An LCD panel test system for measuring voltages in the pixels of LCD with high signal to noise (S/N) ratio. The LCD test system includes a sweep timing generator for generating clock signals and control signals for driving pixels in an LCD panel, a driver for generating a reference voltage to be supplied to the pixels in the LCD, a current-voltage (IV) conversion circuit for receiving a signal from the pixels to convert the same to a corresponding voltage signal, a sample and hold circuit for sampling the voltage signal from the IV conversion circuit and temporarily holding the sampled voltage, an A/D converter for converting the sampled voltage to a digital signal, and an image processor for processing the digital signal from the A/D converter to detect defective pixels in the LCD panel based on relative levels of the output signals from the video terminal.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is widely used as a computer monitor, a flat TV, a test instrument display and the like. A brief description is made regarding an LCD panel which is a device to be tested by the LCD panel test system of the present invention. An LCD panel includes a large number of pixels (picture elements) aligned in a matrix manner.
FIG. 3 shows an example of structure in an LCD panel made of amorphous TFT. In the LCD panel 10, a large number of gate lines 19.sub.1 -19.sub.m which are parallel with one another are provided on a quartz substrate. A large number of data lines 20.sub.1 -20.sub.n which are parallel with one another and perpendicular to the gate lines are also provided on the substrate. At each cross point of the gate line 19 and the data line 20, a pixel TFT (thin film transistor) 14 is established.
In each pixel TFT 14.sub.ij (14.sub.11 -14.sub.nm), a gate is connected to the gate line 19, a source is connected to the data line 20, and a drain is connected to an auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij (15.sub.11 -15.sub.nm) as shown in FIG. 3. The other end of the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij is commonly connected to a ground terminal 22. In this manner, a large number of pixels each of which is formed of the pixel TFT 14.sub.ij and the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij are aligned in a matrix manner on the substrate.
The number of pixels in the LCD panel is, for example, 307,200 (640.times.480) in the VGA (Video Graphics Array) standard, 480,000 (800.times.600) in the SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array) standard, and 786,432 (1,024.times.768) in the XGA (Extended Graphics Array) standard. In an EWS (Engineering Work Station) application, the number of pixels is further required to be as large as 1,310,720 (1,280.times.1,024).
The gate lines 19.sub.1 -19.sub.m are connected to corresponding registers in a row select shift register 11 having m stages of registers. The data lines 20.sub.1 -20.sub.m are connected to corresponding video lines 21 through column select switches 13.sub.i (13.sub.1 -13.sub.n). The column select switches 13.sub.i are made of thin film transistors. Each gate of the thin film transistor of the column select switch 13 is connected to a corresponding register in a column select shift register 12 having n stages of registers.
When the number of pixels is large, for achieving a high speed operation, a plurality of video lines 21 and column select shift registers 12 may be employed in the LCD panel. In such a case, the number of video lines is typically 2-6, but sometimes, the video lines up to 24 may be used. The number of column select registers 12 may be 2-4 which are perpendicular with one another.
The row select shift register 11 has a terminal DY for receiving a vertical drive signal and a clock terminal CLY for receiving a vertical operation clock. In receiving the vertical drive signal and the vertical operation clock, the row select shift register 11 sequentially generates a high level signal at one of the registers for every horizontal sweep. Namely, the high level signal is provided sequentially at one of the gate lines 19.sub.1 -19.sub.m for every horizontal sweep.
The column select register 12 has a terminal DX for receiving a horizontal drive signal and a clock terminal CLY for receiving a horizontal operation clock. In receiving the horizontal drive signal and the horizontal operation clock, the column select shift register 12 sequentially generates a high level signal at one of the registers for every pixel cycle. Namely, the high level signal is provided sequentially at one of the data lines 20.sub.1 -20.sub.m for every cycle of the horizontal operation clock.
Therefore, for example, during the period when the gate line 19.sub.1 is in the high level, the gate of the column select switch 13.sub.1 becomes high level. As a consequence, the pixel TFT 14.sub.11 goes ON so that the video signal from the video line 21 is charged in the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.1 through the drain and source of the pixel TFT 14.sub.11. The charge stored in the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.11 represents the signal level of the incoming video signal.
During the time when the gate line 19.sub.1 is in the high level, the column select switches 13.sub.1 -13.sub.m are consecutively driven to a high level, one by one, by the horizontal operation clock. Thus, the pixel TFTs 14.sub.11 -14.sub.1n are sequentially set to ON so that the video signal from the video line 21 corresponding to the pixel point is charged in the corresponding auxiliary capacitors 15.sub.11 -15.sub.1n. In this manner, all the pixels connected to the gate line 19.sub.1 are swept by the horizontal operation clock. In the next horizontal sweep, the gate line 19.sub.2 is set to the high level, and the horizontal sweep is performed for the pixels connected to the gate line 19.sub.2.
This horizontal sweep is repeated for all the pixels in the LCD panel provided with video signals from the video line 21. When all the gate lines 19 are scanned in this manner, a picture is formed on the LCD panel. Similar to the known television technology, such pictures are produced on the LCD panel several ten times or more per second to show images without flickers.
An LCD panel test system is used for testing LCD panels having a large number of pixels as in the above noted example. Two types of failure are usually exhibited in such an LCD panel, one is line defect and the other is pixel defect. The line defect means an existence of an open circuit in the various lines and components in the LCD panel. Thus, the line defect can be relatively easily identified when testing an LCD panel in performing a conduct/non-conduct test by an LCD test system.
The pixel defect means failures in the pixel, i.e., the charge and discharge operation in the auxiliary capacitors of the pixels. The pixel defect includes open defect in which the auxiliary capacitor is open circuited and short defect in which the auxiliary capacitor is short circuited. When the auxiliary capacitor works properly, the video signal is correctly charged in the capacitor. When the auxiliary capacitor has either the open defect or the short defect, it cannot properly charge the video signal.
Several methods of testing the pixel defect have been introduced. One of the methods is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-158056 filed by the same assignee of the present invention. This example is described with reference to FIG. 5. In this conventional method, when detecting the pixel defect, a rectangular signal is provided to a common ground terminal 22 of the LCD panel. As shown in FIG. 3, the common ground terminal 22 is commonly connected to all the auxiliary capacitors 15.sub.ij of the pixels. At the same time, voltage levels corresponding to the pixels at the video output lines 21 of the LCD panel 10 are monitored. On the basis of the voltage levels, the pixel defect is detected to evaluate the quality of the LCD panel 10.
The LCD panel test system of FIG. 5 includes a sweep timing generator 30, a test signal generator 31, a high speed switch 32, an impedance converter 33, a sample and hold circuit 34, an amplifier 35, an A/D converter 36 and an image processor 37. The LCD panel 10 in FIG. 5 is shown in more detail in FIG. 3 as discussed above.
In testing the LCD panel 10, a vertical drive signal and a vertical operation clock, both from the sweep timing generator 30, are applied to the DX terminal and the CLY terminal, respectively. Further, a horizontal drive signal and a horizontal operation clock, both from the sweep timing generator 30, are applied to the DX terminal and the CLX terminal, respectively.
As noted above, the common ground terminal 22 is commonly connected to all the auxiliary capacitors 15.sub.ij of the pixels. The test signal generator 31 provides a test signal, such as a rectangular signal, to the common ground terminal 22 of the LCD panel 10. The application timing of the rectangular signal is, for example, at the intermediate of each switching (selection ) period of the pixels. At the timings of the beginning and ending of each switching period, a discharge operation is performed as will be explained later.
When the selected pixel functions properly, an-output signal having a voltage proportional to the test signal is produced at the video terminal 23 through the video line 21 of the LCD panel 10. For example, if the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij in question is short circuited, an output signal having a high level voltage is produced at the video terminal 23. In contrast, if the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij is open circuited, an output signal having a low level voltage is produced at the video terminal 23.
The high speed switch 32 is provided between the video terminal 23 and the common ground. At the beginning and ending of the selection period of the pixels, the high speed switch 32 is driven to ON so as to drain the electric charge stored in the stray capacitances connected to the video terminal 23.
The impedance converter 33 converts high impedance of the output signal at the video terminal 23 to low impedance to be supplied to the sample and hold circuit 34. The output signal from the terminal 23 is sampled at the timing close to the end of the rectangular test signal and holds its voltage for the analysis in the later stages of the test system. The sampled voltage from the sample and hold circuit 34 is amplified by the amplifier 35 whose output is connected to the A/D converter.
Thus, the output signal at the video terminal 23 is converted to a digital signal by the A/D converter 36. The digital signal is provided to the image processor 37 where the voltage levels relative to other pixels are evaluated to determine whether there is any defective pixels in the LCD panel 10.
In this conventional example of testing the LCD panel, the short defect (the auxiliary capacitor is short circuited) of the pixel is easily identified since the output signal from the video terminal becomes substantially large. However, the open defect (the auxiliary capacitor is open circuited) is not easily discernible because of a poor S/N (signal to noise) ratio in the output signals from the video terminal 23.
This is because the stray capacitances on the data lines 20.sub.i and the video lines 21 in the LCD panel 10 are significantly large relative to the selected auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij of the pixel. Thus, the output voltage at the video terminal 23 is affected by the stray capacitances whose reactance values are several ten times larger than the auxiliary capacitor 15.sub.ij in question.
FIG. 4 shows an equivalent circuit of one of the pixels in the LCD panel of FIG. 3 when the pixel transistor TFT 14 is ON. In FIG. 4, R8 designates an ON resistance of the column select switch 13.sub.i and R9 designates an ON resistance of the pixel transistor TFT 14.sub.ij. The ON resistance R8 is typically 10K ohm while the ON resistance R9 is typically 1M ohm. Also in FIG. 4, numeral 16 designates a stray capacitance on the data line 20 and numeral 17 designates a stray capacitance on the video line 21. Although the capacitance values of the stray capacitances 16 and 17 are dependent on the size of the LCD panel substrate, typically, the stray capacitance 16 is 5 pF and the stray capacitance 17 is 10 pF. On the other hand, the auxiliary capacitance 15.sub.ij has a capacitance value of about 0.1 pF.
Since the auxiliary capacitance 15.sub.ij of the pixel is less than 1/100 of the sum of the stray capacitances of the data line 20 and video line 21, the voltage change in the capacitor 15.sub.ij between the normal situation and the defective situation in the pixel is very small because of the large stray capacitors. Thus, in the conventional technology, it is difficult to accurately detect the open defect in the pixels of the LCD panel.
Further, in the conventional technology where the rectangular test signal is provided at the common ground terminal and the resultant signal is detected at the video terminal 23, a fine timing adjustment is necessary to discharge the voltages in the stray capacitors by the external switch as described above. Since this test procedure involves the delicate timing adjustment, it is complicated and time consuming.

