Abstract: The invention relates to a ganglioside mixture, consisting of gangliosides, of the following general formula: (sugar)-OCH2—CH(—NH—CO—R1)—CH(OH)—CH=CH-R2, wherein (sugar) represents a sugar radical, the group —CO—R1 represents an acyl-fatty acid which is bonded to the radical of the molecule in the form of an amide, R1 represents a straight saturated alkyl radical having at least 10 C-atoms and R2 represents a straight, saturated alkyl radical having at least 10 C-atoms or a straight alkenyl radical having at least 10 C-atoms and one, two or three double bond(s). Said mixture is characterised in that at least 10 wt. % of the gangliosides of the general formula I are of the group —CO—R1 and the acyl-fatty acids are a C20:0 fatty acid. Said mixtures exhibit an improved biological activity.

Abstract: The invention proposes a new scheme for unequal error protection using forward error correction based on Reed-Solomon codes. The invention applies to data packets comprising data symbols having various level of importance. It consists in applying a single RS code to all data symbols regardless of their level of importance, but in skipping one or more of the error correction symbols generated from the data symbols of lower importance when forming error correction packets, if reduction of the redundancy is necessary.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a method of electroplating a wafer surface comprising introducing a plating liquid to the wafer surface in a chamber and rotating the wafer about an axis of rotation passing through the surface to be plated, and including the further step of moving the wafer such that its axis of rotation is itself caused to rotate about a second axis of rotation.

Abstract: An integrated circuit is provided with at least two output drivers (4) without substrate contacts. The integrated circuit is further provided with at least a core with a Vssc contact (7, 9) and a periphery provided with at least one Vssq contact (8). A resistance (11) with a value of between 100 and 300 ohms lies between each Vssq contact (8) and the Vssc contact (7, 9). The value of the resistance (11) is preferably greater than 250 ohms in the case of output drivers which are not slew-rate controlled, and the value of the resistance (11) is preferably at most 250 ohms in the case of slew-rate controlled output drivers. The resistance (11) may be provided in the Vssq pad.

Abstract: A package for increasing shelf life of electrodes packaged therein. A first package within which one or more gel-containing electrode pads are sealed. In addition, at least one moisture source is sealed within the package.

Abstract: A method of forming a trench in the bed of a body of water, the bed having an initial undisturbed upper surface, comprises suspending a pressure line from a vessel floating on the body of water, the pressure line terminating downwardly in a downwardly directed nozzle. The nozzle is positioned a small distance above the bed, and water is pumped under pressure on board the vessel and is discharged via the pressure line and nozzle downwardly against the bed surface with the water pumped at an overpressure between 0.01 bar and 20 bar and at a flow rate of 0.25 to 20.0 cm per second. The distance of the nozzle above the surface of the bed is not more than ten times the diameter of the water jet defined by the nozzle, preferably about six times the diameter of that water jet.

Abstract: The invention relates to a computer program product comprising semaphore means for stalling a first task until one of a predetermined set of events occurs. The computer program product comprises specific message files associated with said first task for receiving data to be processed by the first task. The occurrence of one of said set of predetermined events causes a piece of data to be written in one of the associated messages files. The computer program in accordance with the invention can be implemented by using any operating system having basic synchronization tools. Such synchronization tools include semaphore means for causing a task to be waiting for a unique event such as the release of the semaphore by another task. They also include blocking mechanisms for temporarily blocking “interruptions” coming from interruption handlers during data writing (message reception) in the message files associated with the first task.

Abstract: There is disclosed an improved system and method for providing a scalable objective metric for automatically evaluating the video quality of a video image. The system comprises an objective metric controller that is capable of receiving a plurality of objective metric figures of merit from a plurality of objective metric model units. Some of the objective metric model units are independent and some are interdependent. The system determines a scalable objective metric from the plurality of objective metric figures of merit. The scalable objective metric represents the best correlation of objective metric measurements of the video image with subjective measurements of the video image. The system is capable of continually determining a new value of the scalable objective metric as the plurality of objective metric model units receive new video images.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a tilt control device and method for an optical disc player, wherein an output offset of a tilt detecting means (3) is calibrated by using an output of a focus controller (7). Since the offset is calibrated based on the focus controlling output, the calibration can be performed for all written and non-written discs. As an alternative, a tilt control with high accuracy can be performed by adjusting a tilt frame based on at least two measurements of the controlling output of said focus control means at different radial positions. Thereby, the disc can be positioned in a radial tilt zero position with the aid of the focus controlling output. Now, the tilt detecting means is no longer required for tilt adjustment.

