In a multi-layered structure of the organic EL diode, a gate insulating layer is formed on a buffer layer. A first insulating layer is formed on the gate insulating layer. An anode is formed on the first insulating layer. Second and third insulating layers commonly having an open portion are sequentially formed on the anode. An organic EL layer and a cathode are connected to the anode through the open portion. The anode is connected to a drain electrode of a TFT through an anode contact hole and the TFT is insulated from the organic EL layer by the third insulating layer.

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 2001-44928 filed on Jul. 25, 2001, and 2001-61982 filed on Oct. 9, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to organic electroluminescent devices, and more particularly, to an active matrix electroluminescent device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Flat panel display (FPD) devices having small size, lightweight, and low power consumption may have been a subject of recent research in the coming of the information age. FPD devices may be classified into two types depending on whether the device emits or receives light. One type is a light-emitting type display device that emits light to display images, and the other type is a light-receiving type display device that uses an external light source to display images. Plasma display panels (PDPs), field emission display (FED) devices, and electroluminescent (EL) devices are examples of the light-emitting type display devices. Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices are examples of the light-receiving type display device.
Among many kinds of FPD devices, LCD devices are widely used because of their excellent characteristics of resolution, color display and display quality. However, since the LCD device is the light-receiving type display device, it has some disadvantages such as poor contrast ratio, narrow viewing angle, and difficulty in enlarging its size. Therefore, new types of FPD need to be researched and developed to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages.
Recently, organic EL devices have been of the most interest in research and development because they are light-emitting type displays having a wide viewing angle and a good contrast ratio as compared with the LCD devices. Since a backlight is not necessary, the organic EL device can be light weight and thin. Furthermore, the organic EL device has low power consumption. When driving the organic EL device, a low voltage of direct current (DC) can be used, and a rapid response speed can be obtained. As widely known, since the organic EL device is totally solid phase, unlike the LCD device, it is sufficiently strong to withstand external impacts and has a greater operational temperature range. Additionally, the organic EL device can be manufactured at a low cost; particularly since a manufacturing process of the EL device is very simple in contrast with a LCD device or a PDP, only deposition and encapsulation apparatuses are necessary for manufacturing the organic EL device.
As an operating method for the organic EL device, a passive matrix operating method not using additional thin film transistors (TFTs) is conventionally utilized. However, since the passive matrix organic EL device has many limitations in resolution, power consumption and life time, an active matrix organic EL device has been researched and developed as a next generation display device requiring high resolution and large display area. In the passive matrix organic EL device, scanning lines and signal lines perpendicularly cross each other to be arranged in a matrix shape. In the active matrix organic EL device, a TFT is disposed at each pixel as a switch turning on/off a first electrode connected to the TFT and a second electrode facing the first electrode is commonly used.
A scanning voltage is sequentially applied to the scanning lines to operate each pixel in the passive organic EL device. To obtain the required average brightness, an instantaneous brightness of each pixel during the selection period should reach a value resulting from multiplying the average brightness by the number of scanning lines. Accordingly, as the number of the scanning lines increases, applied voltage and current increases. Therefore, the passive matrix organic EL device is not adequate to a display of high resolution and large area because the device is easily deteriorated and the power consumption is high.
However, in the active matrix organic EL device, a voltage applied to the pixel is stored in a storage capacitor, thereby maintaining the voltage and driving the device until a voltage of next frame is applied, regardless of the number of the scanning lines. As a result, since an equivalent brightness is obtained with a low applied current, an active matrix organic EL device of low power consumption, high resolution and large area may be made.
FIG. 1 is an equivalent circuit diagram showing a basic pixel structure of a conventional active matrix organic EL device.
In FIG. 1, a scanning line 10 is arranged in a first direction, and signal line 20 and a power line 30 are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, thereby defining a pixel region. The signal line 20 and the power line 30 are spaced apart form each other. A switching TFT xe2x80x9cTS,xe2x80x9d an addressing element, is connected to the scanning line 10 and the signal line 20, and a storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d is connected to the switching TFT xe2x80x9cTSxe2x80x9d and the power line 30. A driving TFT xe2x80x9cTD,xe2x80x9d a current source element, is connected to the storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d and the power line 30, and an organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d is connected to the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTD.xe2x80x9d
The organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d has a double-layer structure of organic thin films between an anode and a cathode. When a forward current is applied to the organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDEL,xe2x80x9d an electron and a hole are recombined to generate a electron-hole pair through the P(positive)-N(negative) junction between the anode providing the hole and the cathode providing the electron. The electron-hole pair has a lower energy than the separated electron and hole. Therefore, an energy difference occurs between the recombination and the separation of electron-hole pair, and light is emitted due to the energy difference. The switching TFT xe2x80x9cTSxe2x80x9d adjusts the forward current through the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTDxe2x80x9d and stores charges in the storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d
A principle of driving the active matrix organic EL device will be illustrated.
When a voltage is applied to a selected scanning line 10 according to a selection signal, a gate electrode of the switching TFT xe2x80x9cTSxe2x80x9d is turned on and a data signal of the signal line 20 passes the switching TFT xe2x80x9cTS.xe2x80x9d The data signal is applied to the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTDxe2x80x9d and the storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCST.xe2x80x9d Accordingly, a gate electrode of the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTDxe2x80x9d is turned on and a current of the power line 30 is supplied to organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d through the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTD.xe2x80x9d As a result, light is emitted. An open degree of the gate electrode of the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTDxe2x80x9d depends on the data signal so that a gray level can be obtained by adjusting a current flowing through the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTD.xe2x80x9d Moreover, since the data signal stored in the storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d is applied to the driving TFT xe2x80x9cTDxe2x80x9d during a non-selected period, light is continuously emitted at the organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d until a voltage of the next frame is applied to the scanning line.
Accordingly, the active matrix organic EL device uses a lower voltage and a lower instantaneous current in contrast with the passive matrix organic EL device. Since the organic EL diode is continuously driven during one frame regardless of the number of the scanning lines, the active matrix organic EL device is adequate for low power consumption, high resolution, large area.
In the active matrix organic EL device, a current flows through a TFT. Therefore, a poly silicon (p-Si) TFT of high field effect mobility is preferable to a conventional amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT of a low field effect mobility. Since the p-Si TFT has high field effect mobility, a driving circuit may be formed on a substrate with the p-Si TFT so that a cost for driving integrated circuit (IC) is reduced and fabrication is simplified. A low temperature crystallization method through a laser annealing of a-Si is widely used as a fabricating method of p-Si.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional active matrix organic EL device. FIG. 2 shows an organic EL diode, a storage capacitor and a driving TFT. Moreover, a bottom emission type, in which light is emitted through an anode of a lower electrode, is adopted.
In FIG. 2, a TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d having a semiconductor layer 32, a gate electrode 38, source and drain electrodes 50 and 52 is formed on a substrate 10. The TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d is connected to a storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d and an organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDEL.xe2x80x9d The storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCSTxe2x80x9d includes a power electrode 42 and a storage electrode 34 facing each other. A first insulating layer 40 is interposed between the power electrode 42 and the storage electrode 34. The organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d includes an anode 58 and a cathode 66 facing each other, and an organic EL layer 64 is interposed therebetween. The source electrode 50 of the TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d is connected to the power electrode 42 and the drain electrode 52 of the TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d is connected to the anode 58 of the organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDEL.xe2x80x9d
In the bottom emission type, the anode 58 is made of transparent material to transmit light emitted from the organic EL layer 64 and a cathode 66 is made of metal having low work function to inject electrons into the organic EL layer 64 with ease. In the top emission type, since light of the organic EL layer is emitted upward through the cathode, the cathode is made of transparent material.
Regarding multi-layered structure of insulating layers, a buffer layer 30 between the substrate 10 and the semiconductor layer 32, a first insulating layer 40 for the storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCST,xe2x80x9d a second insulating layer 44 between the source electrode 50 and the power electrode 42, a third insulating layer 54 between the anode 58 and the drain electrode 52 and a passivation layer 60 between the organic EL layer 64 and the anode 58 are formed. The first, second and third insulating layers 40, 44 and 54 and the passivation layer 60 have contact holes for electric connection.
FIGS. 3A to 3I are cross-sectional views showing fabricating process of an active matrix organic EL device of FIG. 2. Patterns are formed through a photolithography process of photoresist (PR) coating, aligning, exposing and developing steps using a mask.
