The present invention is directed at an improved device for joining together abutting railway rails between two railway ties. The rails to be joined together have a head portion, a web portion and a toe portion. The saddle is split at the bottom and joined with the two bottom (lower) bolts. The saddle hugs the base of the rail at the joint preventing differential vertical (shearing) displacement of the two rail ends. This can be used in insulated and non-insulated joints. The bolts are isolated from the bars and saddle and directly contact the rail.

Referring to FIG. 1, rail joints comprise of the two rails (1) connected together by a pair of joint (splice) bars (2) and a set of nuts (3) and bolts (4). Together they form the assembly shown in FIG. 1. Since their invention, rail joints have been a weakness in the railway track system. The joint is weaker than the rail section because the bending strength reflected by the section modulus of the two joint bars used at a joint is only a fraction (between twenty percent (20%) and fifty percent (50%)) of the section modulus of the rail section. The weaker joint section causes poor load distribution to the ties, excessive deflection of the rail and pumping of the track. To address this problem, railways worldwide adopted continuously welded rails, which in turn have their own set of problems. Unfortunately, we still need some joints in our system in order to separate the track into signal blocks. The signal bocks allow the train dispatcher to locate trains along the track. The signal blocks are also used for switching of the trains from one track to another and for rail break detection. For each signal block to work efficiently, the rails at adjacent blocks must be electrically isolated from one another.
Along came insulated joints (IJs) such as shown in FIG. 2. These joints have insulating materials (5) between the joint bars (6) and the rail (1) and between the bolts (4) and the rail (1) to ensure that, the two rails at the joint are electrically isolated from one another. Unfortunately, the insulator (5) is the Achilles heel of the IJ system. The polymer material cannot stand the contact and bending stresses from the passage of the train wheels. The problem is worsened by thermal stresses that arise from temperature swings. If the insulating material (5) is made from soft polymer such as rubber, it will cause the joint to flex excessively, loosen the bolts. The polymer will also ooze out at high temperatures. If the polymer is hard enough to maintain its molecular structure at high temperatures, it will be brittle in the winter months and unzip by brittle shear cracking. In either case, the strength of the joint and the excess displacement due to its geometry are not addressed.
In recent times, railways worldwide are pushing for Positive Train Control (PTC) systems that utilize Geo Positioning Satellites (GPS) to move trains. This will reduce the number of locomotive engineers required to operate a train. To ensure that switches are positively locked and lined up with the mainline requires that sturdier and better IJs be designed. Introduction of PTC in a dark territory will necessitate the use of IJs at all switches along the line for the same reason. This salient issue might surface in a few years reinforcing the fact that IJs are here to stay at least for the near term.

Device for insolated joint for joining rails


A surface-protected composite article, such as a missile component, is prepared with a heat-sink substrate, a first composite layer of an pre-ceramic-matrix structural composite material, and a second composite layer of a reinforced silicone pre-ceramic material. The silicone material is co-curable with the organic matrix of the first composite layer. The silicone at the surface of the article is thereafter converted to a silica refractory by an appropriate treatment such as exposure to an oxygen-rich plasma or a high-surface temperature. The silica protects the surface of the composite material.

This invention relates to composite structures and their preparation, and, more particularly, to a composite structure useful in hypersonic missiles that must withstand high aerothermal temperatures for a short period of time.
Some types of short-range missiles fly at several times the speed of sound and carry enough fuel to fly at most for a few minutes. The structural components of such missiles must withstand high mechanical loadings, surface abrasion and impact damage, and chemical attack over a wide skin temperature range of ambient temperature at launch to over 2000.degree. F. during flight. The structures must also protect the sensitive electronic and other devices located within the missile from the heat generated by skin friction as the missile flies.
The materials and structural configurations of the airframe are selected to function under the most extreme of these conditions, which are usually those encountered at the highest temperatures. Structural materials for use at high temperatures include metals such as steel and nickel alloys, ceramics, and some types of composites. Special types of structures such as honeycombs made from these materials are employed where appropriate. Additionally, ablative thermal protective systems can be used in some instances.
Each of these existing structural and protective approaches has drawbacks. The metallic alloys and ablative systems are heavy in relation to the structural strength and stiffness they provide. Ceramics tend to crack and fail prematurely. The available high-temperature organic-matrix composites provide marginal capability, while utilizing exotic organic compounds and processing which are potentially hazardous to human health. Most of these approaches are expensive to implement. Moreover, with the exception of ablative systems, the available structural techniques often provide more capability that is required for the short-range missile. The use of a nickel-alloy structural element, for example, typically provides high-temperature capability sufficient for hours of exposure, not just the few minutes of exposure required for the missile application.
There is a need for an improved approach to the materials and structures used in short-range, hypersonic missiles and other devices operating for relatively short periods of time in extreme-temperature and hostile environments. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.

Hybrid composite article and missile components and their fabrication


A method for treating a knife cutting edge with a laser deposition (sintering) process using a composition coating such as a diamond powder or a substance above 5 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. The coating providing an abrasion resistant cutting edge and creates a differential hardness on the total cutting edge. The differential hardness extends the cutting ability of the knife through a wear-resistant surface on a treated surface and a faster wear on an untreated surface causing the cutting edge to be self sharpening as the untreated surface wears away.

