A detailed placement process which optimizes cell placement with up to one hundred percent densities in a linear run time. The output from a conjugate-gradient coarse placement process is input to the detailed placement process. A dynamic programming technique is used to optimize cell placement by swapping cells between two or more rows. The search space is pruned beforehand. A greedy cleanup phase using an incremental row placer is used. Thereby, the detailed placement process handles congestion driven placements characterized by non-uniform densities expeditiously and efficiently.

The rapid growth in the complexity of modem electronic circuits has forced electronic circuit designers to rely upon computer programs to assist or automate most steps of the design process. Such a design is much too large for a circuit designer or even an engineering team of designers to manage effectively manually. Hence, circuits are almost always designed with the aid of an electronic design automation (EDA) system. Basically, an EDA system is a computer software system used for designing integrated circuit (IC) devices. The EDA system typically receives one or more high level behavioral descriptions of an IC device (e.g., in HDL languages like VHDL, Verilog, etc.) and translates this high level design language description into netlists of various levels of abstraction. At a higher level of abstraction, a generic netlist is typically produced based on technology independent primitives. The generic netlist can be translated into a lower level technology-specific netlist based on a technology-specific library that has gate-specific models for timing and power estimation. A netlist describes the IC design and is composed of nodes (elements) and edges, e.g., connections between nodes, and can be represented using a directed acyclic graph structure having nodes which are connected to each other with signal lines. A single node can have multiple fan-ins and multiple fan-outs. The netlist is typically stored in computer readable media within the EDA system and processed and verified using many well known techniques. One result is a physical device layout in mask form which can be used to directly implement structures in silicon to realize the physical IC device.
The process used to automate the design of electronic circuits entails first producing a high-level description of the circuit in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL. Next, this high-level description is converted into a netlist using a computer implemented synthesis process, such as the "Design Compiler" by Synopsys of Mountain View, Calif. A netlist is a description of the electronic circuit which specifies what cells compose the circuit and which pins of which cells are to be connected together using wires ("nets"). Importantly, the netlist does not specify where on a circuit board or silicon chip the cells are placed or where the wires run which connect them together. Determining this geometric information is the function of an automatic placement process and an automatic routing process, both of which are typically computer programs.
Next, the designer supplies the netlist into the computer implemented automatic cell placement process 1. The automatic placement computer program finds a location for each cell on a circuit board or silicon chip. The locations are specified, typically, in two dimensional spatial coordinates, e.g., (x,y) coordinates, on the circuit board or silicon chip. The locations are typically selected to optimize certain objectives such as wire length, wire routability, circuit speed, circuit power consumption, and/or other criteria, subject to the condition that the cells are spread evenly over the circuit board or silicon chip and that the cells do not overlap with each other. The output of the automatic cell placement process includes a data structure including the (x,y) position for each cell of the IC design. Often, the netlist is modified and a new netlist is generated.
Thereupon, the designer supplies the netlist and the cell location data structure, generated by the placement program, to a computer implemented automatic wire routing process. This computer program generates wire geometry within data structure. The wire geometry data structure and cell placement data structure together are used to make the final geometric database needed for fabrication of the circuit as shown by process.
And because circuits today contain hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual pieces or "cells," placement is done in two steps: a first coarse placement process, followed by detailed a placement process. The coarse placement process assigns a general location for each of the cells (not necessarily legal) within a given boundary and contains interconnect information for connecting the various cells. When selecting the locations of cells, on the one hand, it is desirable to spread cells evenly across the silicon chip or circuit board in order to avoid localized congestion and heat buildup. But on the other hand, it would be desirable to pack cells as tightly as possible in order to minimize wire length, improve speed, and reduce the die size. It is the function of the detailed placement process to take the data structure output by the coarse placement and generate a more detailed placement. (more detailed in the sense that more information is considered such as legal sites). More specifically, the detailed placement process ensures that no cells overlap and that all cells are eventually placed in locations which are located on legal sites. Furthermore, the detailed placement process attempts to optimize the placement of the cells according to desired metrics (e.g., higher density, tighter timing, etc.). Congestion driven placers often leave areas of chip at near 100% density.
One problem encountered with placement in general is that there are virtually countless different ways by which the cells of a given circuit can be arranged. As a result, the task of finding the optimal placement is quite daunting. A course placement and detailed placement process can be run for quite some time in trying to continually optimize a design, with minimal improvements. Eventually, a point of diminishing returns is reached. Another general problem is that course placement and detailed course placement processes have greater difficulty in placing cells at higher densities. Many prior art placement processes simply break down when requested to place cells above certain density levels. In other words, they cannot find solutions exceeding a certain density threshold. Some prior art placement processes can find a high density solution only after running for a significant amount of time or only after an expert human designer "tweaks" the placement. This is disadvantageous as it delays time-to-market and also increases costs.
Accordingly, what is needed is a faster, more efficient placement process. In view of the above needs, the present invention provides a novel cell placement system for increasing the efficiency of an IC design process and which is capable of placing cells with up to 100% density. These and other advantages of the present invention not specifically mentioned above will become clear within discussions of the present invention presented herein.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detailed placer for optimizing high density cell placement in a linear runtime


A therapeutic inhalation device for receiving a dose of oronasal medication from a pressurized aerosol source and for delivering the same in dispersed and nonpressurized form to a breathing passage of a patient is comprised of top and bottom members and a collapsible sleeve attached at its opposite ends to the top and bottom members and defining therewith a spacer or breathing chamber that is extendable and contractible. The bottom member is cup-shaped and of a size to receive the sleeve and top member when the sleeve is collapsed and the top member is inserted into the bottom member, thereby to provide a device which, when not in use, is small and compact and conveniently stored and transported. The top member is provided with a guide member for positioning a medication containing aerosol canister for dispensing of its contents into the spacer chamber and an inhalation member communicating with the chamber for delivery of the medication to the patient in the form of a non-pressurized dilute dispersion. The guide and inhalation members are movable to retracted storage positions within the top member for convenience of storage and transportation.

Oronasal delivery of drugs has long been known and has gained wide acceptance. Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of tracheal, bronchial, nasal and pulmonary conditions are widely available in prescribed or metered doses in small pressurized aerosol canisters. While medications can be dispensed directly from such canisters into the oronasal passages of patients, experience has proven that patients generally have not made optimum use of and/or have not obtained optimum benefits from medications delivered directly from the aerosol canisters. In this regard, reference may be had to the introductory or background portion of U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,577.
Because direct use of the aerosol canisters has not proven effective or efficient for a large proportion of patients, many devices have been proposed for converting the medications from the concentrated pressurized form in which they are discharged from aerosol canisters into a nonpressurized and less concentrated form in order to be more readily and efficaciously inhaled by the patient. Further, it has been found that a long and slow inspiration of the mediation promotes a highly efficient distribution of medication to partially occluded airways. Thus, it is desirable in such devices to inhibit rapid inhalation and to encourage a long and slow inspiration period; reference in this regard again being had to U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,577.
In order to promote a long and slow inspiration period, it is desirable to provide an expandable and contractible breathing bag or spacer, so that the patient is required during respiratory maneuvers to utilize a negative thoracic pressure upon inhalation, thereby to inhibit rapid inhalation and encourage long and slow inhalation. Representative prior art devices having expandable and contractible breathing bags or spacer chambers may be found by way of example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,938,210, 4,940,051 and 5,040,527, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,577.
While some of these devices have enjoyed fairly widespread acceptance and use, a major problem with the same resides in the fact that they are quite bulky and cannot conveniently be carried about or transported by a patient when leaving home or going on a trip.


Fixed conveyor slats (12) in the nature of beams extend over a window in support framework (53, 100, 102, 116, 118) for the movable and fixed slats (10, 12) in a reciprocating slat conveyor. The fixed slats (12) support the movable slats (20), including in the region of the window. The movable slats (10) are in the nature of box beams, providing them with strength and stiffness in the region of the window. At the rear end of the conveyor, the movable slats (10) move onto support brackets (120) which prevent the rear end portions of the slats (10) from being damaged when they are in a position overhanging a rear wall (84) and material is dropped from above down onto the rear end portions of the slats (10).

