A diffraction grating providing reduced polarization dependent loss. The elements of pixels of the diffraction grating are fixed or actuated such that some grating elements are actuated to correspond to a positive polarization dependent loss and others are actuated to correspond to a negative polarization dependent loss. The pixels may include multiples of three grating elements or multiples of four grating elements. An electrostatic beam structure providing increased actuation in a direction away from a substrate may be used in a diffraction grating providing reduced polarization dependent loss.

The present invention generally relates to actuatable diffraction gratings and more particularly, to actuatable diffraction gratings providing reduced polarization dependent loss.
An important characteristic of desired for optical telecommunications components is that they have low polarization-dependent loss (PDL). PDL is defined as the degree to which an optical device attenuates an input signal as a function of polarization, commonly expressed in terms of a logarithm the ratio of the diffraction efficiency of transverse electric (TE) polarized light and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized light. Conventional diffraction gratings (i.e., one-dimensional gratings having a single elongate dimension) are intrinsically polarization-dependent devices. Accordingly, MEMS-based (i.e., made using microelectromechanical system manufacturing techniques) conventional diffraction gratings have suffered from significant PDL.
Modifications to MEMS-based diffraction gratings have been made to reduce PDL. One such modification involves using wider elements, either for the entire grating or by making selected grating elements wider. Such modifications provide reduced PDL at a specific actuation state of the MEMS grating, but do not provide significant reduction of PDL over all actuation depths. Additionally, the use of wider grating elements results in larger devices, and smaller diffraction angles. Both of these drawbacks have led to increased package size for devices employing gratings that have been so modified.
An example of a diffraction grating design having equal diffraction efficiency for TE-polarized light and TM-polarized light (i.e., a PDL of zero) is a bi-grating. A bi-grating is a two-dimensional grating which diffracts light in two orthogonal planes. The grating described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,519 B1, to Johnson, issued Feb. 13, 2001 is an example of a MEMS-based bi-grating for use in maskless lithography and high resolution printing. The device described in Johnson requires an actuatable membrane and fixed islands, which are difficult to fabricate. Furthermore, when the device described in Johnson is actuated, the membrane is not flat, resulting in a reduction in diffraction efficiency.
Some aspects of the present invention apply a recognition that in an actuatable, one-dimensional diffraction grating, the PDL contribution caused by two grating elements is a function of the relative displacement of the two grating elements (i.e., the gap size; gap size is defined as separation in the z-direction, as illustrated in FIG. 2a); and a further recognition that PDL as a function of displacement has regimes of positive and negative PDL (see FIG. 1). Each grating element of a diffraction grating has a reflective surface that is either integrated with the grating element (i.e., the grating elements is made of a reflective material) or has a reflective surface otherwise disposed on the grating element. The size of a gap is measured between the tops of the reflective surfaces of the relevant grating elements.
Accordingly, by processing light of a channel (e.g., a signal having a single wavelength of light) with a diffraction grating configured such that one or more regions of the grating correspond to a positive PDL (i.e., the relative displacement of at least two grating elements within the grating corresponds to greater throughput efficiency for TE-polarized light than TM-polarized light) and one or more regions correspond to a negative PDL (i.e., the relative displacement of at least two elements within the grating correspond to greater throughput efficiency for TM-polarized light than TE-polarized light L), the overall PDL of the light processed by the grating can be reduced relative to a conventional diffraction grating in which all regions of the diffraction grating correspond to a PDL of the same sign (i.e., all positive or all negative).
One aspect of the present invention is directed to a diffraction grating optical processor having one or more groups of grating elements, each group including three or more grating elements that function together to process light of a channel in a manner that provides reduced PDL relative to a conventional diffraction grating.
The grating elements processing light of a single channel are referred to herein as a xe2x80x9cpixel.xe2x80x9d It is to be understood that it is the aggregate effect of the positioning of all the grating elements of a pixel (i.e., the relative displacements of all grating elements relative to one another) that determines the amount of PDL present in a signal processed by a pixel. However, it is instructive and convenient to ascribe a PDL to individual pairs of grating elements comprising a pixel (e.g., a reference grating element, typically a non-actuatable grating element, and an operational grating element, typically an actuatable grating element); the sum of the PDLs ascribed to the pairs of grating elements are indicative of the PDL for the entire pixel. When referring to the PDL contribution of a pair of grating elements of a pixel (as determined by the gap therebetween), the arrangement will be said xe2x80x9cto correspond to a PDL.xe2x80x9d
Embodiments of actuatable gratings as taught herein may have pixels including a plurality of adjacent actuatable grating elements. Accordingly, gaps (in the z-direction) may be defined between one or more operational grating elements of a pixel and a non-adjacent reference grating element. The gaps in such devices may correspond to positive and negative PDLs, so as to reduce the overall PDL of a pixel (e.g., see FIG. 8).
The present invention also includes, but is not limited to, embodiments of actuatable diffraction gratings that provide reduced PDL over all actuation depths. The phrase xe2x80x9call actuation depthsxe2x80x9d means including actuation distances equal to at least one quarter of a processed wavelength of light, such that a selected amount of diffraction achieved by a given pixel of the diffraction grating may range from zero diffraction (i.e., substantially all of the light reflecting from the pixel remains in the zeroth order) to complete diffraction (i.e., substantially all of the light reflecting from the pixel is diffracted out of the zeroth order).
A first aspect of the invention is directed to an optical processor characterized by an axis extending in a direction, the optical processor comprising: (a) a pixel to process light having a wavelength xcex, comprising (1) a first grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the axis, (2) a second grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the axis, and (3) a third grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the axis; and (b) a controller operable to displace at least the reflective surface of the second grating element relative the reflective surface of the first grating element, a displacement of the reflective surface of the second grating element forming a first gap in the direction of the axis relative the reflective surface of the first grating element, the first gap corresponding to a PDL of a sign, and the reflective surface of the third grating element forming a second gap, relative one of the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the second grating element, in the direction of the axis and corresponding to a PDL of the opposite sign.
In some embodiments, in a direction perpendicular to the axis, the second grating element is located intermediate the first grating element and the third grating element. In some embodiments, the first grating element and the third grating element are non-actuatable grating elements. The reflective surface of the first grating element and reflective surface of the third grating element may be separated by a distance, in the direction of the axis, equal to an integer multiple of xcex/2. Optionally, the width of the reflective surface of the second grating element is equal to the sum of the widths of the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the third grating element. The PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign may have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby their sum is substantially zero. The terms xe2x80x9csubstantially zeroxe2x80x9d is defined herein to mean less than 0.2 dB. The controller may be operable to displace the third grating element relative the first grating element, and in a direction perpendicular the axis, the first grating element is located intermediate the second grating element and the third grating element.
In other embodiments, the controller is operable to maintain the reflective surface of the second grating element and reflective surface of the third grating element in positions separated by a distance, in the direction of the axis, equal to an integer multiple of xcex/2 during processing of the light, and wherein the controller is operable to displace the second grating element and the third grating element relative the first grating element during the processing of the light. In still other embodiments, the controller may be operable to displace the first grating element, and the third grating element. In some embodiments, in a direction perpendicular the axis, the first grating element is located intermediate the second grating element and the third grating element, and wherein the controller is operable to maintain the reflective surface of the second element and reflective surface of the third grating element in positions separated by a distance, along the axis, equal to an integer multiple of xcex/2 during processing of the light, and to displace the reflective surface of the first grating element while the reflective surface of the second grating element and the reflective surface of the third element are maintained in said position. In such embodiments, the width of the reflective surface of the first grating element is equal to the sum of the widths of the reflective surface of the second grating element and the reflective surface of the third grating element. The PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign may have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby their sum is substantially zero.
In some embodiments, the pixel further comprises a fourth grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface normal to the direction of the axis, and wherein, in a direction normal to the axis, the grating elements are arranged in the following order, the first grating element, the second grating element, the fourth grating element and the third grating element. The first grating element and the fourth grating element may be non-actuatable. The first grating element and the fourth grating element may be coplanar with one another. Optionally, the controller is operable to displace the second grating element and the third grating element, and wherein the PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby their sum is substantially zero. The controller may be operable to maintain the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the fourth grating element in coplanar positions during processing of the light. The controller may be operable to displace the second grating element and the third grating element relative the first grating elements and the fourth grating element, and wherein the PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby the sum of the PDL of a sign and the PDL of the opposite sign is substantially zero.
In some embodiments, the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the fourth grating element may be non-actuatable, and separated by an integer multiple of xcex/2 along the axis. In such embodiments, the controller may be operable to displace the reflective surface of the second grating element and the reflective surface of the third grating element during processing of the light, and wherein the PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign have substantially the same magnitudes during the processing of the light, whereby their sum is substantially zero.
In some embodiments, the pixel further comprises a fourth grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface normal to the direction of the axis, and wherein, in a direction normal to the axis, the grating elements are arranged in the following order, the first grating element, the fourth grating element, the second grating element and the third grating element. Optionally, the second grating element and the third grating element are connected together such that reflective surface of the second grating element and the reflective surface third grating element are separated by a distance equal to an integer multiple of xcex/2 in the direction of the axis. The controller may be operable to displace the second grating element and third grating element along the axis, relative the first grating element and the third grating element, whereby the distance is maintained during displacement. The reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the fourth grating element may be connected together such that reflective surface first grating element and the reflective surface of the fourth grating element are separated by a distance equal to an integer multiple of xcex/2 in the direction of the axis.
The displacement in any of the above embodiments may be achieved using one of an electrostatic technique, a magnetic technique, a piezoelectric technique, and a thermal technique.
Another aspect of the invention is directed to an optical processor to process light having a wavelength xcex, characterized by an first axis extending in a direction, the optical processor comprising: a first grating element having a length and a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the axis; a second grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the first axis, the second grating element connected to the first grating element such that in the direction of a second axis, which is perpendicular to both the length and the first axis, there is a first step equal in height to a non-zero integer multiple of xcex/4 between the reflective surface of the first grating element and reflective surface of the second grating element; a third grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the first axis; and a fourth grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the first axis, the fourth grating element connected to the third grating element such that in the direction of the second axis there is a second step equal in height to a non-zero integer multiple of xcex/4 between the reflective surface of the third grating element and reflective surface of the fourth grating element, the first grating element and the second grating element displaceable relative the third grating element and the fourth grating element, in the direction of the first axis; whereby the first step and the second step are maintained in both actuated state and the unactuated state. The optical processor may further comprise an actuator to effect a displacement of the first grating element and the second grating element relative the third grating element and the fourth grating element, in the direction of the first axis. In an unactuated state, the reflective surface of the first grating element may be coplanar with the reflective surface of the third grating element, and the reflective surface of second grating element is coplanar with the reflective surface of the fourth grating element. The actuator may be one of an electrostatic actuator, a magnetic actuator, a piezoelectric actuator, and a thermal actuator.
Still another aspect of the invention is an optical processor to process light having a wavelength xcex, characterized by an first axis extending in a direction, the optical processor comprising: a first grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the axis; a second grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the first axis, the second grating element having a structurally fixed separation from the first grating element, along the first axis, equal to a non-zero integer multiple of xcex/4; and a third grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the first axis, the third grating element displaceable relative the first grating element and second grating element.
The optical processor may further comprise an actuator to effect a displacement of the first grating element and the second grating element relative the third grating element, in the direction of the first axis. Optionally, the first grating element and the second grating element are non-actuatable. In some embodiments, in a direction perpendicular the axis, the third grating element is located intermediate the first grating element and the second grating element. The width of the reflective surface of the third grating element may be equal to the sum of the widths of the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the second grating element. The gap between the reflective surface of the first grating surface and the reflective surface of the third grating element, in the direction of the axis, may correspond to a PDL of a sign, and the gap between the reflective surface of the second grating element and the reflective surface of the third grating element, in the direction of the axis, may correspond to a PDL of the opposite sign, the PDL of a sign and the PDL of the opposite sign have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby their sum is substantially zero.
Yet another aspect of the invention is directed to an optical system comprising (a) an optical source to produce a wavelength xcex; and (b) a fixed diffraction grating characterized by an axis extending in a direction, the diffraction grating comprising a pixel configured to receive the wavelength xcex, comprising (1) a first grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to a direction of the axis, (2) a second grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the axis, the reflective surface of the second grating element forming a first gap in the direction of the axis relative the reflective surface of the first grating element, the first gap corresponding to a PDL of a sign and
(3) a third grating element, parallel to the first grating element and having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface being disposed normal to the direction of the axis, the reflective surface of the third grating element forming a second gap, relative one of the reflective surface of the first grating element and the reflective surface of the second grating element, in the direction of the axis and corresponding to a PDL of the opposite sign.
A fourth aspect of the invention is a method of operating a pixel of an optical processor, characterized by an axis, the pixel having (a) a first grating element having a reflective surface supported above a substrate, at least a portion of the reflective surface normal to a direction of the axis, (b) a second grating element having a reflective surface supported above a substrate, at least a portion of the reflective surface normal to the direction of the axis, and (c) a third grating element having a reflective surface, a portion of the reflective surface normal to the direction of the axis, comprising: positioning the reflective surface of the second grating element to form a first gap relative the reflective surface of the first grating element, the first gap corresponding to a PDL of a sign, the reflective surface of the third grating element forming a second gap relative one of the reflective surface of the first grating and the reflective surface of the second grating, the second gap corresponding to a PDL of the opposite sign. The PDL of a sign and the PDL of an opposite sign may have substantially the same magnitudes, whereby their sum is substantially zero. Optionally, the step of positioning includes increasing the first gap and decreasing the second gap. Alternatively, the step of positioning includes increasing the first gap and increasing the second gap.
In some embodiments, the pixel further comprises a fourth diffractive grating element having a reflective surface, at least a portion of the reflective surface normal to the direction of the axis, the method further comprising positioning the reflective surface of the third grating element such that the second gap corresponds to a PDL having the opposite sign.
The pixel may have a baseline position, and wherein the step of positioning the reflective surface of the second grating element includes moving away from the baseline position and toward the substrate, and the step of positioning reflective surface of the grating element includes moving away form the baseline position and away from the substrate. Alternatively, the pixel has a baseline position, and wherein the step of positioning the reflective surface of the second grating element includes moving away from the baseline position and toward the substrate, and the step of positioning reflective surface of the third grating element includes moving away form the baseline position and toward the substrate.
The step of positioning the reflective surface of the second grating element may increase the first gap and the step of positioning the reflective surface of the third grating element decreases the second gap. Alternatively, the step of positioning the reflective surface of the second grating element may be achieved using one of an electrostatic technique, a magnetic technique, a piezoelectric technique, and a thermal technique.