It has long been considered desirable to provide a cutting edge which will reduce or minimize the tendency for the edge to wear or abrade off, thereby minimizing the need to re-sharpen. For this purpose, knives used for cutting and the like, such as hunting, camping, fishing, kitchen, cutlery, meat or butchering industries and/or general purpose or special purpose knives are generally unsuitable for extended use before having to be re-sharpened.
Conventional cutting edges found on knives, scissors, shears, and the like are provided with a hardened blade or treated coating such as nitrating, sputtering, sintering, hot spraying, bonding or adhesion coated or other means to extend its edge holding characteristic. Consequently, it is necessary to use a sharpening method or system to re-sharpen the blade often.
The cutting edge of a blade, such as a knife blade, also has the disadvantage that it wears more rapidly and is damaged more readily, inasmuch as the area of the cutting surface due to abrasion and wear is markedly reduced owing to the removal of metal by abrasion and also because the cutting surface constitutes a material or finish that is continuously removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,681,846 discloses the advantages of tungsten carbide for use with reciprocating knife blades. In this disclosure a knife blade having outer layers of a relatively soft carrier material, such as steel or aluminum, and an inner layer of relatively hard material such as tungsten carbide. The inner layer may be deposited on one or the other, or both outer layers, or may be bonded thereto as a separate member, or may be inserted in cavities defined by these outer layers of carrier material. When assembled, the thickness of the harder inner layer varies in the longitudinal direction so that when the longitudinally extending cutting edge is used to cut in a reciprocating action, said edge will wear away in an uneven fashion producing a serrated edge which need not be sharpened as frequently as a conventional knife blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,243 discloses a method of making sharp-edged cutting elements in which one of two opposite surfaces of a work piece has a thin layer added thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,906 discloses a carbide deposition structure which includes a carbide electrode and workpiece, a low voltage, low frequency oscillator operably associated with the switch for turning the switch on and off and a high frequency, high voltage oscillator for initiating an arc between the electrode and workpiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,932 discloses a method and apparatus for the coating of a substrate with conductive material wherein a pendulously supported coating electrode disk carried by an oscillation-damped arm bears against substrate resiliently supported at two spaced-apart locations (e.g. a continuous tensioned band or endless conveyor carrying a number of bodies). A discharge is generated between the disk, which may have a continuous or discontinuous surface and the substrate while the disk is rotated in contact with the substrate. The discharge also serves to carry portions of the electrode disk material onto the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,579 discloses an improved razor blade and methods of making the same wherein the cutting edge formed by two intersecting surfaces is sputter deposited with a refractory material which is subsequently overlaid with a sputter deposited coating of material displaying adhesion to a final lubricious coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,373 discloses a knife blade that has a cutting portion which includes two adjoining faces defining a cutting edge and comprises a relatively soft or high wear base material and a relatively hard or low wear coating. One of the faces is formed by the relatively hard coating and the other face is formed by the relatively soft base material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,860 discloses a method of impregnating the surface of a metal substrate with wear resistant particles to impart wear resisting characteristics to the surface. The substrate surface is subjected to a relatively moving high-powered laser beam to cause localized surface melting in passes there across, and hard wear resistant particles injected into the melt.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,231 discloses surface-coated cemented carbide articles. This method comprises providing a 3-50% by weight dispersion of fine powders of 20 microns or less containing 50% or more of titanium carbide in a liquid consisting mainly of an organic solvent, applying a DC voltage of 10-500 volts to the surface of tungsten carbide base cemented carbides containing 4-30% of a binder metal in said dispersion to thus cause electrophoretic deposition of the fine powders thereon, heating the coated surface at a temperature of 1260-1550 degree C. in vacuum or in a reducing or inert atmosphere and thereby forming a coating layer consisting mainly of titanium carbide of 100 microns or less on the surface of the cemented carbides.
U.S. Patent No. 2006/0185254 discloses a diamond cutting-edge material and a manufacturing method thereof in that the diamond particles thinly coat with a metallic thin film compared to the conventional Nickel (NI) coating, and thus the present invention provides an edge including a plurality of diamond particles having a 100 um or less diameter at least partially coated with Titanium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,627 discloses a utility knife blade that involves joining a tool steel wire to a front edge of an alloy steel backing strip. The composite strip is then annealed, and the annealed strip is straightened to eliminate any camber therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,383 discloses a tungsten carbide alloyed with fluorine in amounts up to 0.5 wt % and possibly with fluorocarbon compositions by chemical vapor deposition, in which tungsten hexafluoride, hydrogen and a carbon-containing gas are used. The tungsten carbide coatings are deposited on construction materials and items made from them.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,166,371 discloses a cutting tool having a blade coated on one side with a hard coating living a laminar or layered microstructure. The coating includes at least one layer made of tungsten carbides substantially or entirely free of metallic tungsten.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,950 discloses an electrode rod for spark alloying of high melting compounds such as carbide and boride.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,616 and 5,431,071 disclose knife blades and methods of production by providing a knife blade with a cutting edge having a harder material than the body of the blade comprising a v-shaped cutting edge formed on a blank, and such that the cutting tip lies substantially central of the width of the blank with a coating of a material harder than the material of the blank.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,138 discloses a knife blade including a cutting edge formed on a blank. One side of the edge is provided with a coating formed by a particulate material in a matrix. The matrix is softer than the particulate material, and the coating is such that a considerable number of the particulates project from the matrix thereby defining a cutting tip on the cutting edge. The coating is cemented carbide such as tungsten carbide. The coating is provided by high pressure velocity oxy-fuel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,424 discloses a composite cutting blade for a knife or other cutting instrument. The blade is formed from a body section made of a strong tough material formed with a dovetail configuration along one edge thereof and a cutting edge section made of a hard durable material that has a matching dovetail configuration along one edge. In one embodiment the body is titanium and the cutting edge is high carbon stainless steel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,882 discloses a method of embedding tungsten carbide particles on an edge of a cutting tool such as a saw blade, a drill, or the like. The cutting edge is partially melted by an energy beam, for example a laser beam, or an electron beam. A laser beam is preferred since, then, the process can be carried out in air, or in a protective gas atmosphere, rather than in a vacuum. The beam partially melts the cutting edge and the granules of the hard metal particles, such as tungsten carbide.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,784 discloses a hard facing for an agricultural machine blade which contains tungsten carbide of to 100 um in particle size and a hardness of greater than 1400 HV in a matrix with hardness of 500 to 800 HV.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,684 discloses an electric discharge surface treating method providing a nitriding treatment, performed on a coated layer.
US 2007/0163128 discloses the fabricating of a blade wherein powder is placed upon a free edge and subjected to a laser beam to form a bead, the bead is then formed into a cutting edge. Tarrerias requires a uniform deposited bead of power, the composition of the powder must be uniform at all points along the bead and the powder is projected under pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,950 discloses an electrode rod for spark alloying. Koizumi teaches an electrode by use of a self propagating high temperature synthesis as applied to the preparation of an electrode for forming a high melting compound with an intense heat emission.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,994 discloses a cutting tool wherein a hard layer is layer bonded to the substrate at high temperature and high pressure, the hard layer consists of polycrystalline diamond or polycrystalline cubic boron nitrate, a refractory material section from the group of titanium carbonitride and titanium aluminum carbonitride, and a cobalt phase including adjuvant alloying materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,592,711 discloses a self sharpening cutting edge formed from a titanium alloy shank having a Rockwell C hardness less than 65 with a layer of carbide based electrode material having a material deposit of about 0.0002-0.0003 inches when said first bevel has an angle of between 10-15 degrees, said layer of electrode having a material deposit of about 0.0003-0.0004 inches when said first bevel has an angle of between 15-20 degrees, said layer of electrode material having a material deposit of about 0.0004-0.0005 inches when said first bevel has an angle of between 20-25 degrees, wherein said zone of differential wears before said first bevel allowing said edge to remain sharp.
What is needed is an apparatus and method that allows the average consumer to treat a knife cutting edge with an alloy of various carbides to form a high cutting edge that is self sharpening.

Laser deposition process for a self sharpening knife cutting edge


When interferon gamma (IFNG) is produced in mammalian cell lines a heterogenous population of IFNG polypeptides is obtained due to C-terminal processing of the IFNG polypeptide. Clearly, this constitutes a severe problem in that valuable polypeptide material is lost and, further, it is necessary to carry out time-consuming and cumbersome purification in order to obtain a homogenous population of active IFNG polypeptides having the desired length. It has now been found that an IFNG fragment containing 132 amino acid residues (truncated at the nucleotide level by introducing a stop-codon after the codon encoding amino acid residue no. 132) does not undergo C-terminal truncation or, at least, is not significantly C-terminally truncated. Furthermore, as the IFNG fragment containing 132 amino acid residues is active, this opens up the possibility of producing a homogenous active IFNG polypeptide in eukaryotic host cells, such as CHO cells. More particularly, the present invention relates to an IFNG polypeptide variant exhibiting IFNG activity and having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:12. In a highly preferred embodiment of the invention, the variant comprises at least one further modification, such as 1-10 further modifications, relative to the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:12. A particular preferred further modification is E38N+S40T.

