An impeller pump with thermostatically adjustable guide vanes is suitable for use as an automotive coolant pump. The pump is driven by a constant speed electric motor, and flow variation is controlled by varying the orientation of the vanes. Orientation of the vanes is effected by a wax-type thermostat, which senses coolant temperature: flow is increased when the coolant is hot, and decreased as the coolant cools. The variable guide vanes are mounted for pivoting about radial axes, and are located just upstream from the pump impeller.

This invention relates to coolant pumps for automotive internal-combustion engines. The invention is aimed at providing a coolant pump which delivers flow characteristics in accordance with engine demand.
Pumps for internal-combustion engine cooling systems have traditionally been belt-driven, at a fixed ratio, directly from the engine.
The coolant flow rate and pressure head required to effectively control the engine temperature are not, however, optimal when driven proportionally to the engine""s rotational speed. The coolant system has to cope with the fully-laden vehicle struggling up-hill on a hot day, and the same system has to make sure the heater warms up rapidly in very cold conditions. Also, for efficiency, the energy consumed by the coolant pump ideally should at all times be only the minimum needed to just achieve the optimum temperature in the coolant. Whatever coolant circulation system is used, it must of course cater for the extremes; in the case of the traditional belt-driven coolant pumps, the need to cater for the extremes so compromises the efficiency of normal running that traditional coolant pumps are inherently non-optimal for most of their operating conditions.
The optimum coolant temperature is dictated by considerations of engine performance, fuel efficiency, exhaust emissions, etc. The coolant circulation system must provide a volumetric flow rate, and a pressure head, such that the coolant is cooled down (or warmed up) to the correct temperature under the extreme conditions. The invention is aimed at making it possible still to accommodate the extremes, and yet to improve the efficiency of the coolant circulation system during normal running, so that the system consumes only a minimum of energy during normal running.
When the coolant pump provides excessive flow and head, the engine wastes power and the overall engine efficiency is reduced.
When the coolant pump provides insufficient coolant flow and head, the engine runs too hot, thereby reducing engine performance, and perhaps damaging the engine.
Engine designers have not, in general, switched to driving coolant pumps by means of electric motors. This fact should be viewed in light of the fact that it is very common for a designer to specify that the engine""s cooling fan to be driven by an electric motor. There, the motor runs at constant speed, and is controlled simply by being switched on/off: the need for switching is signalled by a simple electrical thermostat. That is a simple enough duty requirement for an electric motor to be subjected to.
It is recognised, however, that a simple on/off control would be far too crude for controlling the flow of coolant. Even under the minimum coolant flow conditions, the coolant must still be pumped and circulated quite vigorously.
It might be considered that, if an electrically-driven coolant pump were to be provided, it would be possible to control the coolant flow by controlling the rotational speed of the electric motor. Theoretically, this could be done by varying the electric current supplied to the motor that drives the coolant pump. However, such control of the motor speed by control of the motor current has not found favour with engine designers.
Thus, in considering the use of an electric motor to drive the coolant pump, it is apparent, first, that simple thermostatic on/off switching of a pump motor is out of the question, and second, trying to control motor-speed by controlling the current supplied to the electric motor has not found favour. And, even as a last resort, the notion of controlling coolant-flow by means of coupling the pump to a fixed speed motor by means of a mechanical variable speed drive, must be contra-indicated out as being far too elaborate; also, as mentioned, it is important that the pump, as well as the motor, should run at constant speed.
The invention is aimed at making it possible to vary the coolant flow to suit many different conditions, in a way which allows the pump (and hence the motor) to run at constant speed.
The design configurations as will be described herein employ variable pitch guide vanes to affect the velocity, flow rate, pressure head, etc. of the coolant. The guide vanes are located adjacent to the impeller of the coolant pump, in the flow of coolant as it passes through the pump. The vanes are operated in response to a temperature signal corresponding to the actual cooling demand of the engine. The guide vanes serve to boost or to reduce the flow of coolant through the impeller, the change between boost and reduce being effected as a consequence of a change in the positional orientation of the vane in relation to the impeller of the pump.
The heat rejection demand is made dependent upon the temperature of the system, not engine speed. The system temperature might, for example, be taken as the temperature of the cooling fluid, or the temperature of a particular location on a machine, such as near the exhaust valves on the cylinder heads of an internal combustion engine. The system temperature may be transduced into a mechanical displacement which adjusts the pitch of a set of the guide vanes, which are preferably located just upstream of the impeller. When the system temperature is high, the thermostatic transducer adjusts the vanes such that the impeller pump provides a high coolant flow rate; when the system temperature is low the vanes are adjusted to provide a lower coolant flow rate.
It should be noted that, in an internal combustion engine, it is required that the coolant flow be maintained at all times during operation of the engine. The minimum flow demand is still a substantial flow. The engine would overheat in a few seconds if flow were actually to stop. Thus, it will be understood that the flow rate being controlled is just the upper fraction of the maximum flow ratexe2x80x94an area of flow in which it is notoriously difficult for a designer to achieve a desired degree of linearity of control. It is recognised that controlling just the upper fraction of the flow rate is not only easy with the variable pitch vanes, but, when the vanes are moved, the change in flow rate is not too far from being more or less linearly proportional to the movement of the vane. This means that simple automotive wax-type thermostats can be used directly, since they too have a more or less linear temperature/movement characteristic.
The use of variable pitch guide vanes combined with a modern high-speed impeller produces increased hydrodynamic flow efficiency over a wide range of flow rates, and provides capability to reduce the flow rate when the demand decreases. In contrast to a conventional direct drive impeller pump which frequently provides excessive coolant flow and uses excessive power, the temperature-responsive variable vane system as described herein, can provide precisely the correct amount of coolant flow to maintain optimum system operating temperatures, while consuming less power.
This pump""s variable hydrodynamic flow/pressure capability, even though driven at a reasonably constant speed, provides thermal controllability while eliminating the need for a variable or multiple speed electrical motor. Increased hydrodynamic flow efficiency combined with the use of small high-speed motors can result in the overall pump package being small, lightweight, efficient, and easy to integrate within a given cooling system""s special constraints.
The thermostatic signal can be transduced directly into a mechanical displacement of the guide vanes, for simple systems. For more sophisticated systems, a thermal signal can be processed by the engine management system which then controls an electrically-activated displacement mechanism to adjust the guide vanes.


Content presented on a display screen is updated responsive to a user input. Content is retrieved and segmented into bands that are rendered onto the display screen incrementally to provide a visual effect similar to an animation. A band is rendered at a starting location and after a refresh interval passes a subsequent band is rendered at a second starting location. The bands may be rendered until the content is shown on the display screen.

Electronic displays are commonly used as screens or displays for a wide variety of electronic devices, including such consumer electronics such as televisions, computers (e.g., laptop computers, tablet computers), and handheld devices (e.g., e.g., cellular telephones, audio and video players, gaming systems, and so forth). Some electronic displays include a flat display panel in a relatively thin and low weight package that is suitable for use in a variety of mobile or wearable electronic devices. Electronic displays may include thousands (or millions) of picture elements known as pixels, which may be arranged into a number of rows and columns, and are used to render images onto the electronic display to be perceived by a user. One type of electronic display may include an electronic ink (E-ink) display. The E-ink display may be particularly useful in certain electronic reader (E-reader) electronic devices or certain wearable electronic devices due to its high brightness and contrast, wide viewing angle, and ultra-low power. For instance, to display a given shade (e.g., white, black, or gray) at a given pixel, the E-ink display may receive 4-bits of image data, which may correspond to 16 individual gray levels that the E-ink display may use to render images. However, because E-ink displays may include display hardware of lesser complexity (e.g., reduced numbers of pixels, passive matrices of pixels), the E-ink display may not be able to render certain features.


The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods related to freezing a sacrificial material in forming a semiconductor. In an example, a method may include solidifying, via freezing, a sacrificial material in an opening of a structure, wherein the sacrificial material has a freezing point below a boiling point of a solvent used in a wet clean operation and removing the sacrificial material via sublimation by exposing the sacrificial material to a particular temperature range.

Semiconductor processing (e.g., fabrication) can be used to form semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, memory devices, microelectromechanical devices (MEMS), etc.
Examples of memory devices that can be formed by semiconductor processing include, but are not limited to, volatile memory (e.g., that can require power to maintain its data), such as random-access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), among others, and non-volatile memory (e.g., that can provide persistent data by retaining stored data when not powered), such as NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM, among others.
Semiconductor processing can involve forming features (e.g., patterns) on and/or in a semiconductor (e.g., of silicon) that may be referred to as a wafer or substrate. In some examples, one or more materials, such as silicon-based materials (e.g., silicon oxide (SiO), silicon nitride (SiN), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and/or polysilicon) may be formed on the semiconductor. For instance, a deposition process, such as physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), electrochemical deposition and/or molecular beam epitaxy, among others may be used to form one or more materials on the semiconductor.
Subsequently, portions of the one or more materials, and in some instances, portions of the semiconductor, may be removed, such as by wet and/or dry etching, to form the features. In some examples, the features may have high aspect ratios (e.g., ratio of height to width or diameter) and may be referred to as high-aspect-ratio (HAR) features. For example, the features might be separated from each other by HAR openings.
During processing, the semiconductor and the features may be subjected to wet processing, such as wet cleaning, and subsequent drying. For example, wet cleaning can be helpful to remove residue left behind, such as by the removal process or other processing.