Method and apparatus providing reduced polarization-dependent loss


This specification relates to a mobile terminal capable of displaying contents and a control method thereof. The mobile terminal includes a memory configured to store a plurality of contents associated with a plurality of applications together with log information relating to each of the contents, a user input unit configured to receive condition information, input in relation to the log information and a controller configured to extract contents which satisfy the condition information based on the log information related to each of the contents, and display the extracted contents.

1. Field of the Invention
This specification relates to a mobile terminal, and particularly, to a mobile terminal capable of displaying contents and a control method thereof.
2. Background of the Invention
Terminals may be divided into mobile/portable terminals and stationary terminals according to their mobility. Also, the mobile terminals may be classified into handheld terminals and vehicle mount terminals according to whether or not a user can directly carry.
As it becomes multifunctional, a mobile terminal can be allowed to capture still images or moving images, play music or video files, play games, receive broadcast and the like, so as to be implemented as an integrated multimedia player. Many efforts include not only changes and improvement of structural components implementing a mobile terminal but also software improvement to support and improve functions of the terminal.
Owing to the improvements, a user may continually generate contents for a plurality of applications while using the plurality of applications. As one application is executed, the user can view contents generated in the one application at once for a preset period of time. However, it has been difficult for the user to view contents generated in a plurality of application at once for a preset period of time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mobile terminal extracting contents with a calendar for generating and displaying an electronic note and method thereof


An electronic device, e.g., a printed transistor device, comprises a substrate, a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer and a semiconductor layer. The substrate has a first platform and a second platform embossing on the surface thereof, and the first and second platforms are separated by a gap whose width is equivalent to the channel length of the transistor. The first and second conductive layers serving as the source and the drain, respectively, of the transistor device are formed on surfaces of the first and second platforms. The semiconductor layer is formed on the surface of the substrate in the gap.