In FIG. 3A, after a buffer layer 30 is formed on an entire surface of a substrate 10, an active layer 32a and a storage electrode 34 of poly crystalline silicon are formed on the buffer layer 30 through a first mask process.
In FIG. 3B, after forming a gate insulating layer 36 on the entire surface of the substrate 10, a gate electrode 38 of metal is formed on the gate insulating layer 36 over the active layer 32a through a second mask process.
In FIG. 3C, after forming a first insulating layer 40 on the entire surface of the substrate 10, a power electrode 42 of metal is formed on the first insulating layer 40 to cover the storage electrode 34 through a third mask process.
In FIG. 3D, a second insulating layer 44 having a source contact hole, a drain contact hole and a storage contact hole 46a, 46b and 48 resulting from a fourth mask process is formed on the power electrode 42. The source and drain contact holes 46a and 46b expose right and left side portions of the active layer 32a, respectively, and the storage contact hole 48 exposes the power electrode 42. The right and left side portions of the active layer 32a compose source and drain regions xe2x80x9cIaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cIb,xe2x80x9d respectively. Next, the semiconductor layer 32 having an active layer 32a and an ohmic contact layer 32b is completed through impurity doping both sides of the active layer 32a with ions.
In FIG. 3E, a drain electrode 52 and a source electrode 50 spaced apart from each other are formed on the second insulating layer 44 through a fifth mask process. The source electrode 50 is connected to the ohmic contact layer 32b of the source region xe2x80x9cIaxe2x80x9d through the source contact hole 46a (of FIG. 3D), and the drain electrode 52 is connected to the ohmic contact layer 32c of the drain region xe2x80x9cIbxe2x80x9d through the drain contact hole 46b (of FIG. 3D) and connected to the power electrode 42 through the storage contact hole 48 (of FIG. 3D). Through the previous process, a TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d having the semiconductor layer 32, the gate electrode 38, source and drain electrodes 50 and 52 is completed. Moreover, a region corresponding to the power electrode 42 and the storage electrode 34 composes a storage capacitor xe2x80x9cCST.xe2x80x9d The storage electrode 34 is connected to the gate electrode 38 (not shown) and the power electrode 42 is unified with the power line parallel to the signal line.
In FIG. 3F, a third insulating layer 54 having a drain contact hole 56 resulting from a sixth mask process is formed on the source and drain electrodes 50 and 52.
In FIG. 3G, an anode 58 of transparent conductive material, which is connected to the drain electrode 52 through the drain contact hole 56 (of FIG. 3F), is formed on the third insulating layer 54 through a seventh mask process.
In FIG. 3H, a passivation layer 60 having a open portion 62 exposing the anode 58 is formed on the entire surface of the substrate 10 through a eighth mask process. The passivation layer 60 protects the TFT xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d from moisture or impurities.
In FIG. 3I, an organic EL layer 64 and a cathode 66 composing an organic EL diode xe2x80x9cDELxe2x80x9d with the anode 58 through the open portion 62 (of FIG. 3H) are formed on the passivation layer 60.
At least eight mask processes are necessary for a conventional active matrix organic EL device. Since the mask process includes deposition of high temperature, consumption of the PR and a process of physical or chemical treatment such as an etching, production yield decreases according to an increase of the number of the masks.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a liquid crystal display device that substantially obviates one or more of problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An advantage of the present invention is to provide an active matrix organic EL device of low fabrication cost and high production yield by reducing the number of mask processes.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. These and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, an active matrix organic electroluminescent device includes: a substrate; a semiconductor layer and a storage electrode on the substrate; a gate insulating layer on the semiconductor layer and the storage electrode, the gate insulating layer having source and drain contact holes; a gate electrode on the gate insulating layer over the semiconductor layer; a first insulating layer on the gate electrode, the first insulating layer covering the storage electrode and having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer; a power electrode on the first insulating layer, the power electrode covering the storage electrode; an anode of transparent conductive material on the first insulating layer; a second insulating layer on the anode, the second insulating layer having an open portion, an anode contact hole and a storage contact hole, the second insulating layer having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer and the first insulating layer; source and drain electrodes on the second insulating layer spaced apart from each other, the source electrode being connected to the semiconductor layer through the source contact hole and to the power electrode through the storage contact hole, the drain electrode being connected to the semiconductor through the drain contact hole and to the anode through the anode contact hole; a third insulating layer on the source and drain electrodes, the third insulating layer having the open portion in common with the second insulating layer; an organic electroluminescent layer on the third insulating layer, the organic electroluminescent layer contacting the anode through the open portion; and a cathode of opaque conductive material on the organic electroluminescent layer.
In another aspect of the present invention, a fabricating method of an active matrix organic electroluminescent device includes: forming a semiconductor layer and a storage electrode on a substrate; forming a gate insulating layer on the semiconductor layer and the storage electrode, the gate insulating layer having source and drain contact holes; forming a gate electrode on the gate insulating layer over the semiconductor layer; forming a first insulating layer on the gate electrode, the first insulating layer covering the storage electrode and having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer; forming a power electrode on the first insulating layer, the power electrode covering the storage electrode; forming an anode of transparent conductive material on the first insulating layer; forming a second insulating layer on the anode, the second insulating layer having an open portion, an anode contact hole and a storage contact hole, the second insulating layer having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer and the first insulating layer; forming source and drain electrodes on the second insulating layer spaced apart from each other, the source electrode being connected to the semiconductor layer through the source contact hole and to the power electrode through the storage contact hole, the drain electrode being connected to the semiconductor through the drain contact hole and to the anode through the anode contact hole; forming a third insulating layer on the source and drain electrodes, the third insulating layer having the open portion in common with the second insulating layer; forming an organic electroluminescent layer on the third insulating layer, the organic electroluminescent layer contacting the anode through the open portion; and forming a cathode of opaque conductive material on the organic electroluminescent layer.
In another aspect, an active matrix organic electroluminescent device includes: a substrate; a semiconductor layer on the substrate; a gate insulating layer on the semiconductor layer, the gate insulating layer having source and drain contact holes; a gate electrode and a storage electrode on the gate insulating layer, the gate electrode being over the semiconductor layer, the gate electrode and the storage electrode being simultaneously formed; a first insulating layer on the gate electrode and the storage electrode, the first insulating layer having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer; a power electrode and an anode on the first insulating layer, the power electrode covering the storage electrode, the power electrode and the anode being simultaneously formed; a second insulating layer on the power electrode and the anode, the second insulating layer having an open portion, an anode contact hole and a storage contact hole, the second insulating layer having the source and drain contact holes in common with the gate insulating layer and the first insulating layer; source and drain electrodes on the second insulating layer spaced apart from each other, the source electrode being connected to the semiconductor layer through the source contact hole and to the power electrode through the storage contact hole, the drain electrode being connected to the semiconductor through the drain contact hole and to the anode through the anode contact hole; a third insulating layer on the source and drain electrodes, the third insulating layer having the open portion in common with the second insulating layer; an organic electroluminescent layer on the third insulating layer, the organic electroluminescent layer contacting the anode through the open portion; and a cathode on the organic electroluminescent layer.
In another aspect, a fabricating method of an active matrix organic electroluminescent device includes: forming a semiconductor layer on a substrate through a first mask process; doping ions into the semiconductor layer; forming a gate insulating layer on the semiconductor layer; simultaneously forming a gate electrode and a storage electrode on the gate insulating layer through a second mask process, the gate electrode being over the semiconductor layer; forming a first insulating layer on the gate electrode and the storage electrode; simultaneously forming a power electrode and an anode on the first insulating layer through a third insulating layer, the power electrode covering the storage electrode; forming a second insulating layer on the power electrode and the anode; simultaneously forming an anode contact hole, storage contact hole, source and drain contact holes of the second insulating layer through a four mask process, the anode contact hole exposing the anode, the storage contact hole exposing the power electrode, the source and drain electrodes exposing the semiconductor layer; forming source and drain electrodes spaced apart from each other on the second insulating layer through a fifth mask process, the source electrode being connected to the semiconductor layer through the source contact hole and to the power electrode through the storage contact hole, the drain electrode being connected to the semiconductor through the drain contact hole and to the anode through the anode contact hole; forming a third insulating layer on the source and drain electrodes; forming an open portion of the third insulating layer through a sixth mask process, the open portion exposing the anode; forming an organic electroluminescent layer on the third insulating layer, the organic electroluminescent layer contacting the anode through the open portion; and forming a cathode on the organic electroluminescent layer.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Active matrix organic electroluminescent device simplifying a fabricating process and a fabricating method thereof