Freezing a sacrificial material in forming a semiconductor


A sampling data output circuit capable of Accommodating frequency variations includes a converter portion for sampling an input data signal (402) at an oversampling frequency to output, in parallel, a plurality of fundamental signal series (p1, p2, p3, p4), a first circular shifter for receiving the plurality of fundamental signal series and outputting a plurality of first frequency shift signal series having a higher frequency than the fundamental sampling frequency, and a second circular shifter for receiving the plurality of fundamental signal series and outputting a plurality of second frequency shift signal series having a lower frequency than the fundamental sampling frequency. The first and second circular shifters create each of the signal series by selecting a signal sample out of the input fundamental signal series according to a count value of a phase shift cumulative counter and a predetermined rule related to the frequency shift.

The present invention relates in general to data sampling circuits used in the field of data communication, and more specifically to a sampling data output circuit capable of flexibly accommodating frequency variations.
With wireless data communication systems, a signal transmitted over a radio frequency is down-converted to baseband frequency, which is subjected to signal processing, such as sampling, to produce a desired signal. Wireless systems of this type typically include a synchronous system and an asynchronous system. Synchronous systems, which use a preamble synchronization signal to ensure synchronization on the transmitting and receiving ends for phase alignment, suffer a problem in that the period until synchronization is attained (training period) can be very long depending on use, thus resulting in cost disadvantages. On the other hand, asynchronous systems allow for phase adjustment without use of a preamble synchronization signal.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a sampling data output circuit (100) used in such an asynchronous system. The circuit (100) comprises an oversampling portion (104) that receives an input signal (102) and samples it at an oversampling frequency (CLK4×) that is four times the sampling frequency. The oversampling portion (104) comprises four delay elements (106). An output of each of the delay elements (106) is connected, respectively, to first through fourth phase output portions (112–118) and further connected to an error detector (not shown).
FIG. 2 shows a timing chart for explaining the operation of the system (100) shown in FIG. 1. The input signal (102) is first sampled at the oversampling portion (104) and is sequentially stored in the delay elements in alignment with the oversampling clock (CLK4×). The outputs of the delay elements (106) are fed to input portions (110) of the first through fourth phase output portions (112–118), and output from each of the phase output portions in alignment with a sampling clock (CLK). These output signals are signal series that are out of phase from each other, and correspond to versions of the input signal (102) sampled at phase timings as denoted by p1, p2, p3, and p4. After error checking by the error detector (not shown), a desired signal series is selected. Such a system presumes that the sampling clock (CLK) and the oversampling clock (CLK4×), which is a multiplied version thereof, are the same on the transmitting and receiving ends.
However, the frequencies on the transmitting and receiving ends are not necessarily the same due to factors, such as communication apparatus manufacturing variability, changes over time, variations in temperature, and other environmental influences. If the clock or frequency is offset, a problem as described below may occur. For example, if the frequency on the receiving end is higher by 0.5% than that on the transmitting end, the data sampling point is offset by 0.5 samples per 100 samples (100*0.005=0.5 samples), or by one whole sample per 200 samples (see FIG. 2). Thus, if the data length of the packets transmitted is about 100 samples, an offset in the sampling point is 0.5 samples at most; thus, error-free data may be determined by selecting either of the four phase candidates. However, if the packet length is 200 samples or longer, the sampling point is completely offset by one or more samples, so that an error will result even when either of the phase candidates is selected. By reducing the packet length, for example, about 100 samples long in this case, the problem associated with frequency offset may be addressed theoretically. However, the data length to be transmitted is typically very long. Thus, there is a problem in that, with a shorter packet length, the processing required to reconstruct the original long data is complicated.
The present invention solves at least one of the aforedescribed problems.


Double metal cyanide catalysts, prepared by drying a catalyst slurry by a non-agglomerative drying method such as spray drying or freeze drying, directly produces catalyst particles of fine particle size such that intensive grinding is not required. The catalysts thus produced are different from conventionally dried particles in that polyoxyalkylation may be conducted with less reactor fouling and a polyoxyalkylene product of lower unsaturation and narrower polydispersity may be obtained.

Double metal cyanide complex catalysts were discovered in the decade of the 1960s, and were found to have significant catalytic activity in a variety of reactions, particularly polymerizations. Although double metal cyanide salts themselves were found to have little or no catalytic activity, non-stoichiometric complexes formed from the double metal cyanide salt and an organic complexing agent were found to possess high activity. The activity was found to vary with the identity of the metals contained in the complex, and also with the organic complexing agents. The chemical makeup, effects of varying metal ions, and differences in reactivity due to the complexing agent are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,427,335, herein incorporated by reference, which further indicates that polymers of different intrinsic viscosities, and therefore of differing molecular weight, may be obtained by suitable selection of organic complexing agent.
According to the '335 disclosure, excess complexing agents can be removed by extraction with a low boiling, non-complexing solvent such as pentane or hexane. In a typical laboratory catalyst preparation, a solution of an alkali metal hexacyanometallate salt, e.g. K.sub.3 Fe(CN).sub.6 is added slowly to a stirred solution of metal chloride salt, e.g. zinc chloride, in slight molar excess. The precipitated zinc hexacyanoferrate(III) salt is washed thoroughly with water, and then washed with three portions of anhydrous dioxane. In an optional procedure, the dioxane washed precipitate is slurried in dioxane/hexane and refluxed, water being removed as an azeotrope. The moist solid is dried under vacuum of c.a. 1 torr. The dry catalyst may be crushed to a fine powder.
The catalytic activity of catalysts of the type disclosed by the '335 patent and other related disclosures such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,427,256, 3,427,334, 3,829,505, and 3,941,849, although high, was not high enough to overcome the high cost of such catalysts relative to other catalysts traditionally utilized. For example, in conventional oxyalkylation reactions useful in preparing polyoxyalkylene polyols and polyoxyalkylene block surfactants, potassium hydroxide had long been the catalyst of choice due to its low cost. Moreover, removal of catalyst residues from double metal cyanide catalyzed polyols also proved to be problematic and to add additional expense to the production process. As a result, little if any commercialization of double metal cyanide catalysts of the types disclosed by the aforementioned patents occurred.
In the 1980's, double metal catalysts were revisited, spurred on in part by the desire to manufacture polyether polyols with lower unsaturation and higher equivalent weights. In base catalyzed polyoxyalkylation, a competing rearrangement of higher alkylene oxides into unsaturated alcohols continuously introduces monofunctional, oxyalkylatable species into the oxyalkylation reactor. For example, propylene oxide, the most widely used higher alkylene oxide, rearranges to allyl alcohol. Oxypropylation of this monohydric species results in polyoxyalkylene monols. Continued generation of allyl alcohol and the continued oxyalkylation of it and the previously generated and oxyalkylated monols results in a considerable proportion of monohydric species spanning a broad molecular weight range.
For example, in the manufacture of polypropylene glycols, the base catalyzed oxypropylation of a propylene glycol initiator results in a mixture of polyoxypropylene glycols and oxypropylated allyl alcohol polymers and oligomers. As oxypropylation continues, the mol percentage of monofunctional species steadily increases. In a 2000 Da equivalent weight polyoxypropylene "diol," the monofunctional species content may range between 30 and 40 mol percent, and the functionality reduced from the "nominal," or theoretical functionality of 2.0 to an actual, measured functionality in the range of 1.6 to 1.7. In the case of a 2000 Da equivalent weight triol, e.g. an oxypropylated glycerine polyol, the actual functionality will be closer to two than the nominal, or "theoretical" functionality of three.
Investigations of other catalysts in attempting to lower monol production during oxyalkylation did not, in general, lead to commercially acceptable systems. For example, lowering the reaction temperature during base catalyzed oxypropylation was found to lower unsaturation, but at the expense of greatly increased process time. Levels of unsaturation in the range of 0.010 meq/g polyol, as measured by ASTM 2849-69, "Testing of Urethane Foam Polyol Raw Materials" could be produced, but with reaction times measured in days or even weeks rather than typical batch times of 8 to 12 hours. Use of alternative catalysts such as cesium or rubidium hydroxide (U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,243); strontium or barium oxides and/or hydroxides (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,010,187 and 5,114,619); and alkaline earth metal carboxylates (U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,387) have all been proposed.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,472,560 and 4,477,589, promoted double metal cyanide complex catalysts prepared by addition of inorganic acids or salts such as alkali metal hexafluorosilicates to double metal cyanide complexes were proposed. The promoter addition takes place in the presence of excess complexing agent, i.e. glyme, or in the presence of a liquid initiator, and following dehydration produces a catalyst/initiator slurry. However, a different slurry must be prepared for each different initiator desired, and the process cannot be used to prepare slurries of catalyst in volatile initiators. Moreover, the catalyst slurries are much more expensive to ship as compared to dry catalyst. However, the catalysts were stated to exhibit improved catalytic activity, and were also stated to be useful at temperatures in the range of c.a. 110.degree. C. to 120.degree. C., while prior DMC catalysts generally were rapidly deactivated at temperatures in excess of 100.degree. C.
Further improvements in DMC catalysts are evidenced by the processes of preparation disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,922, wherein modestly heated double metal cyanide-forming reactants, a relatively large stoichiometric excess of metal salt over metal cyanide salt, and a specific order of mixing these salts resulted in greatly improved catalytic activity. Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 4-145123 disclosed that use of t-butanol as the organic complexing agent rather than glyme, the most common complexing agent, also resulted in improved catalysts, particularly with respect to catalyst longevity. These improvements, coupled with improved and less costly methods of removal of catalyst residues from finished polyether products as illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,721,818; 4,987,271; 5,010,047; and 5,248,833, led to commercialization of DMC-catalyzed polyether polyols for a short time.
Most recently, discoveries by the ARCO Chemical Co. have resulted in double metal cyanide complex catalysts which not only offer polymerization rates which are considerably higher than prior catalysts, but moreover are far more easily removed from the polyoxyalkylene polyether product. While earlier DMC catalysts were able to produce polyols with levels of unsaturation in the range of 0.015-0.020 meq/g, these new catalysts consistently produce polyols with unsaturation in the range of 0.003 to 0.008 meq/g. Such catalysts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,470,813 and 5,482,908, which are incorporated herein by reference. Double metal catalysts such as those disclosed by the 5,470,813 and 5,482,908 patents often allow for catalyst residue removal from polyol product by simple filtration. Moreover, the catalytic activity is so high in some cases that the low amounts of catalyst used, e.g. 10-25 ppm, does not require any removal process.
However, the process of preparing the double metal cyanide complex catalysts themselves is lengthy, and involves numerous steps. While the process is easily done on a laboratory scale, on a commercial scale, catalyst preparation time increases dramatically. For example, in a commercial scale manufacturing process, catalyst preparation may consume in excess of 100 hours. Approximately 88% of this time is consumed in isolating the catalyst solids, drying the moist filter cake obtained, and grinding the catalyst into small particles.
Surface morphology may also be of importance with respect to catalytic activity for double metal cyanide complex catalysts. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,813, unique double metal cyanide catalysts were produced which differed from prior art catalysts by being substantially amorphous, rather than possessing significant amounts of highly ordered or crystalline material. The amorphous nature of these catalysts was demonstrated by the lack of certain sharp lines in the X-ray diffraction spectrum which are characteristic of crystalline double metal cyanide salts.
The substantially amorphous catalysts exhibited surprising and unexpected increases in catalytic activity, yet the particle size was actually much larger than that of prior art catalysts, prepared from similar chemical constituents, which thus presented higher surface area. The catalytic activity of such substantially amorphous catalysts can be increased yet further by grinding the catalyst to smaller particle sizes. Particle sizes less than 10 .mu.m are desired.
The grinding process is very time intensive. Moreover, the moist, bulk filter cake produced during catalyst preparation retains a substantial amount of complexing agent, even after considerable time drying in vacuo. During this intensive grinding, surface modifications to the catalyst particles due to the inherent nature of the grinding operation may cause changes in catalytic activity. Thus, an increase in activity due to smaller particle size may be offset, at least in part, by a decrease in activity due to changes in surface morphology. Surface morphology may also affect properties other than activity per se. For example, double metal cyanide catalysts produced in finely ground form may also exhibit reactor fouling, in which gel-like and presumably very high molecular weight products accumulate in the reactor.
It would be desirable to provide a process by which double metal cyanide complex catalysts may be prepared with reduced processing time. It would be further desirable to be able to prepare double metal cyanide complex catalysts of small particle size without the risk of altering surface morphology by intensive grinding. It would be yet further desirable to prepare double metal cyanide complex catalysts which offer increased handling ease, increased storage stability, less reactor fouling during polymerization, and higher catalytic activity.