My U.S. Pat. No. RE 35,022, granted Aug. 22, 1995, and entitled Reduced Size Drive-Frame Assembly For A Reciprocating Slat Conveyor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the conveyor slats are connected to transverse drive beams which are in turn connected to linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors move the drive beams and the drive beams move the conveyor slats that are connected to them.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,057, granted Sep. 27, 1994, and entitled Ball Block For Mounting Linear Motor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the transverse drive beams are physically separated from the linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors are connected to selected conveyor slats that are directly driven by the linear hydraulic motors. The driven conveyor slats are connected to additional conveyor slats by the transverse drive beams. e
My U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,009, granted Jun. 25, 2002, and entitled Conveyor Slat Connector And Connection Method, and my U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,293, granted Jun. 10, 2003, and entitled Connector and Connection Method For Conveyor Slats, each discloses apparatus for connecting conveyor slats to transverse drive beams.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,807, granted Sep. 3, 1991, and entitled Method For Collecting And Compacting Garbage And Then Loading It Into A Road Vehicle, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor composed of a laterally spaced apart moving conveyor slats and laterally spaced apart fixed conveyor slats that are located between the movable conveyor slats.
The present invention provides an improvement on the conveyor that is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,807. The improvement includes use of some technology disclosed in my above introduced U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,350,057; 6,409,009; 6,575,293 and RE 35,022, in addition to new technology. The contents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,870, are incorporated herein by this specification reference.

Reciprocating slat conveyor with V-slats


In a method for determining chemical states of living animal or human tissue using nuclear magnetic resonance with a homogeneous constant magnetic field, the tissue is measured by means of a high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurement and the measured values obtained are then evaluated by comparison with measured values from resonance measurements on comparable tissue to determine whether the chemical state of the tissue corresponds to a chemical normal state or to a deviating abnormal state. In order to enable a determination of chemical intermediate states to be made, it is proposed to compare the measured values obtained with such a series of reference measurements which also contain the detectable characteristic transition states between the chemical normal state and the abnormal end state and that the chemical transition state of the measured tissue sample is determined from the comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for determining chemical states of living animal or human tissue using nuclear magnetic resonance with a homogeneous constant magnetic field, the tissue being measured by means of a nuclear magnetic resonance measurement and the measured values obtained then being evaluated by comparison with measured values from reference measurements on comparable tissue to assess whether the chemical state of the tissue corresponds to a chemical normal state or to a deviating abnormal end state.
The invention also relates to an apparatus for determining chemical states of living animal or human tissue using nuclear magnetic resonance, comprising a high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer for carrying out a nuclear magnetic resonance measurement on the tissue, means for determining measured values for the nuclear magnetic resonance measurement on the tissue, means for storing reference values for measurements on comparable tissue and means for comparing the measured values from the actual measurement and the reference measurement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A method of this type and an apparatus of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,832.
In the case of the known method, the tissue is placed in a homogeneous constant magnetic field and is then measured by means of a nuclear magnetic resonance measurement (relaxation time measurement). With this method the tissue can be measured as a tissue sample in vitro, or in vivo, in which case the entire human or animal body is introduced into the homogeneous constant magnetic field.
During the measurement, the magnetic resonance of the protons of the total water in the tissue is measured. This method is based on the knowledge that, starting from a normal state, which corresponds to a healthy state of the tissue, the degree of association of such water molecules, which are associated with protein chains in the cell membranes, can change to an abnormal end state deviating from said normal state, this change being detectable via a nuclear magnetic resonance measurement. The abnormal end state corresponds to that of a malignant tumor. If measured values are now available for the corresponding tissues in both states, that is to say the normal state and the abnormal end state, it is possible, from a comparison of these measured values with the measured values of the tissue actually measured, to make an allocation, that is to say to determine in which of the two states the tissue was at the time of the measurement.
A disadvantage of a method of this type and an apparatus of this type is that it is possible to make only a yes/no statement, i.e. whether the tissue is in the one or the other state. The statement that the tissue is in the abnormal end state with coarse morphological changes can also be furnished in a simpler manner by conventional histological methods and provides no information with regard to chemical processes or intermediate states. If the association of the water molecules with the protein chains in the cell membranes has changed to such an extent that this is detectable by the said nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, then there is already a tumor in a developed state, i.e. a proliferation penetrating into other cells with the formation of metastases. In this advanced state, a medical treatment of the tissue is possible only with difficulty and usually is not successful. It is true that it is possible to make certain statements with regard to the severity of the malignancy from the measurements made in accordance with the method mentioned initially, but the prerequisite for this is that a malignant tumor is already present, i.e. the statement with respect to the abnormal end state can at best be differentiated to indicate to what extent this state is advanced within the tissue sample measured.
A further disadvantage of the method mentioned initially is that the change in the extent of the association of the water molecules with the proteins of the cell membrane must manifest itself, i.e. that the measured change can be detected only as a consequence of a tumor growth. Other chemical changes, which take place earlier or are even a possible cause of the subsequent development of a malignant tumor, are not detected.
The document EP-A2-0 234 524 discloses a method with which, on the basis of nuclear magnetic resonance measurements on liquid samples, for example blood plasma, serum or the like, resonance lines in the resulting spectrum are selected which are associated with chemical substances other than water and which are compared with corresponding characteristic lines in reference spectra which correspond to the deviating abnormal chemical state in which these substances are likewise present. In the case of the comparison method, the half-width values (line width in the spectrum at half the height of a line) are used and protons of various classes of lipoproteins can be assigned to the selected lines. The "Fossel indices" derived therefrom are, it is true, numerical values which are manageable in practice, but which enable only a yes/no statement with regard to normal state or malignant end state and which at best enable a differentiation with regard to the degree of the malignancy of the end state reached. Lipoproteins can also be found in the case of chemical changes in the blood which are not to be ascribed to a malignant tumor. Furthermore, for it to be possible to determine a malignant end state of a tissue, this end state must already be very far advanced, in order to draw reliable statements from the plasma, which statements are also made more difficult because other atypical frequencies can be observed in the selected frequency range in the plasma (in this context see G. N. Chmurny et al., "A NMR Blood Test for Cancer: a Critical Assessment", NMR in Biomedicine, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1988).
By means of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, proteolipids can be used both in one-dimensional and in two-dimensional (2D-COSY=two-dimensional scalar correlated spectroscopy) spectra to determine the chemical state of tissue. L. C. Wright et al., "A proteolipid in cancer cells is the origin of their high-resolution NMR spectrum", FEBS letters, Vol. 203, No. 2, pp. 164-168 (1986).
In the case of the method known from this publication also, the proteolipids are determined in the plasma and at best permit a conclusion to be drawn with respect to a serious malignant end state of the tissue. It is true that is has become known from this that, by means of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, certain substances which are characteristic for the chemical end state can possibly already be determined at a time at which conventional histological methods are not yet able to do this, but this procedure likewise permits only the statement that this end state, that is to say the malignant state of the tissue, already exists.
Further studies have supported the abovementioned findings, that is to say that by means of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurements the chemical end states of tissue, which correspond to malignant states, can possibly be recognised at a considerably earlier time than is possible using conventional histological methods (C. E. Mountford et al. "Classification of Human Tumours by High-Resolution Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy", THE LANCET, Vol. 1, Mar. 22, 1986, pp. 651-653). It is again a disadvantage of this procedure is that at best the chemical end state can be recognised at an earlier time, but this end state must likewise already exist.
Further studies have shown that nuclei other than protons, that is to say, for example, phosphorus or fluorine nuclei, can also be used in nuclear magnetic resonance measurements for the determination of the chemical state of tissue, this being possible in the case of human and animal body tissues of various types. (C. E. Mountford et al., "NMR Analysis of Cancer Cells" Progress in Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine, 1986, Vol. 3, pp. 73-112).
It is a common disadvantage of all of the above-mentioned methods and apparatuses that they enable only a statement to be made with regard to whether a specific chemical end state already exists, it being possible at best to make a differentiation with respect to the extent to which this chemical state is already advanced in the tissue.

Method and apparatus for determining chemical states of living animal or human tissue using nuclear magnetic resonance


The present invention provides multifocal lenses containing at least four zones of different refractive power. The zones are positioned such that the wearer is able to use the inferior-most portion of the lens to more clearly, as compared to conventional multifocal lenses, view objects at distances more than 45 cm from the eye.

The use of ophthalmic lenses for the correction of ametropia is well known. For example, multifocal lenses, such as progressive addition lenses ("PALs"), are used for the treatment of presbyopia. Typically, the progressive surface of a PAL has three zones, one zone each of far, intermediate, and near vision power. This refractive power is provided in a gradual, continuous progression of vertically increasing dioptric power from far to near focus, or top to bottom of the lens.
One disadvantage of the conventional progressive lens is that the inferior-most portion of the lens contains the add power, or near vision correction power. This placement of the add power is convenient when the lens wearer is reading. However, the lens wearer frequently performs tasks requiring the viewing of objects through the lower portion of the lens, which objects are outside of the near vision range, making this placement problematic. For example, when a PAL wearer walks down a staircase, the image of the stairs appears blurred and rounded when the lens wearer looks through the inferior-most region of the lens. The reason for this is that the stairs are more than 45 cm from the wearer's eye and the wearer is looking through the near vision zone of the lens, which zone cannot provide the refractive power for clear visualization of the stairs. Therefore, a need exists for a progressive addition lens in which this disadvantage is overcome.

