Capacitance on a readout line is varied while receiving a signal, from a light sensing pixel or other sensing element through the line. Capacitance can be varied in accordance with a readout characteristic of the pixel, such as color sensed, conversion efficiency, or readout signal range. For example, a CMOS color image sensing array with pixels in an RGB Bayer pattern can include, for each column, a variable capacitance component with parallel switchable capacitors for signal sampling and readout sampling. The capacitors can all have equal values, or can be scaled in a binary format. The variable capacitance component can also include a constant capacitor. A controller can switch the capacitors to obtain capacitances that provide color equalization, and can use light level as well as pixel color for fine tuned color equalization. Sampled values from the capacitances can be provided in sequence to a readout amplifier at the beginning of a readout path to maintain signal-to-noise ratio. The readout amplifier's gain can depend on its input capacitance, which is determined by the switched capacitors to obtain color equalized output. In addition, the readout amplifier can block the effect of parasitic capacitance from column select switches. A second amplifier can perform further color equalization through variable gain. After an array is constructed, capacitor selection data can be obtained for each color and light level and used to program the controller.

The invention relates to techniques for receiving signals from light sensing pixels or other sensing elements through a line. Particularly, the invention relates to methods, circuits, and systems that vary a capacitance that receives such signals. For example, capacitance may be varied in accordance with a readout characteristic of pixels, such as color sensed, conversion efficiency or readout signal range. Capacitance can be varied to perform color equalization at the input of a readout path.
Various types of sensing elements and configurations are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,524, incorporated herein by reference, describes CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) arrays and compares them to other semiconductor-based imagers, including charge coupled devices (CCDs), photodiode arrays, charge injection devices, and hybrid focal plane arrays.
In many known configurations, a number of sensing elements, often called "pixels", provide their signals through a line, sometimes referred to herein as a "readout line". In a row/column array, for example, each column typically has a readout line to receive signals from a group of pixels that includes one pixel from each row; when a row is selected, each pixel in the row can provide its signal through its column's readout line.
In some applications, sensing elements of different types provide signals on a shared readout line. For example, in a CMOS APS array for color image sensing, different sets of pixels receive and sense different colors due to filters over the pixels. Each pixel's filter passes light of only one color or wavelength range; with RGB filtering, some pixels receive red, others green, and others blue. In a typical array, pixels that receive different colors are arranged so that each readout line receives signals from pixels in more than one set.
As is well known, a pixel's quantum efficiency (QE) depends on the color sensed: For example, a blue pixel may have 40-60% lower QE than a green pixel, meaning that the blue pixel converts photons to charge less efficiently and therefore provides signals in a lower range than the green pixel. In a CMOS array on a silicon substrate, this phenomenon results from an inherent property of silicon, which, within the visible spectrum, converts green wavelength light at a higher efficiency and is least efficient at converting blue wavelength light. As a result, pixels that sense different colors provide signals with different characteristics.
Known techniques improve image quality by equalizing gain of signals from pixels that sense different colors. Color equalization of this type is typically performed before color interpolation or other digital image processing. A commonly used color gain ratio is: GainBlue=1.4*GainGreen and GainRed=1.2*GainGreen.
FIG. 1 shows circuit 100, which exemplifies a conventional architecture for color equalization in a CMOS APS array. Circuit 100 can be implemented as integrated circuitry on a chip. Pixel array 110 is a row/column array with M rows and N columns of pixels. As illustrated, pixels 112 and 114 are both in one of the columns, and both provide signals through line 116, the readout line for the column.
Sample-and-hold (S/H) array 120 receives signals from array 110 on N lines, one for each column. In response to digital control signals, each column's signals are stored temporarily in an S/H cell for the column, as illustrated by S/H cell 122, and are provided to N:1 multiplexer 124 through N lines. Multiplexer 124 also receives Address [0-9], a 10 bit address identifying one of the N columns, and responds by providing the output of the identified column's S/H cell as output. In the illustrated implementation, S/H cell 122 stores two values, a signal value and a reset value, both of which are provided at the output of multiplexer 124.
Variable gain amplifier 130 receives a column's signal and reset values and performs color gain equalization by providing an appropriate gain for each pixel based on the color the pixel senses. The gain can, for example, multiply a column's signal and reset values by a factor between 1 and 16, and can be applied in a series of steps.
Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) S/H amplifier 132 temporarily stores color equalized signal and reset values from amplifier 130, allowing ADC 134 to convert the signal and reset values into digital values, illustratively on N parallel lines. ADC 134 can be implemented as a pipeline ADC block.
The invention addresses problems with these and other readout techniques.

Varying capacitance that receives signals from sensing elements


A power generation plant possessing a gas turbine includes a nitrogen oxide removal apparatus for injecting a reducing material such as ammonia into exhaust gas from the gas turbine to reduce NOx emission under a predetermined level. To a feedback control system for estimating such an amount of the reducing material to be injected that a measured NOx amount at an outlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus will get toward a NOx setpoint there is added a feedback control system for estimating an injection amount of the reducing material required for a NOx flow rate at an inlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus based upon a mole ratio of the reducing material to the NOx. The measured NOx at the inlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus is corrected based upon the combustion conditions of the gas turbine unit. NOx setpoint and the mole ratio are estimated based upon the operating conditions of a plant related to nitrogen oxide removal efficiency. Even in the plant state where variations of NOx production are severe, NOx and the reducing material exhausted into the atmosphere are maintained at an acceptable level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nitrogen oxide removal control apparatus for reducing nitrogen oxides involved in exhaust gas by controlling injection of a reducing material such as ammonia into the exhaust gas from a gas turbine of a power generation plant.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Power generation plants using a gas turbine include a simple cycle power generation plant where a generator is driven by at least one gas turbine for power generation, and a combined cycle power generation plant where a plurality of gas turbines and at least one steam turbine are provided, the steam turbine being driven by steam produced by making use of heat of exhaust gas from the gas turbines, and electric power is generated by these turbines.
The combined cycle power generation plant of the so-called waste heat recovery system is divided roughly into a single shaft type and a multiple shaft type. In the single shaft type, a gas turbine, a steam turbine, and a generator are coupled with a common shaft, and in the multiple shaft type a gas turbine and a steam turbine have separate individual shafts to each of which generators are coupled.
In such power generation plants, a fuel from a fuel system is supplied to a combustor together with air from a compressor and is combusted, and produced combustion gas is supplied to a gas turbine. The gas turbine is driven with the combustion gas, whereby a generator coupled on the same shaft is rotated to provide an electric power.
Waste gas exhausted from a gas turbine generally involves nitrogen oxides called NOx as a general term such as NO and NO.sub.2, etc., harmful to human bodies. The NOx promotes pollution of environment as it is discharged to the air, so that it should be removed before it is exhausted to the atmosphere.
For this, the best efforts are paid by providing a nitrogen oxide removal apparatus, which is capable of reducing NOx concentration by introducing a reducing material into a flue for guiding exhaust gas.
The nitrogen oxide removal apparatus is to reduce and decompose nitrogen oxides to harmless nitrogen gas and water vapor by introducing a reducing material such as ammonia into exhaust gas and thereafter forcing the exhaust gas to pass through a catalyst on the downstream side. In the nitrogen oxide removal process, non-reacted NOx is exhausted intactly into the atmosphere. When ammonia is used as the reducing material, for example, the non-reacted NOx is increased with too little supply of the ammonia, while the non-reacted ammonia is exhausted with too much supply of the same. The process suffers from responsibility of the control, which is not necessarily satisfactory, because of its being a chemical reaction of NOx and ammonia in the presence of a catalyst. In the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus, there are produced varieties of inconveniences if any reducing material of the amount matching to that of NOx involved in exhaust gas is not supplied at proper timing, so that there is required a nitrogen oxide removal control apparatus as one for controlling the supply amount and supply timing of the reducing material.
It is noted that standards of NOx exhausted from the plant are applied for flow rates or concentrations thereof, and for both of them. The nitrogen oxide removal control apparatus is therefore needed to control a control target such that the NOx flow rate, the NOx concentration or any severe target for both of them satisfies the standards. When the NOx concentration is regulated, for example, the nitrogen oxide removal control apparatus executes feedback control such that a measured NOx from a detector for measuring the NOx concentration at an outlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus becomes equal to a NOx setpoint set to be less than a standard value.
Such feedback control has no problem provided the amount of NOx produced in a combustor is less varied. Only with the feedback control, however, the control target fails to be satisfactorily controlled upon the plant being started or stopped or upon a plant load being varied owing to a fact that the amount of produced NOx is violently varied with changing load, owing to a fact that the nitrogen oxide removal process is delayed, and owing to a fact that a measurement by a NOx detector at the outlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus is delayed. To solve this difficulty, prior art discloses techniques for compensating the change in the NOx production with the change in the load by incorporating feedforward control additionally to the feedback control.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,536 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,537 disclose a control system wherein a mole ratio of ammonia/NOx is estimated by proportional integration (PI) control based upon a deviation of a setpoint and a measured value of NOx, which ratio is in turn multiplied by a predicted amount of NOx at an inlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus estimated from the operating conditions of a gas turbine to yield an ammonia flow rate to be injected. In the control system, the mole ratio of ammonia/NOx is multiplied by the predicted amount of NOx, so that a loop gain is lowered as the predicted amount of NOx is reduced. Since the predicted amount of NOx may involve error caused by computation accuracy, a control signal perhaps involves error correspondingly.
Increasing concern is recently concentrated on natural environment destruction, and varieties of regulations of NOx are provided and become progressively severe. Additionally, the nonreacted reducing material such as, for example, ammonia has been subjected to varieties of regulations.
For this, there have been developed the so-called low NOx combustors which produce less NOx compared with conventional combustors. Such low NOx combustors are classified according to combustion techniques typically into a multistage combustor and a catalyst combustor, between which combustors with the multistage combustion technique are particularly promising.
Such multistage combustion technique is to restrict production of NOx by supplying a fuel successively dividing the fuel longitudinally of a combustor to lower flame temperature. In the multistage combustion technique, however, produced NOx concentration upon starting has a peak every time the fuel is changed over, the peak tending to be higher than that in a conventional combustor. The NOx production of the multistage combustor is regulated to be lower than that of the conventional combustor in the vicinity of a rated load, but in order to reduce the amount of NOx from the multistage combustor lower than the standards there is also required a nitrogen oxide removal apparatus.
In the case where a produced NOx amount is varied rapidly with a greater extent as in a power generation plant possessing a gas turbine unit of the multistage combustion technique, the prior art fails to control a NOx amount at an outlet of the nitrogen oxide removal apparatus to a predetermined value following up to change in a plant state with high accuracy. The bad controllability requires injection of an excessive reducing material, resulting in poor economy and a factor of environment destruction.