LCD panel test system and test method thereof


A bowling game table having a game lane surface with oppositely disposed ball return gutters, multiple ball engagement shoes are movably positioned transversely at one end thereof with a plurality of pins set up at the other end thereof. An independent playing cue selectively registerable through and aligned with said ball engagement shoes. Selective ball positioning on the game lane within said ball engagement shoes before launch towards the pins by engagement with said cue.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to table type miniature bowling games that provide for a bowling experience in a self-contained table apparatus.
(2) Description of Prior Art
Prior art devices of this type have been directed to a variety of bowling simulation games in which miniature bowling lanes are used with appropriate scaled down balls and pins to re-create the bowling experience, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,562, 5,096,192, 5,655,768, 6,319,144 and Patent Publication US 2002/0163130 A1.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,562 a miniature bowling game apparatus is disclosed wherein a table top lane, pin setter and ball launcher are used to simulate regulation bowling.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,192 discloses a miniature bowling game having a game table with a lane, a pin setting device on one end and a ball guide and release device on the lane's remaining end. This device also includes a ball return extending below the lane surface.
A bowling toy is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,768 in which a unique ball launching and pin setting apparatus are disclosed. The ball is driven by a spinning engagement wheel. The pin setting apparatus is loaded with pins and then pivoted down into place on one end of the playing surface for pin placement.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,144 a billiard bowling game is disclosed using scale down bowling lanes, balls and pins. It is directed to an automated pin setting device that cleans the lane and resets the pins for the next player similar to that found in regulation bowling alleys.
Patent Publication 2002/0163130 A1 discloses a shell and chance game that utilizes a preset arrangement of receivers at one end within a ball and ball launcher to propel a ball towards the receivers for hopeful engagement there within.


An apparatus includes a first memory which includes a plurality of memory regions, a second memory which stores initializing information indicating whether each of the memory regions is initialized, the second memory controlling a coherency between the first memory and a cache memory, and a control circuit which initializes a memory region based on the initializing information when accessing the memory region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory controller, and more particularly to a memory controller that initializes a memory.
2. Description of Related Art
A computer including a main memory is required to be initialized by writing data with a correct ECC (Error Correcting Code) into the main memory during an initialization of the computer. If the main memory is not initialized with the data including the correct ECC, then the data is regarded as invalid data during a check by an ECC check circuit, when read from the main memory. Thus, a memory failure is reported inadvertently.
On the other hand, in recent years, a capacity of a main memory has increased. Further, an initialization time of the main memory has become a large part of the time needed for booting-up the computer. Therefore, the initialization time of the main memory should be shortened to reduce the boot-up time of the computer.
Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for accessing to an external storage device. In the technique, a flag circuit includes a flag corresponding to a memory region of the external storage device. The flag indicates whether data is written in the corresponding memory region. The flag circuit is initialized during a system booting. Therefore, it is confirmed whether the data is written in the memory region or not by setting or resetting the flag.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-324453.

Apparatus, circuit and method of controlling memory initialization


A method for treating a brain tumor includes providing a surgical instrument having an inner member and an outer member. The outer member has a distal region forming a cutting window. The inner member is rotatably received within the outer member, and has a cutting tip that is exposed at the window. The cutting tip and the distal region of the outer member combine to define a cutting implement. An opening is created through the patient's skull to provide access to a brain tumor target site. The cutting implement is delivered through the opening to the target site. The cutting tip is placed into contact with the tumor and operated to cut the tumor. The target site is selectively aspirated to remove cut tumor tissue.

The present disclosure relates to treatment of brain tumors. More particularly, it relates to surgical systems, instruments, and methods useful in reducing and/or removing brain tumors.
Brain surgery is the treatment of choice for accessible brain tumors. The goal of surgery is to remove as much tumor tissue as possible. The most commonly performed surgery for removal of a brain tumor is a craniotomy. In general, the neurosurgeon makes an incision into the scalp, cranium, dura, meninges, and cortex to expose an area of brain over the tumor. Location and removal of the tumor then takes place. In this regard, a variety of surgical instruments, such as a cavitational ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA) or a surgical laser knife, are commonly used.
The delicate tissues associated with the human brain anatomy give rise to several concerns when using a CUSA, laser knife, or other brain surgery instrument. By way of reference, the brain is covered by three membranes or meninges that in turn are surrounded by the skull. The three layers of meninges are the dura mater (immediately beneath the skull), the arachnoid, and the pia mater. Spinal fluid flows in the space between the arachnoid and the pia mater membranes, known as the subarachnoid space. These meninges are thin and delicate, with the pia mater carrying or maintaining the many blood vessels associated with the brain. Due to the friable nature of especially the pia mater, neurosurgeons must exercise great care when attempting to surgically remove a brain tumor; unintended damage to the pia mater can diminish the primary blood supply to the brain. Unnecessary injury to other healthy structures, such as the arachnoid or brain tissue (e.g., cerebral cortex) can also lead to patient impairment. With this in mind, CUSA instruments deliver ultrasonic action to remove tissue and bone. The surgeon attempts to place the ultrasonic cutting tip against tissue to be destroyed. However, high frequency cutting may also occur and damage tissue surrounding the targeted tumor when touched by the instrument's shaft. Further, due to the relatively large size of the CUSA handpiece, it may be difficult to visually confirm placement of the ultrasonic shaft/tip. Similarly, use of a laser knife may give rise to unintended tissue damage due to local heat in and around the incision line.
In light of the above, a need exists for surgical systems and methods for reducing or removing brain tumors while minimizing likelihood of normal tissue damage.

Systems and methods for surgical removal of brain tumors


A method is provided for implementing a computer network system for managing a supply chain, wherein the computer network system comprising a plurality of application server computers. The method includes: identifying a business context for the supply chain; identifying a set of business policy rules for the business context, the set of business policy rules governing the relationship between two or more entities involved in the supply chain; creating at least one use-case description from the set of business policy rules; creating a plurality of executable code modules corresponding to the use-case description; specifying a plurality of name/value pair for modeling the set of business policy rules; provisioning the plurality of application server computers of the computer network system with the executable code modules; and provisioning a central directory database with the plurality of name/value pairs; whereby the computer network system, in response to one or more events in business transactions between at least two entities involved in the supply chain, is operable to dynamically deliver at least one name/value pair from the central directory database and to execute at least one code module.