(A) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an electronic device, a transistor device and manufacturing methods thereof, and more specifically, to a printed electronic device, a printed transistor device and manufacturing methods thereof.
(B) Description of the Related Art
With the downsizing of electronic devices, because of natural limitations of light and requirement of high energy radiation, photolithography processes need more complicated and sophisticated equipment and techniques for the application of nanometer patterns. Consequently, there are shortcomings of high cost of equipment and high risk techniques. Domestic or international industrial and research fields all invest considerable capital and manpower in developing nanometer processes, intending to develop lower cost and more reliable techniques to meet the demand of equipment and technique for mass production of nanometer devices. However, for the lithography and etching processes, the costly reticle and equipment are still obstacles for entering the generation of 50 nm semiconductor processes.
Printing technique is convenient and simple, and can be performed by printing or transferring a pattern many times via a single mold. Printing is an additive process, so the waste of material can be significantly reduced. Besides, patterning for a large area can be subjected to printing for decreasing the cost.
The requirement of high speed of a printed transistor device can be accomplished by the following methods: (1) use semiconductor material of higher carrier mobility; (2) shorten the distance of source and drain of the transistor; or (3) use higher voltage.
The use of semiconductor material of higher carrier mobility is limited to the nature of the material itself, and thus the room for improvement is limited also. The use of high voltage cannot meet the requirements for the device of smaller line width of design rule as with the increase of circuit integrity. Consequently, shortening the distance between the source and drain becomes a solution in practice. It is important to associate with printing technique to obtain a transistor device of low cost and high resolution for current research and development.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0175963A1 and 2003/0059987A1 use either the characteristics of hydrophilic and hydrophobic or a barrier built in advance for ink printing, so as to fabricate the source and drain of the semiconductor transistor device.
WO 2004/055919 disclosed another method for fabricating a transistor device. Referring to FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), two recesses 3 and 4 are formed in a substrate 1 by being pressed with a press mold 2, and are separated by a barrier 5. Then, a stamp 6 inked with a hydrophobic surface modifier 7 is pressed to contact the substrate 1, and thus the surface of the substrate 1 excluding the recesses 3 and 4 is daubed with the surface modifier 7 as shown in FIGS. 1(c) and 1(d). Referring to FIG. 1(e), because the surface modifier 7 is hydrophobic, conductive ink 8 only remains in the recesses 3 and 4 and forms a source 9 and a drain 10 when performing ink-printing. Sequentially, a semiconductor layer 11 and a dielectric layer 12 are formed on the surfaces of the source 9 and drain 10 in sequence, and a gate 13 is formed in the dielectric layer 12, by which a printed transistor device is formed as shown in FIG. 1(f).
The above known methods need to utilize hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics or use a barrier separating the recesses for the formations of the source and drain; thus the process is complicated and the manufacturing flexibility is decreased.

Printed electronic device and transistor device and manufacturing method thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device which hardly causes image sticking in a panel in which Cgd gradation is performed, even when the pixel capacitances of the picture elements are different from one another. The liquid crystal display device of the present invention is a liquid crystal display device which includes a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, and is configured such that a pixel is formed by picture elements of a plurality of colors, wherein one of the pair of substrates includes scanning lines, signal lines, storage capacitor lines, thin film transistors connected to both of the scanning lines and the signal lines, and pixel electrodes connected to the thin film transistors; the other of the pair of substrates includes a counter electrode; the pixel electrodes are arranged for the picture elements; a scanning line and a pixel electrode form a gate-drain capacitance; the gate-drain capacitance formed by a pixel electrode with a larger pixel capacitance among the pixel electrodes arranged in one pixel is larger than the gate-drain capacitance formed by a pixel electrode with a smaller pixel capacitance among the pixel electrodes arranged in the one pixel; an overlapping area of each of the pixel electrodes overlapped with the scanning line initially increases in a travelling direction of a scanning line signal but a rate of the increase subsequently decreases, in each of the pixel electrodes respectively arranged for the picture elements of single colors; and rates of increase are different among the pixel electrodes with different pixel capacitances.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is a device which performs display in such a manner that the optical property of light emitted from a light source is controlled by using a liquid crystal layer, and the like, filled between a pair of substrates, and is used in various fields by taking advantage of its features, such as thin profile, light weight and low power consumption.
In the liquid crystal display device, an alignment state of liquid crystal molecules is changed by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal layer by using a pair of electrodes formed on the substrates, and thereby a polarization state of the light passing through the liquid crystal layer is changed. In the liquid crystal display device, color filters of a plurality of colors are arranged to perform color display. The pair of substrates sandwiching the liquid crystal layer are held by spacers so as to have a uniform gap (cell gap) therebetween and are bonded to each other by a sealing material.
In the liquid crystal display device, sub-pixels of three colors of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) are usually formed. A color filter of each color is arranged for each of the sub-pixels, and color control is performed for each pixel by adjusting light passing through the color filter of each color.
In recent years, there has been made such a contrivance that, in addition to the RGB sub-pixels, a white (W) sub-pixel is arranged in order to increase luminance (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). Further, a method has also been investigated in which the areas of the RGBW sub-pixels are made different for each color so as to suitably adjust color balance (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).
In the liquid crystal display device, pixel electrodes are usually arranged in a matrix form, and each of the pixel electrodes is driven through a switch formed by a thin film transistor (TFT). The TFT is a three terminal field-effect transistor, and a drain electrode of each of the TFTs is connected to the pixel electrode corresponding to the TFT. A gate electrode of each of the TFTs is connected to a gate bus line of each row of the matrix. A source electrode of each of the TFTs is connected to a source bus line of each column of the matrix. A desired image can be obtained by applying an image signal to the source bus line and by sequentially scanning the gate bus line.
Some of the liquid crystal display devices have a multi-gap configuration in which a thickness (cell gap) of the liquid crystal layer is made different for the sub-pixel of each color. However, in the case where a size of the cell gap is made different, a value of capacitance associated with the pixel electrode is changed. Therefore, in order to eliminate the difference in the pixel capacitance between the sub-pixels, it is necessary to make contrivances such as (a) equalizing pixel electrode areas between the sub-pixels and making storage capacitance different for each of the sub-pixels or (b) making the pixel electrode areas different for each of the sub-pixels and equalizing the storage capacitance between the sub-pixels (see, for example, Patent Literature 3).
Further, in the liquid crystal display device, in order to solve a viewing angle dependency problem due to a difference in γ characteristics between the time when the display is viewed in a front direction and the time when the display is viewed in an oblique direction, there is a case where a pixel is divided into a plurality of sub-pixels, and where the γ characteristics are made close to each other (see, for example, Patent Literature 4). The γ characteristics mean gradation dependency of display luminance. That the γ characteristics are different between the time when the display is viewed in the front direction and the time when the display is viewed in the oblique direction means that a gradation display state is changed according to the observation direction. The viewing angle dependency problem due to the γ characteristics can be eliminated in such a manner that a state having different γ characteristics is formed by applying a different voltage to the liquid crystal layer corresponding to each of the sub-pixels.
Further, as a method for forming a spacer, a method has also been tried in which, when color filters are formed in correspondence with RGB sub-pixels, the color filters are also similarly formed at a place where the spacer is to be formed, and are laminated to form the spacer (see, for example, Patent Literature 5). In Patent Literature 5, in order to compensate a change in the capacitance of each pixel due to the spacer formed in the sub-pixel, a method has been investigated which equalizes a capacitance ratio of each of the respective pixels by changing a size of storage capacitor line.
Moreover, an active matrix substrate is disclosed in which a common electrode line is formed parallel to a scanning signal line, and each pixel circuit is formed so that the capacity Cgd between the scanning signal line and the pixel electrode becomes greater as electrically going farther from the scanning signal line drive circuit, in order to eliminate non-uniformity of the level shift of pixel potential generated at the scan signal fall (for example, Patent Literature 6).


A system and method are disclosed herein to determine an insurance benefit associated with an insurance policy for an asset, such as an automobile or a residence. The system includes a computer memory and a processor in communication with the computer memory. The computer memory may store data indicative of (i) a recommended maintenance schedule for the asset and (ii) at least one actual maintenance event that has occurred in connection with the asset. The processor may compare the at least one actual maintenance event with the recommended maintenance schedule and determine the benefit for the insurance policy based at least in part on a result of said comparing. The processor may then transmit an indication of the benefit for the insurance policy.

The insurance industry has begun exploring the use of maintenance information as a way of determining an owner's behavior and, from this, risk for the purposes of underwriting, pricing, renewing, and servicing asset insurance. For example, an automobile owner who regularly checks tire inflation may have a reduced likelihood of being involved in an accident. It can be difficult to encourage owners to provide such data and/or to adjust maintenance habits in ways that may lower risk. The relationships between maintenance data (e.g., where and when an asset is serviced) and the real world can be difficult for an owner to understand. For example, a homeowner might not realize that having his or her heating system cleaned after a pre-determined number of hours of use, as recommended by the heating system manufacturer, may greatly reduce the chance of fire damage.