Abstract: A multi-beam optical disc system is disclosed for recording on DVD or CD optical discs. Recorded data includes inner and outer error protection codes applied to data blocks having a predetermined size. Each block comprises several sectors. Multi-channel read-out provides in parallel a set of N sub-sequences, without restriction to the block or sub-block boundaries. Sector ID codes are detected within each channel to identify a series of sub-blocks forming a part of a data block and, even in the absence of data from the start of the block, outer error protection circuitry processes the sub-blocks to accumulate a partial error protection syndrome for the block. Upon reaching the end of the block, a syndrome for a next block within the subsequence is accumulated.

Abstract: An electrode for electric discharge machining comprises a high strength pearlitic steel wire having a carbon content higher than 0.6% and a tensile strength higher than 3000 N/mm2. The steel wire is coated with a copper free zinc or zinc alloy coating. The electrode is in particular suitable for high precision performance applications.

Abstract: An optical scanning device is adapted for scanning record carriers (13, 27) having transparent layers (14, 28) of different thicknesses through which a converging beam (12, 26) must pass. An objective lens (11) of the device is designed to form the converging beam (14) for scanning through a first transparent layer (14). When scanning through a second transparent layer (28), the objective lens is operated at different conjugate distances, resulting in a small field. The field is increased by introducing spherical aberration in the radiation beam (25) incident on the objective lens and compensating this spherical aberration in the objective lens.

Abstract: This amplifier is intended for amplifying variable signals superimposed on a continuous signal. This continuous signal serves in particular for biasing a component, a magnetoresistive resistor used as a hard disk reading head. To avoid the harmful effects of a sudden fluctuation in the continuous signal, this amplifier comprises a set of switchable reactive elements (70) for acting on said transfer function and a bias drift compensation circuit (80) for controlling the switching of said switchable elements with a view to anticipating the effects of said fluctuation.

Abstract: An apparatus for treating wafers, provided with at least one treatment chamber, the apparatus being provided with a feeding section in which wafers contained in a wafer storage box can be fed into the apparatus, the apparatus being provided with a wafer handling apparatus, by means of which wafers can be taken out of the wafer storage boxes so as to be treated in the treatment chamber, and the apparatus being provided with at least one sensor box arranged such that the wafer handling apparatus can feed a wafer into the sensor box through an opening provided for that purpose in the at least one sensor box, and the at least one sensor box being arranged to carry out measurements at a wafer, wherein the at least one sensor box is movably arranged and the apparatus is provided with a sensor box handling apparatus arranged to move the at least one sensor box from a storage position to a measuring position.

Abstract: A magnetoresistive device (11) having a lateral structure and provided with a non-magnetic spacer layer (3) of organic semiconductor material allows the presence of an additional electrode (19). With this electrode (19), a switch-function is integrated into the device (11). Preferably, electrically conductive layers (13,23) are present for the protection of the ferromagnetic layers (1,2). The magnetoresistive device (11) is suitable for integration into an array so as to act as an MRAM device.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and device (100) for prefetching referenced resources (105) from servers (102, 103, 104). A first resource (106) is scanned for unfetched references (107), which are weighted and prefetched in the order of their weight. The computation of the weight is based on the number of times the resource referenced by the reference has been fetched previously, and on the number of times one or more further resources have been fetched previously from a server that serves the resource referenced by the reference. The device (100) can be realized as a computer program product.

Abstract: A method of improving adhesion of a cap oxide to nanoporous silica for integrated circuit fabrication. In one embodiment, the method comprises several steps. The first step is to receive a wafer in a deposition chamber. Then a porous layer of material is deposited on the wafer. Next, a portion of the porous layer is densified in order to make it more compatible for adhesion to a cap layer. Finally, a cap layer is deposited onto the porous layer.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for printing a pattern on a photosensitive surface using a spatial light modulator (SLM). An exemplary method includes defining two or more exposure areas on the photosensitive surface, the exposure areas overlapping along respective edge portions of the exposure areas to form an overlap zone therebetween. Two or more exposure areas are exposed to print an image therein, the exposing extending through the overlap zone. The exposing within the overlap zone is then attenuated.

Abstract: Testing an integrated circuit IC (2) with an embedded or integrated non-volatile memory (3), in particular an embedded memory, an EPROM or EEPROM, is particularly difficult because mass production and low prices and minimal profit margins require that the testing, which usually requires expensive and large equipment, can be done in a minimum of time. Usually, the testing of an embedded memory (3) is a kind of bottleneck during manufacturing. A test structure and design and an associated test method this test time for an embedded memory. In essence, a few test devices (8,9) integrated into the IC (2), use of the serial port provided on the IC, and an appropriate test design of a built-in self test whereby predetermined regular test patterns are written automatically into the embedded memory and an automated memory readout is compressed on the IC for a serial readout from it, allow a fast test of the embedded memory and thus circumvent the aforementioned bottleneck.