Abstract: A method of making a package for an integrated circuit die. In one embodiment the method comprises providing a semiconductor wafer having a plurality of integrated circuit die formed thereon, each integrated circuit die having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface and a plurality of bonding pads formed on the first surface, prior to dicing the semiconductor wafer, selectively applying a curable material over a portion of the first surface of an integrated circuit die formed on the wafer without covering the plurality of bonding pads, curing the curable material and dicing the semiconductor wafer to separate the integrated circuit die from other integrated circuit die formed upon the wafer.

Abstract: Calcium-strontium-hydroxyphosphate (strontium-apatite-) cement preparations are described, comprising a powder mixture, which contains molar quantities of the components calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr) and phosphate (P) in the mixture in the ranges 1.00<Ca/P?1.50 and 0<Sr/P<1.5, together with an alkali salt or an ammonium salt of phosphoric acid, and with water and/or an aqueous solution. The powder mixture particularly contains, as the Ca-component, Ca3(PO4)2 (TCP), and as the Sr-component SrHPO4 and/or Sr3(PO4)2 and optionally additional SrCO3. As the aqueous mixing solution for the formation of the strontium-apatite cement, an aqueous solution of an alkali salt or an ammonium salt of the phosphoric acid is suitable.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for delivering prostheses to body lumens, such as stents and grafts to blood vessels, utilize a delivery device which carries one or more linearized elements. The linearized elements assume non-linear configurations, particularly helical configurations, when advanced and released from the delivery device. By selectively controlling the length and/or number of elements delivered from the delivery device, extended and disseminated disease within the body lumens may be effectively treated.

Abstract: Data of both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 is generated simultaneously with a small circuit scale and a small power consumption. A moving picture encoding apparatus for encoding a moving picture through motion-compensated inter-frame prediction has: a MPEG-2 encoding unit including a motion vector estimator, a frame memory, a forward prediction circuit, a bidirectional prediction circuit, a prediction selection circuit, an intra-frame encoding circuit and a local decoding circuit; a MPEG-4 encoding unit including a frame extraction circuit for extracting a predetermined MPEG-2 frame and a transcoder for encoding the extracted frame; a motion vector calculator calculating a motion vector to be used for MPEG-4 prediction from a motion vector to be used for MPEG-2 prediction; and a prediction mode controller controlling the prediction mode of the MPEG-2 encoding unit in such that the MPEG-2 prediction mode becomes coincident with the MPEG-4 prediction mode.

Abstract: A back substrate has a plurality of electron emission elements. A display substrate comprises an optically transparent substrate disposed opposite to the back substrate; an accelerating electrode formed on the inner face of the optically transparent substrate for accelerating electron beams emitted from the electron emission elements; and luminescent materials excited by the electron beams to emit light toward the outer face of the optically transparent substrate. A frame member supports the back substrate and display substrate on their peripheries. A vacuum chamber is defined by the back substrate, display substrate, and frame member. A conductor electrically connected to the accelerating electrode is drawn out to the outside of the vacuum chamber. A high voltage connector for supplying an accelerating voltage to the conductor is removably connected to the conductor.

Abstract: A voltage controlled oscillator and a phase locked loop circuit having the same reduce power consumption by using charges leaked into a ground voltage terminal for an output driving operation with characteristics of both output terminals having different phases in a unit delay cell. The voltage controlled oscillator includes a plurality of unit delay cells connected serially. Each unit delay cell comprises a differential amplification unit and an output driving unit. The differential amplification unit compares a plurality of input voltages having different phases and amplifies the comparison result. The output driving unit, which is connected to both output terminals of the differential amplification units, drives an output voltage of another output terminal with a potential of one of both output terminals.

Abstract: Immunological assays for several biological markers for thyroid disorders in a biological sample are performed in a single test with a combination of sandwich-type, sequential competitive, and serological assays by the use of particles classified into groups that are distinguishable by flow cytometry, one group for the assay of each marker. Each group of particles is coated with a different immunological binding member, and coating densities, co-coating materials, and special buffer solutions are used to adjust for differences in the sensitivities and dynamic ranges of each of the markers in the typical sample.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention reduce the noise occurring when the lubricating layer on the magnetic disk is smoothed. In one embodiment, a magnetic disk drive has a read/write mode parameter table for generating an electric current to be supplied to a voice coil motor when the magnetic head performs data read/write operations on the magnetic disk. The magnetic disk drive also has a smoothing mode parameter table for generating another electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor when neither a data read nor a write operation is performed on the magnetic disk. The CPU refers to either the read/write mode parameter table or the smoothing mode parameter table and controls the electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor.

Abstract: A method for forming a stud bumped semiconductor die is disclosed. The method includes forming a ball at the tip of a coated wire passing through a hole in a capillary, where the coated wire has a core and an oxidation-resistant coating. The formed ball is pressed to the conductive region on the semiconductor die. The coated wire is cut, thereby leaving a conductive stud bump on the conductive region, where the conductive stud bump includes an inner conductive portion and an outer oxidation-resistant layer.

Abstract: In a storage area network system in which storage subsystems each containing disk devices are connected to servers through fiber channels and fiber channel switches, one of disk devices in each of the storage subsystems is used as either a storage control master device or a storage control replica device in which group setting information concerning classification of disk devices into a storage management group and a storage access definition group or storage access definition groups is stored. When a server starts, the server is made to selectively recognize the storage control master device or the storage control replica device, to read the group setting information from the recognized storage control device, and further to recognize only disk devices belonging to a group in association with the server.