Interferon gamma (IFNG) is a cytokine produced by T-lymphocytes and natural killer cells and exists as a homodimer of two noncovalently bound polypeptide subunits. The mature form of each dimer comprises 143 amino acid residues (shown in SEQ ID NO:17), the precursor form thereof includes 166 amino acid residues (shown in SEQ ID NO:18).
Each subunit has two potential N-glycosylation sites (Aggarwal et al., Human Cytokines, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1992) at positions 25 and 97. Depending on the degree of glycosylation the molecular weight of IFNG in dimer form is 34-50 kDa (Farrar et al., Ann. Rev. Immunol, 1993, 11:571-611).
The primary sequence of wild-type human IFNG (huIFNG) was reported by Gray et al. (Nature 298:859-863, 1982), Taya et al. (EMBO J. 1:953-958, 1982), Devos et al. (Nucleic Acids Res. 10:2487-2501, 1982) and Rinderknecht et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 259:6790-6797, 1984), and in EP 0 077 670, EP 0 089 676 and EP 0 110 044. The 3D structure of huIFNG was reported by Ealick et al. (Science 252:698-702, 1991).
Various naturally-occurring or mutated forms of the IFNG subunit polypeptides have been reported, including one comprising a Cys-Tyr-Cys N-terminal amino acid sequence (positions (−3)-(−1) relative to SEQ ID NO:17), one comprising an N-terminal methionine (position −1 relative to SEQ ID NO:17), and various C-terminally truncated forms comprising 127-134 amino acid residues. It is known that 1-15 amino acid residues may be deleted from the C-terminus without abolishing IFNG activity of the molecule. Furthermore, heterogenecity of the huIFNG C-terminus was described by Pan et al. (Eur. J. Biochem. 166:145-149, 1987).
HuIFNG muteins were reported by Slodowski et al. (Eur. J. Biochem. 202:1133-1140, 1991), Luk et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 265:13314-13319, 1990), Seelig et al., (Biochemistry 27:1981-1987, 1988), Trousdale et al. (Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 26:1244-1251, 1985), and in EP 146354. A natural huIFNG variant was reported by Nishi et al. (J. Biochem. 97:153-159, 1985).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,034 discloses thermostable recombinant huIFNG (rhuIFNG) variants having incorporated up to 4 pairs of cysteine residues to enable disulphide bridge formation and thus stabilization of the IFNG variant in homodimer form.
WO 92/08737 discloses IFNG variants comprising an added methionine in the N-terminal end of the full (residues 1-143) or partial (residues 1-132) amino acid sequence of wild-type human IFNG. EP 0 219 781 discloses partial huIFNG sequences comprising amino acid residues 3-124 (of SEQ ID NO:17). U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,959 discloses partial huIFNG sequences comprising residues 1-127, 5-146 and 5-127 of an amino acid sequence that compared to SEQ ID NO:17 has three additional N-terminal amino acid residues (Cys-Tyr-Cys). U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,689 discloses a DNA sequence encoding huIFNG without the 3 N-terminal amino acid residues (Cys-Tyr-Cys) and its expression in E. coli. EP 0 446 582 discloses E. coli produced rhuIFNG free of an N-terminal methionine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,762 discloses a peptide fragment of huIFNG comprising residues 95-134 thereof (relative to SEQ ID NO:18).
High level expression of rhuIFNG was reported by Wang et al. (Sci. Sin. B 24:1076-1084, 1994).
Glycosylation variation in rhuIFNG has been reported by Curling et al. (Biochem. J. 272:333-337, 1990) and Hooker et al., (J. of Interferon and Cytokine Research, 1998, 18: 287-295).
Polymer-modification of rhuIFNG was reported by Kita et al. (Drug Des. Deliv. 6:157-167, 1990), and in EP 236987 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,120.
WO 92/22310 discloses asialoglycoprotein conjugate derivatives of interferons, inter alia huIFNG.
IFNG fusion proteins have been described. For instance, EP 0 237 019 discloses a single chain polypeptide having region exhibiting interferon β activity and one region exhibiting IFNG activity.
EP 0 158 198 discloses a single chain polypeptide having a region exhibiting IFNG activity and a region exhibiting IL-2 activity. Several references described single chain dimeric IFNG proteins, e.g. Landar et al. (J. Mol. Biol., 2000, 299:169-179).
WO 99/02710 discloses single chain polypeptides, one example among many being IFNG.
WO 99/03887 discloses PEGylated variants of polypeptides belonging to the growth hormone superfamily, wherein a non-essential amino acid residue located in a specified region of the polypeptide has been replaced by a cysteine residue. IFNG is mentioned as one example of a member of the growth hormone super family, but modification thereof is not discussed in any detail.
IFNG has been suggested for treatment of interstitial lung diseases (also known as Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) (Ziesche et al. (N. Engl. J. Med. 341:1264-1269, 1999 and Chest 110: Suppl: 25S, 1996) and EP 0 795 332) for which purpose IFNG can be used in combination with prednisolone. In addition to IPF, granulomatous diseases (Bolinger et al, Clinical Pharmacy, 1992, 11:834-850), certain mycobacterial infections (N. Engl. J. Med. 330:1348-1355, 1994), kidney cancer (J. Urol. 152:841-845, 1994), osteopetrosis (N. Engl. J. Med. 332:1594-1599, 1995), scleroderma (J. Rheumatol. 23:654-658, 1996), hepatitis B (Hepatogastroenterology 45:2282-2294, 1998), hepatitis C (Int. Hepatol. Communic. 6:264-273, 1997), septic shock (Nature Medicine 3:678-681, 1997), and rheumatoid arthritis may be treated with IFNG.
As a pharmaceutical compound rhuIFNG is used with a certain success, above all, against some viral infections and tumors. rhuIFNG is usually applicable via parenteral, preferably via subcutaneous, injection. Maximum serum concentrations have been found after seven hours. The half-life in plasma is 30 minutes after iv administration. For this reason efficient treatment with rhuIFNG involves frequent injections. The main adverse effects consist of fever, chills, sweating, headache, myalgia and drowsiness. These effects are associated with injecting rhuIFNG and are observed within the first hours after injection. Rare side effects are local pain and erythema, elevation of liver enzymes, reversible granulo- and thrombopenia and cardiotoxicity.
WO 01/36001 discloses novel IFNG conjugates comprising a non-polypeptide moiety attached to an IFNG polypeptide which have been modified by introduction and/or deletion of attachment sites for such non-polypeptide moieties, e.g. PEG and glycosylation sites.
It is well known that when N-glycosylated molecules, such as IFNG, are produced in a glycosylating host not all potential N-glycosylation sites are fully utilized. This means that quite often a mixture of proteins having a varying degree of in vivo N-glycosylation is obtained, which in turn has the consequence that subsequent purification is necessary. Furthermore, it is often time-consuming and cumbersome to separate identical proteins having a varying degree of glycosylation. It has now surprisingly been found that by substitution of one or more amino acid residues located close to an in vivo N-glycosylation site (independently of whether said in vivo N-glycosylation site is naturally occurring in IFNG or whether the in vivo N-glycosylation site has been introduced, such as described in WO 01/36001) it is possible to obtain an increased fraction of fully glycosylated IFNG molecules. In particular, it has been found that changing the naturally occurring N-glycosylation site N-Y-S at positions 97, 98 and 99 of hIFNG to N-Y-T gives rise to a dramatically increased fraction of fully glycosylated IFNG molecules.
Furthermore, it is known that when IFNG is produced in mammalian cell lines a heterogenous population of IFNG polypeptides is obtained due to C-terminal truncation of the IFNG polypeptide (reviewed in Lundell et al. Pharmac. Ther. 64, 1-21, 1994). Clearly, this constitutes a severe problem in that valuable polypeptide material is lost and, further, it is necessary to carry out time-consuming and cumbersome purification in order to obtain a homogenous population of active IFNG polypeptides having the desired length. Most likely, this truncation is effected by endo- and/or exoprotease activity produced by the host cell.
Thus, it is also an object of the present invention to provide IFNG fragments and variants thereof, which are not prone to C-terminal truncation during production, purification or storage.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

S99T C-11 Truncated polynucleotides encoding interferon gamma polypeptide variants


In a circuit simulation step, a cell transistor level net list is input, the slew of an input signal waveform and the magnitude of a load capacitance connected to a cell output terminal are varied for each cell, to perform a circuit simulation of each cell for obtaining an output signal waveform. Next, in a dependence table generation step, the dependence of the output signal waveform slew upon the input slew rate and the load capacitance is calculated for each cell, the dependence thus calculated is compared with a predetermined threshold level, and according to the dependence level, a delay calculation expression with consideration taken to the delay of signal propagation between the cell input and output terminals and another without such consideration are selectively used. Accordingly, the delay times of the cells forming a semiconductor integrated circuit can be calculated at high accuracy and at high processing speed.

