A network routing apparatus in which packet forwarding units for performing a packet forwarding process are arranged in parallel to one another, a packet distribution unit for distributing packets to the packet forwarding units arranged in parallel to one another, a packet rearrangement unit for rearranging outputs of the packet forwarding units are provided in the network routing apparatus, and packet retrieving units for retrieving packet headers in the packet forwarding units are further arranged in parallel to one another.

The present invention relates to a network routing apparatus. It particularly relates to a network routing apparatus which is adapted to a network routing apparatus such as a router, a repeater, or the like, in a computer network system and which can retrieve a forwarding address of an input packet at a high speed.
A network routing apparatus such as a router, a bridge, or the like, is generally used for connecting a plurality of networks to one another in a network system. The router examines a destination address of a packet received from a connected network to thereby determine the forwarding address of the packet and forwards the packet to a network to which a router or host of the forwarding address is connected.
Whenever the router receives a packet from a network interface board, the router determines a packet output interface on the basis of the destination information contained in header information of the packet, further determines a forwarding host or router out of hosts or routers connected to the packet output interface, and forwards the packet to the determined host or router. A higher-functional router performs, in addition to the function of forwarding the packet, a function (filtering function) for aborting a packet in accordance with the header conditions of the packets, a function (priority control function) for determining output priority of a plurality of packets to output the packets in the order of priority of the plurality of packets when such packets are to be forwarded, a function for rewriting Type of Service (ToS) contained in the header information of the packet, and so on.
Generally, the router further has a statistical function for counting the number of packets forwarded, the number of bytes forwarded, the number of packets aborted by filtering in the router or by traffic congestion of packets in the router, the number of (non-routed) packets undefined in terms of output destination as a result of retrieval (routing retrieval) of output addresses of packets, the number of packets addressed to the router itself, the number of packets satisfying the aborting condition of filtering, and so on. These pieces of statistical information are displayed on a terminal for managing router operations or router status indication, or the like, or these pieces of statistical information are sent to a network management apparatus in a network so as to be used for management of the network.
Functions other than the statistical function may be required as follows, in the case where the number of packet data transfer bytes needs to be measured. When, for example, a network provider receives packets from users, the packets are classified into several groups (hereinafter referred to as "flows") (for example, according to source/destination sub-network, TCP/IP port number, address, etc.) on the basis of the header conditions of the packets. The data transfer rate of each flow is monitored whenever this classification is made. When the data transfer rate in this flow is too high, packets sent from the users in the flow over the bandwidth on the basis of contracts between the network provider and the users may be aborted or preferentially aborted at the time of traffic congestion. This function is called "bandwidth policing function". Further, when network users transmit packets to a network of a network provider, the output rate of packet data belonging to the flow of the network provider may be limited, by a router, within the bandwidth on the basis of a contract between the router and the network provider. This function is called "shaping function". To achieve the bandwidth policing function or the shaping function, the number of data transfer bytes (data transfer rate) of packets flowing in the router needs to be measured at intervals of a predetermined time.
Processing in a router is classified into the aforementioned process which needs to be performed whenever a packet enters the router, a process in which routing information in a network system is transferred between routers so that a routing table is generated in the router, and a process which need not be performed whenever a packet such as statistical information of the router transferred between the router and a network management apparatus enters the router.
The aforementioned processing in a router is heretofore carried out by executing software processing. To improve performance of processing required whenever a packet enters a router, a plurality of units (RPs: Routing Processors) for performing this processing are provided in the router. Network interface boards are connected to the RPs correspondingly and respectively. The RPs are connected to one another through a bus or through a cross bar switch so that packets are forwarded between network interface boards connecting individual RPs, respectively. In this manner, high-speed processing in the router is attained. An example of the aforementioned router is an apparatus that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,863 (JP-A-5-199230).
Traffic flowing in a network has, however, increased so that the routing process needs to be performed at a higher speed. As a result, software processing used for achieving the routing process has been replaced by hardware processing.


Image forming apparatus in which surface electric potentials of a plurality of surface areas are detected by charging a photoconductor with a different applied bias for each predetermined timing and exposing a plurality of surface areas of the photoconductor by scanning the photoconductor with an optical beam, while changing an exposure intensity of the optical beam for each of the surface areas of the photoconductor. Then, the applied bias necessary for obtaining a predetermined electric potential of a dark section and the exposure intensity of the optical beam necessary for obtaining a predetermined electric potential of a bright section are controlled, on the basis of the surface electric potentials that are detected respectively from the different applied biases and the different exposure intensities. Thereby, the adjustment time can be made shorter than the conventional case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus of an electro photographic system or an electrographic recording system and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a copy machine and a printer is common, which forms an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum that is an electrostatic image bearing member by using a laser beam. Such an image forming apparatus modulates the laser beam oscillated from a laser oscillator depending on an image signal and irradiates the laser beam to a polygonal mirror that is rapidly rotating. This laser beam is reflected by the polygonal mirror, and in accordance with the rotation of the mirror, the laser beam is deflected and scanned along an axial direction of the photosensitive drum. Further, this laser beam is focused on the photosensitive drum via an imaging lens to form an electrostatic latent image according to each scanning line of the image.
This kind of image forming apparatus has been required to realize the image formation with a high resolution from a view of reproducibility of minute characters and uniformity such as proportion. In JP-A-10-288874, a method for forming a stable quality of an image is disclosed. In other words, it is necessary to control an applied bias (Vg) necessary for obtaining a predetermined electric potential at a dark section (Vd) and an exposure intensity (LP) of an optical beam necessary for obtaining a predetermined electric potential of a bright section (VL).
Nevertheless, in a conventional image forming apparatus, adjustment of the applied bias (Vg) and adjustment of the exposure intensity of the optical beam (LP) have been carried out by different methods. For example, in order to adjust the applied bias (Vg), Vg is determined by rotating the photosensitive drum three rounds (three revolutions) with different applied biases respectively, and then, in order to determine the exposure intensity of the optical beam, further, the exposure intensity (LP) is determined by rotating the photosensitive drum four rounds with different exposure intensity respectively. It is necessary to rotate the photosensitive drum for the number of revolutions corresponding to the different applied biases and the exposure intensities of the different optical beams. In other words, in this case, for adjustment, the photosensitive drum should be rotated seven times in total. As a matter of course, since the image formation cannot be carried out during execution of a sequence for this adjustment, a user would be waiting.
Further, in order to obtain a high quality picture and a highly stable image forming apparatus, it is necessary to increase a frequency of the sequence of this adjustment. However, if the frequency of the adjustment sequence is increased, it is feared that a standby time of the user is further increased.