System and method to determine an insurance policy benefit associated with an asset


The invention relates to a wire feed station of a wire shaping machine, said station including grooved rollers functioning in pairs and rotating in reverse directions with respect to each other. The wire is clamped between said rollers by these moving closer to one another. Both rollers of the same pair of driving rollers are supported at the front of the same bearing block unit, said bearing block being elastically deformable to absorb a relative movement of the rollers. Preferably, said bearing block also supports an endless transmission screw on which are engaged a couple of transmission wheels coaxial with the driving rollers which they drive into rotation. More particularly, a bearing block is deformed so that a relative movement of the rollers results in a rotation-deformation of the bearing block about the transmission screw axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feed or supply station in a metal wire shaping machine.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
A numerically controlled machine carries out various shaping operations on a metal wire (or on a bar), such as for example cambering, bending, etc. . . . , executed by various stations mounted on a frame.
The word metal wire is a generic term professionally used, which means a wire proper as well as a bar or a tube.
One of the stations is the wire feed station which horizontally supplies said wire along a travel axis, to the tools of a shaping station.
The wire is moved by the feed station using grooved rollers functioning in pairs and rotating in reverse directions with respect to each other, generally the rollers are positioned one above the other, with a stationary lower roller and an upper roller which can be moved vertically in one direction and the other.
The wire is clamped between said two rollers by these moving closer to one another and it is placed in the annular grooves of said rollers.
The movable roller is actuated by an actuator which defines the tightening stress on the wire and which can be a screw, a pneumatic or hydraulic jack, an eccentrics system or any other system.
The number of roller pairs varies as a function of the wire diameter and/or the shaping operations to be carried out thereon.
Two mountings of the rollers of the same pair of rollers are possible. First, a mounting wherein the shafts supporting the rollers are mounted in two bearings, with a rear bearing of at least one of the shafts which must be swivelling, which causes, when the rollers come closer to each other, a shears effect, through the misalignment of the peripheral annular grooves of the rollers between which the wire travels. Such defect tends to rotate the wire about the travel axis thereof, during the feeding of the wire and generates dispersions between the parts manufactured downstream on the shaping station. A mounting of this type is shown as an example in appended FIG. 1a, with a feed device wherein the shaft (a) of the upper roller (not shown) is mounted on a swivelling bearing, i.e. mounted on a spherical bearing (b) and actuated by a pneumatic actuator (c).
Second, a mounting wherein the shafts supporting the rollers are each mounted in a single bearing, and wherein the relative movement thereof requires guiding means such as, for example, columns, guiding blocks or any other one. In such a type of mounting, the slightest clearance in said guiding means (for example mounting clearance and/or wearing clearance) generates a misalignment of the rollers peripheral grooves and thus generates the same defects as with the previous mounting. A mounting of this type is shown, as an example, in FIGS. 2a and 2b, wherein the wire (d) is clamped between two pairs of rollers (e, f). Two rollers (e, f) of the same pair are mounted on a single bearing with two guiding bearings (g, h) in the same part, with the guiding means being a guiding column (i).
For both above-mentioned types of mounting, the number of parts required for guiding the shafts is significant, which implies a long chain of dimensions and a poor guiding final accuracy which is not satisfactory, considering the reproducibility of the parts to be shaped.
The aim of the invention consists in solving the problems of the feed devices of the prior art by limiting the number of parts as well as limiting the clearances which generate the shear effect.


Three series connected inverters (38, 40, 42) are attached to a tank circuit (18) which includes an inductance (12, 14) and a capacitance (16, 17). Negative (38) biases the inverters at the midpoint between the bistable low and high logic level states. Positive feedback from the second inverter (40) to the tank circuit induces oscillation in the tank circuit. The negative feedback is decoupled at the resonant frequency and the energy delivered to the tank circuit from the positive feedback maintains a low level oscillation in the tank circuit. Negative feedback around the three inverter digital circuit prevents lockup in the event of power loss or momentary short.

The present invention relates generally to oscillator circuits. More particularly the invention relates to a lockproof digital circuit employing low cost digital inverters suitable for integrated circuit mass production. The circuit produces a logic level oscillation at a frequency dictated by an associated tank circuit. The signal excursions in the tank circuit can be maintained at a substantially low energy level notwithstanding the comparatively high energy level of the signal output. This greatly minimizes crosstalk and interference.
Resonant circuits are commonly used to measure physical parameters. For example, there is a class of displacement sensors which employs an inductance tank circuit with moving vane tuning plate to measure position. Our prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,570, entitled "Sensor Amplification and Enhancement Apparatus Using Digital Techniques," issued Feb. 17, 1987, describes such a displacement sensor. The position of the tuning plate alters the inductance of the coil and thus alters the resonant frequency of the tank circuit. By energizing the tank circuit and measuring the frequency of the resonant oscillations produced, position of the tuning plate can be inferred.
With the advent of digital technology, it has become desirable to use digital components in an oscillator circuit, since digital circuits can be made small and inexpensive and are easily implemented in integrated circuit (IC) packages. However, conventional digital circuits in such applications exhibit lockup in which the digital components assume conflicting states which prevent oscillation. This can be caused by signal transients and dropouts and represents a serious shortcoming of conventional designs.
Digital shaper circuits and hybrid analog/digital circuits have also been experimented with but difficulties in addition to lockup have been encountered. For instance, in switched circuit applications or in applications where electromagnetic radiation from the inductor interferes with other circuitry, these circuits pose problems due to the relatively high energy levels at which these circuits operate.
In a switched application, for example, it may be necessary to abruptly change the current applied to the inductor. Abrupt changes in current cause high energy voltage spikes which can cause radio frequency interference and which can induce errors in associated digital circuitry. Even in unswitched applications, high energy level oscillations in the tank circuit can cross-couple with and radiate to other parts of the circuit, causing unwanted crosstalk and interference.
The present invention overcomes the above limitations of conventional high level oscillator circuits by providing a fully digital lockproof circuit in which the signal amplitude in the tank circuit can be adjusted and kept at a low level. The oscillator circuit of the invention comprises a digital circuit employing first, second and third inverters connected in series. The three inverter digital circuit is operable between bistable high and low logic level states. A tank circuit comprising a capacitance and an inductance is coupled to the input of the first inverter to establish a resonant frequency. A negative feedback circuit connects the output of the third inverter with the input of the first inverter. The negative feedback circuit biases the digital circuit to an intermediate point between the high and low bistable states. The negative feedback circuit may include a frequency selective circuit for decoupling the negative feedback at the resonant frequency.
The circuit further includes a positive feedback circuit coupled between the output of the second inverter and the tank circuit. The positive feedback circuit delivers energy to the tank circuit, thereby inducing oscillation in the tank circuit at the resonant frequency. The output of the third inverter is a logic level signal which oscillates between the high and low bistable states in synchronism with the induced oscillation in the tank circuit. The positive feedback includes an impedance for restricting the amount of energy delivered to the tank circuit, thereby reducing the amplitude of the oscillations in the tank circuit, without reducing the signal amplitude at the output of the third inverter This has the advantage of greatly reducing the signal level in the inductance and thereby greatly reducing cross talk and interference problems.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.

Lockproof low level oscillator using digital components


A method for inspecting a metal surface (12) includes providing a first laser source (14) that is arranged to generate a first laser beam having a first wavelength comprised between 1000 nm and 1100 nm and a power higher than 1 W; providing a second laser source (16) that is arranged to generate a second laser beam having a second wavelength comprised between 1500 nm and 1800 nm and a power higher than 1 W; activating one of the first and second laser sources and transmitting the first or second laser beam to the entrance (22) of an optic (18); scanning the metal surface (12) with the laser beam projected by the optic; and acquiring at least one image of the infrared radiation emitted by the metal surface (12).

Document FR 3,020,678 describes a photothermal inspection method for a part.
According to this method, the surface is scanned by two similar scanning devices each comprising a heat contribution element. To that end, each device comprises a laser source provided to emit a laser beam and a goniometer suitable for reflecting the laser beam toward the surface.
This makes it possible to perform a nondestructive inspection of a metal surface of a part.
Typically, this method implements laser beams having a wavelength substantially equal to 1064 nm, which is commonly used for applications requiring high heating powers.

Method for inspecting a metal surface and associated device


Tires having a magnetic tire sealing material containing magnetic particles are described for detecting the presence of one or more sealed punctures in the tire. The tires can have a sealed tire portion that is formed by the magnetic tire sealing material flowing into and filling a puncture in the tire. The sealed tire portion includes a portion having magnetic particles and the portion being at the outer surface of the tire such as in the tread area. The tire can be positioned within the detection zone of an apparatus capable of detecting magnetic particles to indicate whether the tire contains a sealed puncture filled with the magnetic tire sealing material.