Methods for conveying Phytophthora sojae resistance into non-resistant soybean germplasm are provided. In some embodiments, the methods include introgressing Phytophthora sojae resistance into a non-resistant soybean using one or more nucleic acid markers for marker-assisted breeding among soybean lines to be used in a soybean breeding program, wherein the markers are linked to and/or associated with Phytophthora sojae resistance. Also provided are single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with resistance to pathogens; soybean plants, seeds, and tissue cultures produced by any of the disclosed methods; seed produced by the disclosed soybean plants; and compositions including amplification primer pairs capable of initiating DNA polymerization by a DNA polymerase on soybean nucleic acid templates to generate soybean marker amplicons to be used in selecting or identifying Phytophthora sojae resistant soybean lines.

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr) is a major cash crop and investment commodity in North America and elsewhere. Soybean oil is one of the most widely used edible oils, and soybeans are used worldwide both in animal feed and in human food production. Soybean root rot, caused by the fungal pathogen Phytophthora sojae (herein referred to as "phytophthora"), is the second most important disease in soybean production causing wide-spread yield loss in North & South America soy production regions. The symptoms of soybean root rot can affect soy plants at various stages of development from seed to maturity and the fungal oospore is able to survive in the soil for long durations of time allowing the disease to effect subsequent crops even in a crop rotation cycle. Symptoms include seed rot, yellowing or browning of the leaves, root death and eventual plant death.
Different varieties of soybean vary in their sensitivity or tolerance to phytophthora. Therefore, one of the most effective control measures is planting phytophthora tolerant soybean varieties, and thus varietal selection is important for the management of phytophthora. However, currently, determining whether a soybean cultivar might have tolerance to phytophthora typically involves testing each cultivar in the field or greenhouse under conditions that typically produce soybean root rot. Thus, the present invention overcomes the shortcomings in the art by providing markers associated with tolerance to phytophthora, thereby allowing the characterization of soybean cultivars for phytophthora by molecular analysis rather than phenotypic analysis.


An armored cab having at least an upper wall, two side walls, a front wall, a back wall, and a bottom wall. The armored cab and its respective walls include a longitudinal axis extending from the back wall to the front wall. The bottom wall includes at least one concave surface. The at least one concave surface faces downwardly and away from the armored cab, and is disposed in a direction substantially parallel with the longitudinal axis of the armored cab.

1. Field of the Invention
Various types of vehicles, such as joint light tactical vehicles (JLTV), tactical vehicles, or tactical trucks, and similar vehicles used in a battlefield, or other armed conflict situations, may sustain land mine strikes, or attacks from improvised explosive devices (IED), such as roadside bombs. It would be desirable for these vehicles to be able to withstand the forces of the foregoing types of attacks and explosions to enhance the survivability of the occupants of such vehicles. By armoring the cab, or passenger cabin, of a vehicle, the survivability of the occupants of the vehicle may be enhanced.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is often desirable to transport soldiers, non-military personnel, and equipment across hostile territory via motorized land vehicles such as tactical vehicles, tactical trucks, and similar vehicles. During transport, however, people occupying the cab of the vehicle are susceptible to injury from IEDs, land mines, and other bombs and explosives. To reduce injury from these encounters armor plating has been added to the cabs of such vehicles.
Without wishing to be bound by the theory, typically prior vehicle cabs were armored by increasing blast resistance through increased material strength and thickness, as well as increasing blast deflection through the use of angular and "V" shaped structures. Accordingly, the armoring of the foregoing vehicles has been achieved by using thick flat panels, or flat surfaces, of armor plate material for, or upon, the walls of the cabin, or passenger cabin.

BAE Systems Tactical Vehicle Systems, L.P.


An exemplary information-processing device includes: a terminal position-acquiring unit configured to acquire a position of a portable terminal used by a user; a specified position-acquiring unit configured to acquire a position specified by the user; an event-generating unit configured to generate an event at a generation position, the position acquired by the specified position-acquiring unit being regarded as the generation position; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit information relating to the event to the portable terminal when the position acquired by the terminal position-acquiring unit and the generation position come to be in a predetermined positional relationship.

Role-playing games in which a character operated by a user acquires objects such as money, a weapon, or a monster, and uses these objects to perform various types of trading or ways of fighting are known.
An exemplary embodiment provides technology for allowing an intention of a user to influence generation of an event.
An exemplary embodiment provides an information-processing device including: a terminal position-acquiring unit configured to acquire a position of a portable terminal used by a user; a specified position-acquiring unit configured to acquire a position specified by the user; an event-generating unit configured to generate an event at a generation position, the position acquired by the specified position-acquiring unit being regarded as the generation position; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit information relating to the event to the portable terminal when the position acquired by the terminal position-acquiring unit and the generation position come to be in a predetermined positional relationship.

Information-processing device, server device, information-processing method, computer-readable storage medium, communication system, and communication method


An Internet Protocol (IP)-based mobile TV system and a method for synchronizing the rendering of a streaming service are provided. In the IP-based mobile TV system, a plurality of mobile terminals receives a streaming service from network equipment, along with both a sequence of Network Time Protocol (NTP) time stamps corresponding to the streaming service and a synchronization clock. Each mobile terminal recovers an NTP reference clock for rendering the received streaming service according to both the synchronization clock and a synchronization time difference value, and then renders the received streaming service according to both the recovered NTP reference clock and the received NTP time stamps. Accordingly, the plurality of mobile terminals in the IP-based mobile TV system is able to render the received streaming service synchronously.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure generally relates to a mobile TV system, and a method for synchronizing the rendering of a streaming service in a plurality of user terminals.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, as for streaming services provided by an IP-Based mobile TV system, time-based A/V streams, interactive services, or notification service are transmitted to a user terminal device of a mobile TV through a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) in a broadcast or multicast manner.
In particular applications, the same streaming service may need to be displayed synchronously on mobile TV user terminal devices. For example, when the streaming service includes an interactive service (such as real-time callback and real-time question answering), in order to ensure fairness of the interactive service, the time of rendering the streaming service on different mobile TV user terminals has to be synchronized. Alternatively, when users of the mobile TV user terminals need to watch the same streaming service and talk with each other about the content of the streaming service through the respective user terminal device at the same time, if the rendering of the streaming service is synchronized on the user terminals, it will facilitate the discussion. Moreover, a plurality of mobile TV user terminal devices may be placed in one location for demonstration or for sale at the same time. At this time, if the mobile TV user terminal devices are able to receive and render the same streaming service synchronously, the customers are able to compare the differences of the display characteristics on the mobile TV user terminal devices conveniently.
For a conventional analog and digital TV, it is not a problem to display the same program synchronously. However, for an IP-based mobile TV system, for example, Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), 3rd Generation Partnership Project Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (3GPP MBMS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access Multicast Broadcast Service (WiMAX MBS), since the RTP is originally designed for a unicast streaming service, a problem of synchronization of rendering the same streaming service on different mobile user terminal devices in broadcast or multicast transmission is not taken into consideration.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary schematic view of transmitting a multimedia stream through RTP according to the related art. The multimedia stream includes an audio stream, a video stream, and an event stream.
Referring to FIG. 1, time stamps TSa(i), TSv(i), and TSe(i) are RTP time stamps used on the audio stream, the video stream, and the event stream transmitted through RTP respectively. The clock rates of the RTP time stamps are essentially the sample rates of the audio stream, the video stream, and the event stream, respectively. In addition, the synchronization information required for rendering the audio stream, the video stream, and the event stream at the same time is carried by Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) packets. Specifically, each media stream (that is, the audio stream, the video stream, and the event stream) has a dedicated RTCP channel. The RTCP channel is responsible for transmitting an RTCP Sender Report (SR) packet required by the corresponding media stream periodically. One RTCP SR packet includes a Network Time Protocol (NTP) time stamp and a corresponding RTP time stamp of the media stream. For example, the NTP time stamp corresponding to the RTP time stamp Vt(1) of the video stream is NTPv(1), and the NTP time stamp corresponding to the RTP time stamp At(1) of the audio stream is NTPa(1). As the NTP time stamps included in the RTCP SR packets of the media streams come from the same wall clock, a plurality of media streams may be rendered synchronously on one user terminal device.
However, in an IP-Based mobile TV system, the NTP time stamps of the RTCP SR packets do not record the exact time for an A/V multimedia stream to be actually rendered on a mobile TV terminal. In fact, the wall clock and the time recorded by the NTP time stamps are not strictly defined, and usually an NTP time stamp contains the instance of time when a plurality of media streams is synchronously mixed into a multimedia stream. Moreover, in IP-Based mobile TV systems, no standard method is specified to determine the corresponding relationship between the clock recorded by the NTP time stamps in the RTCP SR packets and the clock on that the multimedia stream is actually rendered. Therefore, due to performance differences in mobile user terminal devices, different initial delays for rendering will occur when the same streaming service is received for rendering. This causes the phenomenon of asynchronous rendering of the streaming service. Taking the DVB-H as an example, the Multiple-Protocol Encapsulation-Forward Error Correction (MPE-FEC) decoding delay in the Media Access Control (MAC) layer and the initial buffering delay of an AV decoder are both the causes of the differences in initial delays for streaming rendering on different mobile TV user terminals. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system that is capable of synchronizing the rendering of a streaming service on a plurality of mobile TV user terminals in an IP-Based mobile TV system.

Mobile TV system and method for synchronizing the rendering of streaming services thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for capturing video on a mobile device. In an example mobile device, an activation action puts the device in a state in which it captures a loop of video of predefined length and uses that as a prefix to a video recorded in response to a record video action.

This specification relates to capturing videos on personal devices and, in some aspects, to publishing such videos.
Technology on personal devices and supporting services give users an ability to capture and share video. Typically, camera operations start and stop capturing or sharing video at the time of a user's actions, e.g., pressing a start and stop record button. In some instances, it is hard for a user to act at precisely the right time to start or stop capturing, or even to know when the precisely right time is. The same difficulty can exist when streaming video. It may also happen that a delay exists between the launch of a service or application and the ability to start capturing or sharing video using that service or application.
Social messaging platforms and network-connected personal computing devices allow users to create and share such content across multiple devices in real-time.
Sophisticated mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablets make it easy and convenient for people, companies, and other entities to use social networking messaging platforms and applications. Popular social messaging platforms generally provide functionality for users to draft and post messages and video content, both synchronously and asynchronously, to other users. Other common features include the ability to post content to be visible to one or more identified other users of the platform, or even publicly to any user of the platform without specific designation by the authoring user. Examples of popular social messaging platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. ("Facebook" is and "Instagram" area trademarks of Facebook, Inc. "Pinterest" is a trademark of Pinterest, Inc. "Twitter" is a trademark of Twitter, Inc.)