Essilor International (Compagnie Generale d'Optique)


A method for producing a pattern for making a cast part is described which comprises the steps of defining the structure of the part in terms of computer aided design system data, selecting a parting surface for the part to be cast; defining core requirements for the part by sweeping each positive feature of the part to the parting surface, subtracting the part from the projection, adding any remaining volume to the core, sweeping negative features away from the parting surface to the top or bottom of the mold and subtracting the negative features from the projection and intersecting the remainder of the part and adding any remaining volume to the core; repetitively generating alternative parting surfaces for the part and defining the corresponding core requirements whereby an optimum parting surface is defined for which the quantity and complexity of the corresponding core requirements are minimized, constructing core prints for each core requirement; constructing a pattern by adding the core prints to the part; and defining draft for the pattern surfaces perpendicular to the optimum parting surface.

The present invention relates generally to metal casting methods, and more particularly to a method for efficiently producing a metal casting mold for a complex part by recursively identifying the cores for the casting and the molds for making the cores defining the complex part once a parting surface for the part is defined.
In metal casting discrete mechanical parts using sand molds, patterns are used in fabrication of the molds to ensure that the resulting cast parts have the correct geometry, or can be readily finished to the correct geometry. The pattern is a model of a part to form a mold cavity substantially defining the part shape, but is not simply a facsimile of the part because additional shapes (sprues, runners, gates, etc) are used to form channels for inserting molten metal, or shape modifications to provide taper (draft) on some surfaces of the part to facilitate withdrawal of the part from the mold. The principal molding material conventionally used in foundries is silica sand, which, when mixed with water and a binder (e.g. clay), can be formed to a complex geometry which retains its shape while being filled with metal and allowed to cool. The mold is usually destroyed when the casting is removed and must be recreated using the pattern for each cast part to be produced.
Mold design and fabrication are especially difficult if the cast part has sufficiently complex geometry or when the parting surface is defined such that the pattern cannot be withdrawn easily from the mold. In order to accommodate complex geometries by means of conventional casting methods, the pattern maker uses cores and loose pieces to ensure that those parts of the cavity which should be filled are filled. In standard practice, molds are often made up of two halves. The pattern is also made up of two parts mounted on the two sides of a board which represents the dividing (parting) surface (which may be more complex than a single plane) between the two mold halves. The two mold halves are formed by packing sand around each side of the pattern board, and subsequently combined to form the cavity left when the pattern is removed. The mold must therefore be made such that the pattern can be withdrawn from the mold. If the mold is made in two halves, each part of the pattern must be removable from the corresponding mold half. In order to define the casting pattern, the pattern maker modifies the pattern around the complex features of the part (to render it removable from the mold) using extra pieces of mold-like material, called cores or loose pieces, for filling extraneous spaces around the correct cavity shape for the cast part. The cores are generally made from bonded silica sand, and the molds used to make the cores, called core boxes, are permanent molds, usually made of wood or hardened epoxy.
In the practice of the invention, computer associative memories and feature-based computer aided design (CAD) are incorporated into a highly efficient and effective method for producing patterns and molds for casting substantially any complex part wherein withdrawal interferences of the pattern are defined for various parting planes or surfaces, and, once the parting surface is specified, the correct pattern structure is recursively defined.
It is a principal object of the invention to automate and optimize foundry tooling fabrication for metal casting.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for producing a pattern for a part to be cast in a metal casting process.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for sequentially drafting a pattern by part feature, core and rigging relative to a parting plane of a casting mold.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for producing casting patterns for complex cast parts which cannot be otherwise withdrawn from a mold without destroying the mold.
It is a yet further object of the invention to provide a solid modelling recursive molding procedure for defining casting pattern core and core box requirements.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as a detailed description of representative embodiments proceeds.

Optimized recursive foundry tooling fabrication method

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A farming device for benthic organisms, which is submerged in a water tank or a body of water, is constituted of a plurality of tray-form containers, which are the cultivating floor for benthic organisms such as bivalves, and are stacked in the vertical direction, with a central cavity passing through the stacked cultivating floors in the vertical direction and horizontal gaps defined between the cultivating floors, the cultivating floors communicating with the cavity.

The present invention relates to a device for farming benthic organisms such as bivalves, and particularly relates to a device used for farming benthic organisms living in an environment exposed to tides, such as venerupis philippinarum, meretrix lusoria, and corbiculidae.
Bivalves, of which venerupis philippinarum, meretrix lusoria, corbiculidae, and the like are representative, are typical popular Japanese seafood and are sources of marine protein that can be inexpensively taken by the masses. However, currently, due to a decrease of sand beaches, tidal flats, and the like, due to water pollution of the ocean regions, coastal bank reinforcement, and the like, reserves and catches have declined sharply. Currently, to preserve the reserves and catches for bivalves, farming is being done in various regions, and many of the farming methods artificially seed spats on the sea coast and then cultivate these in a natural environment. However, these conventional farming methods are influenced by changes in the ocean region environment, have expensive production costs, and cannot provide the market with a stable supply.
Meanwhile, looking at actions affecting the bivalve environment, in terms of methods for feeding bivalves, minute phytoplankton, which floats suspended in the sea water, and detritus, which is broken pieces of the same, are filtered by way of gills, and in terms of the filtration capacity thereof, venerupis philippinarum with a shell length of approximately 3 cm filters approximately 3 liters of seawater per day, contributing to purification of the ocean region, in which eutrophication materials are removed.
In terms of broadly classifying conventional technology proposed for shellfish farming devices, this can be divided into mariculture and land-based farming. Because, for farming devices in the ocean, spats are cultivated by enclosing a plate or the like to which spats are attached with a net and lowering into seawater, it has the merit of easily providing an environment that is comparatively close to the natural habitat conditions (see JP-3913669-B and Patent Document 2 JP-3979746-B). However, the selling price for bivalves is low, and production costs are an issue, thus bivalves remain in a low position as farmed seafood. In particular, at present, costs are a problem in terms of achieving land-based farming, and thus this has not been substantially implemented.
For example, in JP-3493357-B, farming facilities for abalone on land are described. In terms of these farming facilities for abalone, an abalone breeding tank is arranged in multiple levels, and the abalone breeding tank is provided with a water supply pipe that supplies seawater and an overflow pipe, furthermore, an air supply pipe and a feed supply area are also fixed in the breeding tank. Furthermore, in addition to causing seawater to flow into the water supply pipe with a pump, by lowering the overflow pipe, the seawater flows to the lower level water tank, so that the flow of seawater is promoted. Furthermore, for the air supply pipe, air is provided with a blower, and compressed air is sprayed out as froth. Thus, dissolved oxygen is supplied.