Systems and methods for conducting commerce via an electronic means, such as a computer network are commonplace. Some such systems have been used to coordinate entities involved in manufacturing, procuring, distributing, supplying, repairing, and returning products and parts. Previously developed techniques may have been custom tailored to individual commercial activities and are commonly, but not always, oriented towards trade. Previous techniques have also not been adaptable to provide a versatile system capable of supporting a wide range, and, more importantly, a dynamic range of providers of raw materials, goods and, sometimes, related services.
For example, personal computer manufacturers may offer many series of computer models, that can be individually configured with board level, drive level or similar subsystems, each of which may have dozens or thousands of components having multiple layers of assembly and permutation. These components themselves may involve complex supply chains, which must be organized, not merely for production, but also for providing spare parts for servicing, supplies for product development, and ad hoc needs. The requirements for components may continually change as the technology evolves so that parts and models are introduced and obsoleted in quick succession.
A traditional approach to the problem of managing a supply chain is vertical integration. Vertical integration essentially allows in-house service to be supplied with minimal tracking or internal accounting when both "vendor" and "consumer" belong to the same enterprise. Vertical integration, however, is unfeasible for any but the largest enterprises when the product is complex and large volume. Even for giant corporations, it is easy to be overwhelmed by ever growing complexity, expectations and sheer size not to mention an ongoing drive towards more efficiency and accountability of many operational business units.
Moreover, vertically integrated business models are rapidly giving way to outsourcing. Oftentimes, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) respond to cost and competitive issues by divesting operations and outsourcing key functions, such as manufacturing, distribution, logistics, service, and inventory management. The rationale behind outsourcing is to focus on core competencies, and to transfer responsibility for other activities to service providers who can enjoy, and share, the benefits of their own economies of scale and scope.
Outsourcing has delivered significant financial value (and sometimes, unexpected financial opportunities and/or problems) to both the OEMs and the growing clusters of companies that support them. However, outsourcing, along with globalization and system/application proliferation, has also caused an increase in administrative complexity across supply chains. Responses to such issues have included initiatives for enterprise and collaborative planning across supply chain networks.
Initiatives in outsourcing and collaborative planning have exposed a critical flaw in today's extended supply chains: specifically that they are not configured for efficient execution. Ostensibly, efficient execution is typical for companies that are vertically integrated. Thus, managing a supply chain has become a task of near exponentially growing complexity that enterprise-focused systems cannot adequately support. Furthermore, collaborative planning solutions, though useful, fail to coordinate execution across supply chains.
Computer architectures for online electronic commerce have been developed using, for example, the Internet as a transport mechanism to transmit data representing purchase (and similar) requests between a proprietary browser and server product pair. However, such computer architectures have resulted in further complexity and have failed to adequately address the need for efficiency.
For example, Netscape Communications Corporation uses its Navigator/Netsite World Wide Web (WWW) browser/server pair. A buyer may use a Navigator to select a seller's "Netsite Server" (a form of electronic storefront), which is in turn coupled to ordinary application server computers (back-end subsystems), e.g., a credit server or a member server for collecting demographic information on customers. Such servers may contain representations of business rules that are defined by the seller (but are subject to external constraints). Some of these servers are connected to external third-party services, for example, the credit server may be connected to an external credit card processing network. The actual commerce applications are typically represented as being extensions of the application servers. Such application server computers, or application servers for short, are said to be instantiated in the applications. An outcome of such approaches is that business rules (which may be from the application servers) are bound together with the application logic. Thus, such a system meets required levels of efficiency only at the undesirable cost of inflexibility as to business rules of the participants (typically partners) and is inadequate in the present context.
Wide ranges of verifications may be required for various electronic commerce transactions. For example, verification of a buyer's credit or legal standing to place an order, or verification of a seller's ability to deliver the desired item may be required. Previously developed systems do not readily support diverse and dynamically evolving verification requirements and other implications of local and distant business policies, laws and so on.
In systems where the business policies and rules must be determined in advance, changing them can be inefficient and may create interruptions in service. One prior approach is the use of client-server systems, but this too often leads to a situation of unbounded growth in the complexity of the supply chain operations. This results in a problem of "business logic everywhere" having to be skillfully coordinated for changes—a typical result is inefficiency in operation, inefficiency in changing to accommodate evolving needs and general lack of robustness.
Another previously developed approach involves the use of a distributed inference engine. But such systems may be inefficient. Furthermore, design and implementation of such systems is a highly skilled art and very complex. Moreover in such a system there are serious problems as to proving correctness of actions for audit purposes. Moving away from vertical integration typically increases the need for audit activities.
Commonly, the failure of such systems to be sufficiently flexible is highlighted when there is a need to accommodate a new participant (e.g. supplier, manufacturer or customer) in a supply chain, and the new participant has its own requirements, rules and pre-existing procedures.
Thus, a need exists for effective coordination of execution of business policies across networks even as service and lead-time and other requirements evolve and participants therein come and go.

Policy based automation for a supply chain


A target domain name is classified using hash strides including domain name components. The hash strides are fed into a set of bloom filters programmed to identify pre-determined domain name categories. A programmable mapping table is provided for selecting one of many probable classifications.

It is often desirable to classify a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web page into topical categories without accessing underlying content. It is known to use URL classification techniques to classify a target web page. Known techniques rely on a variety of data sources including: (i) text of the web page itself; (ii) hyperlink structure of the web page; (iii) link structure of pages pointing to the target page; (iv) anchor text from pages pointing to the target page; and (v) location of the page according to the URL.
It is known to carry out URL classification operations on network packet streams. These operations are generally performed in an inline manner, that is, during the transfer of packets within the network packet stream. Web domain information is extracted from the network packet. The extracted information is looked up in a database to determine a corresponding URL category. The URL categories may be arbitrary and may be determined by the user. Example categories are: (i) art; (ii) business; (iii) computers; (iv) games; (v) health; (vi) home; (vii) news; (viii) reference; (ix) sports; (x) shopping; (xi) social networks; and/or (xii) finance. URL categories may also be based on open lists and/or commercially available lists.

International Business Machines Corporation


A training and exercise device is provided to aid in proper positioning, technique, and muscle memory for different sports and exercise related activities. The training device includes a cylindrical barrel member. A sled or sleds are connected to the barrel member such that rotation and movement of the barrel member will in turn move the sled or sleds. The sleds are bi-directional such that they are able to move in both forward and rear directions, which will allow the training device to be used in multiple directions without having to reorient the entire device between exercises. The barrel device, sled or sleds may also be configured to adjust the weights thereof to increase or decrease the resistance of the movement of the training device to accommodate for different user's size, abilities, and intended outcome.

Strength training is becoming much more than the simple pumping iron that it used to be. The top athletes in the world have started participating in full body cardio/strength training combined workouts, and the idea has begun to trickle down to high school sports teams, as well as to the general public. Various sports, such as football, rugby, wrestling, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball, may require an athlete to exert force to move an opposing athlete, or to resist the opposing athlete's movement. For example, a football player on one side attempts to move (block) another player, while the second player is attempting to resist movement while also attempting to move the first player. Similarly, a baseball catcher attempting to tag a base runner may be called upon to resist the base runner's efforts to collide with the catcher with sufficient force to dislodge the baseball from the catcher's grasp.
In many sports, including those not explicitly mentioned, the movement or resistance of movement may be increased by the proper technique, as well as strengthening muscles associated with the proper technique and movement/resistance. For example, it is known that is ideal to lower one's center of gravity to either begin action to move another, or to resist movement. The lowered center of gravity creates a stronger base for resisting movement and/or beginning to thrust at another. Repetition of lowering one's center of gravity before contacting another creates muscle memory and also increases muscle mass, while decreasing muscle fatigue for the muscles associated with the action.
Therefore, the present invention provides for a training device, system, or apparatus, which provides for repetitive training for athletes and non-athletes alike, to train the muscles of the individuals in the proper technique.


The present invention discloses the ascorbic acid derivatives. The inventive molecules that combine with one or two hydrophilic headgroups connected by a hydrophobic spacer can increase skin penetration.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cosmetic compositions, such compositions in order to inhibiting darkening of the skin and initiates the stimulation of collagen synthesis.
Azelaic acid may be used as therapeutic agent in the treatment of skin disorders and also have whiting effect. Azelaic acid is very polar due to the two carboxyl groups. Because of this polarity, skin penetration is very low. The inventive molecules that combine with one or two hydrophilic headgroups connected by a hydrophobic spacer can increase skin penetration.
Enzymatic synthesis is widely using in various industrial scopes such as cosmetics, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food ingredients. Lipase-catalyzed reactions are superior to conventional chemical methods owing to mild reaction conditions, high catalytic efficiency and the inherent selectivity of natural catalysts, which results in much purer products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
L-ascorbic acid is a well-know water-soluble antioxidant that has whitening effect and serves as a cofactor of prolinehydroxylase to promote synthesis of collage (Quaglino, D. Jr., et al., J. Biol. Chem., p 272-345, 1997). L-ascorbic acid is also used in various products requiring a long-term antioxidation effect. But its unfulness for such products is not so reliable because it is sensitive to heat light and air. As a result, many studies have been made on the development of ascorbic acid derivatives with enhanced stability while maintaining the antioxidation activity. Notably, a common way to improve the stability of L-ascorbic acid is converting a 2- or 3-hydroxyl group of L-ascorbic acid to another subsistent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,444,144; 5,143,648; 4,780,549; and 4,177,455, Japan Pat. Sho 52-18191, and Korean Pat. No. 91-8733).
The novel ascorbic acid derivative 3-O-ethyl-ascorbic acid is a structurally stabile ascorbic acid and effective whitening agent that can it the polymerization arising due to the biological dihydroxyindole in vivo caused by ultraviolet rays (U.S. Pat. No. 6,861,050). This novel ascorbic acid derivative is metabolized by the human body in the same manner as regular ascorbic acid and it's soluble in water as well as oil, making it optimal for use in cosmetics.
Azelaic acid is a naturally occurring nine carbon straight chain molecule with two terminal carboxyl groups. Azelaic acid is an anti-keratinizing agent, displaying antiproliferative effects on keratinocytes and modulating the early and terminal phases of epidermal differentiation (Passi, et al. G. Ital. Dermatol. Venerol. 1989, 124(10):455-463). Azelaic acid is a competitive inhibitor of the reduction of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, and as such is supposed to reduce the production of sebum in the sebaceous gland. Furthermore, recent investigations gave demonstrated that azelaic acid and seba-structure-activity relationship studies gave revealed that these effects are retained when the dicarboxylic acid has a backnone of about 2 to 10 carbons (U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,669).