A cyanine dye compound represented by formula (I) shown below, and an optical recording medium having a recording layer which is capable of recording information by laser irradiation and contains the cyanine dye compound.

This invention relates to an optical recording medium capable of recording information by laser irradiation and to a cyanine dye compound having a specific structure which is useful to make the optical recording medium.
Optical recording discs recordable once with laser light are well known as CD-Rs. Compared with traditional CDs which have pits formed on the substrate by injection molding to record information, CD-Rs are advantageous in that CDs can be produced on a small scale at a reasonable cost and rapidly. The demand for CD-Rs has been increasing with the recent spread of personal computers.
CD-R type recording media typically comprise a transparent disc substrate, a recording layer made of an organic dye (dye recording layer), a reflective layer made of metal (e.g., gold or silver), and a resin protective layer in this order. Writing to an optical disc is carried out by irradiating the optical disc with a laser beam of the near infrared region (usually around 780 nm). The irradiated part of the dye recording layer absorbs the light to generate heat and is thermally deformed (e.g., to form pits) to record the information. The recorded information is reproduced generally by irradiating the optical disc with a laser beam having the same wavelength as the writing beam to detect reflectance difference between the recorded area (the area where the dye recording layer has been thermally deformed) and the non-recorded area (the area where the dye recording layer has not been deformed).
In recent years optical discs called recordable digital versatile discs (DVD-Rs) which are capable of higher density recording than CD-Rs have been proposed. It is known the theory that converging a laser beam diameter is effective to increase recording density and that laser light of shorter wavelength is advantageous for achieving high-density recording because of capability of being converged to a smaller spot size. Based on this principle, DVD-Rs have achieved higher density recording by using visible laser beams (having wavelengths usually ranging 630 to 680 nm), which are shorter than those used for CD-Rs (about 780 nm).
The key to realization of high-density recording to an optical recording medium having a dye recording layer is development of a dye compound possessing excellent recording and reading sensitivity with respect to shorter wavelength light. The present applicant has proposed a DVD-R type recording medium having a cyanine dye-containing recording layer on a substrate in JP-A-10-226170 (The term xe2x80x9cJP-Axe2x80x9d as used herein means an xe2x80x9cunexamined published Japanese patent applicationxe2x80x9d). In addition, JP-A-10-181211 discloses trimethinecyanine dyes. Some of this type of cyanine dyes exhibit excellent recording characteristics for laser light of 630 to 680 nm and are promising as a recording dye for high-density recording media.
With the recent broadening of application of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, the demand for performance stability of optical discs has been getting strict for use under severe environmental conditions, such as considerably varying humidity and temperature conditions. To meet the demand, a dye compound superior to those of JP-A-10-226170 and JP-A-10-181211 in resistance to light and to heat and humidity has been sought for.
In view of the above-described circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a cyanine dye compound which has excellent resistance to light and to heat and humidity and is suitable for use as a recording layer dye of an optical recording medium.
Another object of the invention is to provide a recordable optical recording medium capable of recording and reproducing information by laser irradiation, which has provided with a dye recording layer containing the cyanine dye compound so as to be excellent in recording and reading performance and storage properties such as light resistance and durability.
Other objects and effects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.
The above-described objects of the present invention have been achieved by providing:
(1) A cyanine dye compound represented by formula (I):
wherein A1 and A2 each independently represent a benzene ring or a naphthalene ring; R1, R1xe2x80x2, R2, R2xe2x80x2, R3 and R3xe2x80x2 each independently represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, provided that at least one of R1 and R1xe2x80x2 represents an alkyl group substituted with a hydroxyl group or an alkoxyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms; R4 represents a substituent on the methine chain; q represents an integer of 0 or greater; p represents an integer of 1 to 4; B represents 0, 1 or 2; and Xpxe2x88x92 represents a p-valent anionic tetracyanoquinodimethane compound represented by formula (II):
wherein R5 represents a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; L represents a single bond or a divalent linking group; R6 represents a substituent; p is as defined above; and r is an integer of 0 to 3; and
(2) An optical recording medium comprising a substrate having provided thereon a recording layer capable of recording information by laser irradiation, wherein said recording layer contains a cyanine dye compound represented by formula (I).
The cyanine dye compound of the present invention exhibits excellent resistance to light and to heat and humidity. The optical recording medium of the present invention which contains the cyanine dye compound in the dye recording layer is excellent in recording and reading performance and storage properties such as resistance to light and to heat and humidity.

Cyanine dye compound having tetracyanoquinodimethane compound as counter anion and optical recording medium containing the same

Abstract: In formula (I), Xpxe2x88x92 represents a p-valent anionic tetracyanoquinodimethane compound represented by formula (II):

Abstract: The other symbols in the formulas are defined in the specification.


In a fuel injection pump, fuel discharged from a feed pump assembly is supplied to each pressurizing chamber through a corresponding metering valve. A portion of the fuel is supplied to a receiving chamber, which receives a drive mechanism that drives plungers, through a space defined between a drive shaft and a bush, which supports the drive shaft. A fuel groove is formed in an inner wall of the bush, so that fuel supplied from the feed pump assembly to the receiving chamber through the fuel groove is also supplied to lubricate between an outer wall of the drive shaft and the inner wall of the bush.

This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-369776 filed on Dec. 4, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection pump of an internal combustion engine (hereinafter, simply referred to as xe2x80x9cenginexe2x80x9d).
2. Description of Related Art
For example, a previously proposed common rail type fuel injection system for a diesel engine has a fuel injection pump for supplying pressurized fuel to a common rail. The fuel injection pump is driven by a drive shaft connected to a crankshaft of the engine. Rotational movement of the drive shaft is translated into reciprocal movement, for example, by a cam and is then transmitted to a plunger reciprocably supported in a cylinder. When the plunger is reciprocated, fuel in the pressurizing chamber is pressurized. A feed pump assembly, which supplies fuel to the pressurizing chamber, is integrated into the fuel injection pump. The feed pump assembly is also driven through rotation of the drive shaft to suction fuel from a fuel tank and discharges the fuel to the pressurizing chamber.
In the above described fuel injection pump, sliding surfaces are provided in the interior of a housing that defines the cylinder. More specifically, the sliding surfaces are provided, for example, between the cam and the plunger or between the plunger and a portion of the housing, which defines the cylinder. Thus, the fuel discharged from the feed pump assembly is not only supplied to the pressurizing chamber but is also supplied to the interior of the housing to lubricate the corresponding sliding surfaces of the sliding components.
In the previously proposed fuel injection pump, the fuel discharged from the feed pump assembly is supplied to the interior of the housing through a fuel passage, which extends through the housing.
However, in the previously proposed fuel injection pump, the lubricating fuel is supplied to the receiving chamber, which receives the cam, so that it is required to form an elongated through hole, which has a relatively small open cross-sectional area and extends from the feed pump assembly to the receiving chamber through the housing for supplying fuel. Furthermore, an orifice (or choke), which restrains a flow rate of fuel supplied to the receiving chamber, is formed in the fuel passage. Thus, manufacturing of such a fuel passage is tedious and time consuming, and a structure of the housing is accordingly complicated.
Furthermore, it is desirable to improve or increase a fuel injection pressure to improve engine power and also to reduce the amount of NOx emissions from the engine. However, when the fuel injection pressure is increased, a pressure applied to each corresponding component of the fuel injection pump is increased. Thus, lubrication of the sliding surfaces of the corresponding components of the fuel injection pump needs to be improved to restrain seizing of these components. In the fuel injection pump, the drive shaft is supported by the housing, so that lubrication is required not only between the cam and the plunger but is also required between the drive shaft and the housing.
The present invention addresses the above disadvantages. Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a fuel injection pump, which has a simple structure and is capable of restraining seizing of its drive shaft and also capable of increasing a fuel discharge pressure.
To achieve the objective of the present invention, there is provided a fuel injection pump including at least one movable member for pressurizing fuel, a drive mechanism, a housing, a feed pump assembly, and a tubular member. The drive mechanism drives the at least one movable member and includes a drive shaft. The housing includes at least one cylinder and a receiving chamber, which are communicated with each other. Each cylinder reciprocably supports a corresponding one of the at least one movable member therein and defines a pressurizing chamber in cooperation with the corresponding movable member. The receiving chamber receives the drive mechanism. The feed pump assembly is driven by the drive shaft and pumps fuel to the pressurizing chamber. The feed pump assembly includes a discharge port, through which pressurized fuel is discharged from the feed pump assembly toward the pressurizing chamber. The tubular member is arranged between the drive shaft and the housing in a radial direction of the drive shaft and includes a fuel groove formed in an inner wall of the tubular member, which is in sliding contact with the drive shaft. The fuel groove communicates between the discharge port and the receiving chamber.

