A process for preparing polyvinylbutyral sheet having a desired uniform adhesivity comprising preparing a blend of polyvinylbutyral and a compatible quantity of a at least one plasticizer and an adhesion control agent, and extruding the blend to form a sheet, the improvement comprising monitoring the acidity of the sheet and adding water to the blend as an agent for controlling the adhesivity of said sheet.

This invention relates to a process of manufacture of polyvinylbutyral (PVB) sheeting having a desired uniform adhesivity for use in laminated safety glass. More particularly, it relates to a process for monitoring the properties and controlling the uniformity of PVB sheeting, in particular the acidity of the sheet and adding water to control the resultant adhesivity of the sheet to glass.
The most widely used vehicle windshield is a three-ply laminate comprising an energy absorbing plastic sheet sandwiched between two glass sheets. Such windshields are capable of absorbing a blow from the head of an occupant with resistance to penetration and shattering. In so doing, the windshields dissipate a substantial amount of impact energy as they undergo plastic deformation.
Polyvinylbutyral resins are capable of being cast or preferably extruded by processes analogous to those used to compound and extrude thermoplastics. Although it is possible to form a plastic sheet directly from polyvinylbutyral resins, the glass transition temperature of approximately 70.degree. C. for PVB resin is too high for laminated glass application. Plasticizer is mixed with PVB resin to lower the glass transition temperature to near 25.degree. C. In the process to form the sheeting film from its molten state, temperatures must be high enough to obtain processable film forming melt viscosities and intimate mixing of the PVB resin and plasticizer.
Plasticizer is typically a large fraction of the final sheet composition. In PVB sheeting, for example, plasticizers contribute 15% to 50% of the film weight, typically 25% to 30%. Choice of plasticizer is limited to materials that are low in volatility, chemically stable under processing conditions, and compatible with the particular acetal resin selected. Diester plasticizers having from 16 to 28 carbon atoms are preferred, and plasticizers based on difunctional acids as well as glycols are also used. Commercially available plasticizers and their compatibility with polyvinylbutyral resin are listed in Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1994-95, Vol. 71, No. 12, pp. C-99 to C-109. Examples of suitable plasticizers include esters of aliphatic diols with aliphatic carboxylic acids, in particular the esters of di-, tri- and tetraethylene glycol with aliphatic carboxylic acids having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, e.g., triethylene glycol di-(2-ethyl-butyrate), triethylene glycol di-n-heptanoate, or tetraethylene glycol di-n-heptanoate. Also suitable are esters or mixed esters of dicarboxylic acids, preferably adipic, sebasic or phthalic acid with aliphatic alcohols or mixed alcohols. For example, di-n-hexyl adipate, 2-ethylhexyl cyclohexyl adipate, dibutyl phthalate, butyl benzyl phthalate, or hexylphthalate. Also, polymeric propylene oxide oligomers, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,036, can be used as polyvinylbutyral plasticizers.
Plasticizers are hydrolyzable to various degrees during manufacturing processes for PVB sheeting. Ester-based plasticizers react with water to break down into alcohols and acids. The adhesivity of PVB sheeting is directly proportional to its acidity. In order to be suitable for use in glazing applications, including automobile windshields and architectural glass, PVB sheeting requires controlled, uniform adhesivity. Heretofore, the acidity has been controlled by the use of additives of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,372.

Process for preparing polyvinylbutyral sheet


A security system is provided that integrates physical and logical security controls for the protection of secured resources. The resources may include physical locations and/or computing resources such as databases containing personal information. In some embodiments, information is stored in separate, codependent databases such that by isolating the components of the databases from each other, a successful attack on one component is not sufficient to enable the access of content of the other components. In some embodiments, biometric information is automatically obtained as users approach an access location, and is ready for expedited verification of identity upon request by the user.

Security technology has advanced greatly since the days when showing a tin security badge to a security guard who could reasonably be expected to notice intruders was considered adequate, but in one very important way, things haven't changed all that much. Access security still largely relies on the fact that authorized persons will always follow the rules. In fact, the design of most new security systems and programs are based on the assumption that authorized persons will follow the rules. Because security guards are no longer posted at every security-sensitive location, technological tools are relied on to provide the levels of security required in today's environment, but in general, the effectiveness of the typical access control system in use today is directly linked to the users' level of willingness to adhere to the rules.
If users are willing to never share their security badge, codes, and/or passwords, never open an access controlled door and let a stranger come in behind them, question all unknown persons they encounter in the secured area, and immediately report violations to the security team, then the system will function perfectly. In reality, users do bend or break the rules for whatever reason and when that happens, it exposes the weakest link in the system, the very people the system was designed to protect in the first place: the users themselves.
Most commercial building owners/managers deploy some sort electronic security system to control access into their buildings. These systems rely on various types of technologies to authenticate the access. RFID devices, such as electronic key cards, are the most common type technology used in the physical access control industry today, but other types of devices are also used. In some typical RFID system deployments, this code is also stored in a central database and when the card is electronically scanned at a security portal (door, turnstile, gate, computing device, etc.), the code in the card is automatically compared to the code in the database and if they match up, the system "authenticates" the card and allows the access to proceed. In other embodiments, the encrypted security certificate stored by the badge may be cryptographically verified after being electronically scanned. The weakness with this design is that although it can authenticate the badge, it can't verify if the person using the badge is actually the person to whom the badge was issued.
To overcome this inherent weakness, electronic security device manufacturers have tried to deploy RFID systems with a second layer of controls (commonly known as dual authentication) such as requiring the person presenting the card to enter a PIN along with presenting the card for authentication. However, this type of system still cannot authenticate if the person presenting the card and inputting the PIN is in fact the person who really did have permission to access the area or just someone who somehow obtained both the card and the PIN.
In other schemes, the second layer of the dual authentication system might include the use of facial recognition systems or other types of biometric readers and sensors. In these cases, the existing systems can only authenticate one person at a time and typically the person requesting access has to physically interact with the system to initiate the authentication sequence by either scanning their security badge or by entering a PIN before the authentication sequence begins. The biometric authentication and physical interaction with the system are time-consuming processes, which limits their effective use to locations where very few people have access with any regularity, such as research labs, datacenters and secure rooms. Because of their low throughput rates (the time it takes to process a given number of people through a control point) these systems have proven unworkable in areas where large numbers of users have to be vetted for general building access, such as in lobbies or stairwells.
In addition to the slow speed of these systems, they share the inherent weakness of not being able to actually verify if the person presenting the security badge for authentication was the same person who accessed the security portal. For example, an authorized person may unlock the door and then allow an unauthorized person to enter either instead of themselves or in their company. This weakness can be mitigated to some extent through the use of a third layer of control deployed inside the portal, by either holding the person in the security portal itself (commonly referred to as a "man-trap") until the authentication process is complete or by detecting how many "bodies" come through the portal (commonly referred to as tailgate detection). However, existing tailgate detection technologies don't identify individuals, but instead count heat signatures using infrared technologies to count bodies passing through the portal. The most effective existing way to mitigate tailgating would be to hire guards and have them posted them at every entrance, but this is both the most expensive and the most intrusive solution. A solution that employs technology to replace the security guards while retaining the effectiveness of the security guards is desired.
Even if all three layers of controls (the two layers of dual authentication plus tailgate detection) are in place, the span of control of these systems are limited to the edge of the security area (typically, you will only see security controls such as guards, turnstiles, checkpoints and access controlled doors in the lobbies or other public access points) and they cannot detect if someone has gained unauthorized access in to the area from somewhere other than through a security control point. Also, physical control devices such as turnstiles, electronic door locks, and the like are not useful for protecting many resources for which security is sought today. Further, databases, digital financial transactions, and networks may be accessible from locations that are not all within the same physical area, or from an area in which it may not be feasible to physically control access (such as a retail store, a bank, and/or the like).
What is needed is a system for protecting secured resources that no longer relies on users to do the right thing to maintain security, is fully automated with the ability to perform multi-factor authentication at a rapid pace, detect tailgaters, reduce false alarms, and be user friendly.

Methods and systems configured to detect and guarantee identity for the purpose of data protection and access control


A method of making an article having a substrate and two materials applied thereto includes providing a metered fluid dispensing system having first and second supply sources for supplying first and second fluids, respectively, an output device having at least one dispensing nozzle, and at least two pumps for pumping the first and second fluids from their respective supply sources to the at least one dispensing nozzle, the pumps being in close proximity to the dispensing nozzle. The dispensing system is configured to selectively control the passage of the first and second fluids from each one of the at least two pumps to the at least one dispensing nozzle. The substrate is conveyed past the fluid dispensing system in a machine direction and the first, or second, or first and second fluids are applied to the substrate in a plurality of segments, each segment having a volume per unit length and applied in a length in the machine direction to define a pattern, and in which wherein the pattern includes at least some areas in which the first or second fluid is present without the other fluid.

