elements comprises a dielectric sheet with first and second primary surfaces and a plurality of lead elements. Each of those lead elements includes a first elongated, flexible lead overlying the first surface of the dielectric element, and has a terminal end and a tip end offset from the terminal end in a first offset direction. Each lead element also has a second, elongated, flexible lead overlying the second surface of the dielectric sheet. The second lead has a terminal end connected to the terminal end of the first lead and a tip end offset from the terminal end of the second lead in a second offset direction. The tip ends of both leads are releasably attached to the surfaces of the dielectric sheet. Within each lead element, the terminal ends of the first and second leads may be aligned with one another. Further, a plurality of vias may extend between the primary surfaces of the dielectric sheet, and at least some of the lead elements may have terminal ends of their first and second leads connected to one another through the vias. Within each lead element, the first and second offset directions may be the same. Furthermore, the first and second offset directions of all the lead elements may be the same. In addition, the amount of offset between the tip ends and the terminal ends in all of the lead elements may be the same. On at least some of the leads, there may be bonding material on the tip ends facing away from the surface of the dielectric sheet that lead is overlying. The tip ends of the first and second leads in each of the lead elements may be aligned with one another. In another aspect of the invention, a microelectronic assembly comprises such a connector element in combination with first and second microelectronic elements with horizontal surfaces facing one another. The connector element is disposed between the mutually facing surfaces of the microelectronic elements. The tip end of the first lead of each of the lead elements is connected to the first microelectronic element, and the tip end of the second lead of each of the lead elements is connected to the second microelectronic element. The lead elements thus electrically interconnect the microelectronic elements. In a method of processing such a microelectronic assembly, the first and second microelectronic elements are moved away from one another in a vertical direction to bend the lead elements and displace the dielectric sheet in a horizontal direction. These and other objects, features and advantages to the present invention will be more readily apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments set forth below, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

This disclosure generally relates to network analysis systems, and in particular relates to wireless mesh network analysis systems and methods. Wireless mesh networking is an emerging technology for enabling wireless interconnections between a variety of devices, such as sensors, actuators, switches, communication devices, and other network devices. The network devices may be implemented to support a variety of applications, such as home automation, building and industrial automation, environmental monitoring, data communication, etc. Wireless mesh networks typically implement a dynamic topology in which devices are associated and disassociated with other devices in the network and in which the roles and responsibilities of such devices may change over time. Thus there are unique challenges to developing, deploying and managing wireless networks. Disclosed herein is a novel network analysis system and method that facilitates the capturing of network data for analysis, measurement, and visualization. The capturing of network data may be implemented in-band or out-of-band from the network. Captured network data may be analyzed in real time or stored for later analysis. Measurements obtained from the analysis may relate to network performance, device performance, route performance, or other network characteristics. The topology of the network may be graphically displayed, and measurement data may be accessible via the graphical display of the network topology. In one embodiment, a system for analyzing a packet-based network includes a correlator processor that is configured to receive packet records corresponding to packets communicated over a network and store the packet records in a data store. The correlator processor is also configured to generate correlated packet records from the packet records stored in the data store, the correlated packet records representative of the order in which the packets were transmitted in the network. In another embodiment, a system for analyzing a packet-based network includes a wireless network analysis processing device that is configured to receive correlated packet records representative of the order in which corresponding packets are transmitted in a wireless network. The correlated packet records include media access control (MAC) layer data and network layer data for each corresponding packet. The MAC layer data and network layer data are processed to generate network topology data representative of the network topology, generate packet flow data representative of the flow of packets between devices at the MAC layer and across the network at the network layer, and measurement data relating to the packet flow data. In another embodiment, a system for analyzing a packet-based network includes a packet-based wireless network visualization system. The packet-based wireless network visualization system includes a data store, an input/output subsystem including a display device, and a processing subsystem. The system is configured to receive network topology data, packet flow record data, and measurements data over the input/output subsystem and store the network topology data, packet flow record data, and measurements data in the data store. Based on the stored data, the system generates a visual representation of a network topology on the display based on the network topology data, generates a visual representation of packet flows within the network topology based on the packet flow records, and selectively displays measurement data related to the packet flows and network topology based on the measurements data. The visual representation of the network topology includes device objects, associations of device objects and a plurality of layer representations. In another embodiment, a system for analyzing a packet-based network includes a plurality of capture devices configured to monitor packets communicated over the network and create the corresponding packet records. Each capture device includes a capture clock and each capture device is further configured to include a timestamp in each packet record corresponding to the capture clock time the capture device detects the start of frame of a packet. In one embodiment, the capture devices may communicate with a correlator processor in-band over the wireless network being observed. In another embodiment, the capture devices may communicate with a correlator processor out-of-band over another data network, e.g. a local area network (LAN). In another embodiment, the capture devices may simultaneously perform an active network device role and perform a passive sniffing role to capture network data.

This invention relates generally to fishing equipment, and more particularly the invention relates to a holder for a rod and either a spinning or a casting reel. Disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,654 is a fishing rod holder for casting and spinning reels in which a holster for supporting the rod and reel has a rigid clamp or locking ring for locking the rod and reel in the holster. The rigid clamp is rotatably positioned in a recess in the holster for locking and releasing the rod and reel. The clamp is semi-circular in cross section which allows the rigid body to be positioned on the holster in the recess. A screw engaging the holster and riding in a slot in the clamp maintains the clamp on the holster. The present invention is an improvement to the fishing rod holder described in my patent.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to anesthesia ventilation systems, more particularly to anesthesia spirometer and circle absorption circuits, and especially to cleaning such circuits. 2. Background In a modern medical clinical setting, it is frequently necessary to assist and control the breathing of a patient who is unable to breathe independently. The anesthesia ventilation systems used for this purpose commonly include a device known as an anesthesia circle absorption system. The patient breathes through this device. When inhaling, the patient draws gases from the closed circle absorption system through a breathing circuit via a unidirectional inhalation valve. When the patient exhales, the inhalation valve closes and an exhalation valve, which was closed during inhalation, opens. The exhaled gases pass through the exhalation valve and into absorbent canisters where carbon dioxide is removed from the exhaled gases. Because the patient s breath includes a mixture of water vapor and biological matter possibly including pathogens, the absorber circuit must be cleaned and dried in order to remain sanitary. Sanitation has taken on renewed importance after several recent and alarming reports of the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in medical facilities. Cleaning and drying should be completed before the circuit is used again. As a practical matter, this should be done quickly in order to minimize the time the circuit is out of service. Generally, the absorbent canisters are also replaced before the next use. Thus, efficiency and convenience favor cleaning the circuit at that time rather than waiting until later or leaving the circuit disassembled. It is also preferable for practical reasons to accomplish these tasks in or near the operating room rather than transporting the circuit to a remote cleaning facility. It is also desirable to avoid the inconvenience of immersing the whole circuit in a cleaning tank, although certain components may be removed and dealt with separately. What is needed is an efficient, rapid way of cleaning and drying the absorber circuit without transporting it to a remote location and without providing a cleaning tank in which to immerse the circuit. What is especially needed is a way of doing so which is performed locally and does not require expensive cleaning facilities.

It is known to attach rollers to the top of an automotive vehicle to aid in loading or unloading a boat or like object for transportation, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,128 to Levey. It is also known to attach a luggage carrier to an automobile for swinging from a position above the rear thereof to a position well behind the vehicle, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,264 to McFadyen. But it is not known to provide such a vehicle with a luggage carrier which is supported at its front end by wheels guided in parallel longitudinally disposed top-mounted tracks, and which carrier is movable rearwardly and downwardly to an upright vehicle-attached position for loading and unloading. It is the principal object of this invention to provide such a luggage carrier. Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the following detailed description proceeds.

The present invention relates to magnetizable "core-shell" particles based on crosslinked organopolysiloxane, useful alone or in an aqueous dispersion. The present invention also relates to a process for the preparation of magnetizable "core-shell" particles and their application to biology. In French Patent Application No. 2,624,873, the assignee of the present invention described magnetizable composite particles based on crosslinked organopolysiloxane, said particles consisting of a matrix originating from the hydrosilylation of an organopolysiloxane and an organohydrogenpolysiloxane and, encapsulated in said matrix, magnetizable fillers coated with a dispersing agent insoluble in water. The presence of this dispersing agent can be a drawback for use in biology because the agent can migrate towards the surface of the particles and give rise to side reactions. The Applicant has now found composite microspheres of which the core comprises a magnetizable filler not coated with a hydrophobic surfactant.

To obtain optimum control of many chemical processes, it is essential to monitor the level of undissolved solids in bulk fluids. It is also essential this be done in real time, thus, on-line or at-line. Currently, there are many commercial optical devices on the market which can determine particulate concentration in fluids. Measuring instruments used on-line generally use light scattering methods. This technique is very limited as the undissolved solids must be very reflective and of uniform size and shape. It also has a very limited range, usually under 0.1% total undissolved solids. Ultra sound has also been applied for the measurement of undissolved solids in bulk aqueous solutions, such as water treatment and municipal waste treatment facilities. Limitations of this technique include: 1) the particles must be of uniform size and shape; 2) a maximum temperature of 50 C. for the process solution as temperatures above that change the physical parameters of the focusing lenses and 3) organic solvents can swell or dissolve the polymer focusing lenses required for these systems. The most commonly applied methods employ off-line gravimetric techniques. A given volume of sample is filtered to remove the liquid. The residue is then weighed. The weight of the residue versus the bulk sample determines the undissolved solids concentration. This technique is time consuming, not usually within the real time of the process and requires expensive manual labor.

This invention relates to machinery for the removal of viscera from poultry such as chickens or the like, and more particularly, to a poultry eviscerating apparatus which automatically eviscerates a continuous succession of birds without human intervention. Many and varied types of poultry eviscerating apparatus are known. Some comprise devices in which a single bird or fowl is manually mounted in a predetermined position after which a specially designed tool analogous to a spoon is caused to enter the abdominal cavity of the bird for removal of the viscera. Such manual machines are both time consuming and expensive to operate since each requires at least one human operator as well as attendant facilities to provide him with uneviscerated birds and remove those that have been eviscerated. Other eviscerating apparatus has been devised to eviscerate birds or fowl traveling on a continuous conveyor. Such machines have tended to be rather complex devices and/or have required hand loading of the birds. Such machinery as has contemplated automatic loading has tended to be unreliable, suffering many breakdowns during use. Such breakdowns comprise a significant expense to poultry processors. A particularly disadvantageous aspect of the prior known eviscerating apparatuses for processing a continuous succession of birds or fowl is the fact that these machines cause a shut-down in the entire poultry processing line during the above-mentioned breakdowns. Typically, eviscerating machinery forms but a part of several processing elements spaced along a continuous conveyor in a processing plant. Removal of the viscera from the fowl precedes the washing, sorting, and inspection of the various useable parts thereof. Evisceration also precedes the final processing of the remainder of the fowl carcass. Since the prior known machines have been integral parts of such processing lines, and the conveyors have passed continuously around or through the eviscerating apparatus, a breakdown of the eviscerating machine necessitates a corresponding stoppage of the main processing conveyor thereby shutting down all of the above-mentioned operations. Breakdowns with the prior known machines, therefore, have proven to be extremely costly. The present invention provides a poultry eviscerating apparatus which is capable of eviscerating a continuous succession of birds or fowl without human intervention and which is extremely reliable in its operation. If breakdown or malfunction should occur, however, the apparatus includes means to disconnect it from the conveyor or line, permitting the line to continue running and the manual evisceration of the birds or fowl while the eviscerating apparatus is repaired.

