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1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to packaging of semiconductor devices. 2. Background Art To allow for high efficiency power conversion, power converters, such as buck converters, commonly employ power switching circuits in which a high side power transistor and a low side power transistor are connected to form a half-bridge. One such power converter that is frequently employed is a synchronous buck converter, where the high side transistor is a control transistor and the low side transistor is a synchronous transistor. The control transistor and the synchronous transistor are typically formed on their respective separate dies, i.e. a control transistor die and a synchronous transistor die, that are connected in a package (i.e. co-packaged) to form the half-bridge. One approach to connecting the control transistor and the synchronous transistor in a package would be to arrange the control transistor and the synchronous transistor side by side on a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). However, this arrangement would result in the package having a large footprint, as the package must be large enough to accommodate footprints of the control transistor and the synchronous transistor. Furthermore, conductive traces on the PCB could be used to connect the control transistor and the synchronous transistor so as to form the half-bridge package. However, the conductive traces would form long routing paths on the PCB, causing high parasitic inductance and resistance. Thus, this approach to packaging the control transistor and the synchronous transistor would result in a package having a large form factor where the package significantly degrades performance of the half-bridge. What is needed is an approach to packaging control and synchronous transistors that is capable of achieving packages having a small form factor where the packages do not significantly degrade performance of the half-bridge.

The invention relates generally to a severity ranking, and more specifically, to a method executed on a computer system for an automatic ranking of a technical software defect of a software service being executed in a software-as-a-service environment. The invention relates further to a related severity ranking system, and a computer program product. Cloud computing and SaaS (software-as-a-service) deeply changed software consumption, software development, and in particular support processes. This is due to the fact that in a SaaS model the software applications are hosted by a service provider and/or a vendor and may not be deployed on customer's premises. This specific delivery model may be considered as an enabler for a different approach to software development and support of users. During normal development and test cycles, defects of the software are ranked by severity and the severity value is assigned based on the “perceived” impact estimated by the person being the tester. Generally, the tester has just a generic idea about the business field of operation of a customer and thus, the severity value is not mapped through a quantitative approach to the real impacts that the defect may have on a customer's environment that is already in place. SaaS delivery paradigms change the operating background because customers' environments are hosted by a service provider and/or software vendor which has direct and continuous access to all the clients' installations. Consequently, the service provider has access to log files and usage patterns and error situations of all users of a customer.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a current normalizer, and in particular to a current normalizer having a digitally controlled variable impedance for automatically effecting current normalization in measuring the resistance of an electrolyte type particle sensing zone. 2. Description of the Prior Art Sensing zones for particle analysis apparatus are constructed in various configurations, one of the most widely used being of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,502 of Robert H. Berg. This type of sensing zone comprises a beaker having an electrolyte containing suspended particles therein and an orifice tube containing electrolyte emersed in the electrolyte of the beaker. One terminal from a current source is positioned within the orifice tube and the other terminal of the current source is positioned within the beaker whereby modulations of the developed voltage across the orifice in the form of particle pulses may be sensed as a sample of suspended particles to be analyzed is caused to flow through the orifice. As noted by Geoffrey T. Haigh in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,455, issued July 10, 1973, and as the present invention, assigned to Particle Data, Inc., when a particle traverses a given orifice, there will be a change in the resistance of the orifice proportional to the product of the volume of the particle and the resistivity of the electrolyte. For an orifice which measures 10,000 ohms, for example, a 10-ohm change for a particle entering a given orifice might be obtained. If the resistivity of the electrolyte is changed such that the orifice resistance is 20,000 ohms, a 20-ohm change will occur for the same particle. However, when a current is forced through the electrolyte, some degree of back voltage is generated due to polarization at the electrodes. Haigh observed that if the current through the electrode is held constant, the momentary current change caused by passage of a particle is independent of electrolyte resistivity, and that if the voltage drop across the orifice alone is held constant, the voltage change caused by passage of the particle is independent of electrolyte conductivity. He further observed that holding the voltage constant is not practicable; whereas, holding current constant may be practically realized. This results because, when the amplifier input impedance is nearly matched to that of the orifice, as is generally desirable for the best signal to noise ratio, the amplifier is sensing partly voltage change and partly current change at the orifice. Therefore, the sensed signal is proportional to the volume of the particle and some fractional power of the resistivity of the electrolyte. Correspondingly, the provision of a voltage source to program the orifice is insufficient because the counter-emf generated by electrode polarization is a variable. In view of the above, Haigh provided current programming of the orifice so that a constant voltage drop is provided across the resistance of the orifice. As an implementation, the resistance of the orifice for a given electrolyte is measured and the system is adjusted to compensate for that resistance. The details of the implementation may be had by reference to the aforementioned Haigh patent which is fully incorporated herein by this reference. It should be pointed out, however, that the current programming is effected in that disclosure by means of a potentiometer or the like while utilizing the instrument operator for visually observing a scope and/or pulse count rate indicator from which to manually adjust the supply current.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates broadly to a feeding, counting and dispensing apparatus. More particularly, this invention relates to a feeding and counting apparatus which uses vibration to control the flow of discrete items, such as tablets, being fed and counted. 2. State of the Art Counters for counting tablets, capsules, caplets and the like (xe2x80x9ctabletsxe2x80x9d) have been known in the pharmaceutical industry for some time. It is generally the common goal of such counters to feed a collection of tablets in a manner which permits the tablets to be counted as they move past a sensor, such as an optical sensor. Industrial pharmaceutical tablet counters are bulky and use a feed mechanism to transport large quantities of tablets to a counting system which counts the tablets. The counted tablets are then dispensed into a container. For example, a counter may be configured to count millions of tablets which are divided into individual containers of hundred tablets each. The industrial counters are typically very loud, employing large rotational or linear vibrators to feed the tablets to the counting system. Such vibrators are also complex in their structure and require special tuning for each system. Counters used in pharmacy environment are generally different from those used in industrial applications. In a pharmacy, a pharmacist is required to count different quantities of different tablets in succession. For example, a pharmacist may count 30 caplets of a heart medication for one patient and then count 60 tablets of an allergy medication for the next patient using the same counter. Therefor, a pharmacy tablet counter must be able to rapidly count many different types of tablets and must be capable of ensuring that medications of different prescriptions are not mixed due to tablets from a prior prescriptions unintentionally remaining in the counter. Clearing the counter is essential, as it is important to reduce the risk of cross contamination. In addition, behind a pharmacy counter, space is typically crowded and at a premium. Therefor, the counter should be compact rather than bulky. Moreover, pharmacy counter should be substantially silent. As a result, a quiet feed system is preferred for pharmacy tablet counters. One relatively quiet system is a simple gravity system, in which a pharmacist dispenses tablets in bulk into a plastic funnel, and the force of gravity moves the tablets through that funnel and past a counter sensor, and then through a second funnel with a narrow bottom opening. However, simple gravity feed systems have a substantial drawbacks. Funneling the objects through a small opening may result in clogging of the opening, and therefore requires safety features to ensure that clogging has not occurred. In addition, static electricity can build up between the funnel and the tablets (and in particular light weight capsules), causing them to stick to the funnel in spite of the gravitational force. This can obviously cause serious problems. As such, many counters count tablets into a tray, and the tablets are then transferred from the tray to a prescription bottle. The tray is used to visually inspect the counted tablets to ensure that no tablets from a previous prescription was inadvertently left in the counter, later dislodged from the counter, and incorrectly provided to the wrong patient. Such could result in injury to the patient receiving the incorrect medication and liability for the pharmacy. However, the use of tray is undesirable as it adds an extra step in every prescription which is counted: the transfer of the tablets from the tray to a prescription bottle. Therefore, there has been an effort to develop a system which overcomes the problem of stuck tablets and which does not require the intermediate use of a tray. One proposed manner to prevent the static electricity build up is to use a funnel which is made of metal, e.g., stainless steel, and thereby prevents static electricity build up between the tablets and the funnel. However, tablets bouncing off the walls and through a stainless steel funnel tend to make substantially more noise than can be comfortably accommodated in a pharmacy. It is therefor an object of the invention to provide a device for counting discrete objects which safely dispenses the objects directly into a container and reduces the risk of any objects remaining in the device. It is another object of the invention to provide a counting device, which requires no special tuning operation applied to each manufactured device, has few parts, and functions with high reliability. It is another object of the invention to provide a counting and dispensing device having substantially silent counting and dispensing systems. In accord with these objects, which will be discussed in detail below, an object counting device is provided which includes a feeding funnel, an object sensing system which senses objects provided into the feeding funnel, a dispensing funnel having an upper opening into which the objects are gravity fed after passing through the object sensing system and a relatively smaller lower opening, a vibration system which substantially silently vibrates the dispensing funnel solely in a horizontal plane, and counter and display system indicating the number of objects counted. According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the vibration system includes a first weight, a rotating means for eccentrically rotating the first weight in an XY plane such that a rotation of the weight creates forces applied to the rotating means in all directions in the XY plane, and means for transferring the force in only one of the X and Y directions to the dispensing funnel, that direction preferably being a horizontal direction. Such arrangement minimizes the overall noise level, and reduces the number of parts. According to the first embodiment of the invention, the vibrating system comprises a resilient vertical support for the dispensing funnel, a weight, a motor, a mounting block, and a resilient horizontal support. The weight is coupled to the motor, the motor is mounted on the mounting block, the mounting block is attached to one end of the resilient horizontal support, and the dispensing funnel is attached to the second end of the resilient horizontal support. The motor is adapted to rotate the weight in an eccentric manner to create vertical (Y) and horizontal (X) forces applied to the motor and consequently to the mounting block. When the weight is rotated, the resilient horizontal support flexes to substantially silently absorb all vertical forces created by the weight and thereby prevents the transfer of such vibration forces to the dispensing funnel. The dispensing funnel therefore vibrates substantially smoothly, reliably and silently in a horizontal direction, evacuating the discrete objects provided therein. According to a second embodiment of the invention, two weights are counter rotated in a horizontal plane XZ. The weights rotate about their respective axes which are displaced along the Z direction, wherein X, Y and Z are perpendicular. The counter rotation of the weights cancels the total force applied to the vibrating system in the Z direction. The desired force in X direction is transferred to the dispensing funnel to smoothly and silently vibrate the dispensing funnel in the X direction. Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to the skilled in the art upon reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the provided figures.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a brake hose constituting a part of a brake system for an automobile, or the like. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a brake hose constituting a part of a brake system for a passenger car, a bus, a truck, a train, or the like has been used as a hydraulic transmission hose connecting a chassis and a wheel caliper as an important safety part related to braking of an automobile, or the like. Since such a brake hose is, in general, exposed to a severe mechanical stress such as bending or rolling by a repeated steering wheel operation, swaying of a wheel, or the like, the excellent fatigue resistance is required. Furthermore, in order to ensure a sharp movement of the brake system, the excellent expansion resistance is also required. As a conventional brake hose with these characteristics required, those with a multi-layer structure having a first reinforcing fiber layer, an intermediate rubber, a second reinforcing fiber layer, and an external layer rubber successively disposed on the outer circumference of a tube-like internal layer rubber directly in contact with a brake fluid have been used widely. Here, as the first and second reinforcing fiber layers, those provided by weaving a reinforcing fiber material such as a polyvinyl alcohol fiber and a rayon fiber have been used commonly for ensuring the fatigue resistance and the expansion resistance required for a brake hose. In contrast, as a rubber material constituting the internal layer rubber, the intermediate rubber, and the external layer rubber, in general, a natural rubber (NR), a chloroprene rubber (CR), a styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), an ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM), isobutylene rubber (IIR), or the like are used. These rubber materials are used according to the characteristics required for each part. The polyvinyl alcohol fiber and the rayon fiber for providing the first and second reinforcing fiber layers have a problem in that they can easily be deteriorated by a certain kind of a brake fluid and they have a poor durability. Therefore, recently, as the reinforcing fiber material constituting the first and second reinforcing fiber layers, use of a polyethylene terephthalate fiber, which has the excellent corrosion resistance, is discussed. However, although the polyethylene terephthalate fiber has the dramatically superior corrosion resistance compared with the polyvinyl alcohol fiber and the rayon fiber, since it has a small elastic modulus as a fiber, it is disadvantageous in terms of the expansion resistance (volume expansion amount), which is one of the important characteristics of a brake hose. In the case the polyethylene terephthalate fiber is used in the first and second reinforcing fiber layers, although the corrosion resistance and the fatigue resistance can be improved dramatically compared with the conventional brake hoses, in contrast, since the volume expansion amount of the hose is made larger at the time of pressurizing, the braking response or the brake feeling becomes dull, and thus there is a risk of having the state of the xe2x80x9cpoor braking performancexe2x80x9d. Accordingly, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems effectively, the present invention has been achieved, and an object thereof is to provide a novel brake hose capable of sufficiently satisfying the fatigue resistance and the corrosion resistance, with the excellent expansion resistance. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first invention is a brake hose comprising a reinforcing fiber layer made of a polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber on the outer circumference of an internal layer rubber for filling a brake fluid as shown in a first aspect. A second invention is a brake hose comprising a reinforcing fiber layer on the outer circumference of an internal layer rubber for filling a brake fluid as well as an external layer rubber on the outer circumference of the reinforcing fiber layer, wherein the reinforcing fiber layer is made of a polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber as shown in a second aspect. Moreover, a third invention is a brake hose comprising a first reinforcing fiber layer, an intermediate rubber, a second reinforcing fiber layer, and an external layer rubber provided successively on the outer circumference of an internal layer rubber for filling a brake fluid, wherein the first reinforcing fiber layer is made of a polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber as shown in a third aspect. A fourth invention is a brake hose comprising a first reinforcing fiber layer, an intermediate rubber, a second reinforcing fiber layer, and an external layer rubber provided successively on the outer circumference of an internal layer rubber for filling a brake fluid, wherein the first and second reinforcing fiber layers are made of a polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber as shown in a fourth aspect. Furthermore, a fifth invention is a brake hose comprising a first reinforcing fiber layer, an intermediate rubber, a second reinforcing fiber layer, and an external layer rubber provided successively on the outer circumference of an internal layer rubber for filling a brake fluid, wherein the first reinforcing fiber layer is made of a polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber as well as the second reinforcing fiber layer is made of any one selected from the group consisting of a polyethylene terephthalate fiber, a polyvinyl alcohol fiber, and a rayon fiber. That is, in the present invention, a polyethylene-2,6-naphthatlate fiber is adopted instead of the conventionally used reinforcing fiber materials, such as a polyvinyl alcohol fiber, a rayon fiber, and a polyethylene terephthalate fiber as the innermost side fiber reinforcing layer to be provided on the outer circumference of the internal layer rubber for filling the brake fluid. As later described, the polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber can provide the excellent fatigue resistance as well as it does not have a disadvantage of deterioration with respect to a certain kind of a brake fluid found in the conventional polyvinyl alcohol fiber, rayon fiber, or the like, nor a disadvantage of a poor expansion resistance found in the polyethylene terephthatlate fiber, or the like as described later. Therefore, by using the polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber provided with these excellent characteristics as the reinforcing fiber material for a fiber reinforcing layer, the corrosion resistance and the expansion resistance can both be provided at a high level, which has been difficult for the conventional reinforcing fiber materials. Specifically, since one having a 0.5 to 8.5% dry heat shrinkage at 150xc2x0 C., a 6.5 g or more tensile strength per a unit denier, and a 5% or less elongation at 4.5 g per a unit denier load is used as the polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate fiber as shown in a sixth aspect, the above-mentioned effects can be achieved further certainly. Furthermore, since the internal layer rubber, the intermediate rubber, and the external layer rubber are made of any rubber material selected from the group consisting of a natural rubber (NR), a chloroprene rubber (CR), a styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), an ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM), isobutylene rubber (IIR), and a chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM) as shown in a seventh aspect, a brake hose with a low expansion property and the excellent corrosion resistance and fatigue resistance can be obtained easily.

Silver halide imaging elements contain at least one radiation-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer. The emulsion layer contains, as a minimum, silver halide grains in a dispersing medium, typically an organic vehicle, such as gelatin. Black-and-white silver halide imaging elements, following imagewise exposure, are developed to produce a silver image. Silver halide grains that are not converted to silver in the development process are subsequently removed by fixing. Color (most typically multicolor) silver halide imaging elements, following imagewise exposure, are developed to produce one or more dye images. In the most common imaging route reduction of silver halide to silver (development) oxidizes a color developing agent which in turn reacts with a dye-forming coupler to produce a dye image. The silver that is produced is an unwanted by-product that is reconverted to silver halide by bleaching. All silver halide is removed from the element by fixing. Environmental concerns have led to a thorough investigation of the processing of silver halide imaging elements. As most commonly practiced element processing includes development in an aqueous developer solution (or activator solution, when the developing agent is incorporated in the element), immersion in a stop bath which adjusts pH to arrest development, fixing to remove silver halide remaining following development, and rinsing. In color photography developed silver is additionally reconverted to silver halide, which is accomplished using a separate bleaching solution or integrated with fixing by using a bleach-fix (i.e., blix) solution. At one extreme has been the integration of all processing components into a silver halide imaging element and employing heat to activate processing. Although this eliminates all of the aqueous solutions associated with wet processing, the resulting elements are markedly inferior in their imaging capabilities. This has limited their use to specialized applications where the simplicity of dry processing outweighs overall imaging performance. Much more effort has gone into examining each of the aqueous processing solutions commonly used and modifying their components to reduce environmental objections. Substantial progress has been realized in providing more environmentally favorable developing solutions, but fixing solutions, despite improvements have remained the primary focus of environmental objections. The need for fixing a silver halide imaging element following development has been traditionally identified as the need to prevent the silver halide grains remaining after development from printing out (that is, from being reduced to silver). This is seen as objectionably elevated minimum densities. There is, however, a second reason for fixing out residual silver halide. In an imaging emulsion the silver halide grains have a refractive index much higher than the organic vehicle in which they are dispersed. Silver halide has a refractive index ranging from 2.0 to 2.2, depending upon the specific halide. On the other hand, gelatin, the most commonly employed organic vehicle, has a refractive index of only 1.54. Although individual organic vehicles differ somewhat in their refractive indices, all have refractive indices much nearer to gelatin than to silver halide. Virtually all organic materials have refractive indices less than .+-.10% of the refractive index of gelatin. Fuji U.K. Specification 1,342,687 (hereinafter also referred to as Fuji '687) suggested that light scatter by image-forming silver halide grains, typically in the 0.3 to 3.0 .mu.m size range, can be reduced by blending silver halide grains having sizes (i.e., equivalent circular diameters or ECD's) of less than 0.2 .mu.m Although reducing scatter during light transmission through a silver halide imaging element after processing increases image sharpness, it must also be kept in mind that light scattering during imagewise exposure of a silver halide imaging element has been sought, since it is known to increase imaging speed. Marriage U.K. Specification 504,283, Yutzy et al U.K. Specification 760,775, and Locker U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,527 each add solid particles to increase light scatter, thereby realizing increased imaging speed. When particles are employed for speed enhancement, relatively small concentrations of the particles are effective. For example, Marriage teaches concentrations ranging from 5 to 40 percent for particles having a refractive index of 2.1 or higher. To be effective in scattering light the sizes of the particles must be within .+-.0.20 .mu.m of the wavelength of visible light 400 to 600 nm (0.4 to 0.6 .mu.m). For example, Locker teaches particle sizes ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 .mu.m for scattering visible light.

This invention relates to a control valve for a fluid treatment system, such as a water softener or water filter, which includes a treatment bed that requires periodic backwashing, and particularly to a control valve that is adaptable to control various cycles of operation of the system and various combinations of cycles, including permitting a selection of co-current or countercurrent operation, and either allowing or preventing untreated fluid to pass to service lines during backwash or regeneration. Filter beds require periodic backwashing. The control of the backwashing is usually accomplished by valving which is responsive to a timer that calls for the backwashing under predetermined conditions or at predetermined time intervals. Backwash is often followed by a rinse cycle which is controlled by the same valving. Both water softener resin beds and regenerable filter beds also require periodic backwashing as well as the periodic introduction of a regenerative fluid, such as brine or potassium permanganate, to the bed. Rinsing cycles are also typically involved in the backwashing and regeneration. The backwash, rinse, and regeneration cycles are again typically controlled by valving that is actuated by a motor controlled by a timer and often responsive to the volume of usage to which the bed has been subjected since the last regeneration. In a water softener, the valving is typically mounted on the top of a tank that contains the resin bed. A tube extends downwardly through the bed and is in fluid communication with the bottom of the bed. The valving communicates with the top of the resin bed and with the bottom of the resin bed via the tube so that various fluids can be passed down through the bed, and up through the bed. Regeneration of a water softener resin bed is sometimes accomplished in a direction that is co-current with the flow of water to be treated and is sometimes accomplished in a direction that is countercurrent to the flow of water being treated. Also, some water softener valving is arranged to allow the passage of untreated water to the service lines during backwash, rinse, and regeneration, while other softener valving is arranged to block the flow of untreated water to the service line during such cycles. It is a principal object of the invention to provide a control valve that is adaptable to control the relatively simple cycles of service, backwash, and rinse in a filter bed and which is also adaptable to controlling the more complex cycles required for a bed that needs to be regenerated. It is also an object of the invention to provide such an adaptable control valve which can alternately regenerate co-current with the flow of treated fluid and countercurrent with such flow. It is another object to provide such a control valve that can alternately allow untreated fluid to flow to service lines during backwash and/or regeneration and to block such flow.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,408 to Matthies, herein incorporated by reference, describes the application of methyl alkyl siloxane compositions as lubricants for conductive information discs comprising a molded plastic disc having audio and video signal information in the form of geometric variations in a spiral groove. These discs are coated first with a conductive material which acts as a first electrode of a capacitor, then with a dielectric layer and a final layer of lubricant. A metallized stylus acts as a second electrode of the capacitor. The information signals are monitored by the stylus which notes changes in capacitance between the stylus and the disc surface as the information signals, in the form of a surface relief pattern, pass beneath the stylus. Further developments in this system have produced a disc which is made of a conductive plastic material, e.g., a polyvinylchloride homopolymer or copolymer resin containing sufficient amounts of conductive carbon particles so that the disc can provide capacitance readout. The plastic resin at the surface of the disc surrounds the carbon particles to produce a dielectric surface layer. This development has eliminated the need for separate coatings of metal and a dielectric layer on the surface of the disc. The stylus, formerly made of metallized sapphire, has also been improved so that metallized diamond can be used. Diamond is a harder, longer wearing material than sapphire but also requires improved lubrication of the disc surface. High density information discs are also being developed which do not require a grooved surface, the stylus being maintained in synchronization with the information pattern track by means of electrical signals rather than by groove walls. These changes in the materials used for the high density information discs and the stylus have changed the requirements for the lubricant system and improved lubricants are required. Wang et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,101, have described an improved lubricant system which comprises a fractionated, purified methyl alkyl siloxane of the formula ##STR2## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are alkyl groups of 4-20 carbon atoms, x is an integer of 2-4 and y is an integer of 0-2 and wherein the sum of x and y is 4 or less. These lubricants have improved long term stability and resistance to temperature and relative humidity changes in the atmosphere. High density information discs of the above type are subject to a phenomenon called carrier distress. Since the polyvinylchloride composition from which the discs are made is a heavily filled, heavily lubricated and heavily plasticized composition, degradation products that are produced during molding and on storage from reactions of the disc materials and excess, incompatible additives, bleed to the surface of the disc, forming a thin layer of organic and inorganic materials. This layer interferes with playback by collecting in the grooves or on the surface and by building up on the stylus. The result can be locked grooves, or dropouts of information as the disc is played. This problem has been somewhat alleviated by cleaning the discs after molding and prior to lubrication with aqueous solutions which remove at least some of the surface layer. However, with time, additional materials bleed to the surface of the disc. This bleedout can be accelerated by exposure of the disc to high temperatures, on the order of about 100.degree. F., and high relative humidity, 90 percent and above. Lubrication of the disc has heretofore had little or no effect on reducing carrier distress. A lubricant that can uniformly lubricate the surface of the disc without the need for a cleaning step would reduce the cost of manufacture. A lubricant that would reduce carrier distress in addition, would be highly desirable.

This disclosure relates generally to locating a tracking device, and more specifically, to leveraging a network of users to locate a lost tracking device. Electronic tracking devices have created numerous ways for people to track the locations of people and/or objects. For example, a user can use GPS technology to track a device remotely or determine a location of the user. In another example, a user can attach a tracking device to an important object, such as keys or a wallet, and use the features of the tracking device to more quickly locate the object, (e.g., if it becomes lost). However, traditional tracking devices and corresponding systems suffer from one or more disadvantages. For instance, if a tracking device is lost, the limited wireless range of the tracking device prevents an owner of the tracking device from locating the tracking device from outside the range of the tracking device. Extending the wireless range of the tracking device requires additional power often unavailable in a low-power tracking device system. Accordingly, there is a need to leverage a network of users to enable an owner of a lost tracking device to more efficiently and effectively locate the tracking device.

A conventional sail is typically flexible and used by boats and/or small recreational land vehicles to provide forward movement. Conventional airfoils are typically made from a rigid material and are used by vehicles predominantly to reduce drag. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/023,622 entitled Truck Streamlining and Ser. No. 12/384,875 entitled One-Piece Aerodynamic Truck Bed Enclosure are exemplary of conventional airfoils. Many large trucks employ single wheels with oversized tires on both the tractor and trailer/bluff in lieu of a dual wheel configuration. While more expensive, the oversized tires are more fuel efficient than multiple thinner tires. Additionally, many trucks employ a “skirt” affixed under the trailer. The purpose of this “skirt” is to keep air that has been deflected by the tractor from having to again be deflected by the rear wheels of the trailer. Thus, recent innovation for large trucks tends to revolve around increasing fuel economy/efficiency. Conventional airfoils are predominantly configured to reduce drag and thus increase fuel efficiency. A by-product for some airfoils is that they produce some lift as well, which also adds to fuel efficiency. But conventional airfoils are constructed of relatively rigid materials. On a low vehicle such as a car or pickup truck adding a relatively rigid airfoil does not present a problem. However, on larger vehicles such as semi-trucks, box trucks, busses and recreational vehicles, the added height of the airfoil poses a potential problem when driving under an overpass or street sign, etc. Since conventional air foils are made from relatively rigid materials, adding such an air foil to a truck or bus could also pose a safety risk. It would thus be advantageous to create a sail that could be attached to a vehicle that provides lift like an air foil but is flexible to minimize the additional dangers associated with driving under overpasses or other height related obstacles. It would also be advantageous to provide controls for adjusting the amount of lift provided by the sail.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color proofing apparatus which utilizes an electronic signal input, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for focusing a writing beam in a thermal printer using lasers to provide thermal energy to a dye-donor which causes the dye to selectively transfer to a receiver to form the proof image. 2. Description of the Prior Art Color-proofing is the procedure used by the printing industry for creating representative images that replicate the appearance of printed images without the cost and time required to actually set up a high-speed, high-volume printing press to print an example of the images intended. Ideally, these representative images, or proofs, are generated from the same color-separations used to produce the individual color printing plates used in printing presses so that variations in the resulting images can be minimized. Various color-proofing systems have been devised to create the proofs and have included the use of smaller, slower presses as well as means other than presses, such as photographic, electrophotographic, and non-photographic processes. The proofs generated are judged for composition, screening, resolution, color, editing, and other visual content. The closer the proof replicates the final image produced on the printing press, as well as the consistency from image to image, from press to press, and from shop to shop, the better the acceptance of the proofing system by the printing industry. Other considerations used in judging proofing systems include reproducibility, cost of the system as well as cost of the individual proofs, speed, and freedom from environmental problems. Further, since nearly all printing presses utilize the half-tone process for forming pictorial images, wherein the original image is screened, i.e. photographed through a screen to produce one or more printing plates containing an image formed of a plurality of fine dots that simulate the varying density of the original image, proofing processes that employ the half-tone process to form an image are more acceptable to the printing industry than are continuous tone systems. In recent years a variety of processes have been developed and implemented to electronically form, store, and manipulate images both for the actual printing as well as the proofing of images. While such electronic systems can handle and produce analog images, the most widely used systems employ digital processes because of the ease of manipulation of such digital images. In each of these electronic processes it is possible to display the resulting image on a CRT display, but it is generally necessary to produce a "hard copy" (i.e. an image actually formed on a sheet of paper or other material) before it can be fully assessed for approval of the final printing operation. Thus, each of these electronic systems requires the use of some form of output device or printer which can produce a hard copy of the image for actual evaluation. It is to the field of proofing output devices that the present invention is directed. While purely photographic processes can provide accurate reproductions of images, they do not always replicate the reproduction resulting from printing presses. Further, most photographic processes do not produce half-tone images that can be directly compared to the printed images they are supposed to simulate. Moreover, they are almost universally incapable of reproducing the images on the wide variety of paper or other material that can be run through a press. It is known that the appearance of the final printed image is affected by the characteristics of the paper or other material upon which it is printed. Thus, the ability to form the proof image on the material actually to be used in the press can be a determining factor in the selection of the proofing system. Other continuous tone proofing systems, such as thermal processes and ink-jet systems have been developed, but they do not replicate the half-tone images so desired by the printing industry. Electrophotographic proofing systems with half-tone capability have been introduced over the past few years which employ either wet or dry processes. The electrophotographic systems that use dry processes suffer from the lack of high resolution necessary for better quality proofing, particularly when the images are almost of continuous tone quality. This results from the fact that dry electrophotographic processes cannot employ toner particles which have a sufficiently small size to provide the requisite high image resolution. While wet electrophotographic processes do employ toners with the requisite small particle size, they have other disadvantages such as the use of solvents that are environmentally undesirable. In commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 451,655 and 451,656, both filed Dec. 18, 1989, a thermal printer is disclosed which may be adapted for use as a direct digital color proofer with half-tone capabilities. This printer is arranged to form an image on a thermal print medium in which a donor element transfers a dye to a receiver element upon receipt of a sufficient amount of thermal energy. This printer includes a plurality of diode lasers which can be individually modulated to supply energy to selected areas of the medium in accordance with an information signal. The printhead of the printer includes one end of a fiber optic array having a plurality of optical fibers coupled to the diode lasers. The thermal print medium is supported on a rotatable drum, and the printhead with the fiber optic array is movable relative to the drum. The dye is transferred by sublimation to the receiver element as the radiation, transferred from the diode lasers to the donor element by the optical fibers, is converted to thermal energy in the donor element. A direct digital color proofer utilizing a thermal printer such as that just described must be capable of consistently and accurately writing minipixels at a rate of 1800 dots per inch (dpi) and higher to generate half-tone proofs having a resolution of 150 lines per inch and above, as is necessary to adequately proof high quality graphic arts images such as those found in high quality magazines and advertisements. Moreover, it is necessary to hold each dot or minipixel to a density tolerance of better than 0.1 density unit from that prescribed in order to avoid visible differences between the original and the proof. This density control must be repeatable from image-to-image and from machine-to-machine. Moreover, this density control must also be maintained in each of the colors being employed in multiple passes through the proofer to generate a full color image. Aspects of the apparatus which affect the density of the dots that make up the image include such things as variations and randomness of the intensity and frequency of the laser output, and variations in the output of the fiber optics which can vary from fiber to fiber and even within a single fiber as it is moved during the writing process. Variations in the finish of the drum surface as well as drum runout and drum bearing runout and variations in the parallelism of the translation of the printhead with respect to the axis of the drum will also affect the density of the image dots. The difference in the distance between the ends of individual fibers and the drum surface also affects image density because of the fact that the end of the fiber bundle is flat while the surface of the drum is curved. Temperature variations in the printhead due to the ambient temperature of the machine as well as the fact that the writing process itself heats the printhead also influence the image density. Variations in the print medium elements, such as variations in the thickness of the donor and receiver elements as well as the various layers that are a part thereof, can also affect the image density as it is being written.

Computer virtualization is a technique that involves encapsulating a physical computing machine platform into a virtual machine that is executed under the control of virtualization software on a hardware computing platform, or “host.” A virtual machine has both virtual system hardware and guest operating system software. Virtual system hardware typically includes at least one “virtual disk,” a single file or a set of files that appear as a typical storage drive to the guest operating system. The virtual disk may be stored on the host platform or on a remote storage device. Typically, a virtual machine (VM) uses the virtual disk to store the guest operating system, application programs, and application data. In a virtualized environment, application programs executing on the VM access the physical disk space via a virtualization stack. The virtualization stack includes multiple software layers (referred to herein as the “logical layers”) above the ultimate physical storage layer, the physical disk. Logical layers of the virtualization stack include the guest operating system, the hypervisor and the virtual machine file system (VMFS) driver. Each logical layer is associated with a data block layer that maintains and tracks the allocation of logical data blocks in response to requests received from the applications executing on the VM. Translation mechanisms in each logical layer allow for managing the relationships between data blocks across different data block layers. Storage access requests from applications executing on the VM are transmitted to the top-most layer of the virtualization stack, which identifies the logical data blocks in the associated data block layer that correspond to the request. The top layer then transmits the request to the next layer of the virtual storage stack, which in turn identifies the logical data blocks in the associated data block layer that correspond to the request. In such a manner, the request traverses the virtual storage stack until the request reaches the physical layer, where the request is serviced. In response to write requests received from applications executing on the VM, data blocks in each data block layer associated with a logical layer are allocated for servicing the request. Ultimately, once the logical layers are traversed, disk space in the physical storage layer is allocated for storing the data associated with the write request. In operation, storage virtualization has over-commit goals that lead to sparse allocation of storage blocks in the physical storage layer. More specifically, at each logical layer, storage block allocation is sequenced in order of first writes such that, after a region has been provisioned, block allocation and the underlying physical storage allocation is delayed until a first write occurs in the provisioned region. Such delayed allocation may not preserve spatial locality at the physical storage layer, which may have served other allocation requests in between the receipt of the provisioning request and the allocation request from the particular logical layer. Such a phenomenon leads to fragmentation at the physical storage layer, where storage blocks that should be stored contiguously from a logical point of view are not physically laid out contiguously. Physical fragmentation is highly undesirable because physical co-location of data blocks that are to be accessed sequentially allows for significantly faster access than if those data blocks are not physically co-located. One solution to reduce fragmentation at the physical storage layer is to increase the size of data blocks in the data block layers associated with the physical layers. With such an approach, a single write request from the application results in allocating enough of extra contiguous physical storage to accommodate physical co-locality of future writes. Such an approach, however, has limitations. More specifically, future writes may never occur and, thus, the allocated space may never be used. Further, large storage block sizes may have an adverse impact on the storage services that a virtualized environment can provide. For example, a large block size is undesirable for de-duplication where probability of finding duplicates depends on blocks sizes being small. Storage related services, like snapshotting, that use copy on write are also adversely affected if the blocks size is too large as larger blocks are to be read before doing a copy on write and eliminating copy on write overheads in cases of full overwrites are reduced. As the foregoing illustrates, there remains a need in the art for an effective storage block allocation technique that reduces the amount of fragmentation.