The present invention relates to a delay calculation method and to a layout optimization method for high-accuracy delay time calculation of cells and wires in timing verification during the design of a semiconductor integrated circuit.
Today, because of advances in semiconductor process technology, the size of transistors have been miniaturized and reduced down to less than 0.5 μm (submicron size). Also with respect to rooting of wires, both the wire pitch and the wire width tend toward being shrunk. Therefore, when calculating a length of time taken for a signal to propagate in a large-scale integrated circuit (hereinafter called the "delay time"), it now becomes necessary to pay attention to the influence of the resistance of a wire and the influence of an adjacent wire. These influences have not been taken into much consideration so far.
For the development of high-integration, high-function, high-performance semiconductor LSI circuits, several techniques have been proposed or already put into practice for high-accuracy calculation of the delay time of a wire between cells forming the aforesaid delay time and the delay time of the cells.
Hereinafter, a conventional, post-layout design flow and a cell delay time/wire delay time calculation process procedure will be explained by making reference to FIG. 13. Note that throughout the specification the term "cell" is so defined as to include not only a logical unit such as an inverter and a buffer but also a functional macroblock. Further, the term "instance" is the name for the purpose of identifying cells as different cells even when they have the same logic. This will be explained using a concrete example (FIG. 14). Both an instance 1400 and an instance 1401 are buffer cells. However, in order to deal with these instances as different components, they are named the instance 1400 and the instance 1401.
A conventional design flow and its associated delay calculation method will be described (FIG. 13).
In the layout step S1300 of the design flow (FIG. 13), a delay library 1300 is used to generate a layout 1301 corresponding to a net list 1101. In the layout step S1300, a delay calculation tool mounted in the layout tool is used for timing driven layout in which placement/wire routing is carried out while performing instance and wire delay time calculations. In the timing driven layout, a layout step is carried out according to the timing calculated by the delay calculation tool, which is a possible reason for reduction in returning back to a particular design step due to timing errors of a subsequent design flow. However, when performing a timing driven layout in the layout step S1300, if a delay calculation algorithm different from one used in the delay calculation step S1302 is employed, this causes these two steps to produce different delay calculation results. For this reason, the problem with a layout by the timing driven layout is that the design flow is returned back to a particular design step due to the fact that different delay calculation algorithms produce different delay calculation results.
However, even when both the delay calculation tool and the layout tool employ the same delay calculation algorithm, if the layout step S1300 generates a layout shape that does not allow the delay calculation algorithm to perform delay calculations at high accuracy, this results in poor delay calculation accuracy.
Here, by "the layout shape" is meant the shape of a cell, the drive power of a cell, or the like in a layout. In the timing driven layout, a layout step is carried out while the cell delay time, input slew rate, load capacitance, and wire delay time are calculated from the shape.
Therefore, the layout step S1300 is required to generate a layout having such a layout shape capable of allowing high-accuracy delay calculations in the delay calculation step S1302 for timing error reduction and reduction in returning back to a particular design step due to poor delay calculation accuracy. However, such a measure has not yet been taken so far.
Next, in the RC extraction step S1301, the layout 1301 is input and wire parasitic resistance and capacitance are extracted to generate RC information 1102. This RC information 1102 can be expressed in various formats such as DSPF (Standard Parasitic Format: Cadence Design Systems, "Cadence Standard Parasitic Format", August 1993).
This is followed by the delay calculation step S1302 in which the RC information 1102 and the delay library 1300 are input and the delay times of an instance and a wire in the layout 1301 are calculated and delay information 1302 is output.
Further, in the timing simulation step S1303, while the net list 1101 is collated with the delay information 1302, a timing simulation is carried out to provide a simulation result 1303. The LSI designer looks at the simulation result 1303 and if an timing error is output, then the LSI designer returns back to a necessary design step to redo the design.
As the delay calculation method available in the delay calculation step S1302, there are several types of delay time calculation methods. These delay calculation methods will be explained below.
Whereas one of the delay calculation methods (FIG. 14) does not closely deal with the propagation of a signal waveform, the other delay calculation method (FIG. 16) closely deals with the propagation of a signal waveform.
Each of these delay calculation methods will be described. FIG. 14(a) is a conceptual diagram showing a concept relating to the propagation of a waveform for the first delay calculation method. FIG. 14(b) is a diagram showing a procedure of the first delay calculation method. FIG. 14(c) is a diagram showing the division of the first delay calculation method.
The first delay calculation method of FIG. 14(a) is characterized in that the signal waveform propagation between an input and output of a wire 1402 driven by the instance 1400 is calculated and the signal waveform propagation between the input and output terminals of each instance 1400 and 1401 is not taken into consideration.
As more concretely shown in FIG. 14(b), in the instance output signal waveform calculation step, giving attention to the fact that the instance 1400 drives the wire 1402 and the instance 1401, a circuit equation at the output terminal of the instance 1400 is set up. Then, the circuit equation is solved thereby to calculate a signal waveform (or an input signal waveform of the wire 1402) 1404 at the output terminal of the instance 1400.
Next, in the wire output signal waveform calculation step, if the signal waveform 1404 is fed to the wire 1402, then a circuit equation at the output of the wire 1402 is set up. Then, the circuit equation is solved thereby to calculate a signal waveform 1405 at the output of the wire 1402, i.e., an input signal waveform of the instance 1401.
These two steps described above are repeatedly performed on every instance and wire thereby to calculate signal waveforms at the input and output terminals of all the instances for instance delay time calculation and wire delay time calculation.
The algorithm of the first delay calculation method is characterized in that a wire and an instance that is connected to the wire are single split units 1407 and 1408 (see FIG. 14(c)). These split units 1407 and 1408 are independent from each other. Accordingly, there is no need to propagate signals in order in the signal propagation direction, therefore producing the advantage of requiring a less length of delay calculation processing time.
However, the first delay calculation method has some problems (FIG. 15). The problems of the first delay calculation method will be described below in detail.
Suppose here that the wire 1402 is several times greater than a wire 1410 in resistance and capacitance. In the already-described first delay calculation method, calculations are performed wherein the split units 1407 and 1408 are independent from each other, so that the output signal waveform 1404 of the instance 1400 which drives the wire 1402 of greater resistance and capacitance becomes dull, while on the other hand the output signal waveform 1406 of the instance 1401 which drives the wire 1410 of smaller resistance and capacitance is calculated as a signal waveform which sharply transits.
However, actually a signal waveform propagates in the signal waveform propagation direction. As a result, the actual output signal waveform of the instance 1401 differs from the output signal waveform 1406 as shown in FIG. 15(b). The output signal waveform of the instance 1401 is influenced by the dull output signal waveform 1404 of the instance 1400 and becomes a signal waveform 1500 which is much duller than the aforesaid sharp signal waveform.
As to this point, the results derived from actually-performed circuit simulations are shown in FIG. 17, wherein the wire 1402 has a capacitance of 250 f and a resistance of 500 Ω while the wire 1410 has a capacitance of 5 f and a resistance of 10 Ω and the logic of each instance 1400 and 1401 is an inverter. In FIG. 17, the reference numeral 1700 is a waveform diagram showing a circuit simulation result when signal waveform propagation is taken into consideration and the reference numeral 1701 is another waveform diagram showing a circuit simulation result when signal waveform propagation is not taken into consideration. The reference numeral 1702 is the input signal waveform of the instance 1401. Referring to the waveform diagram 1700 (i.e., the upper waveform diagram in FIG. 17) in which the RC of the wire 1402 connected to the input terminal of the instance 1401 is great, the input signal waveform 1702 of the instance 1401 becomes dull. Such a dull signal waveform propagates through the instance 1401 and is calculated as an output signal waveform 1703. Referring to the waveform diagram 1701 (i.e., the lower waveform diagram in FIG. 17) in which the RC of the wire 1402 connected to the input terminal of the instance 1401 is small, the input signal waveform 1702 of the instance 1401 is sharp. Such a sharp signal waveform propagates through the instance 1401 and is calculated as an output signal waveform 1704. The two output signal waveforms 1703 and 1704 are compared and the result shows that the output signal waveform 1704 is shaper than the output signal waveform 1703. A difference in slew between the two output signal waveforms is calculated and the difference is equivalent to as much as about 40% when a 20% and a 80% value of the supply voltage in each waveform are linearly approximated to serve as a slew. From this, in this conventional delay calculation tool, when a wire that is connected to an output terminal of cell2 is determined, decision is made uniquely, regardless of the input signal waveform. This results in poor delay calculation accuracy.
As described above, the first delay calculation method is not a delay calculation method which performs calculations along the signal propagation direction, in other words the split unit 1407 is first calculated and then the calculation result is used to calculate the split unit 1408. This therefore provides several merits such as eliminating the need for performing path retrieval toward the signal propagation direction, achieving reductions in processing time to reduce the delay calculation processing time. However, there are some demerits. One of the demerits is that the accuracy of delay calculations is poor for circuits with wires whose resistance and capacitance undergo considerable variation, as shown in FIG. 15(a).
Next, the second delay calculation method will be described by making reference to FIG. 16.
The delay calculation method or FIG. 16(a) is characterized in that both the signal waveform propagation between the input and output of the wire 1402 and the signal waveform propagation between the input and output of each of the instances 1400 and 1401 are calculated.
More concretely, in the instance output signal waveform calculation step, suppose that the instance 1400 drives the wire 1402 and the instance 1401, and then a circuit equation at the output terminal of the instance 1400 is set up to calculate an output signal waveform 1600 of the instance 1400 (FIG. 16(b)).
The second delay calculation method of FIG. 16 is different from the first delay calculation method of FIG. 14 in that the influence of the input signal waveform 1403 of the instance 1400 is incorporated into the circuit equation.
The input signal waveform 1403 is a signal waveform calculated from the drive power of an instance that drives the instance 1400 and the input signal waveform of that instance, the input terminal capacitance of the instance 1400, and the resistance and capacitance components of a wire that is connected to the input terminal.
This is followed by a wire output signal waveform calculation step. In the wire output signal waveform calculation step, the circuit equation at the output terminal of the wire 1402 at the time when the output signal waveform 1600 propagates through the wire 1402 is solved to calculate an input signal waveform 1601 of the instance 1401.
These two steps are repeatedly performed on every instance and wire, thereby making it possible to calculate signal waveforms at the input and output terminals of all the instances. From these calculated signal waveforms, both the instance delay time and the wire delay time can be calculated. In FIG. 16, the reference numeral 1602 is an output signal waveform of the instance 1401.
One merit of the second delay calculation method is that, as shown FIG. 16(c), when dividing a wire and an instance that is connected to the wire as single split units 1407 and 1408, respectively, there is held dependency between the split units 1407 and 1408.
In other words, prior to calculating the split unit 1408, the split unit 1407, which is earlier in the signal propagation sequence, is calculated and then the result is used to calculate the split unit 1408.
Delay calculations are carried out according to the signal propagation sequence. This produces demerits. Since, in addition to the delay calculation processing, it is required to determine a signal propagation sequence and to propagate information necessary for delay calculations according to the determined signal propagation sequence, this will take extra delay calculation processing time. On the other hand, there is a merit of providing considerably excellent delay calculation accuracy.
As described above, as a concrete delay calculation method for use in the delay calculation step S1302, there are several delay calculation techniques. Generally, both of the above-described delay calculation methods are not used and only one of them is usually used.
However, there is a procedure in which the delay calculation method of FIG. 14 is used for delay calculation of an entire LSI circuit and, with respect to clocks and critical paths which require very severe timing, information necessary for delay calculation about their corresponding portions is extracted and the delay calculation of FIG. 16 is used to perform delay calculations again.
As already described hereinbefore, it is not guaranteed that the layout step generates a layout shape allowing a delay calculation algorithm used in the subsequent delay calculation step to perform high-accuracy delay calculation. This produces the problem that there may be generated a layout form causing delay calculation difficulties to the delay calculation algorithm. As a result, the delay calculation accuracy for such a layout becomes poor, which causes the design procedure to return back to a particular design step.
Further, the delay calculation method of FIG. 14 suffers the problem that the accuracy of delay calculation for a circuit having a configuration with wires whose resistance and capacitance undergo considerable variation becomes poor. On the other hand, the delay calculation method of FIG. 16 also suffers the problem that it is required to perform path retrieval in the signal propagation direction. This results in an increased length of delay calculation processing time. However, most of the presently-used design flows employ only one of the delay calculation methods of FIGS. 14 and 16 and fail to make good utilization of both of them in effective manner. In addition, in the conventional techniques there exists no index for effectively and properly using these two delay calculation methods during the layout stage.

Method for calculation of cell delay time and method for layout optimization of semiconductor integrated circuit

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Embodiments provide techniques for facilitating transmission of a video stream from a first video conferencing device to a remote video conferencing device. Embodiments receive, by the first video conferencing endpoint device, first video data captured from a first field of view of a physical environment. The video data includes a plurality of frames. Activity data is determined for portions of the first video data across the plurality of frames. Embodiments generate, by a first video conferencing endpoint device, second video data from a second field of view of the physical environment, based on the determined activity data. Additionally, embodiments facilitate the transmission of the video stream to the remote video conferencing device for display, the video stream comprising the generated second video data and audio data captured within the physical environment.