Traditionally, large-scale data sets (e.g., on the scale of multiple terabytes (TB) of data) have been stored on disk-based storage systems, such as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems. An alternative to managing large amounts of data using disk-based storage systems is managing the data via distributed in-memory query processing systems (referred to herein as “distributed query processing systems”). A distributed query processing system includes two or more computing devices, where each device stores a portion of the data assigned to the distributed query processing system, and data management is coordinated among all computing devices in the system. Given the diminishing cost of storage on individual computing devices, it is becoming more cost-effective to use distributed query processing systems to store and process large amounts of data. Also, distributed query processing systems generally are more scalable than disk-based storage systems in that distributed query processing systems comprise a configurable number of storage nodes. Furthermore, the in-memory processing capability of individual computing devices of a distributed query processing system is generally more powerful and efficient than that of a disk-based computing system by an order of magnitude. As such, by using the processing capability of the individual storage nodes in a distributed query processing system for query processing, such a system allows for increased parallelism in processing queries over data stored at the distributed query processing system. However, distributed query processing systems are subject to some practical constraints. For example, the computing devices in a distributed query processing system are generally constrained in the amount of memory in the devices, i.e., because of the cost of memory (such as, power consumption of the memory), for architectural reasons, etc. Also, in the case of very large data sets, each node in the system stores only a portion of data for a particular data set, and, at times, processing a query over the data set requires replicating data across nodes in the system. It is important to carefully allocate data, including data for very large data sets, across the computing devices in a distributed query processing system to facilitate management of the data. To that end, data may be distributed among the nodes of a distributed query processing system by observing a placement algorithm. Existing data placement algorithms can be generally classified into two paradigms: centralized data mapping, and decentralized data mapping. Centralized data mapping assigns a particular node of a cluster to be the “central” node. Centralized data placement schemes are adopted in many systems such as Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), General Parallel File System (GPFS), etc. The assigned central node stores a data map identifying the location of each portion of data stored among the nodes of the system, and also performs data placement decisions. If the assigned central node attempts to place data at a storage node that is not available to store the data, then the central node picks another destination node for the data, e.g., by incrementing through an array of storage node identifiers until the central node identifies an available storage node. Generally, other nodes in the system report to the central node. However, centralized data mapping involves allocation of significant storage space in the central node to maintain the data map. Further, all of the data placement traffic and the data lookup service traffic condense in the central node, which causes a bottleneck for the whole system. Also, if the central node crashes, then the central data map is destroyed, which compromises the failure resilience of such a system. Decentralized data mapping utilizes distributed routing algorithms such as Distributed Hash Table (DHT) to route data placement requests in an overlay network to reach the data destinations. Decentralized data mapping is used by many systems, such as Chord, Dynamo, and Cassandra, etc. According to this scheme, a request to place particular data in the system is routed from storage node to storage node until the destination storage node is located. The next hop decisions used to route the request are based on a next hop algorithm accessible at each node. Specifically, when a particular node in the system receives the request to place the particular data, the node first checks whether it is the owner of the particular data (i.e., based on a set of ownership rules). If the particular node determines that it is not the owner of the particular data, then the node forwards the data placement request to one or more neighbor nodes, each of which determine whether it is the owner of the particular data by applying the same set of ownership rules as the particular node. Eventually, the data placement request reaches a storage node that determines that it is the owner of the particular data to be placed and this destination storage node stores the particular data. Accordingly, data lookup is performed through routing the lookup request among the nodes of the system with the next hop being decided in a manner similar to the next hop decision for a request to place data on the system. A request for data is sent from node to node in the system until the owner of the requested data is located. The number of hops to route the request is logarithmic to the number of nodes in the whole system, which is non-trivial for large-scale systems. Also, given that a query on data in a distributed query processing system may involve data units from a large number of nodes, the cumulative data lookup latency involved in responding to a query based on a decentralized scheme is non-trivial. Therefore, it would be beneficial to develop an improved placement algorithm, for distributing data amongst the nodes of a distributed query processing system, that is an improvement over the centralized and decentralized systems described above. The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Systems for controlling piping systems in general, and more specifically for controlling downhole petroleum based well operations have become common practice. Recent efforts have focused more specifically on fracing operations, which normally leads to a series of devices intended to provide a more intelligent completion and producing well. Older examples of the need for formation testing and evaluation using pressure controlled valve devices are such as those shown in the U.S. Pat. Re. No. 29,638. Related devices are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,823,773, 3,986,554 as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,403,659, 4,479,242 and 4,576,234 which all describe valve structures which are operably responsive to changes in the pressure of fluids that exist either in the tubing-to-casing annulus, or in the tubing itself. These tools have all been used successfully in cased well bores using high level pressure signals which can be applied safely to the annulus fluids. However, in the past, some very deep, cased wells were not tested with pressure controlled tools because the operating pressure would have exceeded the burst rating of the casing. Testing in open (uncased) boreholes has more recently been achieved with standard pressure controlled tools. Until this was possible, certain types of valve devices, such as circulating valves and some sliding valves required lengthy operating times due to the complicated series of annulus or tubing pressure changes required to cycle the tool from the closed to opened positions and back again. The older designs required dimensional lengths that often became excessive, to the point where a typical combination of tester, sampler and circulating valves could and in some cases still do require lengths in excess of 200-300 feet. Increased complexity of valve systems reduces their reliability, and increases the chances of mishaps and not performing the desired downhole operations. As a result of more recent efforts involving fracing and horizontal drilling, there is now an urgent need to increase the number of service operations that can be performed during single or multiple trips into any piping assembly, especially within the wellbore and during well completion and fracing operations.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to vertical axis turbines, and more specifically to vertical axis wind turbines. 2. Description of Related Art A turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the movement of a medium into electrical power. This medium can include both gases and liquids. For example, some turbines are utilized for capturing hydropower, while other turbines are utilized for capturing wind power. When capturing wind power, there are generally two broad categories of turbines utilized. The first type of turbine is a horizontal axis wind turbine. Horizontal axis wind turbines generally have a rotor that has a rotational axis that is horizontal with the ground. The rotor of these horizontal axis wind turbines must be rotated such that they face the incoming wind, so as to capture wind in an efficient manner. Small horizontal axis wind turbines may be rotated by a simple wind vane, while larger turbines generally use a wind sensor coupled with a servo motor. However, rotation of these turbines is both time consuming and requires energy, thereby reducing the overall efficiency of these systems. The second type of turbine is a vertical axis wind turbine. Vertical axis wind turbines generally have an axis of rotation that is perpendicular, or vertical, to the ground. One advantage vertical axis wind turbines have over horizontal axis wind turbines is that vertical axis wind turbines do not need to be rotated so as to face the wind to increase their efficiency. However, these vertical axis wind turbines are generally not as efficient at capturing wind energy as horizontal axis wind turbines that are properly rotated to face the incoming.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetoresistive element using a method of reducing magnetic field inverting magnetization thereinafter, referred to as switching field of a magnetic film, a memory element having the magnetoresistive element, and a memory using the memory element. 2. Related Background Art In recent years, semiconductor memories as solid-state memories are adopted in many information devices, and are of various types such as a DRAM, FeRAM, and flash EEPROM. The characteristics of the semiconductor memories have merits and demerits. There is no memory which satisfies all specifications required by current information devices. For example, the DRAM achieves high recording density and large rewritable count, but is volatile and loses its information upon power-off. The flash EEPROM is nonvolatile, but takes a long erase time and is not suitable for high-speed information processing. Under the present circumstances of semiconductor memories, a magnetic memory (MRAM: Magnetic Random Access Memory) using a magnetoresistive element is promising as a memory which satisfies all specifications required by many information devices in terms of the recording time, read time, recording density, rewritable count, power consumption, and the like. In particular, an MRAM using a spin-dependent tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) effect is advantageous in high-density recording or high-speed read because a large read signal can be obtained. Recent research reports verify the feasibility of MRAMs. The basic structure of a magnetoresistive film used as an MRAM element is a sandwich structure in which magnetic layers are formed adjacent to each other via a nonmagnetic layer. Known examples of the material of the nonmagnetic film are Cu and Al2O3. A magnetoresistive film using a conductor such as Cu in a nonmagnetic layer is called a GMR film (Giant MagnetoResistive film). A magnetoresistive film using an insulator such as Al2O3 is called a spin-dependent TMR film (Tunneling MagnetoResistive film). In general, the TMR film exhibits a larger magnetoresistance effect than the GMR film. When the magnetization directions of two magnetic layers are parallel to each other, as shown in FIG. 13A, the resistance of the magnetoresistive film is relatively low. When these magnetization directions are antiparallel, as shown in FIG. 13B, the resistance is relatively high. One of the magnetic layers is formed as a recording layer, and the other layer is as a read layer. Information can be read out by utilizing the above property. For example, a magnetic layer 13 on a nonmagnetic layer 12 is formed as a recording layer, and a magnetic layer 14 below the nonmagnetic layer 12 is as a read layer. The rightward magnetization direction of the recording layer is defined as xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, and the leftward direction is as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d. If the magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are rightward, as shown in FIG. 14A, the resistance of the magnetoresistive film is relatively low. If the magnetization direction of the read layer is rightward and that of the recording layer is leftward, as shown in FIG. 14B, the resistance is relatively high. If the magnetization direction of the read layer is leftward and that of the recording layer is rightward, as shown in FIG. 14C, the resistance is relatively high. If the magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are leftward, as shown in FIG. 14D, the resistance is relatively low. That is, when the magnetization direction of the read layer is pinned rightward, xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is recorded in the recording layer for a high resistance, and xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is recorded for a low resistance. Alternatively, when the magnetization direction of the read layer is pinned leftward, xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is recorded in the recording layer for a high resistance, and xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is recorded for a low resistance. As the element is downsized for a higher recording density of an MRAM, the MRAM using an in-plane magnetization film becomes more difficult to hold information under the influence of a demagnetizing field or magnetization curling at the end face. To avoid this problem, for example, a magnetic layer is formed into a rectangle. This method cannot downsize the element, so an increase in recording density cannot be expected. U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,275 has proposed the use of a perpendicular magnetization film to avoid the above problem. According to this method, the magnetizing field does not increase even with a smaller element size. A smaller-size magnetoresistive film can be realized, compared to an MRAM using an in-plane magnetization film. Similar to a magnetoresistive film using an in-plane magnetization film, a magnetoresistive film using a perpendicular magnetization film exhibits a relatively low resistance when the magnetization directions of two magnetic layers are parallel to each other, and a relatively high resistance when these magnetization directions are antiparallel. As shown in FIGS. 15A to 15D, a magnetic layer 23 on a nonmagnetic layer 22 is formed as a recording layer, and a magnetic layer 21 below the nonmagnetic layer 22 is as a read layer. The upward magnetization direction of the recording layer is defined as xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, and the downward direction is as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d. As FIGS. 14A to 14D showed, it can compose as a memory element. Main examples of the perpendicular magnetization film are an alloy film or artificial lattice film made of at least one element selected from the group consisting of rear-earth metals such as Gd, Dy, and Tb and at least one element selected from the group consisting of transition metals such as Co, Fe, and Ni, an artificial lattice film made of a transition metal and noble metal such as Co/Pt, and an alloy film having crystallomagnetic anisotropy in a direction perpendicular to the film surface, such as CoCr. In general, the switching field of a perpendicular magnetization film is larger than that having longitudinal magnetic anisotropy by a transition metal. For example, the switching field of a permalloy as an in-plane magnetization film is about several hundred A/m. The switching field of a Co/Pt artificial lattice film as a perpendicular magnetization film is as very high as about several ten kA/m. An alloy film of a rear-earth metal and transition metal exhibits different apparent magnetization intensities depending on the film composition because the sub-lattice magnetization of the rear-earth metal and that of the transition metal orient antiparallel to each other. Hence, the switching field of this alloy film changes depending on the composition. A GdFe alloy film shows a relatively small switching field among alloy films of rear-earth metals and transition metals. In general, the GdFe alloy film has a switching field of about several thousand A/m around the critical composition at which the squareness ratio of the magnetization curve starts decreasing from 1. When a sensor, memory, or the like is formed from a magnetoresistive film using a perpendicular magnetization film, the sensor, memory, or the like cannot operate unless a large magnetic field is applied owing to the above-described reason. For example, in the sensor, a stray field must be concentrated on the magnetic layer of the magnetoresistive film. In the memory, a large magnetic field must be generated. A magnetic field applied to a memory is generally generated by supplying a current through a conductor. Especially in a memory used in a portable terminal, supply of a large current is undesirably flowed under restrictions on the power supply capacity. Thus, a conductor for generating a magnetic field must be wound around a memory element formed from a magnetoresistive film. This measure complicates a structure or electrical circuit around the magnetoresistive film, and is difficult to form. This results in low yield and very high cost. The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and has as its object to provide a magnetoresistive film which reduces the switching field of a perpendicular magnetization film and is easy to form without decreasing the yield or greatly increasing the cost, and a memory requiring only small power consumption. The above object is achieved by a magnetoresistive film comprising a nonmagnetic film, and a structure in which magnetic films are formed on two sides of the nonmagnetic film, wherein at least one of the magnetic films includes a perpendicular magnetization film, and a magnetic film whose easy axis of magnetization is inclined from a direction perpendicular to a film surface is formed at a position where the magnetic film contacts the perpendicular magnetization film but does not contact the nonmagnetic film. The above object is also achieved by a memory having a memory element with the magnetoresistive film, comprising means for applying a magnetic field to the magnetoresistive film in a direction perpendicular to a film surface, and means for detecting a resistance of the magnetoresistive film. The above object is also achieved by the memory wherein a plurality of magnetoresistive films are arranged, and the memory further comprises means for selectively recording information on a desired magnetoresistive film, and means for selectively reading out information recorded on a desired magnetoresistive film.

Practical HIV diagnostics are urgently needed in resource-limited settings. While HIV infection can be diagnosed using simple, rapid, lateral flow immunoassays, HIV disease staging and treatment monitoring require accurate counting of a particular white blood cell subset, the CD4(+) T lymphocyte. Current systems for providing this function are expensive, technically demanding and/or time-consuming. For example, CD4 counts may be obtained by conventional flow cytometry. The method requires a slow flow rate to capture the cells on the surface of the channel, followed by a quick wash. This is not easy to implement in a point-of-care device, where the fluid actuation technique must be fairly simple. They require a microscope and a camera (or a person) to count the captured cells. This method is suitable for a lab environment, not point of care.

Cellulose and hemicellulose are the most abundant plant materials produced by photosynthesis. They can be degraded and used as an energy source by numerous microorganisms, including bacteria, yeast and fungi, that produce extracellular enzymes capable of hydrolysis of the polymeric substrates to monomeric sugars (Aro et al., 2001). As the limits of non-renewable resources approach, the potential of cellulose to become a major renewable energy resource is enormous (Krishna et al., 2001). The effective utilization of cellulose through biological processes is one approach to overcoming the shortage of foods, feeds, and fuels (Ohmiya et al., 1997). Cellulases are enzymes that hydrolyze cellulose (beta-1,4-glucan or beta D-glucosidic linkages) resulting in the formation of glucose, cellobiose, cellooligosaccharides, and the like. Cellulases have been traditionally divided into three major classes: endoglucanases (EC 3.2.1.4) (“EG”), exoglucanases or cellobiohydrolases (EC 3.2.1.91) (“CBH”) and beta-glucosidases ([beta]-D-glucoside glucohydrolase; EC 3.2.1.21) (“BG”). (Knowles et al., 1987; Shulein, 1988). Endoglucanases act mainly on the amorphous parts of the cellulose fibre, whereas cellobiohydrolases are also able to degrade crystalline cellulose (Nevalainen and Penttila, 1995). Thus, the presence of a cellobiohydrolase in a cellulase system is required for efficient solubilization of crystalline cellulose (Suumakki, et al. 2000). Beta-glucosidase acts to liberate D-glucose units from cellobiose, cello-oligosaccharides, and other glucosides (Freer, 1993). Cellulases are known to be produced by a large number of bacteria, yeast and fungi. Certain fungi produce a complete cellulase system capable of degrading crystalline forms of cellulose, such that the cellulases are readily produced in large quantities via fermentation. Filamentous fungi play a special role since many yeast, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lack the ability to hydrolyze cellulose. See, e.g., Aro et al., 2001; Aubert et al., 1988; Wood et al., 1988, and Coughlan, et al. The fungal cellulase classifications of CBH, EG and BG can be further expanded to include multiple components within each classification. For example, multiple CBHs, EGs and BGs have been isolated from a variety of fungal sources including Trichoderma reesei which contains known genes for 2 CBHs, i.e., CBH1 and CBH II, at least 8 EGs, i.e., EG I, EG II, EG III, EGIV, EGV, EGVI, EGVII and EGVIII, and at least 5 BGs, i.e., BG1, BG2, BG3, BG4 and BG5. In order to efficiently convert crystalline cellulose to glucose the complete cellulase system comprising components from each of the CBH, EG and BG classifications is required, with isolated components less effective in hydrolyzing crystalline cellulose (Filho et al., 1996). A synergistic relationship has been observed between cellulase components from different classifications. In particular, the EG-type cellulases and CBH-type cellulases synergistically interact to more efficiently degrade cellulose. See, e.g., Wood, 1985. Cellulases are known in the art to be useful in the treatment of textiles for the purposes of enhancing the cleaning ability of detergent compositions, for use as a softening agent, for improving the feel and appearance of cotton fabrics, and the like (Kumar et al., 1997). Cellulase-containing detergent compositions with improved cleaning performance (U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,307; GB App. Nos. 2,095,275 and 2,094,826) and for use in the treatment of fabric to improve the feel and appearance of the textile (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,648,263, 5,691,178, and 5,776,757; GB App. No. 1,368,599; M. Yamagishi, “Reforming of Cellulosic Fiber with Cellulase,” The Shizuoka Prefectural Hammamatsu Textile Industrial Research Institute Report, Vol. 24, pp. 54-61, 1986), have been described. Hence, cellulases produced in fungi and bacteria have received significant attention. In particular, fermentation of Trichoderma spp. (e.g., Trichoderma longibrachiatum or Trichoderma reesei) has been shown to produce a complete cellulase system capable of degrading crystalline forms of cellulose. Although cellulase compositions have been previously described, there remains a need for new and improved cellulase compositions for use in household detergents, stonewashing compositions or laundry detergents, etc. Cellulases that exhibit improved performance are of particular interest.

Several schemes for determining one's geographic position are available. For example, one way to determine position involves the use of the global positioning system (GPS). The GPS was originally conceived and developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a military navigation system. Over time, elements of the system have become increasingly available for civilian use. The GPS uses a constellation of 24 satellites, in a geo-stationary orbit, whereby position can be determined by timing satellite signal journeys from a GPS satellite to a GPS receiver. Five spare orbiting satellites are provided primarily for backup in case one of the 24 satellites fail. The satellites transmit spread-spectrum signals on two frequency bands (carrier frequency L1 at 1575.42 MHz and carrier frequency L2 at 1227.6 MHz). The GPS signals are contained within two frequency bands 20.46 MHz wide (+/−10.23 MHz) centered about L1 and L2. The navigation information from each GPS satellite is transmitted on two subcarrier frequencies that are modulated by two pseudo-random noise codes on L1 and L2. One subcarrier modulated on L1 operates at 1.023 MHz using an open code called a coarse/acquisition (C/A) code allowing less precise navigation for civilian applications. The other subcarrier modulated on L2 operates at 10.23 MHz using a high precision (P) secure code for military navigation systems. Additionally, the GPS signal is modulated with a data message commonly referred to as the GPS navigation message. Typically, a GPS receiver employs a trilateration scheme to obtain a position fix. For instance, a GPS-derived position can be accomplished using two-dimensional trilateration. Ordinarily, signals from three satellites can be used to determine position based on the intersection of three intersecting circles. More specifically, each satellite signal can provide a radius in which the GPS receiver can lie. Two intersecting radii allow the position determination to be narrowed to the area of intersection. Another satellite signal can provide a third radius indicative of the position of the GPS receiver, since all three radii should intersect at a single point. Expanding the forgoing concept to three-dimensional trilateration, each satellite signal can be used to indicate a sphere, whereby three intersecting spheres can used to determine position which includes altitude information. More satellite signals can be used, and typically are used, to improve accuracy. At the GPS receiver, the satellite signal is demodulated after it is matched and synchronized with a pseudo-random noise code. The GPS receiver uses the GPS navigation message to calculate satellite signal transit times in addition to the coordinates of the GPS satellite. Position measurement by a GPS receiver can typically be accomplished within 15 meters (50 feet). The GPS system has a variety of uses with today's mobile communications systems, especially with those employing code division multiple access (CDMA). In CDMA systems multiple users are allowed to simultaneously use common data streams, called channels, for transmission of information. User information in transmitted signals is distinguished by pseudo-random patterns called codes. Transmitted information can be recovered by a receiver so long as the pseudo-random patterns used by the transmitter are known by the receiver. The signal containing the information to be transmitted is sent at low power, and the bandwidth of the information contained in the transmitted signal is spread according to a code. Such spread spectrum communications limit interference among users by making the transmitted signals appear similar to random noise and thereby difficult to demodulate by other than the intended receiver. The forward communication link from a base transceiver station (BTS) to a mobile station uses the pilot, sync, paging and traffic communication channels to transmit voice and control data to the mobile station. The mobile station may comprise, for example, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant with wireless communications capability, a portable computer with wireless communications capability, a pager or other personal communications device. The BTS may comprise one or more transceivers placed at a single location. Together with a base station controller (BSC) that forms part of the base station terminating the radio communication path with the mobile station, the BTS is connected to an associated mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC is a system that automatically provides switching between user traffic from a wireless network and a wireline network or other wireless networks. A base station controller (BSC) which interacts with the MSCs and the BTSs provides a control and management system for one or more BTSs. On the reverse communication link from the mobile station to the BTS, access and traffic channels are used to transmit voice and control data. A CDMA system digitally encodes voice using Code-Excited Linear Prediction (CELP). Consequently, a CELP decoder and CELP encoder are located at the BSC and the mobile stations. Encoders and interleavers are built into the BTSs and mobile stations to build redundancy into the transmitted signals to aid in recovery of lost information during transmission. Encoded information is spread over the bandwidth of a CDMA channel in a process known as channelization. Channelization on the forward link channels involves modulating the transmitted signal according to a Walsh function code, followed by modulation by a pair of pseudo-random sequences. Channelization on the reverse link involves encoding the transmitted signal with a different pseudo-random code assigned to each mobile station in the system. A radio frequency (RF) chain is a sequence of hardware blocks and associated software that is needed to receive and decode a radio signal. For example, an RF chain may consist of an antenna, a demodulator and a signal processing entity. RF chains have the property that they can receive and decode radio signals in specific frequency ranges only. That is, if an RF chain is tuned to a particular frequency, it will not be able to receive on another frequency. A single radio frequency (RF) chain may be used by both CDMA and GPS operations. For proper GPS functionality, the mobile station is often required to tune-away from the CDMA carrier frequency to the GPS carrier frequency. High speed data traffic is supported by allocating additional bandwidth on supplemental channels (SCH) on demand for a higher data rate. CDMA and GPS operation share the single RF chain in a time-multiplexed fashion. When GPS operation is active, no CDMA operations are allowed and vice-versa. In a shared RF environment, with frequent and long mobile station receiver tunings from the CDMA carrier frequency to the GPS carrier frequency, interruptions to the high speed data stream on the supplemental channel severely impact data throughput. The term “tune-away” is used hereinafter to refer to the tuning of the mobile station from the CDMA frequency to the GPS frequency. The data transfer usually occurs between the mobile station and its peer connected by the CDMA network. Typically, both the mobile station and the peer follow the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) as a transport layer protocol utilizing the services provided by the wireless network. Data from the TCP server to the mobile station is carried by the network over a Data Link layer. The Radio Link Protocol (RLP) is a feature of this Data Link layer designed to provide added reliability to an inherently error-prone wireless medium. Specifically, if data sent at the RLP layer is not received at the mobile station, an RLP error is flagged causing a signaling message to be sent to the network and a retransmission of the unacknowledged data follows. At the TCP layer, most TCP implementations recognize the arrival of a number of duplicate acknowledgements (typically 3) to be an early indication of a packet drop, and retransmit the packet immediately. Simultaneously, the TCP layer reduces the maximum number of packets it sends in a given time, thus reducing the throughput on the link. It may also happen that a packet may not be acknowledged at all and the TCP layer shall encounter a timeout. This is a positive indication of packet loss, and the TCP layer takes severe action, reducing its sending rate to the minimum. Further it increases the expected timeout values for this link exponentially. Thus, successive retransmissions occur with exponential delay and take place at a time when the throughput of the link is at its lowest. With TCP as the transport protocol, timeouts and retransmissions can degrade data throughput by more than 90%. Since most data applications use TCP as the transport protocol, and because the impact on response time (throughput) is so severe, data applications cannot operate while GPS is active. Further, allowing GPS to proceed after the data operation has finished can severely impact GPS performance, as well. The GPS position fix will be delayed by the time taken to complete the data transaction, causing the GPS time to fix (TTF) to be unbounded, thereby making it impossible to get GPS position fixes in certain scenarios. This problem has been noticed in conjunction with testing a mobile station based tracking system during a tracking session in a user network. In conjunction with a mobile station attempting to download data content from a network while the mobile station-based position fixes were in progress, it would take typically anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds to download approximately 2500 bytes of data. Since the application timeouts (the time during which an application fails due to non-responsiveness at either the client or server side of an application) may be typically 30 seconds, the CDMA data application is not able to operate properly. Further, such high response times are not acceptable for many real time data applications. Conventionally, in addressing the GPS/data throughput problem, SCH transactions have been given a higher priority by blocking GPS operations until pending SCH transactions are completed. However, blocking a GPS visit affects the GPS time to fix (TTF). TTF is the time required to determine the position of the mobile station. Consequently, the TTF can be a function of the data activity occurring on a SCH. Tuning the mobile station continuously to the CDMA carrier frequency in order to carry out SCH transactions will likely result in the GPS visit being significantly delayed. Should the mobile station be performing GPS tracking fixes while an application is attempting simultaneously to download CDMA data, the data download will fail. Consequently, data throughput will be very low, and it may sometimes take a significantly long time to download application data. With increased TTF, depending upon the SCH transaction duration, it is possible that a GPS session can timeout without a single GPS visit. Further, reduced data throughput and possible data application timeouts can occur while GPS tracking sessions are in progress. There are three primary reasons for bad data throughput involving GPS and CDMA. 1) Tune-away from CDMA results in the loss of radio link protocol (RLP) data frames. The loss depends upon the amount of data exchanged and the time the mobile station spends on the new GPS frequency. The time spent on the GPS frequency is typically from 0.1 to 2 seconds (sec). 2) Tune-away results in loss of the Enhanced Supplemental Channel Assignment Message (ESCAM). Consequently, the mobile station will not receive data on the Supplemental Channel (SCH) even when the mobile station is tune to CDMA. 3) The subsequent tune-aways do not allow previously lost data to be recovered. This results in the loss of newly transmitted/re-transmitted data packets. When a loss occurs of RLP data that cannot be recovered, the tune-aways result in frequent errors at the TCP layer. Complete RLP data frames can be lost. The extent of the loss of this information depends upon the amount of data sent and the time spent by the mobile station while it is tuned to other than the CDMA carrier frequency. In the case of tune-aways to the GPS carrier frequency, times of 0.1 to 2 seconds are typical. The MSC signals the mobile station that it should prepare to receive a data burst by transmitting an Enhanced Supplemental Channel Assignment Message (ESCAM). In this message, the MSC indicates the number of channel codes, as well as the actual Walsh codes to be used for each channel. During tune-aways, the ESCAM is lost. Without the ESCAM, the mobile station will not be able to decode data on an SCH, even when the mobile station is tuned to the CDMA carrier frequency. Subsequent tune-aways do not allow previously lost data to be recovered, and also result in the loss of new transmitted/retransmitted packets of data. Because there is a finite probability of losing even the TCP server re-transmissions, the resulting delays in retransmissions, i.e., “back-offs” are nearly exponential and have a drastic impact on throughput. FIG. 1 illustrates a time sequence graph (TSG) of a conventional network attempting CDMA high data rate functionality together with GPS positioning capability. Time is shown in hour, minute, and second format (hh:mm:ss) on the horizontal axis, while the data packet sequence number according to the RLP is indicated on the vertical axis. The solid line represents data transmissions to the mobile station. “R” designated above this line is representative of a retransmission of data. The dotted line signifies the acknowledgement of data received. A flat plot indicates that data is not being sent or received, as the case may be. Sloped lines indicate the successful transmission and reception of data. The data shown in FIG. 1 was compiled while downloading data to a mobile station while GPS sessions were active on the mobile station. The plots show frequent periods where no data is being downloaded by the mobile station because of the loss of TCP re-transmitted packets and large back-off times.