Image forming apparatus and control method thereof


A single crystal pulling apparatus wherein a semiconductor melt is stored in an outer crucible, and a cylindrical inner crucible which acts as a partition body, is mounted inside the outer crucible to thus form a double crucible, and a single crystal of semiconductor is pulled from the semiconductor melt inside the inner crucible. The inner crucible contains a communicating portion, which is formed when the double crucible is formed, for allowing flow of the semiconductor melt into the inner crucible, and the communicating portion incorporates an arrangement for removal of gas bubbles which have adhered to the communicating portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single crystal pulling apparatus for pulling a single crystal of a semiconductor from a semiconductor melt stored in a double crucible.
2. Description of the Related Art
The CZ growth technique is an example of one of the currently known methods for growing single crystals of semiconductors such as silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide (GaAs).
Because this CZ growth technique enables simple generation of large diameter, high purity single crystals which are free from dislocation or have extremely low levels of lattice defect, it is widely used in the growing of a variety of semiconductor crystals.
In recent years, the demand for larger diameter, higher purity single crystals with uniform levels of oxygen concentration and impurity concentration, has seen this CZ growth technique improved in various ways, to meet these demands.
One of the improvements of the aforementioned CZ growth technique which has been proposed, is a continuous magnetic field application CZ technique (hereafter abbreviated as CMCZ technique), which employs a double crucible. Features of this method are that it enables the growth of single crystals with good slip-free ratios and with extremely good control of oxygen concentration levels, by external application of a magnetic field to the semiconductor melt inside the crucible, which suppresses convection in the semiconductor melt, and that it enables the simple generation of long single crystals of the semiconducting material by allowing continuous supply of the source materials, to a position located between outer and inner crucibles. Consequently, this method is recognized as one of the best for obtaining large diameter, long single crystals of semiconducting materials.
FIG. 12 shows an example of a single crystal silicon pulling apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, No. Hei-4-305091, which employs the CMCZ technique outlined above. In this single crystal pulling apparatus 1, a double crucible 3, a heater 4, and a source material supply tube 5 are positioned inside a hollow air-tight chamber 2, and a magnet 6 is positioned outside this chamber 2.
The double crucible 3 comprises an approximately hemispherical outer crucible 11 made from quartz (SiO.sub.2), and an inner crucible 12 made from quartz, which is a cylindrical partition body which is fitted inside the outer crucible 11. The side wall of this inner crucible 12 contains a plurality of communicating apertures 13, which connect the area between the inner and outer crucibles, 12 and 11 respectively (the source material melt region), with the inside of the inner crucible 12 (the crystal growing region).
This double crucible 3 is mounted on a susceptor 15, which sits on a vertical shaft 14 located centrally at the lower portion of the chamber 2, and can be rotated in a horizontal plane at a specified angular velocity about the axis of the shaft 14. The semiconductor melt (the source material for the generation of single crystals of semiconductor, melted by heating) 21 is stored inside this double crucible 3.
The heater 4 heats and melts the semiconductor source material inside the crucible, and also maintains the temperature of the thus produced semiconductor melt 21. Normally resistance heating is used. The source material supply tube 5 is used to continuously inject a specified volume of semiconductor source material 22, on to the surface of the semiconductor melt between the outer crucible 11 and the inner crucible 12.
The magnet 6 is used to apply, externally, a magnetic field to the semiconductor melt 21 inside the double crucible 3, and to produce Lorentz forces in the semiconductor melt 21, thereby effecting control of convection within the semiconductor melt 21, the control of oxygen concentration, and the suppression of surface vibration, and so on.
Examples of the source materials 22 which can be supplied through the source material supply tube 5 mentioned above include polysilicon which has been converted to flake form by crushing in a crusher, or polysilicon granules deposited from gaseous source material using thermal decomposition, with further supply, as necessary, of elemental additives known as dopants, such as boron (B) (in the case of production of p-type single crystals of silicon) and phosphorus (P) (in the case of production of n-type single crystals of silicon).
In the case of gallium arsenide (GaAs), the operation is the same as that outlined above, but in this case, the elemental additive used is either zinc (Zn) or silicon (Si).
With the single crystal pulling apparatus 1 outlined above, a seed crystal 25 is suspended from a pulling shaft 24 located above the inner crucible 12 and over the shaft axis line, and a single crystal of semiconductor 26 is grown at the upper surface of the semiconductor melt 21 around the nucleus of the seed crystal 25.
However, as has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, No. Sho-63-303894, in this type of single crystal pulling apparatus, the growing of single crystals requires that first the polycrystalline source material, such as lumps of polysilicon, be melted, and the resulting semiconductor melt 21 stored inside the outer crucible 11, with the double crucible 3 then being formed by positioning the inner crucible 12 above the outer crucible 11 and then mounting it down onto the outer crucible 11.
The reason that the double crucible 3 is formed after melting of the polycrystalline source material, is that in order to effect complete melting of the polycrystalline source material to obtain the semiconductor melt 21, the temperature of the source material inside the outer crucible 11 needs to be raised, using the heater 4, to a temperature hotter than the single crystal growing temperature. On the other hand, if the inner crucible 12 were to be mounted on the outer crucible prior to the melting stage, large thermal deformation of the inner crucible 12 would occur.
Consequently, by mounting the inner crucible 12 on the outer crucible 11 after complete melting of the source material and a subsequent lowering in the heat being applied by the heater 4, the high temperatures required in the initial source material melting stage can be avoided, and deformation of the inner crucible 12 suppressed.
Furthermore, the communicating apertures 13 of the inner crucible 12 are set at a predetermined aperture diameter small enough to ensure that when source material is added, the semiconductor melt 21 will flow only from the outer crucible 11 to the inner crucible 12. The reason for this restriction is that if the aperture area of the apertures 13 is too large so that the phenomenon arises where, through convection, the semiconductor melt is able to flow from the crystal growing region back to the source material melt region, then the control of impurity concentrations during the single crystal growth, and the control of the melt temperature would become problematic.
However, in those situations where the diameter of the communicating apertures 13 is too small, it becomes difficult for the semiconductor melt to flow freely from outside the inner crucible 12 to the inside thereof, and thus more likely for a difference to develop between the level of the semiconductor melt outside the inner crucible 12 and the level inside the inner crucible 12, which will then produce vibrations on the melt surface as the system attempts to rectify this difference in levels, which in turn exercises a deleterious influence on the single crystal growth.
As a result, the diameters of the communicating apertures 13 described above, need to be set in a range between being sufficiently small to prevent reverse flow of the semiconductor melt 21 from inside the inner crucible 12 to the outside thereof, and sufficiently large to prevent the development of a difference in levels between the semiconductor melt inside the inner crucible 12 and the semiconductor melt outside thereof.
However, in single crystal pulling apparatus like those described above, the following type of problems remain.
After storage of the semiconductor melt 21 in the outer crucible 11, the inner crucible 12 is mounted on to the outer crucible to form the double crucible, and there are occasions when gas bubbles A of a gas such as argon, which is being used as the inert gas atmosphere, can adhere to the multiple communicating apertures 13 of the inner crucible 12, as shown in FIG. 13B. In those communicating apertures 13 where gas bubbles A have adhered in this way, the effective diameter of the aperture is narrowed, which increases the melt flow resistance, hindering the flow of the semiconductor melt 21 from the outer crucible 11, through the communicating apertures 13, to the inner crucible 12. That is, the diameter of the communicating apertures 13 becomes narrower than the suitable diameter range described above, and single crystal growth becomes problematic.
Furthermore, if the diameters of the communicating apertures are increased, it could be expected that effects from adhered gas bubbles A would be diminished, but as described above, there is an upper limit to the diameter of these communicating apertures 13, which limits the amount by which the diameters can be increased.

Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corporation


The steam transfer arrangement includes dovetail connections between a turbine bucket 14 and rotor wheel 12 wherein a steam supply passage 20 in the rotor wheel registers with a steam return passageway 28 in the bucket and a steam return passageway 30 in the bucket lies in registry with a steam return passage in the wheel. At the interface of the dovetail connection, each registering passage and passageway includes a sleeve 50, 52 disposed in an enlarged recess 54, 56, the sleeves having annular spherical sealing surfaces for engagement with annular spherical seats on the turbine bucket. The sleeves are compressible radially relative to the bucket to enable the bucket to be secured to the wheel and expand radially outwardly to ensure sealing fit between the sealing surfaces and seats.

The buckets of gas turbines are typically cooled by air cooling systems. Compressor discharge air is brought into the wheel and channelled into the dovetail slots between the wheel and turbine buckets through drilled holes. The buckets themselves have one or more air passages for flowing the cooling air along the bucket. While the matching slot arrangement of the wheel and buckets has been effective for the purposes for which they were designed, they do have the disadvantage of affording leakage paths which are detrimental to the performance of the gas turbine. Many modifications to various designs for transferring cooling air from the rotor wheel to the buckets have been proposed in the past. However, the disadvantages have mainly been accepted and the designs have taken into consideration the relatively low pressure and leakages of those cooling air flow paths.
In gas turbines, particularly those operating at very high temperatures, it has now become desirable to employ steam as the cooling medium. However, steam pressures are multiples of those used in air cooling systems. Moreover, leakage paths must be avoided, or at least controlled to an absolute minimum level. In short, the transfer of the steam between the rotor wheel and the buckets must occur with a minimum loss of fluid to the surrounding environment, while maintaining a high degree of reliability to deliver required pressures and flow to the bucket. Additionally, steam used to cool the buckets must be returned to the source, with minimum loss to the closed-cycle cooling system. Thus, two different transfer points per bucket at different pressures and temperatures are required.

