A set for installing an intracardiac lead equipped with a screw in a wall of the endocardium, particularly a stimulation or defibrillation lead. This set comprises a removable stylet (50), able to be introduced inside the sheath (12) of the lead-body and mobile in translation and rotation therein. The stylet has at its distal extremity a mechanism (56) for coupling in rotation to allow the rotation (28) of the lead-head (10). The stylet (50) includes: a central core (52, 71) carrying at its distal extremity the aforementioned coupling mechanism, and at its proximal extremity a handling body (32) for handling by the physician and a hollow tube (54) axially placed around the core. The length of the hollow tube is less than the length of the core, so that the latter emerges from the hollow tube at the proximal and distal extremities of the tube, so as to allow the rotation of the core and correlatively of the coupling mechanism, by action on the handling body, primarily without setting in rotation of the hollow tube.

Intercardiac leads are implanted in a cavity of the myocardium, and allow for the sensing of spontaneous depolarization signals, the application of stimulation pulses and/or a defibrillation or cardioversion shock produced by pacemaker, defibrillator, cardiovertor and/or "multisite" type device or, more generally, by an "active implantable medical device", as such devices are defined by the Jun. 20, 1990 Directive 90/385/CEE of the Council of the European Communities. EP-A-0 591 053 and its counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,534 describe such a screw-in lead, currently marketed by the assignee hereof, ELA Medical, Montrouge France, under the denomination Stelix™.
Generally, a stimulation or defibrillation lead has a "body of the lead" (called hereafter a "lead-body") formed of a sheath (i.e., a flexible hollow tube) that is finished at its distal extremity by a "lead-head" carrying the electrode or the electrodes that are intended to come in contact with the myocardium. The lead-body is equipped with an electric terminal connector at its proximal extremity for connection to a connector head of a pacemaker or defibrillator. The tube of the lead-body contains one or more wires electrically connecting the terminals of the connector to the one or more electrodes of the lead-head.
In the case of a retractable screw-in lead, the lead-head also is equipped with a mechanism making it possible to retract the screw within a housing at the distal end of the lead-head so as to protect the walls of the vein during the introduction of the lead, until the extremity of the lead-head comes into contact against the wall of the endocardium. Once this position is reached, the surgeon then manipulates the lead so as to move the screw according to a double movement. Initially there is an axial translation to deploy the screw out of the housing of the lead-head where it was during insertion, and then of rotation so that the screw will carry out its anchoring in the wall of the endocardium.
In the case of the lead described by above mentioned EP-A-0 591 053 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,534, this double movement of deployment and rotation is carried out in the following way.
Initially, the surgeon introduced into the hollow tube of the lead a first stylet of the "screwdriver-stylet" type, i.e., whose distal extremity presents a flattened form. This flat part comes to cooperate homologously with a receptacle within the mechanism for deployment of the screw inside the lead-body. This deployment is obtained by maintaining fixed, with one hand, the screwdriver-stylet, and turning, with the other hand, in the clockwise direction, the lead-body (by the turning proximal part of the sheath), some five to six full rotations. Once the screw is deployed, the physician withdraws the screwdriver-stylet and inserts in the tube another stylet that is equipped at its extremity with a bulge that has as a function, inside the lead-head, to make the screw interdependent with the lead-body. In contrast, in the preceding stage of deployment, these two elements were disunited (decoupled) to allow the deployment of the screw. The physician carries then out the anchoring of the screw by turning again the lead-body in the clockwise direction some five to six turns, the proximal extremity of the stylet being maintained fixed. The lead-head is provided with a system of torque limitation which minimizes the torsional stress during screwing, so as not to damage tissues and to avoid any deformation or rupture of the screw. In other words, if the resistive torque during screwing in the endocardium exceeds a given threshold, the screw is not advanced any more by the rotation of the body of lead.
This system is effective and sure. It is moreover reversible; the surgeon can unscrew the screw and retract it by reversing the installation operation as described. It presents however several disadvantages. First, it requires the use of two different stylets, which complicates the procedure because it is necessary to withdraw the screwdriver-stylet to be able to insert the stylet to be inflated (with the bulge). Second, as noted above, the deployment operation and the anchoring operation are carried out by the rotation of the lead-body (by the proximal part of the sheath), and not of the stylet. The stylet must remain fixed, its rotation being prevented by an accessory held by the surgeon. But if, instead of turning the lead-body, the surgeon turns the stylet (as that is very often the case with other types of lead), the sheath will form loops inside the cardiac cavity. This is likely to displace the lead-head, before or during the anchoring of the head, because of the elasticity of the sheath. This disadvantage is further accentuated when, for a better placement of the lead-head, the surgeon has deformed the stylet before insertion by bending it a few centimeters away from the lead-head, in order to better conform to the configuration of the cardiac cavity. In this case, any rotation, even a small one, from the stylet will tend to cause a rotation of the lead-body around the bend, instead of axially transmitting the rotation to the lead-head.
A third disadvantage is that the friction of the sheath on the wall of the vein produces during the rotational movement an accumulation of constraints that are released suddenly. It results in a jerking or jolting movement (not a smooth rotation) that is very awkward for the surgeon.
Other types of retractable screw-in leads have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,106,512, and 5,129,404 which also describe a device adapted for the implantation. But these devices either use a relatively complex special tool to carry out the combined movement of deployment and screwing, or work to impart a rotational movement to the sheath of the lead-body always with the risk to form loops and to displace the point of implantation before the lead-head can be anchored in the endocardium.

Set for installing an intracardiac stimulation or defibrillation lead equipped with a screw


An image-processing device of the invention can appropriately correct a gradation of an image to be processed in accordance with the image. Thus, it divides the image into plural small areas; generates image information indicating a characteristic of the image for each small area; determines an evaluation value indicating luminosity of each pixel constituting the image, according to the image information generated for each small area and image information generated for each of adjacent small areas to the each small area; and performs an image processing on each pixel of the image according to the determined evaluation value. A digital still camera of the invention can appropriately correct a gradation of an image created by shooting in accordance with the image. Moreover, an image-processing program and an image-processing method of the invention realize appropriate gradation correction in accordance with an image to be processed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-processing device, an electronic camera, an image-processing program, and an image-processing method for correcting a luminance level of an image to be processed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some digital still cameras perform various image processings on generated image data to achieve the function of an image-processing device. The image processings include: white balance adjustment; an interpolation processing; a color correction processing; a gradation correction processing; and the like. The gradation correction processing is generally realized by performing a gamma processing.
However, for an image to be processed (an image generated by a digital still camera) with a large difference in luminance, the conventional gamma processing may cause loss of gradation in the highlight and shadow areas of the image because it is uniformly performed on the entire image, which results in depriving characteristics of details of the image. Moreover, in the case where the image to be processed has a small difference in luminance, the gamma processing may degrade contrast of the entire image, and make the image weak in gradation.

Image-processing device, electronic camera, image-processing program, and image-processing method


A liquid crystal display of compact size is disclosed. The liquid crystal display has a tape carrier package and a single integrated PCB for processing a gate driving signal and data driving signal. The tape carrier package includes a base substrate, a gate driver IC formed on said base substrate, an input pattern formed on said base substrate that applies gate driving signals input from an external device to the gate driver IC, a first output pattern formed on said base substrate that outputs a first gate driving signal processed in said gate driver IC, and a second output pattern formed on said base substrate, that outputs a second gate driving signal bypassing the gate driver IC among the gate driving signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape carrier package for a compact size liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly to a tape carrier package (TCP) capable of receiving both of gate signal and data signal which are processed in a single integrated printed circuit board and transmitting the processed signals to an LCD panel and another TCP. Further, the invention relates to a liquid crystal display panel to which the tape carrier package is applied.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an LCD is a mostly used type of flat panel display. Especially, the small size, lighter weight and lower power consumption render the LCD to replace the traditional cathode ray tube (CRT). The LCD is currently used as a monitor for a lap-top computer and even for a desktop computer, gaining its popularity.
As shown in FIG. 1, an LCD includes an LCD panel 101 and a light supply unit. The LCD panel 101 includes a TFT substrate 10, a color filter substrate 20, multiple gate TCPs 30 connected to gate lines (not shown) of the TFT substrate 10, multiple PCB 50, gate PCB 50 and data PCB 60 need connectors 55 and 65.
The connectors 55 and 56 are generally installed on the front surface or on the rear surface of the PCBs 50 and 60. This increases the thickness of the LCD and makes it difficult to achieve a compact size LCD.
And the flexible printed circuit (FPC) 70 that connects the connector 55 and the connector 65 complicates the assembly process and increases the fabrication costs.
Finally, a bent type PCB that is mostly used currently bends a gate PCB 50 and data PCB 60 and they are fixed at the rear surface of the reflecting plate of a backlight assembly. In such a configuration, the data PCB 60 is put in a space between a relatively thin side edge 92 of the non-symmetric light guiding plate 90 and the mold frame. Thus the data PCB 69 does not increase the thickness of the LCD much. On the other hand, the gate PCB 50 is put in a space between a thickness varying side of the light guiding plate 90, and the mold frame. Specifically, one side of the gate PCB 50 is attached to a thick portion of the rear surface of the light guiding plate 90, making a thick LCD depending on the thickness of the light guiding plate 90.