Fuel injection pump having feed pump assembly


A crash sensor system includes an electronic control unit (ECU). The ECU has an accelerometer to measure longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle. Front crash satellite sensors are mounted at the front of the vehicle to detect a front or a rear crash event. When a front or rear crash event occurs, the first accelerometer is utilized to determine if the crash occurred at the front or the rear of the vehicle, regardless of the polarity of the front crash satellite sensors.

The use of acceleration-based satellite sensors such as accelerometers to detect vehicle crashes is a common practice. Accelerometers are typically located at various points in the vehicle to provide the necessary information to an algorithm for making judgments about the predicted severity of on-going crash events.
Incorrect sensor polarity has been the topic for many safety related vehicle recalls over the years and continues to be a complex and difficult issue despite many best practices being put in place. Today's passive safety algorithms rely on inputs from the acceleration-based satellite sensors that are mounted in the vehicle's frontal crush zone. The front crash satellite sensors have a sensing axis and must be mounted such that the sensing axis is parallel to the crash direction that is being measured. The satellite sensors measure acceleration which inherently has a direction (i.e., polarity). Positive signals are experienced when an impact comes from one direction and negative signals are experienced when the impact comes from the opposite direction.
If the front satellite sensors are not properly configured or are mounted backwards and are providing incorrect signals to the front algorithm during a front crash, then the front algorithm will not perform as intended. This can lead to non-deployments, or late deployments in cases where an airbag deployment is desired.
If the side satellite sensors are not properly configured or are mounted backwards and are providing incorrect signals to the side algorithm during a side crash, then the side algorithm will not perform as intended. This can lead to restraint activations on the wrong side of the car. For example, a crash to the left side may result in the right side restraints being activated instead of the left side.
Thus, there is a need to provide a crash sensor system that removes polarity dependence from calculations based on acceleration signals from front and side crash satellite sensors without any loss of crash discrimination performance.

Crash sensor system for determining crash events independent of polarity of satellite sensors


An apparatus for manufacturing a three-dimensional article by additive manufacturing includes a processor and an information storage device. The information storage device includes a non-transient or non-volatile device storing software instructions. In response to execution by the processor, the software instructions cause the apparatus to: receive initial data defining the three-dimensional article having an outer surface, define a shell having the outer surface of the three-dimensional article and an opposing inner surface that defines an inner cavity, define a boundary in the inner cavity that further defines an outer lattice volume between the inner surface of the shell and the boundary and an inner volume inside the boundary, and define a lattice that fills the outer lattice volume.

Three-dimensional manufacturing systems are in widespread use. Examples of three dimensional printer technologies includes stereolithography, selective laser sintering, and fused deposition modeling to name a few. Some of these printer technologies are used for a precursor for investment casting and involve the manufacturing of a "sacrificial" article. One challenge is a cost and time required to make the sacrificial article. Another challenge is maintaining structural integrity during its use.

Variable density internal lattice for structural support that minimizes material


ACBP6 can be used to enhance low temperature tolerance in genetically modified plants. An acbp6 T-DNA insertional mutant that lacked ACBP6 mRNA and protein, displayed increased sensitivity to freezing temperature (−8° C.), while ACBP6-overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis were conferred enhanced freezing tolerance. Methods of using ACBP6 to enhance low temperature tolerance of plants are provided.

Following de novo fatty acid biosynthesis in the chloroplasts of higher plants (Ohlrogge and Browse, Plant Cell 7: 957-970, 1995), the majority of plastid-synthesized fatty acids are exported as palmitoyl-CoA and oleoyl-CoA to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for glycerolipid biosynthesis (Browse et al., Biochem J 235: 25-31, 1986; Maréchal et al., Physiol Plant 100: 65-77, 1997). Although these acyl-CoA derivatives move between the plastids and the ER via the cytosol (Ohlrogge and Browse, Plant Cell 7: 957-970, 1995), proteins that facilitate such transfer have not been identified. A potential candidate is the 10-kD acyl-CoA-binding protein (ACBP) in Arabidopsis thaliana because its derivative has been shown to bind oleoyl-CoA and protect it from degradation by microsomal acyl hydrolases (Engeseth et al., Arch Biochem Biophys 331: 55-62, 1996). To experimentally verify its subcellular localization and biological functions, we carried out further investigations on the 10-kD Arabidopsis ACBP.
In Arabidopsis, a total of six forms of acyl-CoA binding proteins (ACBPs) are present and they include the 10-kD ACBP (Engeseth et al., Arch Biochem Biophys 331: 55-62, 1996) hereby designated as ACBP6 (Xiao et al., Plant J 54: 141-151, 2008), and five other forms ranging from 37.5 to 73.1 kD (Leung et al., Plant Mol Biol 55: 297-309, 2004). Membrane-associated ACBP1 and ACBP2 are subcellularly localized to the ER and plasma membrane (Chye et al., Plant J 18: 205-214, 1999; Li and Chye, Plant Mol Biol 51: 483-492, 2003), ACBP3 is extracellularly-targeted (Leung et al., Planta 223: 871-881, 2006) and kelch-motif-containing ACBP4 and ACBP5 (Leung et al., Plant Mol Biol 55: 297-309, 2004), as well as ACBP6 are localized in the cytosol (Chen et al., Plant Physiol 148: 304-315). Only homologs of ACBP6 have been well-characterized in other eukaryotes (Hills et al., Plant Mol Biol 25: 917-920, 1994; Faergeman and Knudsen, Biochem J 323: 1-12, 1997). Domains that potentially mediate protein-protein interactions, ankyrin repeats (ACBP1 and ACBP2) and kelch motifs (ACBP4 and ACBP5) (Leung et al., Plant Mol Biol 55: 297-309, 2004; Li and Chye, Plant Mol Biol 54: 233-243, 2004), are evident in the larger ACBPs. Using His-tagged recombinant proteins and site-directed mutagenesis, the function of the acyl-CoA-binding domain in binding acyl-CoA esters was established for ACBP1 to ACBP5 (Chye et al., Plant Mol Biol 44: 711-721, 2000; Leung et al., Plant Mol Biol 55: 297-309, 2004; Planta 223: 871-881, 2006). Differential binding to various acyl-CoA esters imply that Arabidopsis ACBPs have various cellular functions.
Mammalian homologs of ACBP6 bind and transport cytosolic acyl-CoA esters and participate in gene regulation by interacting with nuclear factor-4α, a transcriptional activator of genes associated with lipid and glucose metabolism in nuclei of rat hepatocytes (Mikkelsen and Knudsen, Biochem J 248: 709-714, 1987; Black et al., J Nutr 130: 305S-309S, 2000; Elholm et al., J Lipid Res 41: 538-545, 2000; Petrescu et al., J Biol Chem 278: 51813-51824, 2003). The 10-kD bovine ACBP has been identified as a cytosolic protein (Mikkelsen and Knudsen, Biochem J 248: 709-714, 1987) while ACBP6 homologs are localized in the cytoplasm and nuclei of both monkey kidney fibroblast CV-1 cells (Helledie et al., J Lipid Res 41: 1740-1751, 2000) and human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cells (Nitz et al., Int J Biochem Cell Biol 37: 2395-2405, 2005).
ACBP6 homologs have been identified in phloem exudates in cucumber (Cucumis sativus), pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima; Walz et al., Photochemistry 65: 1795-1804, 2004) and rice (Oryza sativa) (Suzui et al., J Exp Bot 57: 2571-2576, 2006), suggesting that plant 10-kD ACBPs may be associated with long-distance transport (possibly of long-chain acyl-CoA esters) and/or in stress and defense since phloem proteins primarily belong to these classes (Walz et al., Photochemistry 65: 1795-1804, 2004; Suzui et al., J Exp Bot 57: 2571-2576, 2006). Our investigations on the response of Arabidopsis ACBP6 to abiotic and biotic stresses further showed that ACBP6 expression is cold (4° C.)-inducible, the acbp6 knockout mutant displays enhanced sensitivity to freezing treatment (−8° C.), and transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing ACBP6 are conferred freezing-tolerance (Chen et al., Plant Physiol 148: 304-315).

Methods using acyl-CoA binding proteins to enhance low-temperature tolerance in genetically modified plants


The invention relates to process for the preparation of grapiprant and its intermediates thereof. The invention also relates to grapiprant having a purity 98% or more and compounds of Formula (A), (B), (C) and (D) in an amount of 0.5 or less, relative to grapiprant, by area percentage of HPLC. The invention also relates to an amorphous form of grapiprant and process for preparation thereof.

The following discussion of the prior art is intended to present the invention in an appropriate technical context and allow its significance to be properly appreciated. Unless clearly indicated to the contrary, however, reference to any prior art in this specification should be construed as an admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Grapiprant is a Non-COX inhibiting NSAID that specifically targets the EP4 receptor. It is indicated for the control of pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis in dogs. Its chemical name is 1-[2-(4-{2-ethyl-4,6-dimethylimidazo[4,5-c]pyridin-1-yl}phenyl)ethyl]-3-(4-ethylphenyl)sulfonylurea. It has structural formula as represented by compound of Formula (I).