Steam transfer arrangement for turbine bucket cooling


A stencil mask for use in a photochemical reaction process, comprising a mask substrate 1, an absorber film 3 which is formed on one surface of the mask substrate 1, has a window 2, and not only absorbs or reflect photons but is also self-supportive, and a pattern 5 depicted on the absorber film 3. The self-supportive function of the absorber film 3 dispenses with the presence of a film for supporting itself. This simplifies the structure of the stencil mask, and reduces the number of stencil mask manufacturing steps. The quality of the pattern 5 can be improved since the sides of the absorber film 3 carrying the pattern 5 are not covered by any film. The absorber film 3 is made of gold Au or tungsten W.. The pattern 5 is prepared on the basis of a pattern depicted on the resist film. A small dose of beams is used to depict the pattern according to FIB or scanning, which reduces the time necessary for pattern depiction. Further, the pattern depiction is performed by one exposure process in a short period of time. Thus, the stencil mask can be manufactured in a reduced period of time.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a stencil mask for use with a photochemical reaction process, and a method of making such a stencil mask, and more particularly to a stencil mask for selectively etching and depositing an object to be processed at particular surface areas thereof by applying a reactive gas and light beams thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, a plasma-assisted reactive-ion etching (RIE) method has been in wide use to manufacture semiconductor devices. However, the more the semiconductor devices are integrated and miniaturized, the more extensively the operation of components thereon is affected by damage caused during the manufacturing process. In other words, the reactive-ion etching method is prone to a problem that it tends to damage semiconductor devices extensively during the etching process, which leads to reduced yields of semiconductor devices.
To overcome this problem, it is necessary to set low ion energy in the reactive-ion etching process. As reported in "Semiconductor News", page 31, Oct., 1988, reduction in the ion energy lowers the etching anisotropy, which makes it to difficult to form minute precise patterns.
The use of the photochemical reaction process, referred to in HYOMEN KAGAKU, Vol. 5, No.4, page 435, has drawn our attention with its application to the manufacture of semiconductors. The photochemical reaction process uses both a reactive gas (e.g., a gas containing halogen) and photons. Specifically, photons are irradiated onto certain areas of the object, e.g., a surface of a semiconductor substrate, and the reactive gas is applied to the irradiated areas so as to etch them selectively. A fluoride gas such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF.sub.6) is used as the reactive gas. Photons enhance the etching process. In other words, since charged particles which are used in the reactive-ion etching are absent, the surface of the substrate will not be damaged.
Further, no intimate contact type photoresist mask is necessary in the photochemical reaction process although such a mask is indispensable in photoresist lithography. This process is advantageous since it can dispense with a photoresist mask forming process.
FIG. 25 of the accompanying drawings shows a cross-sectional view of a stencil mask for the photochemical reaction process. The stencil mask comprises a mask substrate 20, a window 21, a self-supportive film 22, a pattern 23, a rear reinforcement film 24, an intermediate film 25, and an absorber film 26.
The mask substrate 20 is made of silicon (Si) which has been in wide use in semiconductor technology due to its reliability.
The window 21 is formed in the mask substrate 20, and photons and reactive gas pass through the pattern 23 to the surface of an object to be processed.
The support film 22 is formed on the mask substrate 20 where the mask substrate 20 is in close contact with the object. The support film 22 enhances tension (internal stress) applied to the absorber film 26, thereby preventing the absorber film from being peeled off or loosened. The support film 22 is usually made of boron nitride (BN).
The rear reinforcement film 24 is formed on the rear surface of the mask substrate 20 so as to offset the internal stress generated by the support film 22, thereby keeping the mask substrate 20 from being bent. The rear reinforcement film 24 is made of boron nitride (BN) similarly to the support film 22.
The intermediate film 25 covers the surfaces of the support film 22 and the rear reinforcement film 24, and an exposed surface of the mask substrate 20. The intermediate film 25 enhances the adhering force between the support film 22 and the absorber film 26, and the adhering force between the rear reinforcement film 24 and the absorber film 26. The intermediate film 25 is made of chromium (Cr), for example.
The absorber film 26 covers the entire surface of the intermediate film 25, and absorbs or reflects photons which are incident outside the surface of the object. The absorber film 26 is made of gold (Au).
The pattern 23 includes a mask pattern made of the support film 22, and is covered by the intermediate film 25 and the absorber film 26. The pattern 23 is positioned on the front surface of the mask substrate 20 at a region corresponding to the window 21.
FIGS. 26 to FIG. 28 show processes for making the stencil mask for the photochemical reaction process of the prior art.
In a first step, the mask substrate 20 is covered with the self-supportive film 22 on the front surface thereof, and with the rear reinforcement film 24 on the rear surface thereof. Referring to FIG. 26, a part of the rear reinforcement film 24 is cut so as to form a part of the window 21.
In a second step, a through-hole is made by back-etching in the mask substrate 20 from the rear surface thereof, serving as the window 21, as shown in FIG. 27.
In a third step shown in FIG. 28, the pattern 23 is prepared on the self-supportive film 22 at the window region. Specifically, the mask pattern is depicted by an ion-milling process according to the focussed ion beam (FIB) technique.
In a fourth step, as shown in FIG. 25, the intermediate film 25 and the absorber film 26 are sequentially formed over all of the surfaces of the self-supportive film 22 and the rear reinforcement film 24 including the basic pattern.
The foregoing stencil mask is prone to the following problems.
First of all, the self-supportive film 22 is used so as to enhance the stress applied to the absorber film 26. In other words, the mask substrate 20 is covered with three films, i.e. the self-supportive film 22, the intermediate film 25, and the absorber film 26, which complicates the stencil mask structure. This complicated structure requires very complicated calculation of an amount of light transmission and diffraction, which would make it difficult to transfer minute precise patterns onto the object.
Secondly, the pattern 23 includes the basic pattern on the self-supportive film 22, and the intermediate film 25 and the absorber film 26 covering the basic pattern. Therefore, even if the basic pattern on the self-supportive film 22 is very precise, the presence of the intermediate film 25 and the absorber film 26 adversely affect the quality of the pattern 23.
Thirdly, the three films are formed on the mask substrate 20 as described above, which means an increase in the mask making process.
Finally, the basic pattern is directly depicted on the self-supportive film 22 by the focussed ion beam (FIB) process. Further, a great dose of focussed ion beams should be applied to depict the basic pattern on the absorber film 26. Scanning is also necessary in the focussed ion beam process, which means that it takes time to depict the basic pattern, i.e., a lot of time is necessary to manufacture the stencil mask.

Stencil mask for photochemical reaction process and method of making the same


A method for controlling operation of a floating wind turbine is described. The floating wind turbine includes a wind turbine generator coupled to a support tower. The method includes measuring a tower inclination, determining an operating parameter control value based on at least the measured tower inclination, and adjusting wind turbine operation based at least partially on the operating parameter control value.

The present disclosure relates generally to controlling operation of a wind turbine, and more specifically, to controlling operation of a floating wind turbine in response to changes in tower inclination.
Wind turbine generators utilize wind energy to produce electrical power. Wind turbine generators typically include a rotor having multiple blades that transform wind energy into rotational motion of a drive shaft, which in turn is utilized to drive an electrical generator to produce electrical power. Each of the multiple blades may be pitched to increase or decrease the rotational speed of the rotor. A power output of a wind turbine generator increases with wind speed until the wind speed reaches a rated wind speed for the turbine.
Typically, the wind turbine generator is positioned atop a vertical support tower, which is securely fixed to a surface, for example, land in a wind turbine field. Such an instillation maintains the rotor perpendicular to the ground. The wind turbine generator is rotatably mounted to the support tower such that the rotor may be rotated relative to the tower to maintain a perpendicular relationship between the rotor blades and the wind direction. Positioning wind turbine generators offshore enables the capture of wind energy from winds that are typically higher than winds over land. Offshore wind turbine generators typically include a tower securely fixed to a seabed in a similar manner to land-based wind turbine generators. For example, a portion of the tower may be buried within the seabed or coupled to a foundation buried within the seabed such that the tower is held in an upright position, perpendicular to a surface of the water. This type of instillation limits the use of offshore wind turbine generators due to a rapid increase in the depth of the oceans as a distance from land is increased. In other words, use of offshore wind turbine generators is typically limited to water depths of about twenty-five meters or less, which limits offshore wind turbine use to locations near the shore. Wind turbine generators that float in the water are known, however, stability issues may limit their use and/or the efficiency of such wind turbine generators.

Methods and systems for operating a wind turbine


A system that allows a user to describe a tree or a set of trees in a table, and the system automatically generates a data structure corresponding to the tree or the set of trees in memory in accordance with the description. The system interprets a table with one or more columns wherein each of the node attributes given to a node are entered, allocates a memory area to each of the nodes, sets data on the attributes given to the node, and generates pointer data indicating the connections of the memory areas. The hierarchy of the nodes and the sequence of nodes linked immediately below the same node are determined on the basis of the sequence of rows corresponding to the nodes and levels assigned to the nodes in the table.