Device for farming benthic organisms such as bivalves


A power converter with a loop-compensated filter is disclosed. The power converter includes a decoupling circuit coupled to receive a signal having a dc component and a ripple component, wherein the dc component is filtered out by the decoupling circuit. A phase shifting circuit is used to shift phase of the ripple component of the signal in the decoupling circuit, and an adding circuit is used to add the phase-shifted rippled component of the signal and a setting signal that is used to regulate level of an output from the power converter. The power converter also includes a switching power conversion circuit coupled to receive an output of the adding circuit, wherein the switching power conversion circuit feeds back the output of the power converter whereby to form a feedback loop. The feedback loop is then compensated by the phase-shifted ripple component of the signal from the phase shifting circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power converter, and particularly to a power converter with a loop-compensated filter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Power converters are generally used in modern power electronics industry to convert electric power from one form to another. They are mainly used in power supplies, motor control systems, high-voltage dc transmission, and other power conversion applications. Depicted in FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating a conventional power converter 10 used to convert an ac source 11 to a regulated or controllable output power, which provides current or voltage across a load 12, and may be ac or dc. In this circuit, the source 11 is firstly filtered by a full-wave bridge rectifier 14 comprising diodes D1 to D4 configured as shown in the diagram. Next, a capacitor 16 is used to smooth the rectified voltage from the rectifier 14, so that the ripple component in the rectified voltage could be largely reduced. The smoothed voltage from the capacitor 16 is further controlled by a controller 18, which controls switches S1 to S4 in order to generate the ac or dc output power. One of the disadvantages for this conventional power converter 10 is the need of the bulky and costly electrolytic capacitor 16, especially in high-power converters.
One solution to this problem is the use of pulse width modulation (PWM) to achieve voltage regulation with a capacitor 16 of reasonable size. FIG. 2A shows a circuit diagram of a conventional PWM converter 20. A control signal Vc is generated from an error amplifier 21, which amplifies an error signal between an actual output Vo and a reference Vref. The control signal Vc then controls the duty ratio of the switch (such as the switch S1, S2, S3, or S4 in FIG. 1) by comparing the control voltage Vc with a sawtooth waveform 23 through a comparator 22. This control of the switch duty ratio adjusts the voltage across the inductor L and hence the inductor current i.sub.L (which feeds the output voltage), and eventually brings the output voltage Vo to its reference value Vref. Disadvantages of this circuit 20 are poor dynamic response, and slow response to sudden input changes. Another PWM converter 24 in the art is shown in FIG. 2B, wherein the control voltage Vc directly controls the output inductor current i.sub.L in a current-mode control by using an additional inner control loop, which compares inductor current i.sub.L with the control voltage Vc. Although this PWM circuit 24 improves the problems occurred in the PWM circuit 20 of FIG. 2A, however, unstability and complexity are incurred in this circuit 24.
Nowadays, in order to improve switching efficiency, a variable-frequency resonant converter configuration is disclosed. Illustrated in FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional variable-frequency resonant converter 30, which mainly includes a comparator 32, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 34 and a drive circuit 36. The use of inductor-capacitor LC resonating elements thus improves switching efficiency. However, the disadvantages of this variable-frequency resonant converter 30 are its high cost and complexity.
Owing to the inherent drawbacks, such as limited frequency band and response, in both PWM converters and resonant converters, the ripple component in the converted output could not be adequately reduced. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a scheme to substantially reduce this ripple component.

Power converter with a loop-compensated filter

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A method is provided for supporting an enhanced dialing service in telecommunications equipment. The method includes: receiving a series of dialed digits from customer premises equipment (CPE) (10); determining if the dialed digits correspond to a designated identity; as each dialed digit in the series is received, advancing a call processing state of the telecommunications equipment in accordance with the dialed digit when the dialed digit does not correspond to the designated identity; and, returning the call processing state of the telecommunications equipment to a prior call processing state when the dialed digit does correspond to the designated identity.

In the context of a wireless telecommunication network, wireless subscribers are accustomed to having the capability of editing their outgoing dialed telephone numbers, e.g., when they are incorrectly keyed-in or as otherwise desired. This feature is embedded within the mobile handset or wireless telephone insomuch as the subscriber must push the "send" key or another designated button after the desired telephone number is entered. As processing of the dialed telephone number is not started until after the "send" key is pushed, a wireless subscriber typically has the convenience of editing the dialed telephone number at any time prior to pushing the "send" key.
In the context of a wireline or landline telecommunications network, the aforementioned convenience has heretofore not been supported by the network and/or provided to landline subscribers.
Unlike in the foregoing wireless example, when a telephone number is dialed from a landline device (e.g., a telephone or other customer premise equipment (CPE) or some end user device) served by a telecommunications switch (e.g., a class 5 switch such as the 5ESS or the like), typically processing of the dialed telephone number by the switch proceeds as each digit is dialed or entered. That is to say, typically the call processing state of the switch is updated after each digit or some number of digits in the telephone number are entered and received. The start of processing the dialed telephone is usually not delayed until all the dialed digits have been received by the switch. For example, assuming the first digit dialed and received by the switch is a "1", then the call processing state of the switch is updated to reflect a long distance call even if the remainder of the digits have not yet been dial and/or received by the switch. The switch recognizes that the telephone number being dialed will take the switch to or through a particular call processing state regardless of what the remaining digits are, and therefore, it updates its call processing state accordingly even if the remaining digits of the telephone number have not yet been received. In this way, the time it takes to process a dialed telephone number can be minimized or reduced in comparison to waiting for all the dialed digits to be received before starting to process the dialed telephone number.
However, processing of dialed telephone numbers in the manner of the foregoing landline example, does not support editing of the dialed telephone numbers in the same way as the foregoing wireless example. Accordingly, it would be advantageous for landline subscribers to have the same benefits and convenience wireless subscribers enjoy to edit outgoing dialed telephone numbers. This advantageous would be particularly appreciated when nearing the end of dialing a long telephone number (e.g., a 14-digit international number), and a wrong or incorrect digit is erroneously or accidentally entered. In such an instance, it would be beneficial to merely edit the incorrectly entered digit rather than hanging-up and placing the call again, i.e., having to redial the telephone number over from the beginning.
Another situation arises when navigating through a voice menu front-end interface employed by many businesses. Often there is no way to recover from a menu option selection error. In those cases where recovery is possible, a user often has to wait and listen to numerous options to identify the number associated with a back-up, return to previous or main menu, or a "repeat choices" option. This inconvenience arises because many of these system have adopted their own peculiar way of handling this type of user interaction scenario. That is to say, there is generally no universal model for editing misdialed digits.
Accordingly, a new and improved enhanced dialing service and/or feature is disclosed that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.

Network support for enhanced dialing capability


The present disclosure provides a memory test method. The method includes: determining a refresh cycle T, a designed attack resistance frequency F, and a single row read time t of a target repository; determining an attack row quantity N based on the refresh cycle T, the designed attack resistance frequency F, and the single row read time t; determining a group of target attack rows in the target repository based on a value of the attack row quantity N, where the group of target attack rows include N target attack rows, and at least two of the N target attack rows are spaced apart by one row; detecting, after reading the N target attack rows for X consecutive times, whether data exception occurs in all adjacent rows of the target attack rows, to complete one attack test.

A row hammer effect means that in a refresh cycle of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), if memory cells in one row are read multiple times in a short period of time, bit flips occur in memory cells in physically connected adjacent rows, resulting in data exception. Hackers often take advantage of the row hammer effect of memories to make attacks. To prevent the row hammer effect caused by the attacks, the memory manufacturer usually determines through monitoring programs whether a memory is under attack, and then activates active refresh when determining that the memory is under attack, to avoid the row hammer effect.
In order to test whether a protection program of a memory is sufficiently robust, an attack test program needs to be used to perform an attack test on the memory. Different protection programs are set for different memories, and a relatively small quantity of protection programs are set for memories that can be broken through by a method for testing an attack resistance capability of a memory in the related art, resulting in a very high success rate of attack tests. In this case, a memory that passes the test actually may not be capable of resisting a relatively flexible attack policy and cannot definitely resist most improved attack scenarios, that is, reliability verification is insufficient.
It should be noted that information disclosed in the above background section is used merely for a better understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and therefore may include information that does not constitute the prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.


A two-piece cap for a water bottle comprises a main cap which has an annular top disk formed with a depending central well having three levels, each of a slightly smaller diameter. The main cap skirt which depends from the periphery of the top disk has an upper cylindrical portion formed with a truncated internal screw thread which merges into a horizontal bead extending about 180.degree. around the interior of the cap and terminates in a reverse thread portion which extends upward to merge with the leading edge of the truncated screw thread. Below the upper skirt portion is a downward-outward slanted conical portion merging with a lower cylindrical skirt portion having an internal locking bead. A first vertical score line extends from the bottom edge of lower skirt portion to the upper edge of the slanted portion. A second vertical score line, spaced a short distance from the first vertical score line, extends from the bottom edge of the lower skirt portion to the top disk. A tear tab depends between the two vertical score lines. The main cap fits onto a bottle neck having a top portion externally threaded to mate with the internal thread of the cap. Below the top bottle portion is an external bead under which the internal locking bead of the cap seats to make the cap tamper-evidencing. A plug having a closed bottom and a smooth exterior fits into the bottom of the well. The plug has an upper taper to assist in inserting the plug into the bottom of the well followed by three levels, each of slightly larger diameter to seal the central well. An external bead limits inward movement of the plug into the well. An internal bead in the upper end of the plug seats in a groove adjacent the upper end of a water dispenser tube.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new and improved bottle cap having a smooth wall plug for use in water dispensers. More particularly the invention relates to a cap of the "non-spill" type used with a water dispenser which displaces a plug from a well in the cap to permit water to be dispensed and then, when the bottle is removed from the dispenser, causes the plug to be replaced in the well. Further, the invention relates to structure of the main cap which fits on the bottle.
2. Related Art
Prior patents of the general type of the present application include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,370,270 and 5,232,125 which disclose a plug closing off a central sleeve in a cap fitting on the neck of a water container. The plug is formed with a plug sleeve fitting into the cap sleeve and an end closing off the plug sleeve. Such a cap is intended to be used on a container which is inverted and lowered into a dispenser to prevent spillage during inversion. However, such a plug has been retained in the cap sleeve by a snap-in fit, wherein an internal bead in the sleeve snaps into a groove in plug skirt. The present invention differs from such structures in that the plug is retained in place in the cap sleeve by friction, rather than a snap fit, until such time as a probe on the dispenser has locked onto the plug.
Prior cap structures shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,763 and copending application Ser. No. 08/436,936 are used with screw threaded container necks and are formed with threads which are shaped so that the cap cannot be unscrewed so long as the cap is intact. The present application includes such a feature but the thread structure is considerably simplified.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,846 discloses a cap which seals onto the neck of a large container. The present invention in one of its embodiments employs such a cap but incorporates therein a central sleeve closed by a plug held therein by friction.