The invention relates to a process and apparatus for the capacitive demineralization of liquids containing ions in which, after introducing the liquid into a container, an electric field is applied to capacitor plates (8, 9), which leads to ions of the liquid being conducted through a filter wall (7). The ions conducted through are deposited on the capacitor plates (8, 9) as bilayers (15, 16). By introducing pulsed voltage peaks, microcrystalline structures which result from ionic compounds are precipitated and then removed from the apparatus (1).

The invention relates to a process and apparatus for the capacitive demineralization of liquids containing ions.
In the publication WO 98/17587, prior-art processes and apparatuses for water treatment, in particular demineralization and decarbonization, are described.
These are based on two fundamental process principles, one concerning decarbonization with cation-exchange resins in H+ form and the other concerning decarbonization with precipitation of carbonates, especially lime.
The disadvantage of the known processes, in which the decarbonization is realized by raising the pH, is seen in this document in the fact that large quantities of chemical additives have to be admixed with the water. For example, the addition of lime milk introduces additional Ca2+ ions into the water, which in the subsequent lime precipitation process cannot always be precipitated out completely. On the use of sodium hydroxide solution and soda in the drinking water sector, it is stated that the limit values for sodium ions set corresponding limits here.
A further problem is seen in the high pH of the water after the lime precipitation. Appropriate countermeasures have to be taken for this.
In the case of electrochemical processes as an alternative, it is regarded as a problem that it is important for the electrode reaction to be carried out at a voltage below the water decomposition voltage of 1.23 V, since otherwise H+ ions form on the anode, and they would lower the pH again. As a result, the success of the process is restricted to the oxygen present in the water and its electrochemical conversion at the cathode.
To avoid these problems, it is proposed in WO 98/17587 to form the necessary OHxe2x88x92 ions by electrolytic decomposition of water at the cathode. In this case, a diaphragm is to be used to prevent the OHxe2x88x92 ions from recombining with Hxe2x88x92 ions formed at the cathode.
However, investigations carried out within the scope of the present invention have found that the known process and the corresponding apparatus are relatively complex in terms of control technology and process engineering to the extent that it is necessary to apply a voltage of higher than 1.22 V between the cathode and the anode, and wherein an alkaline environment in which carbonate and/or magnesium carbonate precipitates must be created in the cathode space which is created by introducing a diaphragm between the cathode and the anode.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process and apparatus for the capacitive demineralization of liquids containing ions which can be realized in a simple manner even on an industrial scale and permit a high level of efficiency.
According to the principles of the present invention, a configuration of highly capacitive electrodes, which preferably consist of a conductive material with an extremely large surface area, is used in a filter container with a filter wall or diaphragm wall. By applying an electric field, in a next process step the ions contained in the liquid are conducted through the filter wall of the filter container and form a so-called bilayer on the surface of the electrode.
After that, a series of pulsed voltage peaks are introduced into this bilayer, representing a supersaturated solution, which leads to the precipitation of microcrystalline structures resulting from ionic compounds. These microcrystalline structures can then be removed from the filter container.
For instance, it is possible to apply either a DC voltage field or an AC voltage field to the highly capacitive electrodes or capacitor elements. A closed cup-shaped filter wall surrounding the highly capacitive electrodes and with a pore size which largely prevents ingress of water but allows the ions having a hydration sheath to pass through is preferably used as the diaphragm wall or filter wall.
For removing the precipitated microcrystalline structures, suitable filtration methods or other retention methods may be used.
Other dissolved ions which cannot be precipitated by feeding the pulsed voltage peaks can be detached, preferably by suitable depolarization or polarity reversal of the capacitor elements or highly capacitive electrodes, and extracted from the medium by bonding on suitable surfaces or by pulsed rinsing operations.
Especially for industrial use, the apparatus according to the invention may preferably be constructed in a modular and meandering form, in order to increase the efficiency and make the polarization reversal possible without major electrical losses.

Method and device for capacitative demineralization of liquids which contain ions


The present invention provides an apparatus and method for fabricating structural building panels. The apparatus may be used for fabricating panels directly on the foundation for a building. The apparatus may include a support frame, a flattening frame, a press frame, drive members such as pneumatic cylinders supported by the press frame, and posts attached to the support frame and used for aligning and coupling the apparatus and panel components. In order to fabricate a structural panel using the inventive apparatus, drywall sheets having bores sized for receiving the posts therethrough are prepared and drywall ribs or spacers are cut from drywall sheets. The support frame may be located on the foundation where the structural panel is to be positioned and a first sheet and a second sheet placed onto the posts, the sheets having adhesive and drywall spacers positioned perpendicularly therebetween. The flattening frame and the press frame may then be placed onto the posts and the press frame locked on the post to prepare for compression of the panel components. Upon actuating the pneumatic cylinders, cylinder rods press the flattening frame members against the second sheet, thereby compressing the panel components against the support frame. After the adhesive which glues the sheets and spacers together is sufficiently set up, the press components may be removed from the fabricated panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to building construction, and more particularly, to an apparatus for fabricating structural panels for use in building houses and other structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional building materials used for constructing buildings often use lumber for framing walls and providing structural support and drywall for forming surfaces including walls and ceilings. Not only has the availability and quality of lumber as a natural resource declined, the cost of the lumber has also increased dramatically. In contrast, however, gypsum which is used for constructing gypsum board, or drywall, remains plentiful. Despite inflation and the increased cost of other building materials, the cost of drywall has remained substantially unchanged for over 30 years.
Unlike lumber, drywall is fireproof, dimensionally stable, and not susceptible to damage from cellulose consuming insects such as termites or powder-post beetles. The core material of drywall is abundantly available gypsum. The surface of drywall is generally paper, often recycled paper, and may also be moisture resistant.
Advantageously, drywall is very strong under compression. Structural panels, beams, or other members may be fabricated and can be used for both structural and finishing surfaces in buildings. U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,662, issued May 30, 1972, to Timbrook et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,839, issued Feb. 27, 1996, to Sax et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,530, issued Jul. 3, 2001, to Price et al., the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference, disclose structural building panel systems and methods relating to drywall structural panels which utilize drywall as a material.
Fabrication equipment for known structural building panel systems is generally very large so that it may entirely enclose the typical 4 foot by 8 foot drywall sheets used for structural panel fabrication. Additionally, such fabrication equipment is generally complex, costly, heavy, and not easily transportable. For example, such equipment may require vacuum and temperature control systems for expanding and setting honeycomb paper used as core material in some structural panel systems.
What is needed is a lighter-weight, easily-transportable, low-cost apparatus for the fabrication of drywall structural panels at a building site.

Structural building panels, apparatus and method for fabricating structural building panels


A motion-activated light fixture having an aimable motion detector with a zonal configuration providing improved monitoring of the region behind the motion detector. In one embodiment the motion detector defines a first plurality of generally forward-looking detection zones for monitoring the region in front of and to the sides of the motion detector, the forward-looking detection zones having a side-to-side coverage angle of at most 180 degrees and having forward zones for monitoring the far region in front of the motion detector. A second plurality of detection zones for monitoring the region behind the motion detector forms a zonal pattern angulated with respect to the zones of the first plurality monitoring the far region. At least some of the detection zones of the second plurality extend generally in the backward direction although in some embodiments the motion detector head must be tilted down through a pre-established offset angle before the angulated zonal pattern begins to look backward. The motion detector may also have other detection zones forming zonal patterns monitoring intermediate regions. The backward looking detection zones are defined so as to look sufficiently downward that the amount they are shifted to angle upwards as the motion detector housing is angled downward is limited to a useful range so that individual detection zones are not rendered useless or detrimental by being aimed too high. Configurations of zonal patterns are provided for improved monitoring of the region behind the motion detector without compromising the ability to aim the motion detector's forward-looking far zones.