(i) Technical Field The present invention relates to a developing device and an image forming apparatus. (ii) Related Art The image forming apparatuses such as a printer, copier, facsimile, to which image printing methods such as an electrophotography and an electrostatic printing method are applied, are provided with developing devices each of which develops an electrostatic latent image, formed on the latent image holding member such as a rotatable photoconductor, by using a developer. In such developing devices, there is a developing device capable of increasing development efficiency by providing plural (for example, two) developing rollers that hold a developer with a magnetic property through magnetic force and transport the developer to a development region which confronts a latent image holding member, by rotation thereof. Here, as the developing roller, for example, a developer holding carrier is used that is constituted of a transport member, which is rotatable and has a substantially cylindrical shape, and a magnet member which is fixedly disposed inside the transport member and generates magnetic force lines for holding the developer on the outer circumferential surface of the transport member through magnetic force.

Adrenal failure occurs in approximately 1/10,000 of the adult population and 1/16,000 of infants. It may be due to either primary adrenal failure (e.g. Addison's disease commonly occurring following autoimmune damage to the adrenal gland or TB), or secondary adrenal failure (which occurs due to pituitary failure which may be caused by a pituitary tumour or surgery). In causes of primary adrenal failure ACTH levels from the pituitary will be high and in secondary adrenal failure ACTH levels are inappropriately low. Tertiary adrenal failure is another common cause of adrenal failure is suppression of the normal pituitary-adrenal axis by steroid therapy such as that used for chemotherapy, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. A further condition that results from adrenal failure is glucocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism (GRA) which results from increased secretion of aldosterone. Thus, adrenal failure is a relatively common condition and many patients have to take long-term steroid replacement therapy. It is apparent that dosing regimens for the treatment of children, adults and elderly adults will vary depending on a number of parameters such as developmental stage and physiological state. For example, the treatment of children suffering adrenal insufficiency is problematic for a number of reasons and treatment regimens used to treat adult subjects suffering adrenal failure are not equivalent when applied to non-adults [e.g. neonates, infants, small child, and pre-pubescent child]. The treatment of paediatric adrenal insufficiency has particular problems and requires pharmaceutical formulations that address the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic problems of dosing infants. Hepatic microsomal enzyme processes are not fully developed in infants which may require alternative dosage and administration regimens of one, two or more doses of drug. In drugs that are cleared by the liver there is a gradual increase in drug clearance rate throughout childhood to the fully mature adult which once again requires careful monitoring of dose and dosage regimen. Current preparations of hydrocortisone cannot adequately replace cortisol deficiency especially in the paediatric population because the formulations used do not allow the flexibility of (low) dose hydrocortisone to reproduce physiological levels of cortisol. For example, after diagnosis with adrenal insufficiency, usually at birth, a common dose of hydrocortisone prescribed in the United Kingdom is 7.5 mg per day divided into three equal doses (i.e. 3×2.5 mg per day). However, the smallest hydrocortisone tablet currently available in the United Kingdom and most of Europe is 10 mg hydrocortisone (5 mg hydrocortisone—Cortef® in the US). These tablets are often halved and/or quartered or crushed and repackaged to provide the required dose. Where a 10 mg hydrocortisone tablet is available, the 2.5 mg dose is usually the smallest dose attainable because it is difficult to accurately divide a tablet into more than four quarters. Where a 5 mg hydrocortisone tablet is available, a 1.25 mg dose is usually the smallest dose attainable. In the United Kingdom, paediatric clinicians and patients believe that the 7.5 mg daily dose is far too high for neonates (0-28 days old), infants (1-24 months old) and young children (2-6 years old) and that the disease is not being adequately controlled but rather over treated. For example overtreatment with glucocorticoids such as hydrocortisone means that children suffer from very poor growth, poor weight-control and metabolic issues through development. One result of this glucocorticoid overtreatment in early childhood is that children never reached their full genetic height potential, suffer from low bone density at puberty (and into adulthood) and are at risk of obesity and a poor metabolic profile with increased cardiovascular risk factors in adult life. For infants, crushed hydrocortisone tablets can give rise to dosing inconsistency as the poor solubility of the drug requires the use of suspension delivery methods which can lead to dose in homogeneity. Individual case reports have shown poor control of congenital adrenal hyperplasia with either excessive cortisol levels or low cortisol levels in association with poor androgen control after oral administration of crushed tablets. In addition infants and children do not like the taste of hydrocortisone making administration difficult and compliance unreliable. Studies investigating the bio-availability/pharmacokinetics on the stability of these tablets, when divided, have shown suboptimal treatment, questioning the efficacy and ethics of such practice, particularly in the most vulnerable patients of all, neonates and infants. Common problems in delivering hydrocortisone in accordance with levels required for normal and healthy growth in children are that: (a) currently available tablet formulations do not enable accurate, low dose titration of hydrocortisone, (b) such tablet formulations when crushed to facilitate suspension delivery suffer poor dose homogeneity and have only a limited shelf-life (less than 1-month at 4 degrees Centigrade) necessitating refrigerated storage and further complicating end use. Furthermore, the elderly are presented with different problems. Geriatric patients are more susceptible to the side effects of administered drugs. The elderly may often be taking multiple medicines that may interact with one another to increase the likelihood of side effects being manifested during treatment. With aging comes a decline in organ function and consequently drugs may be metabolized less efficiently in the elderly when compared to a mature adult. In addition with aging comes memory loss and non-compliance resulting in inadequate dosing and poor disease control. Furthermore, if a subject receiving the medication is able to taste the active ingredient upon ingestion they may refuse to comply with the prescribed dosage regimen. This is particularly acute with paediatric and elderly patients who may have problems swallowing tablets or capsules. This is also a problem if multiple dosages are required throughout the day. It is now increasingly recognised that all patients with adrenal insufficiency are receiving excess glucocorticoid because of the limited ability to dose titrate. This excess glucocorticoid is associated with an increased mortality rate in patients with adrenal insufficiency. In adults, optimal treatment requires at least thrice daily dosing with a weight related dose. Total daily doses vary between 10 and 30 mg but as a larger dose is required in the morning current dosage formulations do not allow adequate titration putting patients at risk of either over or under treatment at different times of the day. This disclosure relates to improved pharmaceutical formulations of hydrocortisone and their use in the control of adrenal insufficiency in neonates, infants, small children, pre-pubescent children and the elderly. We also disclose regimens that show improved disease control, improved compliance and reduced side effect profile.

Over the last decade or so, many companies have installed networks with one or more local area networks in order to allow their employees access to various network resources. To improve efficiency, enhancements have been added to local area networks such as wireless access. Based on this enhancement, wireless local area networks (WLANs) have been and continue to be utilized by more and more companies. Typically, a WLAN supports communications between number of wireless devices, such as wireless stations (STAs) and Access Points (APs), without any required line of sight for such communications. In general, each AP is wired to an Ethernet network and operates as a relay station by supporting communications between resources of the wired network and the wireless devices. Currently, a WLAN features a set of wireless devices is referred to as a “Basic Service Set” (BSS). Multiples sets of wireless devices (BSSs) in direct communication with each other may be logically grouped together to form an “Extended Service Set” (ESS). The ESS is identified by one or more bytes forming an alphanumeric name that is commonly referred to as a “Service Set Identifier” (SSID). The purpose of the SSID is to help STAs find and connect to proper APs on a desired ESS. Each AP may actively advertise the presence of a wireless network several times per second by broadcasting beacon frames that include the SSID for the ESS that the AP belongs to. STAs can discover APs by listening for these beacons. Alternatively, an AP may passively advertise the presence of a wireless network by waiting for one or more frames from a STA that is actively searching for access to a wireless network. Currently, APs may be configured to simultaneously advertise access to multiple WLAN networks (BSSs) for a number of reasons such as security, quality of service (QoS) or ease of migration. There are a number of conventional configuration schemes that support simultaneous advertisement of services supported by different WLAN networks. For instance, a first conventional configuration scheme involves the physical assignment of an AP for each BSS having different capabilities. Of course, this technique is costly to implement. In order to avoid such costs, conventional APs can be configured to advertise services associated with multiple BSSs, but only if every BSS is associated with a different ESS. In other words, the AP can advertise different SSIDs for each network type on a different BSSID. While this technique reduces the overall implementation costs from the first conventional configuration scheme, the presence of multiple SSIDs to users seeking access to the wireless network may cause confusion as to which network she or he should connect to. Yet another conventional configuration scheme involves each AP advertising a single, unique SSID for each active BSS (i.e., transmitting a beacon including a single SSID). However, the AP is adapted to respond to Probe Requests for hidden SSIDs (i.e., Probe Requests for SSIDs that differ from the SSID exclusively broadcast in the beacons). This configuration deviates from current WLAN communications standards and assumes specific client behavior that may not be found in all network configurations. None of the conventional configuration schemes is designed where an AP is configured as a virtual AP supporting multiple BSSs, each BSS having a different BSS identifier (BSSID) and each BSS advertising services that include the same SSID in order to reduce network complexity.

The present invention generally pertains to speech recognition applications and systems. More specifically, the present invention pertains to methods of identifying and analyzing performance problems during development of speech recognition applications. Although great progress has been made in speech recognition technology during the past two decades, adoption of speech technology has not gone as smoothly as might be desired. This is evidenced by the relatively limited deployment of speech applications. The main barrier to wider adoption of speech recognition technology stems from the cost incurred in developing the speech applications. A typical speech application includes application logic, dialog, one or more grammars, a speech recognition engine, etc. Since it is unlikely that the system will be available right at the very beginning (i.e., without significant development), constructing a quality speech application usually involves four steps, namely, (1) design; (2) prototyping; (3) evaluation and tuning; and (4) deployment. Typically, the prototyping step and the evaluation and tuning step are performed iteratively, fine tuning the speech application through each iteration to improve performance. Among these four steps, evaluation and tuning during test and pilot stages is one of the most important phases and usually costs most. The tuning phase can take many months and requires a team of developers, testers, and speech technology experts. Significant efforts have been directed toward the goal of reducing the total cost needed to develop and deploy speech applications. For example, a series of development tools have recently been released by companies working in speech recognition. The development tools significantly improved the development process. However, some critical functionality is not available in these tools. For instance, speech application authors usually don't know what to do when the success rate of their application is not satisfactory, even though they have access to large quantities of application logs. It would therefore be very valuable to automatically (or semi-automatically) determine what callers are struggling with, or which parts of their application need the most work. The present invention provides solutions to one or more of the above-described problems and/or provides other advantages over the prior art.

The demand for increased storage capacity in memory or rigid disks and the trend towards miniaturization of memory or rigid disks (due to the requirement for smaller hard drives in computer equipment) continues to emphasize the importance of the memory or rigid disk manufacturing process, including the planarization or polishing of such disks for ensuring maximal performance. While there exist several chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) compositions and methods for use in conjunction with semiconductor device manufacture, few conventional CMP methods or commercially available CMP compositions are well-suited for the planarization or polishing of memory or rigid disks. As the demand for increased storage capacity has increased, so has the need for improved processes for the polishing of such memory or rigid disks. The term “memory or rigid disk” refers to any magnetic disk, hard disk, rigid disk, or memory disk for retaining information in electromagnetic form. The memory or rigid disk typically has a surface that comprises nickel-phosphorus, but the memory or rigid disk surface can comprise any other suitable material. The planarity of the memory or rigid disks must be improved, as the distance between the recording head of a disk drive and the surface of the memory or rigid disk has decreased with improvements in recording density that demand a lower flying height of the magnetic head with respect to the memory or rigid disk. In order to permit a lower flying height of the magnetic head, improvements to the surface finish of the memory or rigid disk are required. Surface roughness is a high frequency, short wavelength component of a measured surface which affects performance of memory disks insofar as it limits the decrease in the gap between the disk surface and the recording head of a disk drive that is practically achievable. Thus, reduction in surface roughness of memory disks is highly desirable from a performance standpoint. Attempts have been made to reduce surface roughness by utilizing abrasives having smaller particle size in polishing compositions for memory disks. However, typically smaller abrasive particles result in a reduction of removal rate of the surface of memory disks, which increases the amount of time required to achieve a desired surface finish, thereby increasing production time and costs. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for methods for polishing memory disks that produce decreased levels of surface roughness while exhibiting increased polishing rates.

This invention concerns a tool with at least one wear-resistant hard metal part which serves to process production pieces, such as stone or the like, which is firmly connected to a metallic carrier by means of solder located in at least one soldering aperture between the hard metal part and the metallic carrier. Among such tools are bits, such as drill bits, turning tools, and the like and processing tools to remove shavings, from lathing, milling, and the like. Hard metal has a substantially smaller coefficient of expansion than a carrier consisting mostly of steel. Even during the soldering of the hard metallic part to the carrier, strains arise between the hard metallic part and the carrier. Because of the forces and temperature increases which may occur during operation, the strain may increase still further, and often causes tension cracks in the hard metal part, and thus causes failure of the tool. Using a soft solder to reduce the danger of the formation of tension cracks is known. This solder connection is, however, not sufficient in many cases, especially for high performance tools. Thus, hard solder is preferred. The greater the cross section and length of the hard metal part, the greater is the danger of tension cracks in the hard metal part. Even in high performance tools, the hard metal part must be supported in the carrier over a large surface area, in order to be able to absorb the considerable forces and momentum.

Object carriers and Petri dishes for samples to be examined are used in the most variable examination methods and must therefore meet many different demands. Many biological-medical examinations are for instance carried out by the aid of light-optical microscopic and/or spectroscopic techniques. Besides the pure light-optical microscopy (e.g. for the examination of cells), methods of the high-resolution, fluorescence, phase contrast or confocal microscopy as well as the UV spectroscopy are used. Combinations of these methods are also used. Particularly, the analysis of fluorescence signals is of decisive meaning to prove specific reactions. This is mostly implemented by the qualitative analysis of fluorescence of a solution which contains the molecules, macromolecules or cells to be examined (e.g. via microscopy or spectroscopy). The substance to be examined as well as “verification molecules” for these substances, such as anti-bodies, are in solution. This leads to the fact that relatively large amounts of the molecules to be proven as well as the substances (or cells) to be examined must be used. The sample chambers used for examinations of this type, in which the solutions with the substances are located, are usually made of glass or silica glass. Plastic containers are hardly used for this type of examination due to the poor optical property of most of the plastic materials (compared to glass). Exceptions are plastic dishes that are open towards the microscope or the spectrometer, so that the light emitted by the molecule does not have to pass plastics on its way to the detector. A Petri dish is for instance known from DE 3102571 A1, which consists of plastics and which has a thin bottom of 0.17 mm for the microscopy. This Petri dish is particularly used for the cell microscopy, however, it does not comprise a flow system. It does also not have a channel system or reservoir to apply a defined flow. In this shell, any specific modifications of the plastics adapted to the substances to be examined are also not provided. A monitoring chamber for microscopy in connection with a flow system connected is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,286. This is a “sandwich” construction, which basically consists of a special support into which microscopy cover slips are inserted that are fixed by cover plates. Thus, this system consists of at least five different elements that must be assembled before every experiment. Thereby, sterile work is for instance only ensured with expensive provisions. The cover slips used, the support and the cover plates must be cleaned between the experiments. The flow rate must be generated in this chamber by hose connections to a reservoir not attached on the chamber. This includes the risk of the formation of air bubbles in the flow system. A surface treatment or functionalization for the specific immobilization of molecules or cells of the cover slips used is not provided. The cover slips used must be sealed by seal rings. Experience shows that this often leads to leakage and to the fact that molecules in the solution change their functional structure due to a contact with the seal ring, or that they absorb to the seal ring. This also applies to the support in which the channels are inserted. A micro-channel system made of acrylic glass is described in WO 97/38300, which serves for the electrophoretic separation. However, the micro-channel is not used for rinsing through liquids or for high-resolution microscopy. The acrylic glass does also not have sufficiently favorable optical properties to carry out high-class microscopy. The inner walls of this channel system are also not surface-treated, with the purpose of being able to analyze specific reactions there. The analysis of the macromolecules introduced into this channel system takes place in a gel introduced. Molecules introduced into the channel are also not moved by an applied hydrodynamic flow but by use of electrical fields. Most of the techniques with conventional sample chambers only allow a quantitative but not a qualitative analysis of the signals. The solvent exchange, e.g. when using a glass cuvette for dilution, is very elaborate. The simple exchange of liquids in a sample chamber is, however, necessary to prove special reactions of molecules in the liquid with other molecules, macromolecules, cells, etc. or to rinse out superfluous molecules, which are located in the liquid. Moreover, excessive molecules may weaken or extinguish the fluorescence signal or spectrum of the molecule or molecule complex to be examined.

1. Field Embodiments relate to semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating the same and, more particularly, to semiconductor devices including fin field effect transistors (fin-FETs) and methods of fabricating the same. 2. Description of the Related Art A field effect transistor (FET) may include an active region, a gate electrode crossing over the active region, and source and drain regions formed in the active region at both sides of the gate electrode. The active region under the gate electrode may be used as a channel region of the FET. Widths of the gate electrode and the active region are being reduced with high integration of the semiconductor device. Since the width of the gate electrode is reduced, a channel length (i.e., a distance between the source region and the drain region) of the channel region is also reduced in the FET. Thus, short channel effects (e.g., a drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) phenomenon and/or a punch-through phenomenon) may be exhibited in the FET. Additionally, since the width of the active region is reduced, a channel width of the channel region is also reduced. Thus, a narrow width effect (e.g., reduction of a drain current) may be exhibited in the FET. Recently, fin field effect transistors (fin-FETs) having vertical channel regions have been suggested. In a fin-FET, a gate electrode controls three surfaces of a channel region. Thus, the short channel effects may be effectively improved in the fin-FET. Additionally, since the fin-FET has a vertical channel region, a channel width of the fin-FET may be increased in a limited area. Thus, the narrow width effect may be improved in the fin-FET.

Field of Disclosure The disclosure generally relates to the field of tracking motion of a system, and more specifically, to feature detection and pose estimation from visual input. Description of the Related Art Recovering human pose from visual observations is a challenging problem in the field of computer vision because of the complexity of the models which relate observation with pose. An effective solution to this problem has many applications in areas such as video coding, visual surveillance, human gesture recognition, biomechanics, video indexing and retrieval, character animation, and man-machine interaction. See D. Gavrila, “The visual analysis of human movement: a survey”, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 73(1):82-98 (1999); see also L. Wang, W. Hu, and T. Tan, “Recent developments in human motion analysis” Pattern Recog., 36(3):585-601 (2003); see also T. B. Moeslund, A. Hilton, and V. Kruger, “A survey of advances in vision-based human motion capture and analysis”, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 104(2,3):90-126 (2006), all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. One of the major difficulties in estimating pose from visual inputs involves the recovery of the large number of degrees of freedom in movements which are often subject to kinematic constraints such as joint limit avoidance, and self penetration avoidance between two body segments. Such difficulties are compounded with insufficient temporal or spatial resolution, ambiguities in the projection of human motion onto the image plane, and when a certain configuration creates self occlusions. Other challenges include the effects of varying illumination and therefore appearance, variations of appearance due to the subject's attire, required camera configuration, and real time performance for certain applications. Traditionally there are two categories of approaches in solving the pose estimation problem, model based approaches and learning based approaches. Model-based approaches rely on an explicitly known parametric human model, and recover pose either by inverting the kinematics from known image feature points on each body segment (See C. Barron and I. A. Kakadiaris, “Estimating anthropometry and pose from a single image”, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1:669-676 (2000); see also C. J. Taylor, “Reconstruction of articulated objects from point correspondences in a single uncalibrated image”, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 80(3):349-363 (2000), both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety), or by searching high dimensional configuration spaces which is typically formulated deterministically as a nonlinear optimization problem (See J. M. Rehg and T. Kanade, “Model-based tracking of selfoccluding articulated objects”, ICCV, pages 612-617 (1995), the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety), or probabilistically as a maximum likelihood problem (See H. Sidenbladh, M. J. Black, and D. J. Fleet, “Stochastic tracking of 3D human figures using 2D image motion”, ECCV, pages 702-718, (2000), the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety). The model-based approaches typically require good initialization, high dimensional feature points, and are computationally intensive. In addition, the model-based approaches generally do not enforce bodily constraints such as joint limitation and self penetration avoidance, they often generate erroneous estimation results. In contrast, learning based approaches directly estimate body pose from observable image quantities. See A. Agarwal and B. Triggs, “Recovering 3d human pose from monocular images”, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 28(1):44-58 (2006), see also G. Mori and J. Malik, “Recovering 3d human body configurations using shape contexts”, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 28(7):1052-1062 (2006), both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In example based learning, inferring pose is typically formulated as a k-nearest neighbors search problem where the input is matched to a database of training examples whose three-dimensional (3D) pose is known. Computational complexity of performing similarity search in high dimensional spaces and on very large data sets has limited the applicability of these approaches. Although faster approximate similarity search algorithms have been developed based on Locally-Sensitive Hashing, computation speed remains a challenge with learning based approaches. See G. Shakhnarovich, P. Viola, and T. Darrell, “Fast pose estimation with parameter sensitive hashing”, ICCV, 2:750-757 (2003), the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Similar to the model based approaches, the learning based approaches also tend to be computationally intensive. In addition, in order for a pose to be properly recognized using a learning based approach, a system must process (“learn”) the pose before hand. Thus, generally only a small set of pre-programmed human pose can be recognized using the learning based approaches. Hence, there is lacking, inter alia, a system and method for efficiently and accurately detecting body features and estimating human pose in real time.

1. Field The following description relates to an electronic device and a cradle thereof, and more particularly, to an electronic device and a cradle thereof, wherein the cradle is connected in a wireless fashion to the electronic device when the electronic device is placed on the cradle to thus control an orientation of the electronic device. 2. Description of the Related Art With development of communication and computer technologies, an intelligent electronic device which can recognize a peripheral environment, provide necessary information to a user through interaction with the user, and drive a separate driver to move to a desired location has been developed. The intelligent electronic device can perform operations of giving a user a sense of intimacy or of showing a reaction through the driver, and also can recognize the user's face or voice to respond to the user's motion, voice, etc. The intelligent electronic device can be in the shape of a mobile robot. However, the mobile robot has spatial limitation and low portability so that a user has difficulties in possessing it.

Electronic devices such as tablet terminals and multiple function mobile phones called smartphones, and the like operated by touching (touching with fingertips, etc.) images such as icons displayed on a screen are widely used. Such electronic devices are provided with a display screen formed of a display panel for displaying images, and a touch sensor overlapping this display screen. Liquid crystal display panels and organic electroluminescence display panels are used as display panels used in such electronic devices. Electrostatic capacitance type touch sensors are mainly used as touch sensors provided overlapping the display panel. Electrostatic capacitance type touch sensors electrically detect changes in electrostatic capacitance by touch or by proximity of the body (fingertips, etc.) and determine whether or not there is a touch. A display device having an input function provided with a pixel region in which an organic light-emitting diode is formed above a substrate, and touch sensor electrodes provided above this pixel region, for example, is disclosed as a display device in which an electrostatic capacitance type touch sensor is added (for example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0311477). New uses for display panels such as liquid crystal display panels and organic electroluminescence display panels are being studied. For example, since it is possible to roll and fold display screens in display devices having flexibility, it is expected that an electronic device with an unconventional form can be provided. In display devices having flexibility, touch sensors are provided above the display surface so it is possible to realize display devices having input functions. However, since conventional touch sensors perform touch detection of plate-like display surfaces, touch input may be performed normally when a touch sensor is built into a display device having flexibility and spread out in a planar shape, but in a state in which a portion of the display screen is rolled and folded, there is a likelihood that touch detection will become unstable.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system and the like recognizing an environment of a device. 2. Description of the Related Art There has been disclosed an approach (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2007-322138 referred to as Patent Document 1) for estimating a position of a robot according to image data and range data acquired respectively from a camera and a laser range finder mounted in the robot. However, when the robot performs operations on various objects present in a marginal environment thereof as a subject according to different situations, such as holding an arbitrary object with a hand thereof, it is necessary for it to recognize correctly a position, a shape, a posture and the like of the object.

1. Field of the Invention The invention lies in the art of hologram production and fabrication. 2. Description of Prior Art Bleach solutions comprised of halide salts have been employed to increase the diffraction efficiency of photographically recorded three-dimensional interference patterns. Juris Upatnieks and Carl Leonard "Diffraction Efficiency of Bleached, Photographically Recorded Interference Patterns" Applied Optics, Vol. 8, No. 1,85 (1969). High diffraction efficiency holograms are obtained; however, these holograms are degraded upon prolonged exposure to visible light. An alternative method of increasing the diffraction efficiency of similar materials is disclosed by R. L. Lamberts and C. N. Kurty "Reversed Bleaching for Low Flare Light in Holograms" Applied Optics, Vol. 10, No. 6, 1342 (1971). The process required special development prior to the application of a bleach comprised of an aqueous solution of potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid. It too yields holograms which degrade upon prolonged exposure to visible light. H. Thiry, in his article "New Technique of Bleaching Photographic Emulsions and Its Application to Holography" Applied Optics, Vol. II, No. 7, 1652 (July 1972) discloses a process wherein the photographic emulsion is bleached by exposure to bromine vapors in a vacuum vessel and subsequently washed with water prior to drying. This process can be deemed an improvement over that disclosed by either Lamberts or Upatnieks however, it too is deficient in that the holograms degrade upon further exposure to visible light. As holograms darken upon exposure to intensive light sources, there is a reduction of diffraction efficiency and light transmission which clearly limits their usefulness. Many investigators have sought to overcome this problem (See Scott L. Norman "Dye-Induced Stabilization of Bleached Holograms" Applied Optics, Vol. II, No. 5, 1234 (may 1972) and references cited therein, without apparent success. My process yields holograms which are stable with respect to printout characteristics while maintaining high diffraction efficiency and good image quality.

The present invention relates generally to an improved leak-proof cup. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cup assembly having a cap bearing a drinking spout at one side and an air vent spaced from the drinking spout, with a flow control element frictionally engaged in the vicinity of the drinking spout and air vent to allow passage of liquid out and air in during use, while preventing significant leakage through the spout and vent when not in use. Enclosed cups having drinking spouts and separate air vents, which allow the user to drink from the spout without creating excessive vacuum in the cup, are known in the art. However, drinking spouts and air vents are liable to leak liquid stored in the cup between feedings, or if dropped during use. Accordingly, certain cups have been developed that use valving mechanisms at the spout and at the air vent. These valves respond to suction generated during feeding to open and allow liquid to pass through the spout and to allow air to enter the air vent when a vacuum is developed in the interior of the cup. Two patents disclosing such valves are U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,013 to Belanger and U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,670 to Morano, both commonly assigned or licensed to the assignee of the present application. Applicant hereby incorporates the disclosure of those two patents herein by reference. Applicant has on the market a cup that employs a valve assembly similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,013 that is secured to sleeves in the underside of the cup""s top, but in which the valves are mounted on a single base element. Applicant is also aware of a competitive product having a flow control element of the configuration depicted in FIG. 1, sold as part of the Tumble Mates Spill Proof Cup by the First Years. Despite the effectiveness of these cup mechanisms, applicant has discovered an improved flow control element and corresponding valve configuration that provides improved fluid flow rates without sacrificing the valve""s resistance to spills or the valve""s durability. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved valve mechanism for a cup assembly that is substantially leak-proof even when upended, dropped or shaken. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved valve mechanism for a leak-proof cup that gives higher fluid flow rates at normal suction forces without sacrificing durability or resistance to spills. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved valve mechanism, cap and cup that are easy to clean and easy to assemble. Accordingly, the present invention provides a drinking cup assembly including a cup having an open end; a cap adapted to enclose the open end, the cap including a drinking spout and an air vent and mating surfaces adjacent or incorporated into the drinking spout and the air vent; and a flow control valve including two stacks adapted to engage the mating surfaces, each of the two stacks having a concave valve face at a top portion thereof.

1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a process for the continuous production of room-temperature-crosslinkable organopolysiloxane compositions in a mixer having a mixing zone comprising a rotor-stator system. 2. Description of the Related Art One-component organopolysiloxane compositions which can be stored with exclusion of moisture and crosslink at room temperature on admission of moisture, known as RTV-1 compositions, have been known for a long time. Various methods of producing RTV-1 compositions have been described. Owing to their high productivity, continuous processes are particularly preferred. Such processes exhibit compounding problems, however, for example the continuous and homogeneous mixing of fillers into the highly viscous polymer components, particularly when the fillers are reinforcing fillers having large surface areas. The mixture should be produced in such a way that no relatively large filler particles are visible in the finished product. A further difficulty is presented by water necessarily introduced with the fillers. When the mixture is not completely homogeneous, even days after production of the mixture, inhomogeneities may be formed by crosslinking of the RTV-1 mixture around the filler particles which have not been homogeneously admixed due to local high concentrations of water. Thus, for example in EP-B-234 226, parts of the constituents are combined in a continuously operating closed mixer in a first step, and in a second step, the remaining constituents are introduced in a reciprocating kneader and the composition is homogenized in this kneader. To allow reaction times between the individual mixing steps, a further three-stage process was developed as described in EP-B-940 445. EP-B-739 652 describes a process which makes do without such a reaction time but indicates that the water present in the mixture which has been introduced via the raw materials has to be removed in a step following the production of the mixture. Since water can still be detected in the compositions, the mixing in of the fillers by means of the apparatus is obviously unsatisfactory. The mixture contains incompletely wetted filler particles in which the water is located. If mixing is complete, then the water reacts irreversibly with the crosslinker and would thus no longer be able to be detected. A further process described in EP-B-688 598 utilizes a specially constructed mixer which comprises two mixing chambers and in which a mixture of liquids and a powder is firstly produced in a first, upper mixing chamber and the mixture is then strongly sheared again to homogenize it by means of a second independent mixing apparatus, further liquid components being mixed in the second, lower mixing chamber. EP-A-1 008 613 describes the use of a mixing turbine having axial flow. This mixing turbine was previously used in EP B 234 226 in combination with a reciprocating kneader. The mixing results obtained by means of such a mixer are excellent, but a significant disadvantage is that this type of mixer is not self-cleaning, i.e. coatings of filler and liquid build up in the interior of the mixer and after more than 24 hours of operation lead to a deterioration in the sealant quality due to filler particles. This problem can generally be solved only by frequent cleaning of the mixing turbine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,540 discloses mixers which operate according to the rotor-stator principle. Such mixers are utilized both for emulsion production and for mixing of solids into liquids. In these apparatuses, a rotor rotates within a stationary stator. The stator has slits which can have a variable width. The rotor can likewise have slits of this type which can be supplemented by evolute-shaped transport elements. It is also possible for only the transport elements to be present. The rotor sucks the material in and flings it radially outward through any slits it may have and the slits of the stator. The stator teeth which bound these slits act as an impingement surface, and the gap between rotor and stator leads to shear. These mixers are generally constructed so that up to three rotor-stator pairs can be installed in series, in each case with different slit widths. The more demanding the dispersion task, the more tools having narrower slit widths are installed. DE-B 101 46 395 discloses, for example, a mixing system of this type for producing water-free RTV-1 compositions based on polydiorganosiloxanes. However, a disadvantage of the process is that it is relatively inflexible and cannot quickly be adapted to altered mixing tasks.

The present invention relates to a combustor of a gas turbine and, more particularly, to a combustor of a gasturbine which can effectively withstand the vibration and thermal distortion generated during the combustion. It is a current measure for preventing the pollution of air attributable particularly to lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) content to effect a spray of water, steam or the like into the combustors of gas turbines. This spray lowers the temperature of the combustion gas to effectively suppress the production of NOx in the combustor. On the other hand, however, the lowered temperature of the combustion gas considerably hinders the combustion of the fuel in the combustor. More specifically, the pulsation of the combustion is enhanced due to the lowered combustibility, resulting in a cyclically repeated application of load. This repetitional load is concentrated to the thermally weak portions of the combustor to cause a break down due to a stress concentration. Generally, in the gas turbines for industrial purposes, compressed air produced by an air compressor is introduced into a combustor where the compressed air is mixed with the fuel and the mixture is burnt to form a combustion gas. This combustion gas is introduced to drive the turbine which in turn drives a load connected thereto. The combustor is mainly constituted by a liner forming a combustion chamber, a transition piece connected to the liner, an outer casing surrounding the liner and the transition piece and a fuel nozzle attached to the outer casing. The fuel atomized into a liner from the fuel nozzle is burnt under the presence of the air which has been compressed by the air compressor and introduced into the liner through the jacket defined between the outer casing and the combined body of the liner and the transition piece and then through the combustion air port formed in the wall of the liner. The combustion gas produced as the result of the combustion then flows through the liner and introduced into the gas turbine after a rectification performed by the transition piece. The transition piece is partially cooled by the compression air which flows toward the liner defining the combustion chamber. However, the transition piece has some portions which are in locations relatively inaccessible to the cooling air flow and, hence, the cooling is rather difficult. More specifically, this portion is the radially outer part of the gas outlet of the transition piece closest to the gas turbine. In consequence, this portion of the transition piece is heated excessively and broken due to the stress concentration. The liner and the transition piece are supported for free thermal expansion and shrinkage. In other words, they are supported rather loosely. Therefore, the vibration caused by the pulsating combustion is transmitted from the liner to the transition piece to generate a vibration of a considerably large amplitude in the transition piece, particularly at the gas outlet side of the latter.