An apparatus and a method for generating a write pulse to be written on an optical storage medium using a ring oscillator are provided. The apparatus includes a ring oscillator outputting n tap signals, and a pulse generation unit converting a channel clock signal to have as long a cycle as an interval among the n tap signals, and generating a write pulse following the converted channel clock signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating a write pulse for an optical storage medium, and more particularly, to an apparatus for generating a digital write pulse using a ring oscillator.
This patent application is based on Korean Patent Application No. 2002-5214, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various kinds of related art optical storage media, such as a 4.7 GB DVD-RAM, a 2.7 GB DVD-RAM, a DVD-RW, a DVD-R, and a CD-R. Write pulses are recorded on different parts of an optical storage medium depending on the type of optical storage medium, and can be represented by a resolution of, for example, one fortieth, one thirty fourth, or one thirtieth of a channel clock. Channel clock frequencies, which affect write pulses, may vary depending on the optical storage medium and its recording or reproducing speed. In general, an optical storage medium has a channel clock frequency of 4–120 MHz.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a related art apparatus for generating a write pulse for an optical storage medium, including a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit 100, a first selection block 110, a second selection block 120, and a write pulse generation block 130. The PLL circuit 100 converts a channel clock input CLK into N subclocks having a predetermined phase difference. The PLL circuit 100 may be embodied in an analog or digital manner, or may be replaced by a delay locked loop (DLL) circuit.
The first selection block 110 and the second selection block 120 each select one of the N subclocks output from the PLL circuits 100. At this time, the first selection block 110 is controlled so that it can select a value TSP indicating a start point of a pulse, and the second selection block 120 is controlled so that it can select a value TEP indicating an end point of the pulse. The write pulse generation block 130 generates a write pulse having a start point and an end point determined based on pulses, generated by the first and second selection blocks 110 and 120.
The aforementioned related art has various problems and disadvantages. For example, but not by way of limitation, although the related art apparatus for generating a write pulse for an optical storage medium has such a simple structure, it is necessary to increase the number of subclocks generated by the PLL circuit 100 to satisfy the high operational frequency bandwidth of an optical storage medium and enhance the resolution of a write pulse. As a result, great effort and time are required to develop a PLL circuit having a high resolution. When the related art PLL circuit adopts an analog manner, an interface circuit used for the PLL circuit to interface with digital equipment is also needed.
Accordingly, it is necessary to develop an apparatus for generating a write pulse for a digital optical storage medium, which requires less time and effort to develop and has a simple structure that can replace a PLL circuit when the PLL circuit malfunctions.

Apparatus and method for generating write pulse for optical storage medium using ring oscillator


An implantable medical device is provided for controlled drug delivery within the bladder, or other body vesicle. The device may include at least one drug reservoir component comprising a drug; and a vesicle retention frame which comprises an elastic wire having a first end, an opposing second end, and an intermediate region therebetween, wherein the drug reservoir component is attached to the intermediate region of the vesicle retention frame. The retention frame prevents accidental voiding of the device from the bladder, and it preferably has a spring constant selected for the device to effectively stay in the bladder during urination while minimizing the irritation of the bladder.

This invention is generally in the field of implantable drug delivery devices, and more particularly in the field of devices for the controlled release of a drug from a device implantable in the bladder or other body lumen or cavity.
Drug delivery is an important aspect of medical treatment. The efficacy of many drugs is directly related to the way in which they are administered. Various systemic methods of drug delivery include oral, intravenous, intramuscular, and transdermal. These systemic methods may produce undesirable side effects and may result in the metabolization of the drug by physiological processes, ultimately reducing the quantity of drug to reach the desired site. Accordingly, a variety of devices and methods have been developed to deliver drug in a more targeted manner. For example, these devices and methods may deliver the drug locally, which may address many of the problems associated with systemic drug delivery.
In recent years, the development of microdevices for local drug delivery is one area that has proceeded steadily. Activation of drug release can be passively or actively controlled. Examples of controlled drug delivery devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,898, U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,072, U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,522, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,875,208.
These microdevices can be divided roughly in two categories: resorbable polymer-based devices and nonresorbable devices. Polymer devices have the potential for being biodegradable, therefore avoiding the need for removal after implantation. These devices typically have been designed to provide controlled release of drug in vivo by diffusion of the drug out of the polymer and/or by degradation of the polymer over a predetermined period following administration to the patient.
Interstitial cystitis (IC) and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) are chronic painful disorders that affect approximately 67 per 100,000 women (Curhan et al., J. Urol. 161(2): 549-52 (1999)) and 7 per 100,000 men (Collins et al., J. Urol. 159(4): 1224-28 (1998)) in the United States. Both conditions are characterized by chronic pelvic pain, urinary frequency and urgency, and variable degrees of sexual dysfunction. Pentosan polysulfate sodium (PPS) currently is used to treat this condition. However, conventional methods and devices for delivering the drug have significant shortcomings. For examples oral delivery (ELMIRON™, Ortho-McNeil) suffers from low bioavailability, as low as 3% due to a high first pass effect (Parsons et al., J. Urol. 153(1) 139-42 (1990)), and causes some mild side effects, such as headaches. PPS delivered intravesically through cystoscopy (with a catheter through the urethra) can provide improved therapeutic effects while reducing the side effects of the drug (Bade et al., Br. J. Urol. 79(2): 168-71 (1997)). However, the instillation procedure is painful and requires repeating the procedure twice per week for three months. The repetitive nature of this procedure also engenders high risks for urinary tract infection and bacteremia. Thus, a pronounced need exists for an intravesical drug delivery device that will substantially reduce the number of cystoscopic procedures necessary to deliver an effective amount of PPS or other drugs needed for local delivery over an extended period.
One treatment for IC/PBS entails delivering a lidocaine solution to the bladder via instillation (R. Henry, et al., "Absorption of alkalized intravesical lidocaine in normal and inflamed bladders: a simple method for improving bladder anesthesia," J Urol, 165:1900-03, 2001; C. L. Parsons, "Successful downregulation of bladder sensory nerves with combination of heparin and alkalinized lidocaine in patients with interstitial cystitis," Urology, 65:45-48, 2005). The bladder lining has such a strong mucous barrier that normal lidocaine has difficulty crossing through it. However, researchers found that if the anesthetic agent is alkalinized with a precise amount of sodium bicarbonate, it improved the anesthetic agent's ability to pass through the mucous to reach and soothe the irritated nerves and tissues beneath. In a conventional procedure, the instillation delivers a bolus dose of lidocaine (or marcaine), heparin, and sodium bicarbonate to the bladder. Over the relatively short time that the solution is present in the bladder, the bladder tissue absorbs the lidocaine to provide the patient with immediate relief from pain and urgency. The absorbed lidocaine also provides continued relief as the lidocaine degrades from the bladder tissue. However, lidocaine has a relatively short half life, and therefore a relatively high initial concentration of lidocaine may be needed to provide continued relief and the period of relief limited in duration. To achieve sustained relief, subsequent instillations may be required, such as three times per week for two weeks. The frequency of such instillations may be undesirable, as each instillation entails the inconvenience, discomfort, and risk of infection associated with urinary catheterization. The duration of relief may be increased by increasing the initial concentration of lidocaine absorbed into the bladder, such as by increasing the concentration in the solution. However, undesirable systemic effects may result if the initial concentration of lidocaine is too high.
Other therapies could benefit from improved intravesical drug delivery devices, particularly where local delivery of a drug to the bladder is preferred or necessary—such as when the side effects associated with systemic delivery of the drug are unbearable and/or when bioavailability from oral administration is too low. For instance, oxybutynin is used for the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome. Currently, oxybutynin is delivered orally or transdermally. Unfortunately, however, approximately 61% of patients taking the drug experience side effects and approximately 7 to 11% of the patients actually stop treatment due to the severity of the side effects.
Situs Corporation developed an intravesical drug delivery system (UROS infuser device) for the delivery of pharmaceutical solutions of drugs, such as oxybutynin (for the treatment of overactive bladder) and mitomycin C (for the treatment of bladder cancer). The UROS infuser device and methods of making and implanting the device are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,298, U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,461, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,535. The UROS infuser device has an elastomeric outer tubing and contains inextensible wire which connects both inner ends. The device has a linear shape during the cystoscopic insertion into the bladder, changes to a crescent shape following implantation and filling of the device with the pharmaceutical solution, and returns to a linear shape after releasing all of the pharmaceutical solution. Extended release of the pharmaceutical solution is controlled by means of a pressure-responsive valve and/or flow-resistive element inside the tubing. The size of the UROS infuser device depends on the size of each inner component, and a considerable portion of the inner volume is used to contain the mechanical components, not drug solution. With a length of approximately 10 cm and an outer diameter of approximately 0.6 cm, the large size of the UROS infuser device can cause significant discomfort and pain to patients, particularly during urological deployment and retrieval of the device. The UROS infuser device also requires an additional surgical procedure for loading of the pharmaceutical solution into the device following implantation. Accordingly, a need exists for an intravesical drug delivery device that is smaller in size, to avoid unnecessary discomfort and pain in patients. In addition, it would be desirable to provide an intravesical drug delivery device that can minimize the number of surgical procedures required for implantation and delivery of drug over the treatment period.
There is also a need to provide sustained delivery over a period of time, and, to accomplish this in the bladder, the device desirably should be retained in the bladder and not excreted before the drug payload can be at least substantially released, even when the drug payload needs to be delivered over a period of several days or weeks. In general, better devices are needed for controlled delivery of drug to the bladder. Desirably, the implantable device should be easy to deliver into (and if necessary, remove from) the bladder with minimum pain or discomfort to the patient.