1. Field of Utilization
This invention relates to electronic filing systems for computer-aided management and retrieval of documents and more particularly to a system and a method for generating an electronic data structure corresponding to a tree or a set of trees representing a model that can be used for understanding the layout of a document or the like.
2. Prior Art
Electronic filing systems for computer-aided management and retrieval of documents have recently become available for use in offices. Current systems, however, essentially store documents just in the form of a picture or image of the document. As a scheme for storing information, therefore, there is no substantial difference between these systems and the conventional paper-based filing. In order to establish an advanced filing system, it is essential to be able to extract specific information on the contents of a document from a document image.
If a system is intended to function as a database storing the entire contents of documents, coding of the whole content of each document is necessary. Even, if the entire contents are not to be stored, entry of coded information for searching titles, publication names, key words, and so on is indispensable. OCR techniques for printed characters are expected to be a tool to support such coding operations. However, in order to extract information for retrieval from a document image by OCR, it is essential to know the position in the document where the necessary information is printed. Additionally, the usage of an electronic filing system varies with application. In some cases, coding is required for a portion of a document, for example, an abstract of a paper. If each time an operator enters a document in a database, he has to specify each of the portions to be recognized, high efficiency in document entry is not to be expected. Therefore, there is a need for a technology to provide efficient computer-aided analysis of a document image and automatic understanding of its layout, i.e., the arrangement of the information therein. Layout understanding includes segmenting a document image into regions of characters, illustrations, photographs, tables, graphs and other image objects, and analyzing the structures of the respective regions. In electronic filing, it is important to interpret character strings as titles, authors, bodies and so on after they are roughly segregated from other regions such as row segments.
The objects of a document image, in general, have a hierarchical structure based On their IS-PART-OF relationships. For example, a document may consist of pages, with each page consisting of a title, author's name, and body, and the body consisting of some columns. The hierarchical structure may be represented by a tree wherein an intermediate node corresponds to one of the objects of a document image, such as the title and so on, and a terminal node (leaf) corresponds to a character string.
A method has been proposed whereby a user specifies a tree-structured model to provide knowledge on the layout, and the system performs analysis in accordance with the model, as disclosed by A. Dengel and G. Barth, "High Level Document Analysis Guided by Geometric Aspects," Int. Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence 2, 4, pp. 641-655, 1988. As a method for generating a data structure corresponding to a tree in memory, this is an advantageous and feasible method, from the viewpoint of the burden on users, since a user merely describes a tree in a readable form and the system interprets the resultant description so as to generate the data structure in memory. One such example is found in, G. Nagy, S. Seth, "Hierarchical Representation of Optically Scanned Documents," Proc. 7th ICPR [Montreal], 347-349, which proposes an attribute grammar for a user to describe the skeleton of a tree and attributes to be given to each node in the tree. However, this forces users into doing a kind of programming and is not appropriate for end users to describe a model.
Since there are various types of layouts corresponding to various kinds of documents, it is impossible to prepare models for all types of layouts beforehand, and end users are therefore required to describe and modify models. Consequently, easy description and modification of models is an important feature in a system for document image analysis for layout understanding. This requirement of easy description must be attained while maintaining sufficient representation capability to permit a user to cope with various types of layouts. The foregoing method of describing a tree according to an attribute grammar does not satisfy the requirement.
In order for a user to describe a tree, not limited to a layout model, in an understandable form, a graphics editor is generally used for editing a flowchart representing a tree on a display. However, computers available for graphics editors are limited. In addition, although graphics editors are suitable for use in describing the skeleton of a tree, that is, the hierarchy of nodes and the sequence of child nodes linked to a particular node, they are not suitable for use in describing attributes given to respective nodes.
A system for drawing a tree-structure chart is disclosed in JA PUPA 2-589818. This system is directed to charts representing tree structures of program modules. It permits entry of information for drawing a tree-structure chart through a terminal which does not support graphics functions. Since call relationships among modules constitute a tree structure with a main program as its root, the drawing system is a kind of tree gene rating system. With this system, a user describes information on call relationships among modules by using a text editor. FIG. 1 shows an example of how the information on a tree-structure chart is described. Branching of the tree is indicated by key words such as IF, THEN, ELSE and so on in the text. The system interprets the text including these key words, and generates a tree-structure chart as shown in FIG. 2. FIGS. 1 and 2 are drawings shown in the Japanese publication referred to above.
However, since a special key word is assigned for each branching of a tree, end users are require d to understand the meaning of the key words and get skilled in their usage.
Such a method of description is familiar to programmers, but it is not appropriate for end users. It would take much time for end users new to a key board to enter key words, and they would possibly make spelling and grammatical errors. In addition, if a complicated tree consisting of a number of hierarchy levels is expressed with this description method, then the resultant description will be complicated, and the entire hierarchical structure of the tree will be difficult to understand from the resultant description.
Problem to be Solved
The problem shared by the foregoing description methods, in addition to the stated difficulties, is that they can express only one specific tree, that is, they cannot express a set of trees. However, the expression of a set of trees is desirable for some applications. As to the first page of a paper, for example, the existence of objects such as titles and authors is mandatory, but that of footnotes is not. A paper, generally containing two columns on each page, may contain only one column on the last page. To cope with such variations, the conventional methods require that the description be made to include descriptions separately for a tree with a footnote and a tree without it, and for a tree containing one column node and a tree containing two column nodes. Accordingly, the burden is heavy for users attempting to describe a tree-structure for a document conventionally.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method making it possible for a user to easily describe a tree to be input to memory and capable of generating a data structure representing the tree in memory in accordance with the resultant description.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a method making it possible for a user to easily understand a tree to be generated in memory and the resultant description of the tree and capable of generating a data structure representing the tree in memory in accordance with the resultant description.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system and a method making it possible for a user to describe a tree to be input to memory by using a text editor and capable of generating a data structure representing the tree in memory in accordance with the resultant description.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a method making it possible for a user to describe a set of trees to be input to memory and capable of generating a data structure representing the set of trees in memory in accordance with the resultant description.

System and method for describing and creating a user defined arbitrary data structure corresponding to a tree in a computer memory

International Business Machines Corporation


Suture constructs and methods are provided for securing soft tissue to bone. One exemplary embodiment of a construct includes a first limb, a second limb, a coaxial region, and a collapsible snare defined by the first and second limbs. The coaxial region can be formed by a portion of the second limb being disposed in a volume of the first limb, which allows for a low profile construct that is useful in various soft tissue repair procedures. The construct can be configured to be disposed in tissue to draw the tissue toward bone, and the coaxial region can be deconstructed so that the first and second limbs can be used to help secure the desired location of the tissue with respect to the bone. Various features of the construct and methods for using the same in a surgical procedure are also provided.

A common injury, especially among athletes and people of advancing age, is the complete or partial detachment of tendons, ligaments, or other soft tissues from bone. Tissue detachment may occur during a fall, by overexertion, or for a variety of other reasons. Surgical intervention is often needed, particularly when tissue is completely detached from its associated bone. Currently available devices for tissue attachment include screws, staples, suture anchors, and tacks. Currently available devices for patients of advancing age can be particularly insufficient due to soft and weak bones leading to inadequate fixation between the anchor and bones and the anchors and filaments with which the anchors are coupled.
Repair constructs made from one or more surgical filaments are typically used in soft tissue repair procedures to secure the tissue in a desired location. The repair constructs are typically disposed through one or more portions of the tissue to be repaired, which can cause trauma to the tissue, and are often coupled to anchors disposed in bone to which the tissue is to be approximated. While devices and techniques have been developed to help minimize trauma associated with passing repair constructs through tissue, there is still room for further improvement. For example, some repair constructs typically include a sleeve disposed around at least a portion of the limbs of filament of the construct. The sleeve can assist in minimizing trauma to tissue, and also in managing the limbs of suture while the construct is being disposed through tissue. However, the sleeve still adds extra size and cost to the construct. Additionally, there remains a desire to minimize the number of knots used in conjunction with the repair construct when performing soft tissue repair procedures. A variety of different knots, such as sliding knots, can be used to help draw and secure soft tissue with respect to bone. Although the tying of knots at a surgical site is common, in some instances knots can have a tendency to slip, which in turn can cause a loss of tension between the tissue and bone. This drawback is sometimes referred to as a loss of "loop security." In addition to this "loop security" issue, conventional knots typically have an overall size that can be obstructive or intrusive, especially in tight joints, which may damage cartilage or other tissue by abrasion with the knot.
It is therefore desirable to provide repair constructs and methods that reduce the amount of trauma associated with using repair constructs while maintaining or improving the holding strength such constructs and methods can provide. It is also desirable to provide constructs and methods for use in soft tissue repair that minimize or eliminate the number and size of knots to be tied by a surgeon, particularly during arthroscopic repair procedures.

Surgical constructs and methods for securing tissue


There is set forth herein a silicon-based patch formulation comprising about 25 to 66 percent by volume of a solvent; about 4 to 10 percent by volume of a silicon-comprising binding material; and about 30 to 65 percent by volume of a patching material, the patching material comprising particles having one or more non-actinide Group IIIA elements, wherein a molar ratio of the one or more non-actinide Group IIIA elements to silicon within the patch formulation is about 0.95 to 1.25.

The present disclosure relates generally to repairing of cavities disposed within silicon-based substrates. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to silicon-based patch formulations for use, for instance, with repairing of cavities within silicon-based substrates and resultant patch materials therefrom.
Silicon-based ceramic materials are currently being employed for high temperature components of gas turbine engines such as, for instance, airfoils (e.g. blades and vanes), combustor liners and shrouds. By way of example, silicon-based ceramic materials, for instance, ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) may include or be fabricated of fibers reinforcing a ceramic matrix phase. CMCs may, for instance, provide a desirable combination of high temperature mechanical, physical and/or chemical properties compared to other conventional materials such as, for instance, iron, nickel and/or cobalt-based superalloys.
Although silicon-based ceramic materials exhibit desirable high temperature characteristics, such materials can suffer from rapid recession in combustion environments due to volatilization upon exposure to reactive species such as water vapor. In such cases, protective coatings, commonly referred to herein as environmental barrier coatings (EBC), are used to protect the silicon-based ceramic materials from volatilization processes.