Tires are generally still operable after a puncture because an object that passes through a tire often does not easily come out and air does not leak rapidly from the tire. However, over a long period of run time, the object is exposed to centrifugal forces caused by the rotation of the tire that can dislodge the object. When the object comes out, air quickly leaks from the tire and operation of a vehicle can become dangerous. To combat punctures, modern puncture-sealing pneumatic tires provide a sealant material that prevents the leakage of air when a foreign object, for example, a nail on a roadway surface, penetrates through the tire during operation.
The sealant layer is often formed of a thin viscous rubber layer adhered integrally to an inner peripheral surface of the tire at the backside of the tread portion. When a foreign object falls out of a puncture and forms an opening, the same centrifugal forces caused by the rotation of the tire that dislodged the object result in the viscous sealant layer to flow into the puncture opening. The sealant layer fills and preferably closes the puncture opening to result in the tire being air-tight for continued use.
A tire having a sealed puncture can continue to be used without the puncture area being noticed by a driver. There is an interest, however, that a sealed puncture be detected to notify the driver of a possible defect. It is an objective of the present disclosure to overcome one or more difficulties related to the prior art. It has been found that a magnetic tire sealant material can be used to detect a sealed puncture on the outer surface of the tire and that an external apparatus can be used to indicate such a sealed puncture.

Magnetic tire sealant for puncture detection

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC


Subject matter disclosed herein relates to a memory device, and more particularly to write performance of a memory device.

1. Field
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to a memory device, and more particularly to write performance of a memory device.
2. Information
Memory devices are employed in many types of electronic devices, such as computers, cell phones, PDA's, data loggers, and navigational equipment, just to name a few examples. Among such electronic devices, various types of nonvolatile memory devices may be employed, such as NAND or NOR flash memories, and phase-change memory, just to name a few examples.
A NAND flash memory cell may transition from one state to another state by applying a bias signal to a control gate of the memory cell. Applying such a bias signal may result in charging a floating gate disposed between the control gate and a channel of the memory cell. Consequently, the amount of such charge on the floating gate may determine whether the memory cell is conductive above a particular threshold voltage applied to the control gate during a process to read the memory cell. However, a memory cell's response to a particular bias signal may change over time due to physical changes within the memory cell that may result from aging and usage, for example. Thus, it may be difficult to select proper bias signals to program such memory cells as the memory cells physically change over time.

Reading memory cell history during program operation for adaptive programming


A display device includes: a display unit that displays, at a remote position, a display image that includes a first image and a second image; an operation detection unit that detects an operation by a user on the display image; and a display control unit that adjusts a display mode for at least one of the first image and the second image based upon the operation detected by the operation detection unit.

There is an electronic device disclosed in the related art, which is capable of detecting an operation, performed with respect to a three-dimensional object displayed in midair, via a capacitive touch sensor that calculates the distance between a finger and a touch panel (see PTL 1). While PTL 1 describes that the electronic device detects an operation performed with respect to a three-dimensional object (target), full operability of operations performed with respect to the object is not assured in the art disclosed in PTL 1.

Display device, program, display method and control device


A gas turbine engine compressor including a stator assembly and a method of assembling the same are provided. The method includes providing a compressor casing including at least two stator vane casing rails extending from the casing, coupling a rail liner within each respective casing rail, and coupling a stator vane assembly including two dovetails, and at least two stator vanes coupled together within the casing rails within the liner such that a first dovetail is received within a first casing rail and a first rail liner, and a second dovetail is received within a second casing rail and a second rail liner.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for assembling gas turbine engine compressors.
At least some known gas turbine engines include, in serial flow arrangement, a compressor, a combustor, a high pressure turbine, and a low pressure turbine. The compressor, combustor and high pressure turbine are sometimes collectively referred to as the core engine. Compressed air is channeled from the compressor to the combustor where it is mixed with fuel and ignited. The combustion gasses are channeled to the turbines which extract energy from the combustion gasses to power the compressors and to produce useful work to propel an aircraft in flight or to power a load, such as an electrical generator.
Known compressors include a rotor assembly and a stator assembly. Known rotor assemblies include a plurality of rows of circumferentially-spaced rotor blades that extend radially outward from a shaft or disk. Known stator assemblies may include a plurality of stator vanes which extend circumferentially between adjacent rows of rotor blades to form a nozzle for directing air passing therethrough towards downstream rotor blades. More specifically, known stator vanes extend radially inward from a compressor casing between adjacent rows of rotor blades.
In at least some compressors, each stator vane is unitarily formed with an airfoil and platform that are mounted through an integrally-formed dovetail to the compressor casing. To facilitate assembly of the stator vanes to the casing, a small amount of clearance is permitted between a casing dovetail or vane rail and the vane platform. However, the clearance enables a small degree of relative motion between the vane platform and the casing vane rail. Over time, continued movement between the stator vanes and the casing rail may cause vane platform and/or casing wear. Such relative movement of the stator vanes may be enhanced by vibrations generated during engine operation.
To facilitate reducing wear between the casing and vane platform, at least some stator assemblies are coated with wear coatings or lubricants. Other known compressors use casing rail liners, and/or vane springs to facilitate reducing such wear. However, known wear coatings may not be useful in some single vane applications, and known vane springs may not be suitable for use with vanes that include air bleed holes. Moreover, known rail liners are only useful in a limited number of engine designs.

Methods and apparatus for assembling gas turbine engines


A blade portion for a grooving tool includes opposite first and second surfaces, a blade width thereof being defined as a shortest distance between the first and second surfaces, opposite third and fourth surfaces, and a fifth surface and an opposite blade portion end. The blade width is constant or substantially constant from the fifth surface up to the blade portion end. An insert seat separating the third surface and the fifth surface is arranged to receive an insert having a main cutting edge, an associated rake face, and an associated main clearance surface. The main cutting edge defines an insert width being greater than the blade width. A shortest distance from the fifth surface to the opposite blade portion end is greater than a shortest distance from the third surface to the fourth surface.

The present invention refers to a blade portion according to the preamble of claim 1. In other words, the present invention refers to a blade portion for a grooving tool, the blade portion comprising opposite first and second surfaces, wherein a blade width is defined as a shortest distance between the first and second surfaces, opposite third and fourth surfaces, a fifth surface and an opposite blade portion end, wherein the blade width is constant or substantially constant from the fifth surface up to the blade portion end, an insert seat separating the third surface and the fifth surface, wherein the insert seat can receive an insert comprising a main cutting edge, an associated rake face, and an associated main clearance surface, wherein the main cutting edge defines an insert width being greater than the blade width.
Metal cutting parting-off, cutting-off or deep grooving, have long been known to be a difficult operation. Chip jamming have been known to be one problem. One other problem have been vibration, causing risk of tool breakage and poor surface finish, among other things. Such an operation and cutting tool is described in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,336, FIG. 4. There is thus a long-felt need to reduce vibrations in parting-off or deep grooving operations.

Blade portion for a metal cutting grooving tool


An integrated circuit has a hardware decoder that parses a frame to identify a type of encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a number of hardware parsers, each parser being coupled to the decoder by an enable line. During packet processing, one of the parsers is enabled by the decoder, based on the value which identifies the encapsulation type. The enabled parser retrieves one or more attributes from the frame, depending on the encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a register, coupled to each parser, to hold the attributes. The integrated circuit also has a key generation hardware which creates a key, by concatenating from the attributes register, certain attributes that are pre-selected by a user for forming the key. The integrated circuit uses the key to look up in memory a set of user-specified actions that are then performed on data in the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processing of packets. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining from a frame, one or more attributes (e.g. VLAN tag) that are at different locations in the frame depending on the type of encapsulation, and use of one or more such attributes to create a key as specified by a user and use of the key to identify instructions to be executed also specified by the user.
2. Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,463 that is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety describes packet classification by use of a rule memory and a criterion memory. Control logic responds to packet classification requests by retrieving from rule memory an operator and a pointer to an entry in criterion memory. The operator defines a comparison operation to be performed between comparands from criterion memory and corresponding values from a received packet. The results are provided to a packet processor to take an appropriate action.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,034 that is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety describes a set of rules that are developed and stored for use by a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, a run-time compiler or the like. The rules establish a set of patterns, and the incoming data is compared to those patterns. If certain patterns are detected, then the associated action established by the rule is applied to the processing of the data packet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,326 which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety describes use of a CAM which has a limited bit width to search rules of packet classification having very long search bit width. The fields of rules of packet classification are grouped into groups, and the grouped fields of each rule are stored along with search related information (except for the initial group) and number of search information in a CAM.
Certain prior art network processors may be programmed, in software, to process packets that are encapsulated in frames whose headers have formats of the type shown in FIGS. 1A-1G, which are as follows:
FIG. 1A—Ethernet v2 untagged
FIG. 1B—802.3 untagged
FIG. 1C—SNAP untagged
FIG. 1D—Ethernet v2 with 1 VLAN tag
FIG. 1E—Ethernet v2 with 2 VLAN tags
FIG. 1F—SNAP with 1 VLAN tag
FIG. 1G—SNAP with 2 VLAN tags
To handle packets that are encapsulated in frames of multiple formats, it is common for a prior art network processor to be programmed, by the user, to contain a rule for each of the above-listed seven encapsulations (FIGS. 1A-1G). Specifically, the user is required to have knowledge of the format of the above-listed seven encapsulations and to repeatedly perform the programming, once for each encapsulation.