U.S. Pat. No. 6,710,054 B2 discloses the compound of Formula (I) and various routes of synthesis for the preparation of aryl or heteroaryl fused imidazole compounds as anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,960,407 B2 discloses various crystalline forms of grapiprant which are designated as Form A and Form B.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,265,756 B2 discloses other crystalline form of grapiprant which are designated as Form X, X2, X3, F, K, L, M and N.
The major drawback of the methods described in the prior art is that involves isolation by column chromatography or such techniques which are not a suitable for the scale up and commercial production and feasible only at laboratory scale. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a cost effective and commercially feasible process for the production of grapiprant. The present invention also discloses amorphous form of grapiprant and its amorphous solid dispersion.


A self-propelled, automated, autonomic grid crawler which, when attached to a wire, moves along the wire to sense conditions of the wire. The grid crawler includes a central processing unit (CPU), working memory, such as random access memory (RAM), persistent money, such as read only memory (ROM) and hard drive (HD), sensor electronics, a wireless interface, a location device, such as a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, motive power system, and a battery. The sensor electronics serves to sense various types of faults. The CPU analyzes the data from the sensor electronics using pre-analysis and pre-qualification algorithms, which are stored in the HD. Depending on the results of the analysis, the CPU transmits information to the central station, either directly or indirectly via mounted docking devices, that potentially indicates a fault, including the location of the fault as determined by the GPS receiver. The pre-processing and pre-qualifying of the data at the autonomic grid crawler limits the amount of data that needs to be transmitted to the central station, thereby saving battery power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application generally relates to the detection of high-impedance faults in electrical power grids and, more particularly, to a self-propelled, automated, autonomic mechanical device which, when attached to a power network wire, travels along the wire and is able to recognize basic states of the wire and communicates the state of the wire to a control center.
2. Background Description
High impedance faults are costly, dangerous to the equipment and a threat to human life. There is a huge diversity of phenomena classified as high impedance faults. These include, but are not limited to, a downed line, a tree branch touching a line, a broken insulator, and improper installation. As a result, there is no accepted scientific knowledge about the nature of high impedance fault detection.
Electrical power grids are extremely complicated, making the detection and localization of a high impedance fault difficult and problematic. Current methods of detection include circuit breakers tripping, readout from meters at the substation by human operators, and a telephone call from someone who noticed a fault. Interestingly, the last of these methods, e.g., a telephone call, is the most common method by which faults are detected and located. There have been attempts to use local sensors that automatically make a decision and either raise an alarm or disconnect a part of the grid. These attempts have proven to be unsatisfactory due to the lack of processing power and the ability to flexibly adapt to the specifics of a particular environment.

Intelligent, self-propelled automatic grid crawler high impedance fault detector and high impedance fault detecting system

International Business Machines Corporation


A protective device for a load circuit that instantly cuts off the load circuit when a dead short-circuit has occurred in the load circuit. The protective device includes a first detection circuit which detects a counter-electromotive force E1 induced in a common wiring line for connecting a plurality of load circuits and a power source, and a second detection circuit which detects a counter-electromotive force E2 induced at part of a load connection wiring line for connecting the individual load circuits. The load circuit is cut off when the first detection circuit detects that the counter-electromotive force E1 induced in the common wiring line has exceeded a predetermined value, and the second detection circuit detects that the counter-electromotive force E2 that has the same direction as that of E1 has been generated in the load connection wiring line.

Loads, for example, a lamp and a motor that are mounted on a vehicle are connected with a power source (battery) through semiconductor switches. More specifically, load circuits in which the semiconductor switches and the loads are connected in series are connected as a plurality of loops to the power source which is mounted on the vehicle, and the drive and stop of the individual loads are controlled by ON/OFF-manipulating the semiconductor switches which are disposed in the individual load circuits.
Besides, a protective device is disposed in order that, in a case where an over-current ascribable to a short-circuit fault such as a dead short-circuit has flowed in any of the individual load circuits, the load circuit may be protected by turning OFF the semiconductor switch as soon as possible. As prior-art examples of such a protective device for the load circuit, there have been known ones stated in, for example, Japanese JP-A-2006-24997 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese JP-A-2007-85861 (Patent Document 2).
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of the protective device for the load circuit as is stated in Patent Document 1. In the circuit shown in FIG. 4, there is illustrated an example in which two loops of load circuits (first load circuit "A" and second load circuit "B") are connected in parallel to a power source VB. More specifically, the first load circuit "A" which includes a series connection consisting of a MOSFET (T101; semiconductor switch) and a load 111 (a lamp, a motor, or the like), and the second load circuit "B" which includes a series connection consisting of a MOSFET (T101-1) and a load 111-1 are connected to the power source VB. Incidentally, since the first load circuit "A" and the second load circuit "B" are identical in configuration, only the first load circuit "A" will be described below, and the second load circuit "B" shall be omitted from description by assigning a suffix "−1" thereto.
In the circuit shown in FIG. 4, a point P1 that corresponds to the drain of the MOSFET (T101) is connected to an E1 detection circuit 112. The E1 detection circuit 112 is disposed in common for the load circuits "A" and "B". It detects a counter-electromotive force E1 which is generated in the wiring line (resistance Rw1 and inductance L1) between the point P1 and the plus terminal of the power source PB, and it outputs the detection signal of an H level to one input terminal of an AND circuit AND102 in a case where the counter-electromotive force E1 has reached a predetermined level.
Both the ends of the MOSFET (T101) are connected to a VDS detection circuit 113. This VDS detection circuit 113 measures the terminal voltage of the MOSFET (T101), and it outputs the detection signal of the H level to the other input terminal of the AND circuit AND102 in a case where the terminal voltage has reached a predetermined value.
In addition, when a switch SW101 which is interposed between the power source VB and a resistance R106 is turned ON, a drive command is input to a driver 114 through an AND circuit AND101, and upon receiving the drive command, the driver 114 outputs the drive signal of the H level to the gate of the MOSFET (T101). Thus, the MOSFET (T101) is turned ON, and the load 111 is driven.
Besides, in a case where a short-circuit fault such as a dead short-circuit has occurred in any place of the load circuit "A", an excess counter-electromotive force E1 is generated, and the terminal voltage of the MOSFET (T101) exceeds the predetermined value. Therefore, the output signal of the AND circuit AND102 becomes the H level, and the H level signal is fed to a latch DF101. As a result, the output of the AND circuit AND101 is brought to an L level, and a MOSFET (T103) is turned ON, whereby the gate of the MOSFET (T101) is grounded to cut off the load circuit "A". That is, the load circuit "A" in which the short-circuit fault has occurred is cut off, and the circuit is protected.
On this occasion, in the load circuit "B", the drive state thereof can be maintained irrespective of the cutoff of the load circuit "A". That is, in the circuit shown in FIG. 4, among the plurality of loops of load circuits, only the load circuit having undergone the short-circuit fault is cut off, and any other load circuit can be operated as usual.


A method of obfuscating an exponent is provided. The method comprises identifying a value λ for which it holds that λ>0 and xλ=1 for a plurality of elements x which are to be used in a cryptographic process. The method further comprises identifying an obfuscated exponent y which is greater than λ and providing information indicative of the obfuscated exponent y. The method comprises establishing a key value a, wherein a<λ, selecting a positive integer b, and computing y=a+bλ.

In present days, content is increasingly made available in digital format to users, for example by means of the Internet, a broadcast medium, or by means of a digital data carrier such as CD or DVD. Consumer electronics (CE) products, such as televisions, settop boxes, and audio equipment, are equipped with digital data processing capabilities to render these digital contents.
The use of the Internet and other digital distribution media for copyrighted content has created the challenge to secure the interests of the content provider. In particular it is desirable to have technological means available to enforce the copyrights and business models of the content providers. Increasingly, CE devices are operated using a processor loaded with suitable software. Such software may include the main part of functionality for rendering (playback) of digital content, such as audio and/or video. Control of the playback software is one way to enforce the interests of the content owner including the terms and conditions under which the content may be used. Where traditionally many CE platforms (with the exception of a PC and PDA) used to be closed, nowadays more and more platforms at least partially are open and allow computer programmers to inspect the software and to make modifications to the software. In such open systems, including personal computers, some users may be assumed to have complete control over the hardware and software that provides access to the content. Also, some users may have a large amount of time and resources to attack and bypass any content protection mechanisms. As a consequence, content providers must deliver content to legitimate users across a hostile network to a community where not all users or devices can be trusted.
Digital rights management systems have been introduced to control the distribution of digital content to legitimate users. Typically, digital rights management systems use an encryption technique which allows only legitimate users to decrypt the content. The implementation of such encryption techniques in the consumer devices may be obfuscated to make it more difficult for an attacker to find out the value of the key. Examples of ciphers commonly in use for many different kinds of applications are DES, AES, RSA, and the method disclosed in WO9967918.
In relation to key handling, for playback a media player has to retrieve a decryption key from a license database. It then has to store this decryption key somewhere in memory for the decryption of the encrypted content. This gives an attacker two options for an attack on the key. Firstly, reverse engineering of the license database access function could allow the attacker to retrieve asset keys from all license databases. Secondly, by observation of the accesses to memory during content decryption, it is possible to retrieve the asset key. In both cases the key is considered to be compromised.
"White-Box Cryptography and an AES Implementation", by Stanley Chow, Philip Eisen, Harold Johnson, and Paul C. Van Oorschot, in Selected Areas in Cryptography: 9th Annual International Workshop, SAC 2002, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Aug. 15-16, 2002, and "A White-Box DES Implementation for DRM Applications", by Stanley Chow, Phil Eisen, Harold Johnson, and Paul C. van Oorschot, in Digital Rights Management: ACM CCS-9 Workshop, DRM 2002, Washington, D.C., USA, Nov. 18, 2002 (hereinafter, these two publications will be referred to collectively as "Chow"), disclose methods with the intend to hide the key by a combination of encoding its tables with random bijections representing compositions rather than individual steps, and extending the cryptographic boundary by pushing it out further into the containing application.
The techniques disclosed in Chow make it possible to perform cryptographic operations in software without exposing the cryptographic key to a person who can fully debug the software. In the approach of Chow, the cryptographic key is hidden by using look-up tables rather than mathematical operations, with the result that the operands of the mathematical operations do not have to be stored as such. These tables may be encoded using random bijections to further obfuscate them. The encoding of one table may be undone by the encoding of another table, or may be undone elsewhere in the program. However, not all operations are easily represented by means of a look-up table.


