A method of forming a semiconductor device is provided including providing a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) wafer comprising a first semiconductor layer comprising a first material component and formed on a buried oxide (BOX) layer, and forming a channel region of a P-channel transistor device, including forming a second semiconductor layer only over a first portion of the first semiconductor layer, wherein the second semiconductor layer comprises the first material component and a second material component different from the first material component, forming an opening in the first semiconductor layer outside the first portion and subsequently performing a thermal anneal to push the second material component from the second semiconductor layer into the first semiconductor layer.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the subject matter disclosed herein relates to the field of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing P-channel transistor devices. More particularly, the subject matter disclosed herein relates to improved methods of forming P-channel transistor devices with channels comprising silicon-germanium materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits formed on semiconductor wafers typically include a large number of circuit elements, which form an electric circuit. In addition to active devices such as, for example, field effect transistors and/or bipolar transistors, integrated circuits can include passive devices such as resistors, inductors and/or capacitors. In particular, during the fabrication of complex integrated circuits using CMOS technology, millions of transistors, i.e., N-channel transistors and P-channel transistors, are formed on a substrate including a crystalline semiconductor layer.
A MOS transistor, for example, irrespective of whether an N-channel transistor or a P-channel transistor is considered, comprises so-called PN junctions that are formed by an interface of highly doped drain and source regions with an inversely or weakly doped channel region disposed between the drain region and the source region. The conductivity of the channel region, i.e., the drive current capability of the conductive channel, is controlled by a gate electrode formed near the channel region and separated therefrom by a thin insulating layer.
The conductivity of the channel region, upon formation of a conductive channel due to the application of an appropriate control voltage to the gate electrode, depends on, among other things, the dopant concentration, the mobility of the majority charge carriers and, for a given extension of the channel region in the transistor width direction, the distance between the source and drain regions, which is also referred to as channel length. Hence, in combination with the capability of rapidly creating a conductive channel below the insulating layer upon application of the control voltage to the gate electrode, the overall conductivity of the channel region substantially determines the performance of the MOS transistors. Thus, the reduction of the channel length, and associated therewith the reduction of the channel resistivity, renders the channel length a dominant design criterion for accomplishing an increase in the operating speed of the integrated circuits.
The continuing shrinkage of the transistor dimensions, however, involves a plurality of issues associated therewith that have to be addressed so as to not unduly offset the advantages obtained by steadily decreasing the channel length of MOS transistors. For example, highly sophisticated dopant profiles, in the vertical direction as well as in the lateral direction, are required in the drain and source regions to provide low sheet and contact resistivity in combination with a desired channel controllability. Moreover, the gate dielectric material may be adapted to the reduced channel length in order to maintain the required channel controllability. However, some mechanisms for obtaining a high channel controllability may also have a negative influence on the charge carrier mobility in the channel region of the transistor, thereby partially offsetting the advantages gained by the reduction of the channel length.
Since the continuous size reduction of the critical dimensions, i.e., the gate length of the transistors, necessitates the adaptation and possibly the new development of highly complex process techniques and may also contribute to less pronounced performance gain due to mobility degradation, it has been proposed to enhance the channel conductivity of the transistor elements by increasing the charge carrier mobility in the channel region for a given channel length, thereby offering the potential for achieving a performance improvement that is comparable with the advance to a future technology node while avoiding or at least postponing many of the process adaptations associated with device scaling.
Moreover, current technologies providing more compact and functional electronic devices require semiconductor devices with exactly adjusted threshold voltages at differ threshold voltage levels. Conventionally, some measures for tuning the threshold voltage involve performing implantation processes which are adapted for each semiconductor device type individually for appropriately setting the required threshold voltage to a desired value. For example, halo implantation processes are conventionally performed for adjusting the threshold voltage when fabricating modern semiconductor devices, such as MOS transistors, with short channels, e.g., less than 50 nm channel length. Herein, the accordingly formed halo regions encompass source and drain extension regions of each transistor towards the channel. Basically, halo regions are regions doped with dopants of similar conductivity type as those that are present in the surrounding active region, therefore representing counter-doped regions with regard to the source and drain doping. However, the dopant concentration in halo regions is higher as compared to the surrounding active regions. At present, halo regions represent conventional measures employed for reducing so-called short channel effects which appear at small gate lengths scales and short channel lengths scales, respectively. It is apparent that, with devices of various device types or flavors possibly being formed in different regions across a single semiconductor wafer, individual tuning in each region becomes necessary in order to minimize unwanted variations. The result is a complex process flow, even posing the risk of introducing unacceptably high variations of the threshold voltage across the wafer due to the inclusion of new processes.
With respect to improved control of the threshold voltages and enhanced channel conductivities, i.e., carrier mobility, PMOS SOI devices have been introduced that comprise strained silicon germanium channels (cSiGe).
FIGS. 1a and 1b show an example of the conventional CMOS FDSOI manufacturing of a semiconductor device by integrating strained SiGe channel PFET and silicon channel NFET devices. As shown in FIG. 1a, on an SOT wafer comprising a substrate 1, a thin buried oxide layer 2 and a silicon layer 3, an NFU area and a PFET area are defined. An SiGe layer 4 is epitaxially formed on a portion of the silicon layer 3 of the PFET region. After thermal oxidation enhanced condensation, the SiGe/silicon bi-layer is converted into a single SiGe layer 4′ as shown in FIG. 1b. Typically, the single SiGe layer 4′ has a thickness in a range from about 8-12 nm. The thin buried oxide layer 2 of the SOI wafer may have a comparable thickness of about 10-25 nm. After completion of the condensation process performed to obtain the single SiGe layer 4′, an isolation structure 5, for example, a shallow trench isolation (STI), is formed in order to electrically isolate the NFET area from the PFET area.
However, in the art, the problem arises that, during the condensation process, the thin SiGe layer 4′ that is not sufficiently stabilized by the thin buried oxide layer 2 starts warping. The resulting deformation of the SiGe layer 4′ negatively affects the reliability and performance of the resulting PFETs.
Therefore, the present invention provides techniques for manufacturing PFET devices comprising SiGe channels wherein the above-described problems are efficiently mitigated.

Method of manufacturing P-channel FET device with SiGe channel


An image sensor includes a light-electron conversion unit, a signal generation unit, and a selection unit. The light-electron conversion unit generates photo-charges from incident light. The signal generation unit accumulates photo-charges from the converter in a storage node during a detection period, and then generates a first analog signal and a second analog signal during an output period. The analog signals are generated based on an amount of photo-charges accumulated in the storage node. The selection unit generates an image signal based on one of the first analog signal and the second analog signal.

1. Field
One or more embodiments described herein relate to an image sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, analog signals outputted from unit pixels of an image sensor vary for a same incident light due to the respective characteristics of each pixel. This variation is referred to as a fixed pattern noise (FPN). FPN may reduce the quality of an image output from the image sensor.

Image sensor and computing system having the same


This application relates to the wireless communications field and provides a frame transmission method, device, and system. The method includes: sending, by a second device, n wake-up frames to a first device, where the n wake-up frames each carry segmented content of wake-up signaling, so that a wake-up receiver of the first device wakes up a main transceiver of the first device based on the n wake-up frames, and after being woken up, the main transceiver sends, to the second device, a response frame used to indicate whether the n wake-up frames are correctly received. In this application, content of the wake-up signaling is segmented. In this case, lengths of the n wake-up frames are all relatively short, so that the wake-up receiver is easier to correctly receive each wake-up frame.

With development of science and technologies, communication performed through a wireless local area network becomes more popular in people's life. A device capable of performing communication through a wireless local area network usually includes a main transceiver that can send and receive data. In actual application, to reduce power consumption of the device, the main transceiver may enter a sleep state when the main transceiver does not send and receive data. In addition, when data needs to be received and sent, to enable the main transceiver to be woken up, that is, to be switched from the sleep state to a working state, a wake-up receiver may be further provided in the device. The wake-up receiver may enter a working state when the main transceiver is in the sleep state. The wake-up receiver may receive a wake-up frame sent by another device, and wake up the main transceiver after receiving the wake-up frame, in other words, control the main transceiver to switch from the sleep state to the working state. In this way, first, the main transceiver can be woken up in time, and data reception and transmission latencies are reduced; second, a circuit structure of the wake-up receiver is simple, and therefore power consumption of the wake-up receiver in the working state is far lower than that of the main transceiver, so that power consumption of the device can be reduced.
In a related technology, the other device may send the wake-up frame to the wake-up receiver. The wake-up frame may carry wake-up signaling, and the wake-up signaling may include a timestamp, wake-up time, a wake-up cycle, a main-transceiver receive working mode (such as a quantity of received streams and receive bandwidth), a channel number, and the like. The wake-up receiver may wake up the main transceiver based on the received wake-up frame, and the main transceiver may send and receive data based on parameters for data reception and transmission in the wake-up frame. If the wake-up frame is not correctly received by the wake-up receiver, the other device needs to retransmit the wake-up frame to the wake-up receiver.
In a process of implementing this application, the inventor finds that the prior art has at least the following problems:
Wake-up signaling carried in a wake-up frame includes much content, and therefore the wake-up frame has a relatively long length. This causes that a wake-up receiver easily fails to correctly receive the wake-up frame. If the wake-up receiver does not correctly receive the wake-up frame, another device needs to retransmit the wake-up frame. Consequently, not only a relatively long transmission time needs to be consumed, but also the retransmitted wake-up frame very possibly fails to be correctly received. As a result, the existing wake-up frame has relatively weak robustness.