Methods and systems to controllably steer multiple phases of a differential signal, including to generate a differential current in response to a differential voltage, to controllably steer the differential current between multiple output circuits in response to corresponding control signals, which may be out of phase with respect to one another, and to generate multiple corresponding outputs corresponding to the multiple steered phases of the current. A differential input circuit and a current steering circuit may be common to multiple output circuits, and a common offset compensation may be provided to compensate for a substantial portion of offset associated with the multiple outputs.

A differential sampling circuit may include a differential pair of transistors having gates to receive a differential input signal, drains coupled to a clocked current source, and sources coupled to respective nodes of a differential output circuit.
To sample a differential signal twice per clock period, two such sampling circuits may be operated in parallel, using two corresponding clock signals that are 180 degrees out of phase with respect to one another.
Input capacitances of a sampling circuit may impact operation of a system in which the sampling circuit is implemented. Input capacitances may be reduced by reducing the size of input stage transistors. Process variations may, however, lead to significant differences between input-referred offsets of two parallel sampling circuits. Accordingly, at least two corresponding offset compensation systems may be needed to correct for non-correlated offsets.
In the drawings, the leftmost digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Multiple-phase, differential sampling and steering


Apparatus comprises a multi-threaded processing element to execute processing threads as one or more process groups each of one or more processing threads, each process group having a process group identifier unique amongst the one or more process groups and being associated by capability data with a respective memory address range in a virtual memory address space; and memory address translation circuitry to translate a virtual memory address to a physical memory address by a processing thread of one of the process groups; the memory address translation circuitry being configured to associate, with a translation of a given virtual memory address to a corresponding physical memory address, permission data defining one or more process group identifiers representing respective process groups permitted to access the given virtual memory address, and to inhibit access to the given virtual memory address in dependence on the capability data associated with the process group of the processing thread requesting the memory access and a detection of whether the permission data defines the process group identifier of the process group of the processing thread requesting the memory access.

This disclosure relates to memory access control.
Some examples of data processing apparatus handle processes as one or more so-called compartments or process groups, where each of the process groups includes one or more processing threads. Memory access is determined by so-called capability data, either an ambient (generic) capability in the case of a so-called hybrid compartment, or a compartment-specific capability in the case of a so-called pure compartment.
Examples of such compartments are discussed in the paper "CHERI: A Hybrid Capability-System Architecture for Scalable Software Compartmentalization", 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 17-21 May 2015, ISBN 978-1-4673-6949-7, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
It can be useful for compartments to communicate with one another by shared memory addresses or regions. However, it is then considered useful to be able to revoke such sharing access, for example to reallocate a memory address or region to another purpose. This can be difficult because at any time, it can be difficult for the system to know which ongoing references to the shared memory are still valid.


A measurement device for measuring a concentration of a component of a gas mixture includes a chamber that contains the gas mixture, a light source that emits light into the chamber, the emitted light having a wavelength between 230 nm and 320 nm, and a light sensor that detects a portion of the light from the light source that has propagated through the gas mixture. A processor is configured to determine the concentration of the component of the gas mixture based on the portion of the light emitted from the light source that is detected by the light sensor. The light source may include one or more LEDs, each having a central wavelength of light emission between 270 nm and 320 nm and a linewidth of less than 50 nm. The device may be employed to determine acetone concentration in exhaled breath, which may be indicative of diabetes or other health conditions.

Using breath analysis for medical diagnosis is the subject of intense research effort. The non-invasive and real time nature of the measurement in addition to the ability to detect pathogenic changes at the molecular level are main advantages of this approach.
The concentration of specific biomarkers in human breath can be related to a symptom of a particular disease. For example, high concentrations of acetone in exhaled breath is known to be a biomarker of diabetes and of fat burning. The breath of non-diabetics typically contains ˜0.5 parts per million (ppm) acetone. Elevated mean breath acetone concentration of ˜0.8-4.0 ppm has been shown to exist in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. Some correlation between acetone concentration in breath and blood glucose levels has been suggested.
Diabetes is one of the most challenging problems for public health worldwide. It is a chronic disorder that affects the body's ability to use sugar as a source of energy, and consequently high blood sugar levels build up in the blood. People with diabetes either do not produce insulin (Insulin deficiency: type 1) or the production of insulin is not sufficient/effective (Insulin resistance: type 2). As a consequence of insulin resistance or deficiency, the human body is unable to use sugar as a source of energy, and therefore the body resorts to breaking down stores of fat and protein instead. This alternative source of fuel ultimately leads to elevated ketone concentration in the blood, including elevated acetone concentration. The acetone concentration in a person's exhaled breath is monotonically related to the concentration of acetone in their blood.
Since no cure is currently available, the condition requires lifelong management. In the case of type 1 diabetes, this includes keeping blood glucose levels within safe levels through frequent insulin injections or a continuous infusion of insulin through an insulin pump. For type 2 diabetes, blood glucose levels are managed through a combination of medication, diet, and exercise or insulin injections if necessary.
Furthermore, a life threatening condition known as diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) can develop when very high levels of acetone in the blood are present. If this condition is not treated it can lead to diabetic coma or even death. Diabetic ketoacidosis accounts for around 50% of all diabetes-related hospital admissions in people with type 1 diabetes.
In order to manage blood glucose levels and prevent DKA, people with diabetes are required to frequently (typically 4 to 10 times a day) measure their blood glucose and in some cases their blood ketone levels. This is done using a small blood sample obtained through a painful and troublesome procedure requiring patients to prick their fingers each time a test is required.
Similar procedures may be used for diagnosis and screening. In the primary diagnosis a urine sample may be tested for the presence of ketones and/or glucose. Although this test is high in specificity, it has a very low sensitivity and is generally inconvenient.
In summary, current diabetes diagnosis and management methods/procedures generally have low sensitivity, are inconvenient, are painful to patients, and are time and money consuming. Therefore, extensive efforts worldwide are being devoted to find effective non-invasive methods for diabetes diagnosis and management.
Measurement of the concentration of acetone in a person's exhaled breath may be used as a means for diabetes diagnosis and diabetes management. However, due to the requirement to measure small acetone concentrations (typically in the range 0.1-10 ppm) and the presence of hundreds of different Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the human breath, no portable reliable acetone breath analyser for diabetes is currently available on the market.
For non-diabetic people, elevated breath acetone is mainly due to fat burning as a result of insufficient intake of carbohydrates to meet the metabolic needs of the body [O. B. Crofford et al., Acetone in breath and blood, Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 1977; 88: 128-139]. Hence, if a patient is trying to lose weight this is a very useful index of success and can be used to encourage the patient.
Conventional breath analysis is conducted using gas chromatography coupled with a detection method, such as flame ionisation, ion mobility spectrometer, and mass spectrometer. These methods require bulky and expensive equipment as well as skilled operators, and therefore are not suitable for real time point-of-care testing.
Recently, cavity ringdown spectroscopy was used to measure the concentration of acetone in exhaled breath using light with ultraviolet (UV) or near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths [Wang et al, US20040137637 A1 (published Jul. 15, 2004); Wang et al., Measurement Science and Technology 19 105604 (published Aug. 27, 2008)]. This technique requires the use of lasers which are expensive components, especially at UV and NIR frequencies.
Graham et al., WO2011117572A1 (published Sep. 29, 2009) teaches use of a broadband NIR light source for breath acetone detection using a resonant optical cavity. This design determines acetone concentration in exhaled breath from a measurement of the absorption spectrum of the breath (i.e. the dependence of absorption in the breath on wavelength) at NIR wavelengths where acetone exhibits characteristic absorption. A broadband NIR light source is chosen which emits light over a range of wavelengths which is significantly broader than the range of wavelengths of a particular absorption band for acetone. The absorption spectrum is then measured using expensive components such as tunable filters, spectrometers, or gratings. Unfortunately, many other components in breath—such as VOCs or water vapour—exhibit strong absorption of infrared light which makes measurement at these wavelengths difficult and prone to absorption interferences.
Although metal oxide semiconductor sensors can be used for acetone detection, they suffer from poorly understood detection mechanism as well as low sensitivity. More importantly, they suffer from absorption interferences from other volatile organic compounds present in both air and breath, making them poor in terms of specificity [Kanan et al., Sensors 2009, 9, 8158-8196, published Oct. 16, 2009].
Other breath acetone detection methods include Massick, U.S. Pat. No. 7,790,467B1 (issued Sep. 7, 2010), which describes an indirect method based on the use of a diode laser emitting infrared light to detect a reaction by-product between acetone and hydrogen halide. Goldstein et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,479,019B1 (issued Nov. 12, 2002) describes a chemo-optical sensor where light absorption or transmission is a function of reaction with a target gas molecule such as acetone or other chemical. These methods are either complicated, have low detection limit, or suffer from low specificity.
An important issue with many of the above breath analysis methods is interference with other VOCs present either in ambient air or breath. Such interferences affect the sensitivity and specificity of the breath analyser.
Another related prior art is patent application Harely, US20100061885 A1 (published on Mar. 11, 2010), which discusses an instrument for determining Ozone concentration using a UV light source including LEDs.