User-specified key creation from attributes independent of encapsulation type


A new class of sensitizers for photopolymerizable compositions is disclosed derived from cyclic ketones and tricyclic aminoaldehydes. A preferred compound is cyclopentanone, 2,5-bis[2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1H,5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizin-9-methylene] ##STR1##

Much work has been done in the field of photopolymerizable compositions to increase the speed of these materials. However, many of the well-known photoinitiators or photoinitiator systems limit the applicability of photopolymerizable compositions because they are activatible primarily by radiation in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. The availability of reliable, relatively inexpensive lasers which emit in the visible region of the spectrum has made it desirable to develop initiator systems for photopolymerizable materials which are sensitive to visible radiation. Such applications include use of supported photopolymerizable layers for preparing graphic arts films and proofs, printing plates, photoresists, holograms and the like such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,458,311; Alles, 3,469,982; Celeste 3,649,268; Chu et al.; 3,658,526; Haugh, 4,323,637; Chen et al., 4,162,162; Deuber, 4,173,673; Bratt et al., 4,282,308; Cohen et al., and 4,613,560 Dueber et al. In addition these lasers can be used in output devices for electronic imaging systems.
A large number of free-radical generating systems have been utilized as visible sensitizers for photopolymerizable compositions. Redox systems, especially those involving dyes, e.g., Rose Bengal/2-dibutyl-aminoethanol, have been used. Photoreducible dyes and reducing agents such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,850,445; 2,875,047; 3,097,096; 3,074,974; 3,097,097; 3,145,104; and 3,579,339; as well as dyes of the phenazine, oxazine, and quinone classes have been used to initiate photopolymerization. A useful discussion of dye sensitized photopolymerization can be found in "Dye Sensitized Photopolymerization" by D. F. Eaton in Adv. in Photochemistry, Vol. 13, D. H. Volman, G. S. Hammond, and K. Gollinick, eds., Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1986, pp. 427-487.
Dueber, U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,162, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,268,667 and 4,351,893, discloses selected sensitizers derived from aryl ketones and p-dialkylaminoaldehydes. Dueber and Monroe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,769 discloses photopolymerizable compositions containing polymeric sensitizers which are activatible by visible radiation.
Baum and Henry, U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,275 discloses selected bis(p-dialkylaminobenzylidene)ketones as sensitizers to enhance the efficiency of hexaarylbiimidazole initiator systems in photopolymerizable compositions.
The use of visible sensitizers is crucial for the preparation of holograms in photopolymerizable and photocrosslinkable systems such as disclosed in Haugh, U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,526 and Assignees U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 144,355 filed 1/15/88, Ser. No. 288,916 filed 12/29/88 and Ser. No. 370,274 filed 6/22/89now U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,102. While suitable sensitizers are available for use in these systems, there is a need for other sensitizers which closely match the spectral laser outputs used, particularly in the regions extending into the yellow, red and infra red portions of the spectrum.
Lasers are also being used to image photopolymerizable resists during the manufacture of printed circuits, optical storage media and the like. While UV and some visible lasers can be used in current systems, there is a need for extended sensitivity photoresists so that high resolution images can be prepared to survive the rigorous processing conditions encountered during manufacture of high quality, printed circuits.

Photopolymerization sensitizers active at longer wavelengths


A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium are described in which a machine learning-based device placement and configuration service is provided. The machine learning-based device placement and configuration system uses regression models calculated from installation and performance data. The regression model includes data associated with sites at which video cameras were previously installed and tested for detection accuracy levels possibly associated with a service area. With these generated models, information about the physical space, and desired performance criteria, designers optimize camera number, camera placement, and geo-location camera parameters. The device placement and configuration service may find an optimal camera placement and geo-location camera parameter set which satisfy certain criteria. The geo-location parameters include position, height, heading, pitch, and roll. Subsequent to the installation of the video cameras using the calculated geo-location parameters, the system may verify accuracy of detection of the service area, and update the regression model.

The deployment and use of cameras to provide various services is continuing to expand worldwide. For example, video cameras may be installed at a locale and its video feeds may be used to support a traffic-related service, a weather-related service, a parking-related service, a security-related service, an enterprise-related service, or another type of service.

Machine learning-based device placement and configuration service


A washing/drying method, comprising: dipping a material to be washed into an aqueous solution containing a surfactant having a water repellency so that at least one molecular layer of the water repellent surfactant is attached to the surface of the material to be washed; and then drying the material according to a known drying method such as vacuum drying, shaking off, blowing with gas and heating; or heating the material to be washed with steam at a temperature of less than 100.degree. C. in an atmosphere reduced to a pressure such that the boiling point of water becomes less than 100.degree. C.; and then drying the material according to a known drying method such as vacuum drying, shaking off, blowing with air, and heating.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing/drying method and a washing/drying apparatus suitable for a thorough washing and/or drying of a material to be washed, such as precision electronic parts and precision electronic device parts, which must be thoroughly washed in the preparation steps thereof (i.e., thorough washing) and, from the standpoint of production efficiency or corrosion resistance, in which the washing liquid after washing must be removed by drying within a short time.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, the thorough washing in the preparation steps of precision parts and electronic device parts, where an attachment of contamination or dust can not be allowed, has been practiced primarily by washing with a fluorocarbon.
As the detergent for such a thorough washing, other than a fluorocarbon, there is known a solvent of the chlorine type such as trichloroethylene, but in the case of a metal product, the chlorine liberated in the washing step may be adhered and cause rusting, and in the case of a resin or rubber product, a deformation or dimensional change due to swelling may occur, and thus a problem arises of an adverse affect on the product. In contrast, in the case of a fluorocarbon, no such problem arises and drying occurs within a very short time, and therefore, washing with Freon 113 (fluorocarbon manufactured Mitsui Dupont Fluorochemical Co. Ltd.) has been employed in the prior art.
A fluorocarbon is harmless to human beings and animals but destroys the ozone layer, which has become a worldwide problem in recent years, and in the interest of environmental protection on a global scale the tendency is now toward completely abolishing of the use fluorocarbons. From such a standpoint, as an alternative to the washing method using a fluorocarbon, the development of a washing water which will not need regulation in the future is now under way.
The critical point of thorough washing, in addition to a thorough cleaning ability, is that the drying after washing can be carried out rapidly and thoroughly. Also, there should be no adverse affect on the material to be washed, as in the case of a detergent of the chlorine type mentioned above.
When washed with water, it is necessary to prevent the precision electronic part, constituted of a metal from rusting. Since the boiling point of water is as high as 100.degree. C., compared with that of Fron 113, which is 47.degree. C., it is difficult to vaporize, and a part with a complicated shape or a blind tap hole can not be dried within a short time and without difficulty.


A system evaluates reliability, performance and/or safety by automatically assessing the targeted system's requirements. A cost metric quantifies the impact of failures as a function of failure cost per unit of time. The metrics or measurements may render real-time (or near real-time) outcomes by initiating active response against one or more high ranked threats. The system may support or may be executed in many domains including physical domains, cyber security domains, cyber-physical domains, infrastructure domains, etc. or any other domains that are subject to a threat or a loss.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to quantifying security, and particularly to risk-management technology that monetize stakeholder missions (requirements), system services, and/or assets (components of the underlying infrastructure) security threats and vulnerabilities.
2. Related Art
Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) may represent the basic reliability of a complex and/or non-repairable system. In particular, MTTF represents the mean time expected until the first failure of a piece of equipment, a system, a complex device, computer network or subsystem, etc. Mathematically, MTTF may apply to a statistically large number of units, elements, networks or systems over a statistically significant period of time.
MTTF may assume that each of the elements, components, subsystems, etc. of a given system of interest is of equal importance or criticality to each of the users and/or stakeholders of the system. In other words, MTTF may assume that each of the elements, components, subsystems are equally critical to a system's operation, and that individual stakeholders or users of the system have an equal interest in the operation of each of the elements, components, subsystems.