Device and method of transmitting wake-up frames


This disclosure relates to methods and compositions for stimulating in an individual an influenza A virus protective response which is subtype cross-protective. Influenza A virus NS1 protein, or a T cell epitope thereof, is administered to the individual in an amount sufficient to stimulate the virus protective response.

Influenza A virus is a large RNA-containing animal virus. The protein capsid of the virus is further enclosed in a lipid bilayer-based envelope containing protruding spikes of viral glycoprotein. Three influenza A serotypes have been identified (H1, H2 and H3); the classification based upon differences in the viral glycoprotein.
Upon infection by the Influenza A virus, the body produces antibodies to variable regions of the surface glycoproteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). This response results in the production of virus-specific antibodies which constitute the primary defense of the immune system. These antibodies provide immunological pressure which leads to antigenic drift within viral subtypes, as well as shifts between viral subtypes. This relatively high rate of mutagenesis can render vaccine preparations ineffective because the antigenic determinants of the mutated viral proteins can differ significantly from those of the protein used as immunogen resulting in the failure of the body to effectively deal with the infection.
Two central components of the immune system are the B cells and T cells, both of which are lymphocytes. The lymphocyte lineage diverges at the prelymphoblast stage into distinct sublineages. B cells produce and secrete antibody molecules; a process generally referred to as the humoral response. T cells are responsible for a variety of cellular responses referred to generally as cell mediated immune responses.
B cells develop antigen specificity even in the absence of antigen stimulation. It has been estimated, for example, that the preimmune repertoire of a mouse comprises a class having many millions of different antibody molecules. This preimmune repertoire is apparently large enough to insure B cell specificity for almost any potential antigenic determinant.
Current inactivated whole or subunit influenza vaccines provide B cell mediated (humoral) immunity in that they induce antibodies which are directed toward antigenic determinants of the surface glycoproteins of the virus. The first presentation of an influenza antigen to a B cell specific for the antigen (e.g., at the time of vaccination) results in the maturation of the B cell into a plasma cell which is highly specialized for antibody production. Upon a second encounter with the same antigen, a rapid and increased secondary response results. The foreign antigen is bound by the specific antibody followed by clearance of the bound antigen from the bloodstream.
However, in the case of influenza A, the production of virus-neutralizing antibodies provides immunological pressure which leads to antigenic drift within viral subtypes, as well as shifts between viral subtypes. Vaccines which are directed against antigenic sites do not elicit a broadly cross-reactive (i.e., protective against all influenza A virus subtypes) B cell response. Furthermore, the mutations which result from this immunological pressure can render current vaccines ineffective.
T cells comprise a class of cells which, although they do not produce circulating antibodies, do play a central role in the immune system. The T cell class includes helper T cells, cytotoxic T cells and suppressor T cells. Helper T cells function, in part, by augmenting the response of other lymphocytes. for example, helper T cells stimulate activated T lymphocytes, in addition to stimulating B cells activation, by secreting interleukins as well as other soluble factors. Cytotoxic T cells (also referred to as killer T cells), on the other hand, function by destroying cells marked with a particular antigen (e.g., cells infected by virus).
T cells are stimulated by the recognition of a T cell epitope, in combination with a class I or a class II major histocompatibility (MHC) antigen, on the surface of an antigen presenting cell. Macrophages belong to the class of antigen presenting cells. Macrophages are phagocytes which ingest foreign particles in the body. These cells are capable of ingesting even large microorganisms such as protozoa. Following ingestion, the antigen presenting cell digests the foreign particle and fragments of the foreign particle are displayed on the surface of the cell.
T cell epitopes differ fundamentally from B cell epitopes. B cell epitopes are antigenic determinants found in the native antigen molecule and not represented in the denatured antigen or fragments thereof. T cell epitopes, on the other hand, are found on unfolded molecules or fragments thereof. Furthermore, the T cell epitopes comprise helper T cell epitopes and cytotoxic T cells epitopes. These epitopes are thought to be contained by distinct, albeit possibly overlapping, portions of the antigen molecule.
Influenza A virus infection continues to cause epidemics of death and tremendous morbidity throughout the world today even though the etiological agent is known. A great deal of effort has been devoted to the development of a vaccine, to little avail. A need exists for an effective influenza A vaccination strategy which could provide cross-subtype immunity from Influenza A viral infection.

University of Massachusetts Medical Center


A system and a method are disclosed for alerting a manager device to an occurrence of an event an agent device during a conversation between the agent device and an external party. N an embodiment, a processor receives transcript data during a conversation between the agent device and the external party. The processor normalizing the transcript data, and inputs the normalized transcript data into a machine learning model, the machine learning model trained to identify an inflection point in the conversation. The processor receives, as output from the machine learning model, a measure of notability of the normalized transcript data. The processor determines whether the measure of notability corresponds to an inflection point, and, responsive to determining that the measure of notability corresponds to an inflection point, alerts the manager device.

A critical need of enterprise businesses is to understand the make-up of conversations between them and their customers. By understanding the makeup of conversations, business can determine which of those conversations are important to act on.
Unfortunately, it has been historically difficult to analyze conversations, because key metrics are not available, and key moments are often not known. The problem is not channel specific either, as it may occur in any domain involving back-forth-conversations, such as chat, SMS, and phone.
Examples of these metrics include, but are not limited to Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Sales Conversion, and First Contact Resolution.
Related art implementations are not optimized for prediction of a specific metric or moments in the conversation. An example would be sentiment analysis. While related art systems may achieve a weak signal of happiness/anger for a customer, these related art systems do not have an accurate correlation to actual customer survey scores which today's enterprises use to make key decisions. Even weaker is their ability to identify which moment in the conversation affected the metrics most.
Even with the advent of modern machine learning techniques, like Artificial neural networks, related art implementations have failed to develop a model architecture that utilizes normalized data sources well to achieve high quality results.

Real time key conversational metrics prediction and notability


Provided is a refrigerator. The refrigerator includes a cabinet defining a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment, a heat exchange chamber defined in a side of the cabinet to provide a space for receiving an evaporator, a storage compartment defined in the cabinet, the storage compartment being independent from the refrigerating compartment, the freezing compartment, and the heat exchange chamber, a supply duct assembly connecting the heat exchange chamber to the storage compartment to provide a cool air supply passage, and a guide duct communicating with the supply duct assembly, the guide duct extending from a rear surface of the storage compartment up to a front portion of the storage compartment to guide cool air into a front side of the storage compartment. The guide duct discharges the cool air from the front portion of the storage compartment toward the inside of the storage compartment.

Embodiments relate to a refrigerator.
In general, refrigerators are home appliances for storing foods at a low temperature in an inner storage space covered by a door. That is, since such a refrigerator cools the inside of a storage space using cool air generated by heat-exchanging with a refrigerant circulating a refrigeration cycle, foods stored in the storage space may be stored in an optimum state.
With the change in dietary life and well-being trends, large and multifunctional refrigerators have been introduced, and also refrigerators are being developed in various shapes for user's convenience.
In recent, a storage compartment having an independent space is defined in a cabinet of a refrigerator in addition to a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment. Also, refrigerators which can use the storage compartment as the refrigerating compartment or the freezing compartment by adjusting a temperature within the storage compartment through cool air supplied into the storage compartment are being released in markets. Also, the storage compartment communicates with the freezing compartment or a heat exchange chamber to receive cool air. In general, the storage compartment may have a structure in which the cool air is discharged forward from a rear surface thereof.
However, in case where the storage compartment is used as the refrigerating compartment, a flow rate of the cool air may be low. Also, in case where the storage compartment has a long length in a front and rear direction, the cool air is not moved into a front side of the storage compartment due to the insufficient flow rate of the cool air. Thus, the cool air is suctioned again and introduced into the freezing compartment or the heat exchange chamber.
Specifically, a front surface on which a door is disposed is relatively weak in view of thermal insulation in a structure of a refrigerator. Thus, the front surface of the refrigerator may be greatly influenced by an external temperature. As a result, an internal temperature of the storage compartment may be non-uniformly distributed to reduce storage performance.


A method of establishing a multiplicity of shared secrets at two mutually authenticated end points in a network. The method includes authenticating a first end point in the network based on an asymmetric key pair and authenticating a second end point based on an asymmetric key pair. Upon successful authentication of the first and second end points, the end points negotiate a shared secret. Multiple shared secret keys are generated from the negotiated shared secret and session keys are computed from the multiple shared secret keys.