A body support device includes a base section with a wall ergonomically contoured to conform generally to the portion of the human back between the head and lower torso as it reclines in a posture intermediate prone and supine positions. The contoured wall further supports a user in seated and supine positions. The base may also include a cavity disposed at the end of the base that receives an object. A cap connects to the base to cover the cavity and secure the object therein. In addition, a connecting member may be used to connect multiple support devices together at a desired angle. A protective cover may also be used to prevent damage to the body support device.

Sunbathing is a means to acquire a robust healthy appearance, to socialize and to enhance production of vitamin D. To those seriously searching for the "perfect tan" as well as casual dabblers in the past-time, an annoying and persistent problem has been the difficulty in finding an even moderately comfortable position to expose side surfaces of the body, arms and legs to direct rays of the sun. Conventional beach chairs, along with lacking storage capability, do not have sufficient surface area to avoid sinking into soft support surfaces such as sand. Consequently, a need exists to provide a portable body support device that comfortably supports a user while providing easily accessible storage.
One approach to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,018 (Kidwell), the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Kidwell shows a body support including a central storage compartment. This approach is adequate in many ways, but suffers from several disadvantages. First, the compartment has limited storage capacity. Due to its location proximate the inward curve of the curved surface, the permissible height and depth of the interior space is restricted. There is, moreover, a limit on the amount of interior space that can be provided due to structural support concerns (i.e., preventing the unit from collapsing under the weight of a user). The larger the storage compartment becomes, the more susceptible the body support is to collapse. Second, the body support, in order to provide a user easy access to the storage compartment, must be set on a supporting surface such that the storage compartment is exposed. Third, due to its closed-ended structure, the body is only capable of individual use, and cannot be connected to other body supports to create a system of supports.


The present invention features a remote viewing device that is capable of improving its operation by removing slack in its control cables and/or by increasing the range of motion of its viewing head. In one embodiment, the method for improving the operation involves removing at least a portion of the slack in at least one control cable attached to a servo motor. The removal of at least a portion of the slack includes changing the position of a servo motor relative to a flexible tube termination block until a specified tension is encountered in at least one of the control cables. The method further includes determining first and second servo control signal values corresponding to no angular deflection and a specified deflection in a viewing head.

Borescopes, endoscopes, fiberscopes and the like (herein after generally referred to as remote viewing devices) are widely used to provide visual inspection of physically difficult to reach or inhospitable environments. The movement of remote viewing devices is frequently controlled by articulation servos that vary the tensions in control cables. The change in tensions in the control cables guides the movement of the remote viewing device's viewing head.
Over the life of a remote viewing device, numerous factors including cable stretch and increased friction and stiffness can lead to imprecise operation and a decrease in the viewing head's range of motion. Some previous industry responses to these problems require that the remote viewing device be disassembled by a specialized technician. This can in turn require that the remote viewing device be returned to the manufacturer for processing.
What is needed is a system that is easily executable by a standard operator to remove cable stretch and increase a viewing head's range of motion.

Method and apparatus for improving the operation of a remote viewing device by changing the calibration settings of its articulation servos


Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for prefetching data in distributed storage systems. One method of software execution includes using input/output (I/O) requests from multiple separate networked storage nodes in a distributed storage system to prefetch data for one of the multiple separate networked storage nodes.

Prefetching is a technique for moving data objects up in the memory hierarchy before the data objects are actually required. Movement of data improves the access latency if they are subsequently requested. In a disk array, for instance, prefetching moves data from disks to the disk array cache, from the disk array to the host memory, and from the host memory to the processor cache. Since the input/output (I/O) latency of the disk array is much slower than the processing speed of the host, prefetched data located in the cache at the time of a request helps avoid disk I/O latency.
Currently, numerous existing techniques are known for prefetching data. These techniques, however, are largely in the context of a single storage node. Many techniques for single nodes assume that the I/O requests are all local to the storage node and all requests can be observed. For example, some techniques use a "just in time" prefetching on a single storage node by estimating the amount of time it will take to fetch the data from disk and by scheduling the request so that the prefetch will finish just as the data request arrives (assuming it arrives at the predicted time). Other prediction techniques rely on some knowledge of the application, and some techniques have been applied to prefetching data from disks.

Prefetching data in distributed storage systems

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method of fabricating a housing includes: providing a metal member including a base plate and a sidewall, the base plate having an inner surface connected to the sidewall; providing a filler having a connecting surface and a first top surface; fixing the filler onto the metal member to make the connecting surface connect to the inner surface and the first top surface to respectively form first and second included angles larger than 90 degrees and smaller than 180 degrees; providing a film attached with an ink layer, and then performing a process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding to form a plastic on the sidewall and the filler, the ink layer attached to the plastic; and removing a part of the filler and a part of the plastic at the sidewall to form a machined surface connected to the inner surface and the upper appearance surface.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a method of fabricating a housing and a housing.
Description of Related Art
With features of lightweight, easy-made, and low cost, plastics has been widely used in manufacturing processes of injection molding or thermoforming. In the manufacturing processes, molten plastic are first injected into a mold, and then a housing formed with a desired shape under the pressure and temperature change.
In the past, spraying operations were usually used to make the surface of plastics render special patterns or colors. However, the spraying operations need more time, in addition to machines and factories, to dry paints, and the spraying operations must be performed after the plastics is formed by injection machines, which spend even more time and labor costs. Therefore, a process of In-Mold-Roller (IMR), which refers to attaching printing ink to the surface of the plastics by thermal transferring, is developed for products of mass production. Referring to FIG. 5A to FIG. 5D, the figures are schematic diagrams of the conventional process of In-Mold-Roller. The mold used in the process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding mainly includes a female die 50, a male die 52, and a stripper 54. The process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding is performed to position a continuous film 4 to an injection mold cavity by a feeder and a retainer plate (as shown in FIG. 5A), to adsorb the film 4 onto a die surface of the female die 50 by a vacuum device (as shown in FIG. 5B), and to inject after the female die 50 and the male die 52 are clamped to each other (as shown in FIG. 5C). At this time, the plastic will be injected into the cavity between the male die 52 and the female die 50 via the stripper 54, the plastic in the cavity is finally molded to become a plastic product 6, and ink 7 will be transferred onto the surface of the plastic product 6. When the female die 50 and the male die 52 are opened, the ink 7 and the film 4 are separated from each other to complete the decoration of the surface of the plastic product 6 (as shown in FIG. 5D), and the waste materials 8 can be removed after the male die 52 and the stripper 54 are separated from each other.
However, a shortcoming of the current process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding is that the film is influenced by product shape, mold design, and conditions and parameters of injection molding during injection molding, so that the film is easily broken and folded to cause an adverse appearance. As such, the process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding is normally applied to products with flat appearance surfaces or appearance surfaces with smaller curvatures. Accordingly, how to perform the process of In-Mold-Roller Injection Molding to products having uneven appearance surfaces or having appearance surfaces with larger curvatures becomes an important issue to be solved by those in the industry.

Method of fabricating housing and housing


A resistive memory apparatus and an adjusting method for write-in voltage thereof are provided. The adjusting method for write-in voltage includes: selecting an under test memory cell array in a resistive memory; performing N reset operations on a plurality of memory cells of the under test memory cell array according to a reset voltage, and performing N set operations on the memory cells of the under test memory cell array according to a set voltage, wherein n is an integer greater than 1; calculating a reset time variation rate of the reset operations and a set time variation rate of the set operations; and adjusting a voltage value of one of the set voltage and the reset voltage according to the reset time variation rate and the set time variation rate.

In the technical field of resistive memory, due to various possibilities including environmental factors, process drift and the like, the physical characteristics of multiple memory cells in a single integrated circuit and between dies may be uneven. Under such circumstances, how to set a write-in voltage (including a set voltage and a reset voltage) of the resistive memory so that a reset time and a set time of the memory cell can be balanced becomes an important issue to be addressed.

Resistive memory apparatus and adjusting method for write-in voltage thereof


The present invention provides a rubber composition for a tire, in which gripping performance and abrasion resistance are improved in a balanced manner, and a tire using the same. Specifically, the present invention provides a rubber composition for a tire comprising 5 to 200 parts by weight of a low molecular weight aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene copolymer having a specific aromatic vinyl content and weight average molecular weight, based on 100 parts by weight of a rubber component containing aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene copolymer, a rubber composition for a tire comprising 5 to 200 parts by weight of an olefin-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl copolymer based on 100 parts by weight of a diene rubber component, and a tire using the same.