Disk drives frequently include a latch, a base, and top cover. The base may be a cast aluminum cavity which (after assembly) holds a majority of the drive's components. The top cover may be a stamped steel plate which mates with the upper portion of the base and encloses all of the drive's internal components. The latch is a magnetically actuated plastic hooking mechanism which pivots about a machined post and is designed to prevent drive failure during a non-operating rotational shock event. However, when an external load is applied to top cover, the top cover may deflect toward the latch and latch may suffer binding. Such binding may prevent the latch from functioning properly. Thus, a structure that may reduce cover deflection may be one aspect of the present application.

This invention relates to a method of producing a magnetic hard disk substrate with a textured surface by using a polishing tape. With the recent development in the so-called high-tech industries centered around the electronics industries, memory capacity of magnetic disks is becoming higher and there is an increasing demand for high precision in the finishing of disk substrate surfaces. If a magnetic head is stopped on a magnetic disk thus structured, however, the magnetic head may be adsorbed to the magnetic disk due to the water component or a lubricant adsorbed to the disk surface. In order to prevent such occurrence of adsorption, it has been known to carry out a texturing process to form fine concentric protrusions and indentations on the surface of magnetic hard disk substrates in the circumferential direction of the substrate. The texturing process is usually carried out by using a polishing tape obtained by coating the surface of a backing material (say, of polyester) with abrading particles (say, of white molten alumina) or a slurry obtained by dispersing such abrading particles in a liquid. Prior art abrading particles such as prior art alumina particles for abrading are not uniform in sizes or shapes, there being great variations and some of the larger particles protruding from the polishing surface of the tape. If a target surface is polished by means of such a tape, large particles tend to grind the target surface too deeply, leaving undesirably tall scratch marks on the surface. As the recording density on the magnetic disk is increased, the height of the magnetic head over the magnetic disk must be reduced in order to improve the signal sensitivity at the time of recording and reproduction, reducing the distance of separation therebetween. If there are protrusions sufficiently high on the substrate surface, however, the magnetic head may collide with such a protrusion (an event referred to as the xe2x80x9chead hitxe2x80x9d). If the texturing is carried out intentionally insufficiently in order to prevent the generation of protrusions, however, the magnetic disk will end up being too smooth on the surface and the adsorption to the head will result, as described above. Even if the texturing is carried out by using a liquid slurry serving as free abrading particles, similar problems are encountered as long as there are variations in the sizes and shapes of the abrading particles. If the texturing process is done only lightly in fear of the occurrence of head hit, one again faces the problem of adsorption of the disk to the magnetic head. Japanese Patent Application 8-88954 disclosed a type of tape produced by applying a adhesive on the surface of a plastic tape and planting piles of 6-nylon, 66-nylon, vinylon or polyester thereon. Since plastic tapes have a uniform thickness and a flat surface, piles can be planted uniformly and at a high density. Thus, a very fine and uniform texturing process is possible with such a polishing tape. There is a problem, however, with this type of polishing tapes in that the planting of the piles becomes difficult if the piles are too short. For this reason, there have been attempts to produce a woven polishing tape by combining longitudinally and transversely extending fibers. In the meantime, there has been a demand to increase the memory capacity of the disks. A fine surface roughness can be attained by using tapes with planted piles or woven tapes if fibers with small diameters are used. Recently, however, the surface roughness is coming to be required to be even smaller than possible by reducing the thickness of the fibers. In other words, the era of tapes with planted piles and woven tapes seems to be coming to an end. In addition, tapes of these kinds require the use of a liquid slurry, there remaining the problem of producing unwanted protrusions on the target surface or having the abrading particles themselves embedded in the target surface. Another problem with the use of a liquid slurry is that the debris particles resulting from the grinding are carried around throughout the polishing process. Thus, the target surface may be damaged by such debris. Scratches produced thereby and the embedded debris themselves are both likely to cause the head hit. Still another problem of such prior art texturing processes is that the debris produced by the grinding must be removed afterwards and hence that it is time-consuming. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method of producing a magnetic hard disk substrate with a textured surface by using a polishing tape with which smaller surface roughness can be attained in response to the recent demand for higher capacities of hard disks while obviating the problem of head hit. A polishing tape to be used in a method embodying this invention, with which the above and other objects can be accomplished, may be characterized as comprising a backing material and a foamed material such as polyurethane foam. The foamed material is elastic and some of its gas holes formed inside but near one of its surfaces are exposed externally. Because of its elastic nature, it can be deformed even if there are abnormally large abrading particles contained in a liquid slurry and such abrading particles do not become embedded in the target surface being textured. These externally exposed gas holes can also serve to absorb the debris generated by the texturing and to protect the target surface from being scratched thereby. Such a tape is used for a texturing process while a liquid slurry containing abrading particles is dropped, the disk substrate is rotated and the tape is pressed against the target surface.

Filtration devices with filters for filtering and purifying tap water have conventionally been widely used. However, relatively long-term use of such a filter causes a decrease in filtering performance due to trapped impurities (e.g., inorganic particles, etc.) therein. Thus, there are known some filtration devices that are capable of removing the impurities by causing purified water, which is obtained by filtration of tap water by the filters, to flow backward to filters according to backwashing methods. As a backwashing method, there is a method for pooling some purified water in a tank beforehand and then causing the purified water to flow backward to a filter when backwashing needs to be performed. This method, however, requires such a device as a tank, leading to an increase in size of the entire filtration system. For this reason, there is proposed a method that can avoid the increase in size of the system by providing two filters in parallel and switching a water current using a switching valve so that some of purified water in one of the filters can flow backward to the other filter (Patent Documents 1 and 2 , for example).

A mobile terminal is a device which may be configured to perform various functions. Examples of such functions include data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files and outputting music via a speaker system, and displaying images and video on a display. Some terminals include additional functionality which supports game playing, while other terminals are also configured as multimedia players. More recently, mobile terminals have been configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of contents, such as videos and television programs. Generally, terminals can be classified into mobile terminals and stationary terminals according to a presence or non-presence of mobility. And, the mobile terminals can be further classified into handheld terminals and vehicle mount terminals according to availability for hand-carry. There are ongoing efforts to support and increase the functionality of mobile terminals. Such efforts include software and hardware improvements, as well as changes and improvements in the structural components which form the mobile terminal. Recently, a mobile terminal equipped with such a position-location module as a GPS module is widely disseminating. A user of the mobile terminal can recognize a current position of the user via the position-location module. In case that the user has captured photos using a camera, the user can store locations where the photos are captured as well as the photos. Yet, when the locations of the photos are stored together with the photos, the user should enter such a menu as attribute information of the photos and the like one by one to check the locations of the photos. It is inconvenient for the user to use the mobile terminal and difficult to intuitively check the locations of the photos or the current position of the user.

As is known, quaternary ammonium compounds (also known as "quats") have utility in various applications (e.g., as fungicides, algicides, bactericides, and bleach activators) and can be prepared by reacting tert-amines with suitable quaternizing agents. Different types of materials have been used as quaternizing agents in such reactions, but haloalkanes are apt to be preferred. Known quaternizations of tert-amines have typically been conducted in organic solvents which must be separated from the product at the end of the reaction, thus increasing costs. European Patent Application 0288857 (Rutzen et al.) shows that the necessity of recovering product from a solvent can be avoided when a tert-amine is quaternized under pressure with an excess of an alkyl halide that is gaseous under the reaction conditions. However, this process has the disadvantages of requiring the recovery, recycling, or disposal of the excess alkyl halide, as well as the use of pressure equipment; and it is not suitable for the preparation of quats in which the quaternizing group has a relatively long chain.

The present invention relates in general to a storage battery. More particularly, the invention relates to a metal/hydrogen alkaline storage battery having a negative electrode comprising a hydrogen-storage alloy and a positive electrode comprising a metal oxide. Lead acid and nickel/cadmium storage batteries have been used ordinarily. Recently, a metal/hydrogen storage battery has attracted public attention, since it is light in weight and capable of exhibiting a high capacity. Some of the metal/hydrogen storage batteries have a positive electrode comprising a metal oxide such as nickel hydroxide and a negative electrode comprising a hydrogen-storage alloy capable of absorbing and desorbing hydrogen reversibly. The hydrogen-storage electrode comprising a metal hydride, i.e. hydrogen-storage alloy, has been produced generally by a process disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-46827 wherein the hydrogen-storage alloy powder is sintered together with an electroconductive material powder to form a porous body to be used as the hydrogen-storage electrode, or a process disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-103541 wherein the hydrogen-storage alloy powder is bound with the electroconductive material powder by means of a binder. The capacity of the thus manufactured hydrogen-storage electrode is determined by the amount of the absorbed hydrogen, i.e. active material and, therefore, the larger this amount, the better. The amount of hydrogen absorbed by the hydrogen-storage electrode depends greatly on the temperature and pressure. Generally, the higher the temperature, the higher the hydrogen-absorption pressure. However, some of the hydrogen-storage alloys used for constituting the negative electrode can not absorb hydrogen unless the pressure is elevated considerably even at a low temperature. When an open type storage battery is prepared by using a hydrogen-storage alloy having the property for constituting the negative electrode, the negative electrode cannot absorb hydrogen, since no sufficient pressure can be attained. Even when the storage battery is of the sealed type, a considerably high pressure is necessary for the battery to absorb hydrogen by the negative electrode. Such a storage battery is too dangerous to be used in general. Further, when the charge and discharge are repeated in an alkaline electrolyte, the hydrogen-storage alloy used for the negative electrode is expanded and shrunk repeatedly due to the absorption and desorption of hydrogen and, consequently, the lattice of the alloy is deformed and the alloy is pulverized into a fine powder gradually. As a result, the fine powder falls off from the alloy to reduce the capacity and, in addition, the mechanical strength of the electrode and the conductivity are also reduced remarkably. Thus, it has been difficult to keep the capacity of the battery for a long time.

The present invention relates to a folding collapsible golf cart and, more particularly, to such a folding collapsible golf cart, which enables the upper and lower main shafts as well as the links to be received to the bottom frame between the wheels when unlocked a folding-control rod member. Regular golf carts include motor-driven type golf carts and hand-push type golf carts. FIG. 1 shows a conventional motor-driven type golf cart 91. Due to the arrangement of an additional front wheel 911 and a motor drive 912, this structure of motor-driven type golf cart 91 is bulky and heavy, not convenient for packing and delivery. When folded up the upper main shaft 913 and the lower main shaft 914, the collapsed golf car 91 still occupy much storage space. FIG. 2 shows a conventional hand-push type golf cart 92. According to this design, the upper main shaft 921 and the lower main shaft 922 can be folded up when unlocked the lock 920. When folding the upper and lower main shafts 921 and 922, the links 923 and 924 will be forced to move the two wheel holder frames 925 and 926 toward each other. The folding operation of this structure of golf cart is still not convenient. Further, when folded up, the collapsed golf cart still occupies much storage space. The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide a folding golf cart, which can conveniently smoothly be folded up. It is another object of the present invention to provide a folding golf cart, which keeps the major parts received in between the wheels to minimize space occupation. According to one aspect of the present invention, the folding golf cart comprises a folding-control rod member and a locking device adapted to lock the folding-control rod member. When unlocked the locking device, the folding-control rod member can then be turned and received to the bottom frame, for enabling the upper and lower main shafts and the links to be received to the folding-control rod member and the bottom frame between the wheels.

Field of the Disclosure The present invention relates to a stereoscopic display device with a patterned retarder, and more particularly to a stereoscopic display device with a patterned retarder in which a brightness difference between a left eye image and a right eye image is compensated enabling to reduce a crosstalk, and a method for driving the same. Discussion of the Related Art The stereoscopic display device which displays a 3-dimensional (3D) image to have full of actuality has applications in many fields, such as medicine, education, movie, and television. The stereoscopic display device displays the left eye image and the right eye image separating the left eye image from the right eye image spatially or temporally for a watcher to perceive a 3D feeling owing to left and right parallactic images. In methods for displaying the stereoscopic image, there are a glasses method in which a special glasses is used, and a non-glasses method in which no special glasses is used. In the glasses method, the left eye image and the right eye image are displayed on the display device changing polarization directions of the left eye image and the right eye image, or separating the left eye image form the right eye image by a time sharing method, for the watcher to perceive a 3D effect by using a polarizing glasses or a liquid crystal shutter glasses. In the non-glasses method, the stereoscopic image is displayed by using an optical plate, such as a lenticular sheet, or parallax barrier, mounted to a front or a rear of the display device. The glasses type stereoscopic display device using the polarizing glasses displays the left eye image and the right eye image on a pixel matrix in horizontal pixel lines alternately, and converts the left eye image and the right eye image into a left-circular polarization image and a right-circular polarization image by using a patterned retarder attached to a front, respectively. The patterned retarder has a structure in which first and second polarization films which convert a linearly polarized light into a left-circular polarized light and a right-circular polarized light are arranged alternately in an up/down direction matched to left eye image lines (Odd lines) and right eye image lines (Even lines) arranged on the display device, alternately. The polarizing glasses makes spatial separation of the left eye image and the right eye image having polarization directions different from each other by using a left eye lens and a right eye lens which transmit the left-circular polarized light and the right-circular polarized light respectively for the user to perceive the 3D effect owing to left and right parallactic images. In the display device which displays the left eye image and the right eye image in the horizontal pixel lines alternately, there has been a problem that a difference of overlap between a data line and pixels (i.e., a difference of parasitic capacitance) causes a difference of brightness between the odd line and the even line. The difference of overlap between the data line and pixels is caused, in a liquid crystal display device having data lines arranged in zigzag, by a difference of an overlap area between the data line of zigzag type and an upper side pixel, and an overlap area between the zigzag shaped data line and a lower side pixel. Referring to FIG. 1, in the stereoscopic display device which displays the right eye image R and the left eye image L on the even lines and the odd lines respectively, in a case gray scales R255, R127, R63, R0 of the even image are varied while the gray scale R191 of the left eye image is fixed, the brightness of the left eye image lines varies in a range of +3.4˜−6.5 nit due to interference of the right eye image lines, causing a brightness difference on the same gray scale. The brightness difference between the odd line and the even line causes a brightness difference between the left eye image and the right eye image, increasing an extent of crosstalk between the left eye image and the right eye image.