Radio spectrum (3 kHz-300 GHz) is a finite and scarce resource. Most of today's radio systems require rigorous protection against interference from other radio devices. Such protection is often provided by exclusive use of an assigned radio spectrum. Most of the radio spectrum is therefore licensed to traditional communication system and services. However, with this approach spectrum resources are sometimes wasted for various reasons. For example, any economic failure of licensed radio services and systems may lead to unused spectrum. As another example, public safety and military radio systems often require spectrum use only occasionally. In still another example, technological progress in communication systems has resulted in the improvement in spectral efficiency. As a result, certain frequency bands, called “white space” licensed to operators may be shared by secondary users. White space refers to portions of a licensed radio spectrum that licensees do not use all of the time or in all geographic locations. This white space spectrum may be dynamically accessed by registered and/or valid secondary users in order to share the spectrum when it is not used by the licensee.

This invention relates in general to database management systems performed by computers, and in particular, to processing query predicates having data types. Databases are computerized information storage and retrieval systems. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) which uses relational techniques for storing and retrieving data. Relational databases are organized into tables which consist of rows and columns of data. The rows are formally called tuples. A database will typically have many tables and each table will typically have multiple tuples and multiple columns. The tables are typically stored on direct access storage devices (DASD) such as magnetic or optical disk drives for semi-permanent storage. RDBMS software using a Structured Query Language (SQL) interface is well known in the art. The SQL interface has evolved into a standard language for RDBMS software and has been adopted as such by both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). The SQL interface allows users to formulate relational operations on the tables either interactively, in batch files, or embedded in host languages, such as C and COBOL. SQL allows the user to manipulate the data. The definitions for SQL provide that a RDBMS should respond to a particular query with a particular set of data given a specified database content, but the method that the RDBMS uses to actually find the required information in the tables on the disk drives is left up to the RDBMS. Typically, there will be more than one method that can be used by the RDBMS to access the required data. The RDBMS will optimize the method used to find the data requested in a query in order to minimize the computer time used and, therefore, the cost of doing the query. A RDBMS can support certain data types. Applications that utilize the RDBMS (e.g., C or JAVA) may or may not support these same data types as a RDBMS. For example, the RDBMS of the DB2(copyright) product offered by IBM(copyright) for the OS/390(copyright) operating systems can support string and numeric data types. String data types include character and graphic, both of which may be fixed length or varying length. Numeric data types include binary integer, floating point, and decimal. Applications that are written in C, for example, do not have decimal data types, and JAVA strings are defined without character length attributes. Conventional systems process query predicates with different data types by retrieving an entire set of data, converting the data type of the entire data set to match the data types of the predicate, then performing filtering on all of the rows of the data set based on the predicate conditions. As a result, conventional systems perform unnecessary data conversions and comparisons because there is not a technique to retrieve a subset of data as compared to an entire set of data, and to perform subsequent conversions and comparisons on the subset of data. An SQL query predicate may request rows of data based on the comparison that a variable have a value greater than 1.5 (i.e., a floating or decimal data type). The table rows, however, may have an integer data type. In this case, conventional systems make a temporary copy of the integer, convert the integer to decimal, retrieve all of the table rows from the table, and then filter the results based on the query predicate. Consequently, the RDS performs tasks which otherwise would not be required if the data types matched. The RDS retrieves all of the rows, converts all of the rows, and compares all of the rows to the conditions set forth in the query predicate. As a result, more time is required to transfer, convert, process and filter the data to obtain a result leading to diminished system performance. These shortcomings are further amplified when large amounts of data are retrieved from an RDS or if complex query predicates are involved. Thus, there is a need in the art for improved query optimization that is able to process query predicates with different data types than those data types utilized by a RDS and to relieve the RDS from having to transfer, convert, and compare all of the rows in order to obtain a result. To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for retrieving smaller data sets for query predicates with data type mismatches. According to an embodiment of the invention, a technique is provided for optimizing execution of a query that accesses data stored on a data store connected to a computer. Initially, a first query predicate comparing different data types is identified. A second query predicate with matching data types is generated. Then, the generated second query predicate is executed against the database to obtain a subset of records.

Picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) is a compound used in a variety of industrial applications including the manufacture of explosives, aniline, color fast dyes, pharmaceuticals and in steel etching. Picric acid and ammonium picrate were first obtained as fast dyes for silk and wool. However, the unstable nature of picric acid was soon exploited for use as an explosive and explosive boosters. It is the primary component of blasting caps which are used for the detonation of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT). Because of its explosive nature, disposal of waste picric acid poses unique hazards not generally associated with other environmental toxicants. Mounting public concern and increasing government regulations have provided the impetus for the development of a safe, effective means to remediate picric acid-contaminated environments. Past methods of disposing of munitions and other wastes containing picric acid have included dumping at specified land-fill areas, isolation in suitable, reinforced containers, land based deep-welling, dumping in deep water at sea and incineration. All of these methods carry some potential for harm to the environment. A more desirable disposal method might incorporate a chemical or enzymatic degradative process. The metabolic reduction of organic nitrogen groups has been known for some time. Westfall (J. Pharmacol. Exp. Therap., 78:386 (1943)) reported that liver, kidney and heart tissue are active in the reduction of trinitrotoluene, however, he was not able to identify the specific enzyme system responsible. Westerfield et al. (J. Biol. Chem., 227:379 (1957)) further disclosed that purified xanthine oxidase is capable of reducing organic nitrogen groups and demonstrated that the molybdenum (Mo) co-factor was essential in the degradative process. Microbial degradation of organic nitrogen compounds has been limited to a handful of organisms. Erickson (J. Bact., 41:277 (1941)) reported that certain strains of Micromonospora were able to utilize picric acid and trinitro-resorcinol as a carbon source and Moore (J. Gen. Microbiol., 3:143 (1949)) described two unspecified proactinomycetes as being capable of using nitrobenzene as a simultaneous source of carbon and nitrogen. Gundersden et al. (Acta. Agric. Scand., 6:100 (1956)) described the metabolism of picric acid by Corynebacterium simplex which was isolated from soil as a 4,6-dinitro-2-methylphenol-degrading organism. Degradation was determined by measuring the amount of nitrite produced when the organism was contacted with an organic nitrogen compound. The extent of degradation and the identification of specific degradation products were not reported. Later, Wyman et al. (Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 37(2):222 (1979)) found that a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa reduced picric acid to 2-amino-4,6-dinitrophenol (picramic acid) under anaerobic conditions. Wyman further determined that degradation products from both picric and picramic acid produced by this strain demonstrated mutagenicity as assayed by the standard AMES test. Another Pseudomonas sp., P. putida, has been shown to be able to use picric acid as a carbon source and achieve some bio-conversion of the compound to 1,3,5-trinitro benzene, 2,4,6-trinitroaldehyde, and 3,5-dinitrophenol. Kearney et al. (Chemosphere, 12 (11-12):1583 (1983)) . Most recently, Rhodococcus erythropolis has been identified as a picric acid degrading bacteria. Lenke et al. (Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 58(9):2933 (1992)) teach that R. erythropolis, under aerobic conditions, can incompletely utilize picric acid as a nitrogen source producing nitrite and 2,4,6-trinitro-cyclohexanone, which cannot be degraded further. In spite of the investigative activity in the area of microbial degradation of picric acid and other organic nitrogen compounds, there remain several difficulties to overcome before any of the above mentioned microbial systems can be used for the effective remediation of contaminated environments. All of the microbes investigated are isolated organisms and, although they show picric acid degrading activity in vitro, there is little evidence that these organisms will function under in situ conditions. Additionally, no organism or group of organisms has been isolated that demonstrates complete degradation of picric acid involving the opening of the aromatic ring. At present the art teaches that only partial degradation is possible and that some of the degradation products may also be harmful to the environment as mutagens. There remains a need, therefore, for an effective degradative process for picric acid and related compounds that will degrade those compounds completely and be effective in both the in vitro and in situ remediation of contaminated environments.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a broadcast receiving apparatus receiving broadcast signals and to a method of controlling the broadcast receiving apparatus. 2. Description of the Related Art Content that is scrambled is transmitted in terrestrial digital broadcasting. Content is scrambled by using a Conditional Access System (CAS). B-CAS systems using integrated circuit (IC) cards are employed as the CAS systems at present. A method for protecting content (particularly, the copyright of content) in broadcast receiving apparatuses is called Rights Management and Protection (RMP). Encryption keys are used to encrypt content in the RMP method. In the current B-CAS systems, for example, three types of encryption keys including a scramble key, a work key, and a master key are hierarchically used (refer to Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) Standard (STD) B-25 Version 5.1 in Japan). In addition, a new content protection method (hereinafter referred to as a “new RMP method”) is standardized in “Dai-san-bu: Jushin-ji no Seigyo Houshiki (Kontentsu Hogo Houshiki) (Section 3: Control method upon reception (Content protection method)” in ARIB STD B-25 Version 5.1 in Japan. Three types of encryption keys including a scramble key, a work key, and a device key are hierarchically used in the new RMP method. In the new RMP method, an Entitlement Management Message (EMM) for setting the work key and an Entitlement Control Message (ECM) for transmitting the scramble key are transmitted from each broadcast station operating the new RMP method to one broadcast receiving apparatus on a certain cycle. The EMM is data carrying information specific to each broadcast receiving apparatus and includes identification information (device ID) used for identifying each broadcast receiving apparatus and a work key for decrypting the ECM. An EMM for updating the device key is also transmitted in the new RMP method, and each EMM of this type also include a device ID. The EMM for setting the work key is hereinafter called a work-key setting EMM and the EMM for updating the device key is hereinafter called a device-key updating EMM. The ECM is data carrying information common to all the broadcast receiving apparatuses and includes a scramble key for decrypting content and information about programs. The ECM is encrypted with the work key for every RMP business unit whereas the EMM is encrypted with the device key for every device ID. Each broadcast receiving apparatus receives the EMMs that are periodically transmitted and that should be acquired by the own broadcast receiving apparatus to set the work key and so on. While content is watched by a viewer, the broadcast receiving apparatus of the viewer receives the ECM and processes the received ECM to acquire the scramble key and descramble the content by using the scramble key. The work-key setting EMMs of types corresponding to the types (numbers) of the device IDs are provided and the device-key updating EMMs of types corresponding to the types of the device IDs are provided in the new RMP method. Accordingly, from the viewpoint of a certain broadcast receiving apparatus, the EMMs that are received include a work-key setting EMM for the own apparatus (an own-apparatus work-key setting EMM), a device-key updating EMM for the own apparatus (an own-apparatus device-key updating EMM), and EMMs for multiple other apparatuses. Broadcasting of new types, such as IP broadcasting, is increasingly used in recent years and the number of broadcasting business companies will be increased along with the increase of the new types of broadcasting. Since different work keys are used for different broadcasting business companies in each CAS system, the number of types of the work key will be increased in the future. A case will now be considered in which a broadcast receiving apparatus directly records a broadcast stream including, for example, content and the EMMs on a recording medium and then plays back the content. If the work key set for the CAS system does not correspond to the content when the broadcast receiving apparatus plays back the content, it is necessary for the broadcast receiving apparatus to acquire the work key corresponding to the content and to set the acquired work key in the CAS system. In order for the broadcast receiving apparatus to acquire the work key, it is necessary for the broadcast receiving apparatus to read out the broadcast stream and to acquire the EMMs corresponding to the own apparatus from among the EMMs that are sequentially read out. Since the EMMs corresponding to the own apparatus are periodically transmitted, as described above, it takes a time (a few seconds to several tens of seconds) corresponding to up to one period to acquire the EMMs. The time necessary for acquiring the EMMs depends on the number of device IDs. Since the broadcast receiving apparatus cannot play back the content during the acquisition of the EMMs, the screen of the display device is blacked out. The broadcast receiving apparatus may be configured so that the broadcast receiving apparatus reads out a broadcast stream before the playback of the content is started to acquire the EMMs corresponding to the own apparatus. However, in this case, it is necessary for a user to wait a time corresponding to up to one period before the playback of the content is started. Although a technology for acquiring a scramble key to reduce the time necessary for channel switching is disclosed in a Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-129575, it is difficult to resolve the above issues with this technology.

"Pure" basalt can easily be melted and formed as a glass. While basalt has the advantage of being a single component raw material for glass production, often times it is not suitable for forming fibers because the basalt melts are too viscous. In order to more easily fiberize basalt, modification to reduce viscosity may be necessary. A viscosity of approximately 10 poise (log n=1.0) at 2600.degree. F. is recommended in the literature as an "optimum" high temperature viscosity for forming mineral wool fibers. The viscosity of basalt at reasonable forming temperatures may be too high for producing satisfactory mineral wool (Log n=1.0 at 3235.degree. F.). Viscosity modification, however, often affect the rate of crystallization, solidus temperature or softening point of the resulting fibers. The fibers should crystallize sufficiently rapid so as to be "fire resistant." Also, the fibers should not soften to the point where the ceiling tiles or boards will fall out of their suspension system during a fire. These tiles are low density composites consisting primarily of mineral wool, clay, organic binders and organic fibers. During a fire, a number of complex reactions takes place in the composite which include organic binder and fiber burn-out, low temperature bonding between inorganics and high temperature deformation and crystallization of the mineral wool.

Computer networks are vastly utilized and relied upon across the globe to transfer or share information between two or more places. Computer networks are used by users for a variety of purposes, including communications via emails, chats, tele-calls, video conferencing; and access of data and resources from one or more computers on the computer networks. The need of transferring or sharing information via computer networks has increased many folds. Thus, it is important to have computer networks that are capable of high performance, are easy to configure and involve low implementation costs. A computer network, also referred to as a network, typically involves one or more network devices, such as network switches and network routers, apart from other components, for the purpose of transferring of information between two or more end users. The information is transferred in the form of digitized data packets, simply referred to as packets. At a network device, packets are received at one or more input ports of the network device and are forwarded to one or more output ports of the network device. The forwarding is based on the path or the route of the packet, for being forwarded to an end user, which may in turn be based on the configuration of the network. Typically, each network device in a network is configured with an in-built control logic, also referred to as the control plane. The control logic determines forwarding rules or conditions that allow the network device to control the forwarding behavior or flow of packets between the input and output port(s) of the network device. Although, such network devices with the control logic are capable of determining the forwarding rules or conditions, their functioning is complicated and configuration is complex. In addition, such network devices are costly, which increases the overall cost of the network. The above mentioned problems involved in typical network devices, such as network switches, are solved with the advent of OpenFlow technology. In an OpenFlow network, the control logic is not a part of the network device but resides on an external device, such as a controller, on the network. The controller communicates information related to forwarding rules based on packet headers of packets to the network device. The flow of packets, through the network device for further transferring, is controlled based on the forwarding rules. Typically, a single controller can operate to communicate information related to forwarding rules to one or more network devices. Thus, with the OpenFlow technology, the functioning and the configuration of network devices become simpler, troubleshooting a network device issue becomes easier, and the cost of the network devices gets reduced, which makes the implementation of the computer network cost effective.

1. Technical Field The disclosure relates generally to mobile communication devices and communication management systems and to systems, methods and interfaces for management of mobile communication devices utilizing communication profiles and mobile communication device contexts. 2. Description of the Related Art Generally described, mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, facilitate audio and data communications for users. In one aspect, users can utilize a mobile communication device for audio and data communication without reference to the particular environment in which they are attempting to utilize the mobile communication device. For example, a stationary user can utilize a mobile phone in an area in which use of the phone does not necessarily pose a safety issue to the user or other individuals in the nearby area. In another aspect, however, the particular environment surrounding the user and/or use of the mobile communication device in the particular environment can impact the use of the mobile communication device, the safety of the specific users, and/or the safety of other individuals. By way of example, driver distraction can be responsible for a large and growing number of road traffic accidents. One increasing cause of driver distraction is the operation of a mobile communication device while driving, such as for the purposes of audio conversation. As applied to driving (and other activities), the distraction associated with operation of a mobile communication device can be characterized in terms of the mechanical operation of the device (e.g., dialing numbers on a keypad to initiate a call) and/or the cognitive load of the subsequent communication session (voice communications and/or operation of the device). Additionally, the continued evolution of mobile communication devices into multifunctional components, such as for text messaging, image and video capture, handheld gaming, etc., will only continue to increase the potential for operator distraction and/or additional cognitive load on users during operation of the mobile communication device. One approach to limit the operation of mobile communication devices relates to the utilization of control algorithms in vehicles to limit the use of cellular phones or cellular components. In an illustrative embodiment, a control algorithm can allow or deny communication based on monitoring various environmental sensors, such as the placement of a parking brake, the detection of a vehicle in gear, vehicle velocity and/or a distance traveled. This approach, however, can be inefficient in that the sensor information, such as vehicle velocity and/or distance traveled by itself, is not necessarily indicative of the appropriateness of use of a mobile communication device. For example, urban or city driving conditions in which there is heavy traffic can oftentimes result in low traveled distance and/or low velocities with frequent stops. Under a pure measured velocity approach, the mobile device may be allowed to operate if the vehicle is stopped, although use of a mobile communication device for such city driving conditions may not be preferable. Thus, the traditional velocity/distance approaches may be inefficient in distinguishing urban driving conditions from a person in a parked car by measuring velocity and/or distance traveled. Another approach to limit the operation of mobile communication devices relates to the utilization of control algorithms that utilize third party information sources, such as software calendaring programs, to determine an availability of a user to receive communications. In an illustrative embodiment, a control algorithm can intercept, or otherwise, receive, a request from a third party to initiate an audio communication with a mobile communication device. The control algorithm can then poll the mobile communication device and/or additional third party information sources to determine the availability for establishing the audio communication. For example, if the control algorithms polls a third party calendaring software application and determines that the user associated with the mobile communication devices is at an appointment, the control algorithm may prevent the audio communication from being established. These approaches, however, can become inefficient by increasing communication initiation latencies by requiring a synchronous polling of the mobile communication device for availability. Additionally, these approaches generally do not facilitate management of outgoing communications by a user of a mobile device and/or the continued management of the mobile communication device once a communication channel has been established.

Field of the Invention This invention relates to construction of photovoltaic arrays and other apparatus requiring electrical connection between metal parts. Prior Art This invention has been devised for use in installing a photovoltaic array composed of a number of photovoltaic modules that are assembled onto a larger mounting structure. The frames of the individual photovoltaic modules and the structural pieces on which the modules mount are generally made out of aluminum. The aluminum is anodized to resist corrosion. As in any source of electrical power, to ensure safety the metal pieces must be bonded together. Bonded is used here in the technical sense to mean permanently joined to form an electrically conductive path that ensures electrical continuity and has the capacity to safely conduct any current likely to be imposed. Although the frames of the modules are directly bolted or clamped to the mounting pieces, the anodizing insulates the pieces so that they are not electrically connected together. A common practice in the industry is to install a separate grounding lug on each piece that is anodized. The grounding lug is attached to the sheet metal frame of the modules with a thread forming stainless steel screw. Since the screw cuts into the aluminum it forms an air-tight connection which will maintain good electrical connection over time. A common sheet metal thickness is 0.080 inch and a common screw size is 10-32 so that the screw therefore only makes connection on about 2½ threads. This gives a marginally acceptable surface contact area in terms of mechanical strength and electrical conductivity. It would be desirable to have a design where the electrical contact area can be made much larger. The stainless steel screw contacts a star washer which in turn contacts the grounding lug body. The grounding lug accepts a copper wire which is forced to contact the grounding lug by a stainless steel set screw. There are thus four connection points which must be made, sheet metal to screw, screw to star washer, star washer to lug, and lug to copper wire. It would be desirable to have a design where there are only two electrical connection points. Copper wire is strung between grounding lugs on all the metal pieces and eventually to a ground electrode. The grounding lugs themselves are expensive and time consuming to install and the wiring adds both material and labor cost which increase the price of the overall system. It would be preferable if the electrical connection was made directly between the metal pieces when they are assembled together. Star washers, such as that in FIG. 1, are generally available for making electrical connections. They are constructed so that they can be punched and formed out of flat metal stock. The forming process makes a number of internal or external teeth that are usually twisted so that they extend above and below the plane of the washer body. Star washers make electrical connection to an adjacent piece because they tend to dig in to the adjacent piece as they are rotated and compressed by a nut and bolt being tightened. In the intended application, they would be inserted in between the two pieces of metal to be bonded. They will therefore be separated from the nut and bolt by a layer of material and so will not rotate in the usual manner and therefore will be less effective. Star washers are intended for applications where all they have to break through is grease or dirt on a metal surface, but anodized aluminum is a very hard material. The teeth of a star washer will act like springs and deform back to a flat surface when compressed. This is desirable for most applications because the spring action maintains contact. In this application, however, depending on the thickness of the anodizing, the star washer may or may not penetrate the anodizing to make connection with the underlying aluminum metal. Some examples of this type construction are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,027 (Buell et al., 1995), U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,290 (Homfeldt et al., 1997), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,939,097 (Carr et al., 2005), Shapes other than washers may also use these twisted type teeth, as in the clips of U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,505 (Avramovich 1983) and No. 4,961,712 (Schwenk et al., 1990). One might consider using a washer so thick that the teeth are unable to spring back to the flat condition; however, such a piece would not easily fit in between two metal pieces and may cause the two metal pieces to deform. Also since a thick washer requires more material, it would be more expensive. A better washer would be constructed so that the teeth are at right angles to the metal pieces to which contact should be made. Then, when the washer is tightened against the metal pieces, the teeth will not be able to spring back into the plane of the washer and will be forced to embed themselves into the adjacent piece. In embedding, both the teeth and the metal piece being contacted will deform together, resulting in a contact area where air is excluded so that the contact area will not be subject to corrosion. The height of the teeth can be designed so that the washer is guaranteed to punch through a specified thickness of anodizing. The shape and number of teeth can be designed to give a desired contact area and therefore a desired electrical resistance. The contact could be made along the inner diameter of a hole in the metal pieces; however, that might limit the amount of contact area available so it would be preferable to contact the metal pieces on an exposed face. The washer of U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,008 (Lockwood et al., 1998) does have teeth at right angles to the piece to be contacted; however, they are only on one face. For use with machine screws, two of these washers are required. In that case, the conduction path is from the first metal piece to be connected, to the first washer, then to the machine screw, then to the second washer, then to the second metal piece to be connected. Since the conduction path has four places where current transitions between parts, there is great likelihood of a poor connection at one of the transition points and hence poor reliability. In addition, the total connection path is much longer than necessary and therefore will have relatively high resistance. A final problem is that the screw must generally be made of stainless steel to resist corrosion. The relatively poor electrical conductivity of stainless steel and the long path through the screw will limit the amount of current which can be safely conducted. In the case of Lockwood, the washer is constructed with a concave shape. As the fastener is tightened, the washer will flatten. This change in shape will give a radial motion to the teeth which will scrape across the metal surface. For anodized surfaces the scraping may not be enough to break through the coating. It would be preferable to have the teeth directly penetrate some distance into the metal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,746 (Leeb 1995) and associated U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,008 (1996) also use an electrical contact at right angles to the piece to be contacted, but it is intended for use with specialized assembly tooling and an adhesive which makes the connection permanent. In the case of application to solar modules, it is necessary to provide for module repair or replacement and a permanent connection is inappropriate. One might consider use of the electrical grounding stud as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,588 (Ladouceur et al., 1993), U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,417 (1995), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,830 (1997). This invention has a washer with right angle features connected to the washer and an attached stud, and also has right angle features connected to the washer and an attached rivet. The stud might be inserted through a hole in the frame of the solar module, then a nut fastened to the stud to hold it in place. The rivet could then be used to join to the mounting structure. This is clearly a cumbersome assembly process. In addition, the grounding stud will be an expensive part to fabricate and since typically four connectors are required per solar module, the total cost will be prohibitive. Another problem with using available washers is that the washer needs to be inserted in between two metal pieces. When mounting a photovoltaic module there are four mounting holes, so one would need to carefully position four washers and then align the module to the mounting pieces. This would clearly be very difficult to do. It would be preferable to have a washer with features which retain it in position. There are a number of available washers that have features for retaining to a bolt, such as that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,290 (Homfeldt et al., 1997), illustrated in FIG. 1. To use such a washer one would position four bolts through the holes in the frame of a module and place a washer on each bolt. The module would then be positioned on the mounting structure, then the module secured in place with four nuts. There are several problems here. The first is that the retaining force may not be large enough, and as the large and cumbersome module is positioned, the bolts may be knocked loose. It would be preferable to retain the washer directly to the module or mount, and then insert the bolts after the pieces have been aligned. A second problem is that the available washers are of the star type construction and do not guarantee connection as detailed previously. There are several manufacturers who make inserts that are press fit into sheet metal parts and could thus provide the desired retention feature. For the least assembly effort, it would be desirable to construct the electrical connecting washer as an integral part of such an insert. Since the press fit process will also guarantee electrical connection, only one side of the washer would need to have the electrical connecting features. For very high volume applications, it would be desirable to integrate the washer into the fastener and therefore eliminate assembly steps. Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are: 1. to provide a washer which will guarantee electrical continuity between two metal pieces after they have been mechanically assembled even if the pieces are made of anodized aluminum; 2. to provide a washer with a large surface contact area for low electrical resistance; 3. to provide a washer which will be retained on one metal piece so that a second metal piece may be aligned to the first metal piece for mechanical assembly without disturbing the washer; 4. to provide a washer which requires no special tooling but makes electrical connection during the mechanical assembly process. 5. to provide a washer which can be integrated with a fastener for minimum assembly time. Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.

Heretofore, there has been proposed a pneumatic tire in which a shoulder land portion defined between a shoulder main groove and a tread edge is provided with a shoulder lug groove extending from the tread edge toward the inside in the tire axial direction and terminating without reaching the shoulder main groove (for example, see Patent Document 1). Such pneumatic tire can improve the steering stability because it is possible to increase the circumferential rigidity of the shoulder land portion.

In order to hunt game animals in most jurisdictions, a hunter has to receive a license from a regulating agency in the jurisdiction which is to be attached to the harvested game animal. At the present time, once the hunter receives the issued license, there is no convenient way to store it until it is applied to the harvested animal. As such, many hunting licenses are lost before they can be used. An additional problem associated with hunting licenses is that the hunter has to affix the license to the harvested animal in the field and there is no easy way to do this. The hunting license can be attached to the game animal by strings or rubber bands but these articles are cumbersome to carry out in the hunting arena and can easily become disengaged from the animal during its transport and result in the license being lost. Therefore, there is a need to provide a game tagging system which conveniently stores a hunting license until it is desired to apply it to a game animal and allows the license to be securely attached to the harvested game animal. The present invention was arrived at in order to address these problems.

Cancer is a worldwide problem that afflicts millions of people each year. As such, finding new methods of treatments is of vital interest. Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy are used in the treatment of cancer. Radiation treatment has become a conventional part of cancer therapy and is used in approximately 60% of treatment regimens. The cytotoxic effect of radiation on cancer cells arises from the ability of radiation to cause breaks in one or both strands of the DNA molecules inside the cells. Cells in all phases of the cell cycle are susceptible to this effect. However, the DNA damage in cancer cells is more likely to be lethal because these cells are less capable of repairing their DNA. The side effects of radiation are similar to those of chemotherapy and occur for the same reason i.e., the damage of healthy cells and tissue. Thus, a shortcoming to radiotherapy is the destruction of normal, healthy tissue surrounding the tumor during treatment. Another shortcoming is that after cessation of treatment, recurrence of the tumor can and does occur. Recurrence of the tumor has been partly attributed to the presence of radioresistant hypoxic cells, and the enhancement of radiation doses to damage the hypoxic tumor tissue is often necessary. However, to save normal, healthy tissue, a reduction in the total radiation dose would be desirable. Obviously, these two factors are contradictory. Therefore, the use of certain drugs and chemicals that preferentially sensitize hypoxic tumor cells to radiation, radiosensitizers, are employed. Radiosensitizers normally are chemical agents that have the capacity to increase the lethal effects of radiation when administered in conjunction with radiation and there are a variety of radiosensitizers that act by more than one mechanism. Furthermore, in the treatment of cancer with radiation and chemotherapy, local tumor control is often improved when radiation is administered synchronously with the chemotherapeutic agent (21). This observation has been attributed to a super additive effect on tumor regression due to a synergistic interaction between the radiation and the drug. Nevertheless, despite the above improvements in cancer treatment, cancer remains difficult to treat and cells still become resistant to radiation therapy. Thus, alternative methods and compositions which will increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to radiation therapy, thereby allowing for less exposure to toxic chemotherapeutic agents and radiation therapy, reduced side-effects and improved beneficial results, are still desirable. The present invention seeks to meet these and other needs. The present description refers to a number of documents, the content of which is incorporated by reference in their entirety.

An object of the present invention is a process for representing views of an object. This object has to be discriminated in a digital volume. A digital volume results from the acquisition and storage of pieces of information concerning physical characteristics of internal parts of an examined body. The best known mode of acquisition of this information is the tomographic mode. This mode may be performed, especially in the medical field, by various means: nuclear magnetic resonance, tomodensitometry by X-rays, or tomography by gammagraphy or ultrasonic tomography. This acquisition mode may, of course, also be any mode, once it leads to a gathering of pieces of physical information that can be arranged virtually with respect to one another along three orthogonal axes of reference and are supposed to represent, in the virtual position that they occupy, the physical characteristics of corresponding parts in an examined body. Each volume element of this digital volume thus has at least two types of information. A first type concerns the coordinates of a corresponding place in the body (corresponding biuniquely to an address in a storage memory of a computer). The other type represents the value of the physical information which has been assigned to this place and which has been measured, for example by one of the above-mentioned techniques of tomography. Techniques for the representation of views of objects to be discriminated in digital volumes are already known. There are chiefly two of them. A first technique, developed mainly by G. T. HERMAN and his team, comprises the sequence of the following operations. Taking a given digital volume, reformatted if necessary so that the resolution is identical in all three spatial dimensions, first of all a segmentation is done. The principle of the segmentation consists in comparing the values of the physical information loaded in each of the volume elements with a reference value and in selecting those of these volume elements for which the value of the physical information belongs, for example, to a value range located around this reference value. To simplify the matter, in tomodensitometry, it can be understood that a test on the density will enable differentiation, in the digital volume, of the volume elements corresponding to bones (high density) and the volume elements corresponding to soft tissue (low density). It is then possible to have a collection of addresses of memory cells that correspond to chosen volume elements and the set of which defines the object thus segmented. The principle of the representation then consists in attributing a visible surface to each of the chosen volume elements (which, however, are located on the surface of the segmented object), computing an orientation of this surface (in estimating an orientation of the normal to it), and assessing the luminous contribution of this surface to an image of a view when this surface is exposed to a given illumination (namely, to an illumination coming, for example, from a precise point of the space external to the segmented object). The locations of the chosen volume elements, and hence of the corresponding visible surfaces being known, they can be attributed, in the image of the view to be represented, elements of the surface of this image for which the coordinates, in the image, depend on the point of view from which the segmented object is looked at. These surface elements are then assigned a luminosity representing the contributions of the visible surfaces to which they are assigned. The set of all the surface elements of the image constitutes the image of the view of the object. This process has drawbacks; in particular, the shading is not satisfactory therein. For, the image obtained shows an effect of line artefacts or circle artefacts that seem to match the contours of the segmented object, in doing so irrespectively of the orientation of the illumination, and irrespectively of the viewpoint of observation of this object. These artefacts of contours are particularly discernible in the representation of surfaces with low relief. Although it is possible, at the extreme, to make do with them by mentally removing them during the examination of the view represented, it cannot be denied that these very same faults appear in the more uneven parts, with greater relief, of the views presented. For these parts, it then becomes impossible to distinguish the true representation from the artefact in the image. This process further has another drawback which is related to the computation of the orientation of the visible surfaces. Briefly, the segmentation leads to assigning a piece of binary information, for example 1 and 0 respectively, to the volume elements chosen and to those that have been set aside. The orientation of the visible surface assigned to a chosen volume element is computed, in a standard way, by taking into account the distribution of the "ones" and "zeros", in the volume elements directly neighboring the chosen volume element. This leads, firstly, to a restricted number of possibilities of orientation of this surface (81 possible orientations if the 26 volume elements directly neighboring the chosen volume element are taken), above all if we take into account the fact that because of the observation viewpoint, this number of possibilities is divided by two. Secondly, this computation leads, in certain borderline cases, to showing a scintillation in the image. For, if the physical information tested for a set of adjacent volume elements is very close to the limit of the range of segmentation, some of these volume elements will be chosen, and others will not. The result thereof may be a crenelated outline of the segmented object at this position whereas its true shape may be smooth, but located, in terms of value of physical information, at a level that is a source of difficulty in view of the criterion chosen to do the segmentation. This crenelated profile causes the scintillation of the image. Another process of representation, derived from techniques of image synthesis and computer-aided design, is aimed at achieving a segmentation in memory planes of the memory volume that corresponds to sections of the digital volume. For example, all the sections perpendicular to a given axis (an axis Z) are segmented. In all these sections, using correlation methods, it is possible to trace a "smoothened" contour of the section of the segmented object. Then, in a subsequent operation, the contours belonging to each of the adjacent sections are associated so as to determine facets of chosen dimensions which are generally triangular. A triangular facet is, for example, defined by three points, two of them belonging to a contour in one section, a third one belonging, in intermediate position, to a contour in an adjacent section. The position of each facet is known and, in the displayed image, a surface element of this image can be made to correspond to it. The luminous contributions for these facets are also computed, and the image of the view is then built. This technique suffers from the earlier drawbacks, albeit to a lesser degree. The artefacts of contours are all the same present when these contours are aligned along the axis to which the sections used are perpendicular. Furthermore, this other technique has a major drawback: it is unwieldy to implement by means of standard computers. It practically cannot be contemplated unless the number of the facets to be shown in the image is restricted to 5,000 to 10,000 facets. Now, for medical images, or more generally for images representing unknown objects that have to be recognized (and not symbolic objects that can be used in simulation), the number of facets to be represented is of the order of 500,000 to 1,000,000. The computation times relating to this technique are then no longer acceptable.