Implantable drug delivery device and methods for treatment of the bladder and other body vesicles or lumens


Disclosed is an impulsive type liquid crystal driving device which inserts black data during a vertical blanking interval and then realizes motion picture, comprising: a liquid crystal panel for including a plurality of gate bus lines, which are arranged in one-direction, and a plurality of data bus lines which are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of gate bus lines; a gate driver section for sequentially scanning the plurality of gate bus lines during an active address interval in response to a second vertical starting signal, a vertical clock signal and an output enable signal, and scanning the plurality of gate bus lines during a vertical blanking interval in a unit of a predetermined number of lines; and a current boosting section for increasing current amount supplied to the gate bus lines during the vertical blanking interval in response to a pulse width modulation signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal driving device, and more particularly to an impulsive type liquid crystal driving device which inserts black data during a vertical blanking interval and then realizes a motion picture.
The present invention is based on a system for displaying a motion picture by means of TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display) including a liquid crystal having a high response characteristic. In a liquid crystal driving device according to the present invention, a refresh rate may be set as 60 Hz in order to display the motion picture, but the refresh rate is not limited to that.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, in a liquid crystal display device, an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules is changed by means of an electric field effect so that a light transmittance of the liquid crystal molecules is adjusted and thus an image is displayed. Further, liquid crystal display devices have developed from a TN-LCD type to a STN-LCD type, a MIM-LCD type and a TFT-LCD type, and display performance of liquid crystal display devices has remarkably improved. Since such liquid crystal display devices not only have low power consumption but also have compact sizes and small weights, they have attracted considerable attention as devices which can substitute for CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes). Furthermore, as they have been widely utilized in notebooks and portable mobile communication devices, etc., demand for them has been on the rise.
A conventional liquid crystal driving device sequentially applies a gate on/off pulse from a first gate bus line to n-th gate bus line during one frame of a vertical sync (V_sync) and then sequentially scans the gate bus lines. Further, during an occurrence of a horizontal sync, the conventional liquid crystal driving device applies a data signal to each pixel of the gate bus line selected through a data bus line, and then displays one frame image by constantly maintaining the applied data signal. Such a liquid crystal driving method is called as "hold type".
A gate driver IC utilizing gate sequential scanning method according to the prior art is shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional gate driver IC includes a plurality of shift registers SR1˜SRn, a plurality of level shifters LS1˜LSn and a plurality of buffer amplifiers BF1˜BFn. The plurality of shift registers SR1˜SRn receives a vertical starting signal STV in response to a vertical clock signal CPV and then sequentially shifts it to a next terminal in order to output it. The plurality of level shifters LS1˜LSn are respectively coupled to the plurality of shift registers SR1˜SRn, level-convert the output signals of the plurality of shift registers SR1˜SRn and then output the level-converted signals. The plurality of buffer amplifiers BF1˜BFn amplify the signals level-converted by the plurality of level shifters LS1˜LSn and then output gate on/off signals G1˜Gn.
Generally, it is preferred that a response speed of a liquid crystal is approximately 5 ms in order to reproduce a motion picture, but the response speed of liquid crystals have not been faster than the processing speed of image information in hold type liquid crystal display devices. Therefore, blurring due to image information from a prior picture remaining in the next frame may occur, thereby causing the degradation of the picture quality.
In order to improve such problems, a liquid crystal driving device, which utilizes an impulsive driving method of performing high-speed driving after dividing one frame, the refresh rate of which is 60 Hz, into an active address interval and blanking interval of 120 Hz, has been proposed. Herein, the impulsive driving method assigns a predetermined interval as a black image space in a unit of one frame in order to prevent image information in a prior frame from affecting a current frame.
However, in the conventional impulsive driving method, the blurring can't be completely removed, the occurrence possibility of EMI (Electro-magnetic interference) is high and the data maintenance time of a liquid crystal during the active address interval is short.
Also, in a case in which TV signals such as NTSC and PAL are reproduced, since one frame interval has been fixed as 16.7 ms, when an active interval is driven at 85 Hz in a liquid crystal driving device having an XGA grade, an activation interval of a vertical clock signal CPV is 11.2 ms and an interval, in which black data can be inserted, is approximately 5.5 ms.
However, in the conventional liquid crystal display device as described above, since the gate sequential scanning method has been utilized, the black data can't be inserted during the short time of 5.5 ms even if all gates are driven.


A cooling system (10) is provided for use with a fuel processing subsystem (12) for reducing a level of carbon monoxide in a reformate flow (14) for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system (16). The fuel processing subsystem (12) includes first and second preferential oxidizers (18, 20) to oxidize the carbon monoxide carried in the reformate flow. The reformate cooling system (10) includes a coolant flow path (30), a reformate flow path (32), and first, second, third, and fourth heat exchanger core portions (34, 36, 38, 40). The core portions (36-40) are arranged in numbered sequence along the reformate flow path (32) with the first and second core portions (34, 36) located upstream of the first preferential oxidizer (18), and the third and fourth core portions (38, 40) located downstream of the first preferential oxidizer (18) and upstream of the second preferential oxidizer (20). The first and second core portions (34, 36) are arranged in numbered sequence along the coolant flow path (30), one of the third and fourth core portions (38, 40) is arranged upstream of the first core portion (34) along the coolant flow path (30), and the other of the third and fourth core portions (38, 40) is arranged downstream of the second core portion along the coolant flow path (30).