A magnetic delivery system for delivering a magnetizable particle to a location in a body, the device includes a magnetizable object implanted in the body, wherein the magnetizable object includes a plurality of segments distributed throughout the magnetizable object and wherein the segments are configured to provide a magnetic gradient for attracting the magnetizable particle and an external source of a magnetic field capable of (i) magnetizing the magnetizable particle and (ii) increasing a degree of magnetization of the magnetizable object and thereby creating the magnetic gradient. A drug delivery system including the magnetic delivery system and a magnetizable particle associated with a therapeutic agent and/or a cell. A cell delivery system based on the magnetic delivery system and a magnetizable particle associated with a cell. A method of using the magnetic delivery system for delivery of a therapeutic agent and/or a cell to a targeted location in a body.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to magnetically controllable delivery systems and methods of using thereof to attract and deliver therapeutic agents attached to, or encapsulated within, magnetic particles (i.e., carriers) at selected sites in a body or a subject. More specifically, this invention relates to the use of two sources of magnetic force to deliver therapeutic agents including cells by utilizing magnetizable particles associated with the therapeutic agents.
2. Description of Related Art
The best approach for treating tumors and other localized ailments is to administer drugs only at the site of complication. By delivering the drug locally, the toxicity of the drug to the rest of the body can be reduced while maintaining the desired therapeutic benefit at the site of the ailment. Many drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry have shown remarkable success during in vitro testing and animal trials, but have yielded undesirable results in clinical trials due to systemic toxicity of the drug to the body. Thus, the ability to deliver large concentrations of drugs locally (i.e., only at the site of the ailment) is of major importance for both the pharmaceutical industry and for clinicians.
However, known drug delivery vehicles are not capable of local delivery of high concentrations of drugs by minimally invasive techniques. This is especially true when repeat dosing is required. The magnetic delivery system described herein overcomes many of these difficulties, and provides a method for concentrating drugs at selected sites in the body with minimal stress on the patient.
Stents are commonly used in a variety of biomedical applications. For example, stents are routinely implanted in patients to keep blood vessels open in the coronary arteries, to keep the esophagus from closing due to strictures of cancer, to keep the ureters open for maintenance of kidney drainage, and to keep the bile duct open in patients with pancreatic cancer. Such stents are usually inserted percutaneously under radiological guidance.
Stents comprise a tube shaped object made of metal (e.g., 316 L Stainless Steel), an alloy (e.g., Nickel-Titanium) or polymer (e.g., polyurethane), in a wide range of physiologically appropriate diameters and lengths, which are inserted into a vessel or passage to keep the lumen open and prevent closure due to a stricture or external compression. General stent design varies in the number of intersections and the interstrut area, the in-strut configuration, and the metal-to-artery ratio. The two different expansion principles for stents are balloon-expansion and self-expansion, and the design types can be categorized into five types: ring, tubular, multi-design, coil, and mesh (Regar et al. Br. Med. Bull. 2001 59:227-48; Hehrlein et al. Basic Res. Cardiol. 2002 97:417-23; Gershlick et al. Atherosclerosis 2002 160:259-71; Garas et al. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001 92:165-78).
Stents have been routinely used over the last ten years in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), a procedure for the treatment of severe, symptomatic coronary stenosis (Garas, S. M. et al. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001 92:165-178). The PTCA procedure was first introduced in the 1970s as an alternative to coronary-artery bypass surgery for the clearing of coronary vessels blocked by plaque. PTCA has proven to be a much less invasive procedure, with patients able to return to work the week following the procedure, as opposed to the lengthy hospital stay required with bypass surgery (Fricker, J. Drug Discovery Today 2001 6:1135-7). Stents are used extensively in PTCA procedures due to their unique ability to master a major complication of balloon angioplasty ((sub) acute vessel closure), and a superior long-term outcome in comparison to balloon angioplasty (Regar et al. Br. Med. Bull. 2001 59:227-48).
However, in-stent restenosis (the re-closing of the vessel) remains a major limitation, particularly in coronary stenting. Restenosis is generally considered a local vascular manifestation of the biological response to injury. The injury as a result of catheter insertion consists of denudation of the intima (endothelium) and stretching of the media (smooth muscle). The wound-healing reaction consists of an inflammatory phase, a granulation phase, and a remodeling phase. The inflammation is characterized by growth factor and platelet activation, the granulation by smooth muscle cell and fibroblast migration and proliferation into the injured area, and the remodeling phase by proteoglycan and collagen synthesis, replacing early fibronectin as the major component of extracellular matrix. Coronary stents comprise mechanical scaffolding that almost completely eliminates recoil and remodeling. However, neo-intimal growth or proliferation is still a problem. Neo-intimal proliferation occurs principally at the site of the primary lesion within the first 6 months after implantation, a major checkpoint for patient health post-surgery (Regar et al. Br. Med. Bull. 2001 59:227-48). Neo-intima forms during the first week after PTCA and the progress is well under way after 4 weeks, with continued progression over the following months (Hehrlein et al. Basic Re. Cardiol. 2002 97:417-23). This neo-intima is an accumulation of smooth muscle cells within a proteoglycan matrix that narrows the previously enlarged lumen. Its formation is triggered by a series of molecular events including leukocyte infiltration, platelet activation, smooth muscle cell expansion, extracellular matrix elaboration, and re-endothelialization (Regar et al. Br. Med. Bull. 2001 59:227-48).
Three major drug delivery techniques under consideration for the prevention of restenosis are (i) prevention of thrombus formation; (ii) prevention of vascular recoil and remodeling; and (iii) prevention of inflammation and cell proliferation (Garas et al. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001 92:165-78). In vitro and in vivo animal model experimentation has shown promise in all three categories, mainly in antiproliferation treatments. However, clinical success has been limited (Garas et al. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001 92:165-78), primarily due to systemic toxicity.
Local drug delivery provides limited systemic release, thereby reducing the risk of systemic toxicity. Known techniques for local drug delivery include direct coating of the stent with drug, coating of the stent with a drug-containing biodegradable polymer, and hydrogel/drug coating. Biodegradable stents have also been described (Regar et al. Br. Med. Bull. 2001 59:227-48; Hehrlein et al. Basic Res. Cardiol. 2002 97:417-23; Gershlick et al. Atherosclerosis 2002 160:259-71; Garas et al. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001 92:165-78; Schwartz et al. Circulation 2002 106:1867-73; Fricker, J. Drug Discovery Today 2001 6:1135-7). Problems with these technologies, however, include the inflammatory response generated due to large polymer concentrations, the inability to deliver effective concentrations, one-time dosage limitations, and, in the case of the biodegradable stent, mechanical compromise. An additional concern with the polymer-coated drug-eluting stents is limitation of the growth of the cell layer necessary to cover the stent and prevent the bare metal from coming in long contact with the blood, thereby leading to clot formation (Schwartz et al. Circulation 2002 106:1867-73; Fricker, J. Drug Discovery Today 2001 6:1135-7).
The ability to apply forces on magnetic particles with external magnetic fields has been harnessed in various biomedical applications including prosthetics (Herr, H. J. of Rehab. Res. and Devel. 2002 39(3):11-12), targeted drug delivery (Goodwin, S. J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 1999 194:209-217) and antiangiogenesis strategies (Liu et al. J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 2001 225:209-217; Sheng et al. J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 1999 194:167-175). U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,406 describes an intravascularly-administrable, magnetically-localizable biodegradable carrier comprising microspheres formed from an amino acid polymer matrix containing magnetic particles embedded within the matrix for targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to cancer patients. Microspheres with magnetic particles, which are suggested to enhance binding of a carrier to the receptors of capillary endothelial cells when under the influence of a suitable magnetic field, are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,877.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,375,606; 6,315,709; 6,296,604; and 6,364,823 describe methods and compositions for treating vascular defects, and in particular aneurysms with a mixture of biocompatible polymer material, a biocompatible solvent, adhesive and preferably magnetic particles to control delivery of the mixture. In these methods, a magnetic coil or ferrofluid is delivered via catheter into the aneurysm. This magnetic device is shaped, delivered, steered and held in place using external magnetic fields and/or gradients. This magnetic device attracts the mixture to the vascular defect wherein it forms an embolus in the defect thereby occluding the defect.
A model for inducing highly localized phase transformations at defined locations in the vascular system by applying 1) external uniform magnetic fields to an injected superparamagnetic colloidal fluid for the purpose of magnetization and 2) using embedded particles to create high magnetic field gradients was described by inventors (Forbes et al. Abstract and Poster Presentation at the 6th Annual New Jersey Symposium on Biomaterials, Oct. 17-18, 2002, Somerset, N.J.). This work describes the use of uniform magnetic fields in combination with large magnetic particles (greater than 2 micron in diameter) to form chains along the direction of applied field and in turn use this to embolize micro-vessels (50-100 microns in diameter). The use of these magnetizable implants in drug delivery was also described previously by authors Z. Forbes, B. B. Yellen, G. Friedman, and K. Barbee (IEEE Trans. Magn. 39(5): 3372-3377 (2003)).
Known methods and devices for delivery of magnetizable drug or agent-containing magnetic carrier to specific locations in the body rely upon a single source of magnetic field to both magnetize the carriers and to pull them by magnetic force to the specific location. Previous attempts to use magnetic particles in these applications have relied on high gradient magnetic fields produced by magnets external to the body to direct magnetic particles to specific locations (see Flores, 2002; Gallo, et al., (1997); Lübbe, et al., (2001); Mossbach, et al., (1979); Rudge, et al., (2001)). The main disadvantage of this approach is that externally generated magnetic fields apply relatively small and insufficiently local forces on micron and nano-scale magnetic particles, and thus these methods have limited applications.
Chen (U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,244) discloses inserting a magnet (an electromagnet or a permanent magnet) or a plurality of magnets into an opening in a body to attract magnetic fluid/particles. The plurality of magnets is described to be disposed along the longitudinal axis of the magnetic probe. The plurality of magnets actually forms a larger magnet. Chen does not describe using a plurality of sources of magnetic fields or simultaneously creating a far penetrating field and a strong magnetic field gradient, which cannot be accomplished with a single source.
Gordon (U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0133225) describes a device comprising an implant having a magnetic field and a medical agent carried by a magnetically sensitive carrier. The carrier is introduced into the blood flow of the organism upstream from the target tissue, and the carrier and medical agent migrate via the blood flow to the target tissue. Gordon discloses an implant comprising a magnetized material (e.g., a ferromagnetic or a superparamagnetic material). Examples describe making a stent from ferromagnetic materials and magnetized by using an external magnet or made from a magnetized material. Gordon does not disclose optimizing the surface of the implant for providing a stronger magnetic field gradient. Gordon does not describe using a plurality of sources of magnetic fields.
Single source capture methods, however, are at odds with the underlying physics of magnetic particle capture, which depends on the simultaneous imposition of very strong far-reaching magnetic fields and strong spatial magnetic field gradients. The purpose of the far-reaching field is to increase the magnetic moment of individual drug-containing particles in the vicinity of the field to the point of magnetic saturation. Far-penetrating fields are most typically generated with large magnetic sources. However, the force on a magnetized particle also depends on production of strong magnetic field gradients, which are most easily generated with very small magnetic sources. Thus, the ability to simultaneously produce far-penetrating magnetic fields that have strong magnetic filed gradients is very difficult to accomplish with a single source. For this reason, Chen teaches use of relatively large electromagnets implanted in tissue beds to attract magnetic fluid circulating within the blood vessels that are relatively far away, which is a less effective method for capturing magnetic carriers.
The current invention recognizes that the ability to simultaneously produce far-penetrating magnetic fields that have strong magnetic filed gradients is very difficult to accomplish with a single source and offers solutions to this problem. The present invention further differs from previous techniques in that the goal is to deliver therapeutic agents to a desired tissue site without obstructing flow through the blood vessel.
Despite the foregoing developments, there is still a need in the art for improved methods of delivery of therapeutic agents utilizing magnetic forces.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Magnetically-controllable delivery system for therapeutic agents