Up to now, a technology for a transmission apparatus to superpose a predetermined superposition image on a predetermined position on a display screen of a picked-up image and transmit the superposition image to a reception apparatus is proposed. For example, an on-screen display (OSD) function or the like where the superposition information is displayed on a fixed position on the display screen of the transmitted picked-up image is proposed. PTL 1 discloses an image pickup apparatus that, when a casing of a camera is moved in a pan or tilt direction, moves a position of a cursor on the display screen while corresponding to the direction in which the casing is moved. In addition, up to now, a technology with which the position of the superposition image on the display screen of the transmitted picked-up image is dynamically changed is proposed. For example, a floating OSD function, a masking function, or the like with which the position where the superposition information is displayed is changed in accordance with the position or the like of the predetermined subject in the picked-up image is proposed. PTL 2 discloses an image pickup apparatus that superposes a mask image so as to keep masking the predetermined subject even in a case where the image pickup direction is changed while the camera is panned or tilted. Up to now, a communication interface for instructing the transmission apparatus to superpose the image on the predetermined position on the display screen of the picked-up image and a communication interface for instructing the transmission apparatus to superpose the image while the superposition position is changed in accordance with the change in the picked-up image are separately provided. Therefore, a setting apparatus that includes only one of these communication interfaces can instruct only one of the above-described instructions with respect to the image pickup apparatus.

Demands for higher data rates for mobile services are steadily increasing. At the same time modern mobile communication systems as 3rd Generation systems (3G) and 4th Generation systems (4G) provide enhanced technologies, which enable higher spectral efficiencies and allow for higher data rates and cell capacities. Users of today's handhelds become more difficult to satisfy. While old feature phones generated only data or voice traffic, current smartphones, tablets, and netbooks run various applications in parallel that can fundamentally differ from each other. Compared to feature phones, this application mix leads to a number of new characteristics. For example, highly dynamic load statistics result. Conventional cellular networks become more and more overloaded by data traffic; cf. G. Maier, F. Schneider, A. Feldmann. “A First Look at Mobile Hand-held Device Traffic”, In Proc. Int. Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement (PAM '10), April 2010. This high load is mainly caused by smart handhelds such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops, which may generate substantially more traffic than previous handheld generations, lead to complex traffic requests that may not be efficiently served at the base station, and span more and more user sessions over multiple cells, decreasing the network efficiency per session. Furthermore, smart handhelds provide more information about the user, when compared to previous handheld generations. Context-Aware Resource Allocation (CARA) can exploit such information about the user's device, its location, and the communication demands of its currently running applications. Details on CARA can, for example, be found in M. Proebster, M. Kaschub, and S. Valentin “Context-Aware Resource Allocation to Improve the Quality of Service of Heterogeneous Traffic”, Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), June 2011, or in EP11305685.7. By being aware of the user's context a Base Station (BS) can substantially reduce the network load without sacrificing the user's Quality of Service (QoS), M. Proebster, M. Kaschub, T. Werthmann, and S. Valentin, “Context-Aware Resource Allocation for Cellular Wireless Networks”, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (WCN), submitted for review October 2011.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a screen display device for displaying characters and patterns such as the channel number and sound volume superimposed upon an image broadcast on a TV or VTR display screen. 2. Description of the Prior Art FIG. 8 is a system block diagram of a prior art screen display device. In the figure, reference numeral 1 represents a synchronous signal input circuit through which a horizontal synchronous signal HSYNC and a vertical synchronous signal VSYNC included in an image signal for TV and the like are input into an oscillator circuit 2 and a display position detection circuit 3. The display position detection circuit 3 detects the display position of a character or pattern based on these synchronous signals, and its output is input into a timing generator 4 and a display control circuit 5. The oscillator circuit 2 is reset for each horizontal synchronous signal HSYNC and oscillates at a predetermined frequency. This oscillation output of this oscillator circuit 2 is input into the timing generator 4. The timing generator 4 generates a clock required for the operation of each part based on the oscillation output and provides the clock to an input control circuit 6, a display memory 7, a vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A, a horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9, a character ROM 10A and the display control circuit 5. Meanwhile, code data CD (including commands such as display start, display stop and an outlining instruction, character codes and the like) from an unshown microcomputer for displaying a desired character or pattern are input into the display memory 7 through the input control circuit 6. The display memory 7 stores the input code data. The code data stored in the display memory 7 are read sequentially for display, and the read code data are input as addresses into the character ROM 10A which stores character font data for characters and patterns to be displayed. An outlining instruction signal Z is input into the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A for outputting a precharge signal X3 for outlining a display image in a vertical direction thereof and the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 for outlining the display image in a horizontal direction thereof. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A. The vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A consists of an X1 signal generator 81 for generating a precharge signal X1 only once at the beginning of a single-character display time-period and an X3 signal generator 82A for generating a precharge signal X3 three times within the single-character display time period when it receives the outlining instruction signal Z. The precharge signal X1 output from the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A once at the beginning of the single-character display time period is input into the character ROM 10A, and the precharge signal X3 output three times within the single-character display time period is input into the ROM data output control circuit 11. Character font data read from the character ROM 10A is input into the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 through the ROM data output control circuit 11. The output SC (a character display signal SQ and an outline display signal SE to be described hereinafter) of the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 is supplied to an unshown CRT through the display control circuit 5 to control display colors, for example. One font is composed of l.times.x m dot pixels, for example, as shown in FIG. 10. The character ROM 10A has a storage capacity of l.times.m.times.n dots for storing n character fonts. FIG. 11 is a structural diagram illustrating the character ROM 10A, the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A and the ROM data output control circuit 11, together with the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9. The character ROM 10A comprises an address decoder circuit 12 to which code data from the display memory 7 are input, a ROM output control circuit 13 to which a clock signal CK from the timing generator 4 is input, and an m numbers of storage areas 14a through 14m. Address decode signals A1 through An output from the address-decoder circuit 12 and bit signals B1 through Bl output from the ROM output control signal 13 are input into the storage areas 14a through 14m. Data stored in the storage areas 14a through 14m are input into the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 through data lines DL1 through DLm. The outlining instruction signal Z and the clock signal CK are input from the display memory 7 and the timing generator 4 to the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A, respectively. The precharge signal X1 output from the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A is input into the storage areas 14a through 14m. The ROM data output control circuit 11 consists of an m number of P channel MOS transistors E1 through Em, whose drains are connected to the respective data line DL1 through DLm, and whose sources are all connected to a precharge power supply VDD. The precharge signal X3 output from the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A is input into the gates of the P channel MOS transistors E1 through Em. FIG. 12 shows the details of the storage area 14c, for example, of the character ROM; other storage areas have the same structure, as shown in the figure. The storage area 14c contains l.times.n memory cells M11 to Mln arranged in a matrix form. Each memory cell consists of an N-channel MOS transistor, and the gates of memory cells in each column (M11 through Ml1), and (M12 to Ml2) to and including (M1n through Mln) are connected to respective word lines WL1 through WLn, whereas the drains of memory cells in each row (M11 through M1n), and (M21 through M2n) to and including (M11 to Mln) are connected to respective bit lines BL1 through BLl. The drain of only a bit memory cell having character font data is connected to the respective bit line BL. For instance, in FIG. 12, the drain of the memory cell M31 is connected to the bit line BL3. This is equivalent to the writing of character font data onto the position of the checkered area (image display area) in FIG. 10. Each of the word lines WL1 to WLn to which the address decode signals A1 through An are input is connected to all storage areas. In other words, each storage area stores data on each column of all (n) character fonts (see FIG. 10), and a single font is constructed with all the memory cells connected to a single word line. The bit lines BL1 through BLl are connected to the power supply VDD through the respective P-channel MOS transistors C1 through Cl. The data lines DL1 through DLm of the storage areas are also connected to the power supply VDD through the respective P-channel MOS transistors E1 through Em. The precharge signals X1 and X3 are provided from the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A to the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors C1 to Cl, and E1 to Em, respectively, at the beginning of each access at a predetermined time, whereby the transistors C1 through Cl and E1 through Em become conductive, and the bit lines BL1 to BLl and the data lines DL1 to DLm are precharged. After precharging, one of the address decode signals A1 through An is provided to the respective word line from the address decoder circuit 12 according to an address (code data) from the display memory 7. For instance, when the address decode signal A1 is provided to the word line WL1, all the memory cells connected to this word line WL1 become conductive. In the storage area 14c shown in FIG. 12, the memory cells M11 through Ml1 become conductive, and the charge precharged onto the bit line BL3 is pulled out through the memory cell M31 connected to the bit line BL3. The bit lines BL1 through BLl are all connected to the data line DL3 of the storage area 14c through the respective output gate transistors G1 through Gl, each of which consists of an N-channel MOS transistor. The gates of the output gate transistors G1 through Gl are connected to respective control lines CL1 through CLl. Moreover, each of the control lines CL1 to CLl is connected to all the storage areas 14a through 14m. The ROM output control circuit 13 provides the bit signals Bl through sequentially to the respective control lines CL1 to CLl upon each scanning in response to the clock of the timing generator 4. In accordance with this, in the storage area 14c of FIG. 12, the output gate transistors G1 to Gl become conductive sequentially so that data over the bit lines are read out sequentially to the data line DL3. The same operation is performed in other storage areas at the same time so that m-bit data is read out from each of the storage areas 14a through 14m to the respective data lines DL1 through DLm concurrently. For instance, when the bit signal B3 is input into the control line CL3, data over the third bit lines BL3 of the storage areas 14a through 14m are read out to the respective data lines DL1 through DLm concurrently. This is equivalent to the reading of m pieces of data over the third line shown by the arrow of FIG. 10. The read data are input into the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9. The horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 comprises a parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for an m-bit character pattern, and a parallel/serial conversion circuit 9b for an m-bit outline pattern as shown in FIG. 13. Character font data is input into these parallel/serial conversion circuits 9a and 9b from the character ROM 10A through the ROM data output control circuit 11. The output of the parallel/serial conversion circuits 9a (or 9b) is input into a flip-flop F1 (or F4) whose output is further supplied to a flip-flop F2 (or F5). Further, the output of the flip-flop F2 (or F5) is supplied to a flip-flop F3 (or F6). The output of each of these flip-flops is input into a three-input NOR circuit N1 (or N2), and the output of the flip-flop F2 is a character display signal SW. The clock CK of the timing generator 4 is input into the timing signal terminals T of the flip-flops F1 through F6. The outputs of the three-input NOR circuits N1 and N2 are input into a NOR circuit N3 which outputs an outline display signal SE through an AND circuit A controlled by the outlining instruction signal Z. The outline display signal SE and the character display signal SW are both input into the display control circuit 5. A description is subsequently given of the basic operation of the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit. FIGS. 14(A) through (J) are timing charts of signals input into each part of the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9. These timing charts illustrate the status of data output by the bit signal B3 shown in FIG. 12 in the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 so as to display an image at a position shown in FIG. 10. When a shift clock is input into the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for a character pattern, data received by the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for a character pattern is shifted in the order shown, in FIGS. 14(C) and (D) in response to first and second clocks and output from the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a in response to a third clock. Then, the input side "a" of the flip-flop F1 rises to "H" and falls in synchronism with a fall in the first clock CK provided from the timing generator 4 and shown in FIG. 14(A). Thereafter, each time the subsequent second and third clocks. CK are provided, the flip-flops F2 and F3 operate reversely so that data is shifted in the order shown in FIGS. 14(E), (F) and (G) and the character display signal SW is output to the display control circuit 5. When the output of the flip-flop F2 becomes "L", the output side "d" of the flip-flop F3 becomes "H" as shown in FIG. 14(H). As shown in FIG. 14(I), the output side "e" of the NOR circuit N1 turns to "L" at the time when the output side "b" of the flip-flop F1 becomes "H", and to "H" at the time when the output side "d" of the flip-flop F3 becomes "L". Thereby, the output side "f" of the NOR circuit N3 is equal to the inverted output of the output side "e" of the NOR circuit N1 as shown in FIG. 14(J) and is output as the outline display signal SE through the AND circuit A. The character display signal SW and the outline display signal SE thus obtained are both supplied to the unshown CRT through the display control circuit 5 so that the horizontal direction of the image display area is outlined by the outline display area as shown in FIG. 10. The parallel/serial conversion circuit 9b for outline pattern data is shown in FIG. 13. This parallel/serial circuit works in an identical manner as the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for the character data, discussed above. A description is subsequently given of the operation of the screen display device. FIGS. 15(A) through (I) are timing charts of the access operation of the character ROM 10A. In FIG. 8, when the horizontal synchronous signal HSYNC and the vertical synchronous signal VSYNC are input into the synchronous signal input circuit 1, signals related to these synchronous signals are output to the oscillator circuit 2 and the display position detection circuit 3. The oscillator circuit 2 generates a predetermined oscillation output to the timing generator 4 based on the input synchronous signals, and the display position detection circuit 3 detects the image display position of a preset screen based on the input synchronous signals in order to adjust timing of displaying an image. Meanwhile, when code data for displaying characters and patterns are input into the input control circuit 6 from the unshown microcomputer, code data such as signals for displaying and not displaying an image, an outlining instruction signal and character codes are written continuously onto the display memory 7 in response to a clock from the timing generator 4. The contents of the display memory 7 are read sequentially, read code data are input into the character ROM 10A, and the outlining instruction signal Z is input into the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A and the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9. Thereby, the address decoder circuit 12 of the character ROM 10A generates address decode signals A1 through An shown in FIG. 15(C) corresponding to the input code data and the storage areas output character font data D1 through Dm shown in FIG. 15(D). In other words, the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A outputs a precharge signal X1 shown in FIG. 15(B) which is set at an "L" level at the beginning of the single-character display time period. The bit lines BL1 through BLl of each storage area are precharged while the precharge signal X1 is at an "L" level. A character code from the display memory 7 is input into the character ROM 10A, whereby the address decoder circuit 12 of the character ROM 10A inputs into the storage areas 14a through 14m an address decode signal corresponding to the input character code from the address decode signals A1 to An shown in FIG. 15(C). Thereby, data corresponding to the address decode signal are output as character font data D1 through Dm shown in FIG. 15(D). In each storage area, the bit signals B1 to Bl are output sequentially upon each scanning in response to the display clock CK input from the timing generator 4 to the ROM output control circuit 13 of the character ROM 10A so that character font data D1 through Dl are sequentially read out upon each scanning. Moreover, when the vertical-direction outlining control circuit 8A receives the outlining instruction signal Z, it outputs the precharge signal X3 shown in FIG. 15(E) which becomes "L" once at the beginning of the single-character display time period and twice near the end of the period, and precharges the data lines DL1 through DLm of the character ROM 10A while the precharge signal X3 is at "L". When the ROM output control circuit 13 outputs the bit signal B3 corresponding to the current scanning, for example, as shown in FIG. 15(G), data Q2 being scanned currently shown in FIG. 15(I) is output, and when it outputs the bit signal B2 shown in FIG. 15(F), data Q1 previously scanned (past) shown in FIG. 15(I) is output. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 15(H), when the circuit 13 outputs the bit signal B4, data Q3 to be scanned next (future) shown in FIG. 15(I) is output. That is, data on dots above and below a display image area can be obtained along with data on the display image being scanned within the single-character display time period. The data Q1, Q2 and Q3 thus obtained are input into the horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9. At this time, the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for a character pattern receives only data Q2 upon input of data Q2 being scanned currently. The parallel/serial conversion circuit 9b for an outline pattern receives both data Q1 and Q3 upon input of data Q1 and Q3 scanned previously and to be scanned next, respectively. As described in the foregoing, data of the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for a character pattern (or the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9b for an outline pattern) is supplied to the flip-flop F1 (or F4), the flip-flops F1, F2 and F3 (or F4, F5 and F6) operate reversely sequentially in response to the clock CK provided from the timing generator 4, and the flip-flop F2 outputs the character display signal SW. The output of the NOR circuit N1 to which the outputs of the flip-flops F1, F2 and F3 have been input and the output of the NOR circuit N2 to which the outputs of the flip-flops F4, F5 and F6 have been input are supplied to the NOR circuit N3, which outputs the outline display signal SE through the AND circuit A. Then, the character display signal SW and the outline display signal SE are supplied to the display control circuit 5 so as to control display such as display colors, and then to the unshown CRT. In the case of scanning the position shown by the arrow in FIG. 10, data on the image display area, that is, data for obtaining an image, is supplied from the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9a for a character pattern to the flip-flop F1. Meanwhile, both data scanned previously and to be scanned next for obtaining the image, that is, data on dots above and below the image display area of FIG. 10, at rows 102 and 104, respectively, are supplied from the parallel/serial conversion circuit 9b for an outline pattern to the flip-flop F4. Thereafter, the time length of the outline display signal ST obtained as the output of the NOR circuit N3 and corresponding to data scanned previously, being scanned and to be scanned next is extended by the operation of the afore-mentioned horizontal-direction outlining control circuit 9 to enable the outline of an image in a horizontal direction thereof to be displayed. Therefore, the outline of an image in a vertical direction thereof can be displayed with both data scanned previously and to be scanned next, and the outline of the image in a horizontal direction thereof can also be displayed by extending the time length of these data. In a case where a font for outline display is "1", the font is displayed as shown in FIGS. 16(A) through (C). When a position shown by an arrow is being scanned currently, the character display signal SW and the font are such as shown in FIG. 16(a). The outline display signal SE at this time and a pattern for outline display are such as shown in FIG. 16(b). An image displayed with the character display signal SW and the outline display signal SE is such as shown in FIG. 16(c) which illustrates the font "1" outlined in both vertical and horizontal directions thereof. Since the conventional screen display device is structured as described above, it is necessary to read the character ROM three times within the single-character display time period for vertical-direction outline display, thus making it difficult to increase the speed of the device. Therefore, the device has the problem that it is inoperable at high display clock frequencies.

Generally, modern printing production techniques for publications or documents such as books, magazines, and brochures, can be split into three major stages: 1. Prepress. In the prepress stage of production, documents are prepared for a printing device. 2. Printing. During this stage of production the information produced by the prepress system is duplicated on one or more large sheets of paper called print sheets, using a printing press plate, a digital printing system, or some other duplicator of printed material. 3. Finishing. In this stage the print sheets are folded, assembled and cut to form the final documents. In the prepress stage, the individual pages of a document are prepared and ordered according to the page sequence of the final document. The final ordering of the pages is also referred to as the reader order. In order to achieve a desired reader order of the final publication, a pre-printing operation called imposition is required to arrange the individual pages into a layout that is suitable for the media that will ultimately be used to print the pages. Typically, the imposition layout is not in reader order, since the pages must be laid out onto the media with the understanding of how the media will be ultimately folded, cut and stacked in order to produce the final publication. The reader order is only one aspect that the imposition must consider; other considerations are the media size and how the media will be folded, cut and stacked. Imposition arranges the pages on one or more print sheets to achieve a proper sequence or position of each page relative to other pages. Imposition is performed to facilitate post-printing processes by defining the layout of the document's pages so that the pages can be properly imaged onto printing press plates. These plates are then used to print the pages onto one or more print sheets (stage 2, printing), which are later folded, cut and then bound to form the final printed document (stage 3, finishing). Imposition may be performed manually by an expert familiar with the printing press, its operations, and the distribution of pages in the document, such as a newspaper, in order to design a particular imposition. A particular imposition will depend on several factors and may include, for instance, the editorial content, several different editions, advertisement requirements, and multiple production sites. However, the time available to design an imposition is often short, because changes in page content as dictated by advertising, editorial or fast breaking news stories may occur close to press time. Nevertheless, manually changing an imposition at the last minute can be both time consuming and very expensive because the operator will have to compose a new imposition essentially from scratch. More often, imposition processes are executed on a computer workstation and assisted by a user, using an imposition software program, such as the Preps™ software by ScenicSoft of Lynnwood, Wash., prior to printing by a printing device. An imposition software program creates an imposition description file that defines how pages are to be arranged and includes all the data required for a printing device to print the print sheet(s). Imposition description files contain user defined image data such as the pages or sub-pages of a document and page layout information for one or more print sheets. For example, a user can define an imposition layout that images four pages (4-up) at a time to a printer. The user may also define the page assignment in a certain way so that when the print sheet is folded and cut, the pages will be in the order defined by the user. Once the print sheets are printed, the print sheets are then folded and cut in accordance with the imposition description file to form one or more segments or signatures of the document which are then combined to form a complete document. Software-based imposition assignment of one reader order list of pages to an imposition is common practice in the printing industry today. ScenicSoft's Preps™ program provides, either implicitly or explicitly, a means for the user to associate one reader order list of pages to a specific imposition layout. There is a fixed association between the pages of a document and the assignment of those pages to the single imposition layout.

A black and white silver halide photograph is developed to form a visible image. In medical radiography, an illness is diagnosed by the density of a silver image. When a trouble area in which the difference in transmittance of an X-ray is small is observed, an image having a high gradation and a sharp outline is required. In recent years, as diagnosis becomes more precise and there are more cases in which a soft tissue such as a breast is observed, the requirement for high gradation and sharp outline increases. In diagnosing a breast cancer, the system of a screen on one side and a film on the other side is preferably used because there is a serious need for a sharpness. However, that system shows a low sensitivity when subjected to standard processing as compared to those systems in which screens and emulsion layers are on both sides. Therefore, there are some cases in which the developing temperature must be raised and the developing time prolonged in order to obtain the needed characteristics of high sensitivity and gradation. Fog caused in such processing results in worse image contrast and a deterioration of visible sharpness. Fog is likely to increase, especially when a light-sensitive material is processed at a high temperature where the KBr amount in a developing solution is decreased.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wire or wirelessly communicable electronic apparatus including an image capturing device such as a scanner, an image forming apparatus such as a multi-functional apparatus, a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or an information processing apparatus such as a computer, and more particularly to management of transfer of licenses of software programs used in an electronic apparatus. 2. Description of the Background Art Recently, multi-functional apparatuses (hereinafter “apparatuses”) having various functions have been sold without pre-installment of application programs (hereinafter “applications”) in the apparatuses. Instead, users purchase applications when required, and install the applications in the apparatuses to add functions useable for the apparatuses. When the applications are purchased and installed, licenses are managed in such a way that they are granted to the user for the applications installed in the apparatus to prevent unauthorized use of the application. When such apparatuses installed with the applications are to be discarded due to malfunction or aging of the apparatuses, the licensed applications may be transferred to one or more other apparatuses as required. In such a situation, an operation to transfer applications and licenses is required, but such operation is time-consuming. Therefore, a license management system that can transfer a plurality of licenses with an uncomplicated configuration and operation has been proposed, as in JP-2009-271680-A. JP-2009-271680-A discloses a method to transfer a plurality of licenses with a simple configuration and operation. In the license management system of JP-2009-271680-A, when a function-disabling process is initiated, all functions are disabled, a function-disabling key is issued, and resources for such functions are transferred to another apparatus. Then, a function-transfer-complete verification key is issued for the apparatus that has received the resources to implement a given function. When such keys are input to a license server, the license server database is updated and a function-enabling key is issued. When such function-enabling key is input to the other apparatus, the transferred function is readied for use. However, in such conventional license management system, licenses for a plurality of applications or functions installed in one apparatus can be transferred to another apparatus, but the licenses can be transferred only to one other apparatus (one transfer destination), which means the licenses cannot be distributed to a plurality of apparatuses. If a user wants to distribute licenses for a plurality of applications to a plurality of apparatuses, the user needs to set the required keys one by one for each license transfer, which is a time-consuming.

The invention relates to computer networks, and specifically to a service broker for clients and servers operating in a heterogeneous computing environment. It is increasingly common to interconnect multiple computing systems into a computer network, such as a local area network ("LAN") or wide area network ("WAN"). In a computer network, a number of computers are joined together to exchange information and share resources. A network is a distributed computing environment in which networked computers provide users with the capabilities of access to distributed resources, such as remote files and databases or printers and of distributed processing, in which an application may be processed on two or more computing systems. In such a distributed computing environment, a computing application's component functions may reside on different machines but work together. For example, each work station or personal computer ("PC") in the network often provides user interface processing and local analysis and processing, while larger, host computers may maintain a large set of files and coordinate access to large databases. In the distributed computing environment, each application must be able to communicate and exchange information with other applications or machines in the environment. If all the machines are based on the same hardware platform, use the same operating system, and are interconnected using a single network architecture and communication protocol, connection and communication between applications and/or machines is straightforward. However, this ideal is seldom achieved. There are many different (and often mutually incompatible) computer network architectures (such as SNA, OSI, TCP/IP, DECnet, and LANs), hardware platforms (such as IBM, DEC, WANG, and Apple), operating systems (such as UNIX, OS/2, MS-DOS, VMS, and MVS), and application languages (such as COBOL, FORTRAN, PL1, C, and NATURAL). This heterogeneity presents an obstacle to the connectivity and interoperability of the systems. FIG. 1 illustrates schematically such a heterogeneous distributed computing environment. The environment includes several "participant." Each participant may be a "client" or a "server." A participant is a "client" when it is requesting a service accessible somewhere within the computing environment. A participant is a "server" when it is providing a requested service to a client. For example, a client may be an application program, while a server may be a database, file, or program. The computing environment shown in FIG. 1 is shown for purposes of illustration as having two clients 4a and 4b and a server 6c joined together as a first LAN 5, and a two servers 6a and 6b joined together as a second LAN 7. However, each of the clients 4 and servers 6 may act as a client or a server, depending on whether it is requesting or supplying services. The system of FIG. 1 is heterogeneous because each of the clients 4 and servers 6 may be applications running on different hardware platforms under different operating systems, and/or within different computer networks. For example, the computer for client 4a may be an IBM mid-range computer running the OS/400 operating system, the computer for client 4b may be an IBM PC running MS-DOS or OS/2, while the computer for server 6a may be a UNIX-based work station, the computer for server 6b might be a DEC mainframe computer, and the computer for server 6c might be work station running IBM's OS/2. Other computing systems might also be connected, such as a work station running Microsoft Windows or an Apple Macintosh. LAN 5 might be based on IBM's System Network Architecture ("SNA") and IBM's Logical Unit 6.2 ("LU 6.2") communications protocol, while LAN 7 might be based on a different architecture, such as OSI and its associated communications protocol. The communications protocol is a defined set of procedural rules which computers use to communicate across a network. The use of different hardware platforms, operating systems, or network architectures and their associated communications protocols inhibits the useful exchange of information between clients and servers in a heterogeneous environment, such as that shown in FIG. 1. Effective operation of the heterogeneous computing environment of FIG. 1, with its different and incompatible hardware, software, and network architectures, requires some mechanism for matching service requests from clients with the appropriate service offerings from servers and for managing the communications between clients and servers. Developers of software applications that would be used in client-server relationships face three problems: software portability (platform independence); network transparency); and reliable data delivery (store-and-forward operation). These problems have not yet been adequately addressed. Simply providing a common interface, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), only addresses part of the problem. Rather, the correct functionality must be provided to client-server application developers to allow applications to be developed on a "logical" platform with transparent communication across networks and with reliable data delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,515 to Laggis ("Laggis") discloses an apparatus for interconnecting DOS-based PCs, UNIX-based intermediate computers (acting as servers), and a mainframe computer, to provide the PCs services available on the servers and/or mainframe. Each PC is connected to a server via a patch. Patch 21 traps calls by PC applications to services on a server or mainframe. The trapped requests are directed to driver 31 on the associated server. Driver 31 collects the trapped requests from PCs and directs these to user level request server 32 on the server. Request server 32 performs file and resource serving and locking services to make requested resources available to the PC's operating system. Request server 32 calls on NETSVR process 33 to find resources on other servers and on APISVR to get the services on the mainframe. The request server 32 returns notes to patch 21, which forwards trapped user requests to PC's operating system to service the request. The PC's operating system views the server as a peripheral. Laggis is concerned only with file transfer between a PC (running PC-DOS) and a mainframe via a UNIX system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,686 to Reiter, et al. ("Reiter") discloses an interface for inteconnecting user terminals 12 and diverse processors running different types of databases 14. The interface is a file-driven computer program for controlling access to the many databases by the user terminals. The interface is loaded with files having information relating to interfaces used with different processors, query languages, and data base managers, and information on the location of each kind of on formation and method of retrieval. A user at one of the user terminals makes a request for specific information to the interface. The interface in turn couples to each required data base (mimicking an asynchronous terminal), retrieving the data. Reiter provides remote access to heterogeneous computer systems in the form of asynchronous terminal emulation. Reiter controls data retrieval from these systems by a user-written command procedure, and presents the data in specific formats on the user terminal, again controlled by user-written command procedures. provides data retrieval from these systems. Reiter thus describes a very specific means to automate dial-up, logon, data access, and screen formatting procedures. There is thus a need for a system that facilitates cooperative processing among application programs in a heterogeneous computing environment and that provides store-and-forward messaging, conversational program-to-program communication and remote procedure calls. Such a system should support communication between applications independent of operating system, hardware, network/communication protocol, and programming language.

A hard disk drive generally includes a stack of rotating disks or platters, a spindle motor which causes the disk to rotate, read/write heads which fly above the surface of the disks, an actuator motor (known as a "voice coil motor" or VCM) which controls the positioning of the read/write heads, power circuitry to provide electrical power to the spindle and voice coil motors, and control circuitry to control the operation of the spindle and voice coil motors. A read/write head reads data from the disk by sensing flux changes on the magnetic surface of the disk as it passes beneath the read/write head. To synchronize the data being read from the disk with the operation of the data processing circuitry, it is necessary to carefully control the speed of the rotation of the disks. This is usually accomplished by controlling the current delivered to the spindle motor. The switching characteristics of the VCM power devices are very important in achieving good performance from the motor and other favorable characteristics. However, a problem has been developed in the control of the voice coil motors in that a "glitch" occurs in the high-side and low-side drivers. This glitch couples a noise spike into the channel chip and reduces the bit error rate, making it difficult to obtain a high performance read channel. This glitch is caused by the input signal saturating the driver circuits. More particularly, the output stage of the driver circuits are driven to saturation. As the input stage comes out of saturation, the output stage does not follow the input signal as a result of the saturation. Once the output stage comes out of saturation and starts to respond, a glitch or rapid decrease in output signal results.

A point cloud is a 3D data set collected by various sensors, such as light detection-and-ranging “LIDAR” sensors, depth cameras, and others. Point cloud registration iteratively aligns a new frame of a 3D data set with previous aligned frames, referred to as a “map.” In many applications, a sensor moves in a 3D space with six degrees of freedom and each new frame relates to a previous frame or to a set of aligned previous frames by a spatial transformation. The registration of a sequence of frames of 3D data set is a process that involves finding the rigid transformations, consisting of translations and rotations, that align the frames in a selected coordinate system. Point cloud registration has a broad range of applications in areas including computer vision, simultaneous localization and mapping (“SLAM”), robotic move planning, autonomous driving, object recognition, medical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, virtual and augmented reality, and 3D model construction in remote sensing. Many new applications have become possible, in recent years, due to rapid advances in sensing and computing technologies, as a result of which 3D-data-set registration is becoming an increasingly significant component within many scientific, technological, and commercial applications and fields. Iterative Closest Point (“ICP”) and Iterative Closest Point (“GICP”) are widely adopted approaches for point-cloud registration. As suggested by its name, ICP depends on iterative searching of 3D spaces and, indeed, its performance is dominated by the cost of such searches. K-d trees and other tree-based approaches are used to search of closest points, and these tree-based approaches involve expensive tree traversals. Empirical testing has shown that it is unrealistic to perform real-time point-cloud registration with any known tree-based approaches to 3D-space searching. A point cloud frame is generally compressed by sampling to reduce its cardinality prior to frame alignment in order to decrease processing costs. To ensure that the compression does not result in significant decrease in accuracy, many compression techniques are designed to remove any data points over a threshold number of data points from each 3D voxel of a selected size. Octree has been suggested and used for these compression techniques, which requires a storage space of a size proportional to the product of the ranges of the spatial coordinates in each of the three dimensions and which requires processing times proportional to the logarithm of the size of the octree for each point examined. The aligned point cloud frames, or map, produced by point-cloud registration is stored in a data repository. The data repository is incrementally built up along with the processing of each new frame, and, at the same time, needs to be searched for each point in each frame. As is well understood by those familiar with science and technology, the computational efficiency of a method or subsystem within a computer system, measured by the number of instructions processed and the amount of memory used to carry out particular tasks, is directly related to thermodynamic efficiency of the computer system, and is a significant real-word, physical characteristic of electromechanical computing systems. The time efficiency of a method or subsystem within a computer system is directly related to the real-world performance of the physical computer system and is often a significant determinant of the practical utility of the computer system in real-world applications. As with any significant component of an application, technology, or system, researchers, designers, developers, manufacturers, and vendors continuously seek more efficient and faster 3D-data-set-registration methods and systems, and seek improved efficiencies in many other, related applications and problem domains.

Dataflow machine is a computer in which the primitive operations are triggered by the availability of inputs or operands. It is different from classical von Neumann machines, where there is the concept of sequential flow of control, and an operation (i.e. instruction) is performed when flow of control reaches that operation. Today dataflow machines may not be fully leveraged, in particular, with respect to execution of nested program loops.

Virtual environments may include water surfaces, such as oceans, lakes, rivers, and the like, that must be visualized at various times during a simulation. A visualization typically involves rendering a scene in the virtual environment and presenting the rendered scene to a simulation user. Realistically visualizing a water surface presents certain challenges, since water reflects the images of objects above the water surface, and refracts the images of objects below the water surface. Moreover, in a real world environment, which objects below the water surface can be seen from above the water surface may depend on myriad factors, such as the size of the object, the depth of the object, the clarity of the water, the angle of the view with respect to the water surface, and the like. Realistic below-water visualizations of a water surface involve many of the same factors, in particular, reflection of underwater objects off the water surface, and refraction of objects above the water surface. Simulations often deal with these difficulties by simply ignoring reflections and refractions, resulting in an unrealistic water visualization. In order to efficiently and realistically visualize a water surface such that the reflective and refractive properties of water are realistically depicted, it may be necessary for a simulator to relatively quickly ascertain the elevation of objects with respect to the elevation of the water surface. This becomes increasingly difficult to do as the area of the virtual environment increases, such as a full-earth simulation, since there are large numbers of bodies of water at different elevations, as well as many objects near, above, and below such bodies of water whose locations and elevations must also be quickly ascertainable in order to realistically visualize a particular region of the earth.