The present invention relates to a rubber composition for a tire and a tire using the same.
In tread rubber of high performance tires such as racing tires, usually both high gripping performance and abrasion resistance are required.
Conventionally, as rubber compositions for a tire having high gripping performance, known are a rubber composition containing styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber (SBR) having a high glass transition temperature (Tg) as the rubber component; a rubber composition in which process oil is substituted with an equivalent amount of resin having a high softening point which is added to the rubber component; a rubber composition in which a large amount of a softening agent or carbon black is added; and a rubber composition in which a combination of SBR, resin having a high softening point and a softening agent or carbon black is compounded. However, a rubber composition in which SBR having high Tg is used has the problem that temperature dependency is large and the influence of temperature change on performance becomes large. Furthermore, in the case that carbon black having small particle size or a large amount of a softening agent is used, dispersability of carbon black is poor and abrasion resistance decreases.
In order to solve the above problems, a rubber composition containing low molecular weight styrene-butadiene copolymer has been suggested (see JP-A-63-101440). However, because low molecular weight styrene-butadiene copolymer has crosslinkable double bonds, part of the low molecular weight component crosslinks with the matrix rubber component and is introduced into the matrix. As a result, there is the problem that hysteresis loss cannot sufficiently be suppressed. Also, in the case that double bonds are made into saturated bonds by hydrogenation in order to prevent the low molecular weight component from being introduced into the matrix by crosslinking, compatibility with the matrix decreases significantly. Consequently, problems occur such as decrease in destruction resistance properties and bleeding of the low molecular weight component.
Also, in order to improve gripping performance on wet road surfaces (wet grip performance), a rubber composition containing halogenated butyl rubber or halogenide of a copolymer of isobutylene and p-methylstyrene and silica has been suggested (see JP-A-2000-204198). However, the balance of gripping performance and abrasion resistance is insufficient.
In the same way, in order to improve wet grip performance, a rubber composition containing hydrogenated SBR and silica is suggested (see WO 96/05250). However, wet grip performance cannot sufficiently be improved.
Furthermore, a rubber composition containing liquid polybutadiene has been suggested (JP-A-2000-273245). However, although gripping performance improves, abrasion resistance decreases.

Rubber composition for a tire and tire using the same


An scanning optical system includes a light source having a plurality of light emitting points each of which emits a beam, a first optical system that collimates the beams emitted by the light emitting points in regard to a main scanning direction while converging the beams in an auxiliary scanning direction, a deflecting system that dynamically deflects the beams simultaneously in the main scanning direction, and a second optical system that converges the deflected beams on the scan target surface. Further, the second optical system includes a magnification adjustment element whose magnification mS in the main scanning direction on an optical axis thereof is approximately +1 and whose magnification mP in the auxiliary scanning direction on the optical axis thereof is approximately −1.

The present invention relates to a scanning optical system in which a plurality of beams emitted by multiple light emitting points are dynamically deflected and converged on a scan target surface to form a plurality of beam spots.
By a scanning optical system of this type, a plurality of scan lines can be drawn simultaneously on the scan target surface in one main scanning. By modulating each of the beams according to image information, high-speed imaging is realized.
As a light source for such a scanning optical system, either a single element having a plurality of light emitting points as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. SHO57-54914 or multiple elements each having a single light emitting point as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. SHO60-126620 can be used.
However, with either type of light source, if the interval between the beams on the scan target surface is not adjusted precisely (to be equal to moving distance of the scan target surface in one main scan by a reflecting surface divided by the number of beams), the scan line interval on the scan target surface becomes uneven (that is, the interval between scan lines simultaneously drawn becomes inconsistent with the interval between scan lines drawn by different main scans) as described in the Publication No. SHO57-54914, and in such a case, the quality of printed images is deteriorated. Therefore, the interval between the beams on the scan target surface has to be adjusted correctly.
When the multiple light emitting elements are used as in the scanning optical system of the Publication No. SHO60-126620, the beam interval on the scan target surface can be corrected by changing the positional relationship among the elements. However, the movement of the element is magnified by transverse magnification of the whole optical system, resulting in a shift of the beam on the scan target surface (shift in the auxiliary scanning direction which is orthogonal to the direction of the scan lines). Therefore, the adjustment of each light emitting element, requiring extremely high accuracy, can not be done easily by a nonexpert.
Meanwhile, when a single light emitting element having a plurality of light emitting points is used as in the scanning optical system of the Publication No. SHO57-54914, the interval between the light emitting points may be fixed at its design interval. However, if the interval between the beams deviates from a design interval due to magnification error of the whole optical system caused in the manufacturing process (e.g., an error in the relationship of the light emitting element with other optical elements), it is impossible to correct the beam interval by adjusting the interval between the light emitting points of the element. Therefore, in such a case, the beam interval on the scan target surface is corrected by adjusting the magnification of the whole optical system by placing an afocal anamorphic zoom lens system (composed of three lens groups as described in the Publication No. SHO57-54914) between a collimating lens and a cylindrical lens. However, such an afocal anamorphic zoom lens system, which is originally unnecessary for the function of the scanning optical system, drives up the cost of the system.
Incidentally, when such a single light emitting element having a plurality of light emitting points is employed, it is also possible to adjust the interval between the scan lines on the scan target surface by rotating the light emitting element in a plane containing the light emitting points. However, the rotation of the light emitting element naturally causes a change in the interval between the light emitting points in the main scanning direction, by which extra adjustment such as readjustment of emission timing of each light emitting point becomes necessary. Further, the rotation of the light emitting element also causes rotation of the far field pattern of the beams, accompanied by problems such as a change in coupling efficiency.


A transmission including a ring gear engageable with clutch teeth. A shift fork connected to a cam roller is engageable with the ring gear. The cam roller includes at least one V-shaped groove, and an element is disposed between the V-shaped groove of the cam roller and a base of the shift fork such that rotation of the cam roller translates into displacement of the shift fork and the ring gear.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Planetary transmissions, among others, are implemented in transfer cases of all-wheel-drive vehicles to make an on-road mode and an off-road mode available.
A planetary transmission of this kind is described in EP 659 605 B1. With this planetary transmission, the cam roller is driven by the supporting shafts over a torsion spring. This serves as an energy accumulator, if the positive coupling element does not quickly locate itself in the coupled position. This construction, however, is complex, the angular position of the cylindrical cam is never exactly known, and no stop is available. Hence, the disconnection in the end position is also unreliable.
Furthermore, a planetary transmission is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,110, in which a rotatable disc that forms the shift cam cooperates with a sensing member, which in turn is coupled to the coupling element via two springs. Here, the responsiveness of the interlock and the force distribution are dependent on the difference of the forces of the two springs, which suffer from tolerances.

Planetary gearbox comprising a sliding coupling element and an actuator


Method and system for realizing an interaction between a video input and a virtual network scene. The method includes receiving input video data for a first user at a first terminal, sending information associated with the input video data through a network to at least a second terminal, processing information associated with the input video data, and displaying a video on or embedded with a virtual network scene at least the first terminal and the second terminal. The process for displaying includes generating the video based on at least information associated with the input video data.

The present invention is directed to computer network technology. More particularly, the invention provides methods and systems for realizing interaction between video input and virtual network scene. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to an on-line game. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
Along with rapid development of the Internet, users can work online or enjoy entertainment and other services online. In order to enhance user experience and expand the scope of internet services, conventional technology can provide a mode of virtual network scene. For example, in a multi-user network game, users can have a realistic feeling through a virtual scene of the game, which can improve the user experience and the user satisfaction with the network service. For example, applications of the virtual network scene include but are not restricted to online games and videoconference.
But in conventional technology, the network service may provide users only the interactions limited in a virtual scene. Hence it is highly desirable to improve techniques for network services.

Methods and systems for realizing interaction between video input and virtual network scene


An inductor structure disposed over a substrate and including a coil layer is provided. The coil layer has a plurality of coil turns electrically connected with each other. An innermost coil turn of the coil layer has a portion with a narrower width in a region with a higher magnetic flux density than that in the other region with lower magnetic flux density.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an inductor structure, in particular, to an inductor structure with an improved induction quality.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, inductors can store/release energy under the condition of electromagnetic conversion, and the inductors may be used as elements for stabilizing current. In addition, in integrated circuits (IC), the inductors play an important role but are challenging elements. The inductors have wide applications, for example, in radio frequency (RF). In the high-frequency application, the inductor is required to have a very high quality, i.e., the inductor must have a high quality factor denoted by a Q value. The Q value is defined as follows:Q=ω×L/R where ω is the angular frequency, L is the inductance of a coil, and R is the resistance at a specific frequency taking the inductance loss into account.
Generally speaking, a variety of methods and techniques have been proposed for integrating inductors with IC processes. However, in the ICs, the limitation of the thickness of the inductor conductor and the interference of the silicon substrate to the inductor will also lead to unsatisfactory inductor quality. In the prior art, a thick metal is disposed on the top layer of the inductor to reduce the conductor loss, so as to improve the Q value of the inductor.
However, the inductor structure with a thick metal disposed on the top layer thereof is still affected by an eddy current. Since the region with the largest magnetic flux is located in the inner turn of the inductor structure, and especially the impact of the eddy current on the bends of the inner turn is most severe, the uniformity of the current in the inner turn is poor, and the cross-sectional area of the conductor cannot be fully used. Therefore, the inductor quality is degraded.