1. Field
The present invention relates to video cameras, and in particular to a smart video conferencing system that controls a video camera based on measures of activity within video data captured using another video camera.
2. Background
Video conferencing has become more popular in recent years, thanks in large part to proliferation of high speed Internet and price reductions in camera equipment. For example, dedicated video conferencing locations exist where rooms and technological resources are dedicated solely to the task of video conferencing. In particularly sophisticated environments that include multiple camera devices, server-side logic may be provided that is capable of dynamically switching between the video feeds of the various cameras when determining which video data to display at a remote video conferencing site. Additionally, many modern instant messaging software applications support voice and video chatting, where the participants can view each other while talking.
Generally, in capturing video data, video cameras are devices that can be configured to capture frames in a sequential manner using an image sensor. Additionally, a number of optimization operations can be performed on the captured frames in order to improve the quality of the video data. For instance, pixel correction operations can be performed on each captured frame, where bad pixel information is used to correct for hot or dead pixels. Additionally, auto focus operations can be performed, where a frame(s) is analyzed to determine whether the lens needs to be adjusted to achieve a more optimal focus. Upon determining that a lens adjustment is necessary, a feedback signal could be sent to motors or actuators to adjust the focal position of the lens. Additionally, color processing operations can be performed, where the frames are analyzed to determine if any color corrections are necessary. Such color corrections could include, for example, gamma correction, white balance correction and exposure correction.
Once any optimizations have been performed for the video data, the optimized video data can be encoded into a suitable format. Generally, the encoding format used can depend on the available network bandwidth and the application in question. For example, a dedicated video conference environment with a high bandwidth network connection could encode captured video data at a relatively high bit rate, while a video conference application on a mobile phone or tablet with a more limited network connection could encode the captured video data at a lower bit rate. The encoded video data can then be transmitted to the remote site for display via a communications network (e.g., the Internet).
While video conferencing technology is rapidly improving, it remains challenging to provided sophisticated video conferencing systems at relatively inexpensive prices. That is, while certain dedicated video conferencing environments provide many sophisticated features such as dynamically switching the displayed video stream between various captured video streams, such functionality currently comes at a substantial cost, in large part because such sophisticated setups require substantial computer hardware (e.g., multiple camera devices for capturing multiple different video feeds of the dedicated video conferencing environment, substantial network resources for transmitting multiple high-resolution video streams simultaneously, and server-side logic to select between the multiple different video feeds to determine what stream to display at the remote video conferencing site). As such, these sophisticated systems remain very expensive and priced beyond the practical reach of the average user.
Therefore, there is a need for a video conferencing system and method of using the same that solves the problems described above.


A pair of undoped spacer layers are provided adjacent to, or near to, a single quantum well aluminum gallium nitride active region. In various exemplary embodiments, the undoped spacer layers are provided between the single quantum well aluminum gallium nitride active region and carrier confinement layers. The undoped spacer layers reduce the threshold current for the laser device and improve the output characteristics.

1. Field of Invention
This invention is directed to semiconductor laser diodes emitting in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, gallium nitride-based compound semiconductors, such as GaN, InGaN, GaAlN, and InGaAlN, have received a great deal of attention as materials for violet- and blue-emitting semiconductor lasers. Semiconductor lasers using these materials in the multi-quantum well (MQW) active region are designed as short-wavelength laser sources. Hence, their output can be focused to small diameters. Owing to this advantage, these lasers are expected to be usable as light sources for high density information storage, such as in an optical disk.
Because of their compactness, low power consumption and longevity, UV semiconductor lasers can also enable other applications that are unrealizable by solid state or gas lasers. Such applications can include sources for compact bioagent detection systems, for optical biopsy by exciting fluorescence in human tissue, in dentistry (UV curing), and in ophthalmology (to detect some kinds of eye damage). UV lasers might also be of interest in biotechnology applications such as cross linking nucleic acids with polymers, exciting DNA or proteins, and more.
However, GaN materials systems present unique problems in terms of realizing a UV laser. In particular, large polarization fields exist for example, within the In(Al)GaN and (In)AlGaN layers of a multi-quantum well device. The polarization fields arise from the large pyroelectric and piezoelectric constants in these materials. The polarization charges at the heterostructure interfaces create polarization fields that spacially separate the negatively charged electrons from the positively charged holes. For example, for an InGaN film with 10% In, on a GaN template, the polarization field in the quantum well can be in the range 1.5 MV/cm. These polarization fields tend to separate the wavefunctions of the electrons and holes within a quantum well, which in turn tends to reduce the wavefunction overlap and thus the optical gain of the laser device.
Polarization effects are particularly detrimental for In(Al)GaN/(In)AlGaN multi-quantum wells, where the fields cause not only uneven carrier distribution within but also uneven carrier distribution between the quantum wells.
The high-band gap (In)AlGaN barriers between quantum wells (QW) add further to the uneven carrier distribution in the multi-quantum well (MQW) active region. High-band gap (In)AlGaN barriers are normally required to prevent carriers from leaking out of the quantum wells. However the high barriers will also prevent carriers from moving easily between quantum wells and therefore make it difficult to achieve a even distribution of carriers between quantum wells.
Unevenly distributed carriers lead to uneven gain, which results in higher threshold current densities and lower quantum efficiencies. In this case, the carrier distributions can be so non-uniform that one or more of the quantum wells in the active region is below the transparency threshold, which can even quench lasing.
The problem of uneven carrier distribution in the active region can be reduced by constructing single quantum well (SQW) devices, because the PN junction is directly placed at the quantum well. Since there is only one quantum well, uniform carrier injection is not a problem. In addition, the single quantum well (SQW) active region has a smaller volume compared to the multi-quantum well active region, so that fewer carriers are needed to produce gain. Therefore, the threshold current for lasing with a single quantum well active region is normally lower than that for an multi-quantum well active region, provided that the loss in the laser is low enough.
Alternatively one could also use a closely-spaced coupled quantum well (CQW) approach. In this case the barriers between the quantum wells are fairly thin and/or have a relatively low band gap-energy to provide sufficient coupling between the quantum wells. The carriers in the quantum wells can then easily redistribute either by tunneling between quantum wells or by a thermally activated process that allows them to cross the barriers. The PN junction including larger bandgap confinement layers is placed adjacent to the coupled quantum well region to allow efficient carrier injection and to prevent carrier leakage. This approach allows a higher gain, which might be important for high power operation or necessary if the loss in the laser is elevated.

Ultraviolet group III-nitride-based quantum well laser diodes


The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device that can prevent shadowing, and a method for driving the device. The device comprises a plurality of switching elements. Display pixels connected to the switching elements are connected in a matrix form. Two data signal lines for writing data signals are respectively provided to display pixels in each column.

In recent years, for a display part for a device displaying a video and an image, a liquid crystal display panel of an active matrix type using a switching element such as a TFT (thin film transistor) has widely been used. In such a display panel, for example, when performance of displaying moving videos is highly valued, there is a method for driving the device by doubling a frame frequency with a technique which is called as an FRC (Frame Rate Conversion). However, in a case where the frame frequency is doubled without changing the number of lines for one screen, the scanning time for one line is reduced to half. This requires improvement in the charging capacity of a TFT and speed up of a driving circuit for writing data in a display pixel (hereinafter, simply referred to as a pixel).
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H2-296286 1 describes a substrate for a liquid crystal display in which drain wirings of TFTs (bus line of a data signal) applying a video signal (data signal) to pixel electrodes of pixels in each column are separately arranged for odd-numbered pixels and even-numbered pixels in each column in the vertical direction of a display screen, and a gate wiring of TFTs is arranged commonly for an odd-numbered scanning line and an even-numbered scanning line adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction of the display screen. Compared to a case where an odd-numbered scanning line and an even-numbered scanning line adjacent to each other are separately scanned, the structure allows the doubled scanning time per line and the halved scanning time per line due to the doubled frame frequency to cancel each other out.
In a liquid crystal display device of an active matrix type, a plurality of TFTs are connected to a drain wiring in the vertical direction of a display screen. Generally, only one TFT becomes active at the same time among the TFTs, and the remaining TFTs are inactive. Therefore, a problem may be caused by leakage of a data signal to a pixel electrode from an inactive TFT due to a parasitic capacitance between the drain and the source.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-140625 describes a phenomenon as a problem that, when a white or a black box pattern (the circumference of a box region in the middle is a gray back region) is displayed in the middle of a display area, one of the gray back regions in the upper part and the lower part of the screen in the box region is displayed brighter and the other is displayed darker (hereinafter, referred to as shadowing).
To address this problem, according to a liquid crystal display device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-140625, a different drain wiring is provided to TFTs in each column for capacitive coupling, and a compensation signal is supplied to the different drain wiring, thereby solving the problem. It seems that the problem of shadowing may be avoided by applying this technique together with the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 112-296286 for displaying a three-dimensional image.