The invention generally relates to pumps, and more particularly relates to a positive-displacement pump with a vane for mutually separating the two chambers in the interior of the pump housing. A positive-displacement pump of this type is already known from FIG. 2A of DE 41 07 720 A1. In this case, both end faces of the vane that separates the two chambers of the pump housing interior from one another and is guided in a restricted fashion respectively carry one sealing strip that is movably guided in the longitudinal direction of the vane and adjoins the inner circumferential wall of the housing interior. In order to realize this movable arrangement of the sealing strips, they are realized with a T-shaped cross section, with the cross section of the outside of the T-bar being convexly curved and consequently contacting the circumferential wall along only one surface line. The central web of the strip is engaged with a longitudinal groove machined into the end face of the vane such that it can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the vane, so that the sealing strips automatically adjoin the inner circumferential wall of the housing when the drive shaft rotates due to the effect of centrifugal force. The disadvantage of this construction can be seen in the fact that the sealing strips only adjoin the inner circumferential wall of the housing interior in a sealing fashion due to the centrifugal force once a certain rotational speed of the drive shaft is reached. This means that a chamber seal which ensures a reliable transport of the gaseous or aqueous medium is not realized until this time. Positive-displacement pumps of this type consequently are, for example, not suitable for evacuating a brake booster of a motor vehicle since an evacuation needs to be ensured at slow rotational speeds in this case. The present invention is based on the objective of disclosing a positive-displacement pump, in which a transport of the respective medium starts at a rotational speed greater than 0 or when the centrifugal force during the start of the motor-driven pump does not yet suffice for displacing the sealing strips of the vane into their maximum radial sealing position. Due to the fact that the vane is equipped with an energy storing device, a permanent contact of both sealing strips with the circumferential wall of the housing interior is also ensured while the shaft is at a standstill, so that the respective medium is displaced or transported at the beginning of the shaft rotation. In this context, it should be mentioned that FIG. 4 of DE 41 07 720 A1, which was cited above with reference to the state of the art, discloses a pump construction, in which the vane is already equipped with energy storing devices in the form of compression springs. In contrast to the construction according to the invention, the sealing strips are immovably held on the vane ends, i.e., the compression springs do not serve for holding the sealing strip in constant contact with the inner circumferential wall of the housing interior, but rather for supporting the end of the vane that moves into the lower dead center in the oval housing interior in order to compensate for the effects of centrifugal force (see column 5, lines 5 ff.). According to one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the vane may be guided such that it can be radially displaced on the drive shaft or in a pump rotor that is driven by said drive shaft. In this case, it may, as mentioned above, already suffice to merely arrange one energy storing device between the vane and one of its sealing strips. However, it is preferred to arrange both sealing strips such that they can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the vane, with both sealing strips being supported by one respective energy storing device. The movable arrangement of the sealing strips may be realized in accordance with FIG. 2A of DE 41 07 720 A1. In this case, the energy storing devices may be respectively arranged between the base of the vane groove and the web of the T-shaped cross section of the sealing strips. One preferred arrangement of the movable sealing strips on the vane makes it possible to eliminate mold slides for forming guide grooves on the end face of the slide vane as well as on the strip during the injection molding of the vane and the sealing strips. In addition, the sealing strips that are attached to or overlap the vane end in this construction have a higher stability because the bending moments during the vane rotation which result from radial support forces can be favorably absorbed by the U-limbs of the sealing strips. The energy storing device that is realized in the form of a leaf spring can be advantageously positioned such that the vane and the sealing strips simultaneously remain exactly aligned relative to one another in the lateral direction. An alternative arrangement of the energy storing device is disclosed wherein this construction is primarily advantageous if the interior of the pump housing has a shape that highly deviates from a circular cylindrical circumference and the sealing strip or strips need to be displaced by relatively large radial distances during the rotation of the vane. Another advantageous vane construction is disclosed wherein the sealing strips are arranged on the vane ends such that they can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the vane. It should also be mentioned that the invention can be utilized in an equally advantageous fashion on the vane of vane-cell pumps.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photovoltaic element such as a solar cell, and more particularly to a stacked photovoltaic element in which a plurality of pin junction constituent elements are stacked. 2. Related Background Art Technology relating to the thin film photovoltaic element is disclosed for example in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,521. However it does not teach at all the configuration capable of improving and stabilizing the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Also, with regard to the configuration of the stacked photovoltaic element, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,086 discloses a method of not degrading the fill factor (FF) of the photovoltaic element. More specifically, the above-mentioned patent discloses a method of forming a thinner semiconductor layer of satisfactory film quality and controlling the current of the stacked photovoltaic element by the thin constituent element of satisfactory film quality. However, the method disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,086 is not sufficient for maximizing the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the stacked photovoltaic element and maintaining stability for a long light irradiation time. In particular, this method is unable to achieve a high photoelectric conversion efficiency and sufficient stability in case the i-type semiconductor layer (hereinafter, referred to as xe2x80x9ci-type layerxe2x80x9d) of the first pin junction constituent element of the stacked photovoltaic element is composed of a microcrystalline semiconductor and the i-type layer of the second pin junction constituent element is composed of an amorphous semiconductor. The object of the present invention is to provide a stacked photovoltaic element employing a microcrystalline semiconductor in the i-type layer of the first pin junction constituent element and an amorphous semiconductor in the i-type layer of the second pin junction constituent element, and having a high photoelectric conversion efficiency and a less variation in the photoelectric conversion efficiency for a long light irradiation time. In order to attain the above-mentioned object, the stacked photovoltaic element of the present invention is formed by stacking on a supporting member, at least a pin junction constituent element having a microcrystalline semiconductor in an i-type layer and a pin junction constituent element having an amorphous semiconductor in an i-type layer, wherein the current is controlled by the pin junction constituent element having a microcrystalline semiconductor in the i-type layer. In the above-mentioned configuration, the short circuit current of the pin junction constituent element having a microcrystalline semiconductor in the i-type layer is preferably set to a value smaller than that of the pin junction constituent element having an amorphous semiconductor in the i-type layer. Also, the average crystal grain size of the i-type layer composed of a microcrystalline semiconductor is preferably within a range of 100 xc3x85 to 1000 xc3x85. Also, the i-type layer composed of a microcrystalline semiconductor preferably has a columnar crystalline structure. Furthermore, the band gap of the i-type layer composed of a microcrystalline semiconductor is preferably set so as to become wider toward the interfaces between a p-type semiconductor layer (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cp-type layerxe2x80x9d) and the i-type layer and between an n-type semiconductor layer (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cn-type layerxe2x80x9d) and the i-type layer.

Generally, active-matrix display apparatus display images by arranging a large number of pixels in a matrix and controlling the light intensity of each pixel according to a video signal. For example, if liquid crystals are used as an electrochemical substance, the transmittance of each pixel changes according to a voltage written into the pixel. Even with active-matrix display apparatus which employ an organic electroluminescent (EL) material as an electrochemical substance, the basic operation is the same as in the case of using liquid crystals. In a liquid crystal display panel, each pixel works as a shutter, and images are displayed as a backlight is blocked off and revealed by the pixels or shutters. An organic EL display panel is of a self-luminous type in which each pixel has a light-emitting element. Consequently, the self-luminous type display panel such as an organic EL display panel has the advantages of being more viewable than liquid crystal display panels, requiring no backlighting, having high response speed, etc. Brightness of each light-emitting element (pixel) in an organic EL display panel is controlled by an amount of current. That is, organic EL display panels differ greatly from liquid crystal display panels in that light-emitting elements are driven or controlled by current. A construction of organic EL display panels can be either a simple-matrix type or active-matrix type. It is difficult to implement a large high-resolution display panel of the former type although the former type is simple in structure and inexpensive. The latter type allows a large high-resolution display panel to be implemented, but involves a problem that it is a technically difficult control method and is relatively expensive. Currently, active-matrix type display panels are developed intensively. In the active-matrix type display panel, current flowing through the light-emitting elements provided in each pixel is controlled by thin-film transistors (transistors) installed in the pixels. Such an organic EL display panel of an active-matrix type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-234683. An equivalent circuit for one pixel of the display panel is shown in FIG. 62. A pixel 16 consists of an EL element 15 which is a light-emitting element, a first transistor 11a, a second transistor 11b, and a storage capacitance 19. The light-emitting element 15 is an organic electroluminescent (EL) element. According to the present invention, the transistor 11a which supplies (controls) current to the EL element 15 is referred to as a driver transistor 11. A transistor, such as the transistor 11b shown in FIG. 62, which operates as a switch is referred to as a switching transistor 11. The organic EL element 15, in many cases, may be referred to as an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) because of its rectification. In FIG. 62 or the like, a diode symbol is used for the light-emitting element OLED 15. Incidentally, the light-emitting element 15 according to the present invention is not limited to an OLED. It may be of any type as long as its brightness is controlled by the amount of current flowing through the element 15. Examples include an inorganic EL element, a white light-emitting diode consisting of a semiconductor, a typical light-emitting diode, and a light-emitting transistor. Rectification is not necessarily required of the light-emitting element 15. Bidirectional diodes are also available. While the reference numeral 15 is described as an EL element, it is sometimes used as the meaning of an EL film or an EL structure. In the example of FIG. 62, a source terminal (S) of the P-channel transistor 11a is designated as Vdd (power supply potential) and a cathode of the EL element 15 is connected to ground potential (Vk). On the other hand, an anode is connected to a drain terminal (D) of the transistor 11a. Besides, a gate terminal of the P-channel transistor 11b is connected to a gate signal line 17a, a source terminal is connected to a source signal line 18, and a drain terminal is connected to the storage capacitance 19 and a gate terminal (G) of the P-channel transistor 11a. Incidentally, although it is stated herein that the transistor elements 11a which supply current used to drive the EL elements 15 are p-channel transistors, this is not restrictive and they may be n-channel transistors. Of course, the transistors 11 may be bipolar transistors, FETs, or MOSFETs. The board 71 is not limited to a glass substrate and may be a silicon substrate or metal substrate. To drive the pixel 16, a video signal which represents brightness information is first applied to the source signal line 18 with the gate signal line 17a selected. Then, the transistor 11a conducts, the storage capacitance 19 is charged or discharged, and gate potential of the transistor 11b matches the potential of the video signal. When the gate signal line 17a is deselected, the transistor 11a is turned off and the transistor 11b is cut off electrically from the source signal line 18. The gate potential of the transistor 11a is maintained stably by the storage capacitance 19. Current delivered to the light-emitting element 15 via the transistor 11a depends on gate-source voltage Vgs of the transistor 11a and the light-emitting element 15 continues to emit light at an intensity which corresponds to the amount of current supplied via the transistor 11a. Organic EL display panels are made of low-temperature polysilicon transistor arrays. However, since organic EL elements use current to emit light, there has been a problem that variations in the characteristics of the transistors will cause display irregularities.

The present invention relates generally to wireless computer networking techniques. In particular, the invention provides methods and systems for intrusion detection for local area networks with wireless extensions. More particularly, the invention provides methods and systems for testing connectivity of certain devices coupled to local area networks for wireless transmission. The present intrusion detection can be applied to many computer networking environments, e.g., environments based upon the IEEE 802.11 family of standards (WiFi), Ultra Wide Band (UWB), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others. Computer systems have proliferated from academic and specialized science applications to day-to-day business, commerce, information distribution and home applications. Such systems can include personal computers (PCs) to large mainframe and server class computers. Powerful mainframe and server class computers run specialized applications for banks, small and large companies, e-commerce vendors, and governments. Personal computers can be found in many offices, homes, and even local coffee shops. The computer systems located within a specific local geographic area (e.g., an office, building floor, building, home, or any other defined geographic region (indoor and/or outdoor)) are typically interconnected using a Local Area Network (LAN)(e.g., the Ethernet). The LANs, in turn, can be interconnected with each other using a Wide Area Network (WAN)(e.g., the Internet). A conventional LAN can be deployed using an Ethernet-based infrastructure comprising cables, hubs switches, and other elements. Connection ports (e.g., Ethernet ports) can be used to couple multiple computer systems to the LAN. For example, a user can connect to the LAN by physically attaching a computing device (e.g., a laptop, desktop, or handheld computer) to one of the connection ports using physical wires or cables. Other types of computer systems, such as database computers, server computers, routers, and Internet gateways, can be connected to the LAN in a similar manner. Once physically connected to the LAN, a variety of services can be accessed (e.g., file transfer, remote login, email, WWW, database access, and voice over IP). Using recent (and increasingly popular) wireless technologies, users can now be wirelessly connected to the computer network. Thus, wireless communication can provide wireless access to a LAN in the office, home, public hot-spot, and other geographical locations. The IEEE 802.11 family of standards (WiFi) is a common standard for such wireless communication. In WiFi, the 802.11b standard provides for wireless connectivity at speeds up to 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz radio frequency spectrum; the 802.11g standard provides for even faster connectivity at about 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz radio frequency spectrum; and the 802.11a standard provides for wireless connectivity at speeds up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz radio frequency spectrum. Advantageously, WiFi can facilitate a quick and effective way of providing a wireless extension to an existing LAN. To provide this wireless extension, one or more WiFi access points (APs) can connect to the connection ports either directly or through intermediate equipment, such as WiFi switch. After an AP is connected to a connection port, a user can access the LAN using a device (called a station) equipped with WiFi radio. The station can wirelessly communicate with the AP. In the past, security of the computer network has focused on controlling access to the physical space where the LAN connection ports arc located. The application of wireless communication to computer networking can introduce additional security exposure. Specifically, the radio waves that are integral to wireless communication often cannot be contained in the physical space bounded by physical structures, such as the walls of a building. Hence, wireless signals often “spill” outside the area of interest. Because of this spillage, unauthorized users, who could be using their stations in a nearby street, parking lot, or building, could wirelessly connect to the AP and thus gain access to the LAN. Consequently, providing conventional security by controlling physical access to the connection ports of the LAN would be inadequate. To prevent unauthorized access to the LAN over WiFi, the AP can employ certain techniques. For example, in accordance with 802.11, a user is currently requested to carry out an authentication handshake with the AP (or a WiFi switch that resides between the AP and the existing LAN) before being able to connect to the LAN. Examples of such handshake are Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) based shared key authentication, 802.1x based port access control, and 802.11i based authentication. The AP can provide additional security measures such as encryption and firewalls. Despite these measures, security risks still exist. For example, an unauthorized AP may connect to the LAN and then, in turn, allow unauthorized users to connect to the LAN. These unauthorized users can thereby access proprietary/trade secret information on computer systems connected to the LAN without the knowledge of the owner of the LAN. Notably, even if the owner of the LAN enforces no WiFi policy (i.e., no wireless extension of the LAN allowed at all), the threat of unauthorized APs still exists. Therefore, a need arises for a system and technique that improves security for LAN environments.

The invention disclosed herein relates generally to the distribution of additional content, such as commercials and other advertising, interspersed with a video program, e.g., television programs. More particularly, the present invention relates to the distribution of additional content interspersed with a video program within a video time shifting architecture, one embodiment of which is a network digital video recorder (NDVR) architecture. The NDVR content distribution architecture presents a fundamentally new video asset distribution paradigm that empowers consumers with greater control, choice and convenience. Advantageously, the NDVR architecture allows consumers of video content to customize their viewing experience, including the ability to pause live broadcast television, restart or rewind shows currently in progress, fast forward and rewind prerecorded programs and record multiple programs simultaneously. Furthermore, this paradigm provides new opportunities for the delivery of advertisements, such as advertisements delivered with on demand video assets, as well as playback of prerecorded programs with additional or replacement advertising through the functionality that the NDVR architecture provides. There is thus a need for novel systems and methods to capitalize upon the advertisement distribution opportunities that an NDVR content distribution architecture presents.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a paper machine mesh, in particular a forming mesh. 2. Description of the Related Art Forming meshes are used in the forming section of a paper machine. During the forming process, a fiber suspension from the headbox of the paper machine is applied to one forming mesh or to two forming meshes (in the case of gap formers). In this case, the forming mesh dewaters the fiber suspension and forms a fibrous web, wherein as little cellulose fiber and filler material as possible should be separated from the fiber suspension during the dewatering process. The quality of the formed fibrous web is co-defined in this case to a great extent by the structure of the surface of the forming mesh facing the fibrous web (paper side). In this case the forming meshes known from the prior art have a paper side which is generally formed by a linen bond. Such a linen bond often has a tendency, in particular for the production of graphic papers, to pronounced markings on the produced paper web. What is needed in the art is a paper machine mesh on which the tendency to marking is reduced compared to the paper machine meshes known from the prior art.

D-psicose, also called D-allulose, is a rare sugar isomer of fructose. It can be found in nature but at very low concentrations like in edible mushrooms, jackfruit, wheat and the Itea plants. Unlike fructose, the metabolism of psicose in humans is partly absorbed and metabolized in energy, and partly excreted unchanged in the urine and feces. The characteristics of D-psicose as a material for preventing lifestyle-related diseases have been disclosed, including its noncaloric nature, a positive effect on the reduction of the glycemic response, an antiobesity effect, and the like. In addition, the sweetness of D-psicose is about 70% of that of sucrose (Oshima, et al. (2006), Psicose contents in various food products and its origin, Food Sci Technol Res 12:137-143), but 0.3% energy of sucrose and is suggested as an ideal sucrose substitute for food products. It can also be used as an inhibitor of hepatic lipogenic enzyme and intestinal α-glycosidase for reducing body fat accumulation. It further shows important physiological functions, such as reactive oxygen species scavenging activity and a neuroprotective effect. In addition, it also improves the gelling behavior and produces good flavor during food processing. D-psicose exists in extremely small quantities in commercial carbohydrate or agricultural products and is difficult to chemically synthesize. Therefore, interconversion between D-fructose and D-psicose by epimerization using D-tagatose 3-epimerase (DTEase) family enzymes has been confused on as attractive way of D-psicose production. So far, there have been 9 kinds of DTEase family enzyme sources reported. Twenty years ago, DTEase was first characterized by Izumori et al, from Pseudomonas cichorii, showing C-3 epimerization activity of ketohexoses with the optimum substrate of D-tagatose (Izumori et al. 1993, Biosci, Biotechnol, Biochem, 57, 1037-1039). Till 2006, the second enzyme with C-3 epimerization activity of ketohexoses was identified from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and it was named D-psicose 3-epimerase (DPEase), due to its high substrate specificity for D-psicose (Kim et al. 2006, Applied and environmental microbiology 72, 981-985; US 2010/0190225; WO2011/040708). Recently, another six DTEase family enzymes were characterized from Rhodobacter sphaeroides SK011 (DTEase) (Zhang et al. 2009, Biotechnology letters 31, 857-862), Clostridium cellulolyticum H10 (DPEase) (Mu et al. 2011, Journal of agricultural and food, chemistry 59, 7785-7792, CN102373230), Ruminococcus sp. 5_1_39BFAA (DPEase) (Zhu et al, 2012, Biotechnology letters 34, 1901-1906), Clostridium bolteae ATCC BAA-613 (Jia et al. 2013, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, DOI 10.1007/s00253-013-4924-8), Clostridium scindens ATCC 35704 (Zhang et al. 2013, PLoS ONE 8, e62987), and Clostridium sp. BNL1100 (Mu et al. 2013, Biotechnology Letters, DOI 10.1007/s10529-013-1230-6), respectively. In addition, Maruta et al. disclosed a DTEase-producing source in Rhizobium (US 2011/0275138). There is only one reference to report the enzyme modification of DTEase family enzymes by protein engineering technology. Using random and site-directed mutagenesis technology, Choi et al. (2011, Applied and environmental microbiology 77, 7316-7320) constructed the I33L S213C double-site variant of A. tumefaciens DPEase, and the variant enzyme showed increases in optimal temperature, half-life, melting temperature, and catalysis efficiency, compared with the wild-type enzyme. Its optimal pH remains unchanged at 8.00. However, the enzymes have optimum pH for activity at 8.0-9.5, and the pH stability is between 8.0-10.0, which is not appropriate for industrial application. Therefore, the main concern for using psicose remains its scarcity and its production cost, and the need for improved industrial D-psicose production still exists.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sensing device, a control method thereof, and a recording medium. 2. Description of the Related Art Due to the recent proliferation of electronic devices, such as smart phones, the development of technologies relating to sensing functions/operations of a touch screen mounted in the smart phones has steadily increased. In order to input a specific command in relation to a smart phone or a touch screen, a user may input the specific command or designate a specific icon by touching with a finger or a stylus pen using an Electromagnetic Induction (EI) (hereinafter, electromagnetic induction pen) to a specific location of the touch screen. In order to utilize the stylus pen using electromagnetic induction, a loop coil is disposed in the electronic device, and a control is made such that voltage is applied to the loop coil to generate an electromagnetic field that is transferred to the electromagnetic induction pen. The electromagnetic induction pen includes a capacitor and a loop, and converts the transferred electromagnetic field into an electromagnetic field having a predetermined frequency component to be re-discharged. The discharged electromagnetic field from the electromagnetic induction pen is re-transferred to the loop coil of the circuit board, which makes it possible to determine a location where the electromagnetic induction pen closely approaches the touch screen. In conventional electromagnetic induction methods, channels for processing input and output signals have to be assigned to all loop coils included in a circuit board of an electronic device in order to apply an electromagnetic field to the electromagnetic induction pen. When a plurality of loop coils exists on the circuit board, a plurality of channels are required, which leads to an increase in the amount of calculation for processing signals from the plurality of channels. In addition, a high-performance processor may be required to process the increasing calculation, which is burdensome on firmware. Furthermore, when a touch location is determined through the electromagnetic induction methods, if the area of a display for which the touch screen is employed increases, such as an electronic bulletin board, the strength of signals decreases toward the central portion of the touch screen due to the arrangement of multiple coils, rendering it difficult to accurately determine the touch location.

This invention relates to methods and apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices, and, in particular, for depositing alloys at the bottom of high-aspect ratio contact holes. In the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), active device regions are formed in semiconductor substrates, isolated from adjacent devices. Specific electrical paths connect such active devices, using high-conductivity, thin-film structures. Such structures make contacts with active devices through openings, or contact holes, in the isolating material. Of primary concern is the formation of low-resistivity contacts, in order to ensure devices perform properly. As ICs are scaled down in size, so are the devices which make up the ICs. Increases in resistance are associated with increasing circuit density and adversely affect device performance. Ways to decrease the overall resistance of ICs, including contacts, are crucial to continued successful device performance. One way in which circuit resistance is decreased is by creating low-resistance, ohmic contacts at the device level. Ohmic contacts exhibit nearly linear current-voltage characteristics in both directions of current flow. Various factors affect the type of contact which is maintained. Increasing dopant concentration in the semiconductor contact area decreases contact resistance, up to the solubility of the dopant at the temperature at which it is introduced. Unclean semiconductor surfaces (i.e., those which contain a native oxide film) increase contact resistance. Native oxides are a problem due to silicon""s rapid oxidation rate when exposed to an oxygen ambient. The most widely used method for removal of such oxides is by dipping the wafer in a hydrofluoric acid solution. However, this does not perfect cleaning of the semiconductor substrate because some native oxide forms between the time of the hydrofluoric acid dip and the deposition of metal contacts. Sputter etching has been used in an attempt to alleviate this imperfection, but it falls short because more oxide is introduced onto the semiconductor substrate than is removed. Conventional process steps for formation of ohmic contacts to semiconductor substrates include the following: formation of heavily doped regions where contacts are to be made, etching a contact hole in the isolating oxide layer which covers the semiconductor substrate, cleaning the semiconductor surface to remove native oxide, depositing a metal film over the wafer by physical vapor deposition (PVD), and annealing to improve the metal-to-semiconductor contact. During the metal deposition step, obtaining good bottom step coverage is very important in maintaining the overall ohmic contact. High-aspect ratio (ratio of height-to-opening of a contact hole) holes make it even more difficult to achieve good bottom step coverage. Such holes are much deeper than they are wide, preventing good bottom step coverage by the conventional process steps. The type of film deposition has an effect on the resulting step coverage. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes are more likely to fill high-aspect ratio holes than physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes. However, some films cannot be deposited using CVD, due to contamination introduced by CVD processes. CVD is often accompanied by a significant amount of carbon, chlorine, oxygen, and other contaminants that are detrimental to device performance. Forming films that are free from contamination is even more important as devices decrease in size. Defects resulting from such contamination are even more dominant in thinner films, which are present in smaller devices. Different types of metal layers are used to improve ohmic contacts. The most commonly used metals are reacted with underlying silicon to form silicides. Titanium silicide is the most commonly used metal silicide due to its superior qualities, one being its ability to getter oxygen. Titanium silicide forms good ohmic contacts with both polysilicon and single-crystal silicon doped contact areas. Silicides, in general, are preferred for contact formation due to their ability to reduce native oxide remaining on semiconductor substrates. This reduction occurs because titanium reacts with native oxide to form titanium oxide and titanium silicide. The oxide layer remains on top of the silicide layer after annealing, separated from the underlying silicon. As an effect of shrinking IC devices, device source/drain junction depths become shallower. When metals are deposited and then annealed to form a silicide, silicon is consumed from the shallow source/drain regions, to react with the metal to form a silicide. When shallow source/drain regions are depleted of silicon, they are more prone to junction leakage. Thus, consumption of silicon during annealing to form silicide must be as small as possible to prevent junction leakage. In general, for a particular thickness of deposited metal, a proportional thickness of silicon substrate is consumed, depending on the stoichiometry of the silicide formed. In particular, for a given thickness of deposited titanium, the amount of silicon consumed is approximately two times as thick, to form titanium silicide (TiSi2). A primary method for depositing films by PVD is sputtering. Sputtering is a method by which atoms on a target are displaced to a desired surface, where they form a thin film. One possible solution to the problem of over consumption of silicon in shallow junctions is to use a PVD process to deposit a metal/silicon alloy, like titanium suicide. When the deposited material is an alloy, the target is generally a composite target consisting of two or more materials mechanically arranged in a selected ratio, to yield a film of the desired alloy composition. One of the major problems associated with obtaining good bottom step coverage utilizing PVD is material xe2x80x9coverhangxe2x80x9d at the xe2x80x9cshoulderxe2x80x9d (i.e., the corner of a sidewall and the top surface) of contact openings. This is a result of imperfect lines of incidence traveled by sputtered target atoms, because, in general, sputtered atoms travel following the law of cosines. Doming of the sputtered material commonly occurs in the bottom of the contact hole due to material overhang. This results in poor bottom corner step coverage, which often leads to contact failure. Even with the use of collimated sputtering, techniques of collimating the sputtering beam are not perfect to enable precision in angles of incidence on a substrate. Thus, excess sputtered metal forms at the top of the opening, such that the geometry of the metallized opening does not generally match the geometry of the underlying opening in the substrate. There is a need to maintain adequate alloy bottom step coverage of contact holes and to decrease contact area resistance to prevent device failure. There is a further need to control the composition of such alloys, without significant consumption of silicon from the bottom of the contact hole. A recess feature is defined by an upper and a lower surface. An alloy is deposited in a recess feature of a semiconductor substrate by sputtering an alloy or composite target onto the semiconductor substrate to form a layer of deposited material on the upper surface. After a period of time, a negative bias voltage is applied to the substrate, initiating a resputtering scheme, which operates simultaneously with the sputtering step. The layer of deposited material is resputtered, to redeposit the layer of deposited material onto the lower surface as a first layer of resputtered material having a different stoichiometry than that of the deposited material. The resulting recess has improved bottom step coverage, which results in improved ohmic contacts. Use of physical vapor deposition (PVD) to deposit alloys solves the problem of silicon depletion of shallow source/drain junction depths, as experienced using multiple-step, prior art techniques of siliciding source/drain regions by depositing a metal and annealing to form a silicide. In such prior art techniques, silicon is consumed from underlying source/drain regions, in a ratio of two atoms of silicon per atom of deposited titanium, to react with the deposited metal to form a silicide. Silicon is not over consumed from shallow junctions in this invention because the sputter-deposited titanium silicide already contains a significant portion of silicon. Subsequent chemical reactions, which deplete silicon in source/drain regions, are not needed to form the silicide. Furthermore, using PVD eliminates the problems associated with contamination introduced into the deposited film when using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In this invention, titanium silicide is deposited from an alloy or composite target into a high-aspect ratio contact hole. When the target material comprises titanium silicide, the ratio of silicon to titanium in the titanium silicide is approximately between 2.0:1 to 2.7:1, or another ratio, if required. Higher ratios of silicon to titanium are used when greater thermal stability is required, as when numerous subsequent heat cycles are needed to form a device. A target is used with a ratio of silicon to titanium equal to, or greater than that of any deposited or resputtered layer. However, as the desired stoichiometry of the resputtered material layers increasingly deviates from the stoichiometry of the target used, it becomes more difficult to make large stoichiometry changes between the target and resputtered layers. Therefore, a target is selected that has a stoichiometry which does not differ from that of resputtered layers to such an extent that it is impossible to obtain the desired stoichiometry in the resputtered layers. The layer of deposited material has a ratio of silicon to titanium of between approximately 1.0:1 and 2.0:1. However, a ratio of 1.8:1 provides an optimum proportion of titanium, which reduces native oxides. When using a ratio of 1.8:1, very little silicon is consumed from the underlying substrate. By depositing a titanium-rich silicide film in the bottom corners of a contact hole, native oxides are reduced during a subsequent anneal step, decreasing the resistivity of the contact. A negative-bias voltage is applied to the substrate to form this resputtered layer, through low energy resputtering, using a low, grazing angle of incidence on the side of the material overhang, within the contact hole. A low energy (low negative bias voltage) resputtering regime is defined in an area when the low energy is not larger than the lowest sputtering threshold energy of any constituent of an alloy or composite target. Typically, the threshold energy of a constituent is four times as much as its heat of sublimation. In this regime, resputtering yield increases dramatically with decreasing angle of ion incidence. A low grazing angle also increases resputtering yield. Large angle resputtering is insignificant. Small angle or grazing angle resputtering is so dominant that a significant portion of resputtered material can reach the bottom corners of the contact hole. This reduces the doming effect, which arises when sputter depositing material (even with a collimated or long throw process), using conventional PVD processes. Reducing the doming effect improves bottom step coverage by making it more uniform. Also, in this low energy, low grazing angle resputtering regime, in general, heavier elements of a sputtered species sputter at a faster rate than lighter elements. The substrate bias voltage is adjusted to achieve a desired resputtered material stoichiometry, according to the mass of the elements present in the sputtered alloy, or composite. In general, small changes (e.g. 10%) of stoichiometry are much easier to achieve using this low negative bias method. For instance, a 10% change of TiSix, x=2.0, stoichiometry gives rise to x=1.8, which is titanium-rich silicide, optimum for reducing native oxide on a silicon substrate surface. In one embodiment of the invention, a collimated PVD setup is used to obtain a low grazing angle during resputtering. In a second embodiment of the invention, a long-throw process is used to obtain a low, grazing angle during resputtering. A long-throw process utilizes a non-collimated PVD apparatus. During a long-throw process, spacing between a target and substrate is so large that only a portion of target material, having a small trajectory angle, with respect to the normal direction of the target, can reach the bottom of a contact hole. Note that in the case of resputtering material overhang, the normal direction of the target (material overhang) is measured, extending radially into the contact hole, in the plane of the substrate. The resulting material deposition rate and bottom step coverage are improved using this embodiment, due to the low energy and low angle mechanisms described previously. In a further embodiment of the invention, a sputtering chamber ambient atmosphere comprises argon and a nitrogen concentration of between approximately 0.1 to 3.0 percent by volume. Furthermore, in yet another embodiment of the invention, the resputtering step is followed by resputtering of at least one layer of material with a different stoichiometry than that of the first resputtered material layer, to form a xe2x80x9cgradedxe2x80x9d stoichiometry of material deposited in the contact hole. Using a nitrogen ambient increases the ion-to-neutral ratio, which increases the resputtering rate. Therefore, the resulting material deposition rate and bottom step coverage are improved using this embodiment.

Unless otherwise expressly indicated herein, none of the material presented in this section is prior art to the claims of this application and is not admitted to be prior art by having been included herein. In a refrigeration system, an evaporator may draw heat to heat a refrigerant and produce a first vapor. The first vapor may be condensed on an absorbent in an absorbing chamber to produce a solution. A generator chamber may receive and heat the solution to produce a second vapor. A condenser chamber may receive and condense the second vapor to reproduce the refrigerant.