Silicon-based repair methods and composition


An image sensor includes a semiconductor layer, and first and second photoelectric converting units including first and second impurity regions in the semiconductor layer that are spaced apart from each other and that are at about an equal depth in the semiconductor layer, each of the impurity regions including an upper region and a lower region. A width of the lower region of the first impurity region may be larger than a width of the lower region of the second impurity region, and widths of upper regions of the first and second impurity regions are equal.

The present invention relates to image sensors and methods of manufacturing the same, and, more particularly, to image sensors that include photo-electric converting units for detecting different wavelengths of light.
An image sensor converts an optical image into an electrical signal. In recent years, with the development of the computer industry and the communication industry, an image sensor that has an improved function has been increasingly demanded for various devices, such as digital cameras, camcorders, PCSs (Personal Communication Systems), game devices, CCTV cameras, medical micro-cameras, and robots.
Some image sensors include color filters to reproduce colors of optical images. In image sensors that include color filters, when Bayer color filters are used, four unit pixels form one pixel group. In this case, the four unit pixels include two unit pixels that correspond to green, and two unit pixels that correspond to red and blue, respectively. That is, neighboring unit pixels are divided into red, green, and blue unit pixels that accumulate charges corresponding to the amount of incident light having wavelengths in the red, green, and blue regions, respectively. Each unit pixel includes a photoelectric-converting unit that accumulates charges corresponding to the amount of incident light.
When the wavelength of incident light is long, the incident light will penetrate more deeply into the semiconductor substrate. The wavelength of red light is longer than the wavelength of green light, which is in turn longer than the wavelength of blue light. Accordingly, in the red unit pixel, the incident light penetrates more deeply into the semiconductor substrate, but in the blue unit pixel, the incident light does not penetrate as deeply into the semiconductor substrate. For this reason, photoelectric-converting units that are provided in all of the unit pixels are formed deeply to collect all of the incident light. However, when impurities that form the photoelectric-converting units are implanted deeply into the semiconductor substrate, it is likely that the impurities will diffuse into adjacent regions. Accordingly, if the photoelectric-converting units are formed to be deep, lower regions of neighboring photoelectric-converting units may be easily connected due to diffusion, and, thus, a phenomenon known as "blooming" may more easily occur.
Alternatively, in order to collect incident light of different wavelengths, the photoelectric-converting units of the unit pixels can be formed to have different depths according to the wavelength of light detected by the pixel. However, in order to form the photoelectric-converting units of all the unit pixels to have different depths, it may be necessary to perform a photomask process at least three times, which can result in lower productivity and/or increased development/manufacturing costs.

Image sensors including photoelectric converting units having multiple impurity regions


A cationic metallocene complex with trisperfluorobiphenyl borate for use as a polymerization catalyst.

This invention relates to the compositions of matter useful as catalysts, to a method for preparing these catalysts and to a method for polymerization utilizing the catalysts.
The use of soluble Ziegler-Natta type catalysts in the polymerization of olefins is well known in the prior art. In general, such systems include a Group IV-B metal compound and a metal or metalloid alkyl cocatalyst, such as aluminum alkyl cocatalyst. More broadly, it may be said to include a mixture of a Group I-III metal alkyl and a transition metal complex from Group IVB-VB metals, particularly titanium, zirconium, or hafnium with aluminum alkyl cocatalysts.
First generation cocatalyst systems for homogeneous metallocene Ziegler-Natta olefin polymerization, alkylaluminum chlorides (AIR.sub.2 Cl), exhibit low ethylene polymerization activity levels and no propylene polymerization activity. Second generation cocatalyst systems, utilizing methyl aluminoxane (MAO), raise activities by several orders of magnitude. In practice however, a large stoichiometric excess of MAO over catalyst ranging from several hundred to ten thousand must be employed to have good activities and stereoselectivities. Moreover, it has not been possible to isolate characterizable metallocene active species using MAO. The third generation of cocatalyst, B(C.sub.6 F.sub.5).sub.3, proves to be far more efficient while utilizing a 1:1 catalyst-cocatalyst ratio. Although active catalyst species generated with B(C.sub.6 F.sub.5).sub.3 are isolable and characterizable, the anion MeB(C.sub.6 F.sub.5).sub.3.sup.- formed after Me.sup.- abstraction from metallocene dimethyl complexes is weally coordinated to the electron-deficient metal center, thus resulting in a drop of certain catalytic activities. The recently developed B(C.sub.6 F.sub.5).sub.4.sup.- type of non-coordinating anion exhibits some of the highest reported catalytic activities, but such catalysts have proven difficult to obtain in the pure state due to poor thermal stability and poor crystallizability, which is crucial for long-lived catalysts and for understanding the role of true catalytic species in the catalysis for the future catalyst design. Synthetically, it also takes two more steps to prepare such an anion than for the neutral organo-Lewis acid.

Organo-Lewis acid as cocatalyst for cationic homogeneous Ziegler-Natta olefin polymerizations


A fuel cell vehicle capable of generating electric power in an optimum wet state is provided. A fuel cell vehicle including a fuel cell, a radiator configured to cool a coolant which has been warmed by cooling the fuel cell and send it back to the fuel cell, a grille shutter configured to adjust a flow rate of air taken into the radiator from an air intake, a sensor configured to measure an impedance of the fuel cell, and a control unit configured to control the grille shutter to open and close. The control unit controls the grille shutter to open when a measured value of the impedance becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell vehicle.
A known configuration of a fuel cell vehicle is a configuration in which a grille shutter is grounded between a front grille serving as an air intake formed at a leading end part of a vehicle front part and a radiator provided in a refrigerant circulation circuit. A flow rate of air taken into the radiator can be adjusted by adjusting an amount of opening of the grille shutter.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-049350 discloses a fuel cell vehicle that compares a temperature of a hydrogen fuel cell measured by a temperature sensor with a target temperature of the hydrogen fuel cell prepared in advance and controls the grille shutter to eliminate a difference between the measured temperature and the target temperature.


A multilayer film made of synthetic resin is characterized in that at least one resin layer containing resins which have a poor compatibility with respect to each other and is composed of a mixture of two or more kinds of isomeric resins having a large difference in melting point. The isomeric resins provide easy-to-tear characteristics in a certain direction, where the resins form a numberless phases in certain directions within the resin layers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multilayer film and more particularly to a multilayer film made of synthetic resin which is used as a plastic film for packing, etc. and which can easily be torn in a certain direction.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As conventional methods for manufacturing a multilayer film of this type, there are described methods for using a resin readily oriented in molecularly in the taking over film when the direction, is being manufactured by extrusion such as a high density polyethylene. This high density polyethylene is conventionally present as a part of the layers forming a multilayer film structure. In order to decrease a so-called blow ratio so that the film can easily be torn in the taking-over direction (vertical direction) and after the film is formed in a membranous form, it is stretched to orient molecules thereof so that the film can easily be torn. Also, a method is already practiced in which a multi-layer film having easy-to-tear characteristics is manufactured by laminating an easy-to-tear film manufactured by the above-mentioned method with other films.
However, even if a film, such as high density polyethylene, which is readily oriented molecularly in the taking-over direction, is used to decrease the blow ratio, the improvement in the easy-to-tear characteristic of a film in the vertical direction is generally insufficient and it is difficult to obtain a film which has an easy-to-tear characteristic sufficient enough to be practically useful. In the case of method wherein a film is stretched after it is formed in a membranous form so that the film can easily be torn in the vertical direction, it is not only required to employ a special apparatus for stretching film, but also the tearing strength in the vertical direction becomes too weak in general to offer an appropriate easiness of vertical tearing.
On the other hand, in the case of a method wherein an easy-to-tear film manufactured beforehand is attached to an other film, unless the tearing strength of the easy-to-tear film used as a raw material is weak enough, it is difficult to facilitate the tearing sufficiently to be practically effective owing to the tear resistance of the aforementioned other film in which it is attached. However, since this type of a weak film is very difficult in respect of attaching treatment, many problems must be overcome before it can be actually put into practice.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to obviate these problems inherent in the prior art.


A device configured for more efficiently processing video images within a set of video image data to detect objects is described herein. The device may include a processor configured to execute a neural network such as a convolutional neural network. The device can receive video image data from a plurality of cameras, such as stationary cameras. The device can acquire a set of sample images from a stationary camera and submit them to a specialized neural network for processing to generate an attention mask. The attention mask can be generated from a variety of methods and is applied to each of the subsequently acquired images form the camera to narrow down areas where the convolutional neural network should process data. The application of attention masks to images within video image data creates masked images that can be processed to detect objects with much greater accuracy and fewer computational resources required.