The present invention relates to passive infra-red (PIR) motion detectors of the type used in outdoor lighting fixtures to illuminate an area such as a walkway or driveway when a person or automobile approaches. The invention is more particularly directed to the zonal pattern for covering the monitored field of view.
Outdoor motion-activated lighting fixtures are found in widespread use to monitor and illuminate areas around houses and other buildings such as walkways, driveways, garden areas, gateways and other areas subject to pedestrian traffic. One form of motion-activated fixture includes a floodlight, or frequently a pair of floodlights, and a motion detector housing supported on a common base plate that is mounted to a wall of a building or other structure. The floodlights and motion detector housing are each movably mounted to the base plate so that the lights and the motion detector can each be aimed at a desired target area. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,323.
The motion detector operates by creating a number of narrow detection zones extending out from the motion detector housing in different directions in the field of view. The detection zones may be envisioned as sensitive fingers stretching out from the motion detector housing into the field of view. See FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B for examples of detection zones. Infra-red energy emanating from a source located within an individual finger-like detection zone is directed onto a sensor in the motion detector housing while infra-red energy from regions between detection zones is not directed to the sensor. The sensor responds only when the infra-red energy impinging upon it changes, and the energy impinging upon the sensor will change whenever a person enters or leaves a detection zone. Thus, the pattern of detection zones determines to a great extent the size and shape of the region monitored by the motion detector and the coarseness or fineness with which the region is monitored.
Known motion detectors provide a number of different detection zone patterns. The zonal patterns generally include a group of detection zones, sometimes called the "far" zones, that is spread out from side to side over some angular width and that looks out to the far reaches of the monitored region. (See for example FIG. 2A.) Some zonal patterns provide coverage at more than one level by defining several groups of detection zones aimed downward by different amounts. The group of far zones is angled downward the least so as to look out at the farthest regions, and one or more other groups of zones are angled downward by greater amounts to look at closer-in regions. Some have so-called wide-angle coverage, meaning that they monitor an area with side-to-side angular spread upwards of 140 degrees.
Recently motion detectors for floodlight fixtures have become available that provide more than 180 degrees of side-to-side coverage. That means the motion detector looks backward to some extent—in effect, it looks over its shoulder—to detect a person approaching from behind. This is useful, for example, when the light fixture is mounted on a wall near a doorway. The motion detector extends out from the wall so that the doorway is set back somewhat behind the motion detector. The motion detector is primarily aimed to monitor the area out in front of the doorway, but with more than 180 degrees of coverage the motion detector can detect a person coming out through the door and turn on the light in response.
In the typical dual-flood fixture the motion detector housing is movably mounted so that it can be aimed up and down and side to side. This enables the housing to be turned so as to improve the coverage of the particular target area for any given installation. When the motion detector housing is tilted only slightly downward, the far zones look out into the distance more to cover a deeper area, thus increasing the range. As the housing is tilted down through a greater angle, the far zones look down more and cover a shorter range. As the motion detector housing is moved, however, the entire zonal pattern is shifted. Aiming the motion detector housing more downward to shorten the forward-looking range will cause any close-in detection zones to be shifted even closer in and will cause any backward-looking zones to be shifted upward to look farther back and possibly even skyward. The result is a compromise in the motion detector's coverage and performance.

Aimable motion-activated lighting fixture with angulated field


A thin-film transistor array panel includes a substrate, a first gate electrode disposed on the substrate, a first self-assembled monolayer disposed on the first gate electrode, a gate insulating layer disposed on the first self-assembled monolayer, a semiconductor disposed on the gate insulating layer, a drain electrode overlapping the semiconductor, the drain electrode being separated from and facing a source electrode with respect to the semiconductor, a first interlayer insulating layer disposed on the source electrode and the drain electrode, a second self-assembled monolayer disposed on the first interlayer insulating layer, a second gate electrode disposed on the second self-assembled monolayer, a second interlayer insulating layer disposed on the second gate electrode, and a pixel electrode disposed on the second interlayer insulating layer and connected to the drain electrode.

Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a thin-film transistor array panel, and more particularly, to a thin-film transistor array panel including self-assembled monolayers.
Discussion of the Background
A thin-film transistor (TFT) may be used in various electronic devices such as a flat panel display or the like. A TFT may be used as a switching element or a driving element in a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, an electrophoretic display, or the like.
A TFT may include a gate electrode connected to a gate line that transmits a scanning signal, a source electrode connected to a data line that transmits a signal to be applied to a pixel electrode, a drain electrode that faces the source electrode, and a semiconductor electrically connected to the source electrode and the drain electrode.
A semiconductor may be formed of amorphous silicon, polysilicon, or an oxide semiconductor. A TFT may maintain a predetermined threshold voltage, however the threshold voltage may be non-uniform or may be shifted depending on the type of the semiconductor. As such, when the threshold voltage is non-uniform or shifted, a separate compensation circuit may be added.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


In a packet communications network, the addition or deletion of a connection to the network by a user is governed by a link traffic metric which represents the effective capacity of each link in the network which participates in the packet connection route. The link metric is calculated in real-time and updated by simple vector addition or subtraction. Moreover, this link metric is also used to calculate leaky bucket parameters which govern the access of packets to the network once the connection is set up. A packet network using these link metrics and metric generation techniques provides maximum packet throughput while, at the same time, preserving grade of service guarantees.

Bandwidth management in modern high speed packet communications networks operates on two different time scales which can be called "connection level controls" and "packet level controls." Connection level controls are applied at the time the connection is set up and are based on the load characteristics of the transmission links in the connection route at the time that the connection is set up. Connection level controls include bandwidth allocation, path selection and admission control and call setup. Bandwidth allocation is accomplished by noting, at the connection setup time, the "equivalent capacity" loading that the new connection will generate, based on the traffic characteristics of the source signal and the desired quality of service. Using this equivalent capacity that must be available to carry the new connection, the originating node of the network computes a path to the destination node that is capable of carrying the new connection and providing the level of service required by the new connection. This path selection utilizes data describing the current state of the traffic in the entire network. Such data can be stored in a topology data base located at each entry point, and, indeed, each node, of the network. If no suitable path can be found to meet these requirements, the connection is rejected. Once the path has been selected, the actual end-to-end setup utilizes a setup message traversing the selected route and updating the resource allocation for each link visited by the setup message. Due to race conditions, simultaneous request for setup, or unknown changes in the link resource allocation, the attempt to set up the call may fail because of the lack of necessary resources at the time the call setup message reaches a node along the route. In general, each of the end-to-end processes, i.e., initial bandwidth allocation, route selection and call setup, requires adequate network resources to carry the call and a failure at any point in any of these processes results in the call being rejected, thus preventing the launching of packets likely to cause network overload.
At the packet level, once the connection is established and the call setup procedures completed, the steady state traffic behavior is monitored to insure that the traffic behaves in accordance with the assumptions made at call setup time and that the classes of service continue to be supported by the network. Packet level controls are applied at the network access points and typically consist of a rate control mechanism and a traffic estimation module. In addition, each intermediate node implements scheduling and packet buffering strategies which enforce the necessary classes of service for the traffic in transit. The access point packet level controls, on the other hand, monitor the incoming traffic to insure that the statistical nature of the traffic assumed at call setup time continues throughout the duration of the connection, thereby preventing overload and congestion before it occurs. In many cases, it is not possible to accurately predict, a priori, the statistical parameters associated with a traffic source. Furthermore, the traffic characteristics of a source may change substantially over time. It is therefore important to have the ability to estimate the traffic flow and to react dynamically to changes in the characteristics of the traffic on a connection.
It is essential to successful traffic management and a congestion free network that the proper interrelationship between connection level controls and packet level controls be preserved at all times. That is, the parameters of the connection level controls must be set so as to allow the desired packet level controls to operate appropriately. Similarly, the packet level control functions must be made consistent with the call setup allocations. Prior art approaches to this problem are described in "New Directions in Communications (or Which Way to the Information Age)", by J. S. Turner, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 24, No. 10, pages 8-15, October 1986, "A Congestion Control Framework for High-Speed Integrated Packetized Transport," by G. M. Woodruff, R. G. H. Rogers and P. S. Richards, Proceedings of the IEEE Globcom '88, pages 203-207, November 1988, "PARIS: An Approach to Integrated High-Speed Private Networks," by I. Cidon and I. S. Gopal, Internation Journal of Digital and Analog Cabled Systems, Vol. 1, No. 2, pages 77-85, April- June 1988, "Meeting the Challenge: Congestion and Flow Control Strategies for Broadband Information Transport," by A. E. Echberg, Jr., D. T. Luan and D. M. Lucantoni, Proceedings of the IEEE Globcom '89, pages 1769-1773, March 1989, "Bandwidth Management and Congestion Control in plaNET," by I. Cidon, I. S. Gopal and R. Guerin, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 10, pages 54-63, October 1991, and "A Unified Approach to Bandwidth Allocation and Access Control in Fast Packet-Switched Networks," by R. Guerin and L. Gun, Proceedings of the IEEE Infocom '92, Florence, Italy, pages 1-12, May 1992.
In order to accommodate connections in a packet communications network for data streams with widely different characteristics, it is important to allocate bandwidth for each connection with a metric which is readily computable, easily updated and capable of capturing all of the significant characteristics of the highly diversified traffic. Moreover, this metric must also be used to characterize the accumulated transmission link traffic load due to all of the individual connections on that link. An easily calculated metric to characterize traffic on a network is a critical factor for efficient traffic control in the network. Another critical factor is the mapping of this metric into a packet level mechanism such as the "leaky bucket" type of packet control.
More specifically, a leaky bucket form of packet level access control requires the achievement of two general objectives. First, the scheme must be transparent as long as the traffic stays within the setup values, allowing immediate access to the network. Secondly, however, the leaky bucket scheme must control the maximum bandwidth taken by the user source when the source increases its traffic beyond the setup values, at least until a new bandwidth can be negotiated. The leaky bucket control mechanism operates as described below.
Tokens are generated at a fixed rate and delivered to a token pool of a fixed size. Packets are allowed to enter the network only if the number of available tokens in the token pool will accommodate the packet. Assuming, for example, that each token gives permission for the transmission of one bit of information, then a packet can enter the network only if the number of available tokens is larger than the number of bits in the packet. After each packet is launched into the network, the number of available tokens in the pool is decremented by the number of bits in the packet. Ideally, the token accumulation rate is equal to the long term average rate for this traffic while the pool size is a function of the burstiness of the traffic. Both the token rate and the pool size are chosen to achieve transparency of the leaky bucket for well-behaved user traffic, where the average rate and burstiness are as expected. The peak rate at which packets can enter the network, however, is controlled by the use of a spacer at regular intervals in the packet traffic which limit the maximum rate at which packets can be injected into the network. One such use of spacers is described in the afore-mentioned Infocom '92 article of the present applicants. In general, this maximum rate is equal to the peak rate of the traffic, but can be tuned to achieve any desired trade-off between the smoothing of the user traffic (at the cost of increased access delay) and the amount of bandwidth reserved for that traffic.
In general, the constraint of transparency requires that the token rate be greater than the average traffic rate to account for the burstiness of the input traffic. The value of the token rate then determines the worst case average rate at which the user traffic can enter the network. More particularly, when the user average input rate increases beyond the token rate, the leaky bucket will saturate, causing the token pool to be always empty. Packets can therefore only enter the network as fast as tokens are generated. The output of the leaky bucket then appears like a constant bit stream at an average rate equal to the token rate. In order to ensure that this increased average load going into the network does not create congestion, the token rate should be no greater than the bandwidth reserved for that connection in the links. Once this token rate is determined, the size of the token pool can be chosen to achieve reasonable transparency to the user of the leaky bucket. A difficult problem is the determination of these leaky bucket parameters for each connection to achieve both transparency and maximum bandwidth control and, at the same time, the computation of these parameters sufficiently quickly to permit dynamic, realtime packet level control of network traffic.