This invention generally relates to materials used in making multilayer circuits. As used herein, a circuit subassembly is an article used in the manufacture of circuits and multilayer circuits, and includes circuit laminates, packaging substrate laminates, build-up materials, bond plies, resin coated conductive layers, and cover films. A circuit laminate is a type of circuit subassembly that has a conductive layer, e.g., copper, fixedly attached to a dielectric substrate layer. Double clad laminates have two conductive layers, one on each side of the dielectric layer. Patterning a conductive layer of a laminate, for example by etching, provides a circuit. Multilayer circuits comprise a plurality of conductive layers, at least one of which contains a conductive wiring pattern. Typically, multilayer circuits are formed by laminating, using heat and/or pressure, two or more materials, at least one of which contains a circuit layer, using bond plies. For example, a bondply can be in contact with a circuit layer of each of two double-clad dielectric substrates, when laminated in proper alignment. In use, a bondply, or a portion thereof, can flow and completely fill the space and provide adhesion between circuits, between a circuit and a conductive layer, between two conductive layers, or between a circuit and a dielectric layer. The one or more of the polymers in a bondply are designed to soften or flow during manufacture of the multilayer circuit but not in use of the circuit. In multilayer structures, after lamination, known hole-forming and plating technologies may be used to produce useful electrical pathways between conductive layers. The optimum structural design of a bondply in a laminate would involve a composition that is homogeneous throughout and that provides the same electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties (including low dielectric constant and low dissipation factor) as that of the copper clad laminate. A bondply used in the formation of rigid circuit laminates, multilayer circuits, and subassemblies, can optionally comprise a glass fabric saturated with an uncured or B-staged polymer composition, which cures in the circuit or subassembly lamination process. The glass fabric can provide a hard stop to prevent conductors on opposing layers from coming too close to each other and causing low resistance or other problems. Bond plies and other circuit subassembly materials can contain synthetic organic materials having high carbon and hydrogen contents, which are potentially combustible. Many applications, however, demand that they meet strict flame retardancy requirements such as those mandated in the building, electrical, transportation, mining and automotive industries. To meet such demands, such materials can include additives intended to interfere in various ways with a chemical exothermic chain of combustion. In particular, compositions for circuit materials can use halogenated, specifically brominated, flame retardant additives to achieve necessary levels of flame retardancy. Alternatively, ‘halogen-free’ circuit materials that have a UL94 flame retardance rating of V-1 or better, especially without bromine or chlorine, can be used, wherein the specification for ‘halogen-free’ in a circuit material is less than 900 parts per million (ppm) of bromine, chlorine, or a combination thereof. Among halogen-free flame retardants are organo-phosphorous flame retardants with reactive groups (active hydrogens), such as those derived from 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenantrene-10-oxide (“DOPO”), which flame retardants have been used in epoxy resin formulations and laminates, for example, as disclosed in US 2010/0234495. More recently, DOPO-derived flame retardants that do not have active hydrogen groups have been disclosed for use in various formulations, for example, as disclosed in WO 2011/123389 A1 and WO 2010/135398 A1. Flame retardants in a bondply, however, can impair the desired physical properties or electrical properties of a bondply or other circuit material. It is desirable, therefore, to obtain an improved bondply that has both the desired flame retardance and the desired flow characteristics during lamination of a circuit laminate. In particular, there is a need for a new class of bondply materials having improved fill and flow properties, while having a non-tacky surface before lamination, compared to standard bondply offerings in the industry today.

This invention relates to a method for the determination of a complete state of tectonic stresses. Stress state of underground rock provides basic data to be used for earthquake prediction, design of tunnel construction, etc. Stress-relief techniques and hydraulic fracturing technique are now generally adopted for the determination of in situ stresses. The hydraulic-fracturing method includes measuring the breakdown pressure and the direction of the fracture created by hydrostatic pressurization in a borehole at a deep point. This method, however, cannot give three-dimensional stresses in one borehole. Further, because of the micro-discontinuities on the borehole wall, reliable data cannot be obtained unless the measurement is conducted repeatedly. One known stress-relief method includes measuring changes in diameter of a borehole during overcoring to calculate the stresses in the plane perpendicular to the axis of the borehole. With this method, however, it is not possible to determine three-dimensional stresses in one measurement. Another well known stress-relief method includes measuring the strains which occur in the wall surfaces of a borehole when the stresses are relieved by overcoring. Strain gauges are used to measure the strains. This method, however, cannot give reliable data because of the heterogeneity of the wall surfaces of the borehole. That is, since the underground rock is composed of mineral particles with different sizes and different physical properties and has pre-existing microcracks, measured strains vary according to the positions of the wall surfaces to which the strain gauges are attached. Therefore, reliable data cannot be obtained unless the measurement is repeated a number of times or carried out using sufficiently long strain gauges. However, formation of a borehole and an overcore requires much time and money. This is especially so in the case of a large diameter borehole. Accordingly, from the standpoint of economy, it is practically impossible to conduct a number of measurements or use large sized strain gauges to the extent that reliable data are obtainable. There is also known a method, generally called differential crack strain analysis, for the determination of rock stresses. By coring operation, the rock is released from the in situ stresses so that microcracks open up as stress relief cracks. The differential crack strain analysis measures the crack strains from which in situ stresses are calculated. More particularly, a cubic sample is cut from the core and three strain gauges are mounted on three perpendicular faces, respectively. Then, the sample is jacketed and hydrostatically pressurized while measuring the strains to obtain a strain-pressure curve. By projecting the asymptotic slope of the strain-pressure curve back to zero pressure, there is obtainable the crack strain. Since this method measures the surface strains, rather than the actual deformation, caused by the hydrostatic pressure, the rock stresses determined by this method lack reliability.

The invention generally relates to peritoneal dialysis, and more particularly to devices and methods for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution from dry reagents. Treatments for patients having substantially impaired renal function, or kidney failure, are known as xe2x80x9cdialysis.xe2x80x9d Either blood dialysis (xe2x80x9chemodialysisxe2x80x9d) or peritoneal dialysis methods may be employed. Both methods essentially involve the removal of toxins from body fluids by diffusion of the toxins from the body fluids into a toxin free dialysis solution. Hemodialysis involves removing blood from the patient, circulating the blood through a dialysis machine outside the body, and returning the blood to the patient. As the blood is directly in contact with the hemodialysis membrane, the patient ordinarily needs to be treated only 3-5 hours at a time, about three times per week. Unfortunately, hemodialysis requires the use of complex and expensive equipment, and can therefore normally only be performed under controlled conditions of a hospital or other specialized clinic. Peritoneal dialysis, on the other hand, can be performed where such complex equipment is not readily available, such as in the patient""s home. In the peritoneal dialysis process, the patient""s peritoneal cavity is filled with a dialysate solution. Dialysates are formulated with a high concentration of the dextrose, as compared to body fluids, resulting in an osmotic gradient within the peritoneal cavity. The effect of this gradient is to cause body fluids, including impurities, to pass through the peritoneal membrane and mix with the dialysate. By flushing the dialysate from the cavity, the impurities can be removed. Due to indirect contact with bodily fluids through bodily tissues, rather than direct contact with blood, the dextrose concentration needs to be considerably higher in peritoneal dialysis than in hemodialysis, and the treatment is generally more prolonged. Peritoneal dialysis may be performed intermittently or continuously. In an intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) procedure, the patient commonly receives two liters of dialysate at a time. For example, in a continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) procedure, the peritoneal cavity is filled with two liters of dialysate and the patient is the free to move about while diffusion carries toxins into the peritoneal cavity. After about 4-6 hours, the peritoneum is drained of toxified dialysate over the course of an hour. This process is repeated two to three times per day each day of the week. Continuous Cycle Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD) in contrast, involves continuously feeding and flushing dialysate solution through the peritoneal cavity, typically as the patient sleeps. Because peritoneal dialysates are administered directly into the patient""s body, it is important that the dialysis solution maintains the correct proportions and concentrations of reagents. Moreover, it is impractical to formulate and mix dialysis solutions on site at the typical location of administration, such as the patient""s home. Accordingly, peritoneal dialysates are typically delivered to the site of administration in pre-mixed solutions. Unfortunately, dialysis solutions are not stable in solutions over time. For example, dextrose has a tendency to caramelize in solution over time, particularly in the concentrations required in the peritoneal dialysis context. To prevent such caramelization, peritoneal dialysis solutions are typically acidified, such as with hydrochloric acid, lactate or acetate, to a pH between 4.0 and 6.5. The ideal pH level for a peritoneal dialysate, however, is between 7.2 and 7.4. While achieving the desired goal of stabilizing dextrose in solution, the pH of acidified peritoneal dialysis solutions tends to damage the body""s natural membranes after extended periods of dialysis. Additionally, the use of acidified peritoneal dialysates tends to induce acidosis in the patient. Bicarbonates introduce further instability to dialysis solutions. The most physiologically compatible buffer for a peritoneal dialysate is bicarbonate. Bicarbonate ions react undesirably with other reagents commonly included in dialysate solutions, such as calcium or magnesium in solution, precipitating out of solution as insoluble calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate. These insolubles can form even when the reactants are in dry form. When occurring in solution, the reactions also alter the pH balance of the solution through the liberation of carbon dioxide (CO2). Even in the absence of calcium or magnesium salts, dissolved sodium bicarbonate can spontaneously decompose into sodium carbonate and CO2, undesirably lowering the solution""s pH level. The current alternatives to bicarbonate for buffering peritoneal dialysate are acetate and lactate, but these reagents also have undesirable chemical consequences. For example, there is some evidence that acetate may reduce osmotic ultrafiltration and may induce fibrosis of the peritoneal membrane. The incompatibility of reagents commonly found in dialysates thus creates significant logistical problems in connection with their preparation, storage and transportation. Attempted solutions to these problems have included various devices and methods for providing dry formulations of reagents, and for separately storing and dissolving incompatible reagents. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,467,588, 4,548,606, 4,756,838, 4,784,495, 5,344,231 and 5,511,875. Many of these proposed systems involve elaborate water pumping and re-circulation systems, pH and conductivity monitors and water heating components. Moreover, sterile water must be provided independently, further complicating the formulation process. While many prior methods and devices have been successful to one degree or another in addressing logistical problems, they have proven unsatisfactory for various reasons. Conventional systems are quite complex and expensive, such that they are impractical for many settings. Thus, dialysate solutions still tend to be prepared well in advance of administration, risking destabilization and/or requiring acidification of the solutions, as noted above. Additionally, pre-formulated solutions are quite bulky and involve considerable transportation and storage expense. Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods and devices for formulating solutions for peritoneal dialysis. Desirably, such methods and devices should avoid the problems of non-physiologic solutions and incompatibility of dialysate reagents, and also simplify transportation, storage and mixing of such dialysates. In satisfying the aforementioned needs, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for producing dialysis solutions from dry reagents immediately prior to administration. The invention thereby allow production of physiologically compatible dialysate solutions and minimizes the likelihood of undesirable reactions among reagents. Moreover, the invention facilitates separation of incompatible reagents. Both of these features, independently and in combination, result in a relatively simple and inexpensive apparatus for storing, transporting and producing solution from peritoneal dialysis reagents in dry form. Moreover, the devices and methods expand options for practically applicable solution formulations. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, for example, an apparatus is provided for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution. The apparatus includes a housing, which defines a fluid flow path through it. At least one reagent bed is kept within the housing along the fluid flow path. The reagent bed includes dry reagents in proportions suitable for peritoneal dialysis. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an apparatus produces a complete peritoneal dialysis solution. The apparatus includes a first dry reagent bed and a second dry reagent bed, which is spaced from the first reagent bed. Additionally, the apparatus includes means for compressing the first and second reagent beds. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an apparatus is provided for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution from dry reagents. The apparatus includes a housing with a first reagent bed disposed within the housing. The first reagent bed includes a plurality of chemically compatible reagents. A second reagent bed is also disposed within the housing, spaced from the first reagent bed. The second reagent bed includes a reagent that is chemically incompatible with at least one of the plurality of reagents of the first reagent bed. Additionally, a first compression component is disposed within the housing upstream of the first reagent bed, while a second compression component is disposed within the housing between the first and second reagent beds. A third compression component is disposed within the housing downstream of the second reagent bed. In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a system is provided for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution. A reagent cartridge houses at least one dry reagent bed and at least one compression component, which exerts continual pressure on the reagent bed. A water purification pack is configured to connect upstream of the reagent cartridge. The water purification pack houses filters, activated carbon and ion exhange resins such as to convert potable water to injectable quality water. In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution. Diluent passes through a dry reagent bed, thereby consuming reagents in the bed. The diluent then carries the consumed reagents out of the bed. The reagent bed is compacted as the reagents are consumed. In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a method is disclosed for producing a peritoneal dialysis solution from purified water. Purified water passes into a reagent cartridge housing, which contains dry reagents sufficient to produce a complete peritoneal dialysis solution. The reagents dissolve in the purified water as it passes through the reagent cartridge.

Computer entertainment systems typically include a hand-held controller, game controller, or other controller. A user or player uses the controller to send commands or other instructions to the entertainment system to control a video game or other simulation being played. For example, the controller may be provided with a manipulator which is operated by the user, such as a joy stick. The manipulated variable of the joy stick is converted from an analog value into a digital value, which is sent to the game machine main frame. The controller may also be provided with buttons that can be operated by the user. It is with respect to these and other background information factors that the present invention has evolved.

Fuel cell stack power systems which use a water coolant will typically have the coolant in a two-phase water/steam mode throughout substantially the entire passage of the coolant through the stack. The temperature of the water in the two-phase coolant will be substantially constant as the coolant traverses th stack, with the percentage of steam increasing in the two-phase coolant from coolant inlet, to coolant outlet. The coolant thus remains in a substantially isothermal condition as it passes through the stack cooling passages. In order to preserve the isothermal nature of the coolant, systems cooled in this manner will typically utilize steam condensers and steam separators in concert so that the water will not significantly cool before it is returned to the stack. Thus, the coolant will be exhausted from the cooling passages of the stack as a two-phase water/steam mixture, will be passed to a steam condenser to condense more water out of the steam phase, and also passed to a steam separator where the steam and water phases will be separated, the steam going to a fuel reformer and the water going back to the coolant passages in the stack. The condenser and separator may be used in either order. Before returning to the stack, typically, makeup water will be mixed with the returning water, but the temperature of the returning water will not be lowered during this recycling more than a very few degrees. Thus, where the coolant water is returned to the stack, almost immediately it begins to boil creating more steam. There are several problems which exist in the aforesaid fuel cell stack cooling system scheme. One of the problems relates to the handling of the steam phase and the fact that the steam condensers must be physically elevated above the steam separator, and the steam separators must be physically elevated above the cell stack. This creates packaging or housing problems for the fuel cell system relating to the necessary height of the housing in which the system is contained. This problem is particularly apparent with small to mid-range power systems. Another problem created by isothermal cooling of the fuel cell stacks occurs in cells which use aqueous electrolyte solutions, such as acid or alkaline cells. This second problem concerns the evaporation of electrolyte into the oxidation gas. This evaporated electrolyte leaves the cell area with the exhausted oxidant gas. Without special modifications to the cell structure, this will be a serious problem which is continuous at high load outputs. This requires electrolyte replacement, and special stack construction to combat corrosion in stack manifolds and the like.

Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) involves the periodic infusion of sterile aqueous solution (called peritoneal dialysis solution, or dialysate) into the peritoneal cavity of a patient. Diffusion and osmosis exchanges take place between the solution and the bloodstream across the natural body membranes. These exchanges transfer waste products to the dialysate that the kidneys normally excrete. The waste products typically consist of solutes like sodium and chloride ions, and other compounds normally excreted through the kidneys like urea, creatinine, and water. The diffusion of water across the peritoneal membrane during dialysis is called ultrafiltration. Conventional peritoneal dialysis solutions include dextrose in concentrations sufficient to generate the necessary osmotic pressure to remove water from the patient through ultrafiltration. Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) is a popular form of PD. A patient performs CAPD manually about four times a day. During a drain/fill procedure for CAPD, the patient initially drains spent peritoneal dialysis solution from his/her peritoneal cavity, and then infuses fresh peritoneal dialysis solution into his/her peritoneal cavity. This drain and fill procedure usually takes about 1 hour. Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD) is another popular form of PD. APD uses a machine, called a cycler, to automatically infuse, dwell, and drain peritoneal dialysis solution to and from the patient's peritoneal cavity. APD is particularly attractive to a PD patient, because it can be performed at night while the patient is asleep. This frees the patient from the day-to-day demands of CAPD during his/her waking and working hours. The APD sequence typically lasts for several hours. It often begins with an initial drain phase to empty the peritoneal cavity of spent dialysate. The APD sequence then proceeds through a succession of fill, dwell, and drain phases that follow one after the other. Each fill/dwell/drain sequence is called a cycle. During the fill phase, the cycler transfers a predetermined volume of fresh, warmed dialysate into the peritoneal cavity of the patient. The dialysate remains (or “dwells”) within the peritoneal cavity for a period of time. This is called the dwell phase. During the drain phase, the cycler removes the spent dialysate from the peritoneal cavity. The number of fill/dwell/drain cycles that are required during a given APD session depends upon the total volume of dialysate prescribed for the patient's APD regimen, and is either entered as part of the treatment prescription or calculated by the cycler. APD can be and is practiced in different ways. Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD) is one commonly used APD modality. During each fill/dwell/drain phase of CCPD, the cycler infuses a prescribed volume of dialysate. After a prescribed dwell period, the cycler completely drains this liquid volume from the patient, leaving the peritoneal cavity empty, or “dry.” Typically, CCPD employs 4-8 fill/dwell/drain cycles to achieve a prescribed therapy volume. After the last prescribed fill/dwell/drain cycle in CCPD, the cycler infuses a final fill volume. The final fill volume dwells in the patient for an extended period of time. It is drained either at the onset of the next CCPD session in the evening, or during a mid-day exchange. The final fill volume can contain a different concentration of dextrose than the fill volume of the successive CCPD fill/dwell/drain fill cycles the cycler provides. Intermittent Peritoneal Dialysis (IPD) is another APD modality. IPD is typically used in acute situations, when a patient suddenly enters dialysis therapy. IPD can also be used when a patient requires PD, but cannot undertake the responsibilities of CAPD or otherwise do it at home. Like CCPD, IPD involves a series of fill/dwell/drain cycles. Unlike CCPD, IPD does not include a final fill phase. In IPD, the patient's peritoneal cavity is left free of dialysate (or “dry”) in between APD therapy sessions. Tidal Peritoneal Dialysis (TPD) is another APD modality. Like CCPD, TPD includes a series of fill/dwell/drain cycles. Unlike CCPD, TPD does not completely drain dialysate from the peritoneal cavity during each drain phase. Instead, TPD establishes a base volume during the first fill phase and drains only a portion of this volume during the first drain phase. Subsequent fill/dwell/drain cycles infuse and then drain a replacement volume on top of the base volume. The last drain phase removes all dialysate from the peritoneal cavity. There is a variation of TPD that includes cycles during which the patient is completely drained and infused with a new full base volume of dialysis. TPD can include a final fill cycle, like CCPD. Alternatively, TPD can avoid the final fill cycle, like IPD. APD offers flexibility and quality of life enhancements to a person requiring dialysis. APD can free the patient from the fatigue and inconvenience that the day to day practice of CAPD represents to some individuals. APD can give back to the patient his or her waking and working hours free of the need to conduct dialysis exchanges. Still, the complexity and size of past machines and associated disposables for various APD modalities have dampened widespread patient acceptance of APD as an alternative to manual peritoneal dialysis methods.

The present invention relates to a piezoelectric actuator for an ink jet printhead, comprising: a body of piezoelectric material having a bottom face through which the mechanical energy of the actuator is transferred to a receiving member, said body having an active part adjacent to the bottom face as well as an inactive part; a layered structure of alternating signal electrodes and common electrodes arranged in the active part in parallel with the bottom face and separated by layers of the piezoelectric material; a layered structure of alternating auxiliary electrodes and common electrodes arranged in the inactive part in parallel with the bottom face and separated by layers of the piezoelectric material; at least one signal lead electrode formed on a first side face of said body and interconnecting the signal electrodes; a ground lead electrode formed on a second side face opposite to said first side face and interconnecting the common electrodes; and an auxiliary lead electrode interconnecting the auxiliary electrodes. An actuator of the type described hereinabove is used for pressurizing liquid ink in an ink jet printhead, so that ink droplets can be jetted-out from nozzles of the printhead. Typically, the printhead has a linear array of nozzles, and each nozzle is connected to an ink channel that is filled with ink. The ink channels are arranged in parallel with each other and are covered by a sheet-like receiving member which is bonded to the bottom face of the actuator so that it can be deformed in accordance with the expansion and retraction strokes of the actuator for compressing the ink in the ink channels. The active part of the piezoelectric body is divided into a plurality of parallel fingers associated with the respective individual ink channels and separated by dicing cuts cut into the bottom face of the body. The inactive part of the body forms a bridge-like structure which interconnects the fingers on the side opposite to the bottom face. The signal lead electrodes are respectively associated with the individual fingers, so that an ink droplet from a selected one of the nozzles can be obtained by applying a voltage across the associated signal lead electrode and the ground lead electrode. The inactive bridge portion of the piezoelectric body serves as a backing member which bears the reaction forces of the active actuator fingers and also facilitates the manufacturing process in that it permits the production of a plurality of fingers as a one-piece construction, by simply forming dicing cuts in the piezoelectric body. The auxiliary electrodes in the inactive part are not needed when the printhead is operating. These auxiliary electrodes are only needed in the process of manufacturing the actuator. As is well known in the art, a piezoelectric device made for example of piezoelectric ceramic needs to be polarized during the manufacturing process in order to show the desired piezoelectric effect. This polarizing step is accompanied by an anisotropic shrinkage or expansion of the piezoelectric material. Thus, when only the active part were polarized, the piezoelectric body as a whole would behave like a bimorph element and would undesirably be distorted or even broken. This is why the auxiliary electrodes are also used for polarizing the inactive part of the piezoelectric body. FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a printhead 10 in which a commercially available piezoelectric actuator 12 is employed. The printhead 10 comprises a support member 14 on which a channel plate 16 is disposed. A plurality of parallel ink channels 18 are formed in the top surface of the channel plate 16. Only one of these ink channels 18 is shown in FIG. 4. One end of the ink channel 18 is formed as a nozzle 20 from which ink droplets are to be expelled. The rear end of the ink channel is connected to an ink supply system (not shown) which is accommodated in the support member 14. A receiving member 22 is formed as a thin flexible sheet and is superposed on the channel plate 16 so that it covers all the ink channels 18 and the nozzles 20. The actuator 12 comprises a body 24 made of a piezoelectric ceramic and shaped as a parallelepiped having a bottom face 26 which is bonded to the receiving member 22. The portion of the body 24 adjacent to the bottom face 26 is subdivided into a plurality of fingers 28 which are arranged in parallel with one another and with the ink channels 18. Each finger 28 is disposed directly above a respective one of the ink channels 18. However, it can be seen in FIG. 4 that the body 24 and also the fingers 28 thereof extend beyond the ink channels 18 on the side opposite to the nozzles 20. Only the part of the fingers 28 situated above the ink channels 18 is formed as an active part 30 of the piezoelectric actuator. This active part 30 comprises a layered structure with alternating signal electrodes 32 and common electrodes 34. The common electrodes 34 extend only over the active part 30, whereas the signal electrodes 32 extend over the entire length of the body 24 and, accordingly, are also present in an inactive part 36 which is offset from the ink channels 18. The portion of the body 24 bridging the individual fingers 28 and situated above the active part 30 forms another inactive part 38. This inactive part 38 contains a layered structure with alternating common electrodes 34 and auxiliary electrodes 40. All the electrodes 32, 34 and 40 are formed by plane rectangular sheets of conductive material arranged in parallel with the bottom face 26 of the body 24 and separated from each other by layers of ceramic material. The signal electrodes 32 of each finger 28 are interconnected with each other by a signal lead electrode 42 formed on a rear side face of the body 24, i.e. the side face opposite to the nozzles 20. Similarly, all the common electrodes 34 in the active part 30 and the inactive part 38 are interconnected by a common ground lead electrode 44 formed on the front side face of the body 24. The auxiliary electrodes 40 are interconnected by a common auxiliary lead electrode 46 formed again on the rear side face of the body 24 but separated from the signal lead electrodes 42 by a gap 48. The signal lead electrodes 42 and the ground lead electrode 44 are connected to respective contact electrodes 50 and 52xe2x80x2 formed on the bottom face 26 of the body 24. The contact electrode 52 extends beyond the rear ends of the ink channels 18. All the contact electrodes 50 and 52 are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown) via electrical leads formed on a connecting piece 54. The connecting piece 54 is formed by a flexible foil which is sandwiched between the bottom face 26 of the body 24 and the receiving member 22 below the inactive part 36. When an energizing signal is supplied to one of the signal lead electrodes 42 via the associated contact electrode 50 and the connecting piece 54, the active part 30 of the corresponding finger 28 performs an expansion stroke, so that the receiving member 22 is flexed downward and compresses the ink contained in the ink channel 18, thereby expelling an ink droplet from the nozzle 20. In order to avoid losses in the mechanical energy transferred to the receiving member 22, it is preferable that the connecting piece 54 is not provided between the active part 30 of the actuator and the receiving member 22 but is only provided in the rear of the ink channels 18. The body 24 has been extended rearwardly beyond the ink channels 18 in order to provide a sufficient contact area between the contact electrodes 50 and 52 and the connecting piece 54. Since the receiving member 22 cannot flex downwardly in this area because it is supported by the channel plate 16, the part 36 of the body 24 is inactive and does not contain common electrodes 34. It will be noted that in the conventional actuator 12 shown in FIG. 4 the connecting piece 54 must adjoin with the bottom face 26 because the front and rear side faces of the inactive top part of the body 24 are occupied by the ground lead electrode 44 and the auxiliary lead electrode 46 which are needed for connecting the common electrodes 34 and auxiliary electrodes 40 in the inactive part 38 during the polarizing step. It is an object of the present invention to provide a piezoelectric actuator which offers more freedom of design when the actuator is employed in an ink jet printhead. According to the present invention, the auxiliary lead electrode is formed on a third side face of the block. This has the advantage that the first and second side faces of the block can be used in their entirety for connecting the signal electrodes and the common electrodes, which permits more freedom of choice with respect to the position where a connecting piece is adjoined to the piezoelectric block. In particular, the connecting piece may be adjoined to the block in a position remote from the bottom face, for example, on the top face opposite to the bottom face. In a piezoelectric printhead the actuator must be firmly bonded to the receiving member because the actuator must be capable of not only performing compression strokes but also expansion strokes for drawing the ink into the ink channel. In view of the extremely small width dimensions of the ink channels and the associated piezoelectric fingers, this bonding step is a rather intricate procedure. Bonding is normally performed by means of an adhesive which needs to be cured at high temperatures. Thus, when a thin foil serving as the connecting piece is sandwiched between the actuator and the receiving member, this connecting piece may be deteriorated by the heat applied in the bonding step. This problem can easily be avoided by the design according to the present invention, because it permits the connecting piece to be adjoined at the top face of the piezoelectric body after the actuator has been bonded to the receiving member and the adhesive has been cured. This offers the remarkable additional advantage that the electronic components which would be destroyed by high temperatures can be integrated on the connecting piece. In addition, when the connecting piece is no longer sandwiched between the actuator and the receiving member, there is no need to extend the piezoelectric body of the actuator beyond the ink channels. Thus, the actuator may be shortened so that it is provided only above the ink channels and no longer needs to have an inactive part adjacent to the bottom face. As a result, the actuator becomes more compact and less expensive.

1. Field of the Invention. This invention relates to a nozzle structure of a rug or upholstery cleaning apparatus in which the injection and withdrawal of cleaning fluid in a sweeping action through the pile of the rug or upholstery being cleaned is a simultaneous and continuous action. 2. Description of the Prior Art. Rug and upholstery cleaning devices in general use are arranged and constructed to direct a stream of cleaning fluid directly onto the base of the material to be cleaned with the driving force of the cleaning fluid being utilized to loosen the soil. The result of directing cleaning fluid onto the base of the surface cleaned tends to drive dirt and/or soil into the structure of the base and also results in a puddling or collection of cleaning fluid thereon whereupon the suction used is directed to withdraw the cleaning fluid after it has become puddled and subsequent to the cleaning effort of the surface. Prior art practice as described in Hayes U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,146 shows a two chamber nozzle structure with which a high pressure stream solvent solution is applied from one chamber and a vacuum in an adjacent chamber condenses and collects the cleaning vapor. Shown are downwardly opening chambers terminating in a common plane with lower edges notched for entry of air. The spray head is angled downwardly having the emerging stream impact against a wall surface of the spray head and becoming deflected down directly into the pile or nap of the material being cleaned. The whole impact is in a substantially vertical direction resulting in beating down into the warp or base of the material being cleaned with the full impact of the cleaning fluid and the soil and dirt which is present becomes impacted into the warp or base. The stream solvent is condensed upon contact with the material and condensated will tend to puddle or settle upon the base of the material. Here the vacuum attempts to withdraw the fluid after it has become settled or puddled upon the material being cleaned. Squier in U.S. Pat. No. 930,628 embodies a brush for cleaning, the brush being manipulated in a spinning scrubbing action. Thomsen in his French Pat. No. 449,826 embodies the use of an oscillating brush. In Crites in U.S. Pat. No. 2,292,435, a rotary brush is used. Grave, the applicant herein, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,582, discloses a cleaning head over which the present invention represents substantial improvement and in which the cleaning fluid under high pressure is discharged directly down into the base of the material to be cleaned prior to being withdrawn by suction. Lotz in U.S. Pat. No. 742,880 discloses a cleaning head or nozzle causing the soil picked up to be withdrawn through a narrow slit suction inlet with an adjacent funnel opening head which sprays water upon the surface being cleaned. Other commonly used cleaning devices utilize a rotating or spinning pad such as a felt pad which is impregnated with or accompanied by cleaning fluid as it spins over the surface and in effect beating the cleaning fluid into the material and in an abrasive action using its pressure and spinning effect to disperse the cleaning fluid through the surface cleaned.

As is well known, the purification of exhaust gases from internal combustion engines, particularly in mobile vehicles, is generally achieved by a catalytic converter in which a ceramic or metallic element having a honeycomb cell structure, which is disposed in a gas-tight sheet metal shell, acts as a catalyst carrier. More precisely, this honeycomb cell structure or catalyst substrate is covered with a catalyst that contains a precious metal which functions, in the presence of a stoichiometric mixture of exhaust gases, to convert noxious or otherwise environmentally unfriendly components of the exhaust gas, such as hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), to carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O) and nitrogen (N). A single sheet of rectangular shaped mat support material having a groove on one end and complimentary tongue on the other, or other combination of complimentary attachment features, is disposed between the catalyst substrate and shell. The sheet of mat support material is wrapped around the lateral (outer) peripheral surface of the ceramic or metallic element such that the tongue and groove engage. The wrapped catalyst substrate is then disposed within the gas-tight shell. Currently, a uniformly compressed piece of the mat support material is used between the catalyst substrate's outer surface and the shell to prevent axial movement of the catalyst substrate. Axial movement is resisted by the product of the mat support material force, the coefficient of friction between the catalyst substrate and the mat support material, and/or the coefficient of friction between the mat support material and shell. However, when using catalyst substrates that have frangible walls, for fast warm-up and low flow restriction, the catalyst substrate tends to be too weak to resist the mat support material forces necessary to prevent axial movement. Consequently, there exists a need to reduce the axial movement of a catalyst substrate during operation of a catalytic converter.

1. Field of the Invention This invention is directed to the automatic test equipment field, in general, and to a new and unique contact/connector element to be used therewith, in particular. 2. Prior Art The electronics industry is a rapidly growing industry. Virtually any type of operation can now be controlled by an electronic device of some kind. Many of these devices, from the smallest consumer product to giant main frame computers, use printed circuit boards or printed wiring boards. In fact, in most cases, these circuit boards are the working heart of the electronic devices. Needless to say, the value and usefulness of these electronic devices is dependent upon the verity and integrity of the circuits provided on the circuit board. Consequently, the circuits must be tested for continuity, opens, shorts, the ability to withstand high-voltage surges, and the like. Such testing has been increasingly performed by automatic testing equipment (ATE) as opposed to old-fashioned hand testing. In point of fact, as new applications of circuit boards are developed, the circuits thereon become more complex and the testing becomes more difficult. Consequently, computer-based test equipment is now recognized as an economic necessity. The complexity of the boards (and the difficulty in testing) is a function of the density of the components placed on the circuit board as well as the use of multi-layered printed circuit boards. In addition, testing is necessary on the bare board as well as the board after it has the multiplicity of components applied thereto. Also, testing of the entire system, i.e., systems with multiple boards therein, is required to establish proper functioning of the various elements and components in the operational environment. The automatic testing equipment field is serviced by many manufacturers. These manufacturers produce various types of equipment to test printed circuit boards in various stages of fabrication. To date, several of these manufacturers have produced machines or devices which include a plurality of electro-mechanical contacts or test points. The number of test points in the respective devices may range from a few hundred to approximately 50,000. However, these test points have turned out to be the weak link in the testing apparatus. That is, the known test points generally comprise a multiple part element. For example, it is frequently found that the known test points comprise at least three or four components. The known test points include a first contact member which is inserted into the test equipment and permits electrical contact to be made thereto. A mating sleeve is inserted into the contact sleeve and serves to maintain a spring therein. The actual contact tip also is disposed in the second mentioned sleeve and is spring biased by the spring which is mounted within the sleeve combination. The spring biased tip is utilized inasmuch as circuit boards are frequently out of planar alignment wherein rigid contact tips or points can be broken. Nevertheless, the multi-part contact test point still suffers from problems insofar as reliability and sturdiness of construction are concerned. That is, the spring element frequently deteriorates or the tip can be broken despite the resilient construction. For these and other reasons, the currently available test points exhibit several shortcomings and improved test point contacts are desired.