Nitrogen oxide removal control apparatus


A data transmission circuit applied to a universal serial bus (USB) system includes a memory, a direct memory access (DMA) engine and a USB controller. The memory is arranged for receiving and storing external data. The DMA engine is coupled to the memory, and arranged for controlling data retrieved from the memory. The USB controller is coupled to the DMA engine, and arranged for receiving data from the DMA engine and for transmitting the received data to a host. When the memory the stored data volume reaches a first threshold, the DMA engine starts continuously fetching data from the memory and transmitting it to the USB controller, until the data volume fetched by the DMA engine reaches a second threshold, or there is no data left in the memory. The second threshold is greater than the first threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to data transmission, and more particularly, to a data transmission circuit and a data transmission method using a configurable threshold and a related universal serial bus system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a general universal serial bus (USB) system, if a user wants to move data in a memory of a peripheral element to a host via a USB transmission line, an aggregation method is employed to reduce the number of moving operations of the data, so as to lower the utilization of a central processing unit (CPU) of a host and accordingly decrease the loading of the CPU.
In accordance with the conventional aggregation transmission method, it is required to assign a fixed threshold to the memory of the peripheral element. When data volume in the memory reaches the fixed threshold, the peripheral element starts moving data from the memory to the host. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram illustrating a threshold of a memory 110 and each transmission data. As shown in FIG. 1, when the memory 110 is configured to have a lower threshold, the size of each transmission data (#1˜#N+1) would be smaller (i.e., data volume maintains roughly at the same level of the threshold), and the utilization of the CPU would be higher (i.e., the loading of the CPU is heavier). However, at this moment, the memory 110 may have more buffering capacity to accommodate incoming data. On the other hand, when the memory 110 is configured to have a higher threshold, the size of each transmission data (#1˜#M) would be larger, and the utilization of the CPU would be lower (i.e., the loading of the CPU is lighter). However, at this moment, the buffering capacity of the memory 110 would be relatively insufficient.
To sum up, since there is a conflict between the utilization of the CPU and the buffering capacity of the memory of the peripheral element, a system designer has to take both factors into account and balance the trade-offs. In other words, the conventional design fails to achieve optimized CPU utilization as well as optimized memory buffering capacity.

Data transmission circuit and data transmission method using configurable threshold and related universal serial bus system


A PWM circuit converts output data of a calculator to a pulse width modulation signal, and outputs it to a load (speaker) through a buffer amplifier and a low-pass filter. A digital low-pass filter has the same filter characteristic as a low-pass filter. An error calculator calculates the error Δ(z) between the input data and the output of the filter, and outputs it to the calculator. The output of the filter becomes a digital signal having substantially the same digitalized waveform as an analog signal applied to the load, and also no distortion contains in the digital signal. Accordingly, the output data Δ(z) of the error calculator becomes data corresponding to the distortion of the output signal. In the calculator, the data Δ(z) is subtracted from the input data, and the subtraction result is applied to the PWM circuit to reduce the distortion.

The present invention relates to a Class-D amplifier used in fields such as audio, etc., and particularly to a Class-D amplifier that is improved to reduce the distortion and enhance the dynamic range.
Related PWM-modulation based Class-D amplifiers are designed so that a signal output from a PWM (pulse width modulation) circuit and then varied to an analog signal by a low-pass filter is converted to digital data by ADC (Analog/Digital Converter), and fed back to the front stage of the PWM circuit in order to reduce distortion (see Patent Document 1).
However, according to the construction as described above, there is a problem that the number of parts is increased and also the price is increased because ADC is needed.
Furthermore, the related Class-D amplifiers for subjecting PCM signals to PWM conversion have a problem that the dynamic range is determined by the clock frequency of the PWM circuit and only a dynamic range of 60 dB is achieved even when the clock frequency is equal to 300 MHz.
Patent Documents 2 to 5 are also known as documents in which conventional Class-D amplifiers are described.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-59-183510    Patent Document 2: JP-T-2002-536903    Patent Document 3: JP-A-06-152269    Patent Document 4: JP-A-2003-110376    Patent Document 5: JP-T-2000-500625


Disclosed is a positive resist composition which can provide a positive resist composition and a resist pattern forming method, capable of forming a high resolution pattern with reduce LER, the positive resist composition comprising a resin component (A) which has acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups and exhibits increased alkali solubility under the action of an acid, and an acid generator component (B) which generates an acid under exposure, wherein the resin component (A) contains a polymer compound (A1) having a structural unit (a1) derived from hydroxystyrene and a structural unit (a2) derived from an acrylate ester having acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups, a fluorine atom or a fluorinated lower alkyl group being bonded at the α-position.

In photolithography techniques, for example, there can be performed the steps of forming a resist film made of a resist composition on a substrate, selectively exposing the resist film to radiation such as light or electron beam through a photomask having a predetermined pattern formed thereon, and subjecting to a development treatment to form a resist pattern having a predetermined shape on the resist film. A resist composition in which the exposed area shifts to be soluble in a developing solution is referred to as a positive resist composition, whereas, a resist composition in which the exposed area shifts to be insoluble in a developing solution is referred to as a negative resist composition.
In recent years, advances in lithography techniques have lead to ongoing, rapid miniaturization of resist patterns in the production of semiconductor devices and liquid crystal display devices. As means for miniaturization, further progress has been made in shortening of the wavelength of exposure light. Although ultraviolet ray typified by g-ray or i-ray has conventionally been used, KrF excimer laser (248 nm) is introduced at present and ArF excimer laser (193 nm) begins to be introduced. A study has been made on F2 excimer laser (157 nm), EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet), electron beam and X-ray, each having a shorter wavelength.
To reproduce a pattern having a miniaturized size, a resist material having high resolution is required. As such a resist material, a chemically amplified resist composition containing a base resin and an acid generator which generates an acid under exposure is used. For example, a positive chemically amplified photoresist contains a resin component which exhibits increased alkali solubility under the action of an acid, and an acid generator component which generates an acid under exposure and, when the acid is generated from the acid generator under exposure during the formation of a resist pattern, the exposed area shifts to an alkali soluble state.
As the resin component of the chemically amplified positive resist composition, there can be commonly used a resin in which hydroxyl groups of a polyhydroxystyrene (PHS) based resin are protected with acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups, and a resin in which carboxy groups of a resin (acrylic resin) comprising a structural unit derived from (meth)acrylic acid in the main chain are protected with acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups.
As the acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups, there can be used a so-called acetal group, for example, a chain ether group typified by a 1-ethoxyethyl group and a cyclic ether group typified by a tetrahydropyranyl group; a tertiary alkyl group typified by a tert-butyl group; and a tertiary alkoxycarbonyl group typified by a tert-butoxycarbonyl group (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-341538).
However, when a resist pattern is formed using such a material, there arises a problem that roughness (line edge roughness (LER)) occurs on the surface of a side wall of a pattern. A problem of LER becomes more serious as a trial of forming a higher resolution pattern is made. With further progress of miniaturization of a resist pattern, high resolution is further required and thus an improvement in LER becomes more important.