Advanced reporting systems based on ontology development for quantitative imaging biomarkers, information modeling to integrate heterogeneous data types relevant to quantitative medical analysis, and a knowledge representation framework for their statistical validation.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) encompasses stroke, peripheral artery disease, and coronary heart disease. It is the most common cause of death in the developed world, with someone dying from it every 34 seconds in the U.S. Nearly half (47%) of all deaths are from CVD. Although the death rate from cardiovascular disease continues to fall in the developed world, the number of hospitalizations and long-term disabilities is increasing. However, in developing nations such as China and India, there is an increasing incidence of CVD due in part to the Westernization of their diet and epigenetic effects on their gene expression patterns. Early assessment of atherosclerotic plaques prior to thromboembolic events, such as myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke, is an important diagnostic priority for at-risk patients. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is a useful diagnostic test in the emergency room and is associated with shorter stays and time to diagnosis.
Completed clinical trials have shown significant benefits of carotid surgeries for symptomatic patients with severe carotid artery stenosis (CAS). However, evidence increasingly suggests that significant arterial stenosis alone is a sub-optimal marker for identifying patients at risk. In the European Carotid Surgery Trial (ECST), 30% of the 440 symptomatic patients who did not undergo surgery with a stenosis of <50% reported stroke or death on follow-up. Ultrasound is an accessible modality that provides a useful first examination, with its limitations to quantitatively measure tissue composition being augmented with CTA and magnetic resonance (MR). If bilateral carotid artery disease is detected, patients may be referred for coronary artery imaging since this occurrence has been linked to coronary events to determine if they are candidates for intensive medical therapy or, for those with carotid stenosis >70%, carotid endarterectomy or stenting. If less severe disease is detected, the patient will be treated with tailored medical therapy and could be reevaluated periodically by imaging, and in a few centers by PET imaging to assess the inflammatory status.
Solutions are critical to preempt events or at least improve diagnostic accuracy on presentation. Accurate elucidation of phenotype enables prompt intervention. There is growing evidence that non-invasive CTA and MR have the potential to examine components that have been demonstrated to contribute to atherosclerosis. For example, expansive arterial remodeling was strongly associated with symptomatic plaques in initial studies performed on post-mortem coronary arteries and later confirmed in the carotid arteries. Similarly, lipid-rich necrotic core is shown to be a predictor of incident stroke when detected non-invasively. Calcification, which manifests in current clinical assessment of coronary arteries, is an established marker of atherosclerosis and predictor of coronary events, myocardial infarction, and death. However, simplistic measures such as the calcium score fail to provide a granular assessment that accounts for the more nuanced role that calcium plays depending on its presentation.
In addition to the large number of patients with acute atherosclerosis, up to 30 million U.S. patients are currently on statin therapy in an attempt to avoid CVD. Yet efforts to develop new therapeutic options to slow or stop the disease are limited to using serum cholesterol, a non-specific biomarker, or to wait for events. It is difficult for new therapies like CETP and PCSK-9 inhibitors to demonstrate efficacy in a commercially reasonable timeframe. A sample size of 27,000 patients in the FOURIER study of Repatha (evolocumab) failed to show survival benefits despite significantly reducing adverse events. This could be overcome with measurement of the patients' extent of plaque and plaque phenotyping as a cost-effective companion diagnostic for more expensive, newer drugs. Moreover, drug candidates in other therapeutic areas, such as immuno-modulators in cancer, can have side effects where atherosclerosis is aggravated, but accurate methods are needed to assay these effects. Whether for clinical care of individual patients, or clinical research on cohorts, these studies emphasize the desire for biomarkers beyond population-based clinical variables with an interest in personalizing the patient condition. Consequently, the complexity of interpreting these biomarkers in potentially multi-dimensional datasets may create inefficiencies in the clinical workflow. The data must be presented in a standardized manner to offer both clarity and completeness of the analysis and present new actionable medical information to improve clinical management decision-making.
Medical imaging, such as computed tomography (CT) and MR, has been ranked by physicians as the single most important medical innovation. The rich information in imaging extends far beyond the numerical values of the pixels—it involves describing imaging biomarkers that are indicators of the underlying biology of interest. From its inception, imaging has allowed visualization of the in vivo characteristics of disease. Structural measurements of anatomic structure have long been and remain the single most used measurements in patient care. Quantitative assessment of constituent tissue components or characteristics, molecular mechanisms, and hemodynamic parameters may provide additional information about the pathogenesis and natural history of disease.
Increasingly, incisive clinical insights are possible and image analysis methods are continuously developed to implement them, yet the increasing capability requires ever more sophisticated computational techniques to exploit. Quantitative imaging techniques are developed for use in the clinical care of patients and in the conduct of clinical trials. The biological significance of these imaging studies often involves identifying imaging biomarkers that are indicators of the underlying biology. Quantitative imaging biomarkers provide a numerical characterization of the underlying biology or pathology as opposed to using textual or categorical descriptions of an observer's subjective visual interpretation. In clinical practice, quantitative imaging may be used to detect and characterize disease before, during, and after a course of therapy, and used to predict the course of disease. In clinical research, quantitative imaging biomarkers are used to define endpoints of clinical trials. Tools have become available for handling the complexity of genotype, and similar advancements are needed to handle the complexity of phenotype, especially as derived from imaging. However, information resources for in vivo biomarkers, specifically quantitative imaging biomarkers, are notably lacking. Quantitative imaging suffers from the lack of a standardized representation of quantitative image features and content, and manually interpreting multi-dimensional datasets may create inefficiencies in the clinical work flow.
Most current radiology reports are unstructured subjective clinical narratives that are qualitative in nature. This is largely driven by tradition and the ease of dictating notes with a sophisticated speech recognition system. As a result, it is unclear to radiologists how to best integrate information that is inherently quantitative and objective into these reports. There have been many attempts in structuring radiology reports for consistency, accuracy, and minable data, such as eDictation, StructuRad, and PointDx, but none have quite reached widespread adoption. In fact, one study comparing a form of structured reporting against dictation reporting resulted in higher accuracy, completeness, and satisfaction in the latter among radiology residents, even though the users were optimistic to the appeal of structured reporting. However, radiologists are generally adverse to adopting systems that may introduce inefficiencies in their workflows. Despite significant support for standardization of radiology reports, the transition is decidedly slow and there is an inherent "chicken and egg" problem: radiologists cannot implement innovative reporting methods because the technology does not exist, and the technology does not exist because it is not sought by radiologists. Nevertheless, there is a consensus among radiology leadership that structured reporting is desired and that a hybrid approach of speech recognition and structured data elements has merit.
The introduction of new quantitative biomarkers faces similar issues as structured reporting systems. The data should be presented in a way that does not impede on efficiency of the clinical workflow and must provide new interpretable information to help clinicians make better patient management decisions, otherwise what is supposed to be an advantage instead becomes a burden. As a counter-example, presenting lengthy tables of intricate quantitative data for every measurement at every anatomical location is not digestible by a human and fails to bring a desired focus to the most significant measurements or insights drawn from them. A summary statement based in quantitative data but expressed in natural language to represent the data may be needed to ease the communication of new relevant medical knowledge to clinical management decision makers, with capability to drill down or refer to more detailed measurement data to whatever level the clinician desires, rather than assuming that they want the whole.
To meet the first need, a form of natural language processing (NLP) is needed to generate a clinically actionable statement in a report. Before 2010, the development of biomedical text mining with natural language processing (NLP) was driven by the increase of publication rate indicated by the growth of content in PubMed/MEDLINE. The increase in use of high-throughput assays, for example, to produce lists of genes increased the rate of discovery of new biological entities but consequently was overwhelming without the means to make the information digestible. The NLP applications in biomedical research made a corresponding case for using NLP in proactive clinical decision support (CDS) systems. In the context of radiology reports, several systems, such as the Special Purpose Radiology Understanding System (SPRUS), the Natural Language Understanding Systems (NLUS), Symbolic Text Processor (SymText), and MPLUS (M+), extract radiologist interpretations and code findings in hopes of providing relevant clinical data to an expert CDS system.
While these NLP applications are primarily used to convert clinical narrative text to concise computer-interpretable data elements, no application has been used to generate medical narrative text from quantitative imaging data. Natural language generation (NLG) is the natural language processing task of generating natural language from a machine representation system such as a knowledge base or a logical form. In other fields, NLG systems have been used to convert or translate structured data into a natural language representation. The used methods to produce the final language are different from those of a compiler due to the inherent expressivity of natural languages. NLG may be viewed as the opposite of NLP: whereas in NLP the system needs to disambiguate input texts to produce machine representations, in NLG the system needs to make decisions about how to put machine representations into output text.
Interpretation of data used in the development, validation, and use of quantitative imaging biomarkers requires many disparate concepts to be related together with scientifically rigorous epistemology. Ontologies form an ideal framework for the integration of heterogeneous and complex knowledge about imaging. Ontology-based annotation of datasets coupled with image archives capable of batch selection and processing, quantitative imaging biomarkers will experience increases in capability and adoption analogous to genetic biomarkers in molecular biology. By formally defining concepts and synonyms of concepts in the imaging domain, the use of ontologies helps eliminate variation and ambiguity in terminology, and thus can be used to link data and knowledge from different sources. Likewise, organized lexicons such as RadLex relate radiologist interpretations with other sources of medical concepts. By themselves, these lexicons only structure data abstractions, but when integrated into a processing system, they can aid in the representation and structuring of output produced by a system. Reporting based on ontology to represent the complex and heterogeneous imaging biomarker data and knowledge would enable not just the exposition of data, but the computer aided drawing of insights from that data.