As technology has grown over the last decade, the growth of time-series data such as video content has increased dramatically. This increase in time-series data has generated a greater demand for automatic classification. In response, neural networks and other artificial intelligence methods have been increasingly utilized to generate automatic classifications, specific detections, and segmentations. In the case of video processing, computer vision trends have progressively focused on object detection, image classification, and other segmentation tasks to parse semantic meaning from video content.
However, as time-series data and the neural networks used to analyze them have increased in size and complexity, a higher computational demand is created. More data to process requires more processing power to compile all of the data. Likewise, more complex neural networks require more processing power to parse the data. Traditional methods of handling these problems include trading a decrease in output accuracy for increased processing speed, or conversely, increasing the output accuracy for a decrease in processing speed. The current state of the art suggests that increasing both output accuracy and speed is achieved through providing an increase in computational power. This problem is difficult to improve upon, even on video image data that is largely static and comprises one or more regions within the image that are not relevant for processing. Even in these situations, neural networks are configured to process the entire image within the video data.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several figures of the drawings. Elements in the several figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures might be emphasized relative to other elements for facilitating understanding of the various presently disclosed embodiments. In addition, common, but well-understood, elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Attention masks in neural network video processing


Provided is a source-target structure matching controlling apparatus and method that may perform matching control of a source-target structure while resonance power is transmitted and received through the source-target structure. The source-target structure matching controlling apparatus may include a target resonator to receive, from a resonance power transmitter, the resonance power through a magnetic-coupling, and a rectifier to rectify the resonance power to generate a DC voltage, and provide the DC voltage to a load. The source-target structure matching controlling apparatus may detect an impedance of the load and a variance in the impedance, and may transmit, to the resonance power transmitter, information associated with the variance in the impedance of the load.

1. Field
The following description relates to a radio wireless power transmission technology for transmitting resonance power through magnetic-coupling, and more particularly, to a matching-controlling apparatus and method that performs matching-control, while transmitting and receiving resonance power.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of Information Technology (IT), a larger variety and a larger amount of portable electronic devices have been released. Due to characteristics of the portable electronic devices, battery performance is becoming a critical issue. In addition to the portable electronic devices, home electronic appliances have the ability to wirelessly transmit data and can be supplied with power over a power line.
Researches are being conducted on wireless power transmission technology that may wirelessly supply power. Because a distance between a source resonator and a target resonator may vary over time and a matching condition for both resonators may also vary over time, due to various features of a wireless environment, the effectiveness of wireless power transmission may also vary.

Apparatus and method of matching in a source-target structure


The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for correcting color mixing errors, which lets a color display device adopt a virtual material quantity concept and use at least one set of predetermined virtual primary colors to analyze mixed color signal values displayed on the color display device and establish a corresponding material characteristic functions between color control signal values and corresponding virtual control signal values, and eventually establish nonlinear color correction functions between a series of known control signal values corresponding to desired color signal values of the color display device, in such a way that when the color display device performs a video color conversion, the control signal values actually entered into the color display device are corrected to the corresponding target control signal values for allowing the color display device to display desired color signal values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting color mixing errors in a color display device, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for correcting nonlinear color mixing errors in a color display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, a color display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) displays video data based on a color mixing theory with the three primary colors: red (hereinafter referred to as R), green (hereinafter referred to as G) and blue (hereinafter referred to as B) of the color display device, and then these three are mixed with different intensities to produce various colors on the device. Taking the color CRT incorporated in the present computer system as an example, one can observe that the video signals are displayed on the color CRT on an 8-bit-per-channel scale: pure red color (R, G, B)=(255, 0, 0), pure green color (R, G, B)=(0, 255, 0), pure blue color (R. C, B)=(0, 0, 255), and white color (R, G, B)=(255, 255, 255). If the tri-stimulus values (X, Y and Z defined by the International Commission on Illumination, CIE) are used to represent the values of the measured colors, then (Xr, Yr and Zr) stands for red color; (Xg, Yg and Zg) stands for green color; and (Xb, Yb and Zb) stands for blue color. Therefore the mixed color (Xc, Yc and Zc) of a (R, G, B) signal displayed on the color CRT can be represented by the tri-stimulus values of the CIE as given in Equation (1) below:
                              [                                                                      X                  c                                                                                Y                  c                                                                                Z                  c                                                              ]                =                              [                                                                                X                    r                                                                                X                    g                                                                                X                    b                                                                                Y                    r                                                                                Y                    g                                                                                Y                    b                                                                                Z                    r                                                                                Z                    g                                                                                Z                    b                                                                        ]                    ·                      [                                                            R                                                                              G                                                                              B                                                      ]                                              (        1        )
Then, if the defined range (such as 8 bits) of the signals for the three color R, C, and B lights are normalized as Nr=R/255, Ng=G/255 and Nb=B/255, and when the normalized values then are Nr=1, Ng=1 and Nb=1 respectively, pure red color (Xrmax, Yrmax, Zrmax), pure green color (Xgmax, Ygmax, Zgmax) and pure blue color (Xbmax, Ybmax, Zbmax) are obtained respectively.
Theoretically, the white color light is produced when Nr=Ng=Nb=1 at the same time, and its mixed color (Xw, Yw, Zw) can be represented in Equations (2) and (3) as follows:
                              [                                                                      X                  w                                                                                Y                  w                                                                                Z                  w                                                              ]                =                              [                                                                                X                                          r                                                                                max                                                                                X                                          g                                                                                max                                                                                X                                          b                                                                                max                                                                                Y                                          r                                                                                max                                                                                Y                                          g                                                                                max                                                                                Y                                          b                                                                                max                                                                                Z                                          r                                                                                max                                                                                Z                                          g                                                                                max                                                                                Z                                          b                                                                                max                                                                                ]                    ·                      [                                                                                N                    r                                                                                N                    g                                                                                N                    b                                                                        ]                                              (        2        )                                =                  [                                                                                Xr                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Yr                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Zr                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Xg                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Yg                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Zg                                                                                max                                        +                                                                                Xb                                                                                max                                                                                Yb                                                                                max                                                                                Zb                                                                                max                                                                                ]                                    (        3        )
When various values of the Nr, Ng and Nb are given, different color signal values (X, Y, Z) are produced according to the color mixing model described in Equation (2). The color mixing method used to generate mixed colors is generally called a "Linear Additive Three-Color Mixing Model".
Although most of the common cathode ray tubes adopt the aforementioned linear additive three-color mixing model, it is found that the color mixing model and the processing used in various color liquid crystal displays (LCD) today are different from that of the linear additive three-color mixing model. One of the common non-linear characteristics of LCD screens resides in the existence of a nonlinear relation between the three color control signals R, G, B and the color signals X, Y, Z. Such nonlinear relation can be represented by the nonlinear gamma characteristic as shown in FIG. (1), where the x-axis represents the control signal of the liquid crystal display and the y-axis represents the color signal. Furthermore, the liquid crystal display actually possesses additive failure characteristic, which is mainly caused by the nonlinear crosstalk characteristic of the color display device itself in such a way that there is interference produced by signal mixing, and this interference will generate interaction or crosstalk within the mixed signals X, Y and Z. For example, when a pure red color (R, G, B)=(255, 0, 0), a pure green color (R, G, B)=(0, 255, 0) and a pure blue color (R, G, B)=(0, 0, 255) are displayed separately, the sum of the values of X, Y and Z signals of the measured colors are not equal to the values of the measured X, Y and Z signals of the color when the color liquid crystal displays the control signal of a pure white color (R, G, B)=(255, 255, 255). As shown in FIG. 2, the x-axis is the control signal and the y-axis is the measured CIE Y values, whereas Y(white) represents the measured CIE Y values for pure white color ramp (by simultaneously inputting equal amounts of R, G, and B ranged from 0 to 255 into the color liquid crystal device); and Y(R)+Y(G)+Y(B) represents the sum of the individually measured CIE Y values for pure red, pure green and pure blue color ramps throughout the range. It is noteworthy that the additive failure characteristic is one of the major issues of the present color liquid crystal displays, since this characteristic causes the color mixing of the color liquid crystal display to no longer follow the linear additive color mixing model.
To overcome the nonlinear problem created by the "gamma characteristic" of a traditional color liquid crystal display, an inventor, Mr. Tae-Sung Kim of the Korean Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., disclosed a "gamma correction circuit" in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,384, and such gamma correction circuit records and corrects the nonlinear relation between the three color light control signals (R, G, B) and the color display signal (X, Y, Z) of the color liquid crystal display by way of a memory device. The objective of Kim's invention is to adjust the relation between the light transmissivity and the input value of a control signal to a substantially linear manner. Even though after the gamma correction, it is possible to mathematically add the three foregoing independent linearized color lights (such as R, G and B) to produce a specific color, the actual color liquid crystal display may still have an "additive failure" phenomenon caused by the crosstalk effect such that the chromaticity of the mixed white color ramp would shift at different levels of the digital control signals. The other phenomenon is known as an "unstable primary" by which the chromaticity of the pure color ramps would shift as shown in FIG. 3. It was described in related literature such as YASHIDA 2002 (Yasuhiro Yashida and Yoichi Yamamoto, Color Calibration of LCDs, IS&T and SID The 10th Color Imaging Conference Proceedings, pp. 305-311, 2002.). Therefore, the invention of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,384 issued to Mr. Tae-Sung Kim simply mapped the control signal to a correction signal and intended to create a linear display between the control signal (R, G, B) and the mixed color display signal (X, Y, Z). However, Kim's invention is unable to fully solve the aforementioned problems of the color liquid crystal display.
In view of the shortcomings of the "additive failure" and the "unstable primary" problems occurred in the video color display of the prior-art liquid crystal display, the way of designing a color display so that the desired color can be displayed in a video display at a low manufacturing cost and a simple processing model becomes an important subject to the present color display designers and manufacturers.