In some conventional liquid metering systems, such as, for example, those outputting, discharging, or dispensing hot melt adhesives or other thermoplastic materials, it is usually the practice to output or discharge a predetermined hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material by pumping such materials through a pump manifold, by means of, for example, a plurality of suitable metering pumps, to one or more outlets with which suitable output devices or applicators are operatively and fluidically connected so as to deposit the particular material onto a suitable substrate in accordance with any one of several predetermined patterns. Such conventional metering systems normally comprise a motor to drive the pumps at variable rates of speed in order to achieve the desired output volumes from the pumps in order to in fact achieve the desired depositions of the materials onto the substrates. Accordingly, the speed of the motor drive, and the resulting drive of the metering pumps, can be altered depending upon, for example, the speed of the substrate as the same passes by the output devices or applicator. Depending upon the structure or configuration of the particular substrate or product onto which the hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material is being deposited, it is desirable to be able to apply, output, or deposit more than one type of adhesive or thermoplastic material simultaneously onto a single substrate, that is, the system must be readily capable of processing multiple types of adhesives, or other thermoplastic materials. While some systems can achieve the dispensing of multiple adhesives or other thermoplastic materials by supplying these adhesives or other thermoplastic materials to multiple applicators, or where the hot melt adhesives or other thermoplastic materials are being supplied by separate metering pumps into a common applicator manifold, the pressurization and spatial limitations of such systems have effectively prevented such systems from commercially achieving such outputted, discharged, or dispensed volumes of the hot melt adhesives or other thermoplastic materials as required or desired in a viable manner. For example, in order to supply the multiple types of hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic materials to the adhesive manifold, multiple supply hoses must effectively be connected to the adhesive manifold for each separate, independent, or different hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material applicator which is in fact being supplied with the particular hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material, to be dispensed, from the adhesive manifold. Such a system becomes excessively bulky, burdensome, and complex.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material metering system which is readily capable of metering, for example, two separate, independent, and different hot melt adhesives other thermoplastic materials from a single hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material manifold to a common output device or applicator such that the required application or deposition of, for example, the two separate, independent, and different hot melt adhesives or other thermoplastic materials onto a substrate or product can be achieved at predetermined times or locations, and in accordance with predeterminedly desired or required patterns, during a product processing run or operation.

Metering system for simultaneously dispensing two different adhesives from a single metering device or applicator onto a common substrate


The invention concerns an electrical circuit for limiting the switching-on current through a load during a switching-on process, comprising an electrical component which is connected in series to the load. To ensure current limitation which is independent of the load and of the value of the supply voltage, and simultaneously to avoid switching current peaks and minimize dissipated heat, the current-limiting component is in the form of an active component which has an internal resistance, and which is controlled by a timing element in such a way that the internal resistance of the component is reduced during a switching-on process.

From DE 41 21 055 A1, a circuit arrangement is known for limiting the switching-on current of incandescent bulbs. The circuit arrangement includes a protective resistor connected in series to an incandescent bulb. Parallel to the protective resistor, a switching transistor, which is controlled by an ignition transistor, is provided. The ignition transistor is fed on the input side with the voltage drop which occurs on the incandescent bulb. After the supply voltage is switched on, the voltage drop on the incandescent bulb gradually increases, because the resistance of the incandescent bulb increases as the operating temperature increases. When a specified voltage drop on the incandescent bulb is reached, the ignition transistor switches through, and controls the switching transistor in such a way that it also switches through, and thus bridges the protective resistor, so that the current through the incandescent bulb is no longer limited by the protective resistor.
With this circuit arrangement according to the prior art, the effect of the current limitation is heavily dependent on the type of load and the value of the supply voltage, so that the circuit arrangement must be newly dimensioned for each load and each supply voltage. Additionally, at the instant when the switching and ignition transistors are switched through, high switching current peaks can occur briefly. These can load the supply voltage source as well as cause damage to the load. Also, with this circuit arrangement, even after the switching transistor is switched through, a finite voltage drop occurs between the collector and emitter of the switching transistor, and/or at the protective resistor, resulting in production of dissipated heat.

Electrical circuit for limiting switching-on current


An array substrate includes: a gate wiring; a source wiring, which is formed to intersect the gate wiring; a passivation film, which covers the source wiring; and a pixel electrode that is formed on the passivation film. The array substrate has a display area and a dummy pixel area. In the display area, a switching element in the vicinity of the intersection of the gate wiring and the source wiring is provided. In the display area, the pixel electrode and the source wiring do not have an overlapping area in a top view. The dummy pixel area is located outside the display area, and in the dummy pixel area, a dummy pixel electrode and two source wirings, which are adjacent to the dummy pixel electrode have an overlapping area in a top view.

Recently, display devices have been used as information display for observers in various devices. Currently, instead of the cathode-ray tube which was the mainstream, new flat-panel display devices using liquid crystal, plasma, Electro-Luminescence (EL), Field Emission Display (FED), and the like have appeared. Particularly, a liquid crystal display device can be manufactured from a small-sized type to a large-sized type and is the representative flat-panel display device, in now.
Such a flat-panel display device is provided with a display area in which plural pixels are arranged in a matrix shape. In the display area, plural scanning lines and plural signals lines are formed and intersect each other to define pixels. In each pixel, a switching element having an electrode connected to the scanning line or the signal line and a pixel electrode connected to the switching element are formed. A voltage input from the signal line is applied to the pixel electrode via the switching element and is applied to an electro-optical medium such as a liquid crystal or an electroluminescence material to contribute to display. A thin-film transistor (TFT) is often used as the switching element.
When the TFT is formed, there may be a problem such as the pixels or the lines in the display area are damaged or dielectric breakdown of an insulating film is caused, due to static electricity during manufacturing. For the purpose of protecting the pixels in the display area from dielectric breakdown, dummy pixels are generally formed outside the display area (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 03-045934).
A reversely-staggered type thin-film transistor which is subjected to back channel etching is generally used as a thin-film transistor for a liquid crystal display device. Further, an array structure, in which TFTs and pixel electrodes are separately formed with an insulating film interposed therebetween and the TFTs and the pixel electrodes are connected via contact holes formed in the insulating film, is often used. In making of such a structure, a method including forming an insulating film to cover formed TFTs, forming contact holes in the insulating film on the TFTs, forming pixel electrodes on the insulating film, and then connecting the TFTs and the pixel electrodes via contact holes is often used (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-268353).
The main purpose of forming an insulating film on a TFT formed in a pixel is to protect the TFT from liquid crystal and to suppress an unnecessary electric field from being applied to the liquid crystal from the TFT. If there is a trouble in which a predetermined insulating film is not formed on a TFTs, a voltage is applied directly to the liquid crystal from the TFT. If such voltage application is continuously performed for a long time, the liquid crystal is charged or denatured, thereby finally causing display failure. However, since an application of a voltage for a long time is required until the display failure occurs and apparent display abnormality does not occur immediately after being turned on, there is a problem that it is difficult to find the trouble in inspection during manufacturing.
Further, when an insulating film is not formed, there is concern about a short circuit between the pixel electrode formed on the insulating film and the TFT, but the pixel electrode and the drain electrode of the TFT are originally connected to each other via a contact hole. Accordingly, if the pixel electrode overlaps only the drain electrode in a top view, the problems is not caused even when the insulating film therebetween is not formed.
On the other hand, when the pixel electrode is formed to overlap a signal line below the insulating film in a top view and the insulating film is not formed, the potential of the signal line is applied directly to the pixel electrode and thus abnormality can be immediately found as display failure. However, if the pixel electrode is formed in the above-mentioned way, capacitance is formed between the pixel electrode and the signal line, and thus there is a problem in that the supply of a signal voltage is delayed and does not follow an increase in the number of pixels accompanied with an increase in screen size.
Accordingly, the signal line is often formed so as not to overlap the pixel electrode. In this case, as described above, there remains a problem in that abnormality of display failure is not immediately found even when the insulating film is not formed. That is, since the application of a voltage for a long time is required up to display failure, there is a problem in that much time is required for inspection. Since the time required for the application of a voltage is greatly varied depending on array substrates, there is a possibility that the array substrates will shipped, as is.

Array substrate and display device using the same


A transform-domain adaptive filter uses selective partial updating of adaptive filter parameters. This updating may be based on a constrained minimization problem. The adaptive filter parameters are separated into subsets, and a subset is selected to be updated at each iteration. A normalization process applied to the frequency bins prior to multiplication by the adaptive filter parameters is used to prevent adaptive filter lock-up that may be experienced in the event of high energy levels of signals in particular frequency bins. Convergence of the transform domain filter is ensured at a rate generally faster than a corresponding time-domain adaptive filter. The transform-domain adaptive filter may be used for various applications, including system identification, channel equalization, or echo cancellation.