The present invention relates to the hot dip coating of a continuous metal sheet, and more specifically to a method for preventing the deposition of a metal oxide on such a sheet. In certain continuous processes in which hot metal sheets are coated by dipping in a molten metal bath, of a different metal, problems can arise because of the migration of the other metal as a vapor migrating into the furnace in which the metal strip is heated. Both the temperature and the atmosphere in the furnace must be controlled in order to prevent deposition of the metal vapor as an oxide on the sheet. Such oxidized deposits can produce imperfections in the coating of the final product. Galvanizing of steel sheets is a particular type of hot dip coating and the resulting steel sheet has found many useful applications because of its resistance to corrosion. The method of hot dip coating is by far the most widely used method of producing galvanized steel sheets. In particular, the problem which has plagued those in the galvanizing industry is the migration of zinc vapor from the zinc coating bath into the furnace which results in the accumulation of a zinc oxide dust throughout the furnace. If this zinc oxide dust is present on the continuous steel sheet prior to its being dipped in the zinc bath, an acceptable galvanizing coating cannot be deposited onto the sheet. This problem has required those in the galvanizing industry to periodically shut down the furnace and clean out the zinc oxide dust when coating defects have reached an intolerable level. Such a shutdown is time consuming and costly. It is therefore an object of the present invention to reduce the migration of metal vapor from the bath, i.e., the hot dip pot surface, into the furnace. Another object of this invention is to insure that the furnace atmosphere is not oxidizing to the metal vapor.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to the field of secure electronic messaging and in particular to management and transfer of Certificates between secure messaging clients. 2. Description of the State of the Art Most known secure messaging clients, including for example e-mail software applications operating on desktop computer systems, maintain a data store, or at least a dedicated data storage area, for secure messaging information such as Certificates (“Certs”). A Cert normally includes the public key of an entity as well as identity information that is bound to the public key with one or more digital signatures. In Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME) messaging, for example, a public key is used to verify a digital signature on a received secure message and to encrypt a session key that was used to encrypt a message to be sent. In other secure messaging schemes, public keys may be used to encrypt data or messages. If a public key is not available at the messaging client when required for encryption or digital signature verification, then the Cert must be loaded onto the messaging client before these operations can be performed. Normally, each messaging client establishes communications with a Cert source to obtain any required Certs and manages its own Certs and private keys independently of other messaging clients. However, when a user has more than one messaging client, operating on a desktop or laptop personal computer (PC) and a wireless mobile communication device, for example, then Certs must typically be loaded onto each messaging client from the Cert source. Therefore, there remains a need for a messaging client with a Cert management and transfer mechanism that simplifies Cert management and loading. There remains a related need for a Cert management and loading system and method.

At present, in the field of bottle conveying, there are known, devices constituted, on one hand, by a compression chamber, enabling a stream of air to be projected onto the bottles so as to drive them in the conveying direction, and, on the other hand, by a rail, capable of supporting the said bottles by the collar or flange generally provided in the area of their necks. The rail most often includes two guides, provided under the compression chamber, the latter being placed above the bottles to enable the stream of air to projected onto their necks. Such devices have numerous drawbacks. In order to prevent the bottles from oscillating in a plane orthogonal to the conveying direction, they necessitate, in fact, the use of lateral guide members, provided in the area of the bodies of the bottles. It should further be noted that, if the type or the format of the bottles changes, it is then necessary to make numerous, costly adjustments to the lateral guide members, along the entire length of the conveying path. In addition, such devices are unable to prevent the bottles from oscillating longitudinally when transported, which only too often leads to bottles colliding, or again, to their -fanning out-, with a risk of obstructing the conveying process. What is more, to be able to be transported by presently known conveying devices, the bottles have to have quite precise dimensions, particularly in the area of their collars. In addition, they must not be made of a material liable to heat up too quickly as a result of friction, such as PVC. It should also be noted that such devices do not permit a satisfactory level of hygiene. The air projected onto the bottles in the area of their necks enters the bottles, with the risk of contaminating them, unless prior, filtering is provided, which is complex and expensive if it is to be reliable. The object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by providing a device for conveying objects the guiding of which is simplified. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects, having necks and bodies, the characteristics of which are independent of the dimensions and/or the shape of the bodies of the objects. Another object of the present invention is to provided a device for conveying objects, provided with necks and bodies, that makes it possible to dispense with the use of lateral guide members in the area of the bodies of the objects. A further object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects that makes it possible to prevent the objects from oscillating longitudinally when they are transported and/or to prevent the occurrence of -fanning out- phenomena. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects that makes it possible to reduce impact between the objects moved. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects that makes it possible to improve the conditions of hygiene under which the objects are transported. A further object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects that can be applied, in particular, to driving bottles the dimensional tolerances in the area of the collars of which are broad, or even bottles having no collars. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for conveying objects permitting the transport of the latter regardless of the material of which they are made. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for loading objects designed for a device for conveying the objects which makes it possible to cause it to operate continuously and at high speed. Further objects and advantages of the present invention will emerge in the course of the description that follows, which is given only by way of illustration and is not intended to limit same.

One way that spatial locations of sound sources may be resolved is by a listener perceiving an interaural level difference (“ILD”) of a sound at each of the two ears of the listener. For example, if the listener perceives that a sound has a relatively high level (i.e., is relatively loud) at his or her left ear as compared to having a relatively low level (i.e., being relatively quiet) at his or her right ear, the listener may determine, based on the ILD between the sound at each ear, that the spatial location of the sound source is to the left of the listener. The relative magnitude of the ILD may further indicate to the listener whether the sound source is located slightly to the left of center (in the case of a relatively small ILD) or further to the left (in the case of a larger ILD). In this way, listeners may use ILD cues along with other types of spatial cues (e.g., interaural time difference (“ITD”) cues, etc.) to localize various sound sources in the world around them, as well as to segregate and/or distinguish the sound sources from noise and/or from other sound sources. Unfortunately, many binaural hearing systems (e.g., cochlear implant systems, hearing aid systems, earphone systems, mixed hearing systems, etc.) are not configured to preserve ILD cues in representations of sound provided to users relying on the binaural hearing systems. As a result, it may be difficult for the users to localize sound sources around themselves or to segregate and/or distinguish particular sound sources from other sound sources or from noise in the environment surrounding the users. Even binaural hearing systems that attempt to encode ILD cues into representations of sound provided to users have been of limited use in enabling the users to successfully and easily localize the sound sources around them. For example, some binaural hearing systems have attempted to detect, estimate, and/or compute ILD and/or ITD spatial cues, and then to convert and/or reproduce the spatial cues to present them as ILD cues to the user. Unfortunately, the detection, estimation, conversion, and reproduction of ILD and/or ITD spatial cues tend to be difficult, processing-intensive, and error-prone. For example, noise, distortion, signal processing errors and artifacts, etc., all may be difficult to control and account for in techniques for detecting, estimating, converting, and/or reproducing these spatial cues. As a result, when imperfect spatial cues are presented to users of binaural hearing systems due to these difficulties, the users may inaccurately localize sound sources or be disoriented, confused, and/or misled by conflicting or erroneous spatial cues. For example, a user may perceive that a sound source is moving around when the sound source is actually stationary. Moreover, independent signal processing at each ear (e.g., various types of gain processing such as automatic gain control, noise cancellation, wind cancellation, reverberation cancellation, impulse cancellation, and the like, performed by respective sound processors at each ear) may deteriorate spatial cues even if the spatial cues are detected, estimated, converted, and/or reproduced without errors or artifacts. For example, a sound coming from the left of the user may be detected to have a relatively high level at the left ear and a relatively low level at the right ear, but that level difference may deteriorate as various stages of gain processing at each ear independently process the signal (e.g., including by adjusting the signal level) prior to presenting a representation of the sound to the user at each ear.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to integrated circuit fabrication technology and, more specifically, to processes for forming titanium silicide films via chemical vapor deposition. 2. State of the Art The compound titanium silicide (TiSi2) is used extensively in the manufacture of integrated circuits. It is frequently used to reduce the sheet resistance of conductively-doped silicon conductors. It is also used to provide solid electrical contact between conductive plugs and an underlying conductively-doped silicon layer. In a common application for integrated circuit manufacture, a contact opening is etched through an insulative layer down to a conductive region (which may have been formed by diffusion or a combination of implanting and diffusion) to which electrical contact is to be made. Titanium metal is deposited on the surface of the diffusion region and subsequently converted to titanium silicide, thus providing an excellent conductive interface at the surface of the diffusion region. A titanium nitride barrier layer is then deposited, coating the walls and floor of the contact opening. Chemical vapor deposition of tungsten metal or polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) follows. Deposition of titanium metal and the subsequent conversion of the titanium metal can be replaced by the direct deposition via chemical vapor deposition of titanium silicide. The deposition step is followed by an elevated temperature anneal step which causes titanium silicide molecules to migrate into the underlying silicon layer, thus providing reliable electrical interface between the two layers. At least three processes have been proposed for creating thin titanium silicide films: (1) reactive sputtering; (2) annealing, in an inert ambiance, a titanium layer that has been sputter-deposited on top of a silicon layer; and (3) chemical vapor deposition, using titanium tetrachloride and a silicon containing compound, such as silane or dichlorosilane, as reactants. Both reactive sputtering and annealing of deposited titanium result in films having poor step coverage, which are of limited use in submicron manufacturing processes. Chemical vapor deposition processes have an important advantage in that a conformal layer of any thickness may be deposited. This is especially advantageous in ultra-large-scale-intrgration circuits, where minimum feature widths may be smaller than 0.3 xcexcm. Layers as thin as 1 ( )xc3x85 may be readily produced using CVD. However, TiSi2 coatings prepared using titanium tetrachloride have greater resistivity and are poor barriers to atomic migration than sputtered or annealed titanium silicide layers. What is needed is a new chemical vapor deposition process which will provide highly conformal titanium silicide films of high purity, with step coverage that is suitable for sub-0.25 xcexcm generations of integrated circuits, and resistivity values and barrier qualities that more closely approach those of sputtered and annealed titanium silicide films. This invention includes various processes for depositing titanium silicide (TiSi2) films containing less than five percent carbon impurities and less than five percent oxygen impurities by weight via chemical vapor deposition and the use of an organo-metallic precursor compound. Sheet resistance of the deposited films is within a range of about 2 to 10 ohms per square. The deposition process takes place in a deposition chamber that has been evacuated to less than atmospheric pressure and utilizes the organometallic compound tertiary-butyltris-dimethylamido-titanium (TBTDMAT) and a silicon containing compound as reactants. The compound tertiary-butyltris-dimethylamido-titanium has the formula TiC(CH3)3(NR2)3. FIG. 1 depicts the structural formula of tertiary-butyltris-dimethylamido-titanium. The deposition temperature, which is dependent on the silicon source, is within a range of about 400xc2x0 C. to 800xc2x0 C. The deposition reaction may be performed within approximately the lower half of the temperature range if a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process is employed. If thermal decomposition is relied on to initiate a reaction between the organometallic compound and the silicon-containing compound, the reaction must be carried out in approximately the upper half of the temperature range. As a general rule, the more stable the reactants, the higher the decomposition temperature. Titanium silicide films incorporating various other compounds may be deposited using either of the heretofore described embodiments of the process by adding other precursors to the TBTDMAT and the silicon-containing compounds. For example, by adding nitrogen-containing compounds such as amines, ammonia, and hydrazines to the silicon and titanium precursors and using the same reaction parameters, a film having the general composition TiSixN(1xe2x88x92x) can be deposited. Additionally, by adding tungsten-containing organometallic compounds such as bis(2,4-dimethylpentadienyl)titanium or tungsten halide compounds such as WF6 or WCI6 to the silicon and titanium precursors, a titanium silicide film having the general formula TiSiW can be deposited.

The present invention relates to the papermaking arts including fabrics and belts used in the forming, pressing and drying sections of a paper machine, and to industrial process fabrics and belts, TAD fabrics, fabrics/belts used for textile finishing processes such as conveying, tannery belts, engineered fabrics and belts, along with corrugator belts generally. The fabrics and belts referred to herein may include those also used in the production of, among other things, wetlaid products such as paper and paper board, and sanitary tissue and towel products made by through-air drying processes; corrugator belts used to manufacture corrugated paper board and engineered fabrics used in the production of wetlaid and drylaid pulp; in processes related to papermaking such as those using sludge filters and chemiwashers; and in the production of nonwovens produced by hydroentangling (wet process), meltblowing, spunbonding, airlaid or needle punching. Such fabrics and belts include, but are not limited to: embossing, conveying, and support fabrics and belts used in processes for producing nonwovens; and filtration fabrics and filtration cloths. Such belts and fabrics are subject to a wide variety of conditions for which functional characteristics need to be accounted. For example, during the papermaking process, a cellulosic fibrous web is formed by depositing a fibrous slurry, that is, an aqueous dispersion of cellulose fibers, onto a moving forming fabric in the forming section of a paper machine. A large amount of water is drained from the slurry through the forming fabric, leaving the cellulosic fibrous web on the surface of the forming fabric. Such fabric structures are typically constructed from synthetic fibers and monofilaments by conventional textile processing methods. It is often desirable to selectively tailor the surface, bulk or edges of a fabric structure to affect or enhance a performance characteristic important to, for example, the papermaker, such as fabric life, sheet formation, runnability or paper properties. Heat is commonly applied to dry, melt, sinter or chemically react a material incorporated into the fabric to achieve such structural changes. Since the fibers and monofilaments are commonly high molecular weight polyester, polyamide or other thermoplastic material, heat can affect these materials in a variety of adverse ways. For example, heat can cause (a) flow above the glass transition point of a thermoplastic material which effects dimensional changes, or (b) melting above the melt transition point. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,334,289; 5,554,467 and 5,624,790 relate to a papermaking belt made by applying a coating of photosensitive resinous material to a reinforcing structure which has opaque portions and then exposing the photosensitive material to light of an activating wavelength through a mask which has transparent and opaque regions. The light also passes through the reinforcing structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,663 relates to a method for applying a curable resin, such as a photosensitive resin, to a substrate of a papermaker's fabric. A second material is also applied to the substrate. After the photosensitive resin is cured, the second material is removed, leaving a patterned portion of the cured resin. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,693,187; 5,837,103 and 5,871,887 relate to an apparatus for making paper which comprises a fabric and a pattern layer joined to the fabric. The fabric has a relatively high UV absorbance. This prevents actinic radiation applied to cure the pattern layer from scattering when the radiation penetrates the surface of the pattern layer. By limiting the scattering of radiation beneath the surface of the pattern layer, extraneous material is minimized in the regions of the fabric where it is desired not to have pattern layer material. For fabrics such as those used for the forming of paper and tissue products, or for the production of tissue/towel or through-air-drying “TAD” fabrics, such fabrics are often times joined by a seam. In this instance, the fabric is usually flat woven. Each fabric edge has a “fringe” of machine direction (“MD”) yarns. This fringe is rewoven with cross machine direction (“CD”) yarns in the same basic pattern as the fabric body. This process of seaming to make endless is known to those skilled in the art. The seam area therefore contains MD yarn ends. The strength of the seam is dependent upon the MD yarn strength, the number of MD and CD yarns used, and the crimp in the MD yarns themselves that physically “lock” themselves around CD yarns to an extent. Those MD yarn ends, when the fabric is under operating tension on, for example, a papermaking or tissue/towel making machine, can literally slip past one another and pull out. The “ends” themselves then protrude above the fabric plane causing small holes in the paper/tissue product or can eventually slip enough so that ultimately, the fabric seam fails and the fabric pulls apart. To minimize this, the yarns in the seam are usually sprayed or coated with an adhesive. Unfortunately, this can alter the fluid handling properties of the seam area, and the adhesive can also be abraded and wear off. In addition, the width of the seam area, as measured in the MD, formed using conventional techniques typically range, for example, anywhere between three and a half to twenty inches or even more. For many reasons, it is desirable to reduce the seam area. While the application of heat to partially melt or fuse yarns to each other in the seam area has been contemplated, the use of heat generally may cause unacceptable change to the fluid handling properties of the seam area since all yarns are affected and the seam may, for example, have a resultant different air permeability than the fabric body. The modification of synthetic material, particularly fibers/yarns or monofilaments to absorb short wavelength infrared energy to create the possibility of having both heat absorbing and non-absorbing fibers/yarns or monofilaments is different, however, in the present invention than that in the patents described above. Accordingly, an alternative method to enhance the seam strength/resistance to yarn pull out is desired.

1. Field of Invention The present invention relates to a lead frame structure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lead frame structure having a cooling surface that can enhance the cooling capacity of a semiconductor package. 2. Description of Related Art As semiconductor manufacturing continues to make progress, the level of integration of integrated circuit (IC) devices and hence computational speed will increase. When the devices in a silicon chip is in operation, a great amount of heat is generated. If the integrated circuit rises above a certain permissible range of temperature, some of the integrated circuit devices within the chip may produce errors. When the devices are seriously overheated, they may even be permanently damaged. Hence, how to lower the working temperature of (IC) devices becomes an important manufacturing consideration. A metallic lead frame inside a package is in direct contact with a silicon chip. Because metal is a good thermal conductor, most packages have a portion of the metallic lead frame exposed so that cooling rate can be increased. FIG. 1 is a schematic, cross-sectional diagram showing a conventional semiconductor package with a lead frame inside. As shown in FIG. 1, the lead frame 16 inside the semiconductor package 10 includes a die pad 12 and a plurality of leads 14. Each lead 14 can be divided into an inner lead portion 18 and an outer lead portion 20. The die pad 12 is formed on a surface at a different height level from the inner lead portion 18. After molding, the inner lead portion 18 of the lead frame 16 is enclosed by packaging material 30 while the backside of the die pad 12 is exposed. The method of forming a semiconductor package involves the step of attaching a silicon chip 22 to a die pad 12. A wire-bonding operation is next carried out to connect from the bonding pads on the chip 22 to the leads 14 on the lead frame 16 using metallic wires 26. The silicon chip and the lead frame 16 are placed inside a set of mold such that the bottom surface of the die pad 12 is in direct contact with a bottom mold piece. Molding material 30 is injected into the mold so that only the outer lead portions 68 and the bottom surface 28 of the die pad are exposed. Finally, the leads are trimmed and formed to create a complete package. When molding material 30 is injected into the mold, the mold and the die pad 12 may not form a perfect seal. Hence, some of the molding material 30 may leak through crevices between the mold and the bottom surface 28 of the die pad 12 and then spread over the entire bottom surface 28. Because the molding material 30 is a poor conductor of heat, cooling area will be greatly reduced and hence less heat will be carried away from the silicon chip 22. To return the cooling rate to the intended level, molding material on the die pad surface 28 has to be removed by polishing. However, this will increase the processing time and incur additional production cost.

This invention relates generally to mortise locks, and more particularly to latch assemblies and locking mechanisms for use in reversible mortise locks. A mortise lock is designed to fit into a mortised recess formed in the edge of a door which is opposite to the edge of the door that is hinged to the door frame. The mortise lock generally includes a rectangular housing, or case, which encloses the lock components. The principal lock component is a beveled latch bolt which projects beyond the edge of the door and into an opening in the door frame to latch the door in a closed position. The latch bolt is moveable to a retracted position inside the case to permit opening of the door by operation of a latch operator, such as a door knob or lever handle. Mortise locks are typically configured so that the latch operators mounted on the inside and outside surfaces of the door can operate independently. The outside latch operator can either be rotated to retract the latch bolt, or locked against rotation to prevent retraction of the latch bolt. Preferably, the inside latch operator can always be rotated to retract the latch bolt. The locking of the outside latch operator is usually controlled by a manual actuator, such as, for example, push buttons or a pivoted toggle, which is exposed at the edge of the mortise lock near the latch. The manual actuator has an associated link within the mortise lock case which, in one position of the manual actuator, engages a moveable portion of the outside latch operator inside the lock case so as to prevent rotation of the latch operator. In a second position, the link disengages from the moveable portion thus permitting rotation of the outside latch operator. The inside latch operator is usually unaffected by the manipulation of the manual actuator and remains rotatable at all times. Adjustments must be made to the mortise lock depending on whether the lock is mounted in a left-hand or right-hand door. A mortise lock mounted in a left-hand door must be rotated 180xc2x0 about a vertical axis for mounting in a right-hand door. Consequently, the latch bolt must also be rotated 180xc2x0 about a horizontal axis so that the beveled face of the latch faces the door-closing direction. In addition, the inside and outside latch operators of the left-hand door mounted lock become the outside and inside latch operators, respectively, of the right-hand door mounted lock. Therefore, a change must be made if the latch operator controlled by the locking mechanism happens to be the inside latch operator when the lock is installed. The necessary adjustments to the mortise lock can be accomplished without opening the case. Typically, the latch bolt can be pulled partially out of the housing, usually against the force of a spring, rotated 180xc2x0 and then allowed to be pulled back into the housing by the spring. However, this arrangement can lead to tampering after the lock is installed since the latch bolt can be reversed even when the mortise lock is in the door, which would prevent the door from closing. Moreover, the conventional mechanisms for reversing the operation of the locking mechanism are complicated and difficult to manipulate. For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a latch assembly for use in a reversible mortise lock which includes a latch bolt that cannot be reversed after the lock is installed in a door. Reversal of the latch bolt for use with a door of the opposite hand should be easily accomplished in the field. Further, any corresponding changes in the locking mechanism to effect locking of the outside latch operator should also be uncomplicated. The new latch assembly and locking mechanism should be straightforward in manufacture and use. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a reversible mortise lock wherein the latch assembly cannot be reversed when the lock is installed on the door. A further object of the present invention is to provide a new latch assembly and locking mechanism for a mortise lock which are simple to reverse in the field prior to installation in the door. According to the present invention, a mortise lock includes a latch assembly comprising a latch bolt having a first portion adapted to project from an opening in the lock housing in an extended position of the latch bolt while a second portion of the latch bolt remains within the lock housing. The latch bolt is removable from the lock housing through the opening. A securing member inside the housing is releasably attached to the second portion of the latch bolt. The securing member comprises a securing element having a blocking surface and means for biasing the securing element and blocking surface into engagement with the second portion of the latch bolt for releasably securing the latch bolt to the moving member. The securing element further comprises a disengaging surface which when moved against the force of the biasing means releases the second portion of the latch bolt from the securing member so that the latch bolt may be removed from the lock housing. In further accord with the present invention, a mortise lock of the type having a latch bolt normally projecting from the lock housing and means including a moveable member in the lock housing connected to a door knob or lever handle for moving the latch bolt to a retracted position in the housing, has a locking mechanism comprising a blocking element in the housing and means for moving the blocking element between a locked position and an unlocked position relative the moveable member. The blocking element has an opening adapted to receive a portion of the moveable member when the blocking element is in the locked position for allowing the moveable member to move and the door knob or lever handle to rotate. A stop is removably positioned in the opening of the blocking element for preventing movement of the moveable member when the blocking element is in the locked position. Also in accord with the present invention, a mortise lock comprises a housing and a latch bolt removably mounted in the housing through an opening in the housing. A securing member is disposed inside the housing for movement relative to the housing. The securing member comprises a securing element having a blocking surface and means for biasing the blocking surface into engagement with the latch bolt for releasably securing the latch bolt to the securing member. The securing element further comprises a surface which when pressed moves the securing element against the force of the biasing means for releasing the latch bolt from the securing member so that the latch bolt may be removed from the housing. The securing member is moveable between a first position where the latch bolt is inside the housing and a second position where a portion of the latch bolt projects through the opening in the housing. Means for moving the securing member to the first position are provided, including a moveable member in the housing. A blocking element is disposed in the housing and means are provided for moving the blocking element between a locked position and an unlocked position relative to the moveable member. A stop is removably attached to the blocking element and adapted in the locked position to prevent operation of the moveable member. An important feature of the present invention is that the releasing surface of the securing member is only accessible through the side walls of the mortise lock case. Therefore, latch bolt reversal must be performed before the lock is installed. Moreover, once the latch bolt is freed from the moveable member, the latch bolt can be completely removed from the lock housing, reversed and reinstalled. The blocking element and removable stop for locking the lock are also accessible through the side walls of the lock housing. Thus, repositioning of the stop in the blocking element is also accomplished before installation. Preferably, the stop is a threaded plug which is received in a threaded opening in the blocking element. Reversal of the latch bolt and locking mechanism is simple to perform prior to installation of the lock. A screw driver is the only tool needed to release the latch bolt from the lock housing for reversal of the latch bolt and locking mechanism. Once the lock is installed in a door, the latch bolt cannot be reversed because the latch bolt cannot be removed from the lock. Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description in which references are made to the accompanying drawings.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having a function for detecting originals containing specific patterns of monochromatic or color images, and also to a copying machine having such an image processing apparatus. 2. Description of the Related Art Nowadays, copying machines are available which can produce color copies of extremely high quality, and this has given a rise to the demand for prevention of forgery of bills, securities and other valuable papers. To cope with this demand, it has been proposed to adopt pattern matching techniques in copying machines to detect and reject any original which should not be copied. In such a technique, the image pattern of the original input to a copying machine, after correction for any inclination in the orientation of the original, is compared with image patterns which have been registered in the machine, for the purpose of recognition and evaluation of matching of the pattern. Image processing apparatus incorporated in known copying machines of the type described, however, does not have any means for deciding the state of the image recognition function. Therefore, when, for example, the image recognition function and the image processing apparatus are formed on different circuit boards, it is rather easy to demount the circuit board carrying the image recognition function, so that the copying machine performs the ordinary copying operation even when the original is a specific one which should not be copied. This undesirably allows easy forgery of papers such as bills and securities. Under these circumstances, the assignee of the present invention has proposed techniques in which each copy is provided with information which indicates the fact that the copy is a copy and not an original. One such technique is to combine a specific code or a pattern with the output image. This technique employs a function for storing a specific pattern to be added and a function for combining the pattern with the output image. In a copy produced by this technique, the specific pattern is combined with the output image by a color tone or density which is not so noticeable to human eyes but is discriminatable by a specific technique. In this type of color copying machine, there is no means for preventing replacement of the parts carrying the pattern storage and combining functions with a part which does not have such functions. After such replacement, the pattern is not added to the output image, so that forgery can easily be done by using the copying machine. Furthermore, since the pattern is fixedly stored in such a manner as not to be changed, it is not possible for persons such as service personnel to set different patterns on different machines to enable identification of the machine from the copy produced by the machine. The assignee of the present invention also has proposed a method for preventing illegal copying of bills, securities and so forth which is a critical problem noticed in recent years due to the high reproducibility of original images offered by current copying machines. According to this method, data concerning specific originals such as bills and securities are beforehand stored in terms of color space. Any original set on the copying machine is rejected when this original exhibits the same distribution of data in the color space as that of one of the above-mentioned specific originals. However, known copying machines realizing such forgery prevention method do not have functions for storing data concerning illegal use of the machine, e.g., type of the original illegally copied, type of the input device and identification of the operator who made such illegal use of the machine, nor a function for informing an administrator of the fact that the copying machine has been used illegally for the purpose of copying bills or the like. Consequently, there is no means for keeping control over the copying machine against illegal copying, particularly when the copying machine is set at a place where there is no person other than the illegal user. As explained before, various methods have been proposed for the purpose of enabling recognition of specific originals of the kind described. In all the proposed methods, however, the image recognition is performed by an independent circuit. Therefore, it is not impossible for those who are familiar with this type of machine to modify the machine so as to enable illegal copying of bills or the like, by demounting the circuit board carrying the image recognition function. Full-color copying machines also have been proposed in which identification information such as the serial number of the machine is added to the copy produced by the machine. Such information is given in the form of a mark of light yellow color or specific binary pattern. All these known copying machines, however, are still unsatisfactory in that they permit easy demounting of the image recognition or detection function, due to the fact that such a function is performed by a single circuit board which is not difficult to demount.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a switch such for example as a telephone hook switch or a built-in switch structurally associated with an A.C. power supply receptacle or socket. 2. Prior Art Heretofore, so-called leaf switches have been used as telephone hook switches and power-supply receptacle switches. The leaf switch comprises at least a pair of resilient leaf contacts secured at one end to a holder, the other end of one of the leaf contacts being reciprocably actuatable by a driver into and out of contact with the other leaf contacts for switching operation. With such a leaf switch, the operation of the driver depends largely on the stroke through which the driver is moved, and hence the force with which the leaf contacts are held in contact with each other varies to a relatively large extent in response to a slight variation in the stroke of travel of the driver. The conventional switch is also disadvantageous in that the adjustment of switching timing is difficult to achieve, and reliability is poor as the contacts tend to deteriorate. Another difficulty with the prior arrangement is that efforts to avoid such contact deterioration normally contemplate using a better material for the contact and electroplating the leaf contacts with silver, both of which are expensive.

Soil solarization is a hydrothermal process that utilizes the sun's energy to heat moist soil that is mulched under polyethylene. The basic concept of soil solarization is to use clear plastic films to allow transmission of light energy to the soil, where it is absorbed and used to heat the soil. The clear plastic film decreases convective heat loss so that increased soil temperatures are achieved. If the temperature under the plastic film and in the soil reaches sufficiently high temperatures, weeds and other plant pests are damaged or killed. Consequently, the need for chemical pesticides, or the amount of pesticide, is decreased by using soil solarization. Accordingly, in arid cloud-free regions, the soil solarization technique has found wide application for the control of some soil-borne diseases and weeds. Thus, in high light, cloud-free climates soil solarization with clear polyethylene films has been used successfully. However, in more humid environments, where clouds are a common occurrence, soil solarization is of less value in not providing the desired temperature. Further, one of the large losses of energy from the soil during solariation is as thermal-infrared radiation from the soil back through the film. Thus, under a consistent cloudy environment, prior art soil solarization methods are less efficacious, particularly against certain noxious weeds, such as yellow and purple nutsedge (Cyperus spp). There is, therefore, a need for an improved method of weed control involving a more efficacious solarization technique and/or plastics film of use therein.

Banana is a monocotyledonous plant of large herbs and belongs to the family Musaceae. The places of origin of bananas include southern China, India, West Indies, and Oceania. Taiwan is located in the subtropics and its banana productivity is abundant. Taiwan has been known as the kingdom of banana because it grows all year round and is produced abundantly from May to August. Banana contains many nutrients, such as carbohydrates, starch, vitamins, pectin, calcium, phosphorum, ferrum and various enzymes. About 80% people would more or less experience constipation throughout their lives. Constipation may be caused by many reasons including insufficient intake of cellulose and water, long-term sedentary, and environmental changes, and could become serious as being pregnant, traveling and changing diets. Constipation could be the syndrome of other rare diseases such as scleroderma, nervous system and endocrine system diseases (including thyroid diseases, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury). Colon inertia that is caused by unknown reasons may prolong gastric emptying time, lead to anal sphincter disorder, and disable people from feeling relaxed during bowel movement, and thus, may also cause constipation. Most patients with constipation can be treated by increasing high-fiber food products and water in their diets. Banana, which is common and abundant in Taiwan, is used in the present invention for producing a banana fermentation product via a fermentation process in the presence of specific microbes. The banana fermentation product provides effects much better than banana on preventing constipation. Therefore, the banana fermentation product can be used for providing an edible composition or a pharmaceutical composition for relieving constipation symptoms via a natural, non-chemical synthesis process without causing side effects.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image formation apparatus, a method for examining a discharge of transparent droplets, and a program for examining the discharge of transparent droplets. 2. Description of the Related Art It is difficult to visually observe patterns formed with transparent droplets unlike patterns formed with color ink droplets. Some documents describe a technique of performing registration adjustment through detection of recording positions of transparent droplets by a detection unit based on the fact that if transparent droplets are placed on color ink when printing is performed, color is different from a case where printing is performed with only the color ink (see Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example). However, it is difficult to visually detect nozzle clogging or a curved discharge from multiple patterns formed with transparent droplets discharged from multiple nozzles. [Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2012-035446 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-141624

Certain equipment and facilities, such as power generation equipment and facilities, oil and gas equipment and facilities, aircraft equipment and facilities, manufacturing equipment and facilities, and the like, include a plurality of interrelated systems, and processes. For example, power generation plants may include turbine systems and processes for operating and maintaining the turbine systems. Likewise, oil and gas operations may include carbonaceous fuel retrieval systems and processing equipment interconnected via pipelines. Similarly, aircraft systems may include airplanes and maintenance hangars useful in maintaining airworthiness and providing for maintenance support. During equipment operations, the equipment may degrade, encounter undesired conditions such as corrosion, wear and tear, and so on, potentially affecting overall equipment effectiveness. Certain inspection techniques, such as non-destructive inspection techniques or non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques, may be used to detect undesired equipment conditions. It would be beneficial to improve control of NDT devices.

The present invention relates to a method for operating a spark ignition engine at extremely lean air to fuel ratios. Such lean air to fuel ratios are beneficial and desirable not only because they are more economical but also because the total combustion involved results in clean exhaust and greater engine efficiency. Lean mixtures are commonly used in diesel engines and other continuous burning cycles. However, the spark ignition cycle has a tendency to misfire with a lean mixture. This happens because the excess air present cools and finally extinguishes the flame front. One successful method used to eliminate this tendency to misfire is the creation of a rich zone at the sparkplug. This allows the flame front to develop sufficient energy to maintain combustion throughout the lean charge. To accomplish this, a combustion chamber may be branched off the main chamber and fitted with an intake valve and sparkplug. In such an arrangement a special carburetor provides a rich mixture to the pre-combustion chamber allowing a reliable ignition and subsequent burning of the main lean charge. The design of engines previously proposed using these features, however, have been very complex, requiring a number of additional components which must be crowded into a combustion area. As a result, the flow paths, pre-combustion chamber geometry, and sparkplug placement were all suboptimal. Accordingly, the results have shown a marked decrease in engine efficiency with increased manufacturing cost. According to the present invention, an arrangement combining the regular intake valve, a rich intake valve, a pre-combustion chamber, and sparkplug into a single coaxial unit solves the packaging problem encountered with previous designs. Valve actuation is virtually unchanged. While the cylinder head gains an additional flow port, the sparkplug boss is eliminated. The coaxial design is compact and easily manufactured. The designer, therefore, can change important variables such as pre-combustion chamber geometry, distance from main charge and flow areas as desired. All of the pieces may be totally machined which allows more control over surface finish, charge flow, burning rate and heat transfer characteristics. These important variables can be optimized to control emissions without lowering engine efficiency. The coaxial configuration provides ideal flow symmetry and this insures quick, complete ignition of the pre-combustion and main charges.

The present invention relates to a guide device. In particular, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a guide device for guiding drivers and their vehicles into and out of parking spaces while protecting vehicles from impact. In public and private car parks, the dimensions of designated parking spaces are calculated such that each parking space is wide enough for the parking of a xe2x80x9cstandardxe2x80x9d vehicle, and allows adequate space between adjacent parked vehicles for the occupants to get out of and into the vehicles with an assumption of relative ease. The width is calculated on the assumption that all drivers park their vehicles nearly centrally within the designated parking space. Conventional markings on the ground of parking spaces are generally not visible during a parking manoeuvre and as a result, most drivers will seek to park at around the midpoint between the two adjacent vehicles. It is well known that not all drivers are neat parkers, and any inaccuracies in the position of a row of parked vehicles are thereby perpetuated and maintained as vehicles join or depart from the row of parked vehicles concerned. For example, once a driver has located a vacant parking space in a car park, he/she is often faced with the situation that the vehicles in the two adjacent parking spaces have not parked straight and/or in the centre of their respective spaces, thereby reducing the amount of space available to the driver on parking. A number of problems arise, the most obvious being that there will be insufficient room for the occupants to get out of the vehicle. Due to poor parking or mere carelessness, vehicles are often damaged as a result of the opening of doors of adjacent vehicles, or by the manoeuvring of shopping trolleys or prams between the parked vehicles. Vehicles can also be damaged along their flanks by collision while a vehicle exits or enters a car parking space. U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,974 describes a barrier or guard rail that is designed to be installed between vehicle parking spaces. It includes a cushioned impact absorbing surface that is supported above the ground by a set of equally spaced posts. It is the aim of the present invention to provide a guide device that mitigates at least some of the above-mentioned problems, inducing greater care on the part of manoeuvring drivers and increasing the safety, convenience and efficiency of vehicle parking. According to the present invention, there is provided a guide device for guiding drivers and their vehicles accurately into and out of vehicle parking spaces and protecting vehicles from impact, characterised in that said device includes an elongate cantilever arm, a support member connected to the arm towards one end thereof for supporting the arm above the ground and a pivoting mechanism connected to the support member that allows the support member and the arm to pivot about an axis that is, in use, substantially horizontal and in the same vertical plane as the arm. The present invention encourages drivers to park their vehicles in parking spaces more accurately, so that they are parked near the centre and nearly straight. The guide device is positioned above the ground, within the driver""s line of sight, thereby providing visual and physical guidance to drivers engaged in manoeuvring into or out of a parking space. As vehicles are parked more accurately, there is a potential for smaller vehicle bays to be defined by guide devices, in situations where it is desirable to favour use by smaller vehicles. The increased accuracy of parking manoeuvres into and out of vehicle bays also permits the use of narrower than usual access lanes, while encouraging generally more care on the part of drivers. The device protects the flanks, or front and rear of both the vehicle concerned and its neighbours from impact. The device also protects a vehicle against damage from carelessly opened doors of adjacent vehicles, and makes it difficult for shopping trolleys and prams to be pushed between parked vehicles. Advantageously, the guide device includes a base structure for attaching the device to the ground. Advantageously, the pivoting mechanism includes a biassing means for biassing the support member to a substantially upright position Said biassing means maybe arranged to provide bias over a predetermined range of movement between parked vehicles, and no bias if movement exceeds the predetermined range, such that the device will release and lie flat if the predetermined range is exceeded. Preferably, the predetermined range includes displacements up to an angle of approximately 40xc2x0 either side of the vertical corresponding to the effective gap between vehicles, although other ranges may be suitable. The biassing means may include a means for restraining the support member in a substantially upright position after being deflected. Advantageously, the elongate arm is arranged to be substantially horizontal in use. Preferably the elongate arm is flexible, relatively smooth and soft. The elongate arm is thus benign and yielding upon impact with any part of a vehicle, pedestrians, or other moving objects. Advantageously, the elongate arm has a visually prominent end feature preferably made of a brightly coloured plastics material. Preferably, the plastics material is high density polyethelene. Advantageously, the free end of the elongate arm is deflected downward. Preferably the base structure includes at least one bracket means and a base member that engages said bracket means and is rotatable relative to it. Preferably the base member, support member and elongate arm of the guide device comprise a single elongate element including a base portion, a support portion and an arm portion. Thus this guide device consists of only five components, with only one mechanically moving part. All of the components are extremely robust, require nil maintenance over a long period, and are difficult to vandalise. The device can be assembled on site, and no specialised skills are required for installation. Advantageously, the elongate element comprises a substantially cylindrical tube. Preferably said tube is substantially Z-shaped or C-shaped. Advantageously said biassing means engages said base portion Preferably, the biassing means causes resilient deformation of the base portion when the support portion is deflected from a substantially upright position. For example the biassing means may include a means for engaging a circumferential part of the base portion to restrict rotational movement between said engaging means and said circumferential part such that when the support member is deflected, the base portion is deformed laterally. The engaging means may include at least one lug for engaging a corresponding hole in said base portion. Preferably, the engaging means includes two lugs for engaging corresponding holes in the base portion, with said lugs being inclined towards one another. The said biassing means is preferably located between two bracket means. The biassing means and the bracket means may be incorporated into a single integrated fabrication. Advantageously said biassing means has a concave bearing surface, which includes a detent means for restraining said support portion in a substantially upright position. Advantageously said biassing means and said bracket means are durable metal castings or durable and low friction plastics mouldings, and said elongate element may be manufactured from a low friction, high density polymer, in hollow section, preferably polyethylene. The elongate element may be of large radius and is preferably flexible. Advantageously said elongate element is either partially or totally filled with a semi-rigid foam filling. Advantageously said support portion includes a damping means for damping oscillations of the elongate arm and support member. The present invention further provides a car park having a plurality of car parking spaces in which vehicles may be parked, and a plurality of guide devices located between adjacent car parking spaces to delimit the boundaries of those spaces and to guide vehicles into and out of the spaces, characterised in that each said guide device includes an elongate cantilever arm, a support member connected to the arm towards one end thereof for supporting the arm above the ground and a pivoting mechanism connected to the support member that allows the support member and the arm to pivot about an axis that is, in use, substantially horizontal and in the same vertical plane as the arm.

For engine systems in vehicular or other mobile applications where a supply of hydrogen is required, due to challenges related to on-board storage of a secondary fuel and the current absence of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure, hydrogen is preferably generated on-board using a fuel processor. The hydrogen-containing gas from the fuel processor can be used to regenerate, desulfate and/or heat engine exhaust after-treatment devices, can be used as a supplemental fuel for the engine, and/or can be used as a fuel for a secondary power source, for example, a fuel cell. One type of fuel processor is a syngas generator (SGG) that can convert a fuel into a gas stream containing hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO), known as syngas. Air and/or a portion of the engine exhaust stream can be used as an oxidant for the fuel conversion process. Steam and/or water can optionally be added. The SGG can be conveniently supplied with a fuel comprising the same fuel that is used to operate the engine. Alternatively a different fuel can be used, although this would generally require a separate secondary fuel source and supply system specifically for the SGG. The SGG converts the fuel into syngas by cracking and reforming the fuel. This is an endothermic reaction and occurs at temperatures typically in the range of 600° C.-1400° C. The reaction temperature is dependent on various things such as: the hydrocarbon fuel being used, oxidant being used, whether or not a catalyst is used, the fuel conversion efficiency, the degree of coke or soot (herein referred as “carbon”) formation and the temperature limitations of components. The syngas can be beneficial in processes used to regenerate exhaust after-treatment devices. For other applications, for example, use as a fuel in a fuel cell, the syngas stream may require additional processing prior to use. An example of an SGG has been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/112,784 filed Apr. 30, 2008 (published Nov. 6, 2008 as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0274021, entitled “Compact Fuel Processor”), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In vehicular or other mobile applications, an on-board SGG should generally be low cost, compact, light-weight, reliable, durable, and efficiently packaged with other components of the engine system. The SGG can be subjected to numerous on/off cycles, transient conditions, fluctuating and/or intermittent demand, extreme temperatures, temperature spikes, extreme thermal gradients and thermal cycling. Some particular challenges associated with the design and manufacture of fuel processors for vehicular or other mobile applications include the following: (a) Reducing the volume, weight and cost of an SGG. (b) Reducing thermal stress on components located within an SGG. Such stress can result in material fatigue and premature failure of materials, components and assemblies. Examples include: (1) cracking of components manufactured from ceramic materials, for example, a monolith type particulate filter; (2) cracking of a heat exchanger; and (3) thermal degradation of a mixing tube. (c) Reducing damage to SGG components that can occur during assembly. For example, thermal insulation liners manufactured from a ceramic material, tend to be vulnerable to damage during assembly of the SGG. The present fuel processor with improved reactor design, components and materials of manufacture is effective in addressing at least some of the issues discussed above, both in engine system applications and in other fuel processor applications.

Abnormality of blood dynamics is usually occurred in hypertension, including enhancement of reflected wave, acceleration of pulse conduction and decrease of compliance. It has been clinically proven that the central arterial pressure is a key factor of recovery from hypertension. The brachium arterial blood pressure value is determined by measurement of the peripheral arterial blood pressure by traditional or electronic manometer, usually being higher than the central arterial blood pressure, such as the ascending aortic and carotid arterial blood pressure value. Due to the different effects of different medications of blood pressure-lowering medicine on the central aortic and peripheral arterial blood pressure, using the brachium arterial systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured alone by traditional or electronic manometer to estimate the central aortic blood pressure may overestimate or underestimate the effect of blood pressure-lowering medicine on the central aortic blood pressure. Hence, it is insufficient to evaluate how well the blood pressure is controlled only by measuring of the brachium arterial blood pressure. There has been a method already which can estimate the waveform and value of ascending aortic systolic blood pressure by recording the radial arterial waveform, the brachium arterial blood pressure, and by a known mathematic formula, the related commercialized product (SphygmoCor, AtCor Medical Pty Limited) has been widely used in clinical trial, and it has been proven that the estimation of the value of ascending aortic systolic blood pressure can show the different effects on the central aortic blood pressure by different medications of blood pressure-lowering medicine. It could predict the risk of patients with cardiovascular disease after medication of different pressure-lowering medicines; hence, the measurement of the central arterial blood pressure played a role in the control of hypertension. Although SphygmoCor can estimate the ascending aortic systolic blood pressure, it needs expensive and complicated accessories and special operation techniques and is not appropriate for widely use in hospital and personal use of a patient. Patent No. WO/1996/0390 showed an innovation of technology, employing two separated measurement parts (upper arm and wrist) to measure the brachium arterial blood pressure value (by technology of common electronic manometer) and the radial arterial blood pressure waveform (by pen-shaped arterial tonometer) respectively, and then converts the radial arterial blood pressure waveform to the ascending aortic blood pressure waveform by a known mathematic formula, and adjusts the converted ascending aortic blood pressure waveform by the measured brachium arterial blood pressure value. Users can obtain the ascending aortic blood pressure value through the converted ascending aortic blood pressure waveform, which is the commercialized, non-invasive and patented technology of estimating the waveform and value of ascending aortic blood pressure. The product of this patent, invented by an Australian scientist, Dr. Michael F. O'Rourke, needs the expensive pen-shaped pressure tonometer, a laptop, and a specialized analytic program. The pen-shaped pressure tonometer is related to the accuracy of the estimated value and needs special operation technique; therefore, the usage of the expensive diagnostic instrument is still limited to research and can not be a personal home care.

1. Field of the Invention This application relates to a developing device and an image forming apparatus including the developing device. 2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus employing electrophotographic technology, such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine or a multifunction peripheral (MFP), performs processes of charging, exposing, developing, transferring, cleaning and neutralizing on a photosensitive drum or in the vicinity thereof. A toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is transferred to and fixed on a sheet as a medium. A printer that incorporates a belt-type developing device, which includes a developing belt and a developing roller, is well known. The developing belt provides an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum with toner to form a toner image thereon. The developing roller supplies the developing belt with the toner and scrapes residual toner, which does not contribute to forming the toner image, off the developing belt. A voltage for supplying the developing belt with the toner is applied to the developing roller. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-134646 discloses one such developing device. In the aforementioned belt-type developing device, however, the residual toner cannot be fully removed from the developing belt, thereby forming a residual image caused by the residual toner on a sheet. This will cause adverse effects on print quality.

Digital video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless broadcast systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, digital cameras, digital recording devices, video gaming devices, video game consoles, cellular or satellite radio telephones, and the like. Digital video devices implement video compression techniques, such as those described in standards defined by MPEG-2, MPEG-4, or ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4, Part 10, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), or other standards, to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently. Video compression techniques may perform spatial prediction and/or temporal prediction to reduce or remove redundancy inherent in video sequences. Intra-coding relies on spatial prediction to reduce or remove spatial redundancy between video blocks within a given coded unit. Inter-coding relies on temporal prediction to reduce or remove temporal redundancy between video blocks in successive coded units of a video sequence. For inter-coding, a video encoder performs motion estimation and compensation to identify, in reference units, prediction blocks that closely match blocks in a unit to be encoded, and generate motion vectors indicating relative displacement between the coded blocks and the prediction blocks. The difference between the coded blocks and the prediction blocks constitutes residual information. Hence, an inter-coded block can be characterized by one or more motion vectors and residual information. In some coding processes, motion vectors may have fractional pixel values that permit a video coder to track motion with higher precision than integer pixel values. To support identification of prediction blocks with fractional pixel values, an encoder applies interpolation operations to a reference unit to produce values at sub-pixel positions, such as quarter-pixel or half-pixel positions. The H.264 standard specifies the use of a fixed interpolation scheme for sub-pixel positions. In some cases, different interpolation filters can be selected to improve coding efficiency and prediction quality. For example, an encoder may apply different sets of fixed interpolation filters or adaptive interpolation filters on a selective basis. Also, to further improve the quality of prediction, an encoder may add offsets to sub-pixel position values after interpolation.

Lactobacillus acidophilus is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-spore forming, homofermentative bacterium that is a normal inhabitant of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts. Since its original isolation by Moro (1900) from infant feces, the “acid loving” organism has been found in the intestinal tract of humans, breast-fed infants, and persons consuming high milk, lactose, or dextrin diets. Historically, L. acidophilus is the Lactobacillus species most often implicated as an intestinal probiotic capable of eliciting beneficial effects on the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract (Klaenhammer and Russell (2000) “Species of the Lactobacillus acidophilus complex,” Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Volume 2, pp. 1151-1157. Robinson et al., eds. (Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.). L. acidophilus can ferment hexoses, including lactose and more complex oligosaccharides, to produce lactic acid and lower the pH of the environment where the organism is cultured. Acidified environments (e.g., food, vagina, and regions within the gastrointestinal tract) can interfere with the growth of undesirable bacteria, pathogens, and yeasts. The organism is well known for its acid tolerance, survival in cultured dairy products, and viability during passage through the stomach and gastrointestinal tract. Lactobacilli and other commensal bacteria, some of which are considered as probiotic bacteria that “favor life,” have been studied extensively for their effects on human health, particularly in the prevention or treatment of enteric infections, diarrheal disease, prevention of cancer, and stimulation of the immune system. The cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria consists of a peptidoglycan macromolecule, with attached accessory molecules such as teichoic acids, teichuronic acids, lipoteichoic acids, lipoglycans, polyphosphates, and carbohydrates (Hancock (1997) Biochem. Soc. Trans. 25:183-187; Salton (1994) The bacterial cell envelope—a historical perspective, p. 1-22. In J.-M. Ghuysen and R. Hakenbeck (ed.) Bacterial cell wall. Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Proteins associated with the cell surface of Gram-positive bacteria include hydrolases and proteases, polysaccharides, surface exclusion proteins and aggregation-promoting proteins (thought to be involved in mating), S-layer proteins (subunits of crystalline arrays covering the outer surface of many single-celled organisms), sortase (a transpeptidase responsible for cleaving surface proteins at the LPXTG-like (SEQ ID NO:308) motifs), proteins with LPXTG-like motifs, and MSCRAMMs (microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules) such as fibronectin-binding proteins, fibrinogen-binding proteins, and mucus-binding proteins. Cell wall, cell surface, and secreted proteins of Gram-positive bacteria serve many diverse functions, including adhering to other cells or compounds, providing structural stability, and responding to environmental stimuli. Surface proteins of bacteria are important for survival within a host, and for cell growth and division. Furthermore, surface proteins are often recognized by a host's immune system to initiate immuno-stimulation, -modulation, or -enhancement. The isolation and characterization of these proteins will aid in developing essential probiotic products with numerous applications, including those that benefit human or animal health, and those concerned with food production and safety.

The c-Jun amino terminal kinase (JNK) is a member of the stress-activated group of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases. The JNK signal transduction pathway is activated in response to environmental stress and by several classes of cell surface receptors, such as for example, cytokine receptors, serpentine receptors, and receptor tyrosine kinases. JNK is activated by dual phosporylation that is mediated by a protein kinase cascade that consists of a MAP kinase (MAPK), a MAP kinase kinase (MAPKK), and a MAP kinase linase kinase (MAPKKK). Targets of the JNK signaling pathway include transcriptions factors, such as for example, the transcription factors ATF2 and c-Jun. These kinases have been implicated in the control of cell growth and differentiation, and, more generally, in the response of cells to environmental stimuli. In mammalian cells, JNK has been implicated in such biological processes as oncogenic transformation and in mediating adaptive responses to environmental stress. JNK has also been associated with modulating immune responses, including maturation and differentiation of immune cells, as well effecting programmed cell death in cells identified for destruction by the immune system. Studies have implicated the JNK signaling pathway in apoptosis and survival signaling, and in particular, JNK has been recognized as a component of the stress-induced apoptotic signaling mechanism. Studies have shown that JNK is required for the stress-induced release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, and therefore, JNK is required for stress-induced apoptosis that is mediated by the mitochondrial/caspase-9 pathway.

Many medical devices require electrical power to operate. Non-limiting examples of such medical devices may include pacemakers, defibrillators, drug infusion pumps, neural stimulators, ventricular assist devices (VAD), and total artificial hearts (TAH). Some devices, such as pacemakers and drug infusion pumps, require such little power that an implanted non-rechargeable battery can last for several years, reducing the need for an implantable rechargeable power source. Other devices, such as some neural stimulators, may require power levels that an implanted non-rechargeable battery cannot supply for more than a few days or weeks. These devices require the use of an implantable rechargeable battery and necessitate recharging every few days or weeks. Other relatively high-power consumption implantable devices, such as VADs and TAHs, may require power levels that an implantable rechargeable battery cannot supply for more than a few hours. With these devices, it may not be feasible to implant additional rechargeable batteries due to the size and space required. As a result, these devices necessitate recharging many times per day or the use of an external rechargeable battery pack. A common issue encountered by powering or recharging high-power consumption implantable devices, such as VADs or TAHs, is the need for a percutaneous wire that exits the skin to transmit power from an external power source to an implanted battery or directly to the implanted device. This percutaneous wire can be a source of infection, restricts the patient from normal bathing or swimming, and can potentially leave the implanted device without power if it mechanically breaks. Some wireless power transfer systems have been developed that use inductive coupling between an implanted coil and an external coil to transfer power across the skin, thereby obviating the need for a percutaneous wire. This type of wireless power transfer system simply uses the inductive effect between two coils similar to a standard transformer. This approach has been used widely to recharge implanted batteries in some neural stimulators. However, these systems may require precise alignment between the two coils, require close spacing between coils on the order of a few inches or less, can generate significant amounts of heat near the skin, and require the patient to be immobile during charging if the external power source is not easily mobile. While there is limited use of wireless power systems in some neural stimulators, wide use of wireless power systems for active implantable medical devices has not been adopted. Currently, few applications of wireless power transfer have been applied to VADs or TAHs due to the higher power transfer levels required, relatively high power consumption of such devices, limited space available for implantable rechargeable batteries, limited capacity of implantable rechargeable batteries, and the like. Wireless power transfer systems and methods that can transfer sufficient power required to operate high-power consumption implantable devices while simultaneously recharging implantable batteries are discussed herein. These wireless power transfer systems and methods eliminate percutaneous wires, provide sufficient power for operation and/or charging, provide improvement in the operation and/or charging range, allow the patient to live a more normal lifestyle, provide more patient mobility, and reduce skin heating effects.