Positive resist composition and resist pattern forming method


An apparatus, method, and medium for generating an image is provided. The apparatus includes an optical module, a filter module which includes a wide-band filter area that allows transmission of optical signals within a wavelength band corresponding to a color of a predetermined color, a narrow-band filter area that allows transmission of optical signals within a wavelength band corresponding to the predetermined color, and an all-pass filter area that allows transmission of optical signals in all wavelength bands, and an image generation module which generates an image by processing optical signals that transmit through the filter module, wherein the image generation module applies different weights to optical signals according to which of the wide-band filter area, the narrow-band filter area, and the all-pass filter area the optical signals respectively transmit through.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to an apparatus, method, and medium for generating an image, and more particularly, to an apparatus, method, and medium for generating an image which can generate a high-dynamic range (HDR) image using an image obtained by a single exposure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the distribution of digital cameras and devices equipped with high-resolution cameras such as camera phones has been widespread. These cameras generally include a lens and an image sensor.
Lenses collect light reflected from an object, and image sensors detect light collected by lenses and convert the collected light into electrical image signals. Image sensors are typically solid-state image sensors. Examples of the solid-state image sensors include charge coupled device (CCD) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS).
Image sensors of cameras may include a color filter array (CFA) having a mosaic of color filters in which each color filter filters light reaching each pixel. Since image sensors are highly sensitive to near Infra-Red (NIR) light, image sensors of cameras may also include an NIR shield filter which is mounted on a CFA for preventing image discolorations caused by NIR light.
In the case of capturing images in a high-illumination or low-illumination environment or in a sharp contrast environment with backlighting, conventional image sensors using conventional CFAs may not be able to accurately capture color images due to conventional CFAs' inherent limitations in dynamic range. As a result, the rendered image will loose information either in the shadows or in the highlights for high dynamic range (HDR) scenes.
In order to address this problem, high dynamic range (HDR) image sensors capable of accurately capturing images even in a high-illumination or low-illumination environment or in a sharp contrast environment with backlighting have been developed. However, the HDR image sensors are generally expensive sensors mainly used for precision measurement purposes or for security and military purposes and they are not suitable for consumer products due to their cost and complexity.
Conventionally, an HDR image is created by generating a plurality of images with different light exposure amounts. For example, in the case of capturing images of an object in a backlighting state, images obtained with short exposure would capture highlighted area without saturation but dark shadow areas will not be visible, whereas images obtained with long exposure may have visibility in the dark areas but may loose information in bright areas due to saturation. Therefore, HDR images can be obtained by blending the image(s) obtained with short exposure and the image(s) obtained with long exposure.
In order to obtain a long-exposure image, a user must hold the imaging device for a long time, thus compromising user convenience since it would require a tripod and stationary objects. If the position of an object changes during an image capturing operation, a long-exposure image and a short-exposure image obtained by image capturing operation may not be the same, thereby making it difficult to properly generate an HDR image. Also, a user may accidentally shake his/her hand by holding the imaging device for a long time and may thus produce blurred images.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-211478 discloses a method of generating an HDR image from images in which an exposure time is varied according to the sensitivity of filters by appropriately arranging primary color filters with low sensitivity and complementary color filters with high sensitivity. This method, however, may result in blurry images due to a shake in a user's hand during an exposure time and may not improve sensitivity considerably.

Apparatus, method, and medium for generating image


TLR9 is localized to endoplasmic reticulum and upon stimulation with a TLR9 ligand, is transported to a tubular lysosomal compartment as is CpG-DNA. Furthermore, it is shown that TLR9 and CpG-DNA directly bind. It was also found that the MyD88 translocates in response to activation of TLR9-mediated signaling. Methods of identifying compounds that affect translocation and activity of TLR9 and MyD88 are described.

DNA is a microbial product that is sampled by the mammalian immune system. The ability to reproduce the immunostimulatory activity of bacterial DNA with CpG-rich oligonucleotides has led to the elucidation of optimal stimulatory motifs that influence inflammatory activity such as CpG-DNA (Agrawal and Kandimalla, 2002, Trends Mol. Med., 8:114-121; Krieg, 2002, Ann. Rev. Immunol., 20:709-760).
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are involved in immune system signaling and, depending on the specific TLR, recognize a set of conserved molecular structures (Gordon, 2002, Cell, 111:927-930). TLR9 is a TLR whose signaling is stimulated by CpG-DNA. Drosophila Toll acts indirectly, in that it is activated by invasive microorganisms by the pathogen-induced proteolytic processing of prospätzle to spätzle (Tauszig et al., 2000, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 97:10520-10525), the actual Toll-binding ligand (Weber et al., 2003, Nat. Immunol., 4:794-800). It has been reported that TLR9 is expressed intracellularly (Ahmad-Nejad et al., 2002, Eur. J. Immunol., 32:1958-1968; Takeshita et al., 2001, J. Immunol., 167:3555-3558), yet it remains unknown in which subcellular compartment TLR9 is expressed, and in which cellular compartment initiation of TLR9 signaling by CpG-DNA occurs.


Stream data is provided for realizing precise calculation processing to keep a constant memory usage of a query including a time-based window, and to take all of input data into consideration. A stream data processing server sections the time-based window into sub-windows each with a smaller width by a query time resolution change unit, and a query processing engine executes the aggregation processing based on the sub-window when receiving the stream data to generate an aggregation tuple, and calculates the calculation result of the query including the time-based window by aggregation processing on the aggregation tuple.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a stream data processing method for processing stream data, which arrives momentarily, in real time, and more particularly to a stream data processing method for defining an upper limit of memory usage of query with use of a time-based window and a system therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, a database management system (hereinafter referred to as "DBMS") dominates data management of a business information system. The DBMS stores data to be processed in a storage, and realizes highly reliable processing typified by transaction processing on the stored data. On the contrary, there increase demands on a data processing system for processing great quantities of data, which arrives momentarily, in real time. For example, from the point of view of financial application that supports stock trading, the system is faced with one of the most important issues that how the system can respond to fluctuations of stock prices quickly. In the system that retrieves, after stock data has been stored in a storage device once, the stored data, as in the conventional DBMS, storage of the data and retrieval processing subsequent to the data storage cannot catch up with the speed of the fluctuations of stock prices, which may lead to a failure to take full advantages of business opportunities.
As a data processing system suitable for the real-time data processing described above, there has been proposed a stream data processing system. For example, the stream data processing system "STREAM" has been disclosed in "Query Processing, resource Management, and Approximation in a data Stream Management System", In Proc. Of the 2003 Conf. on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR), January 2003, written by R. Motwani, J. Widom, A. Arasu, B. Babcock, S. Babu, M. Datar, G. Manku, C. Olston, J. Rosenstein, and R. Varma (hereinafter referred to as "Reference 1").
In the stream data processing system, unlike the conventional DBMS, queries (inquiries) are first registered in the system, and the queries are continuously executed together with arrival of data. In the system, stream data is not one large data that is logically continuous such as a video stream, but great quantities of time-series data which is relatively small and logically independent of each other, such as stock price distribution data in the financial application, point-of-sale (hereinafter referred to as "POS") data in a retail trade, probe car data in a traffic information system, error log in a computer system management, sensing data generated from a ubiquitous device such as a sensor or an RFID (radio frequency identification).
Because the stream data continues to arrive at the system, processing in real time cannot be performed when processing starts after waiting for arrival of an end of the stream data. Also, there is a need to process data that has arrived at the system in order of arrival without being affected by a load of data processing. In the above-mentioned STREAM, because real-time processing on the stream data continuously arriving at the system is realized while cutting off part of the stream data with a specified time duration such as latest 10 minutes, or a specified width of number such as latest 1000 data, a concept called sliding window (hereinafter referred to simply as "window") is introduced. As a preferable example of description languages of query including the window designation, there is a CQL (continuous query language) disclosed in "The CQL continuous query language: semantic foundations and query execution", The VLDB Journal, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp. 121 to 142, June 2006, written by A. Arasu, S. Babu and J. Widom (hereinafter referred to as "reference 4"). The CQL employs brackets subsequent to a stream name for a "FROM" clause of an SQL (structured query language) widely used in the DBMS, thereby being subjected to extension for designating a window. The details of SQL are disclosed in "A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition)", Addition-Wesley Professional; 4th Edition (Nov. 8, 1996), ISBN: 0201964260, written by C. J. Date, and Hugh Dawen (hereinafter referred to as "reference 2").
A query 1101 of FIG. 14 is an example of query using the CQL disclosed in Section 2.1 of reference 1. In the query, the total number of accesses from a domain "stanford.edu" for the past one day from the present is calculated in a certain web proxy server. "Requests" is web access data continuously arriving at the web proxy server, and not static data such as a table dealt with by a conventional DBMS, but seamless stream data. For that reason, the total number of accesses cannot be calculated without designating which part of stream data is to be processed by the aid of window designation "[Range 1 Day Preceding]". Stream data cut off by the window is retained on a memory, and used in query processing.
The representative window designating methods include a Range window (hereinafter referred to as "time-based window") designating the width of window by a time, and a Row window (hereinafter referred to as "row-based window") designating the width of window by the number of data. For example, when [Range 10 minutes] is set with the use of the time-based window, stream data for the latest 10 minutes is to be query processed, and when [Rows 10] is set with the use of the row-based window, stream data for the latest 10 rows is to be query processed.
Under the circumstances, Motwani, et al., "Caching Queues in Memory Buffers", In Proc. Of SODA 2004 (hereinafter referred to as "reference 3") discloses a method for storing stream data not stored in a memory in a magnetic disc.
On the other hand, US Patent Publication US 2007/0226239 discloses a method of discarding part of data by sampling when the volume of data to be processed increases, to thereby delete the memory usage.

Stream data processing method and system


A solid electrolytic capacitor comprising a capacitor element obtainable by compressing a porous valve-acting metal substrate having on the dielectric film surface thereof a solid electrolyte layer containing an electrically conducting polymer in the thickness direction, wherein assuming that the maximum thickness and the minimum thickness of the electrically conducting polymer layer including the substrate before the compression are Hamax and Hamin, and the maximum thickness and the minimum thickness of the electrically conducting polymer layer after the compression are Hbmax and Hbmin, the percentage decrease ΔH in the difference of thickness represented by the following formula is preferably from 5 to 95%: Formula (I). The thin solid electrolytic capacitor element of the present invention, which can be stably produced with a small variety in shape, enables fabrication of a solid electrolytic multilayer capacitor having a high-capacitance and small-size with a low height, which, free from short-circuit failure, exhibits stable performance

A basic element of a solid electrolytic capacitor is generally produced, as shown in FIG. 1, by forming an oxide film layer 2 as a dielectric material on an anode substrate 1 comprising a metal foil having a specific surface area enlarged through etching treatment, forming a solid semiconductor layer (hereinafter referred to as a solid electrolyte) 4 as an opposing electrode in the outer side of the oxide film layer, and if desired, further forming an electrically conducting layer 5 such as electrically conducting paste. To an element thus obtained or elements stacked, lead wires 6 and 7 are joined and the entire is completely molded with an epoxy resin 8 or the like. The thus-produced element is being widely used as a capacitor 9 component for electrical products.
With recent progress on digitization of electric equipment and speeding-up of PC operation, a small-size large-capacitance capacitor and a capacitor having a low impedance in the high frequency region are demanded. Recently, use of an electrically conducting polymer having electron conductivity as a solid electrolyte has been proposed.
As for the shape of solid electrolyte, a technique in which, by welding a metal to an aluminum foil, an electrolytically polymerized conductive polymer is formed all over the surface of an aluminum foil with the metal being as the starting part of polymer growth through electrolytic oxidation has been proposed (see, for example, JP-A-4-307917, (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")).
Also, for the purpose of enhancing electrostatic capacitance or reducing the size, aggressive development on technique of enlarging the effective surface area of the anode foil is being made. For example, a technique of etching an aluminum foil and then rolling the etched layer has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Number 3084330 and JP-A-14-260968).
Furthermore, a small-size and high-density semiconductor package is demanded, and a thin and substrate-contacting solid electrolytic capacitor which is incorporated into a substrate has been proposed (see, for example, JP-A-14-260967).

Solid electrolytic capacitor and method for producing the same

Abstract: Δ                                                                          H                                      (              %              )                                      =                              [                          1              -                                                (                                                            Hb                                                                                max                                        -                                          Hb                                                                                min                                                        )                                                  (                                                            Ha                                                                                max                                        -                                          Ha                                                                                min                                                        )                                                      ]                    ×          100.                                    (        I        )


Examples of methods and apparatus for an accurate measurement of the anterior surface of the eye including the corneal and scleral regions are disclosed. The measurements provide a three-dimensional map of the surface which can be used for a variety of ophthalmic and optometric applications from astigmatism and keratoconus diagnostics to scleral lens fitting.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to three dimensional imaging using the structured light approach, and more particularly to ocular surface measurement over the anterior surfaces of the cornea and sclera.
Description of Related Art
The accurate knowledge of the corneal surface is very important for diagnostics and treatment of a number of ocular conditions. Cornea is responsible for about 70% of the refractive power of the eye and therefore the corneal topography has a great importance in determining the quality of vision. It is commonly used for diagnosis of keratoconus, for selecting appropriate soft contact lenses, for fitting scleral lenses, and for topography guided Laser-Assisted in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK).
Currently the majority of the corneal topography is performed using a Placido disk. The concept of the Placido disk was introduced by Antonio Placido in 1880 and since then it has been the primary method for corneal topography. The method is based on viewing or imaging the corneal reflection of series of concentric bright and dark rings positioned in front of the cornea. By increasing the number of concentric disks and placing them on a concave surface around the eye, it is possible to measure a large section of the cornea. But in most cases the data on the central zone needs to be interpolated and the data on the corneal periphery is often missing due to limited reflection. Additionally, Placido disks are not capable of measuring the scleral topography, which is important for custom fitting of scleral lenses.
In addition to the Placido disk, scanning slit systems, such as the Orbscan II by Bausch & Lomb, Scheimpflug systems such as the Galilei by Zeimer Ophthalmic Systems, and rastersterographic systems such as the CTS by Par Technlogies have been used for corneal topography. While these systems provide better measurement of the corneal apex they lack the coverage of the corneal periphery and sclera needed for scleral lens fitting.

Systems and methods for mapping the ocular surface


Manipulators (M1, M2) capable of gripping a workpiece to be machined are mounted on the tool-carrying slide or slides or on the so-called cross slide or slides (S) of a vertical lathe. The manipulators are preferably located outside the tool stations. The travel movements of the slide or slides are adapted so that, after machining of the workpiece located on the chuck (G) has been completed, a manipulator (M2) is positioned on the chuck in order to take hold of and extract the workpiece, while the other manipulator (M1) is positioned, simultaneously, in a loading station (S1) in order to take hold of and raise a new workpiece to be machined. With successive displacements of the slide or slides, the manipulator (M2) with the machined workpiece is positioned in a station (S2) for receiving and removing the workpiece itself, while the other manipulator (M1) is simultaneously positioned on the chuck (G) in order to insert the new workpiece in the latter.

When several vertical lathes are arranged next to one another to perform the successive machining of identical parts, the workpieces themselves are transferred from one lathe to the next one by so-called portal apparatuses equipped with manipulators movable on horizontal and vertical axes. The operation of these loading and unloading apparatuses is controlled by a computer which dialogues with the lathes. All of these means, intended for feeding and unloading the workpieces from a series of vertical lathes in a cascade arrangement, involve considerable purchase, maintenance and, not least of all, operating costs since the presence of highly qualified personnel is required.


A portable system is disclosed for collecting a sample from exhaled breath of a subject. Drug substance in the exhaled breath are detected or determined. The sample is collected for further analysis using mass-spectroscopy. The system comprises a sampling unit and a housing arranged to hold the sampling unit, the sampling unit is adapted to collect non-volatile and volatile compounds of the at least one drug substance from the exhaled breath from the subject. The housing has at least one inlet for the subject to exhale into the housing to the sampling unit and at least one outlet for the exhaled breath to exit through.

It is known that exhaled breath is commonly used in alcohol testing and today's technology makes it possible to perform on-site breath testing with legally defensible results using infrared spectroscopy.
Testing for other illicit drugs of abuse traditionally requires blood or urine samples. Alternatively specimens comprising hair, sweat or oral fluid could be used. Blood sampling is invasive and requires medically trained personnel, why test subject often have to be transported to a hospital for sampling. This is time and effort consuming. With long lead times the test result will be too old. Urine sampling is considered intruding on personal integrity. Even other issues related to samples and specimens taken from a subject to be tested arise. For instance for blood samples, and especially for urine samples are at risk of the subject exchanging the samples or using clean samples from another subject to avoid being discovered with traces of illicit drugs. Thus, there is a need to provide a non-invasive, not-specimen based apparatus, system and/or method for detecting the presence or determining the quantitative amount of at least one drug substance in a subject.
Hence, an improved apparatus, system and/or method for on-site sampling of a subject for drug substances is desired. Such an apparatus, system and/or method for sampling the subject for illicit drugs of abuse and/or medical drugs would be desired. The apparatus, system and/or method should be efficient, non-bulky, user friendly both for operators and the subject. It should further be not intruding and not invasive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for drug detection in exhaled breath


A helmet mounted display utilizing a pair of image sources mounted low on the helmet of a pilot and projecting an image across in front of the pilot's face to the opposite partly reflecting portions of the visor of the helmet to create an image for each of the pilot's eyes, which image is combined with the scene being viewed through the visor by the pilot.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to displays which have special utility in connection with attachments for helmets worn by aircraft pilots (helmet mounted displays) wherein an image of a desired display, such as information on the face of a cathode ray tube, can be introduced into the field of view being observed by the pilot so that the desired display is superimposed upon the scene being viewed in the pilot's line of sight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Helmet mounted displays are well-known in the prior art and usually employ an optical system which receives an image of a desired display from a cathode ray tube and projects a collimated image thereof using a partially reflective surface, so that the image is viewed at infinity and is combined with the pilot sees through the aircraft windshield. In a U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,030 of Donald J. Rotier issued Aug. 22, 1989 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, a helmet mounted display is shown wherein a combiner is mounted on the helmet in front of one of the pilot's eyes and includes a curved surface and a filter that receives light from an image to be superimposed on the scene being viewed by the operator through the windshield. The Rotier apparatus, although generally quite satisfactory, has several drawbacks by virtue of the combiner structure being attached to the helmet relatively close to the pilot's eye. This proximity to the eye may present safety hazards to the pilot in the event that the helmet is knocked forward on his head. Furthermore, the optical elements utilized in the path from the cathode ray tube to the combiner are rather complicated and some elements are off center causing them to be very difficult to manufacture. Furthermore, being a monocular, both eyes do not see the same scene and, in the event of a cathode ray tube failure, the entire display is lost. Also, in the Rotier device, the apparatus mounting the combiner is close to the eye and gives obstruction to some directions of viewing.
Another prior art helmet mounted display is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the present disclosure. In this prior art apparatus, a cathode ray tube shown generally by reference numeral 10 is mounted to the top portion of the helmet 12 of a pilot. A rather complex arrangement of optical elements, better seen in FIG. 2, operates as a relay for directing the image from the source 10 to a pair of reflecting surfaces 14 and 16 and then sidewise to a second pair of reflecting surfaces 18 and 20 where the images are reflected downwardly to a pair of partially reflecting surfaces 22 and 24. Reflected light from surfaces 22 and 24 is thereafter directed to the pupils 26 and 28 of the pilot's eyes and he views the desired image superimposed on his view of the scene through the surfaces 22 and 24. While this apparatus does provide dual images of the display being projected, it does not solve the problem of a cathode ray tube failure since only one is still used and, furthermore, because the optics has to be mounted high on the helmet, it presents a secondary hazard to the pilot in the event of ejection. The weight of the optical relay system on the top of the helmet produces a high center of gravity for the helmet on the pilot's head which, during ejection, could cause forces against the pilot's neck that could even result in breakage thereof. Another major problem encountered with the prior art apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 is the joining line between the two partially reflective surfaces 22 and 24 identified in FIG. 2 as a cusp 30. Cusp 30 obviously provides extremely undesirable distortion when the pilot attempts to look through the area of the cusp.

Cross projection visor helmet mounted display


Methods and articles for reinforcing castable compositions through the use of reinforcing elements maintained in a close-packed alignment in a dispersible containment means.

It is well known that the performance of castable compositions can be improved by the incorporation of reinforcing elements. For example, reinforcing elements are incorporated into cementitous compositions such as mortar and concrete to improve their strength or to reduce surface cracking tendencies. Reinforcing elements encompass a broad range of shapes, but they typically share an elongate structure (ie., the dimension of a major axis is significantly larger than the dimension of the minor axis). The elongate structures include rod-like filaments having substantially round cross-sections, flat strips having a helically twisted structure or made with a varying cross-section to reduce pull-out tendencies, or cable-like constructions based on twisted constructions of rod-like filaments. Materials used as reinforcing elements include metals, synthetic polymeric materials, and naturally occurring materials.
In cementitous compositions (ie. mortar or concrete), it is known that the impact strength, flexural strength and toughness of the material improves with increasing percentages of the reinforcing elements in the composition. There is, however, a practical limit to the level of reinforcing elements that can be introduced as above this limit, the reinforcing elements tend to entangle with each other, forming balls or other undesirable conglomerates.
Proper selection of criteria relating to the length and diameter (eg. aspect ratio) of the reinforcing elements can help reduce their tendency to agglomerate. Achieving improved mixability by this technique is difficult, however, as these types of changes negatively impact the reinforcing capabilities of the elements.
The method of delivering reinforcing elements into cementitous compositions also plays a major role in realizing high incorporation levels of reinforcing elements. For example, high aspect ratio reinforcing elements must be introduced into cementitous compositions as substantially individual fibers and in very low concentrations over an extended period of time with very good mixing if high volume concentrations of reinforcing elements are desired.
Rod shaped reinforcing elements can become entangled and/or agglomerated in their shipping containers as a result of the vibration and jostling encountered during shipping. Agglomerated elements are not readily pourable from their shipping containers and cannot be added to cementitous compositions until the agglomerates have been broken up into individual elements. Various mechanical and pneumatic techniques have been employed to break-up the agglomerated masses and introduce the individual elements into the cementitous mix as a rain of elements. U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,943 (Akazawa et al.) describes a machine designed to separate reinforcing fibers into separate units prior to introducing them into the cementitous mix.
An alternative approach to incorporating high levels of reinforcing elements into cementitous compositions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,386 (Kempster), where fibers are treated with a high viscosity, friction reducing substance prior to the reinforcing elements being introduced into the mix.
A factor common to a number of recent approaches to achieving high incorporation levels of high aspect ratio elongate reinforcing elements (ie. fibers) into cementitous compositions is to introduce the fibers into the compositions in an organized, aligned array that, on mixing, slowly releases the fibers in an aligned array. Fibers released into cementitous compositions in this manner experience fewer fiber-fiber interactions and subsequently show less tendency toward agglomeration or balling as compared to fibers introduced into the compositions in a totally random orientation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,224,377 and 4,314,853 (Moens) describe a reinforcing member comprising a plurality of wire elements which are united by a binder which loses its binding ability during the mixing process, and a process for incorporating these members into cementitous compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,030 (Restrepo) describes reinforcing elements for cementitous compositions comprising ribbons of fibrillated polyolefin film. The fibrillated fibers are maintained in an aligned configuration by inter-fiber fibrils which are broken by mechanical mixing, thereby releasing individual fibers into the cementitous composition in an aligned configuration.
Another alternative to introducing fibers into cementitous compositions in an aligned configuration is described in Fiber Reinforced Cements and Concretes, edited by R. N. Swamy and B. Barr, Elsvier Applied Science, New York, 1989. pp 316-325. This processes utilizes short fibrillated polypropylene fiber strips which are twisted to produce a cable-like structure to deliver the fibers to cementitous compositions. The mechanical mixing action of processing the cementitous composition breaks the cable-like structure apart, releasing individual fibrillated film fibers into the mix in an aligned manner.

Reinforcing elements for castable composition

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


An improved acetabular impactor, especially suitable for use in minimally invasive hip surgeries, is disclosed. The impactor is simple in design and operation and spatially optimized. In particular, the impactor is designed to remotely detach the acetabular shell from the impactor using one handed operation and have the capability to be used with different sized acetabular shells.

Traditionally, hip replacement surgery has been done via "open" surgical procedures. With open procedures, space for inserting and manipulating surgical instruments is not that critical and it is easier to get around major anatomical features, such as the greater trochanter of the femur.
However, with the advent of minimally-invasive surgical procedures for hip replacement, small incision sizes combined with tight anatomical clearances have resulted in the need for surgical instruments that take maximum availability of available space.
Exemplary instruments specifically described as being designed for MIS surgeries are shown in, for example, U.S. Pub. 2003/0050645 (Parker et al), U.S. Pub. 2003/0158559 (Diaz), and WO03/065906 (Chana). Another device that appears to be at least designed with an eye towards MIS issues is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,560 (Rohr). However, as shown in Rohr's drawings, its bulging arcuate portion 16 does not seem to extend far enough out to provide a good working clearance for the greater trochanter.
All patents and publications mentioned herein are incorporated by reference in this patent application.
While these devices may be acceptable for their intended or described uses, they are often complex, not geometrically or spatially optimized, not provide for easy one-handed operation, nor provide for the ability to easily handle different sized acetabular shells.
Accordingly, there is room for improvement within the art.


A vehicle driving device includes a permanent magnet motor, an inverter that drives the permanent magnet motor, a DC-to-DC converter that is a buck-boost converter and connected to the inverter, and a driving battery that is connected to the DC-to-DC converter. The DC-to-DC converter outputs, to the inverter, (i) a voltage inputted to the DC-to-DC converter of a positive electrode of the driving battery as-is and (ii) a voltage inputted to the DC-to-DC converter of a negative electrode of the driving battery after increasing the voltage in a negative direction.

Mild-hybrid electric vehicles (M-HEVs) that are driven using a low voltage battery of at most 60 V have been attracting attention as a measure in response to fuel efficiency regulations, e.g. CO2 emission regulations. For example, a 48 V driving battery is used as the low voltage battery. With the objective of increasing efficiency, a permanent magnet motor is used as the motor used in hybrid vehicles, but induced voltage occurs from the permanent magnet motor when the permanent magnet motor is driven at a high rotation. Thus, when the permanent magnet motor is driven at a high rotation, a control called field-weakening control (see Patent Literature (PTL) 1) is performed in order to limit the induced voltage.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A hand-held wireless communication device for creating and sending text messages including ideograms, wherein the communication device includes an input interface for a user to make a phonetic input, and a processor for controlling a display device to display thereon one or more ideogrammatic representations of the phonetic input according to a first language, which are each selectable by the user for incorporation into a text message according to further information relating thereto in a second language.

1. Field
The invention relates to hand-held wireless communication devices with which text messages can be created and sent.
2. Description of the Related Art
The creation of text messages via the keypad of a hand-held wireless telephone in many European languages is relatively simple since all 26 letters of the Roman alphabet can be represented on the keys of a standard phone keypad. However, some languages such as Chinese and Japanese use thousands of ideograms, some of which have the same readings as others. A common way of creating text messages including such ideograms is to make a phonetic input using a conventional keypad and then commanding a processor to list one or more ideogrammatic representations corresponding to such phonetic input. The user then selects the desired ideogrammatic representation for incorporation into the text message.


A laser diode array having a grooved substrate with one or more laser diode bars disposed in the substrate grooves. When mounted in the substrate, the bars emit light in a direction perpendicular to the minor surface of the substrate. Additional structure is provided to channel the light output of the array. The substrate may be comprised of a number of materials, including: ceramic; semiconductor; crystal, such as diamond; doped ceramic; doped semiconductor; doped crystal; composites, composed of conductive upper layers and nonconductive lower layers, or the like. In certain embodiments metallization is provided in the grooves for purposes of conduction and for attachment of the laser diode bars. In certain embodiments metallization may be provided in the grooves for purposes of attaching the laser diode bars securely; the conductive nature of the substrate providing the required electrical conductivity.

The present invention, the latest in a series of developments by the present inventor, these developments having led to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,040,187 and 5,128,951 and related application Ser. No. 07/827,884, relates to a laser diode array in which radiation is emitted from a minor surface of the array. To provide relevant background and disclosure, the foregoing patent and copending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
The inventor's work in the field started from an investigation of possible improvements to a known "Rack & Stack" assembly process for laser diode arrays, in which the inventor was involved. This technique, which still is being used rather widely today, is far more expensive than the techniques disclosed in the above-mentioned copending applications and patent.
In the "Rack & Stack" process, individual one-dimensional (1 D) subarrays are mounted on a backplane to form a two-dimensional (2 D) array. The number of individual parts involved makes it very difficult to achieve high volume production, particularly since the number of assembly steps is large, and yield has tended to be relatively low. Many of the individual assembly steps require careful alignment of the individual subarrays, contributing to longer required assembly time and lower yield. Further, the 1 D subarrays are not reworkable; if part of a subarray is flawed, the entire assembly must be scrapped, as individual laser diodes in the subarrays cannot be replaced.
Against this backdrop, prior work by the present inventor has focused on facilitating fabrication of these laser diode arrays, comprised of a plurality of laser diode bars disposed such that the radiation emitting surface of each of the laser diode bars is parallel to the upper major surface of the array substrate so as to emit radiation in a direction perpendicular to the upper major surface of the substrate. The improvements are disclosed and claimed in the referenced copending applications and patent. In the arrays according to the invention which is the subject of this application, the bars are disposed such that the radiation emitting surface of each of the laser diode bars is parallel to the minor surface of the array substrate so as to emit radiation in a direction perpendicular to the minor surface of the substrate.
Fabrication of the diodes per se is not an aspect of any of these inventions; rather, these diodes simply are commercially available products. The present inventor's work in this area has focused on types of substrates, including various techniques for providing substrates having the necessary physical and electrical characteristics. In the above-mentioned U.S. patent, a non-conductive monolithic substrate is provided with a plurality of grooves in which a metallized layer is formed to provide both electrical conductivity and an attachment surface for the laser diodes, which are soldered into the metallized grooves.
Later developments, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,951, provide a conductive substrate (such as a highly doped semiconductor), in which the metallized layer, which may be needed for attachment purposes, no longer is necessary for electrical conductivity. Instead, the conductive substrate, which may be monolithic in nature (having a doped upper portion and an undoped lower portion in one embodiment), or which may instead be of two-piece construction (having, for example, a conductive upper portion and an insulative lower portion), provides the necessary conduit for current flow to the laser diode bars.
Future array designs will require laser light emission from the minor surface of the array. The inventor has considered the desirability of providing a laser diode assembly such that light would be emitted in a direction from a minor surface of the substrate.
In the course of developing improved laser diode assemblies, the inventor also has considered different materials for use in the substrate in which the laser diode bars would be mounted. For different types of industrial and/or military applications, he has learned that different types of materials may be preferable.

Monolithic laser diode array providing emission from a minor surface thereof


A semiconductor single crystal rod having a controlled oxygen concentration distribution in the direction of length is produced by method of pulling up a semiconductor melt held in a quartz glass crucible under application of a magnetic field, which method is characterized by fixing the rotational speed of said quartz crucible at a level exceeding 5 rpm and varying the intensity of said magnetic field applied to said molten semiconductor according to the length of pull of said single crystal rod.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for the growth of a semiconductor single crystal by the procedure of bringing a seed crystal into contact with a molten semiconductor held in a quartz crucible and pulling up a rod of semiconductor single crystal from the molten semiconductor. More particularly, this invention relates to a method for the growth of a semiconductor single crystal characterized by conferring a prescribed distribution upon the oxygen concentration in the direction of pull of the semiconductor single crystal by the adjustment of the intensity of the magnetic field applied to the molten semiconductor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the growth of a single crystal of silicon by the Czochralski method (CZ pull method), a quartz (SiO.sub.2) crucible is used as the container for holding molten silicon. It has been known that the grown single crystal of silicon contains a fairly large amount of oxygen because the silicon at the melting point is chemically active and, therefore, is suffered to react with the quartz of the crucible and melt it into the molten silicon. When the quartz of the crucible melts into the molten silicon, the trace of impurities present within the crucible proper simultaneously melt out and find their way into the grown single crystal of silicon.
The oxygen in the single crystal of silicon, depending on the concentration and distribution thereof, manifests various effects on the characteristics of a semiconductor device made from the single crystal or on the heat treatment performed on the device during the course of production. When the oxygen concentration is relatively high, for example, the heat treatment induces a stacking fault or produces precipitates of oxygen and exerts adverse effects on the characteristics of the semiconductor device.
Incidentally, when the heat treatment is performed with the fault of this nature lodged outside the active region of the semiconductor device, it gives birth to the so-called intrinsic gettering action, namely the action of gettering harmful impurities such as, for example, impurities of such metal as Fe, Cu, and Au, and brings about an effect of improving the characteristics of the semiconductor device.
When the oxygen concentration is high but not to the extent of inducing the occurrence of precipitate of oxygen, it is effective in curbing the occurrence and growth of defects due to oxygen clusters. To be specific, it is capable of repressing the occurrence and growth of defects during the heat treatment performed in the course of the production of the semiconductor device.
This state of affairs has urged the development of techniques for allowing the oxygen in the single crystal of silicon to be distributed at a relatively high level such as, for example, in the range of from 15 to 20 ppma as uniformly throughout the entire length thereof as permissible. Japanese Patent Publication SHO 60(1985)-6,911, for example, discloses a method which, in the step of pulling up a single crystal rod from a molten semiconductor material held in a quartz crucible by the Czochralski method, controls the gradient of the rotational speed profile of the crucible in inverse proportion to that of the axial oxygen concentration of the crystal during the pulling process.
Then, Japanese Patent Application Disclosure SHO 57(1982)-135,796 discloses a method which comprises rotating a seed crystal of silicon grown in size to be pulled up about its axis in the direction opposite that of the rotation of a crucible holding a molten semiconductor at an initial rotational speed greater that of the crucible and increasing the rotational speed of the crucible in accordance as the volume of the molten semiconductor held in the crucible decreases
These methods, however, have the disadvantage that the convection of the molten semiconductor for crystal growth and the vibration of the surface of the molten semiconductor result in conspicuous occurrence of swirly defects and striation of growth and the rotation of the crucible coupled with the convection entails forced current and vortex current within the molten semiconductor and, as a result, the oxygen concentration is varied in a fairly wide range in the direction of the length of pull.
For the purpose of mending this disadvantage, there has been proposed a method for the growth of crystal which, during the operation of pulling up a single crystal from a molten semiconductor while keeping the molten semiconductor under application of a magnetic field and keeping in rotation the container of the molten semiconductor, controls the oxygen concentration in the single crystal by varying the rotational speed of the container [Japanese Patent Application Disclosure SHO 58(1983)-74,594].
This method is capable of curbing the occurrence of swirly striation of growth and effecting the control of oxygen concentration, though to a limited extent.
The attempt at controlling the oxygen concentration by adjusting the rotational speed of the crucible nevertheless entails the disadvantage that the oxygen concentration distribution in the direction of pull of the single crystal is still varied in a fairly wide range. By the control of the revolutionary speed of the crucible, however, accurate control of the oxygen concentration within .+-.5 to 10% in the direction of pull of the single crystal has never been successfully attained.

Method for pulling up semiconductor single crystal


A drawer slide assembly for supporting a drawer on a cabinet in which the slide channels include in-stop elements at the outer ends to facilitate positioning and assembly of the drawer slide assembly. At least one anti-scrape polymeric guide bushing is located at the outer ends of the channels in order to reduce binding and scraping of the slide channels.

Such drawer slides are typically known as precision drawer slides. The applications for such drawer slides include loads and drawer sizes that are considered to be among the most severe and substantial in the drawer slide industry. In order to insure that drawer slide capacity is adequate, the multiple channel members are used to distribute the vertical loading evenly while providing a smooth opening and closing operation. For example, three channel members may be used. The channel members include a cabinet channel, a center channel and a drawer channel. The channels are engaged to operate in a telescoping fashion. While the conventional precision slide of this type employs three channel members, it is not inconceivable that more than three members could be used.
The functional movement of the drawer slide is designed to facilitate the opening and closing of a drawer within a cabinet structure. The telescoping action of this type of drawer slide accomplishes the opening and closing function smoothly and with little effort. As may be appreciated, the opening function terminates when the telescoping elements of the drawer slide reach the end, or termination point, of their travel. This termination point is determined by components of the drawer slide which are not subject of the present invention, but which are collectively known as "out-stop" features. The "out-stop" features in such drawer slides stop the forward progress of the slide at a predetermined point, which usually occurs when the drawer is fully open.
The reverse situation occurs when the drawer is closed and the slide is returned to a fully retracted position, wherein the channels are in substantial alignment with each other. This is known as the "in-stop" function, and is somewhat similar to the out-stop function, in that drawer travel to the retracted position is halted at a preselected point. However, the considerations for "in-stop" protection are somewhat different than for "out-stop" protection. The objective for in-stop protection is to prevent damage from occurring between the drawer front and the cabinet face or frame. In-stop features allow the drawer to be stopped, by acting through the elements of the drawer slide itself, which transfers the stopping force to the frame or side walls of the cabinet.
Drawer slides are known which utilize an in-stop feature positioned toward the rear of the installed cabinet member. Typically, these well-known in-stop designs comprise a metal tab which is turned upwardly into the center part of the channel area so as to form a positive obstruction to the travel of the center channel thereby preventing it from traveling into the cabinet enclosure after the center channel contacts the obstruction. Refinements on this approach have occurred primarily in the area of providing a resilient covering around the metal tab so as to lessen the impact on the center channel.
The in-stop function may also include a rear mounted stop on the center channel, again comprising tabs that can be folded into position to obstruct travel of the drawer member. In this fashion, the combination of stops on both the center channel and the cabinet channel work in cooperation to provide a positive in-stop feature that approximates the desired closed positioning of the drawer within the cabinet frame. However, this approach has deficiencies.
The problems which have plagued the in-stops of the prior art result from both the location and the construction of the in-stop components. Specifically, the metal tab, which is turned 90.degree. to provide obstruction to travel of an adjacent channel, is subject to deformation where extreme closing force is generated when a drawer is closed quickly, as would be the case in a fully loaded drawer. The in-stop devices taught by the prior art may be inelastically deformed, thereby changing the stopping position of the drawer slide. In addition, placement of the in-stop elements at the rear portion of the slide increases the potential for error in setting the actual stopping point of the drawer. For example, in a drawer slide with a cabinet channel length of 18 inches, the in-stop components of the drawer slide are located close to 18 inches away from the front of the cabinet and the drawer face. Imperfections in manufacturing or materials introduce tolerance factors which can materially affect the accuracy of the stopping position of the drawer from cabinet to cabinet.
There are other drawer slide configurations that differ from the three channel telescoping product described above. For example, there are two channel member slides with in-stop functions similar to those described above. It should therefore be appreciated that the teachings of the present invention are applicable to drawer slides employing two channel members or more, wherever a compatible telescoping operation of channels is found.


The invention relates to a sensor for detecting the direction of a magnetic field in a plane whose direction can be defined by the indication of a polar angle ?. Said sensor comprises a number of n magnetic field sensors (3.0 to 3.7). A measurement axis (8.1 to 8.4) is assigned to each magnetic field sensor in such a manner that the absolute value of the output signal of the magnetic field sensor is largest when the magnetic field runs parallel to the measuring axis. All measuring axes intersect at a common point (5). The number k of measuring axes is equal to at least three. An operating mode is provided during which two magnetic field sensors are selected for calculating the angle ?. These two magnetic field sensors belong to different measuring axes, and the values of the output signals thereof are less than those of the output signals of the magnetic field sensors belonging to the other measuring axes.

Such sensors are suitable for example for measuring the direction of a magnetic field in a plane. Nowadays, sensors are almost exclusively used that measure the components of the magnetic field in relation to two orthogonal coordinate axes. These sensors contain magnetic field sensors such as magnetoresistive components (e.g. Philips KMZ41) or Hall elements (e.g. Sentron 2SA-10). The magnetic field sensors provide two analogue output voltages that are proportional to the sine or cosine function of the direction of the magnetic field. The direction of the magnetic field can be determined from these two output voltages. To do so, on the one hand the quadrant of the field direction has to be determined from the sign of the two output voltages and, on the other hand the arc tangent of the quotients of both output voltages has to be calculated. As an accurate analogue quotient formation is very complex to implement, the quotient formation is often done in a digital way for example by means of the iterative CORDIC algorithm. The digital quotient formation is time-consuming and therefore slow. Furthermore, to carry out these calculations, the sensor must have a microcontroller. Such a sensor is therefore large, expensive and slow.
A sensor of this type is used for example in an angle transmitter in order to measure the direction of a magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet. Here, a further problem exists in that the strength of the magnetic field produced by the permanent magnet is greatly dependent on the temperature of the permanent magnet. This necessitates a large measuring range of the sensor. For sensors that have a ferromagnetic core for the passive amplification of the magnetic field, the danger exists that the magnetic field saturates the ferromagnetic core or at least partially saturates it, which leads to measurement errors.
A sensor suitable for determining the direction of a two-dimensional magnetic field is Known from EP 1182461. The sensor comprises a magnetic field concentrator with a flat shape and two magnetic field sensors that comprise at least one Hall element whereby the Hall elements are arranged in the area of the edge of the magnetic field concentrator. The first magnetic field sensor measures a first component of the magnetic field and the second magnetic field sensor measures a second component of the magnetic field. The direction of the magnetic field can therefore be determined from the signals of the two magnetic field sensors.
The object of the invention is to develop a sensor with which the direction of the external magnetic field in a plane can be determined in a simple manner.

Sensor for detecting the direction of a magnetic field in a plane


In a network environment between a group of endpoint computing devices, where content is shared between the group of endpoint computing devices via a social network platform, techniques are described herein for receiving a social activity feed associated with the social network platform, the social activity feed including activities occurring within the social network platform. An algorithm is applied to a social graph of a user at an endpoint computing device of the group to determine a prioritization of nodes within the user's social graph, activities within the social activity feed are associated with nodes of the user's social graph, and recommendations are provided to the user of activities within the social activity feed that correspond with prioritized nodes of the user's social graph.

Social networks can exist in many different commercial, business and social settings and typically include software platforms that are hosted by one or more network servers, where the social network platforms comprise software tools or software application modules and related services that link computing devices of users within the platform with network servers and computing devices of other users so as to facilitate exchange of information and content between users. The social network platforms include user profiles and activities of interest to the user, including posts of content (e.g., documents, blogs, wikis, etc.) and other types of communications between users within the platform. The social network platforms can further include communities, where a community comprises a collection or group of participants within a social environment who join together based upon one or more common interests or goals. In addition, communities typically include information related to the group of participants, such as posts (e.g., documents, blogs, wikis, etc.) that are associated with the group of participants and are relevant to a particular community. A user or participant in a social network platform typically has an account along with a personal profile within the platform that allows the participant to engage in activities with other participants within the platform. A user profile within a social network platform can include a social graph that identifies relationships between the user and activities associated with the user, such as posted content, other users, communities, etc. within a social network platform.
Certain social network platforms can provide recommendations to a user (e.g., based upon the user's profile) regarding communities, posted content (e.g., documents, blogs, etc.), other users and/or other activities within the social platform that may be of interest to the user. Current recommendation and suggestion systems predominantly pre-compute and prepare recommendations (e.g., by a network platform administrator) which are later presented to an end user, thus such recommendations are not based upon current activities participants within the platform.

Activity based recommendations within a social networking environment based upon graph activation


Characters to be recognized and which may be handwritten are each described by a pattern of one bit thresholded pixel data which follows the center line of the character and encoded into strings of digital data signals (bytes) which represent the shape of the pattern from three aspects, namely the top view, the front edge and the rear edge thereof, thereby providing low level recognition information in the form of three digital data strings. From these strings, the characters are recognized by finding high level recognition strings of digital signals which correspond to different characters in the character set to be recognized. This high level recognition is carried on in two steps, namely allocating the high level recognition strings which correspond to the low level strings for each aspect of the character and then finding combinations of high level strings reflecting the same character, thereby accounting for variations in the shapes in which the same character can be written. The high level strings and the combinations are stored in tables to enable recognition of characters in a character set.

Although optical recognition of characters which may be hand written has long been desired for the flexibility which automatic recognition provides to the handling of information, workers in the art have not as yet brought any such system to the point where it is commercially exploitable. From time to time patents have issued which relate to optical character recognition of hand written characters (see U.S Pat. Nos. 4,066,998; 4,628,532; and 4,837,842). The principal problems which have faced the workers in the optical character recognition art appear to be in the need for an immense memory of data which map variations in the shapes of hand drawn versions of the same character and the requirement to restrict the form and Placement of the character (the way it is drawn) in order to have a reasonable chance of recognition.


A method is provided for modifying a cab assembly of a Class 5 or higher truck. The cab assembly includes a cab. The cab has an original cab height from a cab bottom end to a cab top end thereof. The cab includes a bottom region, a window region located above the bottom region, a roof region located above the window region, and a window defined in the window region. The method includes: cutting the cab through the window region to divide the cab into a top section and a bottom section; and thereafter joining the top section or a replacement top section to the bottom section to form a modified cab, wherein the modified cab has a modified height from the cab bottom end to the cab top end that is less than the original cab height.

Large trucks may be provided by an original manufacturer having certain dimensions, including a standard cab height dimension. A manufacturer may wish to offer the truck or an owner of such a truck may wish to use the truck as a vocational truck such as an automobile hauler, a utility truck or the like. In some cases, the truck can not be readily put to such use because the standard cab height does not provide for sufficient overhead clearance for a body structure, vocational equipment or the like.

Methods for modifying truck cabs and doors


Provided is a head-mounted display optical system (LS) having: an optical deflection element (M1); a first lens group (G1); a second lens group (G2); and an optical reflection element (M2). The head-mounted display optical system is configured such that light from a light source, which is reflected on a reflection surface (M2r) of the optical reflection element (M2) and reaches a drawing surface (I) assumed to be located on a retina when a user wears the head-mounted display, moves on the drawing surface (I) according to the change of a travelling direction of the light caused by the optical deflection element (M1), and an image is drawn on the drawing surface (I). The first lens group (G1) includes a free-shaped surface lens having a free-shaped surface which is rotationally asymmetrical with respect to a reference axis, and the reflection surface (M2r) of the optical reflection element (M2) is formed to be rotationally asymmetrical with respect to a reference axis.

A plurality of types have been proposed for a head-mounted display (e.g. see Patent Document 1). For example, one conventional head-mounted display is configured to draw an image on a retina by moving light from a light source at high-speed using an optical deflection element, such as a galvano-mirror. In order to improve the optical performance of such a head-mounted display, a number of lenses must be increased and a glass, having a large specific gravity, must be used to sufficiently correct chromatic aberration, which results in an increase in the size and weight of the optical system. This tendency is particularly conspicuous if lens elements, which are used, are all rotationally symmetrical with respect to the reference axis (e.g. spherical lens).

Head-mounted display optical system and head-mounted display


A mixture consists of three or more organic compounds, wherein the molecular weight difference of any two organic compounds is less than 160 Dalton. In the mixture, the molar percentage of each organic compound is not less than 3% and not more than 90%, and the organic compounds all have at least one same or similar photoelectronic function.

Currently, as a new-generation display technology, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is prepared by an evaporation method. In the preparation process, a large number of vacuum procedures are involved, which result in low material utilization rate. And a fine metal mask (FMM) is required, so the cost is high and the yield rate is low. At the same time, quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) as another new display technology cannot be prepared by an evaporation method and must be prepared by solution processing. For these seasons, new technique for realizing high-resolution full-color display using a printing process has been receiving more and more attention. For example inkjet printing can produce functional material thin films in a large area. With the properties of the low energy consumption, low water consumption, and environmental friendliness, this kind of production technology with great advantages and potential compared with traditional semiconductor production processes. Therefore, to achieve printing display, it is necessary to break through key issues about a printing ink and related processing techniques.
The performance of OLEDs prepared by vacuum evaporation based on small molecular materials is excellent, these materials also have basically met the commercial requirements. However, the commercialized small molecular OLED materials usually have properties of small molecular weight, low glass transition temperature and high molecular planar structural rigidity, which results in poor film forming property and prone to crystallize in the subsequent heating process. These property leads to a significant decrease in the performance and lifetime of solution processed OLED, and has seriously hindered the development of printed OLED technology.

Mixture, composition and organic electronic device

GUANGZHOU CHINARAY OPTOELECTRONIC MATERIALS LTD.


Provided herein are a test card, method of manufacturing the same, and mold for manufacturing the same. The test card may include a body and a well. The body may include a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. The well may define an opening extending from the first surface to the second surface and configured to receive a sample therein. The well may further include a shelf extending into the opening, such that the opening is narrower between the shelf and the second surface than between the shelf and the first surface.

Sample test cards are used to quickly and accurately study biological samples. Typically, test cards are used in conjunction with spectroscopic or other automated analysis machines. An example of a test card system is the Vitek® microbial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing cards and corresponding Vitek® machines.
The test card contains the reagents and receives the patient samples in a series of small wells, formed in the card in rows and columns and sealed, typically with tape or other sealing membranes on both sides. The test cards are filled with patient sample material through fine hydraulic channels formed in the card.
The inventor has discovered several areas for improvement in existing test cards and their corresponding manufacturing techniques. Specifically, at least 5 to 20% of wells were discovered by the inventor to include air bubbles during filling, which bubbles increase the error rate of the testing machine and cause the test card systems to produce inaccurate results. These bubbles were discovered to have been caused by, inter alia, the hydrophobic nature of the chemical components along with the size and internal configuration of the well, with the bubbles being formed by a combination of physical and chemical attributes. In some instances, the inventor discovered that existing molding techniques may cause bubble formation. For example, particular orientations of parting lines from the mold sections may result in a well that traps air under the overhang created by the parting lines.
Applicant has identified a number of additional areas for improvement associated with conventional test cards and other associated systems. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these identified problems have been solved by developing solutions that are included in embodiments of the present invention, many examples of which are described in detail herein.