A method for forming a contact hole of a capacitor of a DRAM cell is disclosed. The method includes forming a first conductive layer on a semiconductor substrate, and forming a first dielectric layer on the first conductive layer. After patterning to etch the first dielectric layer and the first conductive layer, a second dielectric layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate and the first dielectric layer. Next, the second dielectric layer is anisotropically etched back to form a first spacer on sidewalls of the first dielectric layer and the first conductive layer. A first silicon oxide layer is formed over the semiconductor substrate, the first dielectric layer, the first spacer, followed by patterning to etch the first silicon oxide layer, wherein the first spacer and the first dielectric layer are used for facilitating self-aligned etching. Thereafter, a second conductive layer is formed over the semiconductor substrate, wherein surface of the first silicon oxide layer is exposed, and a second silicon oxide layer is formed over the second conductive layer and the first silicon oxide layer. Finally, patterning to etch a portion of the second silicon oxide layer to expose a portion of the second conductive layer, therefore a contact hole of the capacitor is formed.

Recently, demand for semiconductor devices has rapidly increased owing to widespread use of electronic equipment. In particular, the increasing popularity of some electronic equipment such as computers, for example, is increasing the demand for large semiconductor memories.
Early DRAMs used storage cells each consisting of three transistors and were manufactured using P type channel metal-oxide-semiconductor (PMOS) technology. Later, a DRAM storage cell structure consisting of one transistor and one capacitor was developed. In fabricating the capacitor, a contact hole is firstly patterned to form a capacitor node. Next, a polysilicon patterning is performed to form a lower plate of the capacitor.
As semiconductor memory devices becomes more highly integrated, the area occupied by a capacitor of a DRAM storage cell typically shrinks. Thus, the capacitance of the capacitor is reduced owing to its smaller electrode surface area. However, a relatively large capacitance is required to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio in reading the memory cell and to reduce soft errors (due to alpha particle interference). Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the cell dimension and yet obtain a high capacitance, thereby achieving both high cell integration and reliable operation.
Furthermore, as semiconductor memory devices become more highly integrated, the aspect ratio of the contact holes increase, resulting in difficulties in fabricating the capacitors. Accordingly, there is a need for a method of forming a DRAM capacitor having a contact hole with a low aspect ratio and high capacitance.

Method of forming a dynamic random access memory

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation


A manipulator assembly for attachment to a bucket of a construction vehicle is disclosed. The manipulator assembly includes a universal attachment apparatus for attaching a utility tool to the bucket. The universal attachment apparatus includes a housing adapted to support the utility tool, at least one mounting bracket connected to the housing, and at least one mounting arm having a first end and a second end, the first end being connected to the mounting bracket. The mounting arms further include feet positioned adjacent the quick-release connector for allowing the utility tool to pivot relative to the bucket. A quick-release connector is mounted to the second end of the mounting arm for selectively securing the housing to the bucket. A biasing device is disposed on the quick-release connector for continuously urging the quick-release connector into engagement with the bucket. Therefore, the bucket remains free of the quick-release connector and the biasing device when the utility tool is removed from the bucket.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to manipulator assemblies for attachment to a bucket of a construction vehicle, specifically for attachment of utility tools to a front loader.
2. Description of the Related Art
Utility vehicles which incorporate a front loading bucket are prevalent in industry for scooping quantities of material and moving the material from one place to another. These front loading systems can be removably mounted to vehicles such as a farm tractor, or they may be integrally mounted on a vehicle dedicated to the front loading task. The general construction of a front loader also lends itself to performing multiple tasks other than scooping quantities of material. However, in order to perform these other tasks the user is often required to remove the bucket to mount an alternate apparatus or attachment to the front loader for use. Removing the bucket and attaching a new apparatus to the front loader is often time consuming and thus an inefficient use of time and equipment.
One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,689 to Schneider et al. The '689 Patent discloses a quick attachment system for attaching a bucket to a vehicle. The vehicle has a pair of lift arms positioned adjacent the bucket. The user exits the vehicle and positions an alignment member into a locking bracket on the bucket. Once the alignment member is positioned, the user operates a lever that forces the pins into the lift arms. The bucket is now attached to the vehicle for use. However, the '689 Patent does not disclose, teach, or suggest attaching utility tools to the bucket, while the bucket remains attached to the vehicle.
While some attachments may require direct mounting to the front loader after the bucket is removed, there are lighter duty attachments for which this requirement is not a necessity. For these lighter duty accessories, attachment to the bucket precludes the necessity for bucket removal, mounting of the apparatus, and then reversing the process after the use of the attachment has been completed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,512 to Felstet and U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,938 to Logan illustrate attachment mechanisms for attaching a tool to a bucket. The '512 Patent discloses an implement being connected to a bucket having sockets for receiving the implement. The implement is secured to the bucket by inserting bolts through the bucket and into the implement. The '938 Patent discloses a hinged attachment for connecting the tool to a bucket. The attachment is connected to a plate with hinges that engage the bucket. The attachment pivots about the hinges and then pins are used to secure the base of the attachment to the bucket. Another assembly, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,832 to Hagger, discloses a bucket mounted sweeper. The sweeper has rods that engage hinges on the bucket. The sweeper is utilized to sweep material into the bucket. The sweeper does not have any other attachment means, therefore the sweeper is able to pivot as the bucket is raised and lowered.
Accordingly, the related art systems are characterized by one or more inadequacies. There is a need for a utility tool and universal attachment, which can be quickly attached to a bucket for use in industrial, construction, farm operations, etc. Additionally, the related art systems require the buckets to have specially designed components to engage the attachments and prevent the attachment from being attached to differently sized buckets. Furthermore, these components are actually directly attached to the bucket, thereby requiring additional time and effort to remove the components in order to use the bucket. Also the use of the bucket is hindered by the components. The related art systems also require skilled operators to have efficient operation of the utility tools.