In typical PEM fuel cell systems, a fuel such as methane or a similar hydrocarbon, is used as a source of the hydrogen for the anode side of the fuel cell. In many systems, particularly those of the stationary power generation type, humidified natural gas and air are chemically converted to a hydrogen-rich gas stream known as reformate by a fuel processing subsystem of the fuel cell system. During this reforming process, the level of carbon monoxide (CO) must be reduced to a low level (typically less than 10 ppm) since the PEM fuel cell membrane is easily poisoned by CO.
The reforming reaction is typically an oxygenolysis reaction with an associated water-gas shift [CH4+H2O→CO+3H2, CO+H2O→CO2+H2] and/or partial oxidation reaction [CH4+0.5O2→CO+2H2]. While the water-gas shift reaction associated with steam reforming removes some of the CO from the reformate flow stream, the overall product reformate gas will always contain some level of CO, the amount being dependent upon the temperature at which the reforming process occurs. In this regard, the CO concentration of the reformate flow is normally well-above the acceptable level for the PEM fuel cell membrane. To reduce the CO content within acceptable levels, several catalytic reactions will typically be used in the fuel processing subsystem to cleanup, i.e. reduce, the CO in the reformate flow. These catalytic reactions require that the reformate flow temperature be within relative precise temperature ranges. Typical reactions for reducing CO include the aforementioned water-gas shift, as well as selective oxidation of the CO over a precious metal catalyst in a selective or preferential oxidizer (PrOx), typically with a small amount of air added to the reformate flow to provide oxygen for the catalytic reaction. Often, several stages of CO cleanup are required before the CO content is sufficiently reduced, with each stage typically requiring that the reformate temperature be reduced to a precise temperature range so that the desired catalytic reaction will occur. In this regard, liquid-cooled heat exchangers are frequently employed to control the reformate temperature at each stage.
However, the use of liquid-cooled heat exchangers for the above purpose presents a challenge in successfully maintaining the required temperatures during turndown (reduced power) operation of the fuel cell system wherein the flow rate of the reformate flow is reduced from that required for full power operating conditions. Specifically, because the heat exchangers need to be designed for the appropriate heat transfer effectiveness at full flow rate, the heat exchangers will typically be too effective when the flow rate of the reformate flow is reduced. This can be mitigated by adjustment of the coolant flow rate (via control of the coolant pump or by-pass valving) and/or the coolant temperature (via recirculation of a portion of the coolant flow). However, this is complicated by the distribution of the CO cleanup into several different reactions, each of which requires a heat exchanger to control the temperature of the reformate flow. Because the heat exchangers will typically not all have the same response to the above described adjustments at turndown, the coolant flow and/or temperature to each heat exchanger may have to be separately controlled, resulting in a relatively complicated coolant control scheme with duplicate by-pass valves, recirculation pumps, etc.

Reformate cooling system and method for use in a fuel processing subsystem


In an energy-saving evaluation apparatus for evaluating energy conservation for a machine that is to be operated by a user, the energy-saving evaluation apparatus includes: a detection unit that includes a monitor device for measuring a running state of the machine, detects an operating state of the machine operated by the user through measuring the running state of the machine by the monitor device; and an evaluation unit that performs an energy-saving evaluation based on the detected operating state of the machine.

The present invention relates to an energy-saving evaluation apparatus and an energy-saving evaluation system for evaluating energy conservation for a machine including an operating mechanism that is operated by using, as power, energy obtained by burning a fuel, an ecological driving evaluation apparatus and an ecological driving evaluation system for evaluating the ecological driving of a vehicle, such as an automobile and a method thereof.
Recently, the severity of the air pollution occasioned by noxious gases, such as NOx, CO and COz, in the exhausts of automobiles and other motor vehicles has been increasing, and individual automobile companies, in compliance with exhaust emission restrictions, have developed various types of low-emission vehicles.
While taking this historical background into account, an idling stop apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an IS apparatus) has been developed in order to limit unnecessary idling, and presently, this IS apparatus is being produced commercially (e.g., see JP-A-2002-371877).
When a user driving a vehicle equipped with the IS apparatus stops the vehicle at a red traffic light and shifts gears from drive (D) to neutral (N), the engine of the vehicle is automatically stopped (an idling stop). Thereafter, to restart the engine, the user shifts gears to drive (D) and then to neutral (N). After the engine has restarted, the user can shift gears from neutral (N) to drive (D) and resume driving.
In addition to the IS apparatus, another system has been proposed that employs monitoring devices installed along a road to detect the state of all vehicles traveling or stopped on the road. To reduce unnecessary idling, when a vehicle in the idling state is detected, a warning is generated for the user of the subject vehicle (e.g., see JP-A-2002-216291).
According to these related examples, it is anticipated that their use will contribute to a reduction in unnecessary idling, and that users in vehicles will be encouraged to employ energy-saving procedures while traveling. However, individual user cannot apprehend how environmentally friendly their driving (ecological driving) is. This is a problem that applies in common to all users who control machine (e.g., planes, ships and power generator engines; hereinafter, all of them are generally referred to as "engine-mounted machine") powered by operating mechanisms driven by the energy produced by burning fuel.

Energy-saving evaluation apparatus, ecological driving evaluation apparatus, energy saving evaluation system, ecological driving evaluation system and method thereof


Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a speech interaction method executed at an electronic device, a speech interaction apparatus, and a computer readable storage medium. The method includes receiving an image sequence of a user from an image capturing apparatus coupled to the electronic device. The method also includes detecting a change in a head feature of the user from the image sequence. After that, the method includes determining whether the change in the head feature matches a predetermined change pattern. The method further includes causing the electronic device to enter an active state in response to determining that the change in the head feature matches the predetermined change pattern, the electronic device in the active state being capable of responding to a speech command of the user.

An intelligent interaction system, especially a speech interaction system, is now more commonly used in people's daily lives, works, and even production processes. For example, as an important application in the speech interaction system, a speaker with a speech (voice) interaction function greatly facilitates people's lives due to its wide application. When the speaker with the speech interaction function is arranged in the home, the user may wake up the speaker to an active state by simply giving a specific speech command to the speaker, and the speech interaction may be performed between the user and the speaker. The process of the speech interaction is usually done within a certain period of time.
After a series of speech interactions are completed, the speaker with the speech interaction function will enter a sleeping state (an inactive state). If the user needs to interact with the speaker again, the user is required to give a specific speech command to the speaker for another time. Repeating the above-mentioned specific speech commands for several times may greatly reduce the user experience, and the speakers only configured with the speech wake-up and interaction functions are not available to a specific group of people.

Method and apparatus for activating device in response to detecting change in user head feature, and computer readable storage medium

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENC AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A photodiode in which increased sensitivity and speed are balanced. The photodiode includes: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of active regions formed on the substrate by selective epitaxial growth; and a comb electrode provided for each of the plurality of active regions and in communication with each other to electrically connect the active regions together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photodiode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to cope with a dramatic increase in the capacity of networks, epitomized by the widespread use of the Internet, development of high-speed optical transmission systems has been sought. Today, optical fibers having comparatively large apertures that facilitate alignment, such as plastic optical fibers, multimode glass optical fibers, and the like, are drawing increased attention as optical fibers for use not with trunk line systems but "last one mile" transmission systems, including subscriber line systems.
Further, it is demanded that a photodiode (PD), transimpedance amplifier (TIA), semiconductor laser (LD), and the like are monolithically formed on a Si substrate using an ordinary CMOS process that allows mass production at low cost for applications, in particular, to the "last one mile" transmission system.
In the mean time, in order to produce a photodiode capable of responding to light having a wavelength longer than that of visible light with high speed and high sensitivity, a method for manufacturing a photodiode by epitaxially growing a Ge thin film on a Si substrate is proposed as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,110 (Patent Document 1), and "High-Speed Germanium-on-SOI Lateral PIN Photodiodes", G. Dehlinger et al., IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., Vol. 16, Issue 11, pp. 2547-2549, 2004, (Non-Patent Document 1). Note that, in principle, GaAs, InGaAs, and InGaAsP may also be used other than Ge, but the use of such materials poses technical difficulties and not realistic. On the other hand, Ge has already started to be used in a manufacturing process of high-speed TIA and the like, as SiGeBi-CMOS process, and would be a preferable material also from the viewpoint of contamination.
Note that if a substrate on which a photodiode is formed has many crystal defects, problems of decreased sensitivity, increased dark current, and the like may result. Generally, it is difficult to obtain quality crystals with less crystal defects such as dislocation and the like by epitaxially growing a different material. However, it is reported in the Patent Document 1 that a quality Ge film may be grown on a Si substrate. More specifically, it is reported that high quality Ge thin film may be grown by performing selective epitaxial growth on a region smaller than or equal to 40 μm×40 μm, preferably smaller than or equal to 20 μm×20 μm. The Non-Patent Document 1 describes that it is possible to create a Ge lateral PIN photodiode of 10 μm×10 μm or 30 μm×30 μm on a SOI substrate using this technique.
Further, MSM (metal-semiconductor-metal) photodiodes, lateral PIN photodiodes, and the like, in which electrodes are arranged laterally, i.e., in the direction parallel to the surface of the substrate in a finger pattern, are known as optical receivers suitable for high-speed and large aperture optical fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,390 (Patent Document 2) proposes to use transparent electrodes for either one of the types of electrodes in such types of photodiodes in order to alleviate a trade-off between the sensitivity and high-speed response.
Generally, in a photodiode having a transparent electrode, the sensitivity and high-speed response become a trade-off due to (1) a large time constant arising from a high resistance, and (2) generation of low mobility holes even under the positive electrode if the active layer is an intrinsic or lightly doped N type layer, and the travel distance of the holes becomes long. The structure described in the Patent Document 2 tries to reduce the travel distance of the holes by using a transparent electrode (different in material and clearness from that of the other type of electrode) as the electrode for collecting low mobility holes, i.e., negative electrode, while preventing holes from being generated under the positive electrode by using a low resistance nontransparent electrode as the positive electrode, in order to alleviate the trade-off.
However, when manufacturing a photodiode having a large aperture (approximately, a radius of 50 μm, and a cross-sectional area of not less than 7500 μm2) that facilitates optical fiber alignment by simply using the techniques described in Patent Document 1 or Non-Patent Document 1, the problems of decreased sensitivity and increased dark current are recognizable.
Further, in the structure described in Patent Document 2, the use of long transparent electrodes results in high resistance, and, in effect, there still exists the problem of the trade-off between increased sensitivity and speed.