Liquid crystal display device and method for driving the liquid crystal display device whereby shadowing can be prevented


Fabric conditioning compositions comprising a fabric care active and a hueing dye, wherein the hueing dye exhibits a hueing efficiency of at least about 20 according to the Hueing Efficiency Test method; and a Wash Removal Value from about 50% to about 98%, are useful in mitigating the discoloration of white and other light colored fabrics.

Wear and laundering of fabric articles, and particularly white fabric articles, can result in a discoloration from the original fabric color. For example, white fabrics which are repeatedly laundered can exhibit a yellowing in color appearance which causes the fabric to look older and worn. This can be especially true for cotton and cotton containing fabrics. Treatment of fabrics with conventional rinse added fabric conditioning compositions containing cationic softener actives can cause yellowing of fabrics over time with repeated use. To overcome the undesirable yellowing of white fabrics, and similar discoloration of other light colored fabrics, some fabric conditioning compositions include a hueing or bluing dye which attaches to fabric during the laundry wash and/or rinse cycle.
However, after repeated laundering of fabric with a fabric conditioning composition containing a hueing dye, the hueing dye can tend to accumulate on the fabric, giving the fabric a bluish tint. Such repeated laundering of white fabric articles tends to give the articles a blue, rather than white, appearance. To combat this accumulation of hueing dyes on fabric, chlorine treatments have been developed. While the chlorine treatment is effective to remove accumulated hueing dyes, the chlorine treatment is an additional and often inconvenient step in the laundry process. Additionally, chlorine treatment involves increased laundering costs, is harsh on fabrics, and can also cause fabric yellowing and therefore undesirably contributes to increased fabric degradation. Alternatively, hueing dyes in fabric conditioning compositions have been selected to minimize the build-up of an undesirable tint, but then they do not provide a consumer noticeable whitening benefit.
Similarly, upon laundering of fabric with a fabric conditioning composition containing a hueing dye, fabric staining by the hueing dye can occur. Fabric staining can occur through the normal use and misuse of the fabric conditioning composition. For example, fabric staining can occur when the fabric conditioning composition comprising a hueing dye is poured directly onto wet fabrics. Direct contact between the fabric conditioning composition and wet fabric can also occur after the spin cycle following the wash cycle before sufficient water is present to fully disperse the composition. In such cases, a high level of hueing dye in a relatively small area of fabric results in a visibly noticeable stain on the fabric. To remove the stain, the fabric must be rewashed. Likewise, to avoid the possibility of creating a stain on garments, hueing dyes have been selected in the past to minimize fabric staining, but then they do not provide a consumer-noticeable whitening benefit.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved fabric conditioning compositions which can counter the undesirable yellowing of white fabrics and similar discoloration of other light colored fabrics without causing the build-up of an undesirable tint or the creation of undesirable stains on fabric.

Fabric care compositions comprising hueing dye


A video data receiving apparatus displays the program video inserted the CM vide with the desired timing and the desired from based on the demand of viewers. Further, a video data transmitting apparatus transmits the CM data and the program data to display the program video being inserted the CM video with desired form on the receiving apparatus. Still further, a broadcasting system wherein the program video inserted the CM video with the form based on the demand of the viewer are displayed on the receiving side is disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video data receiving apparatus receiving video data, a video data transmitting apparatus transmitting video data broadcasting system distributing video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In current broadcasting systems, two types of broadcasts are known.
One is the system in which the viewer does not have to pay for viewing the programs since commercial advertisements (hereinafter referred to as commercials or CMs) are inserted during the broadcast. The programs provided by private broadcasting stations for usual television broadcast are broadcasted by this system.
The other one is the system in which the viewer must pay for every program or for every predetermined period (every month or the like) in place of insertion of commercials during the program. The television broadcasts by Japan's NHK, satellite broadcasts, broadcast by cable TV, etc. are included in this system.
In such current broadcasting systems, the type of the broadcasting system is determined by the broadcasting station and is not determined by the program content.
In practice, however, programs in which real time and instantaneousness are sought, for example, sports broadcasts, it is not desirable for the programs to be interrupted by CMs. There are viewers who would like to view the entire period even if having to pay a fee. Further, conversely, it is easy to imagine that there are viewers who, depending on the content of the program, would not mind watching it with CMs inserted, so would like to watch it free.
In broadcasting systems heretofore, however, these desires of the viewers, for example, the desire to view a program continuously without CMs even if having to pay or the desire to view a program for free since CMs can be inserted, have never been reflected at all.

Video data receiving apparatus, video data transmitting apparatus, and broadcasting system


A method and apparatus for correcting digital images is provided. In one embodiment of the invention, a unique subject in a current image to be corrected is identified in one or more reference images. Pixel characteristics of the unique subject in the current image to be corrected are compared to the pixel characteristics of the unique subject as it appears in the one or more reference images. Using the comparison, a systemic error of the current image is inferred, and a correction function correcting the inferred error is determined. One embodiment of the invention corrects the color of a digital image based on identifying individual humans in the current image and in the reference images.

1. Field of the Invention
An embodiment of the present invention applies to the field of digital photography and, in particular, to correcting digital images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Digital photography is the process of capturing, processing, and rendering images digitally. Digital representation of images, which means that images are represented by a finite number of pixels (Picture Elements) where each pixel can assume a finite number of values, is well known in the art. Capturing digital images by using, for example, digital cameras or scanners is also well known. One advantage of digital photography over traditional analog photography is that a general-purpose computer, or specialized circuit, can process the images captured digitally. Such processing may include color correction, redeye removal, intentional distortion to create "special" effects, and changing or correcting various other characteristics of the image.
One characteristic of a digital image that may need correcting is color. Color correcting involves a user manipulating the image, with or without automatic calculations by a computer, to make the colors on the image closer to what the user is looking for. There are several color-correcting schemes known in the art.
One such scheme requires that the user identify an object with a known color-range in the image to be corrected. For example, the user could use a mouse to click on a portion of a digital image representing a person. The computer would then compare the skin tone colors of that person to a color-range known for human skin, that is, the usual range of colors skin takes on. For example, if skin appears blue in an image, the computer—or the person performing the correction by hand—will know that corrections must occur. Other schemes relying on general information about what certain objects, such as humans, sky, plants, and so on also exist. For example, the product known as iCorrect produced by Pictograpics uses this general type of technique.
One limitation of these techniques is that they rely on a range of colors to perform the correction, and are thus limited in accuracy by this range. For example, it is true that skin cannot be blue, but it can be a broad range between pale white and dark black. Even excluding people of African descent, it is clear that relying on the range of expected skin colors for people, or other general objects, is limited in accuracy.
However, the range of colors for a specific person, or specific object, does not vary quite as much. For example, the skin tone of an individual varies much less than the skin range within even a single ethnicity of people. Furthermore, most of the variation in color for individual people is seasonal. The prior art schemes have not exploited this, and no correction scheme relies on specific and unique subjects in images, such as a specific person, or a specific tree, for digital image correction.

Correcting digital images using unique subjects


Pressure cast lined steel pipes comprise an annular concrete or mortar liner along an inside diameter, and a metal shell surrounding the liner, wherein the liner is in direct contact with the metal shell. The wall thickness of the liner can be from 10 to 50 times the thickness of the metal shell. The pipe may be coated with a dielectric material. A mold assembly used to form the pipe includes an annular concrete or mortar composition chamber formed between the metal shell and an inner mold member. Pressurized water is used in the mold assembly to pressurize the concrete or mortar composition and exert a desired pressure force onto the metal shell while the composition cures in the mold. Once a desired degree of cure is achieved, the pressure is removed causing the metal shell to exert a desired compression force onto the cured liner.