A process for the electronic stabilization of the images of a scene of a snapshot capturing apparatus of an imaging system in which, in a terrestrial reference frame, the images of the scene captured by the apparatus are filtered in a low-pass filter, so as to retain only the low spatial frequencies thereof, and the optical flow equation is solved to determine the rotations to be imposed on the images in order to stabilize them with regard to the previous images is provided. The invention also relates to a process for correcting offsets in grey levels of a snapshot capturing apparatus of an imaging system whose images are stabilized according to the process of the invention, where the calculation of the offsets is deduced from the steps of the stabilization process.

The invention relates to the electronic stabilization of the images captured by an observation apparatus of an imaging system, such as portable thermal observation binoculars or observation or guidance cameras.
The carrier of the apparatus, whether it be a person or a weapon, may be in motion, on the one hand, and create all kinds of vibrations, on the other hand, and, from a certain magnification onwards, one no longer sees anything on the images which are too blurred. They must then be stabilized in order to circumvent the effects related to the trajectory of the carrier and also those caused by the vibrations to which the apparatus is subjected, in short, to compensate for the 3D motions of the apparatus.
Within the context of the present patent application, stabilization will be regarded as involving the mutual registration of the successive images supplied by the observation apparatus. More precisely, image k+1 differing from image k owing to rotations in roll, pitch and yaw, change of focal length (in the case of a camera whose zoom factor may be varied), translations and angular and linear vibrations, it is necessary to impose opposite zoom factors and rotations in order to stabilize image k+1 with respect to image k.
To do this, it is already known how to determine these rotations but via gyroscopic means based on an inertial reference frame. These are excessively powerful means. The applicant has sought a much less unwieldy and cheap solution and thus proposes his invention.

Process for the stabilization of the images of a scene correcting offsets in grey levels, detection of mobile objects and harmonization of two snapshot capturing apparatuses based on the stabilization of the images


A display device is provided which is capable of inhibiting a localized elevation in the temperature of a casing thereby uniformalizing the surface temperature distribution over the casing. A display device includes: a display panel having surface arrays of plural pixels for displaying an image by light radiation control on a pixel to pixel basis; an electronic component forming a control circuit configured to perform the light radiation control; a casing housing the display panel and the electronic component therein; and a flat heat-conductive sheet interposed between the display panel and the casing and between the electronic component and the casing.

Plasma display panels (hereinafter will be referred to as PDPs) have become widespread as display devices of which representatives are thin-screen televisions. PDPs are display devices capable of thin and large screen display. The volume of production of PDPs is increasing by leaps and bounds year by year like liquid crystal display panels. A large number of technical literature documents have already been published concerning the display technology for plasma display devices using such PDPs (see non-patent document 1 for example).
Since such a plasma display device utilizes plasma discharge to display an image, the temperature of the PDP thereof is likely to become high. In addition, the control circuit for controlling the image display operation of the PDP includes a number of electronic components that generate heat. Accordingly, the temperature within the casing of such a plasma display device is likely to be elevated. For this reason, the plasma display device is provided with appropriate heat dissipation measures.
For example, FIG. 11 shows one exemplary construction of a conventional plasma display device using a PDP as a display device. Specifically, FIG. 11(a) is a rear view showing the plasma display device (in a condition without a back cover 18 to be described later) as viewed from behind and FIG. 11(b) is a sectional view, taken along line VB-VB of FIG. 11(a), of the plasma display device.
As shown in FIG. 11, a rectangular PDP 111 has a rear joined and fixed to a rectangular chassis 12 (i.e., a back member) having a slightly larger area than the PDP 11. The chassis 12 in a condition fixed to the PDP 111 is secured to a leg portion 13 serving as a pedestal of the plasma display device 150.
A front cover 15, which is positioned on the front of the PDP 11, has an opening matching a display surface of the PDP 11. A protective panel 14 is mounted on the front cover 15 so as to fit the opening.
On the rear of the chassis 12, a circuit board 17 carrying various electronic components 16 (including a driver LSI for example) mounted thereon for driving the PDP 11 is fixed to the chassis 12 as spaced a fixed clearance from the rear surface of the chassis 12 by means of a spacer S.
A back cover 18 is mounted on the leg portion 13 so as to embrace the PDP 11, the chassis 12, the electronic components 16 and the circuit board 17 from behind. The front cover 15 is fitted on a front portion of this back cover 10.
The back cover 18 is provided at suitable portions thereof with plural air intake holes 19a, 19b and 19c for allowing air to flow into the plasma display device 150 therethrough and plural air exhaust holes 19d and 19e for exhausting air exteriorly of the plasma display device 150.
As compared with other displays such as a liquid crystal display panel and a cathode-ray tube, the PDP 11 is likely to be heated to elevated temperatures due to image display relying upon discharge light emission. Since the PDP 11 uses a higher driving voltage than other displays (driving voltage: 200 to 300 V), the electronic components 16 (including the driver LSI for example) mounted on the circuit board 17 are also likely to be heated to elevated temperatures. Further, there is a tendency to raise the driving voltage for the driver LSI in order to raise the luminous efficiency of the PDP 11. This tendency makes the thermal problem of the plasma display device 160 more noticeable.
As shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of rod-shaped heat transfer members 20a and 20b are provided in order to allow heat generated from the PDP 11 and the electronic components 16 to dissipate to the back cover 18 efficiently. Each of the heat transfer members 20a and 20b has one end brought into contact with at least one of the PDP 11 via the chassis 12 and the circuit board 17 (into contact with the PDP 11 in FIG. 11) and an opposite end brought into contact with the back cover 18.
Thus, the rod-shaped heat transfer members 20a and 20b are positioned to allow heat transfer to occur between the back cover 18 and at least one of the PDP 11 and the circuit board 17.
Such rod-shaped heat transfer members 20a and 20b are evenly distributed in the lower and upper halves of the back cover 18 as shown in the plan view at FIG. 11(a). When the back cover 18 is equally divided into the upper half and the lower half, three rod-shaped heat transfer members 20a interconnecting the back cover 18 and the PDP 11 are arranged side by side horizontally of the plasma display device 150 in the upper half of the back cover 18. Similarly, three rod-shaped heat transfer members 20b interconnecting the back cover 18 and the PDP 11 are arranged side by side horizontally of the plasma display device 150 in the lower half of the back cover 18.
A structure achieving an effect similar to the heat dissipation effect of such rod-shaped heat transfer members 20a and 20b has already been published (see patent document 1). According to the design for heat dissipation described in this patent document 1, an electronic component that is likely to be heated to elevated temperatures and a rear portion of a casing are interconnected by a heat transfer member, so that heat generated from the electronic component is allowed to be transferred to the rear portion of the casing through the heat transfer member and then dissipated externally. Therefore, such a structure is capable of inhibiting an elevation in the temperature within the casing.
In attempt to minimize the elevation in the temperature within the casing of the plasma display device due to long-time display operation of the PDP, various heat dissipation techniques for the plasma display device have been developed hitherto.
For example, a plasma display device, which is intended to efficiently suppress localized heat generation by the PDP, has been disclosed, wherein: a heat-conductive sheet comprising silicone rubber or the like is interposed between the PDP and a heat-conductive plate of aluminum in order to improve the heat transfer coefficient between the PDP and the heat-conductive plate thereby enhancing the thermal intimacy therebetween; and plural heat pipes, radiator fins and a heat dissipation fan are disposed above the heat-conductive plate (see patent document 2).
Also, a cooling structure for plasma displays has been disclosed wherein a radiator joined to a PDP-supporting chassis and to an electronic component is joined to a rear cover having a high thermal conductivity which comprises an aluminum plate for example, thereby making it possible to dissipate heat generated from the PDP and the electronic component to the rear cover efficiently (see patent document 3).
Further, a PDP rear frame which has its weight kept light and is excellent in strength and heat dissipation property has been obtained by forming a linear ridge-groove structure on an internal surface of a PDP rear frame having an excellent thermal conductivity (comprising an aluminum plate for example) (see Patent document 4).
Non-patent document 1: FLAT PANEL DISPLAY 1999 (NIKKEI MICRODEVICES)
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-338904
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 11-251777
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-347578
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-242792


A laser survey instrument, which is arranged on an optical axis of an emitted polarized irradiation light beam and is provided with a reflection light blocking means for blocking an incident reference light having a polarizing member and a 1/4 wave birefringence member, whereby a harmful reflection light is blocked by the reflection light blocking means to improve detection accuracy of a signal light to be detected.