An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panel and a display device are provided. The OLED display panel includes a substrate and an organic flat layer, a cathode, and an encapsulation layer stacked on the substrate. The substrate includes a display area and a non-display area. The cathode located on the non-display area includes at least one first via hole, and the encapsulation layer is in contact with the organic flat layer through the at least one first via hole.

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), as a current type of light-emitting device, are now one of many competitive technologies in a new generation of display devices due to wide color gamut, high contrast ratio, energy saving, and foldability. In particular, foldable flexible display technologies of the OLEDs have attracted people's attention and favor.
However, OLED devices are very sensitive to moisture and oxygen, and it is often necessary to package the OLED devices to prevent cathodes from being oxidized. In existing packaging methods, an adhesion between an encapsulation layer and other film layers of the OLED device is not strong, and the encapsulation layer is likely to fall off, thereby causing moisture and oxygen to invade the OLED device, such that a service life of, an OLED display panel is reduced.

Organic light emitting diode display panel and display device

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS SEMICONDUCTOR DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD


A hub clutch assembly has a cover and a gasket which can be easily mounted to an end of the cover. In a hub clutch assembly in which an end of a wheel hub is closed by a cover tightened with a gasket sandwiched therebetween, the cover is formed with positioning grooves along its inner edge. Along its inner edge, the gasket is formed with positioning claws to be engaged in the grooves and claws to be press-fitted into the cover to prevent the gasket from coming off the cover. The gasket can thus be mounted to the cover simply by inserting the claws into the cover.

This invention relates to a hub clutch assembly mounted to each front wheel of a four-wheel drive vehicle for changing over between transmission and cutoff of the driving force between the axle and the wheel hub and, more particularly to an arrangement for mounting a gasket used to airtightly close an end of the wheel hub with a cover, and to an arrangement for mounting a seal for shutting off two fluid passages for changeover between transmission and cutoff of the driving power.
In a part-time four-wheel drive vehicle, hub clutches are mounted between the front wheel hubs and the axle to change over the state of transmission of the driving force to the wheels.
FIG. 7 shows a hub clutch assembly 1 that utilizes air pressure for changeover of driving force. A spindle 3 is fitted on a front wheel axle 2 and fixed to a vehicle knuckle while rotatably supporting a wheel hub 5 through a bearing 4.
An inner ring 6 as a driving member of the hub clutch assembly 1 is axially slidably but relatively nonrotatably mounted on the front wheel axle 2 at its tip by serrations 7. The inner ring 6 has an external gear 8 on its outer periphery. An outer ring 9 as a driven member is rotatably mounted around the inner ring 6. The outer ring 9 is relatively nonrotatably mounted in a cover 11 fixed to an end of the wheel hub 5 by a plurality of bolts 10. The outer ring 9 has an internal gear 12 in its inner periphery with which the external gear 8 is adapted to move into and out of meshing engagement.
The end face of the wheel hub 5 is closed by the cover 11 tightened by the bolts 10 through a gasket 13. The interior of the cover 11 is kept airtight by a sleeve 26, diaphragm 14, and a yoke 24'. The diaphragm 14 is secured by the sleeve 26 and the yoke 24'. The diaphragm 14 has its inner edge coupled airtightly to the inner ring 6 so as to be axially movable with the inner ring 6. The interior of the cover 11 is thus divided into airtight chambers 15 and 16 by the diaphragm 14. The gasket 13 prevents the entry of water and air into the cover, thus keeping the interior of the cover airtight.
A spring 17 is mounted in a compressed state between opposed surfaces of the diaphragm 14 and the cover 11, biasing the inner ring 6 toward its rearward position. A magnet 19 is fixed through a case to the inner side of the cover 11 at its center to attract a washer 18 for fixing the diaphragm 14 when the inner ring 6 is in its forward position and, thus keeping the external gear 8 away from the internal gear 12.
To move the inner ring 6 for controlling changeover between the two-wheel drive state and the four-wheel drive state, air passages 20 and 21 are provided so as to communicate with the respective airtight chambers 15 and 16, respectively.
The first air passage 20 communicating with the outer airtight chamber 15, is comprised of a passage 20a formed in the cover 11 so as to communicate with the airtight chamber 15, a gap 20b defined between the spindle 3 and the wheel hub 5, a space formed in the bearing 4 mounted in the gap 20b, and a passage 20c formed in the rear portion of the spindle 3. An air pipe 20d connected to the passage 20c is connected to an air source.
The second air passage 21 communicating with the inner airtight chamber 16, is comprised of a gap 21a between the axle 2 and the spindle 3, and a passage 21b formed in the rear portion of the spindle 3. An air pipe 21c connected to the passage 21b is connected to the air source.
The airtight chambers 15 and 16 are kept airtight by a seal 23 fitted in the cover 11 and pressed against a nut 22 tightened onto the tip of the spindle 3. Since the first air passage 20 is provided between the spindle 3 and the wheel hub 5 and the second air passage 21 is provided between the front wheel axle 2 and the spindle 3, spaces and gaps in the wheel hub 5 can be used as parts of the air passages. This leads to a reduced diameter of the entire hub clutch assembly 1.
For changeover to the four-wheel drive mode, the inner ring 6 is moved inwardly to mesh the external gear 8 with the internal gear 12.
The front wheel axle 2 and the wheel hub 5 are thus directly coupled together (for four-wheel drive mode), and also the engine braking force can now be delivered to both front and rear wheels.
For changeover from four-wheel to two-wheel drive mode, air in the outer airtight chamber 15 is sucked out to create a pressure difference on both sides of the diaphragm 14. This pressure difference pulls the diaphragm 14 outwardly together with the inner ring 6 against the force of the spring 17 until the diaphragm fixing washer 18 is attracted by the magnet 19 toward the cover 11, thus separating the external gear 8 from the internal gear 12 as shown in FIG. 7.
Thus, the hub clutch assembly 1 can be changed over between the the two-wheel and four-wheel drive modes by applying a negative pressure or a positive pressure in one of the airtight chambers 15 and 16 on both sides of the diaphragm 14. The two-wheel drive mode is maintained with the magnet 19 attracting the diaphragm fixing washer 18 toward the cover 11. The four-wheel drive mode is maintained by the force of the spring 17.
The gasket 13 is provided between end faces of the wheel hub 5 and the cover 11 to prevent air leakage. Heretofore, the gasket 13 was bonded to the end face of the cover 11 when the component parts of the hub clutch were mounted in the cover. The hub clutch assembly thus formed was delivered to a car manufacturer.
Bonding of the gasket to the cover constitutes a separate step from other assembling steps. Thus, this step impairs assembling efficiency.
An object of this invention is to provide a hub clutch which needs no bonding of the gasket to the cover and thus can be assembled with higher efficiency.
The seal 23 provided between the two passages leading to the respective airtight chambers to prevent air leakage between the two passages comprises a core member 25 having such an outer diameter that it can snugly fit in the cover 11 and having a ]-shaped section, and a seal member 24 fixed to the inner edge of the core member 25 in slide contact with the outer periphery of the nut member 22 threaded onto the spindle 3. The core member 25 meshes with the inner periphery of the cover 11 and bears against the outer ring 9 while the seal member 24 is in slide contact with the nut member 22 to shut off the passages 20 and 21 from each other.
Since the core member 25 simply engages the inner periphery of the cover 11, it has neither the function of preventing the rotation of the seal relative to the cover 11 nor the function of axially positioning the seal. Thus, the seal tends to shift, resulting in poor sealing for shutting off the passages 20 and 21 from each other.
Another object of this invention is to provide a hub clutch assembly which can hold the seal in position relative to the cover, thus maintaining the sealing function with high reliability.