Method and apparatus for correcting nonlinear color mixing errors


A method for transporting real-time data such as voice over a packet-based infrastructure, and a switch for use with that method, are disclosed. In this method, datagrams from multiple data streams are packaged in a single tunnel packet for transport across a network to an intermediate switching point (switch). To reduce bandwidth, each datagram in the tunnel packet (e.g., tunneled datagram) can be sent in a compressed-header format identified by a context identifier (CID) for its data stream. The switch saves context state for each tunnel and CID it is receiving packets for. The switch deaggregates received tunnel packets into tunneled datagrams and associates each datagram with its context state. Based on the destination indicated in its context state, each datagram it re-aggregated in an outgoing tunnel packet bound for a next switch or the destination endpoint itself.

"Voice data" generally refers to data that has been created by sensing and digitizing human-audible sounds, and is a primary source of data for telephone networks. Traditionally, voice data has been transmitted over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) using 8,000 digital audio samples per second, eight bits/sample. This means that one-way voice communication on the PSTN requires 64 kbits/second of network bandwidth. In the traditional scheme, TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) has been used to carry more than one voice channel on a network link, e.g., by dividing a higher bit-rate channel into frames comprising multiple "time slots", and assigning each voice channel to a certain time slot in each frame.
Circuit-switched TDM as described above uses more network bandwidth than absolutely necessary to transmit voice signals. First, because on a typical TDM link a circuit is dedicated to each call, each voice channel uses all of its allotted time slots, even if the voice data is blank because the speaker is silent. Second, many voice compression algorithms exist that can significantly reduce the number of bits required to transmit a voice signal with acceptable quality, but circuit-switched TDM is not designed to use these algorithms.
Packet voice technology is considered to be the successor to today's TDM voice networks. A packet generally consists of a header, which contains information identifying the packet, and a payload, which in this case carries voice data. An advantage of packet voice is that no dedicated end-to-end path through the carrier network is required. This is because each packet is a self-contained datagram, with the header containing all the information necessary to route the packet through the network to its destination.
With packet voice, the payload of each packet represents a number of consecutive voice samples from the same call (e.g., a 10 msec voice packet is equivalent to 80 TDM samples). Using a codec (compressor/decompressor), the voice data samples can be compressed on a per-packet basis. For instance, using a G.729 codec, 10 msec of voice can be reduced from 640 bits to 80 bits of information prior to transmission of the packet. And during silent periods, packets need not be sent at all. Accordingly, voice data payloads can require much less bandwidth/call in a packet-switched system than in a circuit-switched system.
The sampling interval used in packet voice to assemble a complete packet also comes with a disadvantage. Because no samples from a given sampling interval can be dispatched until the end of the sampling interval, a packet formation delay is introduced in the voice data. Thus the sampling interval cannot be too long (generally, anything more than a few tens of msec is considered too long), or call quality suffers.
To avoid call quality degradation, packets are generally sent at small intervals, e.g., every 10 msec. For a G.729 codec and a 10 msec sampling interval, this translates into a 10-byte packet payload. But as the datagram's header(s) may require 40 bytes or more, a great deal of the bandwidth efficiency gained over TDM is lost because of the relatively large header required per packet and the number of small-payload packets that must be sent. Although methods have been proposed to compress higher-layer headers across a single network link, these methods can place a heavy computational tax on each network element that must deal with the compressed headers, and the efficacy of such methods is highly dependent on the link layer technology employed. Particularly for core network switches, the sheer number of packets handled on each link make such approaches undesirable.
As a second alternative to TDM, PSTN providers have begun to deploy a networking technology known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode, or ATM. ATM promises an ability to mix voice, video, and other data on a connection-oriented network, and an ability to take advantage of voice activity detection (VAD) and compression algorithms to decrease bandwidth requirements for circuit-switched calls.
ATM mixes some concepts borrowed from circuit switching with some concepts borrowed from packet switching. An ATM network is tag-switched, and supports only one fixed, relatively short packet size—a 53-byte packet called a cell. Without regard to the type of information contained in a cell, each ATM cell must have a five-byte cell header and a 48-byte payload. The cell header is not a true datagram header, however, as it does not contain enough information to allow end-to-end delivery of a cell.
The cell header contains two identifiers—a Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) and a Virtual Channel Identifer (VCI). VPIs and VCIs are explicitly assigned at each segment of a connection and, as such, have only local significance across a particular link. They are remapped, as appropriate, at each switching point. When used as intended, groups of VCIs following a common route use the same VPI, so that intermediate ATM switches need only switch the group based on VPI and not on VCI.
Although ATM cells have packet characteristics, ATM is connection oriented. That is, two systems must set up an end-to-end "connection" over the network before they can communicate packets. This connection set-up uses a switch control protocol to establish a Virtual Circuit (VC) on each link in the end-to-end path. Although similar in some ways to a TDM-switched circuit, the VC does not require a dedicated circuit like a TDM connection; instead, the connection is merely a grant of permission to transmit cells at a negotiated data rate, with some guarantees as to quality-of-service (QoS) parameters such as minimum cell rate, average cell rate, and network delay.
When used with a voice codec such as G.729, ATM, like packet-based voice, may also waste bandwidth—not because ATM cell headers are excessively long, but because the cell payload is fixed at 48 bytes. For instance, G.729 requires only 8 kbits/sec of payload (only 10 bytes are required for each G.729 10 msec payload). But when each G.729 10 msec payload is placed into its own ATM cell, the resulting bandwidth is 42 kbits/sec.
To circumvent this problem, an AAL2 trunking service has been devised to pack multiple compressed voice payloads into one ATM cell. In the ATM protocol scheme, an ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) interfaces higher-level protocols to the ATM layer (which buffers and forwards cells and provides connection and traffic management). AAL2 provides a service that can be used to multiplex compressed voice data from up to 248 separate calls onto one bearer VC. Data from multiple calls is packed into the payload of each cell, by attaching one of 248 available session Context Identifiers (CID) to each sub-payload. At the receiving end of an AAL2 trunk, the CIDs are used to de-multiplex the sub-payloads and associate them with an outgoing connection. When operating at full efficiency, AAL2 can provide a G.729 effective bandwidth of about 12 kbits/sec per call.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary ATM/AAL2 network (the underlying ATM network 20 will typically handle other types of ATM traffic as well as AAL2). At the edge of network 20, AAL2 voice gateways 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 route calls from PSTN TDM networks, Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs), and packet data networks (not shown) through the ATM network. For a particular call traversing ATM network 20, call signaling information is interpreted by switch processors 36 and 38, and an AAL2 bearer path through ATM network 20 is devised for the bearer channel data (call signaling for the call is also transported in some manner across the network to the call's egress point). Switch processors 36 and 38 complete the AAL2 bearer path by deciding which AAL2 VC to use on each AAL2 hop in the call's path, and by assigning a CID to the call for each VC that transports it. Switch processors 36 and 38 supply the ingress and egress voice gateways with mapping from their front end ports handling the call to the appropriate AAL2 VC and CID. Switch processors 36 and 38 supply multiplexing switches 32 and 34 with an inbound VC/CID and an outbound VC/CID for the call.
Bearer data for each call is handled as follows. Each call's bearer channel data is translated by its ingress gateway to AAL2 format—the translation includes compression, addition of an AAL2 CID, and multiplexing onto an outbound AAL2 VC as instructed by the switch processor. If the call goes through an AAL2 multiplexing switch, that switch demultiplexes the inbound AAL2 trunk into sub-payloads, examines the inbound CIDs of the sub-payloads, maps the sub-payloads to outbound VCs and CIDs, and multiplexes the sub-payloads sharing a common outbound VC. At the egress gateway, that call's bearer channel data is demultiplexed off of an inbound AAL2 VC, decompressed, and forwarded out of ATM network 20 towards its final destination.
Despite the efficient transport capabilities of the ATM/AAL2 voice network, it does have its disadvantages. First, the switch processors 36 and 38 must provide routing and call control (e.g., CID mapping) to the core AAL2 multiplex switches 32 and 34; thus, as the number of AAL2 trunks grows, the demands on the switch processor network increases, since the switch processor must control each ATM hop. The switch processors must comprehend, control, and balance usage of the AAL2 trunks and AAL2 multiplex switches to ensure efficient utilization of network resources. And the switch processors must provide a failover capability that recognizes when an AAL2 trunk or endpoint goes down and re-routes calls around the failure. As the network scales, these tasks become more and more difficult for the switch processors to perform well.