A door mirror comprising a mirror portion and a side blinker which is one example of lamp bodies allows easily performed maintenance for the side blinker. A second opening is formed on the back side of a mirror housing with fixing pieces formed on the second opening. A lamp unit integrates a lens portion with the back face of a base body having an inner base and an outer base which covers the front face of the inner base. The lamp unit is inserted into the second opening through the back face side of the mirror housing, and fixing pieces of the lamp unit and the mirror housing-fixing pieces are tightened by screws.

In general, some door mirrors of this type are known as those into which a lamp body, such as a side blinker (a side-turn-lamp), has been assembled. And, in this kind of door mirror, when a lamp body is applied to a side blinker and the side blinker is inserted into the projecting outer end side of a door mirror laterally protruded from the side of an automobile a favorable blinker fixing point is secured because visibility is improved for passengers.
Proposed as such a door mirror is, for example, a door mirror wherein boards having light sources are fixed to a base, a lens covering this base is integrated to form a side blinker portion. The side blinker portion is attached to an opening formed on a door mirror housing, which is a body of the door mirror (for example, refer to JP-A No. 2002-79878).
In the door mirror claimed in the above-described JP-A-2002-079878, the side blinker portion, which is to be provided in the housing of the door mirror in such a state that it is positioned on the back-face side of the mirror portion, is assembled thereinto from the side where the mirror portion is disposed (from the front-face side), and the side blinker is structured so as to be fixed to the door mirror housing by engaging an outer peripheral edge portion of the side blinker with a marginal opening portion provided on the door mirror housing and by screwing fixing pieces disposed on the mirror portion side of the side blinker portion onto support portions of the door mirror housing.


In processes for high pressure extraction, a gaseous solvent under high pressure is conducted through an extractor filled with solid material and in this process takes on organic components from the solid materials. These are subsequently separated in a separator and the solvent is again delivered to the extractor. In particular, when gas mixtures having a reduced solvating power are used as solvent to increase the selectivity of the components to be dissolved out, high gas throughputs become necessary to produce a certain amount of product. In order to reduce the high gas throughputs, the solid materials are soaked with a gaseous solvent under high pressure without gas extraction before the circulation process begins. The solvent composition as well as the soaking conditions may deviate from the extraction conditions. In this process, prior to the extraction stage, the solid material in the extractor is soaked with a gaseous solvent under high pressure without the occurrence of a gas flow.

The process for high pressure extraction has been known for many years from many publications. In high pressure extraction, the solvent properties of compressed gases or gas mixtures are utilized in many ways to dissolve and separate components from solid-like raw materials. The separated components are obtained as tracts or the raw material per se is purified as a result of the separation. Industrially realized applications of the process of high pressure extraction are, for example, the production of hops extract and the production of caffeine-free coffee. As example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,452 is mentioned which shows a process for the production of low nicotine tobacco.
High pressure extraction installation in the simplest case consist of an extractor and a separator through which the gaseous solvent in circulated. In the extractor, the gas under high pressure, mostly above-critical pressure, flows through the solid-like raw material and in this process is charged with certain organic content substances. These content substances can be selectively dissolved as a function of the set extraction conditions. The dissolved components leave the extractor together with the solvent flow and are separated in the separator. The separation can be achieved by various measure, namely, by pressure and temperature changed, by absorbers or wash solutions or by adding other gases which reduce the solvating power of the gaseous solvent.
From this basic process of high pressure extraction, many variations were developed employed to adapt the process to certain objectives or for economical optimization. Examples are the application of gas mixtures to attain higher selectivities and the application of several separation autoclaves operating at various pressure levels for the production of fractionated extracts.
All known variations have in common that the extraction process is operated exclusively as a circulation process. The extractors as well as the separators are, therefore, continuously included in the solvent circulation. Time-consuming extraction processes, in particular, therefore require high energy expenses and considerable investment for the layout of pumps. This applies, in particular, when the solvating power of the solvent is reduced by the addition of foreign gases to increase the selectivity.

Process for the extraction of organic components from solid materials


A coolant supply manifold and a coolant discharge manifold are provided on a first end plate of a fuel cell stack. The coolant supply manifold includes a pair of supply manifold sections and a supply coupling section coupling upper portions of the pair of supply manifold sections together. The supply manifold sections are connected to a pair of coolant supply passages of a first end plate. The width of the coupling section is smaller than the width of the pair of supply manifold sections in a longitudinal direction along the long sides of the first end plate. A supply pipe extending to the outside of the first end plate is formed integrally with one of the supply manifold sections.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell stack formed by stacking an electrolyte electrode assembly and a pair of separators in a stacking direction, the electrolyte electrode assembly being interposed between the pair of separators. The electrolyte electrode assembly includes a pair of electrodes and an electrolyte interposed between the electrodes. Rectangular end plates are provided at both ends of the fuel cell stack in the stacking direction.
2. Description of the Related Art:
For example, a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell employs a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) which includes an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte membrane interposed between the anode and the cathode. The electrolyte membrane is a solid polymer ion exchange membrane. The membrane electrode assembly and separators sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly make up a unit cell. In use, generally, a predetermined number of unit cells are stacked together to form a fuel cell stack mounted in a vehicle.
Mostly, the fuel cell stack of this type adopt internal manifold structure where a fuel gas supply passage and a fuel gas discharge passage as passages of a fuel gas, an oxygen-containing gas supply passage and an oxygen-containing gas discharge passage as passages of an oxygen-containing gas, and a coolant supply passage and a coolant discharge passage as passages of a coolant extend through the unit cells in the stacking direction.
As a technique related to the internal manifold type fuel cell, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-260439 is known. In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-260439, as shown in FIG. 12, a spacer 1 forming a coolant channel is provided. In a marginal area 2 of the spacer 1, holes 3 and holes 4 are formed at upper and lower positions as channels of one and other of reactant gases. A pair of holes 5a and a pair of 5b are provided on both sides of the marginal area 2 as coolant channels. The pair of holes 5a, 5b are connected to a coolant space 7 through connection channels 6.
In the fuel cell, the pair of holes 5a as the coolant supply channels may be connected together and the pair of holes 5b as the coolant discharge channels may be connected together by a single supply manifold and a single discharge manifold provided in the end plates.
For example, in the case where the supply manifold has a rectangular shape, the internal volume of the supply manifold is large. Therefore, when the coolant flows into the supply manifold through a supply pipe connected to the supply manifold, the flow rate of the coolant tends to be decreased significantly. Therefore, the pressure loss of the coolant in the supply manifold increases considerably, and a vortex flow of the coolant may be generated in the supply manifold. As a consequence, the coolant cannot be supplied suitably to the pair of holes 5a. The same problem may occur also in the discharge manifold.
Further, normally, at the center of the supply manifold, an inlet pipe for supplying the coolant into the supply manifold is provided at the center of the supply manifold. Further, an outlet pipe for discharging the coolant from the discharge manifold is provided at the center of the discharge manifold. That is, the coolant supplied into the center of the supply manifold is distributed to the pair of left and right holes 5a, and the coolant discharged from the left and right pair holes 5b are merged at the center of the discharged manifold.
However, in the structure, it is difficult to allocate the same flow rate of coolant to the pair of left and right holes 5a. Therefore, the temperature distribution in the surfaces of the fuel cell become non-uniform, and the power generation performance of the fuel cell is low.