The present invention relates to a laser survey instrument, whereby laser beam is irradiated from a main unit to the object reflector and the laser beam reflected by the object reflector is detected, thus detecting the object reflector and confirming irradiating position of the laser beam.
To determine a reference for height in the field of public works and construction works, a laser survey instrument is now used, which irradiates a laser beam in a horizontal plane by rotary scanning to form a reference line or a reference plane laser beam.
In recent years, visible semiconductor laser has been introduced in practical application, and a laser survey instrument using the visible semiconductor laser has also appeared, facilitating visual operation for survey. In such laser survey instrument, laser output is limited from the viewpoint to ensure safety for the operator. For this reason, in the operation or measurement requiring visual confirmation of reflection of the laser beam, operation distance is comparatively short.
To overcome this disadvantage, a new type of laser survey instrument is now used in practical application, which is based on reciprocal scanning of a laser beam, raises apparent luminance of the laser beam and ensures a longer operation distance. In order to perform reciprocal scanning within a proper range, it is necessary to identify a scanning position. For this purpose, a laser survey instrument has been proposed, which detects a laser beam reflected from an object reflector installed at an operation point and detects the position of the object reflector. Further, this laser survey instrument emits laser beam in a vertical direction in addition to the laser beam emitted in a horizontal direction and projects the position of floor surface on ceiling. The projection of the laser beam to the ceiling is used for setting-out to indicate positioning on the ceiling and the like in construction work.
In such a laser survey instrument, in order to identify the object reflector, the emitted laser beam is turned to a polarized light beam, and it is designed in such manner that the polarized light reflected from the object reflector has a direction of polarization different from that of the emitted light. In so doing, it is possible to discriminate the object reflector from other unnecessary reflectors such as glass surface, which reflects the light while maintaining the direction of polarization.
In the conventional laser survey instrument as described above, the polarized light of the reflected light beam from the object reflector can be made different from the direction of polarization of the emitted light when the object reflector is used. However, the object reflector cannot be used for the laser beam running in a vertical direction such as the one projected to the ceiling. Therefore, in case a surface irradiated by the laser beam running in a vertical direction is near the survey instrument main unit or in case the irradiated surface has high reflectivity or a reflector having high reflectivity is present, a "harmful" reflected laser beam having the same polarized light as that of the emitted laser beam enters the laser survey instrument main unit, thereby causing erroneous operation in the detection of the object reflector.

Laser survey instrument having a reflection light blocking means


A semiconductor laser driving device is mounted on an information recording and reproduction device, and is suitably used for recording and reproducing information. The semiconductor laser driving device includes: a semiconductor laser for emitting a laser light; and a temperature detection unit for detecting a temperature of the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser driving device changes the output of the laser light based on the detected temperature. Thus, the semiconductor laser driving unit can suitably improve response characteristics of the semiconductor laser, irrespective of the temperature of the semiconductor laser. Therefore, the semiconductor laser driving device can ensure recording performance onto an optical disc without being affected by the temperature of the semiconductor laser.

Conventionally, it is known that rise-up and fall-down of a response of a semiconductor laser in correspondence with a laser driving signal are delayed by semiconductor laser characteristics and frequency characteristics of a semiconductor laser driving device. If the response is delayed, it sometimes becomes problematic that sufficient laser power necessary for recording onto an optical disc cannot be obtained and accurate recording becomes impossible.
Generally, there is known such a technique that the correction signal is superimposed on the laser driving signal and the semiconductor laser is driven by the superimposed signal in order to solve the problem. For example, Patent Reference-1 discloses such a technique that a differentiated laser signal is used as the correction signal and the correction signal is superimposed on the laser driving signal.
Patent Reference-1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open under No. 2003-209319
By the way, it is known that, as for the semiconductor laser such as a blue laser diode, the response characteristics are changed by the temperature of the semiconductor laser. In addition, the laser power necessary for recording is different dependently on the number of recording layers of the optical disc for recording. For example, it is necessary that the laser driving signal having substantially double laser power of a one-layer optical disc is used for a two-layer optical disc.
However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, since the correction signal is used without any change based on the temperature of the semiconductor laser and the number of recording layers of the optical disc, the suitable correction of the laser driving signal is not sometimes executed. For example, when the correction signal set in the ordinary temperature is used in the high temperature of the semiconductor laser, the excessive response is generated from the semiconductor laser, and ringing occurs to the laser light outputted from the semiconductor laser, which sometimes deteriorates recording performance. On the other hand, when the correction signal set in the ordinary temperature is used in the low temperature of the semiconductor laser, the sufficient correction is not executed, which sometimes deteriorates the recording performance.

Semiconductor laser driving device and semiconductor laser driving method


Techniques are provided for compressing and decompressing image data which may reduce the distortion that may otherwise be created by the compression of data values representative of null posts, overlays or other features that differ from the underlying image. In compression, at least one coefficient generated by a forward wavelet transform may be replaced with respective replacement coefficients. The transformed image data is then subjected to an inverse wavelet transform to generate modified image data in which the data values which differ from the underlying image have been replaced by interpolated or extrapolated values. The modified image data may be compressed in accordance with wavelet-based image compression. Alternatively, wavelet image compression may be applied directly to the coefficients resulting from the modified forward wavelet transform. In decompression, the compressed image data may be decompressed and data values representative of null posts or other features may be replaced with their original values.

In order to facilitate storage and transfer of imagery data, the imagery data must oftentimes be compressed. As such, various lossy compression techniques have been developed. For example, a number of lossy wavelet-based compression techniques utilizing wavelet transforms have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional spectral decompositions such as Fourier and cosine transforms. See, for example, G. Strang and T. Nguyen, Wavelets and Filter Banks, Welleslay-Cambridge Press, Welleslay Mass. (1996).
However, image data may sometimes include data values that are significantly different than the adjacent data values and are not representative of the underlying image. In regards to elevation data, such as that utilized by aircraft navigation programs, null posts are inserted in the image data to provide a default elevation for those locations for which actual elevation data is unavailable. In order to identify the null posts as a placeholder as opposed to an actual elevation value, null posts having an elevation value of −32,768 meters may be utilized since this elevation value otherwise never occurs. As another example, the image data representative of an image to be presented upon a computer monitor or other display, such as the image represented by a JPEG file may include a textual or graphical overlay that is defined by corresponding data values that differ significantly from the data values representative of the underlying image adjacent the textual or graphical overlay. In these instances, the lossy compression of the data values representative of the null posts, the textual or graphical overlays or other features that are distinct from the underlying image may cause distortion in the resulting image, i.e., the image following compression and then subsequent decompression. This distortion is due to quantization which may cause the data values representative of the null posts or graphical or textual overlays, for example, to deviate from their original value, thereby rendering it more difficult to properly identify each of these data values. For example, a data value representative of a null post may not be recognized as such a data value if its value has been perturbed from the pre-assigned value of −32,768. Additionally, the lossy compression of the data values representative of null posts, textual or graphical overlays or other features that are distinct from the underlying image may cause blurring and aliasing effects that cause the oftentimes extreme values of these data values to adversely effect the values of adjacent pixels which, therefore, disadvantageously alter the resulting decompressed image. As such, it would be desirable to provide a technique to permit more accurate reconstruction of image data following lossy wavelet-based compression even in instances in which the image data includes data values representative of a null post, an overlay or some other feature that is not included within the underlying image.
One technique for minimizing the distortion in the resulting images defines regions of interest that include those data values representative of null posts, overlays, or other features that differ from and are not a portion of the underlying image. Each region of interest may be compressed via a lossless compression technique in a manner distinct from the lossy wavelet-based compression to which the remainder of the image is subjected. While the resulting image will have less distortion, the use of lossless compression for the regions of interest reduces the amount of compression and therefore disadvantageously increases the size of the resulting image file. Accordingly, it would also be desirable to subject all of the image data to lossy wavelet-based compression so as to maintain relatively good compression performance while minimizing the distortion in the resulting image even in instances in which the image data includes null posts, overlays or other features that are not present in the underlying image.

Method and computer program product for compressing and decompressing imagery data

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


The present invention is directed toward Kentucky bluegrass varieties containing mutant allele BARHGTMA1 that exhibit resistance to diseases, pests and traffic. Specifically, the Kentucky bluegrass variety of the present invention, ‘Barvette’, exhibits the unique and surprising combination of resistance to Summer Patch caused by the fungus Magnaporthe poae, traffic tolerance and recovery, increased billbug and white grub tolerance, stem rust resistance and increased tolerance to summer stresses. The invention relates to seeds, plants and plant parts of Kentucky bluegrass variety ‘Barvette’, and also to progeny of Kentucky bluegrass variety ‘Barvette’ and to methods for producing other Kentucky bluegrass plants or plant parts from ‘Barvette’, and to the plants and parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid Kentucky bluegrass seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing ‘Barvette’ with another Kentucky bluegrass variety, species of Poa, or plant genus.