Adaptive filters can be used in various systems, but require powerful processors if time critical operation is needed. An example of such an application is an echo canceller in a telecommunications system.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example prior art telecommunications system 100a in which an echo canceller 120 employs an adaptive filter. The telecommunications system 100a includes a near-end telephone 105a and a far-end telephone 105b. The near-end telephone 105a is connected to a near-end hybrid 110a via a telephone line 125a. The far-end telephone 105b is connected to a far-end hybrid 110b via a telephone line 125b. The near-end hybrid 110a is connected to the far-end hybrid 110b via telephone lines 130 and 135 that are part of a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 115. The echo canceller 120 resides in the PSTN to remove an echo signal caused by the far-end hybrid 110b as a result of hybrid mismatch.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an alternative example of the prior art telecommunications system 100b in which the near-end telephone 105a, near-end hybrid 110a, and associated telephone line 125a are replaced with a wireless subsystem 200. The wireless subsystem 200 includes a handset 205 connected to a base station 210 via a wireless link 215. The wireless subsystem 200 also includes a mobile station controller (MSC) 220 connected to the PSTN 115, having the echo canceller 120 with adaptive filter, that transmits voice signals via the telephone lines 130 and 135 to the far-end hybrid 110b.
FIGS. 3–5 are schematic diagrams of adaptive filters used in various applications.
FIG. 3 provides details of the echo cancellation application in the prior art telecommunications systems of FIGS. 1 and 2. Referring to FIG. 3, in general, the echo canceller 120 determines and cancels echos received from an unknown system 505, where the unknown system 505 includes the set of transmission lines 130, 135 and the far-end hybrid 110b. Because of a hybrid mismatch, an echo signal 510 travels from the far-end hybrid 110b via the telephone line 135 back to the echo canceller 120.
The echo canceller 120 includes an adaptive filter 320a that uses adaptive filter parameters, wk, or weights. A summing unit 315 sums the output, yk, of the adaptive filter 320a with a far-end signal, dk, which is composed of the echo signal 510, far-end speech, and noise. The output from the summing unit 315 is an error signal, ek, which is just the far-end speech and noise if the adaptive filter 320a in the echo canceller 120 perfectly matches the echo signal 510.
FIG. 4 is an example of the adaptive filter 320a used in a prior art system identification application 300. The adaptive filter 320a is used in concert with the summing unit 315 to determine characteristics of an unknown plant 310. If the squared error, |ek|2, is minimal, then the adaptive filter 320a has reached convergence, and the characteristics of the unknown plant 310 are determined from converged parameters in the adaptive filter 320a.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a channel equalization application 400 in which the adaptive filter 320a is used to determine characteristics of a channel 410, such as a speech channel in the PSTN 115 (FIG. 1). A delay unit 405 is used to estimate the delay of the channel 410. If the squared error, |ek|2, is minimized, then the adaptive filter 320a has reached convergence and has removed distortion the channel 410 may have added to a signal traveling in the channel 410. The characteristics of the channel 410 can be determined as a function of the adaptive filter parameters, wk, in the adaptive filter 320a.
In channel equalization applications, slow convergence of adaptive filters can result from an existence of deep nulls in the channel frequency response. This invariably leads to a large eigenspread and a requirement for long channel equalizers in the case of baud-rate sampling. In acoustic echo cancellation applications, the echo path is estimated by an adaptive filter. The acoustic echo path often requires a large number of parameters for adequate modeling. Speech signals also present a particularly challenging case because they tend to be non-stationary and to have lowpass spectral features.

Reduced complexity transform-domain adaptive filter using selective partial updates


A method for determining validity of a proposed loop iteration schedule comprising the steps of receiving a dependence graph including operations and edges between said operations; receiving a performance specification; receiving an assignment of latencies to operations of said dependence graph; and determining existence of a placement of clock cycle-boundaries in said dependence graph such that all dependence and timing constraints are satisfied for the performance specification.

Continuing advances in technology combined with dropping production costs have led to a proliferation of electronic devices that incorporate or use advanced digital circuits including desktop computers, laptop computers, hand-held devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), hand-held computers, cellular telephones, printers, digital cameras, facsimile machines and other electronic devices. These digital circuits execute the application or algorithms required to provide the functionality of the electronic device. It is desirable for these digital circuits to have high performance with minimal cost. The cost of a circuit is typically measured in terms of its silicon area and is often estimated from the number of components (e.g. functional units, registers, wires etc) in the circuit. The performance of a circuit can be expressed as a combination of several metrics: throughput (i.e. number of tasks executed per clock cycle), latency (i.e. number of clock cycles to complete a single task), and clock speed.
The process of mapping an application or algorithm to digital circuit hardware involves several steps. One of these steps is that of scheduling, i.e., assigning activities to occur at specific points in time. Since the performance of many applications is dominated by the performance of loop nests that may be present in the application code or algorithm, the step of loop iteration scheduling is of particular importance. A loop is an iteration of an expression or expressions for a range of values. A loop nest is a set of loops, each one successively nested within another. Alternatively, a nested loop refers to a program in a high level language such as C, Java, Pascal, etc. that has an "n-deep" loop nest, where n is an integer. In other words, for a 2-deep nested loop, a first loop is nested within a second loop.
Loop iteration scheduling is the assignment of start times for each iteration of the loop nest to specific clock cycles. This step is performed with the objective that the resulting hardware must execute the loop nest at the desired performance or that the resulting hardware must execute the loop nest with maximal performance. Additionally, it might be desirable to minimize the cost of the resulting hardware. The performance of a loop nest is determined by its throughput. i.e., the number of loop iterations started per unit time. Throughput is expressed as the reciprocal of II*T, where the Initiation Interval (II) is defined as the number of clock cycles between successive starts of loop iterations, and T is the clock period.
To meet these objectives in loop iteration scheduling, typically, a set of candidate iteration schedules are generated and then evaluated for validity. Additionally, they may also be evaluated for cost, if needed. Validity of a candidate loop iteration schedule implies that it is possible to satisfy all data dependencies and timing constraints when the loop nest is scheduled according to the candidate loop iteration schedule and with a given II and at a given T. Recurrence cycles are caused when there is a data flow dependence from a program operation to itself in a succeeding loop iteration. For data dependencies to be satisfied around recurrence cycles in loops, the following set of inequalities must be satisfied:Delay(C1)<=II×Distance(C1)Delay(C2)<=II×Distance(C2). . .Delay(CN)<=II×Distance(CN)where there are "N" recurrence cycles in the dependence graph C1, C2, . . . , CN; Delay(Ci) is the total latency around the recurrence cycle Ci; and Distance(Ci) is the sum of the omegas of each dependence edge along the recurrence cycle Ci. The latency around a recurrence cycle is the number of clock periods it takes for the dependencies to travel around the recurrence cycle, and the omega of a dependence edge is the loop iteration separation, as given by the candidate iteration schedule, between the producer and the consumer operations in that data flow.
In this context, it is desirable that the total latency around each recurrence cycle be small, so that a candidate loop iteration schedule is validated for the given II and T. Prior approaches use operation latencies expressed as integer multiples of clock cycles. The recurrence cycle latencies computed by these approaches are conservative, thereby leading to pessimistically rejecting some candidate iteration schedules as invalid. This is illustrated by the example in FIGS. 1A–1C.
FIG. 1A is a code fragment representing a nested loop. Code fragment 100 includes an outer loop 101, and inner loop 102 and a statement 103. FIG. 1B is a loop dependence graph corresponding to the nested loop code fragment of FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1B inter-iteration dependence edges are annotated with iteration distance vectors derived from the source code for the loop expressed in sequential semantics. The dependence graph of FIG. 1B has two recurrence cycles: recurrence cycle C1 consisting of operation 104->edge 106->operation 105->edge 107; and recurrence cycle C2 consisting of operation 104->edge 106->operation 105->edge 108.
As an example, the required performance may dictate an II equal to 3, and T equal to 2.0 nanoseconds. For a candidate iteration scheduling vector λ equal to [100 1]T, the corresponding iteration scheduling wavefront is shown in the iteration space of FIG. 1C. The omega of an edge annotated with iteration distance vector d is the dot product λT·d. Using this relationship, the omega of edge 107 in the iteration schedule given by λ is [100 1]·[0 1]T=1. Similarly, the omega of edge 108 in the iteration schedule given by λ is [100 1]·[1−99]T=1. The omegas of all other edges are 0 because their iteration distance vectors d equal −[0 0]T. The distance associated with recurrence cycle C1, i.e., Distance (C1), is given by the sum of the omegas along its edges (i.e., edges 106 and 107 in FIG. 1B), therefore it is 0+1=1. Similarly, the distance associated with recurrence cycle C2, i.e., Distance (C2) is 0+1=1. Prior approaches use operation latencies expressed as integer multiples of clock cycles. For example, the latency for the multiplication operation (*) may be 3 clock cycles and the latency for the addition operation (+) may be 1 clock cycle. For the recurrence cycle C1, the delay is 3+1=4 clock cycles. The inequality Delay (C1)≦II×Distance(C1) is used giving: 4−3×1<=0, which is not satisfied. Similarly, for the recurrence cycle C2, the delay is 3+1=4 clock cycles. The inequality Delay(c1)≦II×Distance(c1) is used giving: 4−3×1<=0, which is also not satisfied. Therefore, when operation latencies are expressed as integer multiples of clock cycles, the candidate iteration scheduling vector λ equal to [100 1]T is found not to be valid.

Method of using clock cycle-time in determining loop schedules during circuit design

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Novel nonatetraenoic acid derivatives which selectively bind to retinoic acid X-receptors (RXR) and which have anti-acne acitvity and which potentiate the activity of retinoids having RAR.alpha. activity are disclosed.