In bandwidth and power constrained environments, such as mobile telephony, it is important to minimize the data and complexity of processing that is required by protocols that establish secure real-time communication of data over a network.
There is an established field of real-time communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, which underpins widespread applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP). There are standard protocols such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) which support unencrypted real-time traffic. Secure RTP (SRTP) has been extended to encrypt real-time traffic. However, none of these protocols are well suited for bandwidth limited environments.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional system using the above-mentioned protocols. A mobile end point (110) communicates over a wireless network (100) with an IP network (200). The IP network contains a SIP stateful proxy (210), a second SIP stateful proxy (211) and a SIP stateless proxy (220). A mobile end point (110) invites another end point (120) to establish a call, using the SIP protocol, by passing messages to (210), (220) and (211). The SIP stateful servers exchange the final call-setup SIP messages by communicating directly between each other. When the call is set-up, each end point communicates directly with the other and the end points send the real-time data to each other without encryption using RTP, or encrypted using SRTP.
SRTP supports symmetric VoIP data encryption with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). To encrypt a call using SRTP, the end points must first obtain a shared secret encryption key. Then they each use that key to encrypt the voice data that passes between them.
In some conventional systems, each end point selects the session key from a list of keys that have previously been loaded into each end point using a secure method, which often involves physical delivery to the end point or each end point securely obtains the session key over the network from a key server. Both scenarios are bandwidth intensive. Moreover, use of a key server constitutes an aggregated risk.
The present disclosure is directed toward, but not limited to, improving the above noted problems by providing minimal protocol messages to provide secure real-time communication in a bandwidth limited network environment.

Method of providing real-time secure communication between end points in a network


A table assembly includes a tabletop including an annular frame, a top having the periphery thereof received in the annular frame, a plurality of L-shaped connectors each having a vertical section received in the annular frame and abutting the bottom surface of the top, and a horizontal section extending outward from the annular frame, and a leg module mounted under the tabletop and including a plurality legs each having its upper end portion detachably secured to the horizontal section of one of the corresponding connectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a table assembly, and more particularly to a table assembly easily assembled and dismantled.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional table assembly in accordance with the prior art shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 comprises a tabletop (50) including an annular frame (52), a top (51) having the periphery thereof received in the annular frame (52), and a plurality of cushions (53) each securely received in the annular frame (52) and each abutting the bottom surface of the top (51), and a leg module (60) mounted under the tabletop (50) and including a plurality legs (61) each having its upper end portion secured to the annular frame (52). The annular frame (52) includes a plurality of ears (54) extending laterally from the lower portion thereof and containing a hole (55), and each of the legs (61) includes a threaded post (62) extending upward from the upper end portion thereof and extending through the hole (55), and a locking nut (65) screwed onto the threaded post (62) to secure the tabletop (50) on the leg module (60). However, such an arrangement, requires a tool to unscrew the locking nut (65) from the threaded post (62) such that the tabletop (50) is not easily mounted to and detached from the leg module (20), thereby making assembly and disassembly of the table difficult. The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the disadvantage of the conventional table assembly.

No. 80, Kengtsai Pin, Hoping Village, Chuchi Hsiang


Examples provide two-tiered scheduling within a cluster. A coarse-grained analysis is performed on a candidate set of hosts to select a host for a virtual computing instance based on optimization of at least one resource. A host is selected based on the analysis results. The identified virtual computing instance is placed on the selected host. A fine-grained analysis is performed on a set of communication graphs for a plurality of virtual computing instances to generate a set of penalty scores. A set of communicating virtual computing instances are selected based on the set of penalty scores. A first virtual computing instance from a first host is relocated to a second host to minimize a distance between the first virtual computing instance and a second virtual computing instance. Relocating the first virtual computing instance reduces at least one penalty score for the set of communicating virtual computing instances.

A cluster is a collection of hosts in which processor, memory, storage, and other hardware resources are aggregated for utilization by the hosts in the cluster. A host is capable of running one or more virtual computing instances, such as virtual machines (VMs). A VM typically includes an operating system (OS) running one or more applications to perform a workload. VMs running on a host utilize cluster resources to perform the workloads. However, if a VM is placed on a host with insufficient resources available to meet the resource demands of the VMs, the host becomes overloaded.
In some existing solutions, one or more VMs on an overloaded host may be relocated to a different host in the cluster in an attempt to remediate the overloaded host. A scheduler is utilized in some systems to select a host for placement of VMs and balance the resource utilization among the hosts in the cluster. However, these placement and relocation decisions are frequently made based on insufficient information regarding resource demands of the VMs and resource availability of the hosts. This frequently results in sub-optimal placement of VMs, unbalanced hosts, network saturation, overloading of network links, and/or overall inefficient utilization of available cluster resources.

Resource based virtual computing instance scheduling


In a mascara brush comprising a plurality of bristles retained between two intertwisted wire sections, the bristles being trimmed to define the contour of the brush, it is provided, with a view to obtaining clearly improved handling and combing properties, that the bristles are trimmed so that on the one hand, seen in a cross-section, they are asymmetric in such a way that the bristles have a shorter extension from the intertwisted wire sections towards one side while having a longer extension towards the other side, and that on the other hand, seen in a longitudinal section, the bristles are also trimmed asymmetrically in such a way that they have varying lengths.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mascara brush comprising a plurality of bristles retained between two intertwisted wire sections, the bristles being trimmed to define the contour of the brush.
2. Background Art
Mascara brushes serve for the application of mascara from a reservoir onto the lashes. A fundamental demand on brushes of the generic type consists of ensuring sufficient transfer of mascara on the one hand and advantageous combing and care properties on the other.
Conventionally, mascara brushes are manufactured in such a way that bristles are held between two intertwisted wire sections, the contour of the brush being shaped by trimming the bristle tips after the intertwisting operation. The most frequent contour is a cylindrical configuration, because such a symmetric cut can easily be produced by the brush being moved in rotation along stationary knives.
In principle, it is also known to design the length of the bristles asymmetrically relative to the central longitudinal axis of the brush. To this end, rotating knives can be provided, having an axis of rotation out of the central longitudinal axis of the brush.
In order to obtain combing properties that vary along the brush, it is further known, during the equipment of the brush, to provide bristles of varying properties, for instance varying thickness and/or rigidity.


The present invention provides means useful for making devices, materials and the like that are excellent in photocatalytic activity, electric property or the like. Specifically, the present invention provides a fusion protein comprising a polypeptide portion capable of forming a multimer having an internal cavity, and a first peptide portion capable of binding to a first target substance and a second peptide portion capable of binding to a second target substance; a multimer of the fusion protein; a complex comprising the multimer of the fusion protein; and the like.

Ferritin forms a 24-meric structure, and stores iron that is a metal essential for living organisms in an internal cavity formed by its structure. Ferritin-like proteins are ubiquitously present in organisms from animals and plants to microorganisms, and profoundly involved in homeostasis of an iron element in the living organisms and cells. One of the ferritin-like proteins that the microorganisms have is called Dps (DNA-binding protein from starved cells). Dps forms a 12-meric structure consisting of a monomer unit having a molecular weight of about 18 kDa, thereby forming a cage-like structure having an external diameter of 9 nm which has an internal cavity with a diameter of about 5 nm, and can store an iron molecule as an iron oxide nanoparticle in this internal cavity. Furthermore, it was shown that ferritin is able to artificially store the nanoparticles including oxides of metals such as beryllium, gallium, manganese, phosphorus, uranium, lead, cobalt, nickel, and chromium, and semiconductors/magnetic substances such as cadmium selenide, zinc sulfide, iron sulfide and cadmium sulfide, in addition to iron. Thus, ferritin is actively studied on its application in semiconductor material engineering and medical fields (Non-patent Literature 1)
In addition, peptides capable of binding to the inorganic material or the organic material are developed by screening using a phage for the purpose of making a complex of a biomaterial and an inorganic material or an organic material. For example, the peptides that recognize carbon nanotube (CNT) and carbon nanohorn (CNH) (Non-patent Literature 2, Patent Literatures 1 and 3), titanium oxide (Patent Literature 2), gold (Non-patent Literature 3), zinc oxide (Non-patent Literature 5), germanium oxide (Non-patent Literature 6), and zinc sulfide and cadmium sulfide (Non-patent Literature 7) and the like are known as such peptides.
Nanographite structures such as CNT and CNH that are carbon crystalline structures are expected to be applied to electronic materials, catalysis, optical materials, medical technology, and the like by constructing a complex with the other nanomaterial based on their electric properties and structures. Technology of constructing a nanocomplex by attaching the nanographite structure with metal nanoparticles using ferritin fused with a CNH binding peptide is reported (Non-patent Literature 2 and Patent Literature 3).
Titanium oxide generates an electron having a reduction capacity and a hole having an oxidation capacity on its surface by light energy when receiving the light. By taking advantage of its oxidation capacity and reduction capacity, titanium oxide is attempted to be applied to antimicrobial materials, deodorant materials, air cleaning materials, anti-stain materials, hydrogen generating catalysts, solar cells, and the like (Non-patent Literature 11). For example, when hydroxide ion is oxidized utilizing the oxidation capacity generated on the surface of titanium oxide by the light, radical having strong oxidation capacity can be generated. The radical can enhance biocidal effects, effects of decomposing odor substances such as acetaldehyde and ammonia, effects of decomposing harmful substances such as NOx and formaldehyde in air, and effects of decomposing dusts by its oxidation capacity. It is also attempted that water is electrolyzed utilizing the generated oxidation reduction capacities to produce oxygen and hydrogen and the hydrogen is utilized as clean energy. Titanium oxide can be utilized as the solar cell by isolating excited electrons generated in titanium oxide by light. Titanium oxide can be functioned as the solar cell by adsorbing a dye as an enhancer to the surface of the titanium oxide and isolating the excited electrons generated by irradiating the dye with light.
In order to enhance a performance of such materials utilizing the titanium oxide, it is conceivable to increase a surface area of the titanium oxide and enhance electric properties of the titanium oxide. Specifically, the increase of the surface area of the titanium oxide can increase total numbers of electrons having reduction capacity and holes having oxidation capacity which are generated by light energy, and a total number of dyes adsorbed to the surface. In addition, the enhancement of the electric properties can decrease a probability that electrons excited by light are bound again to holes. Thus, more electrons and oxidation capacity can be obtained.
To date, technology of laminating an oxide film and nanoparticles by arranging the nanoparticles on a silicon substrate, forming a titanium oxide film or a silicon oxide film on the nanoparticles, and arranging the nanoparticles on the oxide film, which technology utilizes a metal encapsulating protein, ferritin fused with titanium oxide, is known (Patent Literature 4). It is also reported that a protein encapsulating metal nanoparticles of cobalt or an iron oxide is oriented on a pattern depicted by titanium utilizing the metal encapsulating protein, ferritin fused with titanium oxide (Non-patent Literature 8).
Further, it is also reported that a CNT surface is coated with titanium oxide to change the electric property of CNT by using a polypeptide consisting of 35 amino acid residues in which a CNT-binding peptide was fused to a titanium oxide-binding peptide (Non-patent Literature 10). Technology of coating the carbon nanotube with titanium oxide using virus (Non-patent Literature 11) and technology of coating the carbon nanotube with titanium using polyoxometalate (Non-patent Literature 12) is also reported.


A torque transferring and monitoring device includes a coupling having a hub portion, a first rim portion, a first set of spokes radially extending between the hub portion and the first rim portion, a second rim portion spaced apart from the first rim portion and a second set of spokes radially extending between the hub portion and the second rim portion. The second set of spokes are axially spaced apart from the first set of spokes. A plurality of pins are fixed to the first rim portion. Each pin has a portion positioned in an aperture formed in the second rim portion. The pin is clear of the second rim portion when the coupling is in an unloaded state. The pin engages the second rim portion to transfer load between the first and second rim portions when a torque exceeding a predetermined magnitude is transferred through the coupling.

The present disclosure relates to a torquemeter for monitoring torque transferred between rotating shafts. In particular, the torquemeter of the present disclosure provides a dual load path to assure that a desired quantity of torque may be transmitted through the torquemeter. Kop-Flex has successfully sold torquemeters constructed in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,269 entitled Flexible Coupling with Torque Measuring and Detecting Device, which is herein incorporated by reference. Another commonly owned torquemeter is patented under U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,761 which is also herein incorporated by reference. The existing Kop-Flex torquemeters were typically used in torque transfer applications that had a low threat of high transient torques. More recently, torquemeters are being installed and/or requested for use in a wider variety of applications. Many of the new applications subject the torquemeter to relatively large transient torques.
The new application criterion creates a design challenge. To provide a torquemeter with a desired accuracy at a nominal torque level, the torquemeter must exhibit a measurable amount of torsional twist. As such, the torquemeter must be relatively torsionally soft. A contradicting requirement arises with the need to transmit large transient torques. If a large transient torque were transmitted through a torquemeter designed for a much lower nominal torque, the components may become overstressed and may no longer transmit torque. On the other hand, if the torquemeter is designed to transmit the full maximum transient torque, a measurable amount of torsional twist will not occur and the torque measurement will be at best inaccurate.
Furthermore, new applications require that some member other than the torquemeter be the weakest link in the torque transfer driveline. For example, some turbo-machinery customers require that a flexible element be the weakest link in the driveline. Failing flexible element components may be more easily contained in the unlikely event of a catastrophic failure. As such, the torquemeter must be rated to transfer a quantity of torque at least greater than that of the weakest link in the driveline. Furthermore, recently designed turbo-machinery operates at higher power and increased rotational speeds as compared to earlier designs. As such, torquemeters that are limited to operation on applications less than 8000 rpm may not meet the needs of the customers.
Accordingly, to address the changes in turbo-machinery requirements and applications for torquemeters, it may be desirable to provide an improved torquemeter.

Torque measuring device with redundant torque transmission paths and fail-safe mechanism


An improved process for preparing a cation exchange material from peat selected from sphagnum or reed-sedge peat for improving the ion exchange capability of the peat. The raw peat is initially dried and ground to a particle size of less than about one millimeter, after which the particulate material is hydrolyzed in an acid solution of moderate strength for separation of soluble components. The hydrolyzed material is then refluxed in an organic solvent, such as a mixture of 2-propanol and toluene in a 1:2 volume ratio. Following removal of residual solvent, the peat is reacted with warm concentrated sulfuric acid, and thereafter ground or milled to a desirable particle size.

The present invention relates generally to a process for preparing cation exchange materials from peat, and more particularly to a process for improving the ion exchange capability of peat for removal of toxic and other metal ions from solution and the product produced therefrom.
Ion exchange processes are widely used for removal of certain cations from aqueous solution, including in particular, metal ions which are toxic. Certain ion exchange processes have been utilized to purify water through removal of toxic or otherwise undesirable cations by replacement in solution with less harmful or substantially innocuous ions. In other words, those ions, particularly toxic metal cations, are retained by the exchange material, while releasing generally harmless ions into the treated aqueous solution. The quality of water is accordingly improved through treatment with various ion exchange mediums.
In the past, it has been known to treat peat with sulfuric acid, and thereafter heating the treated peat. Such a process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,334, wherein certain organic carbonizable raw materials including peat have been treated with a strong sulfonating agent such as concentrated or fuming sulfuric acid. Similar processes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,191,060 and 2,191,063. While these materials have been useful for a variety of ion exchange applications, the present invention provides an improved ion exchange medium which is capable of higher capacities as well as higher preferences for certain undesirable and/or toxic metallic ions. Stated another way, the process of the present invention modifies the properties of peat so as to produce a peat-based product having improved ion exchange capacities and capabilities.

Ion exchange materials produced from hydrolyzed, debituminized, sulfonated peat


A process for producing a photoelectric conversion device comprising a substrate having a conductive surface, a semiconductor layer disposed on said conductive surface of said substrate, a transparent and conductive layer disposed on said semiconductor layer and a collecting electrode disposed on said transparent and conductive layer, wherein one or more defective portions formed at the semiconductor layer are repaired by means of electrolytic treatment using an electrolytic solution containing a material capable of providing an insulating material, wherein the conductive surface of the substrate is made an electrode, to thereby deposit an insulating material selectively at each of the defective portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a defect-free photoelectric conversion device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved process for producing a defect-free photoelectric conversion device such as a solar cell, photosensor, etc. while repairing a defective portion such as pinhole, hillock, or the like, which occurred during the preparation thereof.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, various studies have been made of large area photoelectric conversion devices such as solar cells, photosensors, electrophotographic photosensitive devices, flat panel displays, etc. Attention has been focused on non-single crystal semiconductors such as amorphous silicon semiconductors to constitute these large area semiconductor devices mainly because of their reasonable production cost.
For instance, there is known a pin junction type amorphous silicon solar cell as an example of such non-single crystal semiconductor device. In this solar cell, photocarriers are created in its semiconductor layer comprising an amorphous silicon semiconductor thin film when light impinges the solar cell. The photocarriers migrate to a transparent electrode comprising a transparent conductive thin film situated on the side through which light is impinged and also to a conductive substrate situated opposite the transparent electrode by the action of an internal electric field, to thereby provide a photoelectromotive force.
The conductive thin film forming the transparent electrode and the semiconductor thin film forming the semiconductor layer may be formed in a vacuum chamber in accordance with a plasma CVD method, a photo CVD method, a thermal CVD method, a vacuum evaporation method, or a sputtering method.
In the preparation of such amorphous silicon solar cell, there is often found a problem that a short circuit occurs between the transparent electrode and the conductive substrate due to pinholes formed at parts of the semiconductor layer.
There are various causes for such pinholes to be formed. For instance, in one case, since the transparent electrode is usually some hundreds of angstroms in thickness and the semiconductor layer is usually about 0.005 to some tens of .mu.m thick, minute dust particles (some micrometers to some tens of micrometers in size) are deposited on the surface of the conductive substrate or they are deposited on or contaminate the semiconductor layer during film formation, whereby pinholes are formed in the semiconductor layer.
In another case, pinholes are formed when part of the semiconductor layer is lost due to its internal stress or its insufficient adhesion with the transparent electrode. In this case, the transparent electrode situated on the side through which light is impinged and the conductive substrate situated opposite said electrode are connected with each other through said region to be in an electrically short-circuited state, and because of this, the result has extremely poor characteristics as a semiconductor device.
The occurrence of pinholes causing a short circuit is a serious problem particularly in the case of a large area photoelectric conversion device such as a solar cell, electrophotographic photosensitive device, etc. In any case, it is extremely difficult to obtain a large area photoelectric conversion device completely free of a short-circuited region even under a clean environment substantially free of minute dust particles.
In order to solve the above problem relative to occurrence of pinholes causing a short circuit, Japanese Patent Publication 62(1987)-53958 (hereinafter referred to as Literature 1) proposes a method of making the inside of each of the pinholes formed in the thin film semiconductor layer of a photosemiconductor to be in an electrically insulating state by perforating the electrode layer at the pinholes and communicating the pinholes of the thin film semiconductor layer with the pinholes of the electrode layer. Similarly, Japanese Patent Publication 62(1987)-59901 (hereinafter referred to as Literature 2) proposes a method of obviating pinholes formed in the thin film semiconductor layer of a semiconductor device by fusing the peripheries of the pinholes with radiation of energy beam.
FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b) are schematic views for explaining the method according to Literature 1.
In FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b), reference numeral 1 indicates a translucent substrate, reference numeral 2 indicates a translucent electrode layer, reference numeral 3 indicates a semiconductor layer comprising a thin semiconductor film, reference numeral 4 indicates a back electrode layer, reference numeral 5 indicates a pinhole in a short-circuited state, reference numeral 6 indicates a pinhole provided at the back electrode layer, reference numeral 7 indicates a laser beam, and reference numeral 8 indicates another laser beam.
The method according to Literature 1 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b). That is, after a plurality of semiconductor devices have been prepared, the semiconductor devices which are defective because of short circuits are sorted out. As for each of those defective semiconductor devices, beam scanning is performed while irradiating laser beam 7 through the other principal face of the translucent substrate as shown in FIG. 10(a). When the short circuit current is measured for the semiconductor device at the time of performing the beam scanning, short circuit current does not flow when the laser beam 7 is irradiated to the portion where a pinhole 5 in a short-circuited state is present. On the other hand, upon irradiating the laser beam 7 to other portions where such short-circuited state is not present, hole-electron pairs are created and they migrate in the semiconductor layer 3, whereby current flows. In view of this, the position where a pinhole 5 is present can be found for the semiconductor device by performing beam scanning using the laser beam 7.
As for the portion of the semiconductor layer where a pinhole 5 is present, the laser beam outputted from a YAG pulsed laser of 5.times.10.sup.6 W/cm.sup.2 peak output power is radiated through the back electrode layer 4 as shown by arrow 8 to thereby remove a short-circuited region comprising the material of the back electrode layer 4 which extends to the inside of the pinhole 5. Particularly, as shown in FIG. 10(b), a pinhole 6 is formed at the back electrode layer 4 such that it is coaxially in communication with the pinhole 5, whereby the inside of the pinhole 5 and that of the pinhole 6 are in an electrically insulating state.
FIGS. 10(c), 10(d), and 10(e) are schematic views for explaining the method according to Literature 2.
In FIGS. 10(c), 10(d), and 10(e), reference numeral 1 indicates a translucent substrate, reference numeral 2 indicates a translucent electrode layer, reference numeral 3 indicates a semiconductor layer comprising a thin semiconductor film, reference numeral 4 indicates a back electrode layer, reference numeral 5 indicates a pinhole in a short-circuited state, reference numeral reference 7 indicates a laser beam, and reference numeral 9 indicates a photosensor.
Translucent electrode 2 is formed on a translucent substrate 1 and then, a thin film semiconductor layer 3 is formed on the translucent electrode 2. As for the device thus obtained, beam scanning is performed on the semiconductor layer 3 by irradiating laser beam 7 from an Ar gas laser of an extremely low output power through the rear side of the semiconductor layer 3 and moving a photosensor 9 arranged on the side of the translucent substrate 1 opposite the Ar gas laser, in synchronism with the scanning of the laser beam 7, as shown in FIG. 10(c), to thereby determine whether or not the semiconductor layer 3 contains a pinhole 5. In this case, if such pinhole 5 is not present at the portion of the semiconductor layer 3 where the laser beam 7 is irradiated, the laser beam 7 is absorbed by the semiconductor 3 and does not reach the photosensor 9. On the other hand, if such pinhole 5 is present at the portion of the semiconductor layer 3 where the laser beam 7 is irradiated, the laser beam 7 reaches the photosensor 9, and based on a signal outputted from the photosensor 9 at that time, the position where the pinhole 5 is present is detected.
When the presence of the pinhole 5 is optically detected as above described, a laser beam of about 2 to 3 W/cm.sup.2 in power outputted from, for example, an Ar gas laser of 514.5 nm wavelength instead of the laser beam 7 is irradiated to the portion where the pinhole 5 is present, to thereby fuse the peripheries of the pinhole 5 with respect to the semiconductor layer 3, whereby the pinhole 5 is filled with the material of the semiconductor layer 3, as shown in FIG. 10(d). The filled portion of the semiconductor layer 3 is initially in a fused state but it is eventually cooled, wherein the material of the filled portion is changed from an amorphous state to a polycrystalline state or the like and the photoelectric junction is broken. Thus, the filled portion functions substantially as an insulator.
Finally, as shown in FIG. 10(e), a 2,000 to 10,000 .ANG. thick aluminum layer as a back electrode 4 is laminated on the semiconductor layer 3 having the above portion filled by a vacuum evaporation technique.
The above-mentioned methods are effective in order to solve the foregoing problems relative to short circuits caused by pinholes formed in the semiconductor layer to a certain extent, but there still exist such problems as will be mentioned below, which are necessary to be solved.
In the case of the method according to Literature 1, there is a problem that it takes a long period of time in order to detect a number of pinholes present in the semiconductor layer of a large area by way of the laser beam scanning process.
There is also another problem for the method according to Literature 1. That is, as is apparent from FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b), the pinhole 6 is left as is, in any case. Such pinhole must to be filled in practice. Particularly, in the case of a semiconductor device in which a pinhole is left without being filled, water, alkali metal, or the like are apt to enter therethrough upon use. Once water or/and alkali metal, etc. enter thereinto, the semiconductor device will be quickly deteriorated. However, in order to fill up such pinhole, not only a specific technique is required but it also takes time, and because of this, the resulting product becomes unavoidably costly.
Likewise, there are problems also for the method according to Literature 2. That is, in the case of the method according to Literature 2, as is apparent from FIGS. 10(c) through 10(e), the pinhole 5 is filled by fusing the peripheries thereof, but this process is performed prior to forming the back electrode layer 4, and because of this, a pinhole which is formed at the time of forming the back electrode layer on the semiconductor layer 3 having the filled portion is unavoidably left without being filled. In addition to this, since the filling of the pinhole 5 is performed through the laser beam-irradiating process which takes time while exposing the semiconductor layer 3 to environmental atmosphere, the quality of the semiconductor 3 is apt to deteriorate during the filling process. Further in addition, powdery materials are formed when the semiconductor layer 3 is liquefied or vaporized because of heat from the laser beam irradiated thereto, wherein such powdery materials are scattered and deposited on the surface of the semiconductor layer and as a result, the device becomes defective in its characteristics.
As for the method according to Literature 2, there are disadvantages in that it takes a long period of time in order to detect a number of pinholes present at the semiconductor layer of a large area by way of the laser beam process; and it is extremely difficult to fill all such numerous pinholes uniformly by way of the laser beam fusing process.
In view of the above, in the case of the method according to Literature 2, if a desirable semiconductor device should be obtained, it will be unavoidably costly.

Process for producing a defect-free photoelectric conversion device


A steering wheel in a vehicle can be in one of an operating position and a stowed position. Crash sensor data is monitored to detect a first and second frontal collision. Upon detecting the first frontal collision, a selected one of a first airbag and a second airbag is deployed depending on whether the steering wheel is in the stowed position or the operational position. When the steering wheel is in the operational position and a second collision is detected both the first and second airbags may be deployed.

Autonomous vehicles are becoming more sophisticated. As the level of sophistication increases, the amount of passenger interaction required by the autonomous vehicle decreases. Eventually, autonomous vehicles may require no passenger interaction beyond, e.g., selecting a destination, leaving passengers to focus on non-driving-related tasks. However, a human operator may remain "in the driver's seat," i.e., proximate to vehicle components such as a steering wheel, accelerator, brake pedal, gearshift lever, etc., and may have an ability to exercise control over such components. Depending on whether a vehicle is operating in an autonomous mode or a non-autonomous mode, a vehicle occupant's posture, position, etc. within the vehicle may differ. Further, positions of vehicle interior components such as seats controls, etc., may differ for autonomous and non-autonomous driving. Unfortunately, vehicle safety mechanisms, such as occupant restraints, are generally not designed to account for and take advantage of various possible vehicle interior configurations and/or autonomous and non-autonomous driving scenarios.

Dual airbags in vehicle with reconfigurable interior


Provided is an information display medium that can enhance a forgery prevention effect. An information display medium (100) includes a light reflection layer (20) made of a metal or a metallic oxide and partially or fully placed on one surface of a substrate, and the light reflection layer (20) includes a first region (30) where first information is displayed by either of or a combination of an outline shape and a shape of an uneven region, and a second information display region (21a) where identification information formed by partial material removal of the light reflection layer (20), the second information display region being set to partially or fully overlap with the light reflection layer (20) where the first information is displayed in the first region (30).

An article, e.g., a valuable security such as a bank note or a gift voucher, a certificate, a brand-name product, an expensive product, an electronic device, or a personal identification medium is require is difficult to forge for protect value and information of the article from others. In view of this, a forgery prevention technology or an information display method that makes difficult to forge is incorporated in such articles.
For instance, an information display medium that is hard to forge may be attached to the article or a display part may be formed in a part of the article to make it difficult to forge.
For instance, it is generally known that a watermark is formed to prevent forgery of a paper currency, a certificate, a ticket, and the like. It is also known that a watermark is obtained by a difference in paper thickness at the time of issuing a certificate stamp or a watermark is formed by embossing or by laser beam writing (see PTL 1).
However, conventionally, a watermark is formed at the issuing a certificate stamp, and therefore, an on-demand watermark cannot be formed. Further, the formation of a watermark by laser beam processing like PTL 1 requires mixing of pigment that absorbs a specific wave length into a certificate stamp and has a problem that the cost is increased.
Further, a watermark has been conventionally used in a paper substrate. However, a paper currency or the like that uses a polymeric material made of organic molecules as a substrate has started to be in circulation in recent years, and a formation method of a watermark in a substrate made of organic molecules is not established
Further, a method of using forgery prevention ink has been known as display of a display part that is hard to be forged. For example, PTL 2 describes a method that spectral characteristics of reflection light are changed by using special color matter or pigment, so that information is easily recognized at the time of reflection observation.
Further, as the information display method, an uneven structure such as a diffraction grating, a hologram, a lens array, or a scattering structure may be used. In order to form the uneven structure, an expensive manufacturing facility such as an electron beam lithography device or a laser drawing device is required, and it is difficult to analyze the structure, so that a forgery prevention effect can be demonstrated.
Further, PTL 3 discloses the following manufacturing method of an optical element in a structure forming layer including a region having an uneven structure with a large aspect ratio, and a flat region or a region having a small uneven structure with a smaller aspect ratio. That is, a metallic reflective layer is formed on the structure forming layer at a uniform surface density by a vacuum evaporation method. After that, a material having durability to etchant to be used for etching the metallic reflective layer is formed at a uniform surface density by the vacuum evaporation method. Subsequently, a provided laminated body is subjected to an etching treatment. Hereby, the material having durability to the etchant becomes a discontinuous film due to the uneven structure with a large aspect ratio, and the etchant infiltrates through the laminated body, so that the metallic reflective layer can be removed only in the region having the uneven structure with a large aspect ratio. Hereby, the metallic reflective layer can be formed with high positional accuracy, and the forgery prevention effect can be raised more.
However, in the technique of PTL 3, although the metallic reflective layer and the material having durability to the etchant are formed by a dry process, a wet process is used at the time of the etching treatment. Accordingly, a plurality of processes should be performed at the time of manufacture, so that a cost is increased.
Further, since the material having durability to the etchant is formed in advance, the metallic reflective layer is removed to have only a fixed pattern, and therefore, it is difficult to remove the metallic reflective layer on demand.

Information display medium and manufacturing method relating thereto


A quantization matrix adjusting method for avoiding underflow of VBV by enlarging the default quantization matrix. The adjusting method comprises the steps of: updating a used bits BB_X and an average quantizer scale Avg_Q; allocating the bit budget BB_C for the current picture; calculating an estimated quantizer scale EstQ_C according to the used bits BB_X, the average quantizer scale Avg_Q and the bit budget BB_C; deciding the operation mode, when the estimated quantizer scale EstQ_C is larger than a threshold Th_Q, assigning the operation mode as an alert mode, otherwise remaining at normal mode; enlarging the default quantization matrix as a new quantization matrix when the operation mode is the alert mode; and coding the current picture using the new quantization matrix and default quantization matrix in the alert mode and normal mode, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a quantization matrix adjusting method, and more particularly to a quantization matrix adjusting method for avoiding underflow of video buffer verifier (VBV) by scaling up the quantization matrix.
2. Description of the Related Art
Compressing methods are typically used to compress the pictures in order to reduce the data amounts, for example coding pictures by MPEG. The basic unit of coding within a picture is the macroblock. If the sampling is in 4:2:0 format, there are six blocks within a macroblock: four Y blocks, one Cb block and one Cr block. Each block is first DCT (discrete cosine transform) transformed, and then the DCT coefficients have to be quantized into integer. A zigzag scan or other alternate scanning method is utilized to arrange the two-dimensional quantized coefficients into one-dimensional. Finally, a variable-length coding (VLC) is employed to do entropy coding.
The quantization step is where the compression happened. Generally, the quantization of a DCT coefficient F[v] [u] can be represented as:QF[v][u]=16*F[v][u]/(Q*W[v][u])  (1)
Where the v, u are the indexes for the two dimensional matrix, ranged from 0 to 7. The Q is the quantizer scale for the blocks within a macroblock, which can be varied for each macroblock. The W[v][u] is a quantization matrix defined for the whole pictures, which is used to assign a weighting factor for different DCT coefficients. FIG. 1 is a default quantization matrix for intra blocks defined in MPEG-2. Referring to FIG. 1, the W[v][u] is getting larger when the v and u indexes increase. This causes that the quantized coefficients with higher frequency more easily becomes zero. This is based on the study of human visual system that human is more sensitive to lower frequency signal and less sensitive to higher frequency.
The inverse-quantization step is used to recover the DCT coefficients. Generally, the inverse-quantization of a quantized DCT coefficient QF[v][u] is defined as:F′[v][u]=QF[v][u]*Q*W[v][u]/16  (2)                where F′[v][u] is the recovered DCT coefficient. The difference between the original DCT coefficient F[v][u] and the inverse-quantized DCT coefficient F′[v][u] is called quantization error, which is defined as:E[v][u]=F[v][u]−F′[v][u]  (3)
The adaptive quantization adapted in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 can freely change the Q from one macroblock to the next macroblock, but can only slightly adjust the Q between adjacent macroblocks in MPEG-4. The MPEG-2 has a non-linear quantizer scale mapping the quantizer scale code (from 1 to 31) to a real quantizer scale (from 0.5 to 56).
Adjusting the quantizer scale Q can control the bit consumption and coded quality of a macroblock. Given a larger Q will cause the quantized DCT coefficients getting smaller, and more quantized DCT coefficients became zero. Thus, the coded bit stream after VLC becomes shorter. However, the consequence is that the quantization error is getting larger, and the decoded image quality getting worse. If we want to have a better image quality, setting a smaller Q can reduce the quantization error, but the coded bit stream will getting longer.
In typical applications, the bit-rate of MPEG bit stream is constrained. For example, the DVD standard defines that the bit-rate of a MPEG-2 video stream can't higher than 9.8 Mb/sec, so the encoder have to control the bit-rate consumption to satisfy the constrain.
The picture contents vary from picture to picture in a video sequence. The coding complexity in a portion of video sequence may be different to other portions. The video buffer verifier (hereinafter called VBV) employed in MPEG-1 can offer somewhat flexibility in bit-rate consumption for different pictures, but overall bit-rate in a long term should be a constant bit rate (hereinafter called CBR). The MPEG-2 introduces the variable bit rate (VBR) operation mode to provide more flexibility on the variation of bit-rate consumption for each picture. The VBV buffer is used to emulate the input buffer of the MPEG decoder, and the bit stream produced by a MPEG encoder can not violate the constraint on the VBV buffer, otherwise the bit stream wouldn't be properly decoded. The CBR operation of the VBV is shown by example in FIG. 2. The figure depicts the fullness of the decoder buffer over time. The sloped line segments show the compressed data entering the buffer at a constant bit-rate. The vertical line segments show the instantaneous removal from the buffer of the data associated with the decoded picture.
For the bit stream to satisfy the MPEG rate control requirement, the data for a picture must be already available in the buffer when the decoder has to decode the picture, and the decoder buffer does not overfill. By referencing to FIG. 2, if a picture consumed too many bits, the VBV buffer may be underflow, therefore the upper bound of the allocatable bits is UB. Similarly, if a picture used too few bits, the VBV buffer may be overflow, and thus the lower bound of the allocatable bits is LB. The VBR operation of the VBV is shown by example in FIG. 3. The difference between VBR and CBR is that the compressed bit stream enters the buffer at a specified maximum bit-rate until the buffer is full, when no more bits are input. This translates to a bit-rate entering the buffer that may be effectively variable, up to the maximum specified rate. As shown in the FIG. 3, there is only a constraint on the allocatable maximal bit rate UB, but no minimal bit rate.
To satisfy the constraint of VBV, the encoder has to allocate a bit budget for each picture, and then try to control the actually consumed bits close to the allocated bit budget. Typically, a virtual buffer mechanism is employed to control the bit consumption. If the buffer occupancy lower than zero, it maps to the quantizer scale 1, and if the buffer occupancy higher than a threshold R, it maps to the quantizer scale 31. The R is called the reaction factor. Before coding a picture, the virtual buffer has an initial occupancy D=d0=R*q0/31, and this occupancy corresponds to a quantizer scale Q=q0. Use the Q to quantize the first macroblock and encode. If the consumed bits are larger than the average bit budget for a macroblock, the virtual buffer occupancy D increases, otherwise the D decreases. If the buffer occupancy D increases over d0+R/31, the quantizer scale Q will become q0+1. This means that the excess of bit consumption is too large, so increase the quantizer scale to try to reduce the rate of bit consumption. If the buffer occupancy D decreases lower than d0−R/31, the quantizer scale Q will became q0−1. This means that the bit consumption is lower than expected, so decrease the quantizer scale to try to increase the rate of bit consumption.
The problem of using the virtual buffer mechanism to control the bit consumption is how to assign the initial buffer occupancy d0. This initial occupancy can be treat as an estimation of the coding complexity of the current picture. With a fixed bit budget, if the coding complexity of the current picture is relatively high, a higher initial occupancy should be selected so that the quantizer scale for each macroblock is higher. But we don't know the coding complexity of the current picture until the picture is actually coded. One solution is to inherit the buffer occupancy of the previous coded picture. This simple technique can handle most cases with no serious problem, but would cause VBV underflow when there is a rapidly variation of image content in a video sequence, such as senses change.
The quantizer scale for a macroblock can be selected from 1 to 31; this dynamic range can handle the most cases of video coding. However, if a video sequence is very complex and the target bit rate is low, the VBV underflow seems to be unavoidable. Even if the quantizer scale for each macroblock is set to 31, there are still too many bits consumed for each macroblock. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,779 introduces a "Panic Mode" to overcome this situation. The basic idea is that encoder monitors the VBV buffer occupancy after coding each macroblock. If too many bits are consumed and there would be VBV underflow after coding the whole picture, the encoder enters the Panic Mode. In this mode, the encoder would prefer to encode a macroblock with inter-mode, and no residuals are coded. If a macroblock is coded with intra-mode (The macroblocks of I-picture must be intra-mode), only a few numbers of coefficients are coded, making other coefficients zero to reduce the bits. The picture quality would degrade significantly, but the VBV underflow could be avoid.

Quantization matrix adjusting method for avoiding underflow of data


A parameter determination system includes first and second difference modules, a ratio module, and an M index module. The first difference module determines a first crankshaft angle of a combustion event of an engine, determines a second crankshaft angle of the combustion event of the engine, and determines a first difference between the first and second crankshaft angles. The second difference module determines a third crankshaft angle of the combustion event of the engine, determines a fourth crankshaft angle of the combustion event of the engine, and determines a second difference between the third and fourth crankshaft angles. The ratio module determines a ratio of the first difference to the second difference. The M index module determines an M index value for the Wiebe function based on the ratio and displays the M index value on a display.

The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Internal combustion engines combust an air and fuel mixture within cylinders to drive pistons, which produces drive torque. In some types of engines, air flow into the engine may be regulated via a throttle. The throttle may adjust throttle area, which increases or decreases air flow into the engine. As the throttle area increases, the air flow into the engine increases. A fuel control system adjusts the rate that fuel is injected to provide a desired air/fuel mixture to the cylinders and/or to achieve a desired torque output. Increasing the amount of air and fuel provided to the cylinders increases the torque output of the engine.
Combustion of an air/fuel mixture within a cylinder begins when a spark plug generates spark within the cylinder. The mass fraction of fuel burned during a combustion event may be referred to as mass fraction burned (MFB). Various parameters for where various MFBs occur may be used to evaluate how fast the combustion event occurs. For example, a crankshaft angle (CA) where 50 percent of a mass of fuel has been burned during a combustion event is referred to as CA50.

M index determination systems and methods for Wiebe functions


An apparatus for use in image display, of projecting a light beam onto a retina of a viewer, to thereby allow the viewer to perceive an image, is disclosed. The apparatus is constructed to include: a light emitter emitting a light beam; a scanner scanning the light beam emitted by the light emitter; an optical system receiving the light beam scanned by the scanner as an incoming light beam, and emitting the received incoming light beam as an outgoing light beam, such that, upon modulation of the light beam with respect to a traveling direction of the light beam, the outgoing light beam is directed to a pupil of the viewer; and a curvature compensator compensating a wavefront curvature of the incoming light beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for projecting an image onto the retina of a viewer's eye thereby allowing the viewer to perceive the image.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been recently presented various types of image display apparatuses each projecting an image by scanning a light beam on the retina of a viewer's eye to thereby allow the viewer to perceive the image, which are each called, "Retinal Scanning Display."
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 11-142763 discloses a conventional image display apparatus including a scanning optical device scanning laser light in two-dimension; and optics (an optical device for light convergence) causing the laser light scanned by the scanning optical device to converge at a point in a viewer's eyeball.
The above conventional image display apparatus employs as the aforementioned optics, a semi-transparent mirror having its reflective surface formed as a portion of an ellipsoidal surface of revolution, which is a concave curved surface. Owing to the nature of the ellipsoidal surface of revolution having its two foci, a light beam, upon entry from one of the two foci into a point on the ellipsoidal surface of revolution, enters the other focus without exception.
In light of the above fact, the above conventional image display apparatus is configured such that one of the two foci of the ellipsoidal surface of revolution is coincident in position with a reflection point at which the laser light is reflected off the aforementioned scanning optical device, while the other focus is coincident in position with a convergence point at which the laser light is converged by the aforementioned optics within viewer's eyeball, thereby securing the laser light scanned by the scanning optical device to converge within the viewer's eyeball.

Apparatus for displaying image by projection on retina of viewer with eliminated adverse effect of intervening optics


A welding torch for gas metal arc welding has a torch body which conducts electricity, receives a cable for directing a welding wire, and defines a passage for directing a shielding gas. A conductor tube has an inner end portion secured to the torch body and a free outer end portion, and a contact tip is secured to the outer end portion of the conductor tube. The contact tip has a central bore which directs the welding wire through the tip, and a diffuser directs the shielding gas around the contact tip and conducts electrical power to the contact tip. A tubular welding nozzle body is formed of a porous polycrystalline graphite material and has a slightly tapered inner surface which surrounds the contact tip for collimating the gas while substantially reducing the accumulation of spatter on the nozzle body. The contact tip may also be covered with the same graphite material to impede spatter accumulation, and the porous graphite material is impregnated with petrolatum and wax to extend the service life of the body. The tubular nozzle body may be protected by a surrounding copper jacket, and an interfitting band of ceramic material retains the body within the jacket.

The present invention relates to gas metal arc welding torches of the general type disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,769,894, No. 2,836,705, No. 3,048,691 and No. 3,226,526, and more specifically, to welding nozzles which are used on torches for gas metal arc welding.
There are three conventional methods of Gas Metal Arc Welding, previously known as Metal Inert Gas (MIG), for transferring welding wire to the weld. These methods are globular, short arc, and spray transfer. Globular type metal transfer across the arc occurs in large, irregular shaped droplets. This type of metal transfer commonly uses shielding gasses consisting of CO.sub.2 mixtures and has a disadvantage in that it produces an erratic arc and generates considerable weld spatter. In the short arc method of metal transfer, no metal transfers across the arc. Instead, metal transfer occurs when the electrode wire makes contact with the metal being welded. Shielding gases commonly used with this process are welding grade CO.sub.2, argon-CO.sub.2 mixtures and argon-oxygen mixtures. Although this type of metal transfer reduces the amount of weld spatter generated by the arc, spatter is still a major problem.
Spray type metal transfer is accomplished by the movement of a stream of small droplets across the arc from the electrode to the metal piece being welded. This type of metal transfer usually employs relatively high voltages and currents. The shielding gases used for this type of weld transfer are usually argon-CO.sub.2, argon-oxygen or a combination of argon-CO.sub.2 -oxygen. Spray type metal transfer produces the least amount of weld spatter of the three basic techniques, but this method requires careful control of the shielding gas mixture. Without proper control, or due to an inexperienced operator or antiquated equipment, even spray type metal transfer can produce weld spatter in the same magnitude as the globular and short arc welds.
When producing a MIG weld in an inert environment, the molten material or spatter adheres to the nozzle. The spatter is made-up of the elements found in both the piece being welded, and the welding wire, e.g. iron, aluminum and silicon. The instant you stop the weld, the shielding gas dissipates leaving this semi-molten material exposed to the atmospheric gases, mainly oxygen. The oxygen reacts chemically to the molten steel, allowing iron and aluminum oxides to form on the inside bore of the welding nozzle. These highly abrasive materials are ground into the surfaces of the nozzle during cleaning, causing the nozzle to degrade rapidly.
As indicated above, a common problem to each of these basic welding processes is weld spatter. One widely used solution throughout the MIG welding industry is to secure a copper welding nozzle to the torch body. The problem with copper welding nozzles is that during the welding process, molten metal or weld spatter, which can reach a temperature of 10000.degree. F. or more, impacts and etches the copper. The constant bombardment of weld spatter erodes the copper and allows the spatter to adhere to the nozzle. Once spatter begins to attach to the nozzle, it will continue to buildup and eventually restricts the flow of shielding gas to the weld. The result is a flawed weld.
Usually a flawed weld occurs before the spatter buildup is detected. As a result, the welded item is rejected and must be either discarded or rewelded, which is time consuming and increases the cost of manufacturing the item. To correct the problem, the operator typically removes the copper nozzle from the welding torch and dislodges the spatter by scraping it off with a sharp metal edge of a tool such as a screwdriver or chisel. Cleaning the copper nozzle in this manner usually reduces the working life of the nozzle because deep scratches and gouges are left by the cleaning tool. In addition, after the nozzle has been subjected several times to spatter removal in this manner, its ability to obstruct spatter buildup diminishes.
Copper nozzles also present a problem because copper is classified as a hazardous material and cannot be discarded in ordinary landfills. Thus the copper nozzles are not easily disposed of and must be recycled. A more significant problem with the use of copper nozzles is the generation of smoke. The smoke results from an anti-spatter compound which is applied to the copper nozzle to inhibit the buildup of weld spatter. When the compound is subjected to the high temperatures associated with welding, smoke is generated. For environmental reasons, it is desirable to reduce the amount of smoke which is generated by most industrial processes.

Self-cleaning nozzle for a gas welding torch


The present invention provides a removable window film for motor vehicles comprising a base film (1) and an adhesive layer (2) having removability and low adhesive strength and comprising a low adhesive strength type adhesive, wherein the adhesive layer (2) is formed on one surface of the base film. The removable window film for motor vehicles can be adhered to a glass window of a motor vehicle having a smooth surface, sufficiently held on the glass window after adhering, and easily peeled from the glass window of motor vehicles without damage to the window film or staining the glass window of the motor vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a removable film for the windows of motor vehicles. The film can be adhered to a glass window having a smooth surface, sufficiently held on the glass window after being adhered thereto, and easily peeled therefrom without damaging the film or staining the glass window. If desired, the film can also reduce the transmittance of ultraviolet and/or visible light.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the same films that have been used for fashion, design, and privacy have been used as window films for motor vehicles. These films comprise a base film having applied thereto the same pressure-sensitive adhesive that is used in films for building materials to prevent glass-splashing, and a silicone type polyester release film that is adhered to the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer.
Difficulties arise, however, in using the strong pressure-sensitive adhesives of the prior art to adhere films to the windows of motor vehicles. For example, there are many failings attributed to the adhesion of the surfaces of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layers to each other during the process of adhering the films to the windows. Further, because the window films are adhered with the strong pressure-sensitive adhesives, it is difficult to remove them from the windows once they have been adhered without damaging the film and/or leaving residues of the adhesives on the window. Thinners or solvents have been used to remove such residues, but this procedure carries with it the danger of damaging polyurethane or polyvinyl chloride leathers used as interior materials for the motor vehicles.

Removable film for the windows of motor vehicles


The invention disclosed in this application relates to a novel biodegradable additive polymer composition useful for the preparation of biodegradable plastic products which comprises of a mixture of (i) a polymer selected from Polyethylene, polypropylene, poly styrene, poly vinyl chloride or a mixture thereof (ii) Cellulose (iii) Amides (iv) nutrients selected from Blue green algae and/or Yeast and (v) Water. This composition can be mixed with a virgin polymer to get a master polymer. The master batch composition may be mixed with a virgin polymer, which is useful for preparing products which are biodegradable.

Biodegradable polymers began to provide a solution to the problem of Waste Management relating to Plastics from the 70's. Biodegradable polymer undergoes biodegradation when it is buried in the soil leaving no remains of the polymer or other toxic residues. The biodegradation or mineralization of the polymer is measured by the evolution of carbon-di-oxide after microbial assimilation.
The term "biodegradable" had been used loosely in the early stages. Initial standards formulated for determining biodegradation actually amount to physical degradation only, on the basis of loss of tensile strength, discoloration and fragmentation. Many products claim biodegradability on the basis of these outdated standards, which have not been declared obsolete in the face of standards such as the ISO 14855 and the ASTM D 5338. Some materials, which merely disassemble or disintegrate into smaller pieces over time have been claimed to be "biodegradable" even though in reality they are not biodegradable in the strict sense of the word. A "biodegradable" polymer is capable of mineralizing completely on burial within a given period of time, leaving no traces of polymer in addition to a total absence of hazardous or toxic residue, unlike degradable polymer.
Over the course of the last many years there have been many patents in the area of biodegradable polymers/plastics. Yet none of these patents has led to products, which have been successful in establishing appreciable application in the overall plastics market due to the difference between biodegradable and degradable. The prior art has failed primarily in one or more of these four areas: 1) the articles lacked sufficient strength, 2) the articles had poor shelf life, 3) the articles were too expensive, and/or 4) processability into a useful article was difficult and expensive. The area where failure occurred most often was in price as some of the products manufactured from such biodegradable polymers cost as much as 5-20 times as much as non-biodegradable products available in the market. Another failing of these products is that they are photodegradable thus affecting the tensile strength of the product.
Starch-based polymers and other products merely disintegrate breaking up into minute particles not visible to the naked eye after burial resulting in biomass which may have toxic properties. They are also weak and too brittle by nature and have to be engineered to get the properties of virgin plastic. Another failing of starch-based products is that they lose strength under typical storage conditions through absorption of moisture, which leads to a weakening of the plastic.
There have been many attempts to make environmentally degradable articles using polymers. However, because of prohibitive costs, difficulty in processing, and lack of sufficient shelf life in end-use applications and have met with limited commercial success. Many compositions that have excellent degradability have only limited processability. Conversely, compositions, which are more easily processable, have reduced biodegradability.
To produce environmentally degradable polymers, attempts have been made to process aliphatic polymers made from natural starch on standard equipment and existing technology known in the plastic industry. Since natural starch generally has a granular structure, it needs to be "destructurized" before it can be melt processed into fine filaments. Modified starch (alone or as the major component of a blend) has been found to have poor melt extensibility, resulting in difficulty in successful production of fibers, films, foams or the like.
Biodegradation is measured by various Standards to test compostability to provide guidance to users. Certification from Standardized Test Procedures or tested norms, establish the credibility of the claims made regarding the biodegradability of the product and are necessary for the acceptance of polymer as biodegradable. International organizations responsible for establishing the validity of claims of Biodegradation have formulated Standards and Test Procedures which are internationally acceptable.
The International agencies for issue of the certificate for inherent biodegradability of plastic products are the following:                1) The American Society For Testing Materials (ASTM) in the United States,        2) Japan's GREENPLA program,        3) Europe's DIN certification and        4) European Committee for Standardization (CEN).
The above mentioned agencies/tests are relevant in that they establish the nature of the invention against the background of International acceptability since the product has been subjected to ASTM Testing procedures for Aerobic Degradation (ASTM D 5338 and ASTM 5209) (American Society for testing materials); both Tests are used to establish inherent biodegradability of the biodegradable polymer being tested.

BNT Force Biodegradable Polymers Pvt Ltd.


Devices and methods for maintaining an open airway are described. Systems and methods are described for maintaining an opening of an airway by application of force to a patient's tissues in one of inferior, anterior, and lateral directions.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent sleep disorder affecting an estimated 18 million people in the United States, and an estimated 36 million people world wide. Furthermore, the affected population is estimated to be growing at 22% per annum. OSA is not just a quality of sleep issue. OSA has several co-morbidities that drive treatment, including heart failure, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, and diabetes. Despite the seriousness of the condition, it is estimated that only 5% to 8% of the affected population have been diagnosed and treated.
Approximately 80% of the patients diagnosed with OSA are prescribed continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. Although CPAP is the first line of treatment for the majority of patients and is considered the gold-standard by most practitioners, it enjoys only 30-60% average patient compliance. Approximately 10- 15% of patients will have surgical treatment, but the surgical options tend to be invasive and are not always effective. Approximately 5- 10% of patients will use a mandibular advancement device, but such devices tend to have limited efficacy and are often associated with joint pain.
Thus, there is a need for improved OSA treatment devices in terms of patient compliance, invasiveness and efficacy.

Devices and methods for treating sleep disorders