Traffic management in packet communications networks


In an industrial system, a data capture apparatus can be configured to operate as a unidirectional communication connection between a private network and a public network. The data capture apparatus can be further configured to collect raw data from the private network. The raw data can define a data distribution. The data capture apparatus can be further configured, based on the data distribution of the raw data, to generate anonymized or synthetic data that represents the raw data. The anonymized data can be transmitted over the unidirectional communication connection to a receiver machine of the data capture apparatus. In some cases, the receiver machine can send the anonymized data to an analysis system within the public network, such that the raw data can be analyzed by the analysis system, based on the anonymized data that represents the raw data, without the analysis system obtaining the raw data.

Cyber-attacks on private computer networks have long been at the forefront of detection and protection efforts using information technology. It is recognized herein, however, that the threat of cyber attacker intrusion to industrial systems, such as automation and control systems that support critical infrastructure, is gaining attention. Due to aspects such as, for example, vertical integration of the production systems and horizontal integration of the value chain, industrial control system (ICS) networks are often directly or indirectly connected to IT networks (office network) and the Internet, thereby offering an opportunity for cyber attackers to penetrate such environments and exploit any existing vulnerabilities. It is further recognized herein that OT (Operations Technology) systems such as, for example, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), Distributed Control Systems (DCS), motion controllers, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) servers, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs), offer many additional challenges when it comes to deploying security measures.
In particular, IT networks are often connected to OT systems so as to collect data from the OT systems. It is recognized herein, however, that current approaches to collecting the data from OT systems might compromise privacy associated with the data, which can result in valuable trade secrets, logic, or data, among other information, being divulged to competitors or others. For example, secrets can be derived from network traffic that is used for network monitoring, such as process recipes or other ICS data. It is further recognized herein that current approaches often require that security monitoring operations are hosted on the cloud or off-premises, which can add to the risk of a data compromise.

Privacy preserving uni-directional communication device


This invention relates to peptides useful for releasing active agent in the fields of diagnostics and drug delivery.

Cytolytic peptides or cytolysins have previously been used to release active agents or "payload" from liposomes or cells. The mode of action for such peptides involves perturbation of the liposome or cellular membrane. These peptides include toxins from insects, fish, antibiotic peptides and synthetic peptides such as melittin, alamethicin, gramicidin, magainin and pardaxin, GALA, KALA, hemagglutinin subunit HA-2. Natural potent cytolytic peptides are found widely from insects to mammals, particularly as antimicrobial peptides or defensins, where they are involved in innate defence at mucosal membranes and as cytolysins in lymphocytes. In order to target and localise the cytolytic action of such peptides, a number of specific steps e.g. activating synthesis, release from lysosomes, cleavage of pro-peptides is required. The biological delivery activity of such peptides is tightly controlled at the cellular and molecular levels. Biologically, cytolysin activity is cloaked by sophisticated mechanisms available within and between cells butthese mechanisms are diagnostically and therapeutically less exploitable. This has therefore hindered the use of cytolysins in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Whilst much sought after, there are remarkably few simple and rapid homogeneous biodetection methods.
Owing to their inferior sensitivity and non specific variable background, compared to the automated heterogeneous technology which is now widespread in immunodiagnostics and high throughput screening, it has not always been possible to develop homogeneous assays for different analytes. Liposomes have, previously, been utilised in homogenous assays using complement-mediated lysis (Anal. Biochem. 118 (1981) 286-293.) However, such assays are considered unreliable as they involve many labile components, any one of which may become inactivated eliminating payload release. The development of a homogenous liposomal assay using non-specifically labelled digoxin melittin as the lytic agent was reported as an alternative to the complement assay (J.Immunol. Methods. 70 (1984)133-140). This method, however, has not gained widespread use as the preservation and stability of lytic activity, as well as solubility of the conjugates posed problems largely restricting the use of this cytolytic peptide to measure digoxin. This may be expected, primarily due to the uncertainties involved in the production of useful cytolysin conjugates by relying solely on natural peptides with multiple labelling sites, most of which are critical for peptide function and, thus, not ideally placed for retaining high activity if modified. Furthermore, the degree of modulation in activity of these conjugates is often inadequate resulting in high background signals. Owing to these difficulties when using natural peptides, others have used conjugates with a larger cytolysin, namely phospholipase C, non-specifically labelled with analytes (J.Immunol. Methods 170 (1994) 225-231). Such conjugates had superior solubility and greater retention of activity after modification. However, only 75 to 85% activity was specifically inhibited in the presence of anti-serum, which is comparable to the level of inhibition normally used for measuring digoxin with melittin-oubain conjugates. A reliable assay should only permit the release of marker molecules upon external trigger and the background leakage should approach zero or at least remain constant over the assay period. To our knowledge neither of these conditions have been satisfactorily addressed by homogeneous liposomal assays, without changing to a heterogeneous assay configuration. Consequently, with such assays there is always a danger of the background signal progressively interfering with the analyte dependent signal. Some of the long term background problems arising from the use of liposome reagents per se can be overcome by the use time resolved fluorimetry, in which a larger molecular weight protein chelator conjugate is encapsulated in the liposomes, allowing fluorescent detection upon cytolysin mediated complexing with ions such as Eu3+(Anal. Biochem 238 (1996) 208-211). Even with these assays, the inherent problems of the non-specific lysis by uninhibited conjugates as well as optimising conjugates to produce adequate activity, remain. Consequently, such assays need to be performed under well-controlled laboratory conditions and at fixed times against the varying background signal.
Liposomes have been used more widely in drug delivery rather than in diagnostic applications and or as imaging agents, however, in all cases there has been little progress made with the use of liposomes, efforts being mainly devoted to developing different lipid formulations to try to achieve controlled and quantitative release of active agent or payload in response to a trigger.
For a reliable assay, the release of detectable marker molecules should only occur in response to an external trigger and any leakage of marker molecules should be minimal for example, approaching zero, or at least remain constant over the assay period. Consequently, in such assays there is always a danger of background signal or interference caused by the progressive release of marker molecules.
Our earlier patent application WO98/41535 (PCT/GB98/00799) describes peptides which can be efficiently cloaked and used to release a "payload" in a controlled manner. The peptides disclosed in that application were non-responsive to pH change particularly over a narrow range between pH 6.5 and 7.4. On the contrary, in most cases, lowering of the pH would result in the lowering of peptide activity. A number of pH sensitive peptides have been used to release payload from liposomes under acidic conditions (Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 38 (1999) 279-289). For these peptides the triggering range is, however, far from physiological pH, usually requiring pH values lower than 6 to release payload from liposomes.
GALA is one of the most efficient pH specific peptide. For this peptide Calcein release from liposomes has been demonstrated at values lower than 6. There are many other pH specific peptides, such as Influenza virus HA-2 N-terminal peptide, EALA, JTS1 and Rhinovirus VP-1 N-terminal peptide which have been shown to release liposome contents in low pH environments such as the endosome where the pH is reported to be well below 6 and typically 5. There are several pH sensitive peptides known in the literature to destabilize liposome membranes. However they are usually triggered at very low pH (5.5) and consequently have found little or no use in drug delivery, for example, to tissues or tumours where the pH difference between normal and diseased areas can be less than a one pH unit. Their major use thus remains endosome delivery.
The strategy of micro-environmental pH change in tissues to induce preferential release of drugs from liposomes requires peptides to respond over a narrow pH change, closer to the physiological range. To our knowledge there are no reported peptides which trigger release of payload from liposomes efficiently and close to physiological pH levels of 7.4 while their background biological activity remains low or zero at or close to pH 7.4.
A peptide named "helical erythrocyte lysing peptide" (HELP) (Protein Eng. (1992), 5, 321) is known to lyse red blood cells and has been shown to trigger release of haemoglobin below pH 6.5 only. This peptide is, however, specific to lysing cells and there are no reports showing lysing of liposomes. We have shown that liposomes could not be lysed in a pH specific manner using this peptide.
WO97/38010 relates to fusogenic liposomes and delivery systems for transporting-materials such as drugs, nucleic acids and proteins. These systems work by fusion of liposomes and at pH values lower than 6.