Retinoic acids function through binding to a family of proteins known as the nuclear retinoic acid receptors ("RAR"). Three members of this family are designated RAR.alpha., RAR.beta., and RAR.gamma.. 9-cis retinoic acid binds to a group of receptors known as the retinoic acid X receptors ("RXR") (Levin et al., Nature, 355:359-361 (1992); Heyman et al., Cell, 68:397-406 (1992)), while all-trans- and 13-cis-retinoic acid, which bind to RAR.alpha., do not. However, 9-cis retinoic acid also acts as a ligand for the RAR group of receptors, and therefore may display the undesirable side effects of all-trans and 13-cis retinoic acid. Both RAR and RXR receptors are known to form heterodimers to mediate their biological functions (Leid et al., Cell, 68:377-395 (1992); Yu et al., Cell, 67:1251-1266 (1991); Zhang et al., Nature, 355:441-446 (1992).


A used water removal system for a stand-alone hand-wash sink station having a vertically elongated used water storage tank and within which a vertically elongated, fresh water tank is positioned. A sink basin disposed above the used water storage tank drains used water into the used water storage tank. A water line conveys water from the fresh water tank to a faucet located above the sink basin. An inverted, vertically elongated, U-shaped tube is arranged within the station alongside the fresh water tank. One end of the tube opens into the used water storage tank near its lower end. The second end of the tube opens to the outside of the station. The curved bight of the tube is located at a height that is above the maximum height of the used water within the used water storage tank. Water may be rapidly removed from the tank by temporarily applying suction to the second end of the tube to siphon used water through the tube and out of the used water storage tank.

This invention relates to an improved system for draining the used water holding tank of a portable, stand-alone hand-wash sink.
A portable stand-alone sink station, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,434, issued Nov. 18, 1997 to Richard Leach Tagg, comprises, in general, a housing which contains a fresh water tank and a used or "grey" water holding tank. One or more sink bowls or basins are mounted above the tanks. Fresh water is periodically supplied to the fresh water tank and the used water is removed. The fresh water is pumped, such as by a conventional foot-operated pump, from the fresh water tank to a faucet or spigot located above each sink bowl. When the user of the sink operates the faucet or spigot, the fresh water pours downwardly into the bowl and, from the bottom of the bowl, into a used water holding tank.
The used water holding tank can hold a little more than the amount of fresh water held in the fresh water tank. Therefore, the used water tank must be emptied when the fresh water tank is replenished or when the water must be removed for maintenance or storage of the sink unit. One way of emptying the used water tank is to provide a normally closed outlet at the bottom of the tank. A service or maintenance person may open the outlet and let the water run out. Typically, when the sink unit is in use, the "grey" may be pumped through a hose from an outlet in the used water tank to a tank truck which can carry the used "grey" water to a suitable disposal site or water treatment plant.
Ordinarily, when the hand-wash station or unit is in use, it is arranged at the location of one or more portable chemical toilets. Thus, the users of the toilets can wash in the sink stations when desired. The portable chemical toilets are typically placed, for example, at construction sites, or sites where crowds gather, such as at public events like parades, sporting events, etc. Similarly, portable sink units may be positioned near these portable chemical toilets for public use.
When portable sink units are to be provided at use sites to enable the units to be lifted easily, they are emptied of water during the transportation to, and the positioning at, the sites where they are used. At that point, the installer or maintenance person fills the fresh water tank. Usually the fresh water for filling is carried by a maintenance truck in a fresh water tank. Thereafter, a maintenance worker periodically may inspect the unit to determine the level of fresh water in the tank and, also, to determine the level of used water held in the unit. At appropriate times, the used water, which fills or substantially fills the used water tank, is drained and the fresh water supply replenished.
Both the fresh water and used water holding tanks must be emptied when the sink units are moved from one use location to another or to a storage location, or to be closed for the winter in locations where the temperature is cold enough to cause the water to freeze. In the past, drain outlets at the bottoms of the tanks provided for such drainage.
In many places, there are objections to or prohibitions against draining the tanks by opening the tank drain outlets and letting the water run out of the tanks upon the adjacent ground. Further, in ordinary use, the service person must be able to maintain the sink unit, that is, replace fresh water, remove used water and replace the items that are used with a sink, such as soap, paper towels, etc., as quickly as possible. Ordinarily, the used water holding tank is emptied by sucking the water out through a pipe connected to a used water tank, through a vacuum system, on the maintenance truck. Filling the fresh water tank is usually accomplished by pumping water into the fresh water holding tank from a water tank on the truck with a long hose. Hence, it is desirable to provide a way to quickly empty the used water tank of the portable sink unit to reduce the time for servicing the units. To simplify emptying and filling the water tank, it is desirable to locate the water drain outlets or parts at one location, preferably at the front of the unit. That simplifies manually connecting water hoses to the service truck.
Thus, this invention is concerned with a system which provides for rapid removal of used water from the grey water holding tanks on portable wash basin stations by the conventional suction or vacuum equipment that is normally carried by portable chemical toilet maintenance vehicles for cleaning portable toilet waste holding tanks.

Used water removal system for a portable, hand-wash sink station


First and second white light is generated by excitations of phosphors with first and second laser beams having center wavelengths of 473 nm and 445 nm, respectively. The first and second white light is applied, in respective frames, sequentially to a region of interest in a subject. A color image sensor images the region of interest in the each frame. Based on a shift amount, calculated from green signals of first and second frames, between images, an image of a blue signal of the first frame is moved to be aligned with an image of a green signal and an image of a red signal of the second frame. After the alignment, an oxygen saturation image representing an oxygen saturation level of hemoglobin in blood is produced from the blue signal of the first frame and green and red signals of the second frame.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope system for applying two or more types of color light sequentially and calculating an oxygen saturation level of hemoglobin in blood and imaging an oxygen saturation level calculated, a processor device for an endoscope system, and an image producing method.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
Recently in the medical field, diagnoses using endoscope systems have been common. The endoscope system is composed of a light source device, a processor device, and an endoscope device. Normal observation and special observation using the endoscope system are known. In the normal observation, broadband light, for example, white light is used to illuminate a region of interest in a subject. This is effective in observing the region of interest as a whole. In the special observation, the illumination light of particular wavelength(s) is used in accordance with the purpose of the observation.
In the normal observation, the broadband light such as xenon light from the light source device is applied to the region of interest through a lighting section of the endoscope device. A reflection image is imaged with a color image sensor. An image signal acquired is sent to the processor device. Thereby, a color normal image is displayed on a monitor of the processor device.
In the special observation, a blood vessel emphasized image and an oxygen saturation image are observed. This enables finding cancer which is difficult to find in the normal observation. To observe the blood vessel emphasized image, the illumination light in a wavelength range in which an absorption coefficient of hemoglobin in blood is high is used to display an image with the blood vessels of a specific depth emphasized on the monitor. To observe the oxygen saturation image, an oxygen saturation level is calculated using the illumination light in a wavelength range in which absorbance varies depending on an amount of the hemoglobin in blood. The oxygen saturation level is imaged and displayed on the monitor.
The observation of the oxygen saturation level is considered to be effective in finding the cancer because cancer tissue is in a hypoxic or low-oxygen state. For example, in U.S. patent application Publication No. 2011/0237884 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-194151), three types of narrowband light (with the peak wavelengths of 405 nm, 440 nm, and 560 nm, respectively) in a blue band or three types of narrowband light (with the peak wavelengths of 540 nm, 560 nm, and 580 nm, respectively) in a green band are used. The image sensor images the region of interest while the three types of narrowband light are emitted sequentially toward the region of interest on a frame-by-frame basis. Thus, three frames of image data are acquired.
There are time lags between the acquisitions of the three frames of image data, resulting in positional shifts among the images of the three respective frames. To solve the problem, a means for extracting blood vessels is used to extract corresponding blood vessels in the respective images, and shift amounts of the images are calculated to align the corresponding blood vessels with each other. One of images of the three frames is moved by the shift amount relative to the image of the reference frame, and the remaining image is also moved by the shift amount relative to the image of the reference frame. Thus, the images of the three frames are aligned with each other. Thereafter, an oxygen saturation level of the blood vessel is calculated on a pixel-by-pixel basis from the image data of the three frames. Then, an oxygen saturation image representing distribution of the oxygen saturation levels is produced and displayed in pseudo-color on the monitor.
Absorption characteristics of hemoglobin and scattering characteristics of digestive tract mucosa significantly vary depending on a wavelength band. Hence, shapes of the blood vessels observed with the three respective types of wavelengths are different from each other. In the U.S. patent application Publication No. 2011/0237884, it is difficult to perform accurate registration or alignment of images because the shift amount between the images of different wavelengths is calculated.
The blood vessels are classified into surface blood vessels and subsurface (medium-depth and deep) blood vessels according to their depth from the surface. It is necessary to calculate the oxygen saturation levels of the blood vessels including both the surface and subsurface blood vessels. To detect the surface blood vessels, the narrowband light in a blue wavelength range is effective. To detect the medium-depth blood vessels, the narrowband light in a green wavelength range is effective. To detect the deep blood vessels, the narrowband light in a red wavelength range is effective. Accordingly, a blue image, a green image, and a red image are necessary to calculate the oxygen saturation levels of the surface and subsurface blood vessels. In the blue image, the surface blood vessels are emphasized while the subsurface blood vessels are inconspicuous. In the red image, on the contrary, the subsurface blood vessels are emphasized while the surface blood vessels are inconspicuous. To register or align the images of the respective frames with each other, the shift amount is calculated from the positions of the corresponding blood vessels in the blue and red images, for example. In this case, the image with the surface blood vessels emphasized is compared with the image with the inconspicuous surface blood vessels. As a result, the shift amount cannot be calculated accurately, making the registration difficult.