The present invention relates to new Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) varieties containing mutant allele BARHGTMA1 that exhibit resistance to diseases, pests and traffic, exemplified herein by Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) variety designated 'Barvette', also known as 'Barvette' with the trademark HGT. All publications cited in this application are herein incorporated by reference.
Turfgrass plays a major role in our daily life. Turfgrass, from a beautification standpoint, provides a canvas for landscaped areas contributing to aesthetic appeal and adding to economic value. Recreational facilities include an array of sports fields, golf courses, parks and lawns. Turfgrass also provides functional value including dust control, erosion control, reduced surface temperatures and glare reduction.
Use and appearance are important considerations for turfgrass. To best serve a particular function, the turf should be suitable for the use for which it is intended and aesthetically appealing. Turfgrass should also be well-adapted to the environment where it will be planted. Based on climatic adaptation, turfgrass species have been placed into four categories: adapted for cool humid regions, warm humid regions, cool arid regions, and warm arid regions. The major turfgrasses adapted to the cool humid regions, and irrigated areas of the cool arid regions, are species of Agrostis, Poa, Festuca, and Lolium. In the warm humid and irrigated areas of the warm arid regions, the major adapted turfgrasses are species of Cynodon, Zoysia, Stenotaphrum, Eremochloa, Paspalum, Festuca, and Agropyron. In the non-irrigated warm arid regions, species of Buchloe and Bouteloua are adapted.
Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), also called smooth meadow grass, spear grass and June grass, is a perennial species of grass native to Europe, northern Asia and the mountains of Algeria and Morocco. Although the species is spread over all of the cool, humid parts of the United States, Kentucky bluegrass is native only to the subarctic and arctic portions of North America. Kentucky bluegrass forms a valuable pasture plant, characteristic of well-drained, fertile soil, and is a popular sod-forming grass that is used on golf courses, ski slopes, campsites, gardens and lawns. Kentucky bluegrass is also an important forage species for sheep and cattle. The name Kentucky bluegrass derives from its flower heads, which are blue when the plant is allowed to grow to its natural height of two to three feet.
Since 1985, almost 600 varieties of Kentucky bluegrass have been developed and evaluated in the National Turf Evaluation Program (NTEP) in the United States alone. Some varieties tolerate southern climates better than others, some have moderate shade tolerance, and some tolerate closer mowing. Many of these grasses also differ in their degree of susceptibility to diseases. Kentucky bluegrass is distinguished from Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa) by its darker green foliage, longer leaves, rounded culms and pubescence at the bases of the leaves, whereas P. compressa has strongly compressed, flattened culms. Kentucky bluegrass can also be compared to Annual Meadowgrass (Poa annua) and Rough Meadowgrass (Poa trivialis), which have a ligule that is silvery and pointed, whereas Kentucky bluegrass has a ligule that is extremely short and square ended.
Kentucky bluegrass typically grows 18 to 36 inches tall and is readily identified by its boat-shaped leaf tip. Kentucky bluegrass spreads by rhizomes and tillers and forms a dense sod. New shoots (rhizomes and tillers) are produced primarily in the spring and late summer. Most shoots produced in the spring remain vegetative, while shoots produced in late summer often terminate in an inflorescence the following spring. The lifetime of a Kentucky bluegrass shoot that terminates in an inflorescence ends soon after the seeds mature.
Kentucky bluegrass is often included in seed mixes that are used to revegetate roadbanks Kentucky bluegrass is a slow-growing grass that establishes in 2 to 3 years and forms a dense sod. Kentucky bluegrass grows best on well-drained loams or clay loams rich in humus and on soils with limestone parent material. Kentucky bluegrass requires large amounts of nitrogen during active growth stages and has an optimal soil pH of between 6 and 7. Additionally, Kentucky bluegrass is intolerant of drought, excessive flooding, high water tables, and poorly drained soils, and is often vulnerable to fungal infections including Summer Patch caused by Magnaporthe poae Lanschoot & N. Jackson, Fusarium, Helminthosporium, leaf spot, rust and powdery mildew, as well as infestation by billbugs and white grubs.
It is therefore desirable to have Kentucky bluegrass plants that are tolerant of summer stresses, and resistant to disease, pests and traffic.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.

Kentucky bluegrass variety named ‘Barvette’ selected for healthy turf


Described herein are methods for making retinoids. Also described herein are retinoids and methods of use thereof.

Retinoid receptors and other members of this superfamily of nuclear receptors, which include the steroid, thyroid and vitamin D hormone receptors and other "orphan" receptors without known ligands, are new targets for drug development (1). It is thought that retinoic acid (RA) and synthetic retinoids act as ligand-dependent transcription factors with different members of nuclear retinoid receptors to control gene transcription responsible for cellular proliferation, differentiation, development and cell death (2). Two classes of nuclear retinoid receptors (RARs and RXRs) have been identified so far, and each has several different subtypes (α, β, γ). Both (all-E)- and (9Z)-RA bind to RARs and activate transcription mediated by RAR/RXR heterodimers, but (9Z)-RA is the most potent retinoic acid isomer for the RXRs that mediate transcription by forming homodimers or heterodimers.
Recent advances in chemotherapy and chemoprevention have heightened interest in the use of retinoids for preventing or treating several types of cancer, and major therapeutic successes have been demonstrated with retinoids in certain leukemias (3). (all-E)-RA treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) leads to a 90% complete remission rate in these patients by inducing normal maturation and apoptosis of APL myeloblasts to neutrophils, but this differentiation therapy is transient and is commonly followed by relapse within 3-15 months, probably due to the development of resistance to retinoic acid (4). (13Z)-RA effectively controls the excessive myeloproliferation in up to 50% of children with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) (5). However, this treatment is not curative and at best can lead to a period of prolonged stabilization of disease, but ultimately patients need to undergo allogenic bone marrow transplantation (4, 6).
All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) is the first example of a FDA-approved agent used for differentiation therapy (rather than standard cytotoxic cancer chemotherapy) of patients with APL. Even though it has been shown to be highly effective in APL treatment, clinical resistance occurs frequently with pharmacological doses of ATRA and APL patients often relapse (4). In order to provide more effective therapies, new highly active retinoids need to be identified in the expectation that lower doses of these agents would not induce resistance as rapidly as ATRA.
Some of the most promising retinoids in cancer prevention are 9cRA and related analogs that bind to RXRs. When 9cRA is added to the diet of rats, the number of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU)-induced mammary cancers was reduced by 92% (30). Because of excessive toxicity, however, the usefulness of 9cRA for chemoprevention of cancer in the human is limited (31-33). To increase the therapeutic index, considerable effort has been devoted toward synthesis of RXR-selective analogs of 9cRA (34, 35). Our laboratory has described the synthesis of several such retinoids and showed that these compounds were effective for the prevention of skin tumors and had lower toxicity than natural retinoids (36). Subsequently, we reported the synthesis of 9cUAB30 which is a selective agonist for the RXRs (37). We have recently shown that this retinoid is comparable in the chemopreventive efficacy of mammary cancers to 9cRA, but it is less toxic (Atigadda et al. J. Med. Chem., 2003).
Tamoxifen, an estrogen antagonist, was the first drug approved by the Federal Drug Administration for breast cancer prevention. This agent and other selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) have been evaluated as a major therapeutic modality in various stages of breast cancer (38). Anti-estrogen therapy, however, is not without risks and limitations; thus, new cancer chemopreventive agents that are effective and non-toxic are needed.
It would be desirable to produce retinoids in high yield and stereoselectivity. For example, retinoids generally possess multiple carbon-carbon double bonds with either cis or trans stereochemistry. Thus, one retinoid can have several stereoisomers depending upon the number of carbon-carbon double bonds. Although synthetic routes to retinoids have been developed, they do not produce retinoids in high yield and stereoselectivity. The methods described herein address this need.

Methods for making retinoids and uses thereof


For compressing a video signal, a local multiscale transform is applied to a frame of the video signal to obtain coefficient blocks. The coefficients of each block are distributed into coefficient groups associated with that block. A plurality of the coefficient groups associated with a block are processed. The processing of one of the groups comprises determining an exponent for encoding the coefficients of that group. Mantissas are determined for quantizing the coefficients of the plurality of groups in combination with the exponents respectively determined for these groups. Coding data including each exponent determined for a coefficient group and the mantissas quantizing the coefficients of the group in combination with this exponent are stored in an external frame buffer. The mantissas determined for quantizing the coefficients of one of the groups are represented in the coding data by a respective number of bits depending on the exponents determined for the plurality of coefficient groups.

The present invention relates to video processing and in particular to real-time video processing in dedicated hardware devices.
In the design of such dedicated hardware video processing devices, it is generally desired to reduce the need for external memory components, and for internal memory.
In a video processing device embodied as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), input frames are stored in a frame buffer usually located in external memory, because it does not fit in the device itself. For processing, several frames are loaded line by line to be stored in an internal memory of the device, called line buffer.
FIG. 1 shows the typical data flow and storage involved in a conventional video processing device 8. The input pixels 1 received at an input port 2 are stored into a frame buffer 4, usually implemented as one or more dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, via a DRAM interface 3. Then, the video processor 6 fetches lines from the DRAM 4 through the DRAM interface 3, storing them temporarily in the line buffer 5. The output 9 of processor 6 is fed to the output port 7 to be transmitted to the next device to which the video processing device 8 is connected. All image transfers are done in raster order, i.e. each frame full line by full line, and each line of a frame pixel by pixel from left to right.
In such a device 8, using an external DRAM 4 is required if the video processor 6 needs to process simultaneously pixels originating from different frames. This is necessary, for example, in applications such as deinterlacing, frame rate conversion, and overdrive processing in LCD timing controllers.
If the video processor 6 also needs to have access to pixels of different lines at the same time, a line buffer 5 of substantial size needs to be present inside the device 8. Important design parameters include the size of the DRAM 4, the available bandwidth between the device 8 and the DRAM chip(s) 4, and the size of the line buffer 5.
Considering input video frames of Y lines of X pixels each, with an input frame rate of F, the input pixel rate is X×Y×F not taking into account blanking. Typical values are X=1920, Y=1080 and F=50 or 60 FPS (frames per second). Similar parameters X′, Y′ and F′ describe the output frame size and frame rate. In order to output one pixel, the video processor 6 needs to have simultaneous access to a context of C lines of the input video frames, for N different video frames. The DRAM 4 must then be able to store at least N frames of video, i.e. a total of X×Y×N pixels. At the DRAM interface, the pixel rate is X×Y×F pixels per second for writing and X×Y×N×F′ pixels per second for reading. Typical data rates are then 1 billion pixels per second, which amounts to 30 Gb/s if a pixel is represented in RGB with 10 bits per channel. High transfer rates between the device 8 and the DRAM 4 are not desirable because they may require using a higher number of DRAM chips in parallel. The video processing device (in the case of an ASIC) then needs to have a large number of pins to access all the DRAM chips.
The required size of the internal video buffer 5 is X×C×N pixels. Hosting such a large line buffer in an ASIC is expensive, because it increases the die size of the ASIC, and has a negative impact on the manufacturing yield. It is thus desirable to limit as much as possible the size of the line buffer.
Compression techniques are a way of reducing both the required size of the internal memory and the bandwidth to the external DRAM chip(s). One way of using compression to this end is illustrated in FIG. 2. Between the input port 2 and the DRAM interface 3, an encoder 10 compresses the input pixel sequence for storage into DRAM 4. For operating the video processor 6, a decoder 20 receives the compressed pixel data read from DRAM 4 to restore decompressed pixel lines written into the decompressed line buffer 15 which may contain several adjacent lines forming a stripe. The video processor 6 reads pixel values from the decompressed line buffer 15, and delivers outputs pixels 9 via the output port 7.
The bandwidth to or from the external DRAM chip(s) is divided by the compression factor provided by the compression. The number/size of external DRAM chip(s) can be reduced in the same factor. Applying compression in such a context is disclosed in US 2007/0110151 A1, where a differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) scheme is used for compression.
In certain known compression techniques, the RGB pixels are converted to a YUV color space, and the color channels U are V and low-pass filtered and down-sampled by a factor of 2 horizontally. The frame is then stored in what is commonly called YUV 422 format. Other color sub-sampling schemes exist, like YUV 420 or YUV 411. Recovering the RGB pixels requires to first up-sample again the U and V color planes, and to do the color space conversion from YUV back to RGB. In this way, the color information is simply down-sampled. For certain kinds of contents, such as video games, reducing the color resolution introduces visible artifacts. Such compression schemes allow compression factors of 1.5:1, or 2:1 in the very best case.
More efficient compression schemes such as JPEG or JPEG-2000 are widely known. They offer a visual quality close to lossless with compression factor of 3 to 5. They are not well adapted though, because in most cases random access to an image region is not possible without decompressing the entire image. Also, it is desirable that the frame buffer compression process provides a constant bit rate (CBR) reduction factor in order to ensure that the peak bit rate for transmitting the frame buffers at a constant pixel rate is controlled.
There is a need for a new way of compressing videos to deal with frame and line buffer constraints in video processing devices while minimizing the impact of compression on the quality of the images being processed. There is also a need for a compression scheme usable in such a context, which provides a good tradeoff between compression ratio and image quality.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Frame buffer compression for video processing devices


A method and combined video display and camera system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system comprises a first sheet and a second sheet oriented parallel to the first sheet, the second sheet including a light diffuser. A light source is placed along an edge of the second sheet, wherein the second sheet diffuses light generated by the light source. One or more cameras are placed behind the second sheet to capture an image through the second sheet and the first sheet.

In video conferencing, two people communicate audio-visually. Each person is near a video conferencing terminal having a camera and a display. The camera captures the image of the person, which is transmitted to the distant person. The image of the distant person, is displayed on the display. Each person in the video conference is looking at his or her display to view the image of the other person. The camera is usually placed somewhere near the display. Since the person is looking at the display, the image captured by the camera is of the person looking away from the camera at the display. Each person is, thus unable to maintain eye contact. Absence of eye contact during a conversation greatly reduces the effectiveness of communication.
Many prior art systems use a two-way mirror, also called a half silvered mirror or beam splitter. A two-way mirror simultaneously reflects some light and passes some light. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art video conferencing system. A conferee 102 views the display 108 reflected in mirror 104 while the camera 106 captures images of the conferee 102. The image is captured from the same position that the conferee 102 is looking at. Teleprompters function this way.
Another prior art video conferencing system uses a terminal equipped with a beamsplitter for reflecting an image generated by a video display so that only the reflection and not a direct view of the display is seen by the conferee. The camera is positioned behind the viewing side of the beamsplitter to capture the conferee's image through the beamsplitter. The direct view of the display is blocked by an image blocking film applied between the beamsplitter and the display. Blocking the direct view of the video display greatly improves teleconferencing by eliminating the distraction of simultaneously viewing both the video display and the reflection of the display.
Prior art systems are quite bulky, especially when compared to modern display systems or modern teleconferencing systems. These systems waste a lot of energy, since a large amount of the energy radiated by the display is wasted since it goes through the two-way mirror.
Many prior art systems compute a three-dimensional model of the conferee. Then the model is used to render an image of the conferee as if a camera were placed just behind the screen. The three-dimensional model is computed from multiple views of the conferee captured by cameras near the display, or by illuminating the conferee using light of a particular known pattern, and using the data pertaining to the illumination caused by the light.
In another prior art system, the three-dimensional model is not computed, but the final virtual view from the direction of the display is estimated by visual flow interpolation techniques. All these methods are computationally expensive. Furthermore, they do not perfectly capture the required image, but just estimate it. Also, the closer the viewer is to the display, the larger the disparity between the images of the conferee captured by the various cameras, and the harder it is to compute an accurate three-dimensional model of the conferee. Also, such approximation models falter under improper lighting conditions and improper viewing conditions such as the presence of particulate matter or obstructions.
A prior art method for achieving eye-contact in a video conferencing situation uses a camera placed directly in the line of sight between the conferee and the display. Though a correct image of the user may be captured this way, the visual obstruction of the camera is not comfortable to the conferee.
An attachment mechanism removably secures the camera to a screen portion of a display screen such that the camera is disposed between the display screen and a person engaged in videoconferencing. The attachment mechanism can be a suction cup, strips of double-sided tape, or magnets. Magnetic force between the first and second magnets removably secures the camera to a screen portion of the flat panel display.
Other prior art systems use projection systems and are bulky in nature. Furthermore, these systems do not offer complete isolation of the camera sensor from the light due to the display, causing unwanted glare. Also, in many situations flat panel displays are preferred to projection systems due to image quality reasons.

Camera placed behind a display with a transparent backlight


The present invention discloses a method for synthesis of narrowly dipsersed colloidal PbS nanocrystals that offer size-tunable near-infrared emission. The stability and processibility of these near-infrared emitting quantum dots makes them ideal materials for device applications. The use of cost-effective and non-pyrophoric precursors as well as the success of larger scale reactions means the present invention provides a method for the industrial scale production of PbS nanocrystals.

Over the past decade tremendous efforts have been made optimizing the synthesis of semiconductor nanocrystal colloids. These 'quantum dot' materials, exhibiting 3D quantum confinement, are highly desired for their size-tunable optical properties. Synthetic routes utilizing organometallic precursors enables production of nanocrystalline particles with nearly monodisperse size dispersions as disclosed in (1). The resulting narrow emission bandwidths and luminescence efficiencies that are achieved through these controlled syntheses as disclosed in (2, 3, 4, 5) are required for applications such as optoelectronic devices (6–10) and biological fluorescence labeling (11–13). The explosive growth of the telecommunications industry has fueled the pursuit of luminescent quantum dots that emit at key NIR wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 μm. The vast majority of colloidal quantum dot research has focused on II–VI and III–V materials and includes substantial efforts in the development and exploration of InAs nanocrystalline materials (14, 15). Despite having a bulk band gap of 0.36 eV thus spanning the desired NIR energy region, InAs is a less than desirable material with which to work. Arsenic is highly toxic, and the synthetic routes to prepare the reaction precursors are extremely dangerous. Alternatively, semiconductors of group IV–VI materials, notably PbS with a bulk band gap of 0.41 eV, offers comparable size tunability and can be produced with inexpensive and effectively safer synthetic precursors.
Lead chalcogenide quantum dots are highly desirable as well for the strong-confinement limit offered by these small-band gap materials. Given that most II–VI and III–V semiconductor materials have large hole masses, strong quantum confinement is difficult to achieve with them. For example, as discussed by Wise (16). InSb has an exciton Bohr radius of 54 nm but the Bohr radius of the hole is only 2 nm, thus preventing strong confinement of the hole. In comparison, the electron and hole Bohr radii of the lead chalcogenides are an order of magnitude larger and imply large confinement energies. In the limit of strong confinement the third-order nonlinear optical response of PbS nanocrystals is expected to be huge, 30 times that of GaAs and 1000 times that of CdSe materials, thus rendering PbS highly desirable for photonic and optical switching device applications.
The pursuit of synthetic routes for the production of lead chalcogenide quantum dots is not a recent endeavor. These methods include solution phase, (17, 18) gas phase, (19) and solid-statei syntheses (20) as well as polymer films, (21) and glass host fabrication (22–24). The limitation of solution phase and gas phase syntheses is the inability to achieve tunable particle sizes. Conversely, the preparation of PbS and PbSe QDs in glass matrices has been extremely successful. These size tunable materials are narrowly dispersed, as evidenced by the well-resolved features in the absorption spectra.
A major drawback shared by all of the aforementioned methods is the inability to readily isolate the materials thus preventing incorporation into alternative media for post-synthetic applications such as device fabrication. This limitation is lifted when working with colloidal quantum dots prepared by the solution phase synthesis utilizing organometallic percursors such as that developed for the production of II–VI materials (2).

Synthesis of colloidal PbS nanocrystals with size tunable NIR emission


The present invention relates to distributed acoustic sensing using fiber-optic system. More particularly, the present invention describes use of frequency pulse labeling techniques and wavelength pulse labeling techniques for providing high bandwidth acoustic sensing in applications such as infrastructure monitoring. In one embodiment, a segmented sensing fiber is used with corresponding circulators in an architecture that controls the interrogation of each segment of the fiber. In another embodiment, a single continuous length of sensing fiber is used, but a plurality of pulse sequences with different wavelengths are used to interrogate. In both configurations, heterodyne beat frequency components are rejected by a processing scheme, resulting in a simple direct measurement of baseband phase information.

It is known that high resolution technique for distributed fiber optic acoustic sensing rely on Coherent Rayleigh (CR) effect which is applied for measurements of dynamic strain induced in the sensing fiber by propagating high pressure acoustic waves along an infrastructure, such as, production wells, pipelines, or by generating acoustic high frequency "noise" in a structure that has a leak. To identify the source of acoustic signal, it is necessary to have a signal proportional to the dynamic strain, i.e., a signal having a linear response, and therefore, CR signal must be phase demodulated.
It is also known that the one of the most robust system architectures able to multiplex very large number of sensing elements is time divisional multiplexing (TDM) architecture. Combined with high sensitivity, high resolution and low cross-talk between sensing elements, TDM architecture offers so far a great performance for distributed sensing.
Conventional techniques related to the TDM approach in distributed sensing for low frequency sensing applications, such as, seismic, downwell acoustic, downwell seismic, streamer, etc., typically have acoustic bandwidth below a few kHz. Interrogation of the backscattered pulses is done by using heterodyne demodulation, where an array of sensors is interrogated with two optical pulses that are frequency shifted relative to each other and separated in time by a period set to twice the transit time in the sensor fiber.
However, TDM architecture has one fundamental shortcoming, i.e. bandwidth (BW) of the detection depends on the sensing length. In TDM approach, a transmitter launches a series of short laser pulses into a sensing fiber with repeatable sequences at a pulse repetition rate PRFL. As a result, data is interrogated, i.e. sampled at a sample rate fs equal to PRFL, and correspondingly, Nyquist frequency, i.e. BW of the detection is equal to half of the PRFL.
To improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in interrogating time-multiplexed interferometric sensors some conventional techniques use multiple interrogating pulse pairs and phase modulators as a frequency shifter, such that optical frequencies produced in different transmission time-slots are different. This approach allows an increased duty cycle, acceptable SNR and acoustic bandwidth of the detection, and reduces cross-talk during interrogation. Still, this approach is based on the heterodyne interrogation which limits detection of acoustic frequencies up to 20-30 kHz only.
To increase acoustic bandwidth to higher frequencies, it is necessary to increase the pulse interrogation rate over the length of sensing fiber, and use time sequences with multiple pulses to avoid heterodyne detection of interrogating pulses.
What is needed is a system for distributed sensing which provides simpler measurement techniques for acoustic signal, and which is configured to reject undesired contribution from backscattered signals.

Pulse labeling for high-bandwidth fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing with reduced cross-talk


In case new and old toners may be mixed, a developing bias is set as follows. The time is first clocked. The number of times toner is replenished from a hopper into a buffer for a clocked period is counted. If a replenishment amount per clock time is a threshold value or higher, considering that new and old toners are mixed, the setting of the developing bias is changed. An electric field intensity between a developing roller and a photoconductor is set to cause normally-charged toner to fly in an image area but not to fly in a background area. No image fogging is therefore generated in the background area. Thus, an image forming apparatus and method capable of preventing low-charged toner and oppositely-charged toner generated by mixing of new and old toners from adhering to the background area of an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, thereby avoiding generation of image fogging.

An image forming apparatus is arranged to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a photoconductor and giving toner to the electrostatic latent image for development. An example thereof is described below. Firstly, a photoconductor is charged by a charging device and then the charged surface of the photoconductor is partly exposed by an exposure device to form an electrostatic latent image. Then, a developing bias is applied to attract the toner from a developing roller onto the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor. Accordingly, it is important for ensuring the quality of a printed material to cause a needed amount of toner to exactly or faithfully adhere to the electrostatic latent image in order to output clear and appropriately dark printed images. It is therefore preferable that the toner has an appropriate charge quantity.
In the image forming apparatus, however, the charging characteristics of toner stored in a buffer will change with time because the toner deteriorate due to repeated friction with a restriction blade, a supply roller, and others. At an initial stage, toner has good charging characteristics and little variation in charge quantity. This toner is charged by the restriction blade for development to have an appropriate charge quantity and is attracted onto the developing roller (hereinafter, referred to as "normally-charged toner"). On the other hand, the toner becomes hard to be charged due to some causes, for example, when an external additive comes off due to friction. This generates toner having a low charge quantity (hereinafter, referred to as "low-charged toner"). This low-charged toner may adhere to the background area of the electrostatic latent image to which the toner actually should not adhere. This results in image fogging during printing, leading to degradation in the quality of a printed material. Furthermore, as deterioration of the toner further progresses, some toner particles come to be charged oppositely to the normally-charged toner (hereinafter, referred to as "oppositely-charged toner"). The oppositely-charged toner tends to adhere to the background area rather than to the image area.
When images are continuously printed at high coverage (high printing rate), the toner in the buffer is consumed at once and accordingly a large volume of new toner is added into the buffer at a time. Thus, newly added toner and deteriorated toner are mixed. Due to this mixing of new and old toners, toner charge quantity distribution is broadened. This distribution is broader not only than the case of only new toner but also than the case of only deteriorated toner. In other words, a ratio of normally charged toner decreases, and ratios of the toner having a higher charge quantity than the normally-charged toner, the low-charged toner, and the oppositely-charged toner increase. The oppositely-charged toner may be electrically connected with the normally-charged toner to form combined toner. Such combined toner may also cause image fogging. To facilitate separation of the combined toner, therefore, Patent Literature 1 discloses a developing apparatus arranged to adjust, for a fixed period after toner is replenished, at least one of frequency and amplitude of an alternate current component of a developing bias to be larger than a condition for normal image formation.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


In a synthetic resin lens, a thermoplastic resin is caused to contain a blue pigment having the lowest value for light transmittance in 570-610 nm, and a pink pigment that, among blue light of 380-500 nm, has the highest value for light transmittance in 400-440 nm and the lowest value for light transmittance in 480-520 nm, resulting in a transparent achromatic lens having a lowest value for light transmittance in 570-610 nm. As a result, provided is a synthetic resin lens that, when used in sunglasses, corrective glasses, shields, or the like, has favorable contrast (visibility), few marked color changes when installed, and a natural color.

Conventionally, in a lens for glasses (sunglasses, vision correction), there has been a lens that absorbs or reflects light of the wavelength range of blue light from 380 nm to 500 nm, which is readily scattered, among visible light as a lens having a favorable visibility. The lens shields scattered light and, as a result, is sold as a lens having a favorable visibility with which a distant view can be sharply and clearly seen.
Furthermore, in a lens for glasses, an achromatic gray lens exists as a lens that has antiglare effect and exhibits few color changes when the glasses are installed from color seen by naked eyes.
Moreover, as a lens for glasses described in JP H9-43550A, a lens comprising a synthetic resin substrate in which lens the synthetic resin substrate contains an organic pigment having the maximum value of absorption near the center wavelength of the curve of the spectral luminous efficiency of the standard photometric observer, an ultraviolet absorbing agent, and a blue light absorbing agent and has the lowest value of the transmittance curve in a wavelength range of 550 to 585 nm, a transmittance of the lowest value of 25% or less, an average transmittance in the wavelength range of 590 to 660 nm of 15% or more, and an average transmittance in the wavelength range of 470 to 550 nm of 10% or more exists.