A common practice in steel mills is the reheating of slabs or billets in furnaces wherein temperatures exceed 2,000.degree. F. These slabs or billets move along raised rail-like extensions of hollow pipe members. Cooling water is circulated through the pipes to prevent fusing of the slab material and the rail-like extension. The cooling pipes are commonly sheathed with refractory material to prevent cooling the entire furnace below efficient operating levels. The refractory material used to sheath the cooling pipes must be extremely durable to withstand an intense heating environment. Massive slabs moving along the protruding rails cause vibration which can induce deterioration of the refractory material. Thus, the combination of alternating steep thermal gradients accompanied by intense vibrations requires a very stable sheathing. In the past, securing means such as lugs and tabs welded to the cooling members have been necessary to enable the refractory material to withstand the vibration induced trauma. However, the repair or replacement of the refractory material requires a labor-intensive time consuming process. The old material had to be removed as well as hot-rodding off the old stainless steel welds. Then new pieces must be tied in place and welded. Finally, masons must plaster over the welds to protect from heat and increase the useful life of the welds. There have been some improvements reducing the amount of labor in applying refractory material. One such improvement is a refractory tile of a C-shaped block with a hollow side to engage the cooling member. This block has an upper end engaging over the cooling member with a lower end that swings under gravity and engages underneath the member with a complimentary tile. Problems with this design still persist in that refractory mortar must be used in the gaps between the skid rail and the upper end of the refractory tile. This requires that the slab be removed from the furnace anytime repairs or replacements are attempted. The two piece design engaging beneath the support member is prone to separation caused by intense vibration. The introduction of slag between the engaging tiles will facilitate such separation and all thermal advantages will be lost. The block is not economically feasible because the heat loss is less expensive than the cost of production and for this reason is not extensively used. The present invention provides a refractory tile that can be introduced or repaired on a cooling member without the removal of the slab. This is an extreme advantage in the amount of energy that is likely to be needed to bring the slab and furnace up to rolling temperature. The repair time will be reduced resulting in less down time of operations.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a window or windshield washer for supplying a washing liquid to the windshield member of a light vehicle such as a motorcycle or a tricycle. 2. Description of Relevant Art In a light vehicle such as a motorcycle having a windshield provided with a windshield washer, when a washing liquid is supplied over the front surface of the windshield from a nozzle disposed in front of the lower part of the windshield, the driver is likely to be splashed with the washing liquid carried by wind, particularly during travel, since the drops of the washing liquid are jetted out upwardly from a nozzle spaced from the front surface of the windshield. The present invention effectively overcomes such undesirable condition.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a functional product, particularly to a functional product excellent in durability and appearance. 2. Discussion of Background Conventionally, a Low-E glass (low emissivity glass), or a heat ray shielding glass (normally called a heat ray reflecting glass) wherein a multi-layer film is formed on a glass substrate having a large area by the magnetron sputtering method, has been employed. Since the glass employed in construction is excellent in energy conservation effect and design performance, it has considerably been prevailing in recent years. The Low-E glass made by a sputtering method, is normally composed of three layers of an oxide film/a silver film/an oxide film. Since this type of Low-E glass employing silver, has a problem in durability, it cannot be employed in a single plate glass, and is used in a form of double glazing or laminated glass. For a windshield glass and a rear glass of an automobile, a low emissivity glass coated with a three-layer film composed of zinc oxide film/silver film/zinc oxide film made by a sputtering method on the side of a surface thereof for adhesion to form a laminated glass, is reduced into practice. The heat ray shielding glass is produced by a continuous production line including steps of cleaning the substrate, sputtering for film formation and post-cleaning. In recent years, mounting of the substrate on the line and withdrawal of the product from the line tend to be automated. However, the Low-E glass employing silver is poor in the scratch resistance of the film, and a due care is required in its handling until it is assembled into a double glazing or laminated glass. Therefore, it has been difficult to automate its production. Specifically, in a usual automatic production, a resin powder is usually sprayed between the glass products to avoid adhesion of the glass products to each other at the time of withdrawal of the glass products. However, in the case of the Low-E glass employing silver, the film surface is likely to be scratched by this powder, since the scratch resistance of the film is poor. Accordingly, with the Low-E glass, it has been difficult to automate the withdrawal of the glass products, and such withdrawal has been manually carried out, and it has been common to insert paper or the like instead of the powder between the glass products. Therefore, it has been difficult to shorten the production time, and the production cost has been substantial. It is an object of the present invention to solve such problems and to provide a Low-E glass employing silver, whereby the scratch resistance of the film surface is improved, and withdrawal of the glass products can be automated.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for blind channel estimation for phase shift keying (PSK) and differential PSK (D-PSK) modulated multicarrier communication systems. 2. Background Art The need for high speed robust communications systems has grown dramatically in recent years. Such a demand has been fueled by the need to support various communications market segments, e.g., ever increasing numbers of voice calls, higher information transfer rates, and better connectivity to the Internet. Both consumer and business market segments have witnessed unparalleled increases in growth, and such growth is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future. In theory, communications systems could accommodate the demand for increased data throughput by securing additional bandwidth for communication. However, bandwidth is a limited resource and in most cases is limited by regulation. Accordingly, communication system designers have sought to extract greater data throughput from existing bandwidth, either by using more efficient modulation schemes, or by overcoming practical limitations posed by the communications environment, e.g. the communications channel. One difficulty with many communications systems is that the communications channel itself introduces amplitude and phase distortion into the transmitted signal. In order to improve the performance of a given communications system, it is necessary to remove the amplitude and phase distortion introduced by the communications channel. Accordingly, in order to remove the deleterious effects of the channel distortion, it is necessary to develop an estimate of the amplitude and phase distortion components introduced by the communications channel. Such an estimation process is called channel estimation. Typically, channel estimation is performed using one of a variety of methods. While there are many differences between the various channel estimation methods available, many of these differences can be reduced to the fundamental tradeoff made between the complexity of the method and the performance of that method. Conceptually, outstanding channel estimation performance can be achieved, albeit at the expense of inordinately complex methods. In some cases, the complexity of such methods may be such that those methods cannot be reasonably implemented in practical communications systems. In one traditional approach, known pilot symbols are transmitted such that the communications channel can be calibrated by the receiver. Pilot symbols are reference symbols that are known a priori by both the transmitter and the receiver such that a calibration process may be implemented. Upon receipt of the transmitted pilot symbols, this channel estimation algorithm analyses the received pilot symbols in order to generate an estimate of the distortion introduced by the communications channel. An alternative channel estimation approach does not rely on the transmission of pilot symbols that are known a priori, but instead relies on certain known properties of the regular data signals transmitted by the communications system transmitter. For example, modulation schemes that use phase shift keying (PSK) techniques rely on changes in phase of the signal carrier to capture the information required to be communicated. Accordingly, since the amplitude of the PSK-modulated signal is unaltered, the transmitted signal maintains a predictably fixed energy level. As such, channel estimation algorithms can be designed to capitalize on such known properties of the transmitted signal; in the case of PSK modulation communication systems, those known properties are the discrete signal phases and uniform signal amplitude. Channel estimation techniques that do not use pilot symbols in the channel estimation process but rely on known properties of the transmitted data signal are often referred to as “blind” channel estimation techniques. Most existing blind channel estimation methods are based on second or higher order statistics, or the maximum likelihood (ML) principle. Selected references from the literature are listed as follows: B. Muquet and M. de Courville, “Blind and semi-blind channel identification methods using second order statistics for OFDM systems,” Proceeding of IEEE ICASSP 1999, vol. 5, pp. 2745-2748; C. Li and S. Roy, “Subspace-based blind channel estimation for OFDM by exploiting virtual carriers,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, January 2003, pp. 141-150; N. Chotikakamthorn and H. Suzuki, “On indentifiability of OFDM blind channel estimation,” Proceeding of VTC 1999-Fall, Amsterdam, Netherlands, vol. 4, September 1999, pp. 2358-2361. A major drawback of these methods is the huge computational complexity and requirement of a large amount of received data, which make these methods not suitable to be implemented in practical systems. Such difficulties are exacerbated when the communications channel varies rapidly over time, since the amount of received data subject to similar channel conditions is very limited, and may not be sufficient to support a conventional blind channel estimation method. What is needed is a blind channel estimation technique that provides a better trade-off between complexity and performance such that a practical implementation can be achieved, especially in the circumstances of a time-varying communication channel.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to stringed musical instruments, and, more particularly, to stringed musical instruments comprised of discrete detachably connected components, such design facilitating easy substitution of individual components in the event of defect, allowing selective "instant" alteration of the musical quality of a given component instrument, and generally permitting easier manufacture of stringed musical instruments. 2. Description of the Prior Art In recent years, electronically amplified music has become quite popular, with a diverse range of musical compositions being played by musicians using "electric" instruments. Perhaps the most significant instrument in the presentation of such music is the electric guitar. A standard composition for example, require a bass electric guitar, as well as a standard range electric guitar, playing together or separately at any one time. Since these guitars are such major factors in modern popular music, it is not uncommon to see a musical group performing where a guitarist will have one guitar which he is playing and other guitars at the ready as spares or for any specialized needs of the musical program. The use of a number of instruments to satisfy the demands of a given program, however, is not without problems. For instance, electric guitars are very expensive pieces of equipment, and, while a successful musician may be able to afford the outlay required in order to have the full complement of guitars that he may need or desire, the average amateur or young "up-and-coming" professional may be hard-put to maintain a full complement of instruments for his every need or desire. Furthermore, even for the musician who can afford to own many guitars and is willing to maintain more than one instrument, he then must face the burden of transporting many bulky, delicate instruments to each of his playing engagements. Another problem associated with the use of conventionally constructed musical instruments is the inability to deal separately with defects or malfunctions which are confined to only one part or area of the instrument. For example, in common useage, a stringed musical instrument, and, more particularly, an electric guitar, will include a neck section, a center section, a body section, at least one pick-up, and a control panel. Such an instrument is assembled and wired as an integral unit. Consequently, a typical instrument, when damaged, is out of service for as long as repair will require. This out-of-service period can run from minutes to days to weeks, according to the availability of spare parts and repair services and the severity of the malfunction. When an instrument is owned to serve a specific need, however, any time that the instrument is out of service is too long. Moreover, the manufacturing and assembling process also depends on uniformity of quality with respect to all sections of the instrument. Since the manufacture of stringed musical instruments is time-consuming and requires great skill and patience, as well as expensive materials, a fixed (i.e., integral) instrument is only as good as the combined quality of all of its elements. Thus, for example, a guitar with an excellent body section, center section, pick-up, and control panel will still be defective if its neck section is poorly made. The rectification of such defect--if rectification is possible--results in a great loss in time and money. While engineers and manufacturers have sought to obviate this problem, it still is a noted source in the industry of production losses to date. Attempts have been made in the past to improve the design or manufacture of stringed musical instruments. For example, Maccaferri U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,556 teaches an adjustable method of mounting a neck to the body of a guitar. This method provides for secure attachment for a light weight neck to the frame of an instrument which can withstand the stresses of string tension present at the junction of the two elements. Wright U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,408 relates to a body for an electric guitar where pockets are provided for attachment of a guitar neck, a bridge and a tailpiece. Provision is also made for selective mounting of pick-ups and control elements. Copeland U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,151 teaches a collapsible stringed musical instrument which includes a rigid body section and a collapsible body section. Burke U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,007 discloses a guitar which may be sold in disassembled form, the invention providing for relatively permanent attachment of the elements of the instrument at some later point as desired. The problem with the foregoing patents, as representative of the existing art in the field, is that an instrumentalist cannot choose to attach different pick-ups or control modules during a performance and immediately effect a replacement therefor with but a momentary interruption of the musical program. Another problem is that none of these designs provides for the easy replacement of the neck or body section of the instrument with other components of different playing characteristics. This ready changeability would be a great benefit to the instrumentalist because he could adapt his instrument to a given moment's needs, or could replace a defective element, with little or no inconvenience. Considering the foregoing shortcomings, any improvement which can permit the "saving" of the serviceable portions of a defective instrument with a consequent limitation of the restrictions resulting from a defect, whether the defect is noticed during production or at the point of sale, will be heartily welcomed. Similarly, discrete availability of parts and sections of an instrument could facilitate the use of instruments by younger players, and can also promote more versatile playing by experienced musicians.

This invention relates to the field of medical fluid collection devices for receiving fluids from patients and particularly to those devices having removable and/or disposable liners (line-in-canister devices). Medical fluid collection devices are used for suctioning wounds or abscesses or during surgery areas filling with blood or other fluids or for the collection of blood from donors. There are three types of liner-in-canister suction devices. One, devices in which there is no communication between the inside of the liner and the void space between the outside of the liner and the inside of the canister housing. In these devices vacuum drawn on the void space (as by a hospital's vacuum system) causes the liner to expand. The resulting reduced pressure in the liner draws the fluid to be suctioned into the liner. Neither air nor liquid pulled into the liner will enter the void space or the hospital's vacuum system unless the liner fails. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,597,715, 2,999,500, and 3,032,037. Two, devices in which there is extensive communication between the liner and the void space so that the pressure is the same in both (excluding hydrostatic pressure of any liquid in the liner). With this type of unit, air is constantly drawn out of the liner when vacuum is applied and unless an internal safety device is provided, liquid can easily overflow the liner into the void space and may be drawn into the hospital's vacuum system. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,709. Three, suction devices in which there is limited communication between the void space and the liner. These devices have small openings in the liner and in some cases the openings have flow retarders to make the pressure in the liner higher than that in the void only when vacuum is first applied so that the liner will expand, after which the pressures equalize. See. e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,556,101, 3,680,560, and 3,848,628. A problem with the devices of the first type (no communication) is that if air is sucked into the liner (as when used with an open wound), it cannot escape. A problem with the devices of the second and third types (full- and limited-communication, respectively) is that air normally contacts the fluid collected in the liner and, thus, aseptic and/or air-free collection of fluid is impossible. A further problem with some of the devices of the third type (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,560) is that certain operating upsets (for instance, blockage of the patient or vacuum source tube) tend to make the liner collapse. Such collapse makes it difficult to tell how much liquid has been suctioned into the liner because the walls of the liner are not in their normal position adjacent the walls of the canister, which often has volumetric markings.

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/882,211, filed on Jul. 31, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,733,280, which is a Continuation of International Application Number PCT/US2006/004779, filed on Feb. 13, 2006, which claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/651,627, filed on Feb. 11, 2005, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The present invention relates generally to computer-implemented trapping processes and, more particularly, to the specification of device independent trap colors. As the availability, affordability, and use of publishing systems increase, techniques for preparing and reproducing pages on a variety of output devices have been developed. Output devices may include image setters, printers, monitors, and digital printing presses. A page may include various types of objects such as text, line art, and images, and its appearance is generally described by page description language (PDL) instructions. PDL instructions are executed by an output device to generate physical output having the desired appearance. A color page additionally includes information about the colors used in the page. Colors are described in accordance with a “color space,” which defines a data representation in terms of basic color components. The CMYK color space has four components (cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and key (K) or black) and represents the color to be applied at a particular location on the page as a combination of four values: one representing the amount of cyan; one representing the amount of magenta; one representing the amount of yellow; and one representing the amount of black. In contrast, the CIELAB (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) color space represents color as a combination of three values: one representing luminosity (L); and two (A and B) which, in combination, represent chromaticity. Luminosity refers to the overall brightness of a color. Chromaticity refers to the quality of a color characterized by its dominant and complementary wavelength and purity taken together. These color data representations are used to create color separations which, in turn, are used by output devices to generate a color output page. Generally, one separation is created for each color component in the device's color space. For example, the PDL representation of a page to be output by an image setter using the CMYK color space is used to create four color separations, one for each color component cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Each separation indicates where on the page the corresponding ink should be applied. The same color data representation, if output on an image setter using an RGB (red-green-blue) color system, is used to create color separations for red, green, and blue inks. Misalignment, also referred to as misregistration, of separations can cause unintentional gaps or overlaps in the generated output page where regions containing different colors abut. To minimize the effects of misalignment, a trapping technique can be applied to PDL representation to adjust the shapes of abutting color regions. Trapping is used to spread (expand) some separation color regions to prevent gaps, or choke (contract) separation color regions to prevent overlaps. The adjusted areas into which inks will be spread, or from which inks will be choked, are referred to as “trap regions.” Each trap region includes a trap color defining a color for the trap region. Because trapping involves adjusting the shape of separation regions, and separations correspond to an output device's specific ink color, trapping has traditionally been a device dependent operation. Accordingly, the trapping process is typically forced into the later stages of print production where performance bottlenecks can become a problem. For instance, trapping is often performed in an output device's raster image processor which can have limited amounts of memory and, thus, can significantly slow output production. In addition, because each output device can implement its color components in a unique fashion, specification of trap colors at the time of output generation can result in a single page description looking distinctively different from output device to output device.

1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to an electronic reading device, especially to an electronic book with an illumination device attached. 2. Description of Related Art In recent years, electronic books have become more and more popular. An electronic book usually adopts an e-paper screen to display contents, but does not include backlighting lamps. The e-paper screen shows the contents by reflecting ambient light, thereby the information shown by the e-paper screen is often imperceptible in low ambient light or in darkness. Thus, users cannot use the electronic book in low ambient light or in darkness.

(1) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an aerosol dip tube for conveying the contents of an aerosol container to a valve mechanism provided on the aerosol container. (2) Description of Related Art An aerosol dip tube is provided in an aerosol container with one end portion thereof connected to a valve mechanism. The dip tube conveys the contents of the container to the valve mechanism so that it can be sprayed as an aerosol. Such dip tubes include those made from relatively rigid resins which can hardly be bent and those made from soft and elastic resins which can easily be bent. If a dip tube made from a rigid resin is used in an aerosol container, the dip tube cannot follow the aerosol content, which moves when the aerosol container is slanted or inverted, because the container is not designed to be used in such slanted or inverted state. Accordingly, such an aerosol container suffers because some of the aerosol content remains unused while only the propellant gas is exhausted. Therefore, although some of the aerosol content may still remain in the container, it is impossible to spray it. Dip tubes made from bendable, soft and elastic materials are being explored to solve the problems described above. A dip tube made from such a soft and elastic material is designed to follow the aerosol content as the aerosol container is slanted, and is therefore constantly brought into contact with the aerosol content within the aerosol container. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Sho 62-118552, a thick weight is fixed to the free end portion of a dip tube made from a soft and elastic material. According to this arrangement, the dip tube bends because of the weight as the aerosol container is slanted. This allows the free end portion of the dip tube to move such that it can constantly be brought into contact with the aerosol content. Thus, the aerosol content in the container may be assuredly consumed. Another dip tube with a similar objective is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 56-39578. According to this device, a holding frame is attached to a free end of a dip tube made from a soft and elastic material. A thick weight is embedded in this holding frame. This arrangement enables the dip tube to bend as the aerosol container is slanted and moves the free end portion of the dip tube into constant contact with the aerosol content. Another dip tube is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Sho 55-13626. A thick weight is attached to the free end portion of a soft and elastic dip tube. The weight is covered on its circumference thereof with a shock absorbing material. However, in a dip tube having a thick weight fixed at the free end portion thereof, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Sho 62-118552, the free end of the dip tube cannot reach nooks at the bottom of the aerosol container because the weight strikes the side of the aerosol container. This causes the contents of the aerosol container to remain not fully used. In addition, in the dip tube having a weight fixed at the free end portion thereof, the weight hits the inner surface of the aerosol container when the weight moves as the aerosol container is slanted. This may damage a coating etc. applied on the inner surface of the aerosol container. If the aerosol content is corrosive, for example, the aerosol container could corrode due to this damage. This could cause the properties of the aerosol content to change or cause accidents such as gas leakage due to the damage to the aerosol container. Japanese Utility Mode Publication No. Sho 56-39578 discloses a dip tube having a free end to which a holding frame made from a soft and elastic material is attached. A thick weight is embedded in this holding frame. This arrangement has disadvantages because the structure of the tube is relatively complicated. This complicates manufacture of the dip tube and raises the production costs. Further, the weight provided at the free end portion of the dip tube strikes the side of the aerosol container, thereby preventing the free end of the dip tube from assuredly reaching the nooks at the bottom of the aerosol container and causing the contents to be not fully used. In the dip tube disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Sho 55-13626, the outer periphery of a thick weight is attached to the free end of a dip tube and is covered with a shock absorbing material. Therefore, the inner surface of the aerosol container is not damaged, but other previously mentioned disadvantages, such as the complicated structure of the dip tube increasing the production unit cost, or the content of the aerosol remaining not fully used, are not completely avoided.

The following description relates to a memory device having an array portion as well as a peripheral portion. Moreover, the description refers to a method of forming such a memory device. Among the memory devices non-volatile memory devices, such as for example, memory devices employing memory cells, which are based on the floating-gate technology, have gained increased importance during the last years. As a general aim which is followed with regard to any type of memory device, it is intended to further reduce the size of the memory devices. As a result, a higher packaging density and, a reduced memory device size can be obtained. The efforts to further reduce the size of a memory device are, for example, focused on further reducing the size of the individual memory cells. Nevertheless, the reduction of size is limited amongst others by requirements of the space needed for wiring, for providing contacts to wiring layers and for providing an appropriate metallization layer. Accordingly, concepts are needed by which the space needed for wiring can be reduced without increasing the process complexity.

This invention relates to toy gliders, and more specifically to reconfigurable toy gliders that may be transformed into a variety of configurations, such as shown in my co-pending applications Ser. No. 331,774 entitled RECONFIGURABLE ANIMAL FIGURE TOY GLIDER, Ser. No. 512,769 entitled RECONFIGURABLE TOY GLIDER, and other co-pending applications; TOY FOAM PLASTIC GLIDER WITH FLEXIBLE APPENDAGES and TOY FOAM PLASTIC GLIDER WITH DETACHABLE PYLON WINGS. A primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a toy glider that is reconfigurable into various types of wings and thereby provide enhanced play value for a toy glider. The invention expands a limited-use glider into a reconfigurable glider that may be used in play that extends to the limits of a child's imagination.

The Autobag Patents disclose a packaging technique in which a chain of interconnected open plastic bags are used. In the earliest commercial form a roll of these bags was mounted on a mandrel and the mandrel was positioned in a box. A blower was connected to the box. Bags were dispensed by feeding them closed end first, out of a slot in the box. Air from the blower exiting through the same slot would inflate each bag as it came out of the box. A product was manually inserted into the inflated bag and the bag was separated from the chain. The loaded and separated bag was then usually closed and heat sealed. The boxes used in the described earliest commercial form were disposable shipping containers that also served as dispensing containers. As a next step in the evolution of equipment for effecting packaging with a chain of open bags on a roll, manually controlled dispensing machines were developed. Each machine was adapted to receive a coil of interconnected open bags. The bags were fed through a dispensing opening in the machine and then vertically downwardly along a path of travel. In a typical operation, after a bag had been blown open an operator would manually insert a product. The operator would then manually separate the loaded bag from the chain of bags and insert its open end into a heat sealer. Concurrently with the separation of the loaded bag the operator would feed the chain of bags to bring the next succeeding bag into the loading station. More sophisticated automatic equipment has been developed for loading and sealing chains of open bags on a roll. An example of such equipment is that disclosed and claimed in the H-100 Patents. With that equipment, bags are automatically fed to a loading station. In addition, they are automatically sealed and separated from the chain after products have been loaded. The H-100 machines, like earlier machines until the invention of the Wig Wag Patent was made, used bags on a roll. Manufacture of rolls of open bags has presented a problem. When the bags are used it is necessary to feed the bags closed end first. This has meant that as the bags have been wound into a coil they have been fed onto the coil being formed open end first. The bags must be fed quite slowly during a winding operation to avoid blowing the bags open excessively and tearing the web. In order to achieve reasonable and efficient production speeds, bags have been fed closed end first during manufacture and coiled. Thereafter a "rewind" operation is performed at slow speeds to provide a finished coil from which bags are fed closed end first. The Wig Wag Patent discloses a system by which bags were fed closed end first into a dispensing box and then dispensed on a first in first out basis. To accomplish this, bags were arranged in a plicated array of horizontal layers. While this system has enjoyed some success, especially with relatively large bags, rewinding has continued to be used for most applications of Autobag products. While rewinding is expensive, in terms of overall efficiency it has prooved to be more efficient than the approach of the "Wig Wag" Patent for many applications because forming a plicated array in accordance with the teaching of that patent--slows the overall bag formation operation.

In lithographic semiconductor device fabrication processes, it is imperative that a stepper precisely focus an image of a reticle on a semiconductor substrate or wafer. Where the image of the reticle is out of focus, a state also known as defocus, the structures of the resulting semiconductor device may be of the incorrect size and form. For example, the edges of the resulting structures may be relatively diffuse and indistinct, having rounded or undercut surfaces in lieu of a more desired, often rectilinear geometry. This state of defocus often leads to poor function and/or inoperability in the semiconductor device in question. Measurement of defocus is therefore an important means for allowing semiconductor device manufacturers to ensure that a stepper consistently focuses a reticle image on a wafer, thereby enabling larger and more profitable yields from the manufacturing process. Another problem common to the formation of semiconductor devices is that of exposure defects. Where the exposure of a photo resist layer to light falls outside a range of acceptable light dosages, the features that are to be formed on the semiconductor substrate may be formed incorrectly. Accordingly, it is also important to identify exposure defects where they exist. In addition to inspecting a substrate or wafer for exposure or defocus defects, it is important to inspect substrates and wafers for process or material related defects commonly referred to as “macro” defects. Macro defects are often defined as chips, cracks, scratches, pits, delaminations, and/or particles that appear on a substrate that have a dimension of about 0.5 u to 10 u in size. Such defects can easily cause a failure in a semiconductor device and can significantly reduce the yield of a manufacturer of such devices. Note that the sizes of macro defects may depart up or down from the size range stated above, which merely defines a nominal size of such defects. Traditionally, macro defects have been inspected using dedicated inspection systems that have not been able to readily or reliably identify the presence of exposure or defocus defects. Exposure and defocus defects are usually identified using optical critical dimension (OCD) techniques on any of a number of precision metrology tools such as ellipsometers, reflectometers and scatterometers. It would be desirable to combine the functions of identifying the presence of exposure and defocus defects with inspection of substrates for macro defects wherein the same optical system is used for both functions.

Conventionally, in a suspension unit for a vehicle, an achievement of a target suspension performance is intended by setting a kingpin axis. For example, in a technique described in Patent Document 1, links of the suspension unit are arranged to suppress a vehicular forward-or-backward movement of upper and lower pivot points constituting the kingpin at a time of a steering of the vehicle to improve maneuverability and stability.

Heretofore, different types of sockets have been utilized to accept light bulbs with a single terminal as opposed to light bulbs having two terminals in the base. In accordance with the present invention, a single socket is constructed to receive and support both single and double terminal light bulbs.

Packerhead machines for making concrete pipes are disclosed by Gourlie et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,175 and Fosse et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,551,968. These machines use outer forms and pallets in conjunction with packerheads to make concrete pipes. The packerheads are rotatably mounted on upright shafts and move upwardly in outer forms or jackets to make cylindrical concrete walls. The jackets containing the concrete pipes are transported to a curing area where the jackets are stripped from the pipes. The pipes are cured on pallets. The jackets are elongated cylindrical walls that are held in a closed position with releasable latch structures. Some jackets are three-piece arcuate segment construction as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,015,001. Separate lock structure is used to hold the pallets in assembled relation with the bottom ends of the jackets.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to an electronic device, such as a cellular phone, and an expansion unit, such as a card type of modem, that can be plugged into the cellular phone, and more specifically to an electronic device and an expansion unit which increase the efficiency in supply of electric power from the electronic device to the expansion unit and thus significantly reduce the power dissipation of the electronic device. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there have been significant advances in information processing and communications technologies. In addition, there have also been marked improvements in techniques to manufacture precision parts, typically semiconductor integrated circuits. Based on these technical advances and improvements, various battery-powered electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), that have radio communications functions built in have recently been developed. Most of such electronic devices are equipped with an expansion slot in order to meet the needs of users. That is, by allowing each user to plug one of various expansion units into the slot according to his or her requirements, the devices are enabled to have only basic functions built in. This allows the electronic devices to be reduced in size and weight. The expansion unit operates from electric power supplied from the electronic device into which it is plugged. On the other hand, the electronic device is configured to apply electric power to the expansion unit only when its main power supply is turned on. The expansion unit can operate by itself on power supplied from the electronic device. Even in employing only the function that the expansion unit provides, the user is required to turn on the main power supply of the electronic device. In other words, the supply of power to the expansion unit results in the supply of power to the entire electronic device and consequently in wasteful power discharge of the battery.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to air conditioners, and more particularly, to device and method for controlling air cleaning operation of an air conditioner, in which a flow rate of air passing through an air cleaner in the air conditioner and a time period thereof are varied, for removing polluted air. 2. Background of the Related Art The air conditioner maintains room air in a condition most suitable to use and purpose of the air by using a property of refrigerant in which the refrigerant discharges/absorbs heat to/from an environment when a phase of the refrigerant changes. For an example, the room is conditioned in a cool state in summer, and in a warm state in winter. In the meantime, recently as interest in environmental pollution becomes higher, there have been many researches not only on air pollution, but also on pollution of room air in which people have activity for a long time. In causes of the room air pollution, there can be pollution coming from pollution around the building, and coming from pollutant produced in the room. The air pollution is mostly caused by smoke, fuel gases for heating, and waste gases from factories, power plants, and the like. On the other hand, the causes of production of pollutant in the room are carbon dioxide, water vapor, and smell from people active in the room, pollution from smoking, dust from different works done in the room, and combustion gas or water vapor from different combustion devices. Other than above causes, the yellow sand frequently occurred in dry seasons, and the enormous pollen flying in spring also pollute air, which cause allergy to a human body, directly. In the meantime, by the researches, it is known that the polluted air, bad smell, and cigarette smoke in an enclose space, a car, or a building, not only harm human body, but also drop working efficiency and productivity, to cause direct or indirect social cost. Therefore, it becomes very important that comfortable and fresh is supplied to the room for improving working efficiency and preventing accident caused by negligence of safety. According to this, it is required to provide an air cleaner to the room for supplying cleaned air. However, a related art air conditioner is not provided with the air cleaner, it is required to provide the air cleaner, additionally. Moreover, since a related art air cleaner deals with various pollution sources that pollute the room air uniformly, effective cleaning of room air polluted with different pollution sources has not been possible, and energy is wasted more than necessary.