Endoscope system, processor device thereof, and image producing method


A radiographic apparatus comprising, a radiation source for emitting radiation, a radiation detecting device having a detecting surface for detecting radiation, an image generating device for generating images in accordance with detection data outputted from the radiation detecting device, a collimator for restricting spread of a radiation beam emitted from the radiation source, an opening-degree obtaining device for obtaining a degree of opening of the collimator and a display device for displaying a radiation-irradiation area on the image, the opening-degree obtaining device determining the radiation-irradiation area to be displayed on the image in accordance with a relationship between a width of the radiation beam contained in the image obtained in advance by two or more degrees of opening of the collimator through radiation irradiation and the degrees of opening of the collimator as well as the current degree of opening of the collimator.

Medical institutions have a radiographic apparatus installed therein for taking images of a subject. As shown in FIG. 11, such a radiographic apparatus 51 includes a radiation source 53 for emitting radiation, and a radiation detector 54 for detecting the radiation.
The radiation source 53 includes a collimator 55 that can open and close freely to change spread of a radiation beam. The collimator 55 has a pair of leaves 55a. They approach and move away, thereby restricting a direction of radiation emitted from the radiation source 53.
When an operator instructs opening and closing of the collimator 55 via a console, the radiographic apparatus 51 calculates a movement extent of the leaves 55a. For instance, when a slider set on the console is operated, the radiographic apparatus 51 recognizes how many centimeters the leaves 55a are to be moved in accordance with a distance by which a lever of the slider moves, and moves the leaves 55a by the calculated distance relative to a drive controller for the leaves 55a of the collimator 55. See, Japanese Utility Model (Registration) Publication No. S62-195800.
The leaves are schematically displayed on a monitor attached to the radiographic apparatus 51. The leaves displayed on the monitor as a graphic symbol are moved in accordance with a degree of opening of the actual leaves 55a. Recognition of the leaves on the monitor by an operator can cause confirmation a of a restricted extent of a radiation beam. A position of the leaves 55a on this monitor is determined in accordance with the calculated degree of opening indicating how many centimeters the leaves 55a are moved.
When the operator gives instructions on radiation irradiation via the console, the radiation source 53 emits radiation. Here, the collimator 55a restricts the radiation beam. The restricted extent is same as that confirmed by the operator prior to radiation irradiation. As above, the leaves on the monitor are moved synchronously with the actual leaves 55a, whereby spread of the radiation beam upon radiation irradiation can be determined in advance.
The conventional construction, however, has the following problem.
The conventional radiographic apparatus 51 has a problem that the degree of opening of the collimator indicated by the leaves 55a displayed on the monitor differs from the degree of opening of the actual collimator 55. Such problem arises. Under this state, although the operator confirms the leaves 55a on the monitor, the operator cannot recognize accurately the restricted extent of an actual irradiation direction of the radiation beam.
Description will be given of how such inconsistencies in degree of opening of the collimator occur. For changing the degree of opening of the collimator 55, it is firstly determined how many centimeters the leaves 55a are to be moved corresponding to a distance by which a lever of a slider on a console moves. Subsequently, a drive controller for the leaves 55a of the collimator 55 moves the leaves 55a by the distance as determined. However, the leaves 55a are not always moved correctly by the distance as set.
There are two or more reasons for an inaccurate movement distance of the leaves 55a. Firstly, a mechanism for moving the leaves 55a causes an inaccurate movement distance of the leaves 55a. The leaves 55a are moved as a rotatable arm rotates. Consequently, the leaves 55a are not moved horizontally but are moved along an arc path close to a straight line. When the leaves 55a are moved by a given distance, the arm rotates by a given angle, accordingly. Thus, when the arm is moved by the same angle, a length of the path by which the leaves 55a follow through the movement is always the same. However, since the path is not a straight line, the collimator 55 does not always have the degree of opening as set. As noted above, the leaves 55a are moved along the arc path. Thus, although the arm is moved by the same angle, difference in initial position of the leaves 55a causes slight difference in movement distance of the leaves 55a.
Moreover, it is difficult to position and attach the collimator 55 onto the radiation source 53 accurately. A slight deviation in position of the collimator 55 and the radiation source 53 from an ideal position will affect actual radiography sufficiently. Specifically, a slight deviation of the collimator 55 is enlarged as the radiation beam emitted from the radiation source 53 spreads toward a subject M. Consequently, although a deviation in fixing position of the collimator 55 and the radiation source 53 is around 0.1 mm, a position of the radiation beam emitted to the subject M may be order of magnitude of centimeters. In addition, a deviation in position of the radiation source 53 and the radiation detector 54 from an ideal position causes a deviation in relative position of the leaves 55a of the collimator 55 relative to both the components 53, 54. Accordingly, an ideal position of the leaves 55a on the monitor deviates from the actual position of the leaves 55a.
Since the leaves 55a of the collimator 55 displayed on the monitor are moved in accordance with output from the drive controller for the leaves 55a, a position of the leaves 55a specified by the drive controller is displayed on the monitor. The actual leaves 55a of the collimator 55 are not always moved as the ideal. Consequently, inconsistencies in degree of opening occur between the actual collimator 55 and the collimator 55 on the monitor. Therefore, it is difficult for an operator to recognize an accurate irradiation area of the radiation beam prior to radiation irradiation.


A thin film transistor and method for fabricating the same are provided. The thin film transistor comprises a semiconductor layer having a MILC region that has first crystalline grains crystallized by MILC method and second crystalline grains disposed between the first crystalline grains and having different crystalline properties from the first crystalline grains.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor and method for fabricating the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thin film transistor and method for fabricating the same wherein a polysilicon layer is used as a semiconductor layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a thin film transistor comprises a semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer and a gate electrode. Further, the semiconductor layer is typically a polysilicon layer whose electron mobility is 100 times higher than that of an amorphous silicon layer.
A polysilicon semiconductor layer is typically manufactured by forming an amorphous silicon layer on the substrate and then crystallizing the amorphous silicon layer. The crystallization method may, for example, include an excimer laser annealilng (ELA) method, a sequential lateral solidification (SLS) method, a method induced crystallization (MIC) method, or a metal induced lateral crystallization (MILC) method.
Among them, the MILC method has the advantages that uniformity properties and reduction of production costs can be obtained more easily than with the ELA method. Moreover, contamination of a channel region due to metal can be reduced compared with the MIC method.
MILC may be performed by coating some regions of the amorphous silicon layer formed on the substrate with a crystallization-inducing metal layer and by performing heat treatment. In the heat treatment, a region that contacts the crystallization-inducing metal layer may be crystallized by the MIC method, and a region that does not contact the crystallization-inducing metal layer may be crystallized by the MILC method.
Crystalline grains formed by the MILC method have an orientation, and are generally grown in an elongated form. Amongst the crystalline grains, a region can exist in which crystallization is not made by the MILC method, and amorphous silicon remains. The region where the amorphous silicon remains can be a factor that degrades electrical characteristics such as electron mobility. It can also decrease the uniformity of the electrical characteristics in the substrate.

Thin film transistor having a metal induced lateral crystallization region and method for fabricating the same


A format storage unit stores a predetermined geometric property format. A chart data creating unit creates chart data based upon the geometric property format, and a printing unit creates a test chart by printing mark groups on a recording medium such as a paper sheet based upon the chart data. An image pickup unit outputs a chart image by scanning the test chart, and a mark center calculating unit calculates the center of each mark based upon the chart image. A fitting unit performs a fitting calculation comparing calculation results output from the mark center calculating unit and the chart based upon the geometric property format such that the squared difference therebetween becomes minimum for each mark position.