A cache generation instructing section of a mobile station transmits, as a download instruction, an instruction that downloads a data fragment distributed to a mobile body when the mobile body is traveling in a communication area from a contents server. In addition, a cache generation section of a distribution cache node that manages data distribution in the communication area downloads the data fragment from a contents server based on the download instruction and stores the downloaded data fragment in a cache management database of a storage section as a cache.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a data distribution system for a mobile body. In this data distribution system, a center server in a wide area network disposes contents data in advance in base stations that communicate with a mobile terminal that is a mobile station based on a planned travel route transmitted from the mobile terminal. Specifically, the wide area network is the Internet. By disposing contents data in advance in base stations that communicate with the mobile terminal, the data distribution system efficiently distributes a large amount of data. The technique in Patent Literature 1 calculates the divided data size used to divide a large amount of data and dispose the divided data in base stations based on the specification information of the communication interface of the mobile terminal. This specification information is transmitted together with the planned travel route from the mobile terminal.

Data distribution system, mobile station, distribution device, data distribution method, and computer readable medium


An ink cartridge 1 is detachably connected to a head of a record apparatus and has a container main body 2 having an ink tank chamber 11 opened to the atmosphere in a state in which the head and the cartridge are connected and a first opening 85 through which ink can be injected into the ink tank chamber (second ink storage chamber 16, etc.,). Such an intermediate wall 301 partitioning the ink tank chamber 11 into two space parts 11a and 11b placed side by side in an ink injection direction is disposed in the ink tank chamber 11 and is formed with a through part 301a through which ink can be injected.

This invention relates to an ink cartridge for supplying ink to a head of a record apparatus and a method of ink injection thereinto.
An ink jet record apparatus generally comprises a record head mounted on a carriage and moving in the width direction of record paper, and paper feed means for moving the record paper relatively in a direction orthogonal to the move direction of the record head.
Such an ink jet record apparatus prints on record paper by ejecting ink droplets from a record head based on print data.
A record head capable of ejecting black ink, yellow ink, cyan ink, and magenta ink, for example, is mounted on a carriage and in addition to text print in black ink, full-color print is made possible by changing the ink ejection percentage.
Thus, ink cartridges for supplying black ink, yellow ink, cyan ink, and magenta ink to the record head are placed in the main unit of the apparatus.
In the ordinary ink jet record apparatus, the ink cartridges for supplying black ink, yellow ink, cyan ink, and magenta ink are mounted on a carriage and are moved together with the carriage.
In the recent record apparatus, the carriage has been moved at high speed for the purpose of increasing the record speed.
In such a record apparatus, pressure fluctuation occurs in internal ink as an ink supply tube is extended and bent with acceleration and deceleration of the carriage, making unstable ejecting of ink droplets from the record head.
Thus, such an ink cartridge is proposed, that comprises a lower ink storage chamber (ink tank chamber) opened to the atmosphere side, an upper ink storage chamber (ink end chamber) for head connection, connected via an ink flow passage to the lower ink storage chamber, and a differential pressure regulating valve placed at midpoint in a passage connecting the upper ink storage chamber and a head supply port.
According to the ink cartridge, a negative pressure is generated on the head side by negative pressure generation means and the differential pressure regulating valve is opened accordingly for supplying ink to the record head, so that the adverse effect on ink produced by pressure fluctuation mentioned above is lessened and ink can be supplied to the record head at the optimum water head difference.
By the way, to inject ink into such an ink cartridge, the tip of an ink injector is positioned at an opening that is made in the outer surface of the ink cartridge (case) and that communicates with an ink tank chamber. Thus, in the beginning of injecting ink, the distance between the ink injection position (opening) and the bottom of the ink tank chamber is large, and also, after ink is injected (after the ink liquid level rises), there is a height difference between the ink injection position and the ink liquid level.
Thus, when ink is injected, air is easily mixed into the ink and there is a problem of bubbles occurring in the ink tank chamber.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an ink cartridge and a method of ink injection thereinto for making it possible to avoid air mixing into ink at the ink injection time and therefore prevent bubbles from occurring in an ink tank chamber.

Ink cartridge and method of ink injection thereinto


An exhaust gas purification system includes a feedforward controller 47, a feedback controller 49 outputting a correcting variable for achieving a target temperature of DPF 7, and a variable adding unit 51 that adds the correcting variable output from the feedback controller 49 to a basic variable output from the feedforward controller 47 to compute a manipulated variable. The system further includes either one of an integrator resetter 55 that resets the integral value of an integrator that forms the feedback controller 49 when the amount of exhaust gas has suddenly dropped, and a basic variable calculating unit that calculates the basic variable to be output from the feedforward controller based on a signal representing the flow rate of exhaust gas.

PM reduction is as important as NOX reduction in exhaust gas regulations of diesel engines, DPF is known as an effective technique in this regard.
DPF is a PM collecting device that uses a filter. As the PM continues to accumulate in the DPF in engine operating conditions with low exhaust gas temperatures, forced regeneration is carried out wherein the temperature is forcibly raised to burn the PM.
Common means of raising the temperature include delaying the fuel injection timing, post-injection, and intake throttling, which all encompass the problem of adversely affecting the fuel economy. On the other hand, higher temperatures mean a quick and efficient forced regeneration of DPF with a smaller decrease of fuel economy since the higher the temperature, the higher the speed of burning the PM.
However, if the DPF temperature is too high, the PM burn rapidly and the DPF temperature rises quickly, which may damage the DPF or deteriorate the catalyst carried in the DPF.
Temperature control is therefore necessary, to maintain the DPF temperature at a level suitable for the regeneration, so as to prevent a drop in the fuel economy and ensure safe regeneration of the DPF.
There is Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-320962 (Patent Document 1) as an example of temperature raising control in forced regeneration of DPF. The Patent Document 1 describes a process of temperature control during regeneration of DPF wherein an optimal feedback gain in accordance with the operating condition is used to achieve both of stability and responsivity of temperature feedback control to raise the temperature to a target level.
There is a time delay between variable manipulation to raise the temperature and a change in the exhaust gas temperature. The time delay of control targets also varies depending on the changes in the operating condition. For example, an increase in the exhaust gas flow rate increases the heat transfer coefficient and decreases the time delay, while a decrease in the exhaust gas flow rate increases the time delay between changes in variable and changes in exhaust gas temperature as well as the time constant, whereby the time delay is increased.
Described in the document is a corrective action performed in consideration of the time delay to make the temperature closer to the target level quickly, wherein the operating condition is detected to determine the current time delay from the relationship between the exhaust gas flow rate and the time delay that is known from the operating condition, an optimal feedback gain is calculated in accordance therewith, and the temperature raising variables are corrected using this feedback gain.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-320962
Patent Document 1 describes making the temperature closer to a target level quickly by correcting a feedback gain as described above. However, it is not possible to improve the stability of control of the DPF inlet temperature by a corrective action using only a feedback gain, particularly when the exhaust gas flow rate has decreased, since, in such a condition, the time delay between changes in variable (post-injection amount) and changes in exhaust gas temperature is increased, and so is the time constant, because of which the exhaust gas temperature control performance is deteriorated, i.e., it takes long until a change appears in the DPF inlet temperature even when, for example, the post-injection amount is excessive.
If the temperature is controlled properly by feedforward control at various operating condition points, the feedback variables will be zero in a steady state and the problem associated with the feedback control described above will not arise. In a small general-purpose engine, however, in which the rpm and the load change independently in use, it is difficult to set the feedforward variables properly in all operating conditions.
If, for example, the flow rate of the exhaust gas has dropped largely in a short time, and the flow rate remains low after that, the DPF inlet temperature will rise, and when this phenomenon appears, it is difficult to solve it by improvement of the gain in the feedback control, or by optimization of controlled variables in the feedforward control.

Exhaust gas purification system for internal combustion engine