Articles, compositions, and methods involving ionically conductive compounds are provided. In some embodiments, the ionically conductive compounds are useful for electrochemical cells. The disclosed ionically conductive compounds may be incorporated into an electrochemical cell (e.g., a lithium-sulfur electrochemical cell, a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, an intercalated-cathode based electrochemical cell) as, for example, a protective layer for an electrode, a solid electrolyte layer, and/or any other appropriate component within the electrochemical cell. In certain embodiments, electrode structures and/or methods for making electrode structures including a layer comprising an ionically conductive compound described herein are provided.

Lithium compound-containing electrochemical cells and batteries including such cells are modern means for storing energy. They exceed certain conventional secondary batteries with respect to capacity and life-time and, in many times, use of toxic materials such as lead can be avoided. However, in contrast to conventional lead-based secondary batteries, various technical problems have not yet been solved.
Secondary batteries based on cathodes including lithiated metal oxides such as LiCoO2, LiMn2O4, and LiFePO4 are well established. However, some batteries of this type are limited in capacity. For that reason, numerous attempts have been made to improve the electrode materials. Particularly promising are so-called lithium sulfur batteries. In such batteries, lithium will be oxidized and converted to lithium sulfides such as Li2S8-a, a being a number in the range from zero to 7. During recharging, lithium and sulfur will be regenerated. Such secondary cells have the advantage of a high capacity.
Sulfide materials of different compositions and nature are known to be lithium-ion conductors (e.g., Li2Sx/P2S5 glasses, Li2Sx/P2S5-derived glass ceramics, Li7P3S11, thio-LISICON, oxysulfide glasses). However, such materials may suffer from issues such as low stability against liquid organic electrolyte solutions, insufficient stability against metallic lithium or high voltage cathode materials, extreme sensitivity to moisture and/or air, and/or an intrinsically low ionic conductivity.
Accordingly, improved lithium-ion ionically conductive compounds are needed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Lithium metal sulfide and lithium metal sulfide argyrodite ionically conductive compounds and related uses


A portable electronic device includes a main body and a cover rotatably mounted to the main body. The main body includes a central processing unit (CPU), a sensor, a first display, and a second display. The sensor, the first display, and the second display are connected to the CPU. The cover includes a third display connected to the CPU. The CPU detects the position of the cover relative to the main body using the sensor, switches the first display on when the cover is positioned at a first state, and switches the second display and the third display on when the cover is positioned at a second state.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to portable electronic devices, and particularly to a portable electronic device having multiple displays.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, displays of portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and laptop computers, are continuously being enlarged, such that the portable electronic devices can display images more clearly. However, enlarged displays may use a great deal of electric power.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Shenzhen Futaihong Precision Industry Co., Ltd.


A white balance method for an image and a terminal device are provided. The image includes a face region and a background region. The method includes extracting a color characteristic from the background region in the image, wherein the color characteristic is configured for indicating color distribution of the background region; matching the color characteristic with at least one application condition of a white balance algorithm for the face region, wherein the white balance algorithm is configured to adjust the face region in the image to be in a skin color; and performing a white-balance processing on the face region in the image according to the white balance algorithm in response to the color characteristic being matched with a corresponding one of the at least one application condition.

When users take a shooting, they often encounter a problem of partial colour. For example, an image taken in a room under a fluorescent light will appear green, and a scene taken under a tungsten light indoor will be yellowish, and a photo taken in a daylight shade may be blue.
In order to solve this problem of partial colour, white balance adjustment is required to perform color reproduction. There are various white balance algorithms in the related art, which can be used to calculate a gain value, and a white balance processing is performed based on the gain value. However, for which algorithm is used to calculate the gain value, a user-setting manner is often adopted in the related art, and the users make a select. However, such a user-setting manner in the related art may easily cause the white balance algorithm to not match with an actual scene, resulting in a problem of poor effect for white balance.

White balance method for image and terminal device

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


A method of controlling lost circulation includes introducing into a wellbore a lost circulation fluid comprising: an external oil phase, an internal aqueous phase, an emulsifier, a wetting agent, a magnesia sealant, and a; retarder; contacting the lost circulation fluid with a lost circulation zone; and forming a plug adjacent the lost circulation zone by reacting the magnesia sealant with water at a wellbore temperature, thereby reducing fluid loss into the lost circulation zone.

Lost circulation is the loss of drilling fluids, drill-in fluids, or cementing compositions from the wellbore into the formation. Lost circulation may be encountered in any aspect of operation i.e., during drilling, circulation, tripping or cementing, and can result in increased cost of the well through increased material costs to replace lost fluids and downtime to remediate the lost circulation zone. Uncontrolled lost circulation may also result in a dangerous pressure control situation and ultimately lead to loss of the well.
The problem is normally addressed through the application of lost circulation materials such as calcium carbonate, mica, salt pills, fibrous material, flaky material, polymer based gels, or cement, which may seal off lost circulation zones to prevent further fluid loss. However, despite all the advances, there is still a continuing need for alternative lost circulation compositions and methods to mitigate lost circulation, especially, in high temperature wells.

Composition and method for controlling lost circulation