When an image which has been recorded in a digital format is recorded onto a recording medium such as a paper sheet and film, or conversely when an image which has been recorded on a recording medium is picked up by an image pickup apparatus such as scanner or the like, the quality of those images are greatly affected by recording properties of the recording device, the medium properties of the recording medium, or the image pickup properties of the image pickup apparatus.
In particular, with the recording devices and the image pickup apparatuses employing plural recording units (e.g., heads) or plural image pickup units (e.g., CCDS) having a smaller area than the area of the recording area on the recording medium, recording of an image on a recording medium or image picking up is performed while relatively moving these units with respect to the recording medium, thus leading to a problem of the image quality by being greatly affected by geometric properties such as the positional relation between the plural recording units or between the plural image pickup units; the mechanical error during movement of these units; and so forth.
For example, with a color ink jet printer serving as a recording device including plural heads corresponding to various color inks, even slight deviation of the head position leads to failure in superimposition of dots in various colors in printing, leading to color shift, resulting in markedly deterioration in printing quality.
Accordingly, a technique as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-278311 is known wherein a test pattern (chart) which allows the operator to easily detect color shift is printed, following which the operator checks the printed test pattern through visual monitoring and selects a pattern which exhibits the minimum color shift so as to estimate printing properties corresponding to the geometric properties of the printing device, thereby enabling image processing for correcting color shift described above.
Also, a technique as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-40531 is known wherein two recording heads having low resolution are arrayed and fixed one to another such that the nozzles thereof are positioned so as to complement one another, thereby achieving approximately two times resolution. With such an ink jet head assembly, the heads must be mounted while precisely measuring the positional relation therebetween. In conventional techniques, the positional relation between the heads is directly measured by mechanical measurement, or the dots or lines printed by these nozzles are measured through a microscope so as to obtain the positional relation between the heads.
However, such a method wherein the operator checks the test chart for detecting deviation requires skill of the operator to a certain degree, and adjustment even by a skilled operator has the disadvantage of depending upon the intuition of the operator.
Furthermore, mechanical measurement of the head positions described above requires a precise mechanism, leading to high costs of installation of the measurement device, and high costs of maintenance after installation thereof, as well as high manufacturing costs due to the measurement, and leading to a problem of extra space for installation of the measurement device.
Furthermore, even if the most precise positioning of the heads is performed, the positional relation between the nozzles does not exactly coincide with the positional relation between the dot impact positions in printing at all times.
Furthermore, measurement of the dots or the lines through a microscope has the disadvantage of a narrow field of view of the endoscope, time consuming measurement, and a great deal of processing amount corresponding to the data amount taken by the measurement. In order to solve these problems, a relatively small number of the dots and lines should be measured. However, this leads to a new problem of deterioration in high-precision measurement due to substandard dot fixing, blot, irregularities in the dot impact position, or the like.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the aforementioned problems, and accordingly, it is an object thereof to provide a test chart, a geometric property analysis system, a geometric property analysis method, a printer, an ink-jet printer, which allow the operator to perform high-precision analysis of geometric properties of at least one of a recording device, a recording medium, and an image pickup apparatus, with a simple and precise procedure.

Test chart geometrical characteristic analysis system geometrical characteristic analysis method printer and ink-jet printer


A vapor purifier for oil recovery from and cleansing of deleterious matter carried by oil vapors in a crankcase of an internal combustion-type engine generally includes a coil member that can separate the oil from the vapors by passing the vapors over and/or through the coil member. As the vapors impinge upon the surface(s) of the coil member, oil in the blow-by vapors condenses thereon. The vapor purifier can include a flow equalization member to maintain a normal engine intake manifold pressure for driving modes of the engine. As a result, the vapor purifier of the present invention can maintain the air to fuel stoichiometric ratio of the engine system. Additional components, such as filters and/or disks can also be included in the vapor purifier to promote oil recovery and cleansing of deleterious matter from the vapors, which act as a host for the deleterious matter.

Internal combustion-type engines mix controlled quantities of filtered air and fuel. The resultant mixture is fed to an interior of an intake manifold, from which it is distributed to a cylinder for combustion. During compression of the fuel-air mixture by the piston in a particular cylinder, certain quantities of blow-by carbonaceous particles and gases leak into the crankcase past the piston rings of the engine and become trapped therein with contaminants, such as oil vapors emitted by heated engine-lubricating oil.
Modern automobile engines have been equipped with a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system which is disposed in an oil and oil vapor recirculation line connecting the crankcase and the intake manifold. This allows the engines to recycle the contaminated oil and oil vapors back into the combustion chamber. In such a system, a stream of fresh air is directed into the engine interior wherein it re-circulates, picking up the vapors therein. The contaminated oil and oil vapors then leave the crankcase through a PCV valve and are conducted by conduit means to the intake manifold, where the dirty oil and oil vapors mix with the fuel-air mixture and are distributed to the cylinders for combustion.
It has been recognized that the oil and other contaminants mixing with the hot vapors in the crankcase and, thereafter, reaching the intake manifold and combustion cylinders, has a number of undesirable effects on engine performance. These undesirable effects can include, but are not limited accumulation of non-combustible residues on engine intake and exhaust valves; increased exhaust emissions and decreased fuel mileage due to incomplete combustion; which can be caused by dilution and contamination of the air and fuel; and the necessity of enriching the fuel-air mixture to off-set the loss of power therefrom.
Due to the advent of the new alternative fuels used in automotive engines, i.e. such as E-85 and compressed natural gas, it is ever more important to prevent the intermixing of the contaminating PCV oil and oil vapors with these lesser BTU fuels.
In addition, additives, such as detergents, are typically added to fuel. Such additives are used to clean deposits off of internal parts of the engine, such as the intake and exhaust valves. Some of these deposits may be a direct result of re-introducing the contaminating oil and oil vapors with a conventional PCV system and/or from other particulates that hinder the combustion process. The use of additives to break down these deposits may result in additional exhaust emissions being fed into the combustion process
What is needed is an improved system for reducing and/or eliminating contaminates, such as oil, carbonaceous material, etc., from the dirty oil and oil vapors to provide cleansed air to be remixed with fuel for combustion. In addition, a more efficient system is needed for maintaining an engine air/fuel stoichiometric ratio by maintaining normal intake manifold pressure during various acceleration and deceleration modes.


The present invention provides a processing system, a processing method and a program, which can readily control a gas flow rate. A vertical-type heating apparatus 1 includes a plurality of gas supply pipes 16 to 20 each adapted for supplying a processing gas into a reaction vessel 2 configured to contain therein semiconductor wafers W. For the gas supply pipes 16 to 20, flow rate control units 21 to 25 are provided, respectively, for controlling each flow rate. In a control unit 50, processing conditions including the flow rate of the processing gas and a film thickness-flow rate-relationship model indicative of a relationship between the flow rate of the processing gas and a film thickness, are stored. The control unit 50 calculates the flow rate of the processing gas based on a process result obtained by processing the semiconductor wafers W under the processing conditions as well as on the film thickness-flow rate-relationship model, so as to process the semiconductor wafers W, while controlling the respective flow rate control units 21 to 25, such that the flow rate of the processing gas will be changed into the calculated flow rate of the processing gas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing system, a processing method and a computer program, each adapted for processing an object or objects to be processed, such as semiconductor wafers, and in particular relates to the processing system, the processing method and the computer program, of a batch type, adapted for collectively processing multiple sheets of objects to be processed.
2. Background Art
In a process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, the batch-type processing system adapted for collectively providing a process, for example, a film-forming process, an oxidizing process, a diffusing process and the like, to the multiple sheets of objects, such as semiconductor wafers or the like, is employed. With such a batch-type processing system, the semiconductor wafers can be performed efficiently. However, it is considerably difficult to secure uniformity of the process for the multiple sheets of semiconductor wafers.
As a technique for solving such a problem, for example, in Patent Document 1, a method for enhancing a yield of the semiconductor devices has been proposed. Namely, in this method, three or more gas injectors, each adapted for introducing a gas, into a diffusion furnace from an upper portion, an intermediate portion and a lower portion thereof, are provided, in order to make a supply amount of the gas uniform by independently controlling their flow rates.
Additionally, Patent Document 2 teaches a heating method, which can perform a significantly uniform process while changing positions for supplying a processing gas or gasses, at least between a central portion and a peripheral portion in a face of each object to be processed, by changing a flow rate of a carrier gas during a heating process.
Furthermore, in Patent Document 3, another method has been proposed, in which a relationship between the flow rate of the processing gas or gasses supplied from a plurality of pipes and a growing speed of a film on each substrate is first estimated, and a film forming process is then performed with the flow rate of the processing gas or gasses supplied from the plurality of pipes being controlled.
Patent Document 1: TOKUKAIHEI No. 11-121389, KOHO
Patent Document 2: TOKKYO No. 3081969, KOHO
Patent Document 3: TOKUKAI No. 2003-166066, KOHO
In the batch-type processing system, although it can provide an appropriate process at a start of operation, it may tend to perform different processes from that planned at the start of operation, through many repetitions of processing operation or by changes of external factors and the like. For instance, in the case of a film-forming process for the semiconductor wafers, even though it can form a film having an appropriate film thickness on each semiconductor wafer at the start of operation, the thickness of the film formed on the semiconductor wafer sometimes changes through repetitions of the film forming process. This might be caused by the supply amount of the gasses that cannot adequately correspond to change over time of the processing furnace of the processing system and/or to change of the external environment. To address such an event, an operator of the processing system must currently control the flow rate of each gas, by experience and/or intuition, in order to secure the uniformity of the thickness of the film formed on each wafer surface. Thus, it is substantially difficult to secure the uniformity of the film thickness in the film forming process. Therefore, there is a need for the processing system and the processing method, by which even the operator having less or no experience and information on the processing system and the process itself can readily control the gas flow rate.

Processing system, processing method, and computer program


Identity and biometric data are collected from individuals. The collected data is used to form biometric data packages, each of which contains information about one biometric feature and identity data associated with the corresponding individual. Each biometric data package is stored in a categorical fashion based on its biometric feature. A current query from a requesting source includes at least one monitored biometric feature of an individual of interest. A first correlation is performed between the current query's monitored biometric feature and the same type of biometric feature associated with those of the biometric data packages previously stored in a categorical fashion. A second correlation is performed between the current query's monitored biometric feature and the monitored biometric feature associated with each of the previous queries. Results of the correlations can be indications of suspicious behavior that was used by the requesting source to form the current query.