Abstract: An image input can be executed without any influence of physical conditions of an inspection object and environment such as installation area by utilizing a cordless type image pickup apparatus in the excellent portability combining a lighting apparatus to a digital camera. On the occasion of picking up an image of such inspection object, marks of the shape such as the rectangular shape, circular shape and linear line shape and marks of the shape combining the linear lines (plus sign (+), capital letter L or cross (+)) of known size are allocated within the same image and these marks are extracted simultaneously. Thereby, compensation process for the magnifying factor, position and tilt is conducted using the marks allocated in the image with the equal interval. Input data is continuously applied depending on the inspection object to generate a total inspection map by combining such input data.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a disk device capable of writing highly accurate servo data using an extremely simple technique, and a manufacturing method therefor. According to one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a disk device includes: mounting a magnetic disk and each assembly for driving the magnetic disk, such as an SPM and a VCM, in a base and attaching a top cover so as to seal the enclosure (made up of the base and the top cover) with each assembly of the HDD therein; replacing the air within the hard disk assembly (HDA) with a gas having a lower density than air, such as He; writing servo data to the magnetic disk in a self servo track write operation; and replacing the gas within the HDA with air.

Abstract: The invention provides isolated nucleic acid and amino acid sequences of sensory cell specific G-protein coupled receptors, antibodies to such receptors, methods of detecting such nucleic acids and receptors, and methods of screening for modulators of sensory cell specific G-protein coupled receptors.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a trench MOSFET with high cell density is disclosed. The method introduces a sidewall oxide spacer for narrowing the opening of the trench structure, thereby decreasing the cell pitch of the memory units. Moreover, the source structure is formed automatically by means of an extra contact silicon etch for preventing the photoresist from lifting during the ion implantation of the prior art. On the other hand, the contact structure is filled with W-plug for overcoming the defect of poor metal step coverage resulted from filling the contact structure with AlSiCu according to the prior art. Thus, the cell density of the device can be increased; and the Rds-on and the power loss of the device can be decreased.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention enable the flying of a slider to be lowered and increase recording density with a simple configuration in a magnetic disk apparatus. In one embodiment, a magnetic disk apparatus comprises a magnetic disk including tracks for recording data; a magnetic head slider disposed with a magnetic head that flies over the rotating magnetic disk and records data to, or plays back data from, the magnetic disk; and a control device that controls the operation of the apparatus. Slider flying height data that vary inside the tracks are prerecorded in the tracks of the magnetic disk. The control device controls the operation of the magnetic head slider with respect to the magnetic disk on the basis of the slider flying height data recorded in the tracks.

Abstract: A thin-film includes an inductive element and a first and second magneto-resistive effect elements in which the first and second magneto-resistive effect elements are arranged in proximity to each other on a substrate, and one surface of the substrate perpendicular to the surface formed with the first and second magneto-resistive effect elements constitutes a slider surface, thereby providing appropriate height of the magneto-resistive effect elements.

Abstract: Disclosed are compositions and methods for achieving successful treatment of disorders of the human prostate. In preferred embodiments, methods and compositions are provided that improve the specificity and safety of gene delivery vectors, and improve the prostate-specificity and activity of genetic constructs targeted for prostate-specific expression. Also disclosed are methods utilizing a variety of therapeutic genes, including those encoding tumor-specific therapeutics, e.g., TRAIL, tumor suppressors, cytotoxins, and the like, for the treatment of proliferative disorders of the prostate, and in particular, prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer and prostatic tumors. In preferred embodiments genetic constructs are disclosed comprising one or more prostate-specific chimeric enhancer elements in combination with one or more wildtype core enhancer elements and a prostate-specific proximal promoter that increase expression of selected heterologous genes operably positioned under their control.

Abstract: An information recording apparatus such as an optical disc that can avoid an unrecordable condition between a power-on operation and an available state for recording thereby to solve a problem that an image taking chance is missed in a recording step, wherein its constitution is such that: receiving a command to turn on the apparatus after switching, a system controller drives a power-supply circuit to activate a drive controller and a memory controller; if the optical disc is not replaced while in power-off operation by a sub-battery, the system controller issues a request for high-speed activation, based on information stored in an EEPROM, to the drive controller, and drives plural drive control units one after another thereby to establish an activation period confirmedly, allowing the memory controller to accept a request for a recording start from the system controller without waiting for a report of activation completion to be issued by the drive controller.

Abstract: The present invention provides a dummy canister which can cool canisters with good efficiency. Canisters 2A and dummy canisters 2B are attached in a mixed configuration to the storage part 1C of a storage device 1. Each dummy canister 2B can expand and contract in two stages in the attachment direction. Among these dummy canisters 2B, the dummy canister 2B (1) that is adjacent to a canister 2A is set in a first shape, and has a shorter length. The other dummy canisters 2B (2) through 2B (5) are respectively set in a second shape, so that the length dimension of these dummy canisters is lengthened.

Abstract: The invention provides polypeptides and polynucleotides encoding a novel chemokine receptor, CCX CKR. The invention further provides reagents and methods for identifying agents that modulate the activity or expression of the receptors, as well as methods for detecting receptor expression.