The present invention is directed to electrochromic systems comprising an electrochromic glazing or insulated glazing unit, a photovoltaic module for supplying power to the electrochromic glazing or IGU, and an electronics module in communication either the electrochromic glazing and/or photovoltaic module.

Electrochromic glazings include electrochromic materials that are known to change their optical properties, such as coloration, in response to the application of an electrical potential, thereby making the device more or less transparent or more or less reflective. Typical prior art electrochromic devices include a counter electrode layer, an electrochromic material layer which is deposited substantially parallel to the counter electrode layer, and an ionically conductive layer separating the counter electrode layer from the electrochromic layer respectively. In addition, two transparent conductive layers are substantially parallel to and in contact with the counter electrode layer and the electrochromic layer. Materials for making the counter electrode layer, the electrochromic material layer, the ionically conductive layer and the conductive layers are known and described, for example, in United States Patent Publication No. 2008/0169185, incorporated by reference herein, and desirably are substantially transparent oxides or nitrides. When an electrical potential is applied across the layered structure of the electrochromic device, such as by connecting the respective conductive layers to a low voltage electrical source, ions, such as Li+ ions stored in the counter electrode layer, flow from the counter electrode layer, through the ion conductor layer and to the electrochromic layer. In addition, electrons flow from the counter electrode layer, around an external circuit including a low voltage electrical source, to the electrochromic layer so as to maintain charge neutrality in the counter electrode layer and the electrochromic layer. The transfer of ions and electrons to the electrochromic layer causes the optical characteristics of the electrochromic layer, and optionally the counter electrode layer in a complementary EC device, to change, thereby changing the coloration and, thus, the transparency of the electrochromic device.
When installing electrochromic glazings, installing wires for power and control through the building's window framing system and the building's structural systems/supports can be difficult and costly. A well-designed wireless controller coupled with photovoltaic cells can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of installation, especially for architectural retrofit applications. The combination of photovoltaics and electrochromics provides excellent synergies, with tinting generally required only in daylight, and greater tinting with greater solar energy. Designing such a product for ease of manufacture and installation presents many challenges, given the diversity of framing systems and stringent aesthetic requirements of architects. To complicate matters, electronics should be replaceable without replacing or deglazing the unit and, if a battery is used, it also needs to be user replaceable.

Control system for electrochromic device


A device temperature measurement circuit, an integrated circuit (IC) including a device temperature measurement circuit, a method of characterizing device temperature and a method of monitoring temperature. The circuit includes a constant current source and a clamping device. The clamping device selectively shunts current from the constant current source or allows the current to flow through a PN junction, which may be the body to source/drain junction of a field effect transistor (FET). Voltage measurements are taken directly from the PN junction. Junction temperature is determined from measured junction voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to integrated circuits (ICs) and more particularly to circuits and methods of measuring and monitoring device temperature on ICs.
2. Background Description
It is well known that diode current can be approximated by I=I0(eqV/kT−1), where I0 is the diode turn on current, q is the charge magnitude, V is the junction bias voltage, k is the Boltzmann's constant and T is junction temperature. Similarly, field effect transistor (FET) characteristics, including threshold voltage (VT), device drain to source current (Ids) and leakage currents are related to the temperature of the material (e.g., semiconductor) embodying the FET by well known relationships. In a typical integrated circuit (IC), individual circuit device currents combine to drive capacitive loads at circuit nodes. So, if local (device or junction) temperature is known, device current and, correspondingly, circuit performance can be calculated very precisely. Consequently, an accurate device model requires an accurate device current description.
Current through semiconductor (e.g., silicon) junctions and devices generates heat locally. On a typical IC chip, each such junction or device may act as a local heat source and, more particularly, as a point heat source. How heat is conducted away from each point source depends upon its surrounding and thermally connected structures. For example, how the point source cools may depend in part on whether the circuit is in bulk silicon (Si) or silicon on insulator (SOI), whether the heat source is a single isolated device on a silicon island or is one heat source amongst a group of heat sources, whether metal directly contacts the heat source and etc. Glass (Si/SiO) is a poor heat conductor. So, circuits and even individual devices on a silicon island may be thermally insulated from each other, even though they reside on the same chip. Unfortunately, heat dissipation in modern SOI is not well understood. Previously, only crude imprecise temperature measurements have been available, e.g., chip level thermal measurements or using thermal imaging to characterize circuit-wide temperatures. Measuring gate resistance has provided the temperature of a structure one or two layers above the device active region, the region of concern and, still provides a somewhat distorted reflection of the channel temperature. So, for example, each junction/device is simulated, normally, at the same temperature as every other junction/device on the same circuit or a chip.
Further, device temperature may vary depending upon its immediate history. For example, a device in memory select logic may be switched on after several cycles of dormancy and so, may add little to ambient temperature. By contrast a device in a multiplexor may be switching aperiodically, making a variable contribution to ambient; an inverter in a clock buffer may be switching every cycle, cumulatively contributing to ambient and, itself being at a significantly higher temperature than ambient.
Consequently, because so little information is available about instantaneous thermal conditions at and for any particular device, normally, device current is modeled at one or more particular temperatures, e.g., nominal and both expected extremes. In addition, because it has been difficult, if not impossible, to characterize heat variations other than for large areas, individual device temperature and thermal time constants are not well known. However, without an accurate description of these parameters, e.g., a temperature to time relationship, it has not been possible to construct thermally accurate device models, much less monitor local circuit/device temperature during actual operation, e.g., to signal a shut down when device temperature exceeds an acceptable limit.
Thus, there is a need for an accurate characterization of IC structure temperatures and for a way to monitor junction and device temperatures during chip operation.

On chip temperature measuring and monitoring method


A cowl grille structure for positioning in a space between a lower edge of a motor vehicle windshield and a rear edge of a motor vehicle hood. In one embodiment the cowl grille structure includes a molded main body planar leaf screen portion, a washer fluid channel extending along the main body portion and molded integrally with the main body portion, and mounting structure molded integrally with the main body portion for receiving a windshield washer nozzle member with the nozzle member in fluid communication with the integral channel whereby windshield washer fluid may be delivered to the nozzle member through the integral channel. In a second embodiment the washer fluid channel is defined by a molding positioned along the rear edge of the main body leaf screen portion between the rear edge of the main body portion and the lower edge of the windshield.

This invention relates to cowl grilles for motor vehicles and more particularly to a motor vehicle cowl grille with provision to facilitate the delivery of washer fluid to a vehicle windshield.
Motor vehicles typically include one or more windshield washer nozzles positioned forwardly of the windshield and arranged to direct washer fluid against the windshield to facilitate cleaning of the windshield. The washer nozzles are mounted in a rear area of the vehicle hood or in the cowl grille positioned between the forward lower edge on the windshield and the rear edge of the vehicle hood. In either arrangement, washer fluid is directed from a pump/washer unit positioned under the vehicle hood to the nozzles by lengthy and convoluted flexible hosing. While this arrangement is generally satisfactory, it does have certain disadvantages. Specifically, the lengthy hoses required are costly, both from a materials and installation labor standpoint, adding to the overall cost of cowl grille/windshield washer assembly; either during original manufacture or during vehicle usage, the hoses dangling down from the cowl grille may become entangled with the vehicle hood or other components in the tightly packed engine compartment; and the hoses may become disengaged from the spray nozzles or the bottle/pump unit during usage with consequent entanglement in under hood components.