The prevention of terrorist acts is a daunting task. As the world has already witnessed, the actions of just a few individuals can cause horrendous results. Post-event analysis has shown that there is very frequently suspicious behavior leading up to terrorist activity. Such behavior includes increased amounts of "chatter" on various monitored forms of communication (e.g., phone lines, cellular phone networks, internet, etc.), the presence of suspicious individuals around a sensitive site, an increase in the number of individuals arriving from specific foreign countries, the movement or location of known suspicious individuals in an area of concern, etc. Currently, security agencies rely on various forms of marginally-effective analysis techniques to assess the relevance of a variety of suspicious behaviors in an effort to thwart possible terrorist activities. However, the techniques are largely human-implemented and, therefore, are subject to an individual's interpretive and analysis skills.

System and method for assessing suspicious behaviors

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


Method and apparatus for providing a visual indication of operational activity of a device, such as a selected data transfer state. A pattern generator provides one or more bitmasks, each comprising a selected multi-bit sequence of logical values. A switching circuit selectively activates a visual indicator, such as a light emitting diode (LED), to provide a different visual indication in relation to each bitmask. Preferably, a time-varying rate at which the visual indicator is activated in response to each bitmask is selected to be different from a rate, as perceived by a human observer, of activation of the indicator. The pattern generator is preferably implemented as a programming module in a memory space and executed by a processor. Alternatively, the pattern generator is implemented in hardware preferably through the use of an index table and shift register circuitry.

Visual indicators are used in a variety of electronic devices. Such indicators advantageously convey useful information to the user with regard to a particular state of the device.
For example, a personal computer (PC) can utilize a light emitting diode (LED) that is mounted to the front of a computer case. The LED is "lit" when the computer system is on, indicating a health status of the device (e.g., power is being applied, the system is active, etc.). The LED can also be configured to intermittently flash when particular activities are taking place, such as a transfer of data between an operational memory space (e.g., system RAM) and a data storage device (e.g., an internally mounted hard disc drive). Visual indicators can also be used to identify the presence of one or more queued messages for a cellular phone, to signify a power charge/discharge state for a digital camera or other portable device, etc.
While various approaches have been taken to implement and control such visual indicators, there nevertheless remains a continued need for improvements in the art, and it is to such improvements that the claimed invention is generally directed.

Using bitmasks to provide visual indication of operational activity


A facial mask for use in medical respiratory treatments such as sleep apnea CPAP therapy. The mask includes a preferably transparent front plate to which is attached a skirt of flexible material adapted to sealingly impinge on the face of a patient. The mask is of sufficient size so that as it seals the nose from all but the desired therapeutic airflow, the sealing pressures will be felt on the forehead, the upper lip, and the malar region of the face spaced from the nose. Thus pressure on the bridge of the nose and in the maxillary region adjacent to the nose are avoided, resulting in a significant decrease in the possibility of intense pain.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sleep apnea, more specifically to apparatus for alleviating sleep apnea, and still more particularly to an improved facial mask for use with respiratory assist apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known for some time that sleep apnea can be alleviated through the use of respiratory assist apparatus, such as is used in the well known continuous positive airflow pressure (CPAP) therapy. It is also well recognized that one of the primary causes for patient non-compliance with CPAP or other device therapy is significant physical discomfort cause by the facial masks such devices require.
CPAP therapy essentially requires that air pressure be provided through the patient's nostrils to assist the muscles in the throat to prevent throat blockage during sleep, thus assuaging snoring and actual interruption of breathing. A respirator machine is connected to the patient's nostrils through airflow tubing connected to a facial mask placed over the patient's nose.
Because the flow of air from the machine must be directed to the nostrils with little or no loss of pressure, the facial mask is normally sealed around the entire nose and held in place by pressure from adjustable straps that fit around the patient's head. It is this necessary sealing pressure on the mask that causes the discomfort felt by the patient.
There are at least two known causes of patient discomfort when prior art apnea therapy masks are in use: pressure facial neuralgia and vacuum sinusitis. Pressure facial neuralgia is caused by tissue being compressed against the facial bones, for example by a facial mask. Vacuum sinusitis is a painful result of a build up of pressure in the maxillary cavities located in the maxillary bones located adjacent to the nose. This build up of pressure is often associated with external pressure placed on the maxillary bones by a facial mask.
One common form of facial mask used in CPAP therapy is the generally V-shaped nose mask that is placed over the entire nose, generally reaching from the bridge of the nose to just below the nostrils. Because the potential discomforts described above are well known to those of skill in the art, this nose mask is usually provided in a variety of sizes so the patient may be fitted as accurately as possible. The mask edge is provided with a soft sealing material, generally a plastic, in an attempt to fully seal air flow around the entire nose, and the mask is held in place against movement by the weight of the tubing and patient sleep motion with a set of adjustable straps that wrap around the patient's head and apply pressure to keep the mask sealed against the facial tissue.
Another form of a respiratory treatment mask is the full face mask described in an article entitled "Efficacy of a New Full Face Mask for Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation," by Criner et al, CHEST, Vol. 106, pp. 1109-15, October, 1994. This TFM (total face mask) device is preferred for the NPPV therapy discussed by the authors, and is intended to reduce patients' complaints about, for example, air leakage, facial discomfort and claustrophobia. This TFM device is not suitable for most sleep apnea therapy, in particular CPAP therapy, because it is usually preferred that the mouth be uncovered.
Other forms of masks have been designed for use in apnea therapy, such as the "pillows" which comprise a pair of soft plastic tubes adapted to fit within the nostrils. This mask, though preferred over the nose mask by some patients, faces the problems of pressure caused by the connection of the air tubing to the pillow mask and the necessary holding of the tubing and mask from sufficient movement to extricate a pillow from a nostril, as well as an added problem with increased drying airflow directly within the nostrils.
Though the prior art masks have been made of a design and materials intended to ease patient discomfort, the disadvantage of causing pressure on the facial tissue and bones still exists. Some patients simply cannot accept the pain that comes with the desired therapy.