The present invention relates to a new and distinctive soybean variety designated XB22T13, which has been the result of years of careful breeding and selection in a comprehensive soybean breeding program. There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable soybean variety. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The breeder's goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include, but are not limited to: higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and/or insects, tolerance to drought and/or heat, altered fatty acid profile(s), abiotic stress tolerance, improvements in compositional traits, and better agronomic characteristics. These product development processes, which lead to the final step of marketing and distribution, can take from six to twelve years from the time the first cross is made until the finished seed is delivered to the farmer for planting. Therefore, development of new varieties is a time-consuming process that requires precise planning, efficient use of resources, and a minimum of changes in direction. Soybean (Glycine max) is an important and valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of soybean breeders is to develop stable, high yielding soybean varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties. The soybean is the world's leading source of vegetable oil and protein meal. The oil extracted from soybeans is used for cooking oil, margarine, and salad dressings. Soybean oil is composed of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. It has a typical composition of 11% palmitic, 4% stearic, 25% oleic, 50% linoleic, and 9% linolenic fatty acid content (“Economic Implications of Modified Soybean Traits Summary Report”, Iowa Soybean Promotion Board & American Soybean Association Special Report 92S, May 1990). Changes in fatty acid composition for improved oxidative stability and nutrition are also important traits. Industrial uses for processed soybean oil include ingredients for paints, plastics, fibers, detergents, cosmetics, and lubricants. Soybean oil may be split, inter-esterified, sulfurized, epoxidized, polymerized, ethoxylated, or cleaved. Designing and producing soybean oil derivatives with improved functionality, oliochemistry, is a rapidly growing field. The typical mixture of triglycerides is usually split and separated into pure fatty acids, which are then combined with petroleum-derived alcohols or acids, nitrogen, sulfonates, chlorine, or with fatty alcohols derived from fats and oils. Soybean is also used as a food source for both animals and humans. Soybean is widely used as a source of protein for animal feeds for poultry, swine, and cattle. During processing of whole soybeans, the fibrous hull is removed and the oil is extracted. The remaining soybean meal is a combination of carbohydrates and approximately 50% protein. For human consumption soybean meal is made into soybean flour which is processed to protein concentrates used for meat extenders or specialty pet foods. Production of edible protein ingredients from soybean offers a healthy, less expensive replacement for animal protein in meats and dairy products.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an opening and closing apparatus, particularly an upper unit case opening and closing apparatus, in which an upper unit case is opened and closed with respect to a lower unit case. 2. Description of the Related Art An upper unit case opening and closing apparatus, in which an upper unit case is connected to a lower unit case via a gas spring, and a coil spring is attached to an inner surface of the upper unit case, is known. In the upper unit case opening and closing apparatus, when the upper unit case is closed, an end of the coil spring is supported on the lower unit case and the upper unit case is prevented from closing suddenly toward the lower unit case. In the upper unit case opening and closing apparatus, a large number of components and large-sized components such as a gas spring are needed. Thus, a configuration of the apparatus may be more complicated and a size of the apparatus may be larger.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to materials used for separating and concentrating solutes and, more particularly, to micellar materials for used for carrying out separating and concentrating functions. 2. Description of the Prior Art One approach to the separation and concentration of solutes from solvents involves the employment of surfactants. Surfactants are two-part molecules with one part hydrophilic (the xe2x80x9cheadxe2x80x9d, often charged) and the other part hydrophobic (the xe2x80x9ctailxe2x80x9d, typically a hydrocarbon). In aqueous solution, surfactants aggregate into structures called micelles wherein the hydrophobic tails cluster together, and expose only their hydrophilic heads to the aqueous solution. These micelles are comprised of approximately 100 individual surfactant molecules that form a dynamic micellar aggregate with a typical diameter of 5 nm. The micelles are often colloidal in nature. Oily or hydrophobic materials are readily solubilized in the hydrophobic core of the-surfactant micelles. The hydrophobic core provides an energetically favorable environment for solubilizing the oily molecules. In contrast, the hydrophilic head, water, and other polar solvents have unfavorable interaction energies with hydrophobic materials. Since the micelle is not a covalently bonded structure, the individual molecules are free to move, so that large quantities of hydrophobic solutes (with substantially no size restrictions on the individual solutes) can be accommodated by the hydrophobic core. Some of the difficulties presented by surfactant micelles are their small size (5 nm) and their dynamic character. Due to their extremely small size and their colloidal nature, the micelles and material solubilized therein cannot be removed easily from solution by sedimentation, filtration, or any other comparable physical separation methods. In view of the problems associated with the small size of surfactant micelles, it would be desirable if a micellar material were provided that has macroscopic dimensions. Their dynamic character also presents problems. The stability (and solubilization capacity) of a surfactant aggregate is highly sensitive to its chemical and physical environment. Slight changes in temperature, salt concentration, or solvent composition can instantly dissolve the aggregates and release their solubilized material. Despite these limitations, the surfactant industry is still a multi-billion dollar/year industry. In view of the problems associated with the dynamic character of surfactant micelles, it would be desirable if a micellar material were provided that has stable micellar properties even when experiencing from slight to substantial changes in its chemical and physical environment. Although not xe2x80x9cprior artxe2x80x9d in the present case, the present inventor is the author of the published article entitled xe2x80x9cPolymerization of Rodlike Micellesxe2x80x9d, published in Langmuir, Volume 15, pages 2726-2732 (published on the World Wide Web on Mar. 19, 1999 by the American Chemical Society). The experiments reported therein confirm that the counterion polymerization procedure discussed hereinbelow produces extremely stable cylindrical micelles with a well-defined cross section. The article also includes a complete description of the experimental procedures used for the preparation, and the details of the modeling of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) data, also presented hereinbelow. The polymerized micelles described in the article are fluid, not solid. The above-mentioned article by the present inventor states that, in the prior art, a large variety of surfactants and surfactant aggregate structures have been polymerized, with varying levels of success in retaining the original structure. Surfactant structures have been polymerized in the form of spherical micelles, lamellae, and hexagonal arrays of cylinders. Other than in liquid-crystalline phases, rodlike micelles have not been polymerized, although elongated structures have been proposed as the polymerization product of globular micelles. In view of the above, it would be desirable if micellar material were provided that includes rodlike micelles in a polymerized aggregate structure, that is in a solid phase and that is useful in material separation procedures. In another published article entitled xe2x80x9cNanoporous Polymer Have A Thing For Organicsxe2x80x9d, by Elizabeth Wilson, published in Chemical and Engineering News, Feb. 1, 1999, pages 32 and 33, there is a disclosure of three dimensional, crosslinked cyclodextrin-based polymers which can remove compounds such as trichloroethylene from water. These cyclodextrin-base polymers have hydrophobic pores whose sizes can range from 5 to 11 Angstroms. The cyclodextrin-based polymers are formed from closed-ring cyclodextrin which has a specific molecular size and structure. As a result, the cyclodextrin-based polymers have hydrophobic absorption properties which are fundamentally based upon the molecular size and structure of cyclodextrin. Moreover, it is noted that cyclodextrin is not a surfactant, does not have a head and a tail, and does not have positive and negative ends such as found in a surfactant. Because of the wide range of absorption versatility provided by surfactants having a head and a tail and having positively and negatively charged portions, it would be desirable if a three dimensional, crosslinked material were provided which is based upon a network of ionic surfactants. Thus, while the foregoing indicates it to be well known to use materials to separate hydrophobic solutes from other materials, the prior art described above does not teach or suggest a crosslinked micellar gel composition which has the following combination of desirable features: (1) provides a micellar material that has macroscopic dimensions; (2) has stable micellar properties even when experiencing from slight to substantial changes in its chemical and physical environment; (3) includes rodlike micelles in a polymerized aggregate structure, that is in a solid phase and that is useful in material separation procedures; and (4) provides a three dimensional, crosslinked material which is based upon a network of ionic surfactants. The foregoing desired characteristics are provided by the unique crosslinked micellar gel composition of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident. To achieve the foregoing and other advantages, the present invention, briefly described, provides a composition that is comprised of a polymer formed by a reaction between (a) ionic surfactant units which include ionic surfactant molecules, each of which includes a counterion which has a first polymerizable functional group, (b) crosslinking agent molecules, each of which includes two second polymerizable functional groups, and (c) a reaction initiator selected from the group consisting of reaction initiator molecules and ultraviolet light radiation, wherein the reaction initiator initiates a reaction between a plurality of the ionic surfactant units with each other and a plurality of the ionic surfactant units with the second polymerizable functional groups. The polymer composition formed from the reaction is comprised of ionic surfactant micelles which are rodlike in shape. The ionic surfactant units can consist essentially of ionic surfactant molecules, such that the ionic surfactant units form homopolymer units which react with the crosslinking agent. Alternatively, the ionic surfactant units can further include co-monomer molecules each of which includes a third polymerizable functional group. The first polymerizable functional groups of the ionic surfactant molecules react with the third polymerizable functional groups of the co-monomer molecules to form co-polymer units, and the reaction initiator initiates a reaction between a plurality of the co-polymer units and the crosslinking agent to form the crosslinked micellar gel composition. It is contemplated that the solubilization capacity of the crosslinked micellar gel composition that is formed can be enhanced by the co-polymer units. That is, in the co-polymer units which are comprised of the ionic surfactant molecules and the co-mononer molecules, the co-monomer molecules (such as styrene) may act as as a spacer between the polymerized counterions of the ionic surfactant molecules, allowing the micellar segments to swell to a larger radius and to solubilize a larger total quantity of hydrophobic material for a given volume of crosslinked micellar gel composition. The first polymerizable functional group of the ionic surfactant counterions can be a first vinyl group. The crosslinking agent molecules can include two second vinyl groups. The co-monomer molecules can include styrene molecules, and the third polymerizable functional group can be a third vinyl group. The reaction initiator molecules can be free-radical initiator molecules. More specifically, the ionic surfactant molecules can include cetyltrimethylammonium-vinylbenzoate (CTVB), and the crosslinking agent molecules can include divinyl benzene. The free-radical initiator molecules can include 2,2xe2x80x2-azobis[2-(2imidazolin-2-yl) propane] dihydrochloride. The crosslinked micellar gel composition is a new material that is capable of solubilizing hydrophobic solutes at a molecular level such as is accomplished by conventional surfactant micelles. The new material has the solubilization capacity of a molecular-based surfactant micelles, and, in addition, has the distinct advantage of being crosslinked into a macro-micelle of macroscopic dimensions that is easy to physically handle, and thus separate the solute-absorbing macro-micelle from solution. In this way the crosslinked micellar gel composition can be used in separation processes. Also, the crosslinked micellar gel composition can be pre-loaded with a specific solute that can then be allowed to diffuse out of the gel in a controlled manner. The above brief description sets forth rather broadly the more important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contributions to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will be for the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. In this respect, before explaining a preferred embodiment of the invention in detail, it is understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood, that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a crosslinked micellar gel composition which has many of the advantages of the prior art and few of the disadvantages. A further object of the present invention is to provide a crosslinked micellar gel composition which provides a micellar material that has macroscopic dimensions. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a crosslinked micellar gel composition that has stable micellar properties even when experiencing from slight to substantial changes in its chemical and physical environment. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a crosslinked micellar gel composition which includes rodlike micelles in a polymerized aggregate structure, that is in a solid phase and that is useful in material separation procedures. Even another object of the present invention is to provide a crosslinked micellar gel composition that provides a three dimensional, crosslinked material which is based upon a network of ionic surfactants. These together with still other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and the descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

An image forming apparatus that makes use of an electrophotographing system has been used as a high speed image forming apparatus. In the image forming apparatus, a toner image formed on an image forming member such as a photosensitive drum and the like is transferred onto a print medium. In the high speed image forming apparatus, since the print medium is transported at a high speed, a transfer mechanism is necessary to maintain a transfer performance. FIG. 10 is a structural view of a transfer mechanism of a conventional image forming apparatus. A toner image is formed on a photosensitive drum 104 rotating in the direction of an arrow by a known electrophotographing system. A continuous sheet 100 acting as a print medium is transported by upper and lower tractors not shown. A pair of sheet guide members (referred to as transfer guides) 102 facing each other and each having a predetermined distance from the photosensitive drum 104 are disposed in the vicinity of a corona transfer unit 106 of a transfer section. The continuous sheet 100 to be transferred is guided by the transfer guides 102 in the transfer section and bent by the curvature of the sheet guide members 102. At the time, the bent portion of the sheet 100 comes into intimate contact (nipped by) with the photosensitive drum 100 by the stiffness of thereof, and the toner image on the photosensitive drum 104 can be transferred by the charging executed by the corona electric charger 106. The transfer characteristics of the sheet 100 greatly depend on the intimate contact property thereof with the photosensitive drum 104 which is determined by the stiffness of the sheet at that time. Further, when sheet is loaded or when print is stopped, the transfer guides 102 are retracted to the positions shown by dotted lines in the figure to prevent the pollution of the sheet 100 by preventing the bent portion of the sheet 100 from coming into contact with the photosensitive drum 104. In contrast, recently, the image forming apparatus is required to handle various types of print mediums, and it is required to make print on such mediums as, for example, a thin sheet having an extremely small ream weight and a stepped medium having a health insurance card and the like attached on a surface thereof. Further, an increase in a print speed reduces a margin to the stiffness of a sheet for obtaining desired transfer characteristics. Accordingly, in a sheet having weak stiffness (for example, a thin sheet having a ream weight less than 45 kg) has an insufficient press force (intimate contact force) to the photosensitive drum 104, thereby the transfer performance is deteriorated. For example, transfer omission is caused in perforated tear lines of a sheet. On the contrary, in a sheet having strong stiffness (for example, a thick sheet having a ream weight of 135 kg or more), since the press force (intimate contact force) to the photosensitive drum 104 is excessively large, a load between the photosensitive drum and the sheet is increased, thereby a trouble occurs in the transportation of the sheet, from which a secondary trouble such as the detachment of the sheet from the tractors, and the like is caused. Heretofore, the following methods have been proposed as a method of preventing the variation of the transfer characteristics resulting from the diversification of the print mediums. A first method is to use a transfer roller as a transfer unit and to change the nip width of a sheet by the press force of the transfer roller. That is, the press force of the transfer roller is increased to a thin sheet so that an amount of bite is increased by increasing the nip width, whereas the press force of the transfer roller is reduced to a thick sheet so that the amount of bite is reduced by decreasing the nip width. A second method is to change the position at which a sheet begins to come into contact with a photosensitive drum so that a thin sheet is caused to come into contact with the photosensitive drum more upstream of a transfer section (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-348152). In the conventional arts described above, the press force of a sheet to the photosensitive drum is optimized by increasing or decreasing an amount of bite of nip, by which the nip width of the sheet is changed. It seems that, in the relationship between the circumferential speed of a photosensitive drum and a sheet transportation speed, a constant speed difference is maintained at all times when it is examined from a macroscopic viewpoint. However, when this relationship is examined from a microscopic viewpoint, it generally has an error component due to the jitters of a drum motor and a sheet transportation motor and to the fluctuation of the rotation number of the drum. Accordingly, when the nip width is increased, that is, when the portion where the photosensitive drum is in contact with the sheet is increased, the error component is increased in proportion to the increase in the contact portion, which may result in the promotion of transfer displacement. FIGS. 11 and 12 are views illustrating the result of measurement of a nip width and an amount of transfer displacement. First, as shown in FIG. 11, as to the nip width, after the sheet 100 is loaded on the sheet guide members 102, a carbon sheet 108 is inserted between the photosensitive drum 104 and the transfer section in the state that the sheet 100 is fixed, and only the photosensitive drum 104 is rotated. Next, the rotation of the photosensitive drum 104 is stopped, and the width of the carbon transferred onto the sheet 100, that is, the nip width is measured. With the above operation, the nip width can be measured at the positions of the transfer guides. Next, the sheet guide members 102 are raised using spacers and the like and moved in the directions of arrows in FIG. 11, and the nip width is measured by inserting a carbon sheet 108 at the positions likewise. With the above operations, the positions of the transfer guides corresponding to respective nip widths are obtained. Then, a toner image of one-dot line is formed on the photosensitive drum 104 in an auxiliary scan direction at each of the positions of the transfer guides, and the toner image is transferred onto the sheet by transporting the sheet. The thickness of the one-dot line on the sheet, onto which the toner image has been transferred, is measured with a dot analyzer, and an amount of transfer displacement is measured. FIG. 12 is a graph showing the result of measurement of an amount of transfer displacement with reference to a nip width, in which the lateral axis shows the nip width (mm), and the vertical axis shows the amount of transfer displacement (mm). As shown in FIG. 12, it can be found that the amount of transfer displacement is increased by the increase of the nip width. For example, although a nip width of 5 mm results in a line width (0.3 mm), a nip width of 15 mm results in a line width (0.8 mm) that is about 2.6 times as large as the above line width, by which print quality is deteriorated.

The term borehole generally designates the result of a drilling operation in the earth, either vertically, horizontally and/or deviated using a drill string, comprising a drill bit at its lower end. At its upper end or top end, the drill string is driven by a drive system at the surface, called a top drive or rotary table. The top drive or rotary table is driven by an electric motor, or any other type of drive motor, providing a rotational movement to the drill bit in the borehole. Typically, the drill string is a very slender structure of a plurality of tubulars or pipes, threadedly connected to each other, and may have a length of several hundreds or thousands of meters. The lower part of the drill string is called the bottom hole assembly, BHA, and consists of heavier thick-walled pipes, called drill collars, at which the drill bit rests. The drill string is hollow, such that drilling fluid can be pumped down towards the bottom hole assembly and through nozzles in the bit, for lubrication purposes. The drilling fluid is circulated back up the annulus, i.e. the space between the outer circumference of the drill string and the borehole wall, to transport cuttings from the bit to the surface. A borehole may be drilled for many different purposes, including the extraction of water or other liquid (such as oil) or gases (such as natural gas), as part of a geotechnical investigation, environmental site assessment, mineral exploration, temperature measurement or as a pilot hole for installing piers or underground utilities, for example. The bottom hole assembly is rigid in torsional direction as it is relatively short and thick-walled and in use experiences lateral deflections due to compressive force. The drill string is an extreme flexible structure due to its long length and relative small wall thickness, such that during drilling numerous vibrations are induced in the borehole equipment and, in particular, in the drill string. In the case of a rotary drill string and bottom hole assembly, torsional, axial and longitudinal or lateral vibrations may be induced. Axial vibrations can cause bit bounce, which may damage bit cutters and bearings. Lateral vibrations are very destructive and can create large shocks as the bottom hole assembly impacts the wall of the borehole. Lateral vibrations may drive the system into backward whirl, creating high-frequency large-magnitude bending moment fluctuations, that result in high rates of component and connection fatigue. Imbalance in an assembly may cause centrifugally induced bowing of the drill string, which may produce forward whirl and result in one-sided wear of components. Torsional vibrations result, among others, in stick-slip motions or oscillations of the drill string alongside the borehole. Stick-slip is a phenomenon caused by frictional forces between surfaces of the drill bit and/or the drill string contacting the earth formation or the inner wall of the borehole. The surfaces alternatingly may stick to each other or slide over each other, with a corresponding change in the force of friction. In extreme cases, the friction may become so large that the drill bit, i.e. the bottom hole assembly, temporarily comes to a complete standstill, called the stick mode. During the stick mode, the continuing rotational drive speed or motion of the drive system winds-up the drill string. If the torque build-up in the drill string is large enough to overcome the friction, the bottom hole assembly starts rotating again, called the slip mode. This, however, may cause a sudden jump or a stepwise increase in the angular acceleration of the movement of the drill bit and may result in excessive wear thereof. Stick and slip modes may follow each other rather quickly in an oscillating like manner. Stick-slip is also a major source of problems causing equipment failures if the drill string, due to the rotary oscillations induced therein, starts to build-up a negative torque, i.e. a torque in the opposite direction compared to the direction of rotation of the drive system. When negative torque exceeds a friction threshold, pipe-connections will tend to unscrew. When stick-slip occurs, the effectiveness of the drilling process is affected, such that a planned drilling operation may be delayed over as much as a few days, with the risk of penalty fees and the like. Accordingly, in various situations it is required to control the effect of stick-slip oscillations in borehole equipment, thereby mitigating as much as possible the above outlined problems. Mitigating the stick-slip phenomenon has been the subject of many studies and patent publications. International patent application WO 2010/063982, for example, suggests damping of stick-slip oscillations based on a frequency or wave propagation transmission line approach, by operating the speed controller having its frequency dependent reflection coefficient of torsional waves set to a minimum at or near the frequency of the stick-slip oscillations. A problem with this known approach is that in stick mode, in which the bottom hole assembly comes to a complete standstill, the frequency approach fails to correctly describe the physical behaviour of the borehole equipment, as the speed of the bottom hole assembly obviously equals zero. Further, in practice, the bottom hole assembly rotates at relative low speeds, which makes a sufficient accurate sinusoidal waveform approach more difficult, and because a real drilling system shows a non-linear behaviour.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to fibre channel systems, and more particularly to LUN based hard zoning in fibre channel switches. 2. Background of the Invention Fibre channel is a set of American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards, which provide a serial transmission protocol for storage and network protocols such as HIPPI, SCSI, IP, ATM and others. Fibre channel provides an input/output interface to meet the requirements of both channel and network users. Fibre channel supports three different topologies: point-to-point, arbitrated loop and fibre channel fabric. The point-to-point topology attaches two devices directly. The arbitrated loop topology attaches devices in a loop. The fibre channel fabric topology attaches host systems directly to a fabric, which are then connected to multiple devices. The fibre channel fabric topology allows several media types to be interconnected. Fibre channel is a closed system that relies on multiple ports to exchange information on attributes and characteristics to determine if the ports can operate together. If the ports can work together, they define the criteria under which they communicate. In fibre channel, a path is established between two nodes where the path's primary task is to transport data from one point to another at high speed with low latency, performing only simple error detection in hardware. Fibre channel fabric devices include a node port or “N_Port” that manages fabric connections. The N_port establishes a connection to a fabric element (e.g., a switch) having a fabric port or F_port. Fabric elements include the intelligence to handle routing, error detection, recovery, and similar management functions. A fibre channel switch is a multi-port device where each port manages a simple point-to-point connection between itself and its attached system. Each port can be attached to a server, peripheral, I/O subsystem, bridge, hub, router, or even another switch. A switch receives messages from one port and automatically routes it to another port. Multiple calls or data transfers happen concurrently through the multi-port fibre channel switch. Fibre channel switches use memory buffers to hold frames received and sent across a network. Associated with these buffers are credits, which are the number of frames that a buffer can hold per fabric port. Fibre Channel allows the use of Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”) protocol in storage area networks. SCSI storage devices are sub-divided into multiple Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs). In Fibre Channel Fabrics, zoning is used to control access of devices attached to the Fabric to other devices. Hard Zoning is zoning that is enforced on individual frames sent from one end-user device to another end-user device by preventing delivery of frames across zone boundaries. Conventional techniques and standards do not allow secure LUN based zoning for fibre channel switches. Hence, this can result in inadvertent or malicious access by a device(s) that are not supposed to use a particular LUN. Therefore, what is required is a process and system that can enforce secure; LUN based hard zoning for fibre channel switches.

This invention relates to a technique that is applied to a semiconductor device, especially to a semiconductor device having a base substrate that comprises flexible films. As a suitable semiconductor device for a high-pin-count package, a semiconductor device having a BGA (BALL GRID ARRAY) structure has been developed. In this semiconductor device with a BGA structure, a semiconductor chip is mounted on a chip mount area of a main surface of a base substrate by using adhesive material and several bump electrodes are positioned in an array on the back side thereof that is opposite to said main surface of the base substrate. The above-mentioned base substrate is provided in the form of the rigid resin substrate that consists of glass impregnated with, for example, an epoxy resin, a polyimide resin, a maleimide resin, etc. Electrode pads for wire connection are arranged in a peripheral area that surrounds the periphery of the chip mount area of the main surface of the base substrate, and several electrode pads for bump connection are arranged on the back of the base substrate. The bump electrodes comprise solder materials of, for example, a Pbxe2x80x94Sn composition, which fix and connect to the electrode pads for bump connection electrically and mechanically. The above-described semiconductor chip comprises the structure mainly of a semiconductor substrate that includes, for example, monocrystal silicon. on the semiconductor chip, a logical circuit system, a storage circuit system or a mixture of these circuit systems are formed. And, several external terminals (bonding pads) are allocated to the main surface (element formation face) of the semiconductor chip. These external terminals are electrically connected through wires to electrode pads for wire connection arranged on the main surface of the base substrate. The semiconductor chip, the wires, the electrode pads for wire connection, etc. are sealed in the resin sealing body formed on the main surface of the base substrate. The resin sealing body is formed by a method of transfer molding, which is suitable for mass production. A semiconductor device of the BGA structure composed like this is mounted on the surface of a printed circuit board by melting connection of the bump electrodes onto the electrode pads formed on the surface of the printed circuit board. NIKKEI electronics (Feb. 28, 1994, from the 111th page to the 117th page) published by NIKKEI BP, describes a semiconductor device having the above-described BGA structure. A semiconductor device having a BGA structure and using a flexible film as a base substrate has been developed in recent years. The semiconductor device of this type can be made thinner, is able to provide a high-pin-count package and is more amenable to miniaturization in comparison with a semiconductor device using a rigid resin substrate as a base substrate. However, we have found the following problems in developing semiconductor devices using a flexible film as a base substrate. A base substrate that comprises flexible films is generally made using the following process. First, a connection hole is formed in the bump connection area of a flexible film. Then, a metal foil, such as, for example, copper (Cu), is attached to one surface of a flexible film through an adhesive material. Then, electric conductor layers that comprise electrode pads for bump connection, an electric conductor, an electrode pad for wire connection and an electric conductor for plating etc. are formed by patterning on the metal foil. Then, an insulation layer that protects the electric conductor layer is formed. Then, plating processing to form a plating layer on the electrode pad for bump connection and wire connection is carried out. Plating processing is done by a method of electrolytic plating. This plating processing is sometimes performed in the step before forming the insulation layer. The plating layer is formed on, for example, a gold (Au)/nickel (Ni) film or a gold (Au)/palladium (Pd)/nickel (Ni) film. The above insulation layer is formed by the following process, for example. First, a photosensitive resin film is formed on one surface of a flexible film. Then, after performing a baking processing, by using a photograph printing technique, photosensitive processing, development processing and cleaning are performed. The insulation layer is formed on all areas of the one surface of the flexible film containing the electric conductor layers, except for the electrode pads for wire connection. That is, insulation layers are formed on almost all areas of the one surface of the flexible film. Therefore, warp and distortion, etc. arise in the base substrate. This deformation of a base substrate causes a transfer problem during the manufacturing process (assembly process) of a semiconductor device. And, this deformation of a base substrate becomes a cause of a further problem in the process that mounts a semiconductor chip, in that the wetting performance of the adhesive material being used is deteriorated. As for the cause of deformation of the above-described base substrate, it is a main factor that the thermal expansion coefficient and the hardening shrinkage rate of an insulation layer are large. But, in case an insulation layer is not formed on the flexible film, the following problems arise. (1) Electrode pads for bump connection are arranged on the chip mount area of a main surface of a base substrate. Therefore, when mounting a semiconductor chip through the use of an adhesive insulation material to the chip mount area on a main surface of the base substrate, it is difficult to control the thickness of the adhesive material. And, if the semiconductor chip should touch the electrode pads for bump connection, a short circuit could arise between them. (2) Electrode pads for bump connection are arranged on the chip mount area of the main surface of the base substrate. Bump electrodes arranged on the back side of the base substrate are connected to these electrode pads for bump connection through connection holes formed in the chip mount area of the base substrate. That is, bump electrodes are arranged in the area under a semiconductor chip. The electrode pads for bump connection arranged on the chip mount area of the above-described base substrate are integrated and are electrically connected through electric conductors to the electrode pads for wire connection arranged on the peripheral area that surrounds the chip mount area of the main surface of the base substrate. That is, in the peripheral area of the main surface of the base substrate, electric conductors are arranged on the area between a semiconductor chip and the electrode pads for wire connection. Therefore, when connecting the external terminals of a semiconductor chip and pads for wire connection with wires, other electric conductors that adjoin electric conductors electrically connected to the wires and these wires sometimes cross themselves. In case there is a sufficient height for the wire connection, there is no problem. However, there is some possibility of a short circuit with wires and other electric conductors, when wires and other electric conductors are not arranged in parallel at the corner of a semiconductor chip. And, there is a possibility that, in case wires and other electric conductors cross each other on the side of electrode pads for wire connection, a short circuit with these wires and other electric conductors may also arise. It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique which makes it possible to suppress deformation (warp and distortion) of a base substrate in a semiconductor device when the base substrate comprises flexible films. It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique which makes it possible to suppress deformation of a base substrate in a semiconductor device when the base substrate comprises flexible films and to prevent a short circuit between electric conductors of the base substrate and the semiconductor chip. It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique, in a semiconductor device with a base substrate that comprises flexible films, that makes it possible to suppress deformation of the base substrate and to prevent an electric conductor layer of the base substrate and connection wires from short-circuiting. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following description in conjunction with the appended drawings. A summary of the invention as disclosed in this application will be explained as follows. (1) A semiconductor device has electric conductors arranged on a main surface of a base substrate that comprises flexible films and a semiconductor chip is mounted by using a adhesive material on the main surface of the base substrate. Individual insulation members are arranged on said electric conductor layers on the main surface of the base substrate, so that respective insulation members are apportioned, for example, to respective electric conductors. (2) A semiconductor device has electric conductors arranged in a chip mount area of a main surface of a base substrate that comprises flexible films and a semiconductor chip is mounted by using an adhesive material on the chip mount area of the main surface of the base substrate. Individual insulation members are arranged on said electric conductors of the main surface of the base substrate, so that the respective insulation layers are apportioned, for example, to respective electric conductors. (3) A semiconductor device has a semiconductor chip mounted in a chip mount area of a main surface of a base substrate, which is made of flexible film, by using an adhesive material. Electrode pads for wire connection are formed in a peripheral area that surrounds said chip mount area. Electric conductors are arranged between said semiconductor chip and said electrode pads for wire connection in said peripheral area. External terminals of said semiconductor chip and said electrode pads for wire connection are electrically connected through wires. Individual insulation members are arranged, respectively, on said electric conductors. By means of (1) mentioned above, since stress produced by contraction or expansion and hardening of an insulation film is relieved, deformation (warp and distortion) of the base substrate can be suppressed. By means of (2) mentioned above, since the semiconductor chip does not tough the electric layers due to the presence of the insulation members, when a semiconductor chip is mounted on the chip mount area of the main surface of the base structure using an adhesive material, a short circuit between the electric conductor layers and the semiconductor chip can be prevented. By means of (3) mentioned above, since the connection wires do not touch the electric conductors, a short circuit between the electric conductors on the base substrate and the wires can be prevented.

In recent years, various groups of peptide derivatives having activity against viruses have been disclosed. Examples of these peptides are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,780, issued to Beaulieu et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,854, issued to Schlesinger et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,432 issued to Freidinger et al.; Dutia et al., Nature 321:439 (1986); and Cohen et al., Nature 321:441 (1986). However, many of the known antiviral peptides known in the art are extremely hydrophobic, and therefore, not very bioavailable. Moreover, many of these known antiviral peptides show activity against only a few types of viruses, due to their particular mechanisms of action. Additionally, many of these synthetic peptides are not effective in preventing initial viral infection, or are not functional when applied topically. One of the most successful nucleoside analogs developed as an antiviral agent to-date is acyclovir. Acyclovir is a synthetic purine nucleoside analog with in vitro and in vivo inhibitory activity against herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1), herpes simplex virus type II (HSV-2), and varicella zoster virus (VZV). In cell culture, acyclovir's highest antiviral activity is against HSV-1, followed in decreasing order of potency against HSV-2 and VZV. However, the use of acyclovir may be contraindicated. Moreover, some herpes simplex viruses have become resistant to acyclovir. Recently, there has been considerable research into antiviral compounds that could be incorporated into topical virucides and condom lubricants to help stem the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The need for such a product is high; the appropriate antiviral and/or virucidal compound that prevents HIV infection would be of great use in both developed and undeveloped nations. Therefore, there remains a need for antivirals which exhibit a high activity against a broad spectrum of viruses. There also remains a need for antivirals that can be applied topically, and are effective at preventing viral infection.

Systems are known to protect people and assets within secured areas. Such systems are typically based upon the use of one or more sensors that detect threats within the secured areas. Threats to people and assets may originate from any of a number of different sources. For example, a fire may kill or injure occupants who have become trapped by a fire in a home. Similarly, carbon monoxide from a fire may kill people in their sleep. Alternatively, an unauthorized intruder, such as a burglar, may present a threat to assets within an area. Intruders have also been known to injure or kill people living within the area. In the case of intruders, sensors may be placed in different areas based upon the respective uses of those areas. For example, if people are present during some portions of a normal day and not at other times, then sensors may be placed along a periphery of a space to provide protection while the space is occupied while additional sensors may be placed within an interior of the space and used when the space is not occupied. In most cases, threat sensors are connected to a local control panel. In the event of a threat detected via one of the sensors, the control panel may sound a local audible alarm. The control panel may also send a signal to a central monitoring station. While security systems work well, they are sometimes difficult to set up and use, especially where a system includes a number of security cameras that must be constantly monitored. Accordingly, a need exists for better methods of using such systems.

Various arrangements have been devised for dissipating heat generated by power semiconductor devices such as IGBTs and MOSFETs. For example, a power device in the form of a semiconductor die can be mounted on an insulative but thermally conductive substrate (ceramic, for example) that, in turn, is thermally coupled (by solder or thermal grease) to an air-cooled or liquid-cooled heatsink. And in fact, a similar technique can be applied to both sides of a semiconductor die, as shown for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,030,317 to Oman. It is also known that a power semiconductor device and substrate can be mounted in a chamber through which a liquid coolant flows; see, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,383 to Rice.

The present invention is directed to an improved process for the manufacture of acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. In particular, the present invention is directed to improved operation of the heads, or HCN separation, column in the acrylonitrile and methacrylonitrile recovery process. Applicant has discovered a previously unknown relationship between the formation of undesirable polymeric HCN in the heads column and the formation of an aqueous second liquid phase in the heads column above the feed tray. The present invention is directed towards preventing the formation of the aqueous phase in the heads column above the feed tray, since the presence of this aqueous phase causes the formation of unwanted and detrimental polymeric HCN. Previous art was directed at reducing the pressure of the heads tower, resulting in lower operating temperatures and perceived reduction in the polymerization rates of HCN. The instant invention is directed at disrupting the mechanism of the HCN polymerization, which occurs as ionic polymerization in the aqueous phase. By practicing the present invention, unwanted polymerization of HCN may be reduced, fouling of the heads column may be greatly diminished or eliminated, and increased production of desirable products may be achieved. The present invention is directed to an improved process for the manufacture of acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. In particular, the present invention is directed to the improvement in the recovery and operation of hydrogen cyanide separation column utilized during the manufacture of acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. Recovery of acrylonitrile/methacrylonitrile produced by the ammoxidation of propane, propylene or isobutylene on a commercial scale has been accomplished by quenching the reactor effluent with water followed by passing the gaseous stream containing acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile, as well as byproduct HCN, resulting from the quench to an absorber where water and the gases are contacted in counter-current flow to remove substantially all the acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. The aqueous stream containing HCN and the acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile is then passed through a series of distillation columns and associated decanters for separation and purification of product acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile from a vapor stream containing substantially all the HCN. Typical recovery and purification systems that are used during the manufacture of acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,234,510 and 3,885,928, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and herein incorporated by reference. It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved process for the recovery and operation of byproduct HCN in the manufacture of acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved process for the recovery of acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, or HCN obtained from the reactor effluent of an ammoxidation reaction of propane, propylene or isobutylene comprising passing the reactor effluent through an absorber column, a recovery column and a heads column wherein the improvement comprises operating the heads column in a manner which inhibits the formation of an aqueous phase above the feed tray of the heads column. An additional object of the present invention is to provide an improved process for the recovery of acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, or HCN obtained from the reactor effluent of an ammoxidation reaction of propane, propylene or isobutylene by operating the heads column in a manner which inhibits the formation of an aqueous phase above the feed tray of the heads column, such as increasing reflux ratios; using a side decanter to split and remove the aqueous phase from the column; using a cooler feed stream to increase the stripping in the column; increasing the number of stripping trays; using an intermediate condenser above the feed to supplement the overhead condenser; subcooling the reflux stream; increasing reboiler and overhead condenser duties to increase reflux flow rates; control operating pressure to shift the equilibrium between the two liquid phases; and other methods known to those skilled in the art that would increase reboiler duty, and the associated stripping effectiveness of the heads column. Increasing the hydrogen cyanide reflux or concentration of hydrogen cyanide above the feed tray can also be achieved through higher HCN production levels for eliminating the second liquid phase. Any increased tray efficiency also allows more stripping effectiveness and is helpful in eliminating the undesired second liquid phase. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved process for the recovery of acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, or HCN obtained from the reactor effluent of an ammoxidation reaction of propane, propylene or isobutylene comprising passing the reactor effluent through an absorber column, a recovery column and a heads column wherein the improvement comprises feeding extra HCN to the heads column, either by operating the ammoxidation reactor in a manner to produce a higher concentration of HCN to other products, or by recycling HCN to the heads column, to permit operation of the heads column in a manner that reduces or eliminates the formation of the undesirable aqueous phase. Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part, will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by the 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 in the appended claims. To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention as embodied and broadly described herein, the process of the present invention comprises transporting the reactor effluent obtained during the ammoxidation of propane, propylene or isobutylene to a quench column wherein the hot effluent gases are cooled by contact with an aqueous spray, passing the cooled reactor effluent overhead to an absorber column wherein the HCN and crude acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile is absorbed in water, passing the aqueous solution containing the HCN and acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile, plus other impurities to a first distillation column (recovery column), where a significant portion of the water and impurities are removed as a liquid bottoms product, while HCN, water, a minor portion of impurities and acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile are remove as an overhead vapor stream. This overhead vapor stream is further cooled using a heat exchanger, and directed to a decanter, to separate and condense liquids which are returned to the recovery process, while the remaining vapor stream is directed to a flare, incinerator, or other disposal process. The organic stream is fed to the heads column for separation of HCN from acrylonitrile. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the process is performed with the reactor effluent obtained from the ammoxidation of propane or propylene, ammonia and oxygen to produce acrylonitrile. In a still preferred embodiment of the present invention, the reactor effluent is obtained by the reaction of propane, propylene, ammonia and air in a fluid bed reactor while in contact with a fluid bed catalyst. Conventional fluid bed ammoxidation catalyst may be utilized in the practice of the invention. For example, fluid bed catalyst as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,642,930 and 5,093,299, herein incorporated by reference, may be utilized in the practice of the present invention.

The present invention relates generally to control panels for loading dock equipment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a simplified and unified control panel for operating loading dock equipment. This invention is a master control panel which simplifies the operation of loading dock equipment. In addition to having a dock leveler and overhead door, a loading dock may also have a vehicle restraint, loading light, barrier gate and inflatable shelter. If the various devices are power operated rather than manually operated, the wall beside the doorway may be cluttered with various control panels. Not only is the space between doors often very restricted, but the cost of the electrical installation can be significant. This situation can be improved with the installation of a combination control panel which includes all of the controls in a single enclosure. The combination panel not only saves space but may also reduce the cost of electrical installation. One criticism of existing combination panels has been that the operator may be confused by the various number of switches and push buttons, and the proper sequence of operation. FIG. 1 illustrates a loading dock with a driveway 1, dock wall 2, dock floor 3. A pit 4 is recessed in the floor 3. A dock leveler assembly 10 has a deck assembly 11, and a frame assembly 12 which is mounted in the pit 4. Lip keepers 14 are mounted to the front of the frame. The rear of a deck assembly 11 pivots on the frame assembly 12 and has a lip hinge 13 at the front. A lip assembly 15 is supported at one end by the lip hinge 13 and has the other end resting on the lip keepers 14. The doorway of the loading dock can be closed by a movable door 18, shown partially open. A vehicle restraint assembly 20 is mounted to the wall 2 and has a hook 21, which moves vertically to engage the ICC bar of a truck or tractor trailer (not shown). A light assembly 23 is mounted beside the doorway and has a red light 24 and a green light 25 to signal the truck driver. Two signs 26 and 27 instruct the driver to move only when the green light is illuminated. The sign 26 has reversed lettering to be legible when viewed in the truck mirror. A loading light 28 is mounted beside the doorway to illuminate the interior of the trailer during loading. A barrier gate assembly 30 has a barrier arm 31 which moves from a horizontal position where it prevents access to the doorway to a vertical position where it allows access to the doorway. An inflatable shelter assembly 35 has two side bags 36 and a head bag 37 which are inflated by a motor and blower (not shown). When a truck or trailer is at the dock, the bags inflate to form a seal between the truck or trailer and the dock wall. FIG. 2 demonstrates a typical loading dock area with control panels for a hydraulic dock leveler, electric vehicle restraint and power operated door. The dock leveler control panel 40 has three buttons, button 41 raises the dock leveler deck assembly 11, button 42 extends the hinged lip plate 15, and button 43 is an Emergency Stop which stops all of the dock leveler functions. The vehicle restraint control panel 50 has a selector switch 51, an engage button 52 and a release button 53. Three lights 55, 56 and 57 which are red, amber and green respectively, indicate to the dock operator the status of the vehicle restraint. The selector switch 51 has three positions, Off, On, and Lights Only, which allows the operator to bypass the vehicle restraint if the truck or trailer cannot be captured by the vehicle restraint and must be restrained by wheel chocks. The door control panel 60 has three buttons, an Open button 61, a Close button 63 and a Stop button 62. The normal operating sequence of the equipment is as follows: When the dock is not in use, the exterior green light 25 is illuminated to indicate that the truck driver may approach or leave the dock. The interior red light 55 is illuminated to indicate that the dock is not in a condition for use. The operator selects the vehicle restraint control panel 50 and presses the engage button 52. The vehicle restraint hook 21, of FIG. 1, rises to engage the truck or trailer. When the hook 21 starts to rise, the exterior red light 24 is illuminated to indicate that the truck driver cannot leave. When the truck or trailer has been effectively restrained, the interior green light 57 is illuminated to indicate that the dock is ready to use. If the vehicle restraint 20 cannot restrain the trailer, the dock operator must manually chock the truck or trailer wheels. The operator may then turn the selector switch 51 from On to Lights Only. Both the interior green light 55 and amber light 56 are now illuminated to indicate that the dock is safe to use, but that the operator should use greater caution because the vehicle restraint 20 has not engaged the truck or trailer. The operator selects the door control panel 60 and presses the Door Open button 61 to open the door 18. The operator selects the dock leveler control panel 40 and presses the Raise button 41 to raise the deck assembly 11, extend the lip assembly 15, and releases the button to lower the leveler onto the trailer. Pressing the Lip Extend button 42 allows faster operation by causing the lip 15 to extend before the deck assembly 11 is fully raised. Pressing the Emergency Stop button 43 causes the dock leveler to stop so that it will not descend on top of any misplaced cargo. If a loading light 28 is installed it may have a manual switch or may be automatically turned on when the door is opened. Similarly, an inflatable shelter 35 may be operated by a manual switch or be automatically turned on when the door is opened. When the loading operation is finished, the operating sequence is reversed. The operator presses the dock leveler Raise button 41 to raise the deck assembly 11, fold the lip assembly 15 and then releases the button to lower the dock leveler to the stored position. The operator presses the Door Close button 63 to close the door 18. Pressing the Stop button 62 causes the door to stop before it closes. The operator presses the Release button 53 and the vehicle restraint hook 21 lowers to release the trailer. When the hook 21 starts to lower, the interior red light 55 is illuminated to indicate that the dock is not ready for use. When the hook is fully lowered, the exterior green light 25 is illuminated to indicate that the truck driver may leave. FIG. 3 demonstrates a typical combination control panel with controls for a hydraulic dock leveler, electric vehicle restraint and power operated door. The control buttons and switches have the identical functions of the separate panels in FIG. 2. Often, a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is used to allow many different control sequences and interconnect relationships. A PLC accepts input signals from various devices such as limit switches and push buttons and then transmits output signals to various devices such as lights, relays and motors in accordance with the logic defined by the control program. The use of a PLC is well known in the loading dock industry and the specific electrical circuits and program statements are not shown nor discussed herein. Although the control buttons and switches are arranged in functional groups and are clearly labeled, an untrained operator may find that the number of buttons and their differing locations make the proper sequence of operations seem confusing. Therefore, this invention provides a combination panel with all of the advantages of compact space and economical installation, and with a simplified operating sequence. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a simplified combination panel for controlling loading dock equipment and a method for operating loading dock equipment with a simplified control panel. It is therefore a feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a combination panel with all of the advantages of compact space and economical installation, but with a simplified operating sequence. The above mentioned features, and other features and advantages are achieved through the use of a novel master control panel as herein disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the invention includes a unified controller for controlling a loading dock apparatus comprising a control panel for providing a common area for operator controls and signals; operator signal lights located on the control panel and operatively connected to the loading dock apparatus for signaling an operator that a loading dock is at least one of ready for loading, not ready for loading, and operator be cautioned; a selector switch located on the control panel, and operatively connected to the loading dock apparatus to permit selective operation of a vehicle restraint, a dock door, and a leveler apparatus; a first operation control attached to the control panel wherein the first operation control engages the vehicle restraint when the selector switch is selected to operate the vehicle restraint, the first operation control opens the dock door when the dock door is selected by the selector switch, and the first operation control controls the raising and lowering of the dock leveler to an operative and a stored position, and extends and retracts a lip portion of the dock leveler when the dock leveler is selected by the selector switch; a second operation control attached to the control panel, wherein the second operation control extends a lip portion of the dock leveler when the dock leveler is selected by the selector switch, the second operation control closes the dock door when the dock door is selected by the selector switch, the second operation control disengages the vehicle restraint when the selector switch is selected to operate the vehicle restraint; and a third operation control attached to the control panel, wherein the third operation control is an emergency stop control configured to stop operation of the loading dock apparatus; operator indicator lights located on the control panel, wherein the indicator lights indicate which of the vehicle restraint, door, and dock lever the operation controls will activate; and a vehicle restraint bypass switch located on the controller, wherein the vehicle restraint bypass switch may selectively bypass the dock loading apparatus causing the first operation control to not engage the vehicle restraint, but activate the operator control signal light to indicate at least one of ready for loading, and operator be cautioned, and the second operation control to not disengage the dock loading apparatus. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the invention includes a controller for controlling a loading dock apparatus, the apparatus including a vehicle restraint, a door, a loading light, a dock leveler, the controller comprising a control panel for providing a common area for operator controls and signals; operator signal lights located on the control panel and operatively connected to the loading dock apparatus for signaling an operator that a loading dock is at least one of ready for loading, not ready for loading, and operator be cautioned; selector switch located on the control panel, and operatively connected to the loading dock apparatus to permit selective operation of a vehicle restraint, a dock door, and a leveler apparatus; a means for controlling the loading dock apparatus, the means attached to the control panel, wherein the means controls the vehicle restraint when the selector switch is selected to operate a vehicle restraint, the means controls a dock door when the dock door is selected by the selector switch, and the means controls a dock leveler when the dock leveler is selected by the selector switch; an emergency stop control attached to the control panel, configured to stop operation of the loading dock apparatus; operator indicator lights located on the control panel, wherein the indicator lights indicate which of the vehicle restraint, door, and dock lever the operation controls will activate; and a vehicle restraint bypass switch located on the controller, wherein the vehicle restraint bypass switch may selectively bypass the dock loading apparatus causing the means to not control the vehicle restraint, but activate the operator control signal light to indicate at least one of ready for loading, and operator be cautioned, when the vehicle constraint is engaged or bypassed and control signal light to indicate that the dock is not ready for loading when the vehicle restraint is not engaged and not bypassed. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the invention includes a method of controlling a loading dock apparatus with a single unified controller comprising configuring a first and second operation control to control a dock door by selecting a dock door option with a selecting switch; operating a dock door by operating the first operation control to open the dock door and operating the second operation control to close the dock door; configuring the first and second operation control to operate a dock leveler by selecting a dock leveler option with the selecting switch; operating a dock leveler by raising and lowering a dock leveler by operating the first operation control and extending and contracting a lip portion of the dock leveler and extending a lip portion of the dock leveler by operating the second operation control. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the invention includes a control panel for a loading dock apparatus comprising; an operator means located on the control panel for operating a loading dock apparatus, a controller means associated with the control panel for causing the operator means to operate at least two of a vehicle restraint, a loading dock door, a loading dock door seal, and a dock leveler and lip in a predetermined sequence, wherein the operator means, when activated, activates the loading dock apparatus to be operated next in a predetermined sequence. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the invention includes a control panel for a loading dock apparatus comprising; an operator means located on the control panel for operating a loading dock apparatus, a selector means located on the control panel for selection between at least two of a vehicle restraint, a loading dock door, a loading dock door seal, and a dock leveler and lip, wherein the selector means causes the operator means, when activated, to operate the loading dock apparatus that is selected by the selector means. There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described below and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein, as well as the abstract, are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

A social-networking system, such as LinkedIn, may have its success or usefulness measured at least in part by its ability to generate interest among its members in connecting and engaging with other members on the platform. The more members that are regularly on the platform, the more valuable the service is for individual members (since more of their network is on the platform), recruiters, or other entities who wish to contact those members. The amount of interest generated among the members may depend on many factors, including, for example, the effectiveness of techniques for drawing a user to the system, connecting users to other users of the system, and providing relevant content to the member.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention is generally related to network communications systems and, in particular, to enterprise class client-server systems capable of supporting real-time, bidirectional communications over an HTTP-based network. 2. Description of the Related Art While the development and use of Web applications continues to grow, a significant limitation exists in that the widely used HTTP protocol only supports half-duplex communication. As in the case of conventional client-server application use models, a continuous tier-to-tier bidirectional, or full-duplex, communications connection is highly desirable, if not required to enable client interaction with various backend systems. The demand for realtime services on the Web, such as to display realtime stock feeds, permit ad-hoc information updates, enable active participation among multiple users in realtime operations, particularly as encountered in bidding, chat, games, and other applications, is substantial and increasing. Although other protocols, supported by proprietary client and server applications, might be utilized, the fact that the Web-browser client is ubiquitous effectively requires use of the basic HTTP protocol. Natively, conventional Web-browser based client applications have been basically constrained to communications where data requests and responses flow only in one direction at a time. Conventional attempts to emulate bidirectional communications typically involve the use of polling techniques, such as implemented in Comet and Reverse Ajax. In essence, a server, under select circumstances, is able to push information to the client. These techniques, however, suffer from many limitations, such as lack of standardization, inadequate performance, and limited scalability. For example, a direct polling technique requires a client application, typically implemented in the context of a Web-browser, to repeatedly send HTTP requests at regular intervals to a target Web-server. Each request immediately receives a server generated response, potentially returning updated real-time information depending on whether the server has any updated information. Depending on the polling interval, the received information may not be really received in real-time and, conversely, may only be obtained subject to a high overhead of server requests frequently for no responsive information. This overhead impacts both client and server performance and consumes network bandwidth. To avoid the overhead of direct polling, a variant known as long-polling has been developed. In long-polling, also known as asynchronous polling, the client application, again typically a Web-browser, issues a request to a target Web-sever system. Rather than providing an immediate response, the target server will delay for up to some defined interval, waiting to have some new information to provide as a response. If some new, i.e., real-time data is obtained by the server during the delay interval, a server response containing the real-time information is then sent to the client. If no new information is received, an empty response is returned to the client application, terminating the pending request. Long-polling thus has the potential to reduce latency in the delivery of real-time data and may reduce the number of request/response cycles to some degree. Long-polling does not, however, provide any substantial performance improvements over traditional polling due to the still significant number of request/response cycles required and the similar number of HTTP headers, present in both long-polling and polling, that must be exchanged between client and server. Streaming is another conventional variation. Where streaming is used, the client Web-browser sends a complete request, but the target server responds in a manner that allows the connection to be maintained open for at least a defined interval. In effect, the target server holds off acknowledging that the response is complete. This allows the target server to continue the response with additional real-time information as received by the target server. A benefit of establishing a streaming connection is reduced overhead on the part of the client and server systems. Network traffic is also reduced, since the client and server systems only send HTTP header packets once to establish the streaming connection. Response continuance network packets are only sent as needed and then only contain data, thereby imposing minimal overhead. Unfortunately, streaming is encapsulated in HTTP and, thereby, entirely dependent on how low-level HTTP transfers are routed through the network at large. Streaming is therefore subject to unpredictable connection-breaking and substantial buffering latencies wholly determined by the myriad of systems that any given connection may be routed through. Conventional streaming is, therefore, not reliable. As an alternative, the proposed HTML5 draft specification defines new protocol features, including WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and associated access security requirements, as a way of enabling reliable bidirectional communications using the HTTP protocol. While the HTML5 specification is intended to standardize, among other things, full-duplex, direct TCP communication, a final specification is likely a year, if not several years from being formally adopted. Functional incorporation and operationally uniform adoption into the next generation of Web-browsers will not likely occur for many years. Further, resistance to update existing in-place Web-browsers due to practical, business, and other limitations, will likely prevent wholesale adoption for many more years. Consequently, a need exists for a way to provide real-time, full-duplex communications capabilities substantially independent of the client Web-browsers that may be used to access Web services of all natures, including business and other commercial services, recreational, and informational.

The present invention relates to a wafer polishing apparatus employing CMP (Chemical-Mechanical Polishing) and a backing pad for wafer polishing. In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a planarizing process for planarizing the surface of a semiconductor wafer is performed to improve the precision of photolithography and the like. A typical example of this planarizing process is SOG (Spin On Glass). As the micropatterning degree of semiconductor devices increases, higher-degree planarization is required. In order to satisfy this demand, in recent years, CMP using polishing cloth impregnated with a chemical etching solution attracts attention, and is becoming the mainstream technique including the Damascene method for planarization. FIG. 4A shows a wafer polishing apparatus using conventional CMP. Referring to FIG. 4A, a wafer polishing apparatus entirely denoted by reference numeral 1 is constituted by a circular polishing table 2, a columnar carrier head 3, and a slurry supply pipe 4. The carrier head 3 opposes the polishing table 2 and has a smaller diameter than that of the polishing table 2. The slurry supply pipe 4 drops slurry 5. A spindle 6 rotatably supporting the polishing table 2 is fixed to the center of the lower portion of the polishing table 2. A soft lower pad 7 and a hard upper pad 8 stacked on it are sequentially fixed to the upper surface of the spindle 6. The carrier head 3 is constituted by an annular retainer ring 10, a stainless steel base plate 11, and a spindle 12. The base plate 11 is fixed to be buried in the upper half of the retainer ring 10. The spindle 12 is fixed to the center of the upper portion of the base plate 11 to rotatably support the carrier head 3. A backing pad 15 is fixed to the lower surface of the base plate 11. Six air pipes 13, circularly arranged, as shown in FIG. 4B, are formed to extend through the base plate 11 and backing pad 15. Compressed air is supplied from an air supply source (not shown) provided above the base plate 11 to the air pipes 13. In this arrangement, the carrier head 3 is moved downward to press a wafer 16 against the upper pad 8 with the lower surface of the backing pad 15. After that, air is supplied from the air supply source (not shown) to the air pipes 13 to form an air layer between the backing pad 15 and wafer 16. In this state, the polishing table 2 is rotated in the direction of an arrow while the carrier head 3 is rotated in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the polishing table 2, and the slurry 5 is dropped from the slurry supply pipe 4, so that the lower surface of the wafer 16 is polished by the upper pad 8. FIG. 5A shows a conventional head using a backing pad for wafer polishing which is formed of a foamed body having open cells. FIG. 6A shows a conventional head using a backing pad for wafer polishing which is formed of a foamed body having closed cells. When a backing pad 25 is formed of only a foamed body having open cells, as shown in FIG. 5A, it is entirely polished substantially uniformly, as shown in FIG. 5B. However, the polishing amount is small, and even if the air pressure is increased, a decrease in polishing amount cannot be improved. A drop in polishing amount is large near the outer peripheral edge portion of a wafer 16. A decrease in polishing amount is found to typically occur when the outer diameter of the wafer 16 exceeds 8 inches. This is supposed to be based on the following reason. A foamed body having open cells has a specific nature of high air transmission in the lateral direction (along the surface of the wafer 16). Hence, an air layer 17 is formed uniformly between the backing pad 25 and wafer 16, and accordingly the wafer 16 can be easily polished flat. However, since the air layer 17 spreads over the entire surface of the backing pad 25, pressing of the backing pad 25 against the wafer 16 depends on the air layer 17. The wafer 16 thus becomes less influenced by pressing the backing pad 25, resulting in a small polishing amount. The reason why the polishing amount of the wafer 16 drops largely at the outer peripheral edge portion is as follows. As shown in FIG. 5A, the air layer 17 tends to be released from the outer peripheral portion of the backing pad 25 to the outside, and the backing pad 25 cannot press the outer peripheral edge portion of the wafer 16 supposed to be pressed. When a backing pad 35 is formed of only a foamed body having closed cells, as shown in FIG. 6A, the polishing amounts at two measurement points separated from a center C of a wafer 16 by 1 inch to 8 inches are larger than those at other measurement points. This leads to variations in polishing amount as a whole. However, the overall polishing amount is improved by increasing the air pressure. This may be based on the following reason. A foamed body having closed cells has such a specific nature that, although its air transmission is low in the lateral direction (along the surface of the wafer 16), it can locally apply a pressure to the wafer. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6A, a portion where an air layer 17 is formed and a portion where it is not formed are produced between the backing pad 35 and wafer 16. Hence, the entire surface of the wafer 16 is not uniformly pressed by the air layer 17, so that the surface of the wafer 16 cannot be polished flat. FIGS. 5B and 6B show graphs of the polishing amounts of the wafer 16 at measurement points separated from the center C of the wafer 16 having a diameter of 8 inches in the radial direction by 1 inch, which are obtained by using the backing pads shown in FIGS. 5A and 6B.

Sending text, images, and software via communications networks, particularly computer networks, is known. In one well known network protocol, the Hypertext Transport Protocol or HTTP, best known as a transport protocol for the Internet-based World Wide Web or WWW, a computer terminal or “client” connected to a network, such as the Internet, typically sends a request using software known as a “browser” to a server also connected to the network. Such requests may be for “Web pages,” documents constructed using Hypertext Markup Language or HTML and stored at the server which are then rendered by the client browser into text and/or images. Other requests may be for software applications such as “applets” which are executed by an application engine at the client. Upon receiving a request, the server sends that which was requested to the client. Preventing unauthorized reuse of text, images, and software provided via networks is difficult given the current state of the art. Text is usually provided in text-editable format which may be copied and reused at the client. While text may be converted to a graphic image at the server and thus provided in a non-text-editable format to the client, this is not practicable both due to the increased storage required to store text as graphic images on the server, as well as the dynamic nature of requests such as search queries where the text results are not known until the query is executed and, therefore, the text cannot be converted to a graphic ahead of time. Images may be captured at the client from the client's video buffer and reused. Software applications including applets may be decompiled and reused at a later date where a time-limited or access-limited use was originally intended.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a process for treating a compound having epithio structure for disposal, and more particularly to a process for treating for disposal an unused portion of a mixture comprising a compound having epithio structures and a catalyst for curing the compound obtained in a process comprising casting and polymerizing the mixture to produce an optical material, such as a plastic lens, a prism, an optical fiber, an information recording substrate and a filter. 2. Description of the Related Arts The present inventors have discovered novel compounds having epithio structures which provide optical materials having useful properties as optical materials, i.e., a small thickness, a small chromatic aberration, a refractive index of 1.7 or more and an Abbe number of 35 or more as described in the specifications of patent application for these compounds (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Heisei 9(1997)-110979 and Japanese Patent Application No. Heisei 8(1996)-5797). These compounds having epithio structures and compounds having epithio structures which are similar to these compounds (hereinafter, both referred to as compounds having epithio structures) show large reactivity in the presence of a curing catalyst. However, no process for mildly solidifying an unused portion of these compounds for disposal have been developed. Compositions containing a compound having episufide structures also show large reactivity in the presence of a curing catalyst. For example, when such compositions are left standing in a completely adiabatic system, abnormal polymerization takes place to generate a large amount of heat and to form bubbles and fumes. Therefore, to dispose these compounds and compositions, the compounds and the compositions cannot be left standing but must be divided into small portions and kept under control at a low temperature. Disposal in a large amount has been actually impossible. Moreover, compositions containing a compound having epithio groups contain a large amount of sulfur and there is the possibility that toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide and hydrogen sulfide are generated in the abnormal polymerization. Thus, development of a process for mildly solidifying these compositions for disposal has been desired.

Child-resistant closures for containers are well-known and understood to be effective in preventing inadvertent access to potentially dangerous materials, such as prescription medications in such containers, by children. However, such child resistant closures poses problems for elderly people and others with reduced manual dexterity in that it becomes difficult for them to manipulate the closure in order to open the container. Therefore, although it would be socially desirable to have all medication containers include a child-resistant closure, it is not consider possible to implement this in view of the need to dispense medication to elderly people and others with reduced manual dexterity who might be unable to open a container with a child-resistant closure. Therefore, convertible container closures have been developed which can be used in both a child-resistant mode and a non-child-resistant mode. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,934 (Buono) describes a convertible child resistant closure for use with a container having a threaded portion adjacent the container opening, e.g. the container neck, to allow a user to select between a child-resistant configuration and a non-child-resistant configuration. The closure includes coaxial inner and outer caps. The inner cap is defined by a cover wall and a side wall or skirt depending from the cover wall. The side wall includes an inner surface having a threaded portion for engagement with the threaded neck portion of the container and an outer surface including a child resistant portion comprising a series of angular abutments extending thereabout and a non-child resistant portion axially offset from the child resistant portion and preferably in the form of a row of longitudinally extending knurlings. The outer cap is also defined by a cover wall and a side wall depending from the cover wall. The side wall includes an inner surface divided into a first child resistant portion and a second non-child resistant portion axially offset from the first portion. The first portion includes a plurality of angular abutment surfaces complementary to the series of angular abutments on the inner cap and the second portion includes a row of longitudinal knurlings complementary to the knurlings on the inner cap. The inner cap member is positioned within the second cap member and is axially movable between a first position in which the angular surfaces of the inner cap engage the angular abutment surfaces on the outer cap to provide a child resistant closure and a second position in which the knurlings on the outer surface of the inner cap engage the knurlings on the inner surface of the outer cap to provide a non-child resistant closure. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,029 (Gibilisco) describes a child resistant bottle closure including an inner cap member, an interlocking member and an outer cap member. The inner cap member includes threads which are secured to a bottle and includes external grooves on its outer circumferential surface. The interlocking member has pins projecting inwardly from its inner circumferential surface and pins projecting outwardly from its outer circumferential surface. The inwardly projecting pins engage and mate with the external grooves of the inner cap member thus securing the interlocking member to the inner cap member. The outer cap member includes grooves on an inner circumferential wall which mate and engage with the pins of the interlocking member. When in the upright position, the bottle cannot be opened (child-resistant mode) but when inverted, the interlocking member is moved and allows the bottle can be twisted and opened (non-child-resistant mode). Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,003 describes a two-piece closure having a selectably engageable locking device which is engaged or disengaged by axial movement of a collar member relative to a cap member. The cap and collar members have respective sets of teeth which interlock when the collar member is moved axially upwardly into its uppermost position. The neck of the bottle also includes teeth which engage the collar member when the collar member is in the uppermost position, thus preventing rotation of the closure. To unlock the closure, the collar member is slid downward and out of engagement with the cap member. U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,931 describes a two-piece closure having two sets of axial channels on an inner cap and two sets of protrusions on an interior surface of an outer cap. The closure is opened by aligning the protrusions on the outer cap with the proper set of channels on the inner cap, pulling the outer cap up relative to the inner cap, and rotating the outer cap so as to interlock the outer and inner caps. Additional patent literature that describes variable container closures includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,001 (Gach), U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,917 (Choksi et al), U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,977 (Willingham), U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,130 (Weinstein), U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,931 (Minh), U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,161 (Gargione), U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,920 (Moretti), U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,353 (Gargiulo et al), U.S. Pat. No. 6,802,427 (Miceli et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,746 (Miceli et al), and U.S. Pat. Appln. Publ. No. 2002/0027119 (Miceli et al).

This invention relates to the preparation of 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole which is useful in azo dye synthesis. Various processes for the preparation of 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole are known. For example Pubbl. ist. chim. univ. Bologna No. 2, 3-10 (1943); Chemical Abstracts 41:754 discloses the chlorination of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole to give 2-chlorobenzothiazole which is then treated with nitric and sulfuric acids to give 2-chloro-6-nitrobenzothiazole. The 2-chloro-6-nitrobenzothiazole is then treated with alcoholic ammonia under pressure at 140.degree. to give 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole. No yields are stated in the English abstract. It has also been reported [see J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 49, 1748 (1927)] that treatment of 2-mercapto-6-nitrobenzothiazole with concentrated aqueous ammonia under pressure at 160.degree. C. followed by crystallization from alcohol and treatment with bone black gives 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole in small yield. According to the process of this invention, 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole is obtained in good yield and without the use of extreme reaction conditions which the prior art processes require. The compound is obtained according to the process of my invention by contacting 2-mercapto-6-nitrobenzothiazole in the presence of ammonia with hydrogen peroxide. While hydrogen peroxide has previously been used in the preparation of hydroxybenzothiazole from mercaptobenzothiazole (see J. Pharm. Soc. Japan 58, 29-37 (1938); Chemical Abstracts 32:3759), its usefulness in the preparation of 2-amino-6-nitrobenzothiazole from 2-mercapto-6-nitrobenzothiazole has heretofore been undisclosed.

Every year, significant portions of the world's commercially important agricultural crops, including foods, textiles, and various domestic plants are lost to pest infestation, resulting in losses in the millions of dollars. Various strategies have been used in attempting to control such pests. One strategy is the use of broad spectrum pesticides, i.e., chemical pesticides with a broad range of activity. However, there are a number of disadvantages to using such chemical pesticides. Specifically, because of their broad spectrum of activity, these pesticides may destroy non-target organisms such as beneficial insects and parasites of destructive pests. Additionally, these chemical pesticides are frequently toxic to animals and humans, and targeted pests frequently develop resistance when repeatedly exposed to such substances. Another strategy has involved the use of biopesticides, which make use of naturally occurring pathogens to control insect, fungal and weed infestations of crops. Biopesticides comprise a bacterium which produces a toxin, a substance toxic to the pest. Biopesticides are generally less harmful to non-target organisms and the environment as a whole than chemical pesticides. The most widely used biopesticide is Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.). B.t. is a widely distributed, rod shaped, aerobic and spore-forming microorganism. During its sporulation cycle, B.t. produces a protein(s) known as a crystal delta-endotoxin(s), which kills insect larvae. B.t., therefore, is very useful as an agricultural pesticide. Some strains, e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai, have been found to be specific for Lepidoptera. Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis has been found to be specific for Diptera (Goldberg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,112). Other strains, e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. tenebrionis (Krieg et al., 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,203), have been found to be specific for Coleoptera. The isolation of another coleopteran toxic Bacillus thuringiensis strain was reported in 1986 (Hernnstadt et al. Bio/Technology vol. 4, 305-308, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,372, 1988). This strain, designated "Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. san diego", M-7, has been deposited at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory, USA under accession number NRRL B-15939. However, the assignee of the '372 patent, Mycogen, Corp. has publicly acknowledged that Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. san diego is Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. tenebrionis. Furthermore, the '372 patent has been assigned to Novo Nordisk A/S. Additionally, there has been disclosed a B.t. strain which is toxic against Lepidoptera and Coleoptera (PCT Application No. WO 90/13651). The toxin disclosed in PCT Application No. WO 90/13651 has a molecular weight of 81 kd. During its sporulation cycle, B.t. produces a protein(s) in crystal form known as a crystal delta-endotoxin(s), having a molecular weight ranging from 27-140 kd, which upon ingestion kills insect larvae. Toxic activity may reside in one or more of such delta-endotoxins in a given B.t. strain. Most delta-endotoxins are protoxins that are proteolytically converted into smaller toxic (truncated) polypeptides in the target insect midgut (Hofte and Whiteley, 1989, Microbiol. Rev. 53:242-255). The delta-endotoxins are encoded by cry (crystal protein) genes. The cry genes have been divided into six classes and several subclasses based on structural similarities and pesticidal specificity. The major classes are Lepidoptera-specific (cryI); Lepidoptera-and Diptera-specific (cryII); Coleoptera-specific (cryIII); Diptera-specific (cryIV) (Hofte and Whiteley, 1989, Microbiol. Rev. 53:242-255); Coleoptera- and Lepidoptera-specific (referred to as cryV genes by Tailor et al., 1992, Molecular Microbiology 6:1211-1217); and Nematode-specific (referred to as cryV and cryVI by Feitelson et al., 1992, Bio/Technology 10:271-275) genes. Delta-endotoxins have been produced by recombinant DNA methods. The delta-endotoxins produced by recombinant DNA methods may or may not be in crystal form. B.t. delta-endotoxin is water insoluble except at alkaline pH, and is almost always plasmid encoded. Some strains of Bacillus thuringiensis have been shown to produce a heat-stable pesticidal adenine-nucleotide analog, known as .beta.-exotoxin or thuringiensin, which is pesticidal alone (Sebesta et al., in H. D. Burges (ed.), Microbial Control of Pests and Plant Diseases, Academic Press, New York p. 249-281, 1981). .beta.-exotoxin has been found in the supernatant of some Bacillus thuringiensis cultures. It has a molecular weight of 789 and is comprised of adenosine, glucose, and allaric acid (Luthy et al., in Kurstak (ed.), Microbial and Viral Pesticides, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1982, pp. 35-72). Its host range includes, but is not limited to, Musca domestica, Mamestra configurata Walker, Tetranychus urticae, Drosophila melanogaster, and Tetranychus cinnabarinus. The toxicity of .beta.-exotoxin is thought to be due to inhibition of DNA-directed RNA polymerase by competition with ATP. It has been shown that .beta.-exotoxin is encoded by a Cry plasmid in five Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.) strains and that .beta.-exotoxin may be classified as type I or type II .beta.-exotoxin (Levinson et al., 1990, J. Bacteriol. 172:3172-3179). .beta.-exotoxin type I was found to be produced by B.t. subsp. thuringiensis serotype 1, B.t. subsp. tolworthi serotype 9, and B.t. subsp. darmstadiensis serotype 10. .beta.-exotoxin type II was found to be produced by B.t. subsp. morrisoni serotype 8ab and is active against Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Colorado potato beetle). Other water soluble substances that have been isolated from B.t. include alpha-exotoxin which is toxic against the larvae of Musca domestica (Liuthy, 1980, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 8:1-7); gamma-exotoxins, which are various proteolytic enzymes including lecithinases, chitinases, and proteases, the toxic effects of which are expressed only in combination with beta-exotoxin or delta-endotoxin (Forsberg et al., 1976, Bacillus thuringiensis: Its Effects on Environmental Quality, National Research Council of Canada, NRC Associate Committee on Scientific Criteria for Environmental Quality, Subcommittees on Pesticides and Related Compounds and Biological Phenomena); sigma exotoxin which has a structure similar to beta-exotoxin, and is also active against Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Argauer et al., 1991, J. Entomol. Sci. 26:206-213); and anhydrothuringiensin (Coll. Czechoslovak Chem. Comm. 40, 1775, 1975). WO 94/09630 discloses a water soluble substance that enhances the activity of Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki and Bacillus thuringiensis var. aizawai. Stonard et al. (1994, In Natural and Engineered Pest Management Agents, Paul A. Mann, Robert M. Hollingworth, eds., ACS, Washington, D.C., pp. 25-36) discloses diabroticins having the structure ##STR1## Diabroticins were isolated from B. subtilis and have activity against Diabrotica undecimpunctata, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, Anthomus grandis Boheman, mosquito larvae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Micrococcus lutea, but did not have activity against European corn borer, Escherichia coli, B. subtilis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Activity against other pests were not disclosed in Stonard et al. Diabroticin A was also isolated from fermentation broths of B. cereus. The art has strived to achieve increased mortality of B.t. formulations. Means have included searching for new strains with increased mortality, engineering present strains, and designing more effective formulations by combining B.t. spores and/or crystals with new pesticidal carriers or with chemical pesticides. It is an object of the present invention to improve the insecticidal activity of known B.t. formulations. It is also an object of the present invention to enhance the pesticidal activity of pesticides as well as find novel uses for known pesticidal products. It is advantageous to isolate new strains of Bacillus thuringiensis to produce new substances so that there exists a wider spectrum of biopesticides for any given insect pest.