Conventional concrete lined steel water pipe, e.g., large diameter pipe, is currently designed to a maximum working stress in the steel of around 21,000 psi. The reason for limiting the allowable design stress in such pipe is the limited allowable strain in the concrete or mortar lining. A higher steel stress will crack the concrete or mortar lining under pressure, causing deleterious cracks to form, adversely affecting the lining's performance, and creating the potential for the lining to fail or otherwise fall out of the inside of the steel pipe.
The use of concrete or mortar linings with such steel pipe is well known for use in the water pipe industry because they have a proven record of protecting the steel pipe from interior corrosion for a long period of time, e.g., of more than 50 years. As an alternative to concrete linings, polymer coatings such as epoxy based coatings and the like can be used with steel pipes that can be designed having a higher strain to failure. However, no currently available polymer coating can be guaranteed or expected to last 50 years in water service without some form of periodic maintenance, typically at approximately 15 year intervals. It is not practical to take such coated steel water pipes, e.g., when used as a water main or the like, out of service to sandblast and recoat the lining every 15 or so years for maintenance purposes.
A second limitation for concrete lined steel water pipe is the engineering consideration and need to have a diameter to thickness ratio of around 240, and preferably less than about 220. This means that a 100-inch diameter pipe must have a minimum pipe wall thickness of approximately 0.417-inch (D/t=240; t=100/240=0.417). The effect of this design requirement is that pipe which could have been designed with a lesser wall thickness due to internal pressure, requires a greater thickness due to handling, shipping and installing stresses. In this 100″ ID×0.417″ wall example, pipe rated at P=(2*t*stress)/D=2*0.417*21,000/100=175 psi or less must still have a pipe wall thickness based on D/t=240. The D/t requirement is based on the practicality of handling, shipping and installing the pipe. In poor soil conditions, the pipe is also vulnerable to collapse or over deflection if not stiffened by increased liner thickness, steel pipe wall thickness, attached stiffeners, or the expensive importation of more stable bedding materials.
Conventional prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) comprises an inner concrete pipe or core that is placed in state of high compression by the use of wires that are wound around the inner pipe. The pressure loads that are placed on the pipe in service are taken by the prestressed steel wires using high allowable design stress, therefore also operating to reduce the amount of steel that is used in providing the desired amount of compression. The concrete core resists the prestressing wires and helps support the earth loads in a buried condition. The prestressed concrete core also helps to support the pipe during transport and installation.
One of the problems, however, with PCCP is the difficulty in protecting the high strength prestressing wires from corrosive environments when the pipe is placed into service, and the potential susceptibility of such wires to hydrogen embrittlement if excessive levels of cathodic protection are applied. The ability to easily cathodically protect the prestressing wire is further complicated by the low dielectric strength of the typical mortar coating that is placed over the prestressing wires to protect them from corrosion. The dielectric resistance can be improved by the application of a suitable polymer coating, e.g., such as one available from Ameron International under the product name Amercoat 1972B. While the use of such a polymer coating makes it easier to cathodically protect the steel prestressing wires, it does so at an additional cost in terms of both manufacturing steps and in terms of raw material cost.
As the underground utility complex of pipes and surface or subsurface transit systems in typical major cities have increased over the years, another problem has arisen from "cathodic interference" or stray ground currents caused by nearby steel pipelines under cathodic protection for exterior corrosion, and caused by DC powdered transit systems. Large water pipes installed many years ago now find new pipes that have been installed nearby. These new pipes may be cathodically protected, and the stray ground currents introduced from the cathodic protection can cause corrosive currents in the PCCP. As a result of the possible existence of such stray ground currents, many metropolitan water agencies now prefer either conventional steel pipe with a dielectric coating for external corrosion protection, or steel cylinder reinforced concrete pipe when external loads are high. Although this is an effective approach for controlling pipe corrosion, it is costly.
One approach known in the art for making prestressed steel pipe has been to use a multi-step process of first forming/casting a concrete core, slipping a steel pipe over the pre-cast concrete core, and then pumping a high-pressure grout into the annular gap between the pre-cast concrete core and steel pipe to place the concrete core under compression. However, two major problems exist with this method of making pipe. A first problem relates to the difficulty in perfectly sealing the ends of the concrete core to the steel pipe during the pressure grouting operation. A second problem involves how to apply and maintain pressure to the grout during the cure of the grout, especially if minor leakage of the grout occurs at the seals between the steel pipe and concrete core while the grout is curing. If a high-pressure grout pump is used, the potential leakage of grout during cure must be made up by the grout pump. This will mean the grout pump will have to be active during the curing operation in order to make up for leakage, which leaves the potential for the grout to cure in the pump, both ruining the pump and resulting in pipe having an insufficient level of prestress.
It is, therefore, desired that a pipe construction and method for making the same be developed that is capable of providing a desired level of properties such as pipe stiffness and internal corrosion resistance that matches the typical minimum 50 year service life offered by conventional PCCP or concrete lined steel pipe. It is further desired that such pipe construction be capable of providing a desired degree of protection from external corrosion and cathodic interference. It is still further desired that such pipe construction be manufactured in a manner that is both cost efficient from a raw material perspective, and from the amount of time and labor involved in making the same.

Pressure cast concrete or mortar lined steel pipes and methods of making the same


Various methods of hardbanding an apparatus are described. In one aspect of the invention an improved method of re-applying a hardbanding alloy to worn tool joints of a previously hardbanded drill pipe results in preservation of the metallurgical properties of the drill pipe and preservation of the internal polymer coating that lines the drill pipe. A method for applying hardbanding includes arc welding a consumable metal welding wire to a tool joint having a surface temperature that ranges from about 50° F. to about 170° F. and the arc welding power supply utilizes DC current. The method herein produces a hardbanded tool joint comprising a heat affected zone (HAZ) of a based metal having a Rockwell hardness of 40 Rc or less.

Hardbanding is a surface welding process that is commonly used in the oil and gas industry to apply metal welding wire onto the surface of many industrial parts, including tool joints of drill pipe. In such a process an elongated metal wire is welded to the tool joint to build, reinforce, or repair the part to extend the utility of the part that is subjected to high frictional forces and abrasive forces. In oil drilling applications for the oil and gas industry, for example, drill pipes are connected together at the ends which are referred to as "tool joints" to form a "drill string" of several hundred feet lengths. The tool joints have a much larger outside diameter than the tube portion of the drill pipe, and therefore, the vast majority of the wear during drilling occurs on the tool joints. To protect the tool joints from excessive wear they are surfaced welded with an appropriate abrasion resistant consumable welding wire. The inside of the drill pipe is coated with a polymer, an internal polymer coating (IPC), to protect against corrosion by the fluid or particles entrained in the fluid during drilling.
Typically, the initial hardbanding of drill pipe usually occurs at the drill pipe manufacturer's facility. Tool joints of drill pipe in the oil and gas industry are applied as a "weave bead" weld deposits of about one inch (1″) wide. The heat produced by the welding during hardbanding melts the base metal of the tool joint beneath the surface in the area where the welding wire is applied. During the subsequent cooling process, a portion of the base metal beneath the welding arc forms a low hardness metallurgical phase which is referred to as the base metal "heat affected zone" (HAZ) or base metal HAZ. Once the hardbanding process is complete, the internal plastic coating (IPC) is applied to the inside surface area of the drill pipe. The finished drill pipe is then shipped to the drill site and put into service until it must undergo another hardbanding process due to wear of the hardbanding material, or other anomalies, during drilling.
The known methods of the re-application of hardbanding on worn tool joints presents technical challenges in maintaining properties required industry standards. Conventional processes for the re-application of hardbanding includes preheating the tool joint from 250° F. to 600° F., welding with the wire to the worn surface of the previously applied hardbanding, followed by slow cooling. The high preheating and welding temperatures cause the internal polymer coating on the inside surface of the tool joint to deteriorate during welding. For many drilling environments, this degradation of the polymer coating is unacceptable and so the drill pipe requires an additional coating process after reapplication of the hardbanding. An alternative hardbanding process to preserve the internal polymer coating is to introduce standing or continuously running water through the inside diameter of the pipe during the welding process. While this procedure can maintain the properties of the polymer coating, water cooling effectively quenches the weld deposit and hardens the base material HAZ to Rockwell hardness greater than the maximum industry specification of 40 Rc. Thus, the current known methods for reapplication of hardbanding, whether water is employed, results in rejected tool joints and drill pipes.


A transmission for transmitting rotary power in forward and reverse directions from a programmable source of input motion such as an electric motor uses individually rotatable coaxially mounted lock plates each having a pawl receiving socket therein providing access to an arcuate slot of selected angular length permits engagement and disengagement of the transmission only when input torque is applied thereto in forward and reverse directions to rotate the transmission input gear through pre-defined angles. The pawl is part of a frictionally driven shift arm on which a driven shift gear is also mounted whereby the driven shift gear is pivotally moved into and out of engagement with the output gear or gears of the transmission when the pawl is pivotally moved out of or into the sockets in the lock plates. Rotation limit stops are provided on the lock plates at selected angular positions so that the transmission can be engaged or disengaged for transmission of torque in both forward and reverse directions only when the motor is rotated through a sequence of predetermined angles in predetermined directions.

None.
The present invention relates to power transmissions in general and, more particularly, to transmissions useful for transmitting rotary power in forward and reverse directions to computer controlled printers, document scanners, automatic document feeders and other office machine applications. Even more particularly, the invention is applicable for use in applying rotary power to accurately position apparatus such as an inkjet printer service station, to operate a scanner drive, and to operation of a paper pick roller in an automatic document feeder capable of separating single sheets of media such as paper, vellum, transparencies, etc. from a stack thereof.
Inkjet printers ordinarily have a printhead servicing station located at some point on the path of travel of a printhead carriage. The servicing station typically includes printhead wipers, a source of printhead servicing fluid and printhead caps, some or all of which may be mounted on a sled or other moveable support to bring the service station into and out of operating proximity to the printheads to be serviced. Automatic document processing apparatus such as scanners and desktop printers typically include a shelf or tray for holding a stack of one or more sheets of documents to be scanned or blank paper or other media to be fed, one sheet at a time, from the stack to the other portions of the document processing apparatus. In such arrangements a driven pick roller having a friction surface may be used to engage the uppermost sheet in a horizontally oriented or downwardly inclined stack to strip the top sheet from the stack and move it parallel to the surface of the stack. The present invention is particularly useful in printhead servicing apparatus and for driving paper pick rollers and in other applications.
It is objective of the present invention to provide a transmission which can selectively couple and de-couple a source rotary drive power to a rotary output shaft only upon application of predetermined angles of rotation of an input shaft or gear in both forward and reverse directions. The design angles of forward and reverse rotation of the input shaft or gear for engaging the transmission need not be the same as the design angles of forward and reverse rotation for disengaging the transmission.
The present invention therefore provides a transmission for transmitting rotary power in forward and reverse directions from a source of rotary power to a load comprising:
a) a rotary input gear for coupling to said source of rotary power;
b) a rotary output gear;
c) a clutch shaft;
d) a clutch gear rotatably mounted on said clutch and drivingly engaged with said input gear;
e) at least one lock plate rotatably mounted on said clutch shaft in frictional engagement with said clutch gear, said lock plate having a socket therein including a radially extending gate and an arcuate slot of first selected angular length accessed by said gate;
f) a shift arm pivotally mounted coaxially with said input gear and frictionally engaged with said input gear, said shift arm including a pawl arcuately moveable into and out of engagement with said lock plate socket; and
g) a shift gear engaged with said input gear, said shift gear being mounted on said shift arm and arcuately moveable with said shift arm between positions of engagement and disengagement with said output gear as said pawl moves into and out of said socket.