This invention is directed to allow efficiently transferring data to each print element (heater) and efficiently laying out circuits in an element substrate including plural heater arrays in which different numbers of heaters are arranged. This substrate includes: a first array having a relatively large number of heaters; and a second array which is equal in length to the first array and has a relatively small number of heaters. These arrays are juxtaposed. The substrate further includes plural shift registers equal in number to the heater arrays of the substrate. The shift registers include a shift register which holds some data for driving the heaters of the first heater array, and data for driving the heaters of the second heater array. The shift registers further include a shift register which holds data other than some data for driving the heaters of the first heater array.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print element substrate including a plurality of print element arrays in which different numbers of print elements are arrayed, a printhead, and a printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printhead which prints on a printing medium by discharging ink according to a thermal inkjet method includes, as print element building elements in the printhead, heaters formed from heat generation elements. Drivers for driving heaters, and logic circuits for selectively driving the drivers in accordance with print data are formed on a single element substrate of the printhead.
The resolution of thermal inkjet type color inkjet printing apparatuses is increasing year by year. Along with this, the orifice arrangement density of a printhead is set to discharge ink in the range of a resolution of 600 dpi to resolutions of 900 dpi and 1,200 dpi. There is known a printhead having orifices at such high density.
Demand has arisen for reducing graininess at a halftone portion or highlight portion in a gray image and color photo image. To meet this demand, the size of an ink droplet (liquid droplet) discharged to form an image was about 15 pl several years ago, but is recently decreasing to 5 pl and then 2 pl year after year in a printhead which discharges color ink.
A high-resolution printhead in which orifices for discharging small ink droplets are arranged at high density satisfies a user need for high-quality printing when printing a high-quality color graphic image or photo image. However, when not high-resolution printing but high-speed printing is required in, for example, printing a color graph in a spreadsheet, the above-mentioned printhead may not meet the demand for high-speed printing because printing with small ink droplets increases the number of print scan operations.
To achieve even high-speed printing, there has been proposed a printhead which discharges small ink droplets for high-quality printing and large ink droplets for high-speed printing. There have also been known a printhead in which a plurality of heaters are arranged for one orifice to change the discharge amount by these heaters, and a printhead in which a plurality of orifices having different discharge amounts are arranged in one element substrate.
Element substrates having a plurality of orifices for discharging different amounts of ink include an element substrate in which an orifice array (small-droplet orifice array) of orifices for discharging small ink droplets, and an orifice array (large-droplet orifice array) of orifices for discharging large ink droplets are juxtaposed. To achieve high-quality printing at high speed by this element substrate, there is proposed an element substrate in which the orifice arrangement density of a small-droplet orifice array is higher than that of a large-droplet orifice array. An example of this element substrate is one having a large-droplet orifice array in which 600 orifices are arranged per inch (arrangement density is 600 dpi), and a small-droplet orifice array in which 1,200 orifices double in number are arranged per inch (arrangement density is 1,200 dpi). Examples of this element substrate are arrangements disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,409,315, 6,474,790, 5,754,201, and 6,137,502, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-374163.
Recent inkjet printing apparatuses discharge small ink droplets to print a high-quality image. At the same time, these inkjet printing apparatuses need to increase the print speed. Simply forming the same image requires the same ink amount. Thus, if the discharged ink droplet is downsized to decrease the discharged ink amount to ½, the print speed simply decreases to ½.
To discharge the same ink amount in the same time in order to prevent a decrease in print speed, the number of heaters needs to be doubled. If the number of heaters is doubled without changing the heater arrangement density, the size of an element substrate in which heaters are arranged increases double or more. In addition to the increase in element substrate size, this also increases the size of the printhead which moves at high speed in the printing apparatus, the size of the printing apparatus, and vibrations and noise. To prevent these, the heater arrangement density needs to be increased.
To stably discharge ink, a stable voltage needs to be applied to heaters. When all heaters are driven concurrently, a large current flows, and the voltage greatly drops owing to the wiring resistance. To solve this, there is a time-divisional driving method of dividing a plurality of heaters on an element substrate into a plurality of blocks, and sequentially driving heaters for the respective blocks time-divisionally to stably discharge ink.
To print at high speed, a printhead having orifices for discharging large ink droplets is more advantageous than one having only orifices for discharging small ink droplets. Recent inkjet printing apparatuses adopt a printhead having an element substrate in which a small-droplet orifice array and large-droplet orifice array are juxtaposed. These inkjet printing apparatuses achieve both high-speed printing and high-quality printing by selectively driving orifices for discharging small ink droplets and those for discharging large ink droplets. However, to implement both high-speed printing and high-quality printing, the numbers of orifices and heaters integrated on the element substrate need to be increased.
There is also a method of increasing the frequency of a clock for transferring print data in order to print at high speed. In general, the clock is supplied from the printing apparatus main body to the printhead. The printhead which moves during printing, and the printing apparatus main body are connected by a relatively long cable such as a flexible cable. Since this cable contains plural signal lines and current supply lines, large currents flow close to each other through these lines in the cable. Thus, noise is readily superposed on signals transmitted through the cable. The inductance component of the cable delays the rise and fall of the pulse waveform (distorted waveform). This becomes non-negligible because, as the clock cycle shortens, the ratio of fluctuations becomes relatively high. The printhead may not be able to accurately receive a signal and may malfunction. When a signal is transmitted using a high-frequency clock, the cable may function as an antenna to generate radiation noise. The radiation noise may cause the malfunction of a peripheral device.
An element substrate including a large-droplet orifice array at an arrangement density of 600 dpi and a small-droplet orifice array with a double number of orifices at a double arrangement density of 1,200 dpi, which are arranged on a single substrate, will be exemplified. In this element substrate, when printing one pixel by one bit, the number of heaters directly equals the number of bits of print data. The data amount necessary for the orifice array at the arrangement density of 1,200 dpi is double the data amount necessary for the orifice array at the arrangement density of 600 dpi. The difference in data amount is directly related to the data transfer speed. Heaters in different arrays can be driven at individual driving frequencies as long as a clock signal is prepared for each print data corresponding to an orifice array. Even when the time-divisional count and data amount differ between orifice arrays, data can be transferred within almost the same time. In a case where orifice arrays at arrangement densities of 600 dpi and 1,200 dpi coexist, data can be transferred within almost the same time by transferring data to the 1,200-dpi orifice array at double the speed of the 600-dpi orifice array.
However, preparing a clock signal for each print data corresponding to an orifice array increases the number of pads of the printhead and the number of signal lines between the printhead and the printing apparatus main body. As the numbers of pads and signal lines increase, the apparatus including the element substrate, printhead, and printing apparatus main body becomes bulky.
To prevent this, an element substrate which includes a plurality of orifice arrays at different arrayed densities and performs time-divisional driving employs the following arrangement. More specifically, a common clock signal CLK is employed, and the data transfer speed is set proportional to the number of data bits held in a shift register used for transfer. The numbers of data bits held in shift registers for high- and low-density orifice arrays differ from each other. The difference in the number of bits leads to a data transfer speed difference, limiting printing speed to the transfer speed for the high-density orifice array using a large number of bits. For example, assume that the number of bits in the shift register used for transfer is 7 bits (5 bits for print data and 2 bits for block control data) in a shift register corresponding to a 600-dpi orifice array, and 12 bits (10 bits for print data and 2 bits for block control data) in a shift register corresponding to a 1,200-dpi orifice array. Under this condition, even the data transfer speed of the 7-bit shift register complies with that of the 12-bit shift register. Hence, the 7-bit shift register transfers data at 7/12 of the original data transfer speed.
The area of the circuit pattern of the shift register corresponds to the number of bits. If the number of bits differs between a shift register corresponding to a high-density orifice array and that corresponding to a low-density orifice array, the area of the circuit pattern also differs between them, decreasing the circuit layout efficiency. The printhead also tends to be downsized, so it is necessary to lay out circuits more efficiently.

Print element substrate, printhead, and printing apparatus


This disclosure describes techniques for improving allocation of computing resources to computation of machine learning tasks, including on massive computing systems hosting machine learning models. A method includes a computing system, based on a computational metric trend and/or a predicted computational metric of a past task model, allocating a computing resource for computing of a machine learning task by a current task model prior to runtime of the current task model; computing the machine learning task by executing a copy of the current task model; quantifying a computational metric of the copy of the current task model; determining a computational metric trend based on the computational metric; deriving a predicted computational metric of the copy of the current task model based on the computational metric; and, based on the computational metric trend, changing allocation of a computing resource for computing of the machine learning task by the current task model.

Current machine learning models incur extensive computational overhead in the process of being executed by one or more processors to compute one or more machine learning tasks, such as training of the machine learning model or computing one or more datasets. Increasingly, computing resources at scales commonly required for machine learning task computation may be hosted at massive computing systems such as data centers, cloud computing systems, or combinations thereof. Massive computing systems may aggregate many distributed computing nodes which host physical or virtual processors, such as Central Processing Units ("CPUs"), or accelerators such as Graphical Processing Units ("GPUs").
Physical or virtual processors may include any number of cores, and extensive computing tasks such as machine learning tasks may be computed by multiple cores of multiple processors across multiple nodes, as well as multiple clusters. Moreover, many copies of a model may be distributed across the computing nodes for scaled concurrent processing of the same task at different copies. Due to magnitudes of computational loads typically incurred by machine learning tasks, the hosting and provision of such computing resources accessible remotely by massive computing systems are important services for most modern industries, as machine learning increasingly becomes a backbone of business decisions, intelligence, and research.
While it is desirable for the availability of hosted computing resources to be scalable to the individualized computing needs of customers, in practice, the actual scale of those computing needs is often not readily ascertained in advance. Most users of hosted computing resources are not necessarily persons skilled in the art of machine learning or implementation of machine learning models, and thus may not be equipped to determine, in advance of executing the computational tasks, a scale of computing resources required. Even for those skilled in the art, the behavior of machine learning models during training and computation may be unexpected, due to the complexity of many-layered artificial neural network ("ANN") models commonly implemented today.
Consequently, there is a need to better allocate computing resources for massive computing tasks.

Dynamic allocation and re-allocation of learning model computing resources


Systems and methods are provided for forming features through photolithography. A polymer layer is formed over a substrate. The polymer layer is patterned to form a first feature and a second feature, the first feature and the second feature being separated at a first distance. A rinse material is applied to the polymer layer including the first feature and the second feature. The rinse material is removed from the polymer layer including the first feature and the second feature to cause the first feature and the second feature to come into contact with each other. A third feature is formed based on the first feature and the second feature being in contact with each other.

With the rapid development of integrated circuit fabrication technology, integrated circuit components of different sizes often need to be fabricated on a single wafer. Photolithography that produces a three-dimensional image based on a patterned exposure to light and a subsequent development of a light-sensitive photo-resist on a wafer surface is often used to form certain features of different dimensions for fabricating various integrated circuit components on a single wafer.

Multi-line width pattern created using photolithography

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited


A system and method of reassembling packets from traffic flows in a network element is provided. Each of the packets has at least one data part. The method includes the steps (1) queuing each of the data parts of the packets of traffic flows in a single reassembly queue in a sorted order, the data parts of each of the packets being continuously grouped without data parts of another packet being interleaved therein and (2) reassembling the data parts of each of the packets queued in the single reassembly queue.

In a communications network, network elements such as switches and routers route data from traffic flows to their destinations. Cell-based network elements transmit data internally using fixed-length cells. Alternatively, traffic flows routed through the network element may comprise variable-length frames. In processing frames from a frame-based traffic flow routed through a cell-based network element, the frames are segmented into cells for switching or routing through the network element. The cells are then reassembled, after internal switching or routing, into the frames transmitted from the network element. As network elements are required to route data from an increasing number of traffic flows, the hardware resources required to segment and assemble frames from frame-based traffic flows increases.
There is a need for a system and method for assembling packets in a network element that minimizes the hardware resources required to segment and assemble frames from frame-based traffic flows.

System and method for reassembling packets in a network element