Cowl grille structure with integral washer fluid channel


Disclosed is a coating material for aluminum die casting and a method for coating the same, the coating material including: a CrN adhesion layer formed on a surface of a base material; a TrAlN/CrN support layer formed on a surface of the CrN adhesion layer; and a TiAl(CrSi)VCN functional layer formed on a surface of the TiAlN/CrN support layer. The present coating material solves the hot stamping and sticking problem of a conventional aluminum die casting mold and the like, enhances thermal resistance, and further has enhanced thermal resistance, high-temperature wear resistance, sticking resistance and thermal impact resistance compared to that of a conventional coating material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating material which is applicable for coating on a surface of an aluminum die casting mold, parts of a high temperature sliding member and the like, which are exposed to a high temperature. More particularly, the present invention relates to a coating material including a CrN adhesion layer, a TiAlN/CrN support layer, a TiAl(CrSi)VCN functional layer and the like, and a method for coating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As manufacturing processes are becoming automatized, scaled up and sped up in conjunction with industrial development, the con under which various metal materials, such as molds and mechanical structures, used are becoming increasingly rigorous. In particular, high-level physical properties are required for an aluminum die casting mold due to the environment in which such molds are continuously subjected to high loads and high impact. Generally, the lifespan of the mold is determined by the material forming the mold, the mold design, working conditions under which the mold is subjected to, heat treatment and surface treatment of a mold and the like. Further, there is a problem in that the lifespan of a mold is drastically reduced as a result of heat checking caused by thermal impact and generation of sticking and abrasion caused by molten aluminum, a thermal softening phenomenon caused by working at a high temperature, and the like.
Further, the automotive industry is developing various environmentally friendly vehicles with a goal of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emission to 50 g/km by the year 2020, which is a level of about 35% to 50% of the current level. In order to achieve this goal, efforts to increase combustion efficiency of an engine and reduce NOx and the like have been made.
In order to increase the combustion efficiency and reduce the emission of NOx and the like, an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is mounted. The EGR is an apparatus which recirculates a portion of an inert exhaust gas into an intake system, allows the recirculated exhaust gas to be mixed with a mixed gas introduced into the engine, and decreases the maximum temperature during combustion to produce less NOx.
Generally, the EGR includes a flat valve, a shaft, bushing, a washer, a housing and the like, and an actuator outside the housing adjusts the opening and closing of the flat valve. In this case, the flat valve and the bushing or the washer and the bushing slide off at high temperatures.
As a result, it is difficult to open and close the flat valve due to high temperature sticking and high temperature abrasion of the washer or the flat valve and the bushing, and quality problems such as noise generation, output generation and the like occur.
In order to solve the above problems, CrN has been recently applied as a metal coating material. However, since a reduction in hardness occurs due to insufficient thermal resistance at 500° C. or more and a sticking phenomenon occurs during friction and abrasion, there is a problem in that abrasion is accelerated.
In particular, a high level of physical properties are generally required for an aluminum die casting mold due to ultrahigh pressure and high cyclization, and therefore TiAlN or AlCrN and the like have been used as a coating material in the related art.
However, there are problems in that the TiAlN coating material has inadequate thermal resistance for use as a coating material of an aluminum die casting mold, which is exposed to high-temperature conditions of up to 750° C., and further has insufficient thermal stability which results in deterioration in physical properties and the like, when exposed to high-temperature environments. In addition, while the AlCrN coating has relatively excellent thermal resistance compared to the TiAlN coating, it has a very low sticking resistance in that a molten alloy of aluminum and the like easily adheres to the surface of a mold coated with TiAlN. This results in problems, such as a decrease in the lifespan of the mold and a deterioration in the quality of a casting product produced therefrom.

Coating material for aluminum die casting and method for coating the same


A semiconductor light emitting device includes a mold resin having a cup shape portion on an upper surface of the mold resin. One or more holes penetrate through the cup shape portion to outside of the mold resin and/or one or more trenches extend from the cup-shaped portion to outside the mold resin. A first lead is provided in the mold resin and extending from the cup shape portion to outside of the mold resin in a first direction, and a second lead provided in the mold resin and extending from the cup shape portion to outside of the mold resin in a second direction which is opposite to the first direction. A light emitting element is mounted on the first lead in the cup shape portion, and a wire electrically connects the light emitting element and the second lead. A sealing resin is embedded in the one or more holes and the one or more trenches and is configured to seal the light emitting element and the wire.

SMD (Surface Mounting Device) type semiconductor light emitting devices have a wide field of applications since such devices can be surface mounted to a printed circuit board.
With the application field being broadened, the semiconductor light emitting device may be used in a wide range ambient temperature. For example, in the automotive use, the semiconductor light emitting device may be required to be operable in a range of −40–+80 degree Centigrade.
On the other hand, a LED chip, a mold resin, a sealing resin and a metal lead frame have a different heat expansion coefficient and a different Young's modulus. In case an ambient temperature of the semiconductor light emitting device is raised and lowered, the sealing resin is expanded and compressed. So the optical characteristic of the semiconductor light emitting device may be worsened, or damage, such as peeling of the sealing resin from another constituent element and/or cracks in the LED chip, may occur in the semiconductor light emitting device.


A pumping voltage generating circuit of a semiconductor memory apparatus, the pumping voltage generating circuit includes a detecting unit configured to compare a level of a pumping voltage with a level of a reference voltage to generate a detection signal, an oscillating signal generator configured to sequentially generate a first oscillating signal and a second oscillating signal in response to the detection signal, and to elevate frequencies of the first and second oscillating signals when the second oscillating signal is generated, a first pump configured to perform a pumping operation in response to the first oscillating signal, and a second pump configured to perform a pumping operation in response to the second oscillating signal, wherein output terminals of the first pump and the second pump are commonly connected, and the pumping voltage is output at the output terminals of the first pump and the second pump.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate to a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC), and more particularly, to a pumping voltage generating circuit.
2. Related Art
In general, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device is capable of reading or writing data to a memory cell composed of a transistor and a capacitor. Since a DRAM device uses NMOS transistors comprising the memory cell, it includes a voltage pumping circuit for driving a word line to generate a potential at a level higher than the combined voltages of an external power supply voltage VDD and a threshold voltage Vt due to voltage losses due to the threshold voltage Vt.
For example, in order to drive an NMOS transistor in a DRAM memory cell, a voltage, which is higher than a source voltage by an amount equal to the threshold voltage Vt, should be applied to a gate of the NMOS transistor. However, since a maximum voltage applied to a DRAM memory cell generally has a voltage level of VDD, a boosted voltage, which is higher than VDD plus Vt, should be applied to a gate of the NMOS transistor in order to read a voltage having a complete level of VDD from a cell or a bit line, or to write to a cell or a bit line.
Various efforts have been made to reduce a consumption current in semiconductor devices. For example, in DRAM devices, consumption current can be reduced in a self-refresh mode. In general, a current is consumed to store data in a memory cell during a refresh operation. Here, a self-refresh current means the current measured during a self-refresh time. To reduce the self-refresh current, it is required to increase a self-refresh period. However, to increase the self-refresh period, it is required to increase a data retention time, which is a time for respective memory cells to retain data. One of method to increase the data retention time includes increasing a back bias voltage VBB applied to a transistor of the respective memory cells. For example, when in a self-refresh mode, a method includes reducing an off-leakage current of a cell transistor and increasing the data retention time by elevating and providing a back bias voltage VBB pumped and output from a voltage pumping device.
As a result, a high voltage VPP is mainly a voltage for driving a word line of a DRAM device, and a back bias voltage VBB is a voltage that is applied to a forming area in a transistor of a memory cell in order to reduce the self-refresh current. For example, both the high voltage VPP and the back bias voltage VBB are generated in a pumping voltage generating circuit equipped with an oscillator and a voltage pump.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional pumping voltage generating circuit. In FIG. 1, a pumping voltage generating circuit includes a detecting unit 10, an oscillator 20, a first VPP pump 30, and a second VPP pump 40. The detecting unit 10 generates a detection signal 'det' based upon a comparison of levels between a reference voltage Vref and a pumping voltage VPP. When the detection signal 'det' is enabled, the oscillator 20 outputs an oscillating signal 'osc'.
Both the first VPP pump 30 and the second VPP pump 40 receive the oscillating signal 'osc' as an input, and performs pumping operations. Here, the pumping voltage VPP is output from a common node (node A) to which the individual output terminals of the first and second VPP pumps 30 and 40 are connected.
However, the pumping voltage generating circuit is problematic in that a peak current increases instantaneously because the first and second VPP pumps 30 and 40 are driven at the same time.


A method is set forth for automatically adjusting screen and keypad brightness on a mobile electronic device having a light sensor, display screen and keypad, for optimum legibility under varying lighting conditions, with minimal eye strain and distraction to the user. The method includes obtaining light level samples from the light sensor, and independently adjusting backlight intensity of the display screen and keypad responsive to the light level samples. Preferably, correct screen and keypad adjustments are made responsive to the user pulling his or her handheld device out of its holster notwithstanding non-optimal ambient light detection while the device is being removed from the holster. According to another aspect, the described method allows for ambient light detection in a handheld device where the light sensor and a message notification indicator share a common light pipe.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and keypad brightness on a handheld electronic device may be adjusted for different operating environments in order to provide an optimal user experience. For example, in outdoor or sunlight conditions the LCD backlight must be very bright in order to be readable, and the keypad backlight should be off to conserver battery power. In normal indoor or office conditions, the LCD backlight should operate at medium brightness while the keypad backlight is usually turned off. In dim or dark conditions, the LCD backlight must be at low intensity so as to avoid eye strain and the keypad backlight must be on.
Ambient lighting conditions can change rapidly as the user moves between different working environments. For example, walking from indoors to outdoors may render the LCD screen immediately unreadable unless the LCD backlight brightness is increased. Conversely, when the user moves from a bright environment into a dimly lit room, the keypad may be unreadable unless the keypad backlight is turned on.
Prior art arrangements have been implemented in GPS displays and laptop computers for providing basic automatic screen and keypad backlighting adjustment. However, none of such prior art backlighting algorithms are known to address independent control of LCD and keypad backlighting adjustment as a user moves between different ambient lighting conditions. Moreover, none of the known prior art addresses the problem of providing rapid backlight adjustment in response to a user removing his or her handheld electronic device from a wearable holster accessory, or the problem of detecting ambient light when the light sensor and message notification indicator for the device share a common light pipe, such as described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/187,867, filed Jul. 25, 2005, and entitled SHARED LIGHT PIPE FOR A MESSAGE INDICATOR AND LIGHT SENSOR.

Automatic screen and keypad brightness adjustment on a mobile handheld electronic device