A system and method for automatically mapping LATs and candidate answers to multiple taxonomies without a need to merge these taxonomies. The method includes using a syntactic analysis of a corpus to extract all type instances of the LAT. The extracted instances are then mapped to a given taxonomy and clustered in a set of supertypes. Each supertype receives a score based on the coverage of LAT instances in the corpus. The method includes mapping the candidate answer to the same taxonomy to determine if the candidate answer is an instance of a significant supertype. Then the score of a candidate answer is obtained by aggregating or taking a maximum of the score of the matched significant supertypes. This score evaluates the type match between the LAT and candidate answer for a taxonomy. Multiple taxonomies can be used to increase the chance of LAT and candidate answer mapping.

The disclosure relates generally to question answering systems, and more particularly, relates to type evaluation for determining a valid answer to a question in a question answering system.
In general, question answering is a computer science discipline concerned with building systems that automatically answer natural language questions. One approach to determining a valid answer to a natural language question is type evaluation. An existing type evaluation solution requires mapping both a lexical answer type (LAT) for a question and the candidate answer to a structured taxonomy and checking for a path between them. This solution works properly when the LAT and the candidate answer exist in the same taxonomy. However, this is often not case for an open-domain natural language question answering system where a wide variety of words can be used to specify the LAT and candidate answer.
There is a need for an improved solution for type evaluation used in question answering systems.

Type evaluation in a question-answering system

International Business Machines Corporation


An encoding and decoding system includes: a characteristic determining unit which determines whether a sound signal is a speech signal or an audio signal; an encoder which encodes the sound signal into an encoded signal, based on a determination by the characteristic determining unit; a transmitting unit which transmits the encoded signal; a receiving unit which receives the encoded signal; a decoder which decodes the encoded signal; and a packet loss detecting unit which detects a loss of data of the encoded signal and transmits a notification indicating the loss of the data to the characteristic determining unit. Upon receiving the notification indicating the loss of the data, the characteristic determining unit causes the encoder to encode the sound signal portion into a signal portion composed of independently decodable frames.

Schemes and formats for encoding and decoding digital speech or audio signals (hereinafter also referred to as sound signals) have been conventionally known. Representatives are the High-Efficiency Advanced Audio coding (HE-AAC) (see Non-patent Literature 1) and the Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) format (see Non-patent Literature 2). Recently, the Unified Speech and Audio Coding (MPEG-USAC) (see Non-patent Literature 3, hereinafter referred to as USAC) has appeared which enables encoding of speech signals and audio signals with an increased efficiency.

Encoding and decoding system, decoding apparatus, encoding apparatus, encoding and decoding method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Setter plates are fabricated from Li-stuffed garnet materials having the same, or substantially similar, compositions as a garnet Li-stuffed solid electrolyte. The Li-stuffed garnet setter plates, set forth herein, reduce the evaporation of Li during a sintering treatment step and/or reduce the loss of Li caused by diffusion out of the sintering electrolyte. Li-stuffed garnet setter plates, set forth herein, maintain compositional control over the solid electrolyte during sintering when, upon heating, lithium is prone to diffuse out of the solid electrolyte.

Cleaner forms of storing energy are in great demand. Examples of clean energy storage include rechargeable lithium (Li) ion batteries (i.e., Li-secondary batteries), in which Li+ ions move from a negative electrode to a positive electrode during discharge. In numerous applications (e.g., portable electronics and transportation), it would be advantageous to use a solid state Li ion battery which includes solid state materials such as solid state electrolytes as opposed to one that includes liquid components, (e.g., flammable liquid electrolytes). Using entirely solid state components improves battery safety and energy density, the latter of which is due in part to reduced electrode and electrolyte volume and weight.
Components of a solid state battery include the electrolyte, which electrically isolates the positive and negative electrodes, a catholyte, which is intimately mixed with a positive electrode active material to improve the ionic conductivity therein. A third component, in some Li ion batteries, is an anolyte which is laminated to, or in contact with, an anode material (i.e., negative electrode material; e.g., Li-metal). Currently available electrolyte, catholyte, and anolyte materials, however, are not stable within, or otherwise suitable for use with, solid state battery operating voltage ranges or when in contact with certain cathode or anode active materials such as lithium metal anodes.
Garnet (e.g., Li-stuffed garnet) is a class of oxides that has the potential to be suitable for use as one or more of a catholyte, an electrolyte, and an anolyte in a solid state battery. However, garnet materials have yet to be prepared with the proper morphology (e.g., thin film or nanostructured powder which can be sintered into sufficiently dense films or pellets), with sufficient conductivity or particle connectivity to function in commercial applications. Certain garnet materials and processing techniques are known (e.g., See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,840,436; 8,658,317; 8,092,941; and 7,901,658; or U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2013/0085055; 2011/0281175; 2014/0093785; 2014/0134483; 2015/0099190; 2014/0060723; 2009/0197172; 2010/00119800 and 2014/0170504; International Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2010/0051345; 2010/096370 or also Bonderer, et al., Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 2010, 93(11):3624-3631; and Murugan, et al., Angew Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 7778-7781), but these materials and techniques suffer from a variety of deficiencies. The electrolyte films made by these techniques have insufficient Li+ ion conductivity and/or cycle life at high current density and/or low temperatures for use in commercial applications, and these techniques are not compatible with many battery components.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of making and processing solid electrolytes such as sintered lithium-stuffed garnet electrolytes.

Lithium stuffed garnet setter plates for solid electrolyte fabrication


A valve lifter assembly for deactivating a cylinder in an internal combustion engine. The valve lifter assembly is provided with a plunger movably disposed within a bore of a main body member to controllably isolate the cam lift from the rocker arm and valve of the engine. The plunger is normally locked in an extended position to transmit cam lift to reciprocatingly operate the valve. At least one locking pin is moveably disposed within the plunger to engage an inner annular groove of the main body member. Pressurized oil is provided to dislodge the locking pins from the annular groove and allow the plunger to move within the main body member, thereby isolating the cam lift from the rocker arm and valve. The deactivating lifter is preferably disposed within the recess conventionally provided for hydraulic valve lifters.

Selective deactivation of cylinders in multiple cylinder internal combustion engines is known in the art. For example, it is known in eight cylinder engines to selectively deactivate two or more cylinders during light load conditions. Such deactivation of cylinders can therefore increase fuel efficiency. Various devices are known in the art to deactivate valves for improving fuel efficiency during specific engine load conditions.
Older systems have proposed to deactivate cylinders by simply cutting off the supply of fuel to selective cylinders. However such systems suffer from the drawback that each deactivated cylinder continuously imports, compresses, and expels unignited air significantly reducing the efficiency of the engine. It was then suggested to selectively deactivate cylinders by deactivating the valve assembly to eliminate the continuous pumping by the deactivated cylinders. One such system proposed to cut off an entire bank of a six-cylinder engine and utilized an additional complicated mechanical device to hold open the exhaust valves to eliminate losses previously endured during the compression stroke. Other complicated mechanical valve drive solutions have also been suggested which heretofore have not provided a viable solution to cylinder deactivation.
It is also known to provide a roller hydraulic lifter valve between a cam and a rocker arm in a conventional cam in head driven valve assembly in an internal combustion engine. A hydraulic valve lifter is mounted to the head of the engine and disposed between the cam and the rocker arm. A source of pressurized oil is provided to the hydraulic lifter to provide zero lash adjustment and is conventional in the art. When the valve closes, oil flows into the tappet body to urge a lifter plunger to contact the valve train and take up any clearance. As the camshaft pushes on the lifter a check valve is closed to seal the oil inside the lifter. The lifter then acts as a solid unit. However, the prior art hydraulic lifters do not positively lock a plunger relative to the main body of the lifter and can not provide cylinder deactivation because there is no mechanism to free the plunger to absorb cam lift. Conventional, hydraulic valve lifters are provided for eliminating lash and can not provide deactivation.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple means to selectively deactivate valve operation of specific cylinders during certain engine load conditions. It is further desirable to provide a deactivation means which requires few changes to existing components and may be employed within the existing space occupied by conventional valve-train components.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Valve lifter assembly for selectively deactivating a cylinder


This disclosure provides a display apparatus which includes a substrate, first TFTs, scan lines and data lines connected to the first TFTs, and second TFTs for controlling inspection-use display signals; wherein each of the second TFTs includes: a first gate electrode disposed on the substrate; a first insulation layer disposed on the first gate electrode; an active unit disposed on the first insulation layer and having a source electrode electrically connected to one of the data lines, an active layer including an oxide semiconductor, and a drain electrode; a second insulation layer disposed on the active unit; and a second gate electrode disposed on the second insulation layer; wherein the first TFTs, the scan lines, and the data lines are disposed in a display area on the substrate, and the second TFTs are disposed in an area other than the display area on the substrate.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel includes two overlapping glass panels, i.e. a thin-film transistor (TFT) panel and a color filter (CF) panel. In the LCD manufacturing, after the TFT and CF panels are assembled to be a LCD panel or cell, a lighting fixture is used to inspect the basic functions of the display panel quickly and preliminarily. The lighting fixture may provide inspection-use TFTs with inspection-use signals to turn on all pixels in the display panel. The inspection-use TFTs are arranged in the edge area of the TFT panel, other than the active area in which pixel-use TFTs are arranged for image production. The inspection-use TFTs are used to control inspection-use display signals being properly provided to the pixels in the active area or display area, so that the lighting fixture can light up the LCD panel. If the LCD panel passes such a quick-inspection test, then it can be used to fabricate a LCD module. After the quick-inspection test, the gate terminals of the inspection-use TFTs have to be connected together to a DC voltage of negative value, so that the inspection-use TFTs can be disabled or turned off compulsively to avoid the electrical connections among the data lines, which may cause image failures of the display panel.
The threshold voltage Vth of a field-effect transistor is the value of the gate-source voltage when the conducting channel just begins to connect the source and drain terminals of the transistor, allowing a significantly increasing current. However, variances in the threshold voltage Vth of the TFTs may be induced by aging or during their manufacturing process. The threshold voltage Vth may get smaller and smaller to be unable to turn off the TFTs at the originally specified Vth value, causing the LCD panel to work abnormally. Therefore, it is in need to develop a new display panel to improve the reliability of the inspection-use TFTs.


A prosthetic replacement knee joint includes a tibial component, a femoral component, a bearing and a control arm. The tibial component has a superior bearing surface and a conical recess extending into the superior bearing surface. The bearing has an inferior surface slidably engaged with the superior surface of the tibial component and formed with a dovetailed groove therein. The bearing also has a concave superior surface. A notch extends into the posterior extreme of the bearing. The femoral component has a pair of convex arcuate condyles in articular bearing engagement with the superior surface of the bearing. The femoral component also includes a posterior notch having a minor medial-lateral width at the inferior surface of the femoral component and a major width at more superior locations on the femoral component. The control arm has a conical bearing rotatable positioned in the conical recess of the tibial component. The control arm further has a dovetail guide slidably engaged in the dovetail groove of the bearing. A post projects through the notch in the bearing and into the notch of the femoral component. The post has medial and lateral projections that engage portions of the notch in the femoral component that define the major width thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a knee joint prosthesis, and particularly a posterior stabilized replacement knee joint prosthesis.
2. Description of the Related Art
A natural knee joint includes the distal end of the femur with articular cartilage, the proximal end of the tibia with articular cartilage and a meniscus between the femur and tibia. The femur and the tibia are held in a proper relationship to the bearing by ligaments. These stabilizing ligaments include the posterior cruciate ligament, the anterior cruciate ligament and collateral ligaments.
Flexion of the knee causes the tibia to rotate relative to the femur about an axis that extends generally in a medial-to-lateral direction and simultaneously causes the contact area of the femur to roll back relative to the tibia. Flexion also generates rotation of the tibia about its own axis. The amount of rotation of the tibia during flexion of the knee is controlled and limited by the ligaments.
The natural knee joint can become damaged or diseased. For example, damage or disease to the knee can deteriorate the articular surfaces of the femur or tibia and can damage the articular cartilage between the bones. The prior art includes prosthetic knee joints to replace a damaged or diseased natural knee. A prosthetic knee joint typically includes a femoral component that is mounted to the distal end of a resected femur, a tibial component mounted to the proximal end of a resected tibia and a bearing between the femoral and tibial components. The inferior face of the femoral component of a prosthetic knee joint typically defines a pair of arcuate convex condyles. The superior face of the bearing has a corresponding pair of arcuately concave regions for articular bearing engagement with the condyles of the femoral component. The superior face of the tibial component may be substantially planar and is disposed in engagement with the inferior face of the bearing.
Prior art prosthetic knee joints have taken many different forms, depending upon the preferences of the orthopedic surgeon, the condition of the natural knee and the health, age and mobility of the patient. Some prior art knee joint prostheses fixedly secure the inferior surface of the bearing to the superior surface of the tibial component. Other prior art knee joint prostheses permit rotational movement between the bearing and the tibial component. Still other prior art knee joint prosthesis permit a controlled amount of anterior-posterior sliding movement between the bearing and a tibial component. Movement of the bearing relative to the tibial component achieves many functional advantages, as described in the prior art. Prior art knee joint prostheses that incorporate certain of the structural and functional features referred to above are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,470,158 and 4,309,778.
As noted above, the inferior bearing surface of the femoral component on most prosthetic knee joints comprises a pair of convexly arcuately condyles. The condyles of the femoral component are in articular bearing engagement with arcuately concave regions on the superior face of the bearing. Thus, the superior face of the bearing typically includes a pair of dished regions each of which has a relatively depressed center portion and a relatively elevated peripheral lip. As explained above, flexion of the knee joint causes the tibia to rotate about a medial-lateral axis relative to the femur. Flexion also causes the tibia to rotate around its own axis. These combined movements may cause the condyles of the femur to ride up or climb the concavities on the superior surface of such a bearing and to approach the peripheral lips of the bearing unless the bearing moves with the femur. Thus, flexion tends to move the relative components of the prosthetic knee toward dislocation. The degree to which dislocation is possible depends on several factors, most significantly, the presence or absence of ligaments and the mobility and configuration of the bearing. The likelihood of dislocation also depends upon the degree of flexion and on the degree of congruency between the inferior articular bearing surface of the femoral component and the superior surface of the bearing. For example, climbing of the femoral component on the bearing is not a significant problem even in fixed bearing knees that have a substantially flat superior surface on the bearing. However, the relatively great incongruency between the inferior bearing surface of the femoral component and the superior surface of the bearing on these prosthetic knees results in a very high contact stress that can damage the bearing. Fixed bearing prosthetic knees that have greater congruency between the femoral component and the bearing provide desirably low contact stress. However, the greater congruency creates the problem of the femoral component climbing on the bearing during flexion or rotation, and hence creates the potential of dislocation.
Valgus-varus stability of a knee joint refers to the ability of the joint to resist the lateral forces or rotary forces that would cause rotation of the tibia relative to the femur in the frontal plane. Lateral forces or rotary movements that cause rotation of the tibia relative to the femur in the frontal plane tend to create a dislocation. Such dislocation is particularly likely to occur on either the medial or lateral side of the prosthesis, depending upon the direction of the lateral forces. Such a dislocation in a prior art prosthesis is shown in FIG. 18 hereto.
The prosthetic knee joint is under a compressive loading during normal activities. As a result, valgus-varus moments typically are resisted adequately by the articulating surfaces of the prosthetic components and by the ligaments. However, there are instances where additional valgus-varus stability may be desired, such as those instances where ligaments are deficient.
Some prior art prosthetic knee joints enhance valgus-varus stability by providing a stabilization post that extends into a posterior region between the femoral condyles. This region would be occupied by the posterior cruciate ligament if that ligament were present. Climbing of the femoral component on the bearing also is a particular problem for prosthetic knee joints that employ a posterior stabilization post. In particular, the climbing of the femoral component on the bearing substantially increases shear forces on the post and can lead to traumatic failure of the prosthesis.
Prosthetic knee joints that permit anterior-posterior sliding movement of the bearing on the tibial component provide superior roll back. In this regard, the term xe2x80x9croll backxe2x80x9d refers to a posterior movement of the contact point of the femur relative to the tibia during flexion. Roll back is a potentially desirable feature of a prosthetic knee, as explained below. However, roll back, in prior art prostheses often has caused the femoral component to climb on the bearing, and thus has increased the probability of dislocation.
A prosthetic bearing that can slide posteriorly during flexion reduces impingement between the bearing and anterior soft tissue of the knee. Thus, a prosthetic knee joint with a bearing capable of anterior-posterior sliding movement can reduce discomfort during deep flexion.
A prior art prosthetic knee joint with a stabilizing post and a bearing capable of anterior-posterior sliding movement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 which issued to Bahler. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 shows a prosthetic knee having a tibial component and a bearing slidably disposed on the superior face of the tibial component. The inferior surface of the bearing is provided with a dovetailed groove that extends along an anterior-posterior direction at a location between the two concave condyles formed on the superior surface of the bearing. The bearing shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 also includes a notch extending into the posterior portion of the bearing at a location between the two concave condyles of the bearing. The notch registers with the dovetailed groove of the bearing. The prosthesis of U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 further includes a control arm formed from a metal alloy and having a pin that is pivotally engaged in a recess formed on the tibial component. The control arm includes a dovetailed portion that slidably engages in the dovetailed groove on the inferior surface of the bearing. The control arm shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 also has a stabilizing projection that extends through the notch in the bearing and between the condyles of the femoral component. The post is dimensioned for insertion into a box-like structure formed in the femoral component between the two convex condyles of the femoral component. The box-like structure has side walls that engage the stabilizing projection. This would appear to require metal-to-metal sliding contact, which is undesirable. Other embodiments of U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 show lateral walls of the bearing that extend into the box-like structure and that lie between the stabilizing projection and the side walls of the box-like structure in the femoral component. This would avoid metal-to-metal sliding contact, but would require a very complex bearing. Nothing in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,401 would prevent dislocation of the femur from the bearing.
The prior art includes other prosthetic components that have posterior stabilizing posts that extend unitarily from the bearing and into the space between the femoral condyles. Prior art prosthetic joints of this type are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,658,342; 5,489,311; 5,330,534; 4,950,298; 4,888,021; 4,634,444 and 4,568,348. All of these prior art prostheses are used for joint replacements where the posterior cruciate ligament cannot be retained or is deficient. Additionally, most of these prior art prosthetic components are for use when both collateral ligaments can be retained.
Despite the various attributes of the prior art prosthetic components, it is desired to provide a prosthetic knee joint that provides superior dislocation resistance than other non-hinged prosthetic knee joints.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a prosthetic knee joint that avoids any significantly likelihood of dislocation while simultaneously permitting anterior-posterior sliding movement of the bearing relative to the tibial component.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a prosthetic knee joint with enhanced dislocation resistance and superior roll back.
Still another object of the subject invention is to provide a prosthetic knee joint that provides enhanced dislocation resistance and reduced shear on a posterior stabilization post.
A posterior stabilized prosthetic device is provided. The prosthetic device includes a femoral component for mounting to the distal end of a resected femur, a tibial component for mounting to the proximal end of a resected tibia, a bearing disposed between the femoral component and the tibial component and a control arm assembly mounted between at least portions of the bearing and the tibial component.
The bearing of the subject prosthetic joint includes a superior surface having a pair of concave condyles configured for articular bearing engagement with the femoral component as explained further below. The bearing further includes an inferior surface configured for sliding bearing engagement with the superior surface of the tibial component. The inferior surface of the bearing is further characterized by a dovetail grove extending in an anterior-posterior direction. The posterior extreme of the bearing includes a notch or slot centrally disposed between medial and lateral extremes of the bearing and extending continuously from the superior surface to the inferior surface. The notch is substantially aligned with the dovetail groove in the inferior surface of the bearing.
The control arm assembly includes a conical bearing configured for rotary bearing engagement in a conical recess formed in the tibial component. The control arm further includes a dovetailed guide at the superior large diameter end of the conical bearing. The dovetailed guide is dimensioned for sliding movement in the dovetail groove of the bearing and includes opposed anterior and posterior ends that may be spaced from the conical bearing. A post projects superiorly from the posterior end of the dovetailed guide. The post defines a medial-lateral width that permits slidable engagement of the post in the notch of the bearing. Portions of the post spaced from the dovetailed guide include medial and lateral projections. The projections preferably have arcuately convex inferior cam surfaces. The control arm may be formed from a plurality of separate components and from a plurality of different materials. For example, superior portions of the post that have the medial and lateral projections may be formed from plastic. This plastic superior portion of the post may be joined non-rotatably to the remainder of the control arm by a separate metallic support pin that extends upwardly from the dovetailed guide through inferior portions of the post and into the superior portion of the post that has the projections formed thereon. The dovetailed guide preferably is formed from metal and conical bearing preferably has at least outer surfaces formed from plastic. This multi-part construction avoids metal-to-metal or plastic-to-plastic wear.
The femoral component has a superior surface configured for secure mounting to the resected inferior end of the femur. The femoral component further includes an inferior surface defined by a pair of arcuately convex condyles configured for articular bearing engagement with the superior surface of the bearing. A notch or cavity extends into the posterior end of the femoral component. A pair of parallel walls on the femoral component define a width for the notch that is substantially equal to the width of the post of the control arm at portions of the post having the projections thereon. The notch is further characterized by a pair of flanges extending toward one another adjacent the inferior surface of the femoral component. The flanges include a pair of opposed parallel edges that are spaced from one another by a distance slightly greater than the width of the post of the control arm at locations below the projections on the post. The flanges further have concave superior cam that engage the inferior cam surfaces of the post during at least certain ranges of flexion.
The prosthetic device of the subject invention enables the bearing to translate posteriorly in response to flexion and also allows axial rotation of the bearing relative to the tibial component. Additionally, superior portions of the post of the control arm are effectively trapped in the notch or cavity of the femoral component. Consequently, the femoral component cannot be dislocated from the bearing. Still further, the post provides valgus-varus stability that is not present in many prior art knee joint prostheses. Such stability is useful where one or both of the collateral ligaments are compromised.
The posterior translation of the bearing in response to flexion is advantageous since rollback of the femur on the tibia can be accomplished without the femoral component climbing up the posterior articulating surface of the bearing. Such xe2x80x9cclimbxe2x80x9d, which would occur with roll back in the prior art prosthetic component, produces additional shearing forces on the post. Climb also increases the compression force on the bearing. However, these problems are avoided with the prosthetic device of the subject invention.

Posterior stabilized prosthetic knee replacement with bearing translation and dislocation prevention features


A thin film semiconductor device which includes an insulating substrate, a semiconductor polycrystal thin film formed over the substrate and a transistor with the thin film as a channel. The polycrystal includes a plurality of crystal grains, with grain boundaries between the crystal grains being recessed. The grain boundaries with the recessed surfaces are the most predominant of all grain boundaries within the channel. With this structure, the polycrystal can be a low temperature polycrystal that can be formed at a temperature of 150° C. or less, thereby achieving a low-cost device with high carrier mobility.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film semiconductor device used for an image display device or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a thin film where conventional thin film semiconductor devices, which are thin film transistors (TFTs) chiefly used for the image display device or the like, are formed, high temperature poly-Si has been predominantly employed. The high temperature poly-Si is constituted by polycrystalline silicon (Si) formed on a quartz substrate by high temperature heat treatment at a temperature of about 900° C. The polycrystalline Si having a comparatively large grain diameter of 500-600 nm is thereby formed. The TFTs formed on the high temperature poly-Si use a Si thin film with a low grain boundary density and high crystallinity as channels. Thus, it can attain an electron mobility of 100 to 150 cm2/Vs, which is near the electron mobility of single-crystal Si (−500 cm2/Vs, S. M. Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices, p. 29, Second Edition, Wiley). However, in order to endure a high temperature process, there is a need to employ an expensive quartz substrate for this high temperature poly-Si. For this reason, a cost reduction in the overall device is difficult due to a cost of the substrate. The widespread use of TFTs has been thereby limited.
In recent years, in place of the high temperature poly-Si, use of low temperature poly-Si has been increasingly studied. The low temperature poly-Si is polycrystalline Si obtained by crystallizing amorphous Si formed on a low-cost glass or plastic substrate by a plasma CVD method, using a melting and recrystallizing method such as excimer laser annealing. With this approach, a polycrystalline Si thin film can be formed at a low temperature up to 150° C. Thus, a very cheap TFT can be formed. The low temperature poly-Si hitherto formed, however, had a grain size smaller than the high temperature poly-Si, and its surface roughness became noticeable. Further, only the polycrystalline Si with random surface orientations could be formed. When crystal grains are small, the density of grain boundaries in a carrier path increases. On the other hand, when the surface roughness is large, a breakdown voltage with respect to a gate voltage decreases. Further, when the surface orientations are random, trap level density of a grain boundary relatively increases. In either case, transistor characteristics are deteriorated. For this reason, the electron effect mobility of TFTs manufactured, using the conventional low temperature poly-Si as a material for the devices, was limited to approximately 150 cm2/Vs. With such a small electron mobility, a required device speed cannot be achieved. Thus, a problem arises that the types of devices that can be formed on the identical glass or plastic substrate are limited. In the case of an image display device, for example, a pixel unit can be formed on glass or plastic, but other circuits such as for a source driver, a gate driver, a decoder, a buffer, a shift register, a digital-to-analog converter, and a peripheral controller must be formed on a conventional printed circuit board. Then, the peripheral circuit unit and the substrate must be connected by a cable terminal for use. With this method, the size of a screen is reduced. In addition, the cost of the overall device increases.
In order to solve these problems, a technique for increasing the diameter of a crystal grain, planarizing a surface of the film, and aligning positions of crystal grains and their surface orientations is required. There have been proposed various techniques for increasing the crystal grain diameter, planarizing the film surface, and controlling the crystal grain positions and their surface orientations of the low temperature poly-Si. One such technique is disclosed in JP-A-7-321339. In this technique, a metal element for selectively promoting crystallization is introduced into an amorphous Si film formed on an insulating substrate to bring about growth of crystals in parallel with the substrate, thereby forming polycrystalline Si having a [111] axis in a carrier moving direction. Another technique is disclosed in JP-A-10-41234. In this technique, the shape of a beam for heat treatment and the moving amount of irradiation are precisely controlled, thereby forming rectangular polycrystalline Si having a <100> axis in a direction perpendicular to the substrate and a {220} surface in parallel with or at a 45 degrees with respect to a beam scanning direction. Another such technique is disclosed in JP-A-8-55808. In this technique, a first polycrystalline Si layer is formed on the substrate and seed crystals having one of specific surfaces {100}, {110}, and {111} are formed by anisotropic etching. Then, a second polycrystalline Si layer is formed thereon, thereby forming a layer of columnar polycrystalline Si having aligned surface orientations. However, in spite of these numerous attempts, a TFT with a sufficiently high mobility has thus far not been achieved.
The above-mentioned crystallization methods cannot be said to adequately fulfill the above desired requirements. For example, in these prior techniques, the maximum attainable grain diameter was about 2 μm, which is an inadequate value. This is less than about 8 μm, which is the practical size of a thin film transistor required for a large-screen liquid crystal display panel, much less for enabling reduction in device variations due to positional deviation of crystal grains. The more important problem is roughness of a Si thin film surface. In the crystallization method using a laser, especially an excimer laser, due to volume expansion during a melting and solidifying process of silicon, crystal grains collide with each other to lift up grain boundaries, thereby forming projections of the grain boundaries. In the case of annealing using the excimer laser, these projections are actually so high that they correspond to the film thickness of the original Si thin film. They sometimes extend to even 50 to 100 nm. If these projections are formed, the breakdown voltage with respect to the gate voltage is remarkably reduced, so that a gate leakage current is readily produced. For this reason, under present circumstances, though the mobility is expected to be traded off, the thickness of the gate insulation film is increased, as a measure against this reduction in the breakdown voltage. These techniques have not reached a level to replace an existing low-function thin film transistor device. Further, optimum lattice structures or optimum crystal surface orientations of Si crystals in contact with the substrate are not realizable from these techniques, which are also a cause of the above-mentioned problems, and which lead to an intrinsic limit as determined by deformation of an interface between the silicon crystals and the substrate, irrespective of methods for film formation and heat treatment.


A test pattern generator includes a random pattern generator and a shift register. The random pattern generator generates a series of digits which are input to the shift register and stored therein. Each digit output by the random pattern generator has a probability of having a first value, such as representing "1". The output probability of the random pattern generator is adjustable. The shift register has a plurality of outputs for outputting a test pattern comprising the stored digits. The shift register includes a series of latches and at least a first logic circuit connecting the output of the random pattern generator to the input of a first latch, or connecting the output of a latch to the input of a next adjacent latch. In a first state, the logic circuit has an output probability which is independent of the output probability of the random pattern generator. In a second state, the logic circuit has an output probability which is dependent on the output probability of the random pattern generator.

The invention relates to test pattern generators for logic circuits.
Logic circuits for data processing and other apparatus typically consist of a network of interconnected logic gates, such as "AND" gates, "OR" gates, "NAND" gates, "NOR" gates, "NOT" gates, "XOR" gates, and so on. The network of gates has a number of inputs for receiving digits, and has a number of outputs for outputting digits. The logic circuit is designed such that for each input digit pattern, of a set of one or more input digit patterns, provided at the inputs of the network, a corresponding predetermined output digit pattern is produced at the outputs of the network.
If there is a fault or defect in the logic circuit, then for one or more input digit patterns provided at the inputs of the network, the observed output digit patterns produced at the outputs of the network will differ from the expected predetermined output digit patterns.
One way to test for faults in a logic circuit is to apply each possible input digit pattern at the inputs of the logic network, and to compare the actual output digit pattern with the expected output digit pattern. For small numbers of possible input digit patterns, the cost of storing the expected output digit patterns and performing this deterministic testing is reasonable. However, for large numbers of possible input digit patterns, the cost of such deterministic testing is too high.
An alternative method of testing for faults in a logic circuit is to apply random input digit test patterns at the inputs of the logic network, and to compare the actual output digit patterns with the expected output digit patterns. The number of random test patterns needed to achieve a selected level of confidence that a logic circuit contains no faults depends on the set of input digit patterns for which the logic circuit is designed.
Therefore, another alternative method of testing for faults in a logic circuit is to apply one or more weighted random input digit test patterns at the inputs of a logic network, and to compare the actual output digit patterns with the expected output digit patterns. In a weighted random input digit test pattern, there is at least one digit for which the probability of occurrence of one value is different from 1/N, where N is the number of different possible values of the digit. For example, for a binary digit having one of N=2 values (either "1" or "0"), in a weighted random input digit test pattern the probability of occurrence of "1" is P(1)=W(1/2), and the probability of occurrence of "0" is P(0)=1-W(1/2), where the weight W is any positive number other than one.
The weights W may be uniform across all digits in the test pattern, or the weights may be nonuniform. The weighted random test patterns are selected to achieve, efficiently and at low cost, a desired level of confidence that the logic circuit contains no faults. Weighted random testing can significantly decrease the number of test patterns which must be applied to a logic circuit to obtain the same test effectiveness as an unweighted random test.

Adjustable weighted random test pattern generator for logic circuits

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention herein disclosed is, in one embodiment, directed to a stringed musical instrument (e.g., a zither) that comprises a body; a plurality of laterally spaced apart tensioned strings connected to said body; axially spaced apart string supports below the strings, said strings contacting the string supports and having span regions spanning between the string supports; and a presser for each string, each presser in contact with the span region of its string, and each presser being movable laterally to displace the span region of its string and increase the tension in its string, and being movable laterally away from the span region of its string for releasing its string and lessening the tension in its string.

As is appreciated by those skilled in the art, a "zither" is a specialized type of corded or stringed musical instrument. More specifically, zithers include any one of several stringed musical instruments that consist of a flat, shallow resonator box (sets horizontally before the performer when in use) overlaid with a multiplicity (e.g., 20 to 40) of strings. The strings nearest the performer when in use run above a fretted fingerboard against which they are stopped by the left hand to provide melody notes; they are plucked by a plectrum worn on the right thumb. At the same time, the right hand fingers pluck an accompaniment on the farther strings, which remain unstopped. The zither is generally placed across the performer's knees or on a table and is capable of playing notes arranged in a series of octaves.
An "autoharp" is generally considered to be a specialized type of zither on which a simple harmony may be obtained by button-controlled dampers (operating in sets) that when depressed leave free the strings of the desired chord. U.S. Pat. No. 257,808 to Zimmerman discloses the original autoharp. More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 257,808 teaches a musical instrument having a multiplicity of strings arranged in a number of octaves over a resonating box, wherein a series of chord bars are provided together with a series of dampening pads which engage selected strings when the chord bar is depressed. Thus, only certain of the strings are free to vibrate or give sound when strummed or picked. Further, the dampening is generally selected such that when a particular chord bar is depressed only those selected strings which constitute the notes in that chord are free to vibrate.
In general, zithers are tuned by adjusting the tension of one or more of the strings by use of "tuning pins" attached at one end of the resonator box and to each of the strings. In this regard, the tension of each string may be adjusted by simply turning (tightening or loosening) the tuning pin attached to each string. In this way, each string may be appropriately tensioned so as to vibrate, when strummed or plucked, at a desired and user selected frequency. A problem with tuning pins, however, is that they are often difficult to precisely turn, meaning that it is often difficult to precisely adjust the tension of each string. Put simply, the turning of tuning pins is a somewhat inexact method and practice of tuning a zither or other like musical instrument because the tension of each string is not precisely controlled.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for new and improved devices and methods for tuning of stringed musical instruments, especially with respect to the fine tuning of zithers or other like musical instruments. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides for further related advantages.

Fine tuning device adapted for use with stringed musical instruments such as zithers


A circuit arrangement may include: a first bipolar transistor; a second bipolar transistor; wherein the circuit arrangement is configured to provide a first current flowing through the first bipolar transistor and a second current flowing through the second bipolar transistor; a resistor connected between a first input of the first bipolar transistor and a first input of the second bipolar transistor; a first circuit configured to provide a first current flowing through the resistor to a first input node of the first bipolar transistor, and a second circuit configured to provide a reference current to the first input node of the first bipolar transistor, wherein the first current and the reference current have different temperature dependencies.

A conventional approach for a temperature measurement uses a voltage which increases linearly with temperature. This so-called PTAT (proportional-to-absolute-temperature) voltage is typically generated from the difference of two base-emitter voltages of PNP bipolar transistors, which are biased with different current densities (e.g. ratio 1:N).
An actual temperature value can be extracted by comparing the ptat voltage (="dVbe") to a temperature independent reference (e.g. a bandgap). In practice, this is achieved by measuring the ptat voltage (or a multiple of it) directly with an analog-to-digital-converter (ADC), which in turn includes (or is controlled by) such reference.
In general, a temperature measurement with a higher accuracy is desired.