Embodiments of an antenna system for notebook, laptop and portable computers and methods for communicating in multiple wireless systems are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. In some embodiments, a notebook computer comprises a plurality of transceivers, a plurality of antennas coupled to the transceivers with coaxial cables, and signal separation circuitry coupled to at least one of the coaxial cables to allow the at least one coaxial cable to be shared by two or more of the transceivers.

Notebook, laptop and portable computers are desirably configured to communicate with more than one wireless communication system, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs), broadband wireless access (BWA) networks, ultra-wide-band (UWB) networks, Bluetooth™ systems and cellular-type systems. One problem with this is that due to their physical and packaging constraints, notebook, laptop and portable computers are generally configured to communicate with only one or two of these wireless systems. For example, physical space in the lid may limit the number of antennas that may be provided. Furthermore, there may be insufficient space for coaxial cables that may be used to connect the various antennas in the lid to the transceiver circuitry in the base.
Thus, there are general needs for antenna systems suitable for notebook, laptop or portable computers and methods for communicating with various wireless systems. There are also general needs for antenna systems and methods for communicating with various wireless systems that meet the physical and packaging constraints of notebook, laptop or portable computers.

Antenna system for notebook computer and method for communicating in multiple wireless systems


An industrial process field device includes first and second loop terminals configured to couple to a two-wire process control loop. Device circuitry is powered from the process control loop and monitors a process variable or controls a control device. A current regulator is in series with the loop terminals, and regulates a loop current. A first shunt voltage regulator regulates a voltage across the device circuitry. Supplemental circuitry is connected in series with the first shunt voltage regulator and the second loop terminal, and is powered by power from the two-wire process control loop shunted through the first shunt voltage regulator. A second shunt voltage regulator is connected in series with the first shunt voltage regulator and the second loop terminal, and in parallel with the supplemental circuitry, and regulates a voltage across the supplemental circuitry.

In industrial settings, control systems are used to monitor and control inventories of industrial and chemical processes, and the like. Typically, the control system performs these functions using field devices distributed at key locations in the industrial process and coupled to control circuitry in a control room by a process control loop.
Typical industrial process field devices include device circuitry that enables the field device to perform conventional field device tasks such as process parameter monitoring and measurements using one or more sensors, and/or process control operations using one or more control elements. Exemplary sensors include pressure sensors, flow sensors, level sensors, temperature sensors, and other sensors used in industrial processes. Exemplary control elements include actuators, solenoids, valves, and other control elements.
The device circuitry of field devices may also include a controller that is used to control the sensors and/or control elements, and communicate with a process control room, or other circuitry, over a process control loop, such as a 4-20 mA process control loop. The process control loop may deliver a current that is regulated by the field device to indicate a sensed parameter value.
Many field devices are configured to be powered from the same two-wire process control loop used to transmit information. The two-wire process control loop may couple to a single field device or to multiple field devices ("multi-drop"). This limits the power that is available to the field device.
Process field devices may be configured to provide supplemental features beyond those typically provided by the device circuitry. Such supplemental features may include, for example, wireless data communications, flash writes, a display, or other supplemental features.
Powering such supplemental features using power provided over the two-wire process control loop requires circuitry that scavenges excess power that is not required to power the device circuitry or provide the desired current over the process control loop.

Two-wire industrial process field device power supply circuitry


A striker box assembly provides enhanced security when locking a door where the assembly includes a box and a cover plate which are secured to a stud in the frame around the doorway in at least three ways. The first way of securing the assembly is with screws in a jack flange that extends along a lateral side of the stud in flush contact therewith. The second manner is with a screw in the bottom of the box to hold the box firmly against the stud or through shims or a boot that solidly fills any gap between the bottom of the box and the stud. The third way is with offset screws that extend through the cover plate and the box into the stud. The cover plate includes a flange that provides additional strength to resist destructive forces involved when a person attempts to break down a door.

To securely lock a door, one needs or wants a strong door, a strong door frame, a strong latch and a strong strike or striker plate. Like a chain, the combined strength of the locked door is limited by the strength of the weakest of the these elements.
Focusing on the strike or striker plate, at an outside door to be securely locked, it is common to have a strong striker plate comprised of steel that is screwed into and maybe through the door jamb into the underlying supporting structure. One might use extra-long screws to hold the striker plate not just to the jamb, but also to a 2×4 stud behind the jamb that is part of the structure of the wall. However, even thicker steel striker plates with extra-long screws may be quickly defeated by a motivated thief that is able to apply a powerful kick to the door near the lock and the striker plate. The screws may hold firm to the 2×4 stud, but the striker plate is typically spaced about an inch from the 2×4 stud. The screws may have a lot of tensile strength, but they do bend. With the screws extending an inch out from the stud, such impacts from kicking the door may bend the screws sufficiently to allow the striker plate to pivot inwardly so that latch may slip out of the hole in the striker plate. The bending screws also are levers to break apart the jamb and the 2×4 studs, which is a second mode of failure of the striker plate. Regardless of the strength of the door and the strength of the latch, if the striker plate fails, the doorway may be breached based on the failure of the simplest and smallest element for an outside security door.
While stronger materials are being continually developed, there is a need for a simple, but effective strike or striker plate to work with stronger doors and stronger latches to provide better security for people and things. There is a need for an improved design for a striker plate to take better advantage of the underlying structure of a doorway opening.


Embodiments of the present invention provide method, system and apparatus for playing advertisements during buffering time in network living broadcasting. The method includes: obtaining, by a network living broadcasting client, streaming media data of a channel currently watched by a user, obtaining an advertisement content file corresponding to the channel, triggering to play the advertisement content file; stopping play the advertisement content file when the amount of the streaming media data retrieved by the network living broadcasting client reaches a pre-determined quantity, and starting to play the streaming media data retrieved. The system includes an advertisement server and a network living broadcasting client.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Network living broadcasting is a technique on basis of Internet communications for playing streaming media programs (e.g. television programs, radio programs, films and so on) to users in real time. As network transmission techniques and streaming media techniques grow more and more mature, living broadcasting steaming media services provided through high-speed Internet become more and more popular, and large amount of network living broadcasting systems appear, e.g., PPLive, MySee and PPStream, etc. Three parties, i.e., streaming media content providers, network living broadcasting operators and network living broadcasting clients, form the main part of a network broadcasting system.
Before playing a program, a network living broadcasting client needs to retrieve streaming media data from the Internet. After the amount of streaming media data received reaches a pre-determined quantity, the network living broadcasting client triggers to play the program and displays the program to a user. The time from the network living broadcasting client begins to retrieving the streaming media data till the network living broadcasting client triggers to play the program is called buffering time. All the network living broadcasting clients need the buffering time before playing the program. The only different is that the buffering time may be longer or shorter. The buffering time is used for accumulating the streaming media data to ensure the continuity of the program in case of network fluctuation. In the related art, the buffering time is processed in different manners. Hereinafter, the different processing are respectively described.
At present, most network living broadcasting systems do nothing during the buffering time. Specifically, a living broadcast displaying area of the network living broadcasting client is blank during the buffering time. Under the living broadcasting displaying area, prompt information is displayed such as "connecting", percentage of the buffering process, "receiving data", "playing soon", etc. After the buffering process, the blank screen will be replaced with a program screen. This manner has the following disadvantages: since the user is eager to watch the program, he/she may focus on the living broadcasting displaying area and the prompt information during the buffering time. The blank screen may make the user upset, and the precious time when the user is focusing on the screen is wasted.
Still some other network living broadcasting systems at present displays pre-configured materials during the buffering time. The pre-configured materials, such as pictures, cartoons, etc., are installed when the network living broadcasting client is installed. The living broadcasting displaying area of the network living broadcasting client displays the pre-configured materials during the buffering time. This manner can distract the user's attention while the user is waiting and alleviate unhappy feelings. But since the materials were installed when the network living broadcasting client was installed and the materials displayed by the network living broadcasting client are the same each time, the user will still become tired of the materials. Furthermore, the materials displayed in the precious time do not provide any useful information to the user. Thus the buffering time is also not fully used.

Method, system and apparatus for playing advertisements

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited