A method for producing a SOI substrate comprising: a step of forming a first opening to an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate and then forming semiconductor crystal layer by epitaxial growth over the first opening and the insulating film; a step of forming a second opening by partially removing the semiconductor crystal layer; a step of forming an integrated insulating film, and a step of forming an integrated semiconductor crystal layer. With the present invention, a semiconductor crystal layer can be formed on an insulating film on a substrate with large area, wherein the crystal layer and the substrate is completely insulated from each other. Further even from such materials as hard to form monocrystal substrate, a substrate can be easily obtained.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a SOI substrate, and more particularly to a method for producing a SOI substrate wherein a semiconductor crystal layer is formed on an insulating film formed on a semiconductor substrate by epitaxial growth with using a semiconductor crystal of the substrate as a seed.
In this specification, the word SOI means a semiconductor crystal layer on an insulating film and widely represents semiconductors, which of course are not limited to silicon semiconductors.
SOI substrates has been produced conventionally by SIMOX (Separation by Implanted Oxygen) method, where oxygen atom is implanted to a semiconductor crystal substrate and then an insulating film is formed in the substrate by heat treatment, or by epitaxial growth method, where an opening is formed at an insulating film formed on a semiconductor substrate and then a semiconductor crystal layer is formed by epitaxial growth on the insulating film with using the semiconductor crystal of the substrate exposed through the opening as a seed.
A cross section of a conventional SOI substrate formed by epitaxial growth is shown in FIG. 4. This SOI substrate is produced as follows. An insulating film 2 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 1. An opening 3 is formed at the insulating film 2 with a resist film. Semiconductor crystal epitaxially grows from the semiconductor crystal exposed through the opening 3. The opening 3 is filled with the semiconductor crystal layer 4. The layer 4 further epitaxially grows on the upper surface of the insulating film 2 to finally form a SOI substrate wherein a semiconductor crystal layer is formed on an insulating film.
However, the conventional SIMOX method for producing a SOI substrate has a problem of semiconductor crystal damage (crystal defect) due to oxygen atom implantation. Further, in the conventional epitaxial growth method where an opening is formed at an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate and through the opening epitaxial growth is performed to form a semiconductor crystal layer, a satisfactory SOI substrate can not be obtained, because the semiconductor substrate is utilized as a seed for epitaxial growth whereby the crystal layer and the substrate connect with each other through the opening of the insulating film. In order to obtain a complete SOI substrate, a region including the opening must be removed, so that the SOI substrate undesirably becomes small.
In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a substrate having a SOI structure wherein a semiconductor crystal layer by epitaxial growth on an insulating film and a semiconductor substrate under the insulating film are completely insulated from each other.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate having a large SOI structure without any openings and to facilitate insulation between semiconductor layers in a three-dimensional IC by arranging the SOI substrates in a lamination.
Further object of the present invention is to provide a producing method by which a SOI substrate is easily made even from a semiconductor material which is hard to form monocrystal substrate.


A receiving circuit includes: a first receiving terminal for receiving a RF signal; a second receiving terminal for receiving an external oscillating signal generated by an external oscillator; a low-noise amplifier coupled with the first receiving terminal and the second receiving terminal and utilized for generating an output signal; a first switch element positioned between the second receiving terminal and the low-noise amplifier; an in-phase signal processing circuit for generating an in-phase detection signal based on the output signal; an quadrature signal processing circuit for generating an quadrature detection signal based on the output signal; and a calibration circuit for controlling the first switch element and capable of performing an I/Q mismatch calibration operation according to the in-phase detection signal and the quadrature detection signal when the first switch element is turned on.

The disclosure generally relates to a receiving circuit and, more particularly, to a receiving circuit capable of performing I/Q mismatch calibration based on an external oscillating signal.
In the receiving circuit of many wireless communication devices, the in-phase signal (a.k.a. I signal) and the quadrature signal (a.k.a. Q signal) typically have so-called I/Q mismatch phenomenon, which means that there is a gain mismatch and/or a phase mismatch between the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal.
The I/Q mismatch phenomenon often results in mirror frequency interference which would reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the receiving circuit, thereby degrading the throughput of the overall system.

Receiving circuit capable of performing I/Q mismatch calibration based on external oscillating signal


An active filter characteristic changeover circuit, for use in a video cassette recorder, includes an active filter, for a video signal, whose passing band width is dependent on a control current value, a current supply circuit for supplying a control current to the active filter, and a changeover circuit for changing over the control current value outputted from the current supply circuit between in a VHS mode and in an SVHS mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active filter characteristic changeover circuit for use in a VCR (video cassette recorder), and more particularly, to a video signal active filter characteristic changeover circuit for use in a VCR having a VHF mode and a super VHS (SVHS) mode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an SVHS mode, since video signal over a higher frequency band can be recorded and reproduced than in a VHS mode, the passing frequency band of a luminance signal in a filter is from 0 to 5 MHz in the SVHS mode, and a frequency band wider than a frequency band of from 0 to 3 MHz used in the VHS mode is required.
In conventional VCRs, as shown in FIG. 1, two discrete filters having different characteristics are provided for the SVHS mode and the VHS mode, respectively, and these filters are changed over in response to a changeover of these modes. In FIG. 1, the numeral 2 filter for the VHS mode, represents a and the numeral 3 represents a filter for the SVHS mode. The numerals 1 and 4 represent switches provided on the input and output sides of the filters 2 and 3, respectively, and are changed over in synchronization with each other.
However, the conventional circuits where the filters are changed over in response to a changeover between the VHS and SVHS modes to change over a path of a luminance signal are disadvantageous, for example, in constructing the filters in the form of integrated circuit since two filters are required. That is, in constructing a filter in the form of integrated circuit, the filter generally occupies a large area of an integrated circuit. Therefore, if there are two filters, a larger area is occupied by the filters on a semiconductor integrated circuit chip. This makes it impossible to decrease the size and cost of the chip.
Moreover, by the conventional method where different filters are used for the VHS and SVHS modes, respectively, a problem arises that one path including one filter is offset against the other including the other filter with respect to signals passing through them.

Active filter characteristic changeover circuit for use in a VCR


Disclosed are semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the same. The method comprises forming an active structure including a plurality of active patterns, a device isolation layer defining the active patterns, and a gate structure across the active patterns and extending in a first direction, forming a first mask pattern on the active structure, and forming a trench by using the first mask pattern as an etching mask to pattern the active structure. Forming the first mask pattern comprises forming in a first mask layer a plurality of first openings extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and forming in the first mask layer a plurality of second openings extending in a third direction intersecting the first and second directions.

Inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, in which method a line patterning is used to form pillars, and a semiconductor device manufactured by the same.
Semiconductor devices are widely used in the electronic industry because of their small size, multi-functionality, and/or low fabrication cost. Semiconductor devices may encompass a memory device for storing data, a logic device for processing data, and a hybrid device for operating various functions contemporaneously or simultaneously.
Semiconductor devices have been increasingly required for high integration with the advanced development of the electronic industry. It therefore is increasingly difficult to manufacture semiconductor devices because there is a problem of process margin reduction in an exposure process defining fine patterns. Semiconductor devices also have been increasingly requested for high speed with the advanced development of the electronic industry. Various studies have been conducted to meet the requirements of high integration and/or high speed in semiconductor devices.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


A method and apparatus for storing a macroblock from a video data stream is disclosed. A macroblock is received, the macroblock having a plurality of blocks corresponding to a plurality of color space components and having a width defined by a plurality of pixels. According to a first aspect of the present invention, the macroblock is stored in a vertical strip format. According to a second aspect of the present invention, the contents of the plurality of blocks are interleaved. According to a third aspect of the present invention, the contents of the plurality of blocks are interleaved and the macroblock is then stored in a vertical strip format.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a format for storing the color space data for video processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for interleaving the color space data and a method for storing the color space data in a strip format.
2. The Background Art
With the merging of personal computer systems and entertainment systems, digital component video and audio were developed. Typically, this audio and video data are encoded into a compressed program stream for transmission. A stream demultiplexer parses the incoming program stream into audio and video bitstreams. When frames are ultimately displayed, there must be a decompression of these compressed video bitstreams. A video decoder is used for this decompression, or decoding, process.
A video stream is made up of a number of still frames, or pictures. Referring first to FIG. 1, a representation of a frame 10 is shown. Each frame 10 comprises a plurality of horizontal slices 12, each of which includes a plurality of macroblocks 14. A typical macroblock size is 16 lines.times.16 pixels. A frame, or picture, resolution of 720.times.576 is defined by 720.times.576 pixels which correspond to 45.times.36 macroblocks.
Many international standards, such as the MPEG 2 standard, are used for digital video compression and decompression. MPEG standards take advantage of the redundancy on a frame-to-frame basis of a motion video sequence. According to the MPEG 2 standard, there are three types of coded frames: I (intra) frame, P (predicted) and B(bidirectionally predicted). Frame prediction may occur using forward or backward prediction. Forward prediction occurs when a future frame is constructed from a previous frame in a sequence of frames. Backward prediction occurs when a future frame in a sequence of frames is used to predict a current or past frame in the sequence of frames. An I frame contains a stand-alone still image, and each macroblock within the I frame can be decoded without using information from another frame. As shown in FIG. 2A, a P frame 16 is coded relative to the nearest previous I or P frame 18. Similarly, as shown in FIG. 2B, a B frame 20 is coded relative to two reference frames, the closest previous I or P frame 22 and the closest future P frame 24.
During decoding, the first frame received is an I frame, which serves as a reference frame for later B and P frames. From the encoded video bitstream, the video decoder reconstructs the I frames. Using the I frames, the P and B frames are generated using additional encoded data and motion vectors. Therefore, P and B frames are constructed using differential data relative to this I frame.
Reconstruction of each B and P macroblock is based on motion vectors, and is performed through the addition of a differential macroblock to a reference macroblock. For example, for a B frame inter-macroblock having two references, the two reference macroblocks are averaged to produce the final macroblock. This macroblock is then added to the differential macroblock.
Each macroblock comprises a plurality of pixels, each of which is defined by color space components. A color space is a mathematical representation for a color. Different color spaces which provide different ways of representing a color which will ultimately be displayed in a video system. For example, the red, green, and blue (RGB) color space is commonly used in computer graphics. Similarly, the YUV color space represents the luma component Y, or black and white portion, as well as the color difference components U and V. A macroblock in YUV format contains data for all Y, U, V components. Since many video compression standards compress data on a macroblock by macroblock basis, the compressed data stream must also be decoded on a macroblock by macroblock basis. In this manner, the encoding process is reversed to display the encoded information.
Digital encoded video data must be stored and processed during video decoding. Data storage systems used for internal storage during video decoding can optimize data accesses during video decoding. In addition, various data access modes may be used to increase the efficiency of the decoding process.
Sequential transfer modes, such as a burst mode, are often used to improve system throughput in data intensive applications. In this manner, the speed of movement of large sequential blocks of data is substantially increased. When a burst access mode is used, addresses are incremented to read each sequentially stored byte of data. However, a jump to a wholly different location in memory cannot be performed to read the next byte. The full capability of a sequential transfer mode, therefore, can be realized only through the sequential storage of each byte of data.
Pixels in each macroblock are traditionally stored in blocks since they are compressed. Three types of macroblocks are available in MPEG 2 . The 4:2:0 macroblock consists of four Y blocks, one U block, and one V block. In the 4:2:0 chroma format, for each 16.times.16 pixel Y block, the corresponding U and V blocks have size 8.times.8 pixels. In other words, for every 4 Y pixels, 1 U and 1 V pixel are shared. Most MPEG 2 decoders use the 4:2:0 chroma format for internal storage.
A 4:2:2 macroblock consists of four Y blocks, two U blocks, and two V blocks. In the 4:2:2 format, each 16.times.16 pixel Y block is associated with one U and one V block having size 16.times.8 pixels. In this format, 2 Y pixels share 1 U and 1 V pixel.
A 4:4:4 macroblock consists of four Y blocks, four U blocks, and four V blocks. Each 16.times.16 pixel Y block is associated with one U and one V block of size 16.times.16. Therefore, the 4:4:4 format stores an equal number of Y, U and V pixels.
Data formats typically used to store color space components during the MPEG 2 decoding process prevent large sequential blocks from being transferred during a sequential transfer mode. Planar data formats are typically used to store the YUV data in memory during the decoding process. In planar formats, each of the color space components is stored in horizontal scan line order in memory, and these blocks of memory may or may not be adjacent. Since all of the bytes within each color space component are not stored sequentially in the planar formats, only short burst reads or writes can be performed to read each line. Therefore, the advantages of a sequential transfer mode cannot be fully realized.
For example, in the 4:2:0 chroma format, for each 16.times.16 pixel Y block, the corresponding U and V blocks have size 8.times.8 pixels. Assuming each pixel comprises 1 byte, it takes 16 burst accesses to read or write a 16.times.16 pixel Y block, with each burst access reading or writing 16 bytes. In addition, it takes another 2.times.8=16 burst accesses to read or write the U and V blocks. Thus, a total 32 burst accesses are needed for each macroblock access.
Using the 4:2:2 chroma format, each 16.times.16 pixel Y block is associated with one U and one V block having size 16.times.8 pixels. Therefore, 16 burst accesses are necessary for the Y block, the U block and the V block, totaling 48 burst accesses for each macroblock.
In the 4:4:4 chroma format, each 16.times.16 pixel Y block is associated with one U and one V block of size 16.times.16. Since the number of lines in each U or V block is identical to that of the 4:2:2 format, 48 burst accesses are still required for each macroblock. The only difference between the 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 formats is that each U or V access reads or writes 16 bytes in the 4:4:4 format instead of 8 bytes in the 4:2:2 format.
In a software based decoder, the probability that required data is in a cache is called a "hit rate". If the data is not found in the cache, a cache "miss" occurs. If there is a cache "miss", the processor must then access the main memory. The probability of a "hit" is complex, and is related to the size of the block of data, as well as other factors.
As described above, when the data is stored in the planar format, a burst access may read or write only 16 bytes. The advantages provided by a burst mode cannot be realized in such a system. Moreover, the probability of a cache miss in a software based decoder can be substantially decreased with an improved data storage system. A need exists for a method for decreasing the required data bus bandwidth and increasing the efficiency of the decoding process in software and hardware based decoders.

Interleaved strip data storage system for video processing


Disclosed is an improved method, system, and program product to implement a business platform that assigns a server instance and dedicated database to each business customer. A snapshot of data is periodically copied from one or more database tables to a historical table of the dedicated database. Data is retrieved in response to a query from the historical table, enabling historical trending capabilities without affecting a performance of other business customers of the business platform.

Software as a Service ("SaaS") business models have seen a steady rise in the past few years, especially in the realm of enterprise software companies. SaaS refers to a business model in which software may be licensed to one or more business customers on a subscription basis or some other type of payment model and is typically centrally hosted in the cloud. SaaS is typically accessed by a user through a web browser. One of the chief advantages of using SaaS business models is that the burden and cost related to maintenance and support is removed or minimized for the business, and instead placed on the SaaS provider (e.g., Oracle Inc., etc.) instead.
By using SaaS platforms, businesses can access the required software service via a remote server hosting the software service and use the software service to collect and analyze transactional and business-related data in a centralized location. One of the key functionalities that many businesses need and utilize heavily is historical trending/analysis functionality. Businesses may benefit from analyzing past business records, or data collected over time. Analyzing business records (e.g., sales opportunities, sales numbers, revenue, etc.) over time may lead to valuable insights and may help businesses strategize business tactics for the present and future. In the context of SaaS applications, this may pose a set of unique challenges.
A SaaS application is typically accessed by multiple business customers, who all access and interact with the application through a common user interface. Although each of the business customer uses the same interface, each business customer is directed (e.g., through an authentication process, etc.) to a dedicated section of the SaaS platform to interact and use the software for their own unique needs. Of course, this is also important for security and privacy purposes so that data associated with one business customer is not accessed by another business customer. To this end, data associated with each business customer or account is directed to a separate section of a shared database.
Referring now to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is an example of a typical architecture of a SaaS application. As shown in FIG. 1, the customer (e.g., a business, sales administrator of a particular business account, etc.) may access the SaaS platform through a mobile phone 120, a web browser 122, an Outlook® browser 124 etc., which connects to a cloud network 110. As shown in FIG. 1, the users all interact with the application through a common user interface 102. However, data associated with each of the customers is stored in a separate section of a shared database 106. For example, 106a refers to a database table unique to customer A, 106b refers to a database table unique to customer B and so on. It should be appreciated that the SaaS application may be used by hundreds of business customers; thus, the same database 106 is used to store and retrieve data for all the business customers, albeit in different sections. This type of SaaS architecture is typically referred to as a multi-tenant model.
In the context of historical trending, the multi-tenant model may pose a problem when a customer wants to run a complex query to retrieve desired historical information about his company. For example, a customer may want to analyze how sales opportunities have changed over time. Given that the same database 106 is used to store information for all the business customers, running a complex query on database table 106A invariably affects the speed and performance of the entire database, and may adversely affect performance for the remaining business customers. Thus, in most cases, most SaaS providers limit historical trending capability to a very simple query, or limit the time for which historical trending may be performed. As a result, customers are unable to successfully leverage data collected over time to analyze historical trends, and thus, may be unable to gain valuable insights on their business performance.

Method and system for implementing historical trending for business records


A display optical unit includes a light valve which modulates light to form picture information, a light splitter which splits light into a plurality of color components and for directing each of the color components to the light valve, an illumination unit which directs light emanated from a light source to the light splitter, and a projection lens which magnifies and projects the modulated light having the picture information for displaying a picture. An optical axis of the projection lens is shifted from an optical axis of the illumination unit and the light splitter, and a projection lens unit including the light valve and the projection lens has a positioning mechanism which determines a position thereof when attached and is attachable and detachable in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the projection lens unit.

The present invention relates to a display-apparatus technology used for projecting a picture on a screen by using a light valve device such as a liquid-crystal display panel and adopted in equipment such as a liquid-crystal projector apparatus, a liquid-crystal television and a projective display apparatus.
There have been provided conventional display apparatuses such as a liquid-crystal projector for projecting a picture on a screen or the like in an enlarged size by conversion of a light emitted by a light source such as a lamp into concentrations of pixels and adjustment of the concentrations using a light valve device such as a liquid-crystal display panel.
The light valve device generally comprises a semiconductor driving device and an optically functioning material. In order to have the semiconductor driving device and the optically functioning material operate normally, it is necessary to keep them at a predetermined temperature, for example the temperature is about 60 degrees Celsius or lower. On the other hand, all the light emitted by the light source except that eventually used for projection is absorbed by elements such as the light valve device and its peripheral optical devices, being converted thereby into heat energy. For this reason, it is necessary to cool the light valve device employed in the projective display apparatus so as to prevent the temperature of the light valve device from exceeding a range of the normal operation due to overheating. The need for such cooling is rising more and more as the intensity of the light source is increased in recent years to raise the luminance of the projected picture. This is because the amount of heat dissipated by the light valve device increases as the intensity of the light source is raised.
The performances and functions of some optically functioning components other than the light valve device and some of those made of a polymer material change at a high temperature. It is thus necessary to keep them at a predetermined temperature, for example the temperature is about 150 degrees Celsius or lower. That is, it is necessary to cool the optically functioning components other than the light valve device as the luminance of the projected picture is increased.
In addition, since the focus of an optical system employed in such a display apparatus is positioned on the picture surface of the light valve device, a foreign particle such as dust stuck to the light valve device or areas in close proximity thereto is projected on the screen as it is in an enlarged size as a shadow appearing on the screen. In consequence, there are raised serious problems of prevention of dust from being stuck to the light valve device or areas in close proximity thereto and maintainability including removal of stuck dust as a matter of course.
There is a typical conventional technology of cooling a light valve device which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 9-120046. According to this technology which is relevant to the present invention, a wind is blown to a side surface of a liquid-crystal light valve to cool the heated liquid-crystal light valve. In this way, an increase in temperature caused by heat dissipated by the liquid-crystal light valve device (liquid-crystal display panel) can be suppressed by the cooling. According to this relevant technology, since a wind is blown from one side only, however, the temperature on the entrance side of the cooling wind decreases while the temperature on the exit side increases, resulting in a difference in temperature which makes it impossible to obtain a sufficient performance particularly at a high luminance. In this respect, this conventional technology does not adequately address the problem. In addition, this conventional technology also does not address a lack of cooling power as evidenced by the fact that the total amount of heat dissipated by the light valve device is raised with an increase in luminance. Furthermore, this conventional technology also does not address the necessity to cool optically functioning components other than the light valve device as the luminance is increased.
There is another relevant technology of cooling a light valve device which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-53200. According to this relevant technology, a sirocco fan of a pressure centrifugal type is used for cooling a light valve means. By doing so, a sufficient wind blowing capacity can be assured by using even a duct with a relatively small diameter, allowing the cooling to be carried out with a high degree of efficiency. Nevertheless, this conventional technology also does not address the necessity to cool optically functioning components other than the light valve device as the luminance is increased.
There is also a relevant technology of preventing dust from being stuck in a picture display apparatus as is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-152009. According to this relevant technology, a transmission light valve device serving as a liquid-crystal display panel is placed in a hermetically sealed space. An air is circulated in the hermetically sealed space to let the liquid-crystal display panel radiate heat dissipated thereby to the outside of the space. In this way, it is possible to prevent dust from being stuck to the liquid-crystal display panel. In some cases, however, the cooling power becomes insufficient as heat is dissipated as a result of increasing the luminance. In addition, dust introduced during a fabrication process may be inadvertently included in the hermetically sealed space. Thus, this relevant technology also does not address a problem of maintainability caused by, among other things, the difficulty to remove such dust.
With respect to the maintainability of a picture display apparatus, there is a relevant technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-311372. According to this relevant technology, the interior of the picture display apparatus comprises a combination of units which can be attached and detached individually. With such a configuration, each of the units can be maintained and replaced with ease. According to this relevant technology, however, a unit including a liquid-crystal light valve device and a projection lens requiring frequent maintenance checks has a configuration which allows this specific unit to be attached and detached only in the projection direction of the projection lens. It is thus necessary to disassemble units of the whole optical system in order to attach or detach the specific unit.
In the case of the technologies disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Nos. Hei 9-120046 and Hei 5-53200, the cooling of the light valve device and the disposition of dust stuck to the light valve device and areas in close proximity thereto are required as the luminance is increased. Otherwise, problems such as an abnormal operation caused by overheating and a shadow appearing on the screen due to the stuck dust as described above will likely arise. However, the relevant technologies do not address these problems and, of course, do not take solutions to the problems into consideration. In addition, these relevant technologies do not address the necessity to cool optically functioning devices at the same time either.
In the case of the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-152009, cooling is done by an air circulated in a hermetically sealed space. Thus, efficient cooling can not be much expected. As a result, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that the light valve device can not be cooled sufficiently in the event of an increased amount of dissipated heat due to an increased intensity of the light emitted by the light source. In this case, in spite of the fact that the picture display apparatus will no longer operate normally, the relevant technology does not address the problem and, of course, does not take a solution to the problem into consideration. The relevant technology also does not address a problem related to the maintenance of the picture display apparatus, and, of course, does not take a solution to the problem into consideration.
In the case of the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-311372, workability during maintenance is not taken into consideration adequately as evidenced by, among other things, the fact that it is necessary to disassemble peripheral members of the light valve device during maintenance work of the device or components in close proximity thereto.
It is thus an object of the present invention addressing the problems described above to provide a display apparatus technology that is capable of cooling a light valve means and other optically functioning components with a high degree of efficiency and offers excellent maintainability of peripheral components surrounding the light valve device.
In order to achieve the object described above, the picture display apparatus provide by the present invention can have one of the following configurations:
1 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by splitting a light emitted by an illumination means into a plurality of color components using a splitting means, modulating each of said color components using a light valve means and guiding modulated color components to a projection means, an optical axis of said projection means is shifted from an optical axis of said illumination means and said splitting means, and said projection means can be attached and detached in a direction in which said optical axes are shifted from each other.
2 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to said light valve means through a plurality of wind supply openings in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
3 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emanating from an illumination means and passing through a polarization means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said polarization means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to said polarization means through a plurality of wind supply openings in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
4 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by a cooling means including a wind generating means for blowing a cooling wind and a wind guiding path for splitting said cooling wind and for supplying a split cooling wind to a plurality of optical means including at least said light valve means.
5 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to a light incidence surface and a light emission surface of said light valve means in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
6 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emanating from an illumination means and passing through a polarization means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said polarization means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to a light incidence surface and a light emission surface of said polarization means in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
7 In a display apparatus for displaying a picture by splitting a light emitted by an illumination means into a plurality of color components using a splitting means, modulating each of said color components using a light valve means and guiding modulated color components to a projection means, an optical axis of said projection means is shifted from an optical axis of said illumination means and said splitting means, and said projection means can be attached and detached in a direction in which said optical axes are shifted from each other.
8 In a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to said light valve means through a plurality of wind supply openings in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
9 In a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emanating from an illumination means and passing through a polarization means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said polarization means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to said polarization means through a plurality of wind supply openings in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
10 In a display optical unit for a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by a cooling means including a wind generating means for blowing a cooling wind and a wind guiding path for splitting said cooling wind and for supplying a split cooling wind to a plurality of optical means including at least said light valve means.
11 In a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emitted by an illumination means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said light valve means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to a light incidence surface and a light emission surface of said light valve means in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.
12 In a display apparatus for displaying a picture by modulating a light emanating from an illumination means and passing through a polarization means using a light valve means and guiding a modulated light to a projection means, said polarization means is cooled by cooling winds blown by a cooling means to a light incidence surface and a light emission surface of said polarization means in directions within the range 45 degrees to 315 degrees.

Display optical unit and display apparatus using this unit


A wireless communications device includes a Personal Area Network (PAN) transceiver that communicates data with a corresponding PAN transceiver disposed in a hands-free visor. The device also includes a short-range transceiver that communicates with a corresponding short-range transceiver in the hands-free visor. Both the wireless communications device and the hands-free device are configured to select which of these transceivers it is to use to transmit data based on predefined criteria.

There are many different methods for transmitting data between two or more devices. For example, two devices that are many miles apart from each other can communicate data via a wireless communication network. For shorter distances, such as a few tens of meters or less, the devices may utilize BLUETOOTH or WiFi protocols. In cases where the two devices are in contact, or nearly in contact with each other, Near Field Communication (NFC) may be utilized to send and receive data. Each of these communications methods is well known and very useful. However, they do present certain problems.
For example, security of one's private data is of paramount importance when using cellular, BLUETOOTH, and WiFi protocols to exchange data. Thus, protocols such as these typically utilize complicated algorithms and encoding schemes to protect against malicious eavesdropping attacks. Further, both methods utilize relatively large amounts of power, which can be a premium resource where cellular devices and/or their accessory devices are concerned. The uses of NFC technology helps mitigate some of these problems because NFC equipped devices need little energy. Additionally, because the distance over which an NFC transmission must travel is so short (i.e., usually up to only a few centimeters), security is not generally a concern. However, the maximum data rate of 0.5 Mbps is typically too low for many applications, and is lower than BLUETOOTH and WiFi.
Recently, consumers have started purchasing certain types of accessories for their mobile phones. One of the most popular accessories is a hands-free visor. With such visors, which may be embodied as glasses, for example, data sent from a user's mobile device is displayed on an interior surface of the glasses where the user can view the data. Additionally, some visors are equipped with camera circuitry to capture an image of whatever is in the field of view of the user. As useful as they are, however, visors are conventionally linked to the mobile phone via a BLUETOOTH link or physical cabling. Further, the visors also require a power source. Thus, both the mobile phones and the visors remain affected by security and power consumption concerns.

Capacitive data transfer through a user's body


This invention relates to methods for correlating media streams and signaling sessions of services, for example, in a passive monitoring system of a packet-switched network. Furthermore, the invention also relates to an implementation of these methods in hardware and software, and provides a signaling plane probe, a media plane probe and a correlation unit. Moreover, a passive monitoring system comprising one or more of these hardware devices is provided. To correlate media streams and signaling sessions of services, the invention proposes to independently generate correlation keys in a media plane probe for monitored media streams and correlation keys for signaling sessions that are monitored by a signaling plane probe in a fashion that matching correlation keys are generated for a respective service. By identifying reports on the media streams and reports on the signaling session that contain matching correlation keys respectively, the media streams and the signaling streams are correlated in a correlation unit.

VoIP Services
VoIP ("Voice over IP"—IP denoting the Internet Protocol) services may be considered to consist of a signaling plane and a media plane. On the signaling plane various protocols describe the session (call) flow in terms of involved parties, intermediary VoIP entities (i.e. VoIP proxies, routers) and the characteristics of the VoIP service (call). The media plane typically carries the media information (i.e. audio and/or video data) between the involved parties. Neither the media plane nor the signaling plane alone is sufficient to carry a VoIP service. On the signaling plane protocols like SIP (see IETF RFC 3261, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", available at http://www.ietf.org) or ITU-T recommendation H.323 (see H.323, "Packet-based multimedia communications systems", Edition 7, 2009, available at http://www.itu.int) are commonly used, whereas protocols like RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol, see IETF RFC 3550, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", available at http://www.ietf.org), MSRP (see IETF RFC 4975, "The Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP)", available at http://www.ietf.org) or ITU recommendation T.38 (see T.38, "Procedures for real-time Group 3 facsimile communication over IP networks", Edition 5 (2007) or Edition 6 (2010), available at http://www.itu.int) may be present on the media plane. In contrast to the traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) network both planes may be on different infrastructure using different protocols and even take different routes through a network.
Correlation Information
The property of disjunct signaling stream(s) and media stream(s) of a VoIP service within packet-switched networks may necessitate a correlation mechanism. This correlation may only be based on the common parameters carried on both planes of the session. Monitoring equipment used in VoIP networks may be limited to either the signaling or media plane due to the network structure. A correlation of signaling stream(s) and media stream(s) is thus needed outside the VoIP network in between the monitoring components.
In RTP-based VoIP networks the data basis is rather limited as defined by the RTP protocol and the underlying transport and Internet layer protocols. An RTP stream which typically carries voice or video information from one party to another of a VoIP service is made up of plural RTP packets. The header of each RTP packet does not contain an identifier which can be used to distinctively associate single RTP packets or the entire RTP stream to a VoIP service (defined by the VoIP signaling). The same way the VoIP signaling protocol does not carry information to relate a signaling session (signaling plane of the VoIP service) to RTP protocol header information.
The parties originating or receiving a VoIP service actively dictate the transport and Internet layer address (IP address and port) on which they want to receive media streams. This configuration is done on the signaling plane. Using SIP as a signaling protocol, the address tuple(s) to be used on the media plane is/are defined in a so-called SDP body (see IETF RFC 3264, "An Offer/Answer Model with the Session Description Protocol (SDP)", available at http://www.ietf.org). The address tuple(s)—usually consisting of an IP address and port—is/are the sole information to correlate media plane of a VoIP service with the signaling plane of the VoIP service, and vice versa.
Challenges in Correlation of Signaling Plane and Media Plane
Beside the limited information available for correlation, the correlation of the signaling plane and media plane imposes also numerous further challenges, especially in passive mid-point monitoring scenarios. While an address tuple (IP address and port) may be enough information to identify a single RTP stream at a given point in time, multiple streams identified by different address tuples may exist in a regular VoIP call. In fact at least two media streams are needed to allow two-way communication between the caller and callee.
It will be outlined in further detail in the following how multiple media streams may occur in a single VoIP service and how they are communicated between the parties involved (which may not always be the case).
Mid-point monitoring equipment (i.e. the signaling and media probes) is introduced into the network path which active components (e.g. VoIP phones and servers) use to communicate with each other. This passive equipment is not involved in the communication itself and has to derive all information from the network packets it observes on said network path. The correlation challenge increases as the passive equipment lacks information the active components internally have. A VoIP phone may internally assign a media port to a signaling session but never send out this information combined so that a mid-point monitoring probe could benefit from this information.
Time Constraints Due to Port Reuse
The IP address and port combination transmitted inside the signaling plane of a VoIP service as well as the IP address and port observed on the media plane of the VoIP service may be reused. For exemplary purposes it can be assumed that each VoIP device has a single IP address. The port range from which the client can draw is limited to roughly 65000 ports by the underlying transport layer protocol UDP (see RFC 768, "User Datagram Protocol", available at http://www.ietf.org). In practice additional specifications and configuration parameters significantly further limit this port range. RFC 3550 which defines the Real-Time Transport Protocol mandates that only even port numbers may be used to transport media streams. The odd ports are reserved for Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) packets. This standardization alone effectively halves the number of ports available for VoIP communication.
As a result a VoIP device has to re-use a certain IP address and port combination, thus eliminating a unique identification criterion. Essentially the IP address and port combination can only be assumed to be unique for a limited amount of time. The time-frame depends on the utilization of the VoIP device as well as the number of IP addresses required in an Internet Service Provider's network. If a correlation of the signaling and media plane takes place without a time criteria, it would therefore produce so-called false positives: Multiple media streams would match the requested IP address and port combination, since the signaling plane may have caused re-use of the very same IP address and/or port for another VoIP service.
Media Streams
Multiple streams may exist per direction of each VoIP service. The caller sends data to the callee and vice versa resulting in at least one media stream per direction. Desirable features, such as for example codec changes, may trigger additional streams. On the network multiple streams may use the same IP address and port tuple depending on the media protocol. For example, each RTP stream is additionally identified by a unique identifier—the Sender Synchronization Source (SSRC)—which is used to distinguish between multiple streams.
FIG. 1 shows exemplary situations where multiple media streams may be triggered. The focus is on the media plane traffic and its timing. The x-axis denotes the time basis, starting on the left side. The vertical lines in FIG. 1 denote signaling events and the bold horizontal lines are RTP streams present in the respective exemplified VoIP service example (please note that the different VoIP service examples are separated by broken horizontal lines). Only the RTP stream direction from the callee to the caller is shown per VoIP service example. The RTP stream from the caller to the callee can be assumed to be less complex (e.g. as shown in the "normal" VoIP service example).
The three vertical lines denote important events in the phase of a call. The leftmost line denotes the start timestamp. This is the time at which the caller submitted the call setup request to the network. The connected point is the timestamp at which a callee or his endpoint/handset picked up and moved the service into a fully established state. The service ends when one of the parties sends a termination request.
The most common VoIP services will be the trivial session examples where there is only one RTP stream per direction (see "normal" or "early media"). In a "normal" VoIP service flow both parties only start sending once the session is fully established on the signaling plane. More often the callee would start sending early media, i.e. when sending ring-tones or (pre-call) announcements. In "session forking" VoIP service example there may be multiple concurrent or sequential RTP streams at the beginning of a service e.g. due ring-tones being sent to multiple VoIP devices of the callee, while one is answered at the connect event
During a service media codecs may be changed (see "code change" VOIP service example) which is commonly resulting in a new media stream. Another service scenario may be the VoIP call being put on hold and picked up at a later time essentially generating multiple media streams (see "call on hold" VoIP service example). Silence suppression and other RTP features may cause multiple streams sporadically during a service (see "silence suppression" VoIP service example). Also retransmissions on the signaling plane may desynchronize the signaling plane and media plane (see "SIP retransmissions" VoIP service examples).
Geographic Distribution or Media Plane and Signaling Plane
As indicated above, signaling plane data and media plane data of VoIP services may take different routes. In examples, where SIP is used for session setup, this is indeed the case as those sessions usually contain signaling-only components (i.e. SIP proxies, REGISTRARs). As a result passive mid-point monitoring solutions may be split geographically along the routes of the VoIP traffic.
An exemplary passive mid-point monitoring scenario for this case is shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows three geographically distributed POPs (Point of Presence) which are linked over the carrier's internal network. The signaling data flows on the signaling plane between POP A and B via the signaling-only POP C. POP C would typically host a centralized routing entity which reduces the complexity in the POPs A and B. To prevent back-hauling traffic from POP A to POP C before sending it to POP B the VoIP system is configured in a way that would allow the media to flow directly on the media plane between POPs A and B.
Typical mid-point monitoring locations would be inside each POP. Due to the layout of the network no media traffic would be visible in POP C. To allow for successful correlation of signaling and media streams by the correlation mechanism it is therefore desirable to support distributed networks. If the same session traverses multiple POPs it would be desirable for the correlation mechanism to identify this and support correlation of the session legs across multiple sites.
Limitations/Challenges in Correlation of Signaling Plane and Media Plane
The correlation may be solely based on the IP address and port used on the transport and Internet layer. On the media plane each RTP stream is destined to exactly one IP address and port on the transport layer. On the signaling plane one IP address and port is typically exchanged inside the Session Description Body of the SDP protocol during the VoIP service setup. However this IP address and port combination may not be the combination used throughout the VoIP service. In this case the above mentioned correlation mechanism fails: It fails upon searching a media stream for a specific signaling session of the VoIP service. The same way it fails to locate a signaling session of the VoIP service for a specific media stream on the media plane. The reasons for using another IP address port combination than advertised upon session setup are manifold.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
Network Address Translation (NAT, RFC 1631) was developed to solve Internet address space depletion and routing problems. In today's Internet one may distinguish between internal addresses which are often only unique locally (i.e. typically used inside company or home networks), and external addresses of global validity and uniqueness as used on the public Internet.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary network using internal and external addresses. The internal network on the left side uses IP addresses from the so-called private space, as for example defined in IETF RFC 1918, "Address Allocation for Private Internets", available at http://www.ietf.org. The external network on the right side is the public Internet with globally reachable addresses. A router with embedded Network Address Translation (NAT) functionality is located in between the two networks. The router does not directly route packets in between the two connected networks, but "translates" (i.e. replaces) IP source and destination addresses within the routed IP packets on demand.
Essentially, the NAT functionality of the router hides the entire internal network (10.0.0.0/8 in this example) behind one public IP address (192.0.2.1). Every IP connection from within the internal network to the Internet will seem to originate from the sole public IP address (192.0.2.1) of the entire network.
For each node inside the internal network this imposes some limitations. Although Internet access works in general, a node in the internal network may not be reachable from the outside. This is due to the fact that IP traffic from an outside node (i.e. a node in the external network) would be destined to the public IP address (192.0.2.1), but the router with this IP address does not know at this point in time where to forward the traffic to on the internal network, given that there was no prior communication from an node inside of the internal network and the external node.
Additionally the internal node may not be aware that it is behind a router which performs the NAT. As required by the transport protocols, the internal node will use the internal IP address for communication purposes. On the VoIP signaling and media layer (i.e. session layer or application layer), the application will also use the internal IP address (i.e. 10.0.0.123) instead of the public IP address. VoIP signaling protocols (e.g. SIP or H.323) contain various IP addresses on the application layer. An intermediary NAT device (i.e. the router in FIG. 3) will not perform translation of the addresses on the session layer or application layer, but only translates IP addresses in the network layer. The internal IP addresses inside the VoIP signaling (i.e. SIP or H.323 messages) impose a problem to the application as internal IP addresses are most likely not reachable from the public Internet.
VoIP devices involved in the processing of a certain call may detect this problem by comparing the IP addresses seen on the Internet and transport layers with the IP addresses set on the application layer. The following message is an exemplary SIP message as seen on the network and transport layer, which means that both the Internet and transport layer information (IP addresses and ports) are visible:                U 2010/09/09 13:57:31.925226 192.0.2.99:37682→10.0.0.1:5060
The Internet and transport layers show that the UDP packet (U) was received from the external address 192.0.2.99 (port 37682).
The following message represents the same exemplary SIP message as seen on the application layer, which means that both the Internet and transport layer information (IP addresses and ports) as well as the application layer (SIP message contents) are visible:                INVITE sip:firstname.lastname@example.com SIP/2.0        Via: SIP/2.0/UDP        192.168.1.216;branch=z9hG4bK3BB64874;rport=37682;received=192.0.2.99        CSeq: 7726 INVITE        To: <sip:firstname.lastname@example.com>        Content-Type: application/sdp        From: "John Doe"<sip:email@example.com>;tag=693C7725        Call-ID: firstname.lastname@example.com        Subject: sip:firstname.lastname@example.com        Content-Length: 230        User-Agent: kphone/4.2        Contact: "John Doe"<sip:firstname.lastname@example.com;transport=udp>        v=0        o=username 0 0 IN IP4 192.168.1.216        s=The Funky Flow        c=IN IP4 192.168.1.216        t=0 0        m=audio 60942 RTP/AVP 0 97 8 3        a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000        a=rtpmap:3 GSM/8000        a=rtpmap:8 PCMA/8000        a=rtpmap:97 iLBC/8000        a=fmtp:97 mode=30
In contrast to the information available at the network and transport layers claiming that the message was received from the external address 192.0.2.99 (port 37682), the application claims that the source was the internal address 192.168.1.216 (port 5060—the port 5060 is not viewed for the source address as it is the default port).
In general the translation of the network (IP) address also applies to the port numbers which are used on the transport layer. This feature is named Port Address Translation (PAT). NAT and PAT commonly happen at the same time in the same device.
PAT becomes necessary if multiple devices attempt to use the same port. Since different devices have different IP addresses their IP address and port tuple is unique. If packet streams from both devices traverse the same NAT device, the NAT device has to translate the port of one of the two packet streams. Otherwise there would be two distinct packet streams sharing the same external IP address of the NAT device and the same port. While this may not be a problem if the destination IP address and port tuple of the destination device are different for the two packet streams, it adds overhead which the NAT device wants to prevent. By rewriting the source port of one of the packet streams the address tuples of the external IP address and ports become unique again.
However, in networks where NAT (and PAT) is performed to for example hide private networks from the outside Internet, the correlation of signaling sessions of VoIP services and the associated media plane streams is becoming complex.
Multiple Communication Paths
Numerous solutions have been developed to allow traffic of VoIP services to operate in networks with Network Address Translation (NAT). These mechanisms require the involved caller and callee to exchange information, for instance on additional transport protocols or addresses which can be used to reach the remote party. These include—but are not limited to—IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6, see IETF RFC 2460, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6), Specification"), TURN (Traversal Using Relays around NAT, see IETF RFC 5766, "Traversal Using Relays around NAT (TURN):Relay Extensions to Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN)") addresses or ICE (Interactive Connection Establishment, see IETF RFC 5245, "Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE): A Protocol for Network Address Translator (NAT) Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols") candidates (all RFCs available at http://www.ietf.org).
These additional tuples of IP addresses and ports communicated in these solutions establish different data paths in media plane and signaling plane of a VoIP service and thereby break up the previous one-to-one relation of signaling session to media stream to a given VoIP device. Previously one media stream to the given VoIP device could be distinctively identified by exactly one IP address and port. In the new scenario on the signaling plane a list of IP address and port tuples is transported on which the VoIP device may receive media thereby increasing the complexity of correlation between media plane and signaling plane of a VoIP service.

Correlation of media plane and signaling plane of media services in a packet-switched network


A warming drawer for a domestic range which is disposed within a heating chamber located relatively beneath the oven. The heating chamber is surrounded by a series of panels, and has a heating element disposed therein. The heating element is energized in accordance with a user-determined duty cycle such that temperature within the heating chamber is maintained between a predetermined minimum temperature and a predetermined maximum temperature. The range of temperatures between the predetermined minimum and predetermined maximum correspond to a range of desired food serving temperatures at the warmer drawer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to domestic cooking ranges and, more particularly, to domestic cooking ranges having a warming drawer adapted to receive and maintain cooked hot food at an above-ambient temperature.
2. Description of Related Art
Domestic cooking ranges traditionally include an open space relatively beneath the oven which slidably receives a storage drawer in which the user may store various articles, such as cooking pots and/or pans. As such, the conventional or prior art drawer is only useful for storage purposes, and could not be used to heat or warm food.
The space occupied by the storage drawer has also, in the past, been used as a broiling cavity which receives a broiling tray. A broiling element is located relatively above the broiling tray. The broiling element is operated at high temperatures as required to accomplish the broiling function.
The prior art references which include a broiling element do not control energization of the broiling element to only warm food contained on the broiling tray. Rather, the broiling element is typically operated exclusively at full power, as required for broiling. Due to the high-energy or high-heat output of the broiling element, maintaining food at an above-ambient temperature for warming purposes, but still low enough so that further cooking does not occur, is not possible.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a cooking appliance which provides a warmer drawer in which heating or warming of food is permitted. There also exists a need in the art for a warming device wherein the temperature of the food within the device is controlled such that further cooking of the food, which may degrade the food quality, does not occur.


The present invention provides novel emulsion formulations which comprise oil bodies. The invention also provides a method for preparing the emulsions and the use of the emulsions in products for topical application to the skin. The products are very mild to the skin and may be easily formulated into a wide variety of personal care and dermatological products.

The present invention provides novel emulsions which comprise oil bodies. The invention also provides a method for preparing the emulsions and the use of the emulsions in various products that are topically applied to the surface area of the human body.
Emulsions are mixtures prepared from two mutually insoluble components. It is possible to generate mixtures of homogenous macroscopic appearance from these components through proper selection and manipulation of mixing conditions. The most common type of emulsions are those in which an aqueous component and a lipophilic component are employed and which in the art are frequently referred to as oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions. In oil-in-water emulsions the lipophilic phase is dispersed in the aqueous phase, while in water-in-oil emulsions the aqueous phase is dispersed in the lipophilic phase. Commonly known emulsion based formulations that are applied to the skin include cosmetic products such as creams, lotions, washes, cleansers, milks and the like as well as dermatological products comprising ingredients to treat skin conditions, diseases or abnormalities.
Generally emulsions are prepared in the presence of a multiplicity of other substances in order to achieve a desirable balance of emulsification, viscosity, stability and appearance. For example, the formulation of emulsions usually requires at least one, and frequently a combination of several, emulsifying agents. These agents facilitate the dispersal of one immiscible phase into the other and assist in stabilizing the emulsion. A comprehensive overview of emulsifying agents and their applications may be found in Becher, P. Encyclopedia of Emulsion Technology, Dekker Ed., 1983. Active agents beneficial to the skin, such as compounds to treat skin diseases, are also frequently formulated as emulsions in order to enhance their stability and to facilitate application of the active agent to the skin.
In the seeds of oilseed crops, which include economically important crops, such as soybean, rapeseed, sunflower and palm, the water insoluble oil fraction is stored in discrete subcellular structures variously known in the art as oil bodies, oleosomes, lipid bodies or spherosomes (Huang 1992, Ann. Rev. Plant Mol. Biol. 43: 177-200). Besides a mixture of oils (triacylglycerides), which chemically are defined as glycerol esters of fatty acids, oil bodies comprise phospholipids and a number of associated proteins, collectively termed oil body proteins. From a structural point of view, oil bodies are considered to be a triacylglyceride matrix encapsulated by a monolayer of phospholipids in which oil body proteins are embedded (Huang, 1992, Ann. Rev. Plant Mol. Biol. 43: 177-200). The seed oil present in the oil body fraction of plant species is a mixture of various triacylglycerides, of which the exact composition depends on the plant species from which the oil is derived. It has become possible through a combination of classical breeding and genetic engineering techniques, to manipulate the oil profile of seeds and expand on the naturally available repertoire of plant oil compositions. For an overview of the ongoing efforts in his area, see Designer Oil Crops/Breeding, Processing and Biotechnology, D. J. Murphy Ed., 1994, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim, Germany.
Plant seed oils are used in a variety of industrial applications, including the personal care industry. In order to obtain the plant oils used in these applications, seeds are crushed or pressed and subsequently refined using processes such as organic extraction, degumming, neutralization, bleaching and filtering. Aqueous extraction of plant oil seeds has also been documented (for example, Embong and Jelen, 1977, Can. Inst. Food Sci. Technol. J. 10: 239-243). Since the objective of the processes taught by the prior art is to obtain pure oil, oil bodies in the course of these production processes lose their structural integrity. Thus, the prior art emulsions formulated from plant oils generally do not comprise intact oil bodies.
Although fossil oil based products dominate certain markets, in other applications, oils derived from plant sources and fossil sources are in direct competition. Lauric oils, for example, which are widely used in the manufacture of detergents, are obtained from fossil oils as well as from coconut oil and more recently from genetically engineered rapeseed (Knauf, V. C., 1994, Fat. Sci. Techn. 96: 408). However, there is currently an increasing demand for biodegradable sources of raw materials. The plant oil body based emulsions of the present invention offer an advantage over similar mineral oil based formulations, in that the oil fraction is derived from a renewable and environmentally friendly source.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,740 to Voultoury et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,583 to Voultoury et al. disclose emulsions comprising lipid vesicles that have been prepared from crushed oleagenous plant seeds. In the course of the crushing process, oil bodies substantially lose their structural integrity. Accordingly, these patents disclose that in the crushing process, 70% to 90% of the seed oil is released in the form of free oil. Thus the emulsions which are the subject matter of these patents are prepared from crushed seeds from which a substantial amount of free oil has been released while the structural integrity of the oil bodies is substantially lost. In addition, the emulsions disclosed in both of these patents are prepared from relatively crude seed extracts and comprise numerous endogenous seed components including glycosylated and non-glycosylated non-oil body seed proteins. It is a disadvantage of the emulsions to which these patents relate that they comprise contaminating seed components imparting a variety of undesirable properties, which may include allergenicity and undesirable odour, flavour, colour and organoleptic characteristics, to the emulsions. Due to the presence of seed contaminants, the emulsions disclosed in these patents have limited applications.
The present invention relates to novel emulsion formulations which are prepared from oil bodies. The emulsion formulations of the subject invention are obtainable in non-toxic and food grade forms. In addition, the emulsion formulations are advantageously prepared from an oil body preparation which is creamy in texture and thus may be readily applied in a variety of products that are topically applied to the skin. The present inventors have found that the oil body fraction of living cells is useful in the formulation of personal care and dermatological products. Broadly stated, the present invention provides an emulsion formulation for the application to the surface area of the human body comprising washed oil bodies derived from a cell.
The invention also provides methods for preparing the emulsion formulations and the use of the emulsion formulations for the application to the surface area of the human body.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for preparing emulsion formulations comprising: 1) obtaining oil bodies from a cell; 2) washing the oil bodies; and 3) formulating the washed oil bodies into an emulsion for application to the surface area of the human body.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the washed oil body preparation is obtained from plant seeds, including seeds obtainable from flax, safflower, rapeseed, soybean, maize and sunflower. Accordingly, the invention provides a method for preparing the emulsion formulations from plant seeds comprising:
(a) grinding plant seeds to obtain ground seeds comprising substantially intact oil bodies;
(b) removing solids from the ground seeds;
(c) separating the oil body phase from the aqueous phase;
(d) washing the oil body phase to yield a washed oil body preparation; and
(e) formulating the washed oil body preparation into an emulsion for application to the surface area of the human body.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a liquid phase is added to the seeds prior to or while grinding the seeds.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, formulating the emulsion comprises stabilizing the washed oil body preparation to prevent degradation of the oil bodies either by physical forces or chemical forces.
The emulsions of the present invention can be used in a wide range of applications including in the preparation of personal care and dermatological products. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent after consideration of the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the invention.

Products for topical applications comprising oil bodies


Snapshot Isolation (SI) is an established model in the database community, which permits write-read conflicts to pass and aborts transactions only on write-write conflicts. With the Write Skew Anomaly (WSA) correctly eliminated, SI can reduce the occurrence of aborts, save the work done by transactions, and greatly benefit long transactions involving complex data structures. Embodiments include a multi-versioned memory subsystem for hardware-based transactional memory (HTM) on the GPU, with a method for eliminating the WSA on the fly, and incorporates SI. The GPU HTM can provide reduced compute time for some compute tasks.

Transactional Memory (TM) is a programming model used with the intention of making programming with threads simpler, with the goal of synchronizing access to data shared between several threads into transactions. Each transaction is executed atomically, meaning that they will either succeed and commit to the data store, or abort and restart. In addition, transactions are isolated from one another such that each transaction sees a consistent view of the memory. In other words, TM is a programming model that enables a series of read and write operations to complete atomically, similar to an atomic compare-and-swap command. A transaction should be aborted if it can result in inconsistent state resulting from concurrent reads/writes by other transactions into the system.
Many TM system proposals range from hardware to software and hardware-software co-designs. When multi-core and many-core processors emerged, TM innovation began to focus on scalability of TM systems and interoperation of different TM systems. TM has been implemented in consumer products such as the Haswell and its successors, from Intel Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., United States. A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a throughput-oriented computing device characterized by large arithmetic density, high memory bandwidth and a high degree of parallelism. GPU design is evolving towards a general-purpose computing device, with growing support for irregular workloads and data structures that are traditionally non-GPU oriented.
Recently, hardware based TM systems for GPUs have been proposed, offering performance comparable to fine-grained locking (synchronizations between threads in thread blocks) that are as easy to use as coarse-grained locking (synchronizations between threads), making it a competitive tool for exploiting a full potential of GPUs. Most existing TM systems implement a 2-PhaseLocking (2PL) concurrency control mechanism, which aborts transactions on both write-read conflicts and write-write conflicts.

Snapshot isolation in graphical processing unit hardware transactional memory

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE


An object oriented system platform for a telecommunication system that provides subscriber services includes an upper layer containing applications in the form of base and supplementary functions providing base and supplementary services. This layer is implemented with base objects and extension objects. The base objects are object types implementing functions which may need extension in the future, each object type being designed for a particular task which can be performed with a minimum of coordination with other base objects. The extension objects are object types implementing extension functions which form extensions to the base functions and make it possible to add new services and modify and extend existing services without changing the software of a system that has already been implemented and supplied.

The present invention generally relates to an object oriented system platform for a telecommunication system that provides subscriber services. Such a platform can generally be described as including an operating system in a lower layer, an application platform located thereon and containing suitable telecommunication abstractions in the form of resource objects, and thereupon an upper layer containing desired applications in the form of base and supplementary functions providing base and supplementary services.
Subscriber services provided by a communication system can include base services and supplementary services which are provided by base functions and supplementary functions, respectively of the system. The supplementary functions of a system are optional, market dependent and can be supplied to a customer after the system providing the base services has been supplied. The later is often the case for subscriber services such as Call Waiting and Call Forwarding on Busy.
Supplementary services are often introduced when a system providing the base service has already been developed and supplied. The traditional way of updating the system is then to edit and recompile the existing implementation for having it to support also the new supplementary function and have it to take care of the coordinations between the new and the existing extension functions.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,057,996 and 5,136,712 there is described an object oriented operating system including hardware layers, layers with operating system functions, and software layers. Access to specific objects is required for use of corresponding resources in the system. The objects have a consistent data structure and a consistent method for defining the operations for each object type. The system admits routines for generating new object types without modifying the core of the operating system.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,015 there is described an object oriented data processing system comprising an extendable set of object types and a corresponding set of object managers.
A general main object of the invention is to render more efficient, in a communication system, the management of the supplementary functions of a system, i.e. the parts of the system that are optional, market dependent or are supplied to a customer after the system providing the base services has been supplied.
A more determined object is to attain this efficiency by enabling modification and extension of the services provided by a system without needing to change the software of the functions that have already been implemented and supplied.
These and other objects which will appear henceforth, have been attained by the characterizing features stated in the patent claims.
In a system platform of the kind defined by way of introduction, the upper layer is implemented with base objects and extension objects. The base objects are object types that implement, with one or more methods included therein, base functions that may need to be extended in the future, and the extension objects are object types that, with one or more methods included therein, enable implementation of extension functions being extensions to the base functions. Each base object type is designed for a particular task, that can be performed with a minimum of coordination with other base objects. The extension objects are designed to admit addition of new services and modification and extension of existing services without changing the software of the services that have already been implemented and supplied. The extension objects can also include object types implementing extension functions which form extensions to the extension functions, and also object types implementing interaction handling extension functions, which handle interaction between supplementary services.
The extension objects enable introduction of extensions in a system in operation which are dynamically bound to base objects that shall be modified.
The extensions are configurable, i.e. enable adding and removing modifications of the system in runtime in a generic way without the designer himself needing to design code for the activation/deactivation proper of the extension, that is handled by the platform.
The behaviour of included object types is defined by describing the behaviour of each method therein as a finite state machine. This state machine consists of a finite number of states and transitions between these states where the code defining the method is executed. The extensions are added at the states, where they then take over the execution control and returns it after having finished its own execution, to another or the same extension point.
The base and extension object types support an extension concept that allows modification and extension of the system without it being necessary to change the existing implementation of the system. More particularly this is attained by loading only definitions of the extensions in the system, that indirectly modify the behaviour of the system by taking over the execution control in specific predetermined extension points.
A specification for an extension object defines at which extension points in the extension object the extension is assumed to take over the control and at which extension points it can return the control.
When an extension object takes over the control, a predefined extension method starts execution.
A runtime system handles creation of extension objects and invocation of their extension methods at the stated extension points.
An extension object has access to attributes and methods of the base object or the extension object from which the extension takes over the control. The attributes and methods may only comprise such that is declared in an object type specification that can be accessed.
In the object type specification there are defined also access restrictions for each extension point by defining that only a specific subset of the attributes and methods in the specification are available for extensions taking over the control in a certain extension point.
The object type specification for an extendable object works like an interface that delimits the amount of information that is visible and available to extensions of the extendable object. An interface layer that is used together with the extension concept is defined by extension views which each define a subset of information in the specification of an extendable object that shall be able to be accessed by the extensions using the view.
For a base object there is a specification that, on the one hand, works as an interface description showing states, attributes and methods available to the extensions and, on the other hand, defines an interface towards the client object that needs to create instances of the base object. The interface is defined by methods of the base object type, that decide which parameters that can be used when creating the new instance.
The specification provides a high level description of the behaviour of the base object type while leaving out implementation details which are unnecessary for attaining an understanding of the function of the object type.
An abstraction layer that is created by an underlying object logic that is used by the base object, and local methods in the base object comprising use of the object logic, contribute to the high abstraction level.
A reasonable abstraction level in a specification is obtained by showing the wait state of the base object in the specification and possibly some selected non-wait states which are fundamental for understanding the function of the base object. Code for execution between the shown states is introduced in local methods declared, but not necessarily behaviour specified, in the specification. A judgement of that to be shown in the specification includes considering which parts of the object type that may be exposed to extensions in the future.
All states, both wait states and non-wait states and all explicitly denominated extension points, are shown in the method specification. Action code is used at state transitions in local methods. If certain parts of the behaviour do not need to be extendable, these are introduced in their entirety in local methods being defined in the specification or realization, or on an implementation level.
The object type realization is used for parts of base objects which do not need to, or cannot, be extendable, and which are not necessary to be shown in the specification to create a high level description, but where a definition is preferred instead of using implementation language directly. In the realization there are introduced definitions of local methods that introduce action code. In the realization there is provided, while overriding behaviour definitions included in the specification, a more detailed behaviour definition, that implies a refining of the behaviour specification that is provided in the specification.
The extension concept according to the invention has a number of valuable properties. It is a fine-grained way of making modifications, by it being not necessary to override whole methods, which is the mechanism that is available in most object oriented formalisms. Instead the override can be performed in certain extension points within methods. The extension concept forms a frame work for taking care of the complexity caused by introducing many supplementary functions in a ready-developed and supplied system. This is made possible by describing the modifications caused by each extension separately, whereupon the extensions can in turn be coordinated when there is a need. Such coordinations between supplementary functions can also be expressed as separate extensions, in this case as extensions to the supplementary functions. This makes it possible to manage the optional parts of the system and their dependencies in a modular way.

System platform for a communication system


Articles of footwear, including athletic footwear, include: (A) an upper; (B) a rear heel strap member engaged with or integrally formed with the upper and including: (i) a rear heel element, (ii) a lateral side strap element, and (iii) a medial side strap element; (C) a first strap member extending along the medial side of the upper, wherein the first strap member includes at least one structure for engaging a lace; (D) a second strap member extending along the lateral side of the upper, wherein the second strap member includes at least two structures for engaging the lace; (E) a tensioning system for engaging the medial side strap element with the first strap member; (F) another tensioning system for engaging the lateral side strap element with the second strap member; and (G) a sole structure.

Conventional articles of athletic footwear include two primary elements, an upper and a sole structure. The upper provides a covering for the foot that securely receives and positions the foot with respect to the sole structure. In addition, the upper may have a configuration that protects the foot and provides ventilation, thereby cooling the foot and removing perspiration. The sole structure is secured to a lower surface of the upper and generally is positioned between the foot and any contact surface. In addition to attenuating ground reaction forces and absorbing energy, the sole structure may provide traction and control potentially harmful foot motion, such as over pronation. The general features and configuration of the upper and the sole structure are discussed in greater detail below.
The upper forms a void on the interior of the footwear for receiving the foot. The void has the general shape of the foot, and access to the void is provided at an ankle opening. Accordingly, the upper extends over the instep and toe areas of the foot, along the medial and lateral sides of the foot, and around the heel area of the foot. A lacing system often is incorporated into the upper to selectively change the size of the ankle opening and to permit the wearer to modify certain dimensions of the upper, particularly girth, to accommodate feet with varying proportions. In addition, the upper may include a tongue that extends under the lacing system to enhance the comfort of the footwear (e.g., to modulate pressure applied to the foot by the laces), and the upper also may include a heel counter to limit or control movement of the heel.
Various materials may be utilized in manufacturing the upper. The upper of an article of athletic footwear, for example, may be formed from multiple material layers that may include, for example, an exterior layer, a middle layer, and an interior layer (and these layers may fully or partially overlap). The materials forming the exterior layer (or other layers) of the upper may be selected based upon the properties of wear-resistance, abrasion resistance, durability, flexibility, stretchability, and air-permeability, for example. With regard to the exterior layer, the toe area and the heel area may be formed of leather, synthetic leather, or a rubber material to impart a relatively high degree of wear-resistance and abrasion resistance. Leather, synthetic leather, and rubber materials, however, may not exhibit the desired degree of flexibility and/or air-permeability for all areas of the upper. Accordingly, various other areas of the exterior layer of the upper may be formed from a synthetic textile. The exterior layer of the upper may be formed, therefore, from numerous material elements that each imparts different properties to specific areas of the upper.
A middle (or other) layer of the upper may be formed from a lightweight polymer foam material that improves overall comfort and protects the foot from objects that may contact the upper. Similarly, an interior layer of the upper may be formed of a moisture-wicking textile that removes perspiration from the area immediately surrounding the foot. In some articles of athletic footwear, the various layers may be joined with an adhesive, and stitching may be utilized to join elements within a single layer or to reinforce specific areas of the upper.
The sole structure generally incorporates multiple layers that are conventionally referred to as an insole, a midsole, and an outsole. The insole (which also may constitute a sock liner) is a thin member located within the upper and adjacent the plantar (lower) surface of the foot to enhance footwear comfort, e.g., to wick away moisture and provide a soft, comfortable feel. The midsole, which is traditionally attached to the upper along the entire length of the upper, forms the middle layer of the sole structure and serves a variety of purposes that include controlling foot motions and attenuating impact forces. The outsole forms the ground-contacting element of footwear and is usually fashioned from a durable, wear-resistant material that includes texturing or other features to improve traction.
The primary element of a conventional midsole is a resilient, polymer foam material, such as polyurethane or ethylvinylacetate ("EVA"), that extends throughout the length of the footwear. The properties of the polymer foam material in the midsole are primarily dependent upon factors that include the dimensional configuration of the midsole and the specific characteristics of the material selected for the polymer foam, including the density of the polymer foam material. By varying these factors throughout the midsole, the relative stiffness, degree of ground reaction force attenuation, and energy absorption properties may be altered to meet the specific demands of the activity for which the footwear is intended to be used.
Despite the various available footwear models and characteristics, new footwear models and constructions continue to develop and are a welcome advance in the art.