The present invention is a segmenter used in a natural language processing system. The segmenter segments a textual input string into tokens for further natural language processing. In accordance with one feature of the invention, the segmenter includes a tokenizer engine that proposes segmentations and submits them to a linguistic knowledge component for validation. In accordance with another feature of the invention, the segmentation system includes language-specific data that contains a precedence hierarchy for punctuation. If proposed tokens in the input string contain punctuation, they can illustratively be broken into subtokens based on the precedence hierarchy.

The present invention deals with natural language processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to a tokenizer or tokenizing an input string to accommodate further natural language processing of the input string.
Natural language processing systems are used to develop machine understanding of human expressions. For example, some computer systems attempt to take action based on natural language inputs to the computer system. In order to do this, the computer system must develop an "understanding" of the natural language expression input to the computer. The natural language expressions can be input, for example, as a query in an information retrieval system. The natural language processing system attempts to understand the meaning of the query input by the user, in order to improve precision and recall in the information retrieval task. Of course, there are many other applications for natural language processing, including command and control, document clustering, machine translation, etc.
One of the principal challenges of a natural language processing system is to identify the boundaries of words in written text. Once the words are identified, the grammar of the particular language being used arranges the words in linguistically significant chunks or constituents. The grammar identifies the hierarchy connecting those constituents and thus constructs a representation for the input sentence.
Many words in written text can be thought of as character strings surrounded by spaces. For example, using a heuristic it can be seen that the preceding sentence contains 15 words and that the last word in the sentence is "spaces". We are able to recognize "spaces" even though that word was written with a period attached (i.e., "spaces."). However, if the sentence were to end in an abbreviation (say, the string "TENN.", for Tennessee), the period would form an integral part of the word. Thus, recognizing when to treat punctuation characters as part of a word and when not to do so is a major challenge for a natural language processing system.
Now consider the string "15MB", which is normally interpreted as "15 megabytes". There are no spaces between the "15" and "MB" and yet the string is normally analyzed as being composed of two separate words, pronounced "15" and "megabytes", respectively. Also, consider the fact that the grammar will want to know that this construction is the same as the construction for a version written with a space, namely, "15 MB", so that it can treat both versions (with or without a space) identically. Thus, recognizing when to separate digits from alphabetical characters poses another significant challenge for word recognition components of natural language processing systems.
Further consider strings consisting of multiple punctuation characters. Emoticons belong in this class, but so do less glamorous items such as the less than or equal to sign <=, the greater than or equal to sign >=, and the arrow sign: ==> to name a few. It is likely that a natural language processing system will want to treat these as single items. However, distinguishing these from other sequences of multiple punctuation characters, such as, for example, the sequence !)″ in the sentence "This is a test (really!)", is also a task that needs to be addressed.
Many other similar difficulties must be addressed as well. For instance, the above examples do not even mention expressions which are highly difficult to interpret, such as "12:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.". Further, the above examples do not address other difficult issues, such as electronic mail addresses, drive path names, and uniform resource locators (URLs).
For the purpose of the present application, the term "token" will refer to any input text flanked by white spaces or by the beginning and/or end of the input string. The term "word" is used to identify the linguistic unit (or units) into which a given token is broken or segmented after undergoing the tokenization process.
Prior tokenizers have suffered from two major problems. First, the tokenization process was performed independently of any knowledge contained in the system's lexical layer. Also, all the knowledge that the tokenizer needed for tokenizing an input string was hard coded in system code. Therefore, prior systems simply implemented the rules used to break input strings apart into tokens without caring whether the segmentation or tokenization made any sense, given the lexical or linguistic knowledge in the lexical layer.
For example, prior systems typically had a rule hard coded which required colons to be separated from surrounding text. Therefore, the example mentioned above "12:00 am–4:00 pm" would be separated into the following 5 tokens:
12:0 am–4:00 pm
Of course, when this expression is handed to the later natural language processing components, it is basically undecipherable.
Prior systems also had such rules as deleting the period at the end of an input string. Therefore, an input string which ended with the terms " . . . at 9:00 A.M." would have its final period deleted, resulting in the token "A.M". In order to recognize this token as a valid lexical word, the lexicon or system dictionary against which the tokens are validated was required to include "A.M" as an entry.
Similarly, such prior systems were not language-independent, by any means. For example, the fact that the English contraction 'll, (as in the word they'll) constitutes a separate word was handled by scanning for a single quote and then scanning for ll following that quote. In effect, this was the logical equivalent of regular expression matching. This meant that separate code had to be added to the system for French, for example, to handle the myriad of contractions present in that language which also use a single quote. The code written had to reflect the content of the lexicon, and had to anticipate what forms were lexicalized. For instance, lexicalized elided form such as m' and l' had to be listed in system code, so that they would be separated from the following words, allowing forms such as aujourd'hui, where the quote is part of the word, to stay together.
Prior tokenizers exhibited still other problems. For example, prior tokenizers required that hyphenated strings be kept together as a single word. Such a heuristic was adequate for many cases, such as "baby-sitter" or "blue-green", which are most probably single words. However, for a substantial number of cases this approach is inadequate. The hyphen is often used instead of a dash. Therefore, in sentences such as "This is a test-and a tough one at that." the token "test-a" should be presented to the grammar as two separate words, rather than a single word. Because prior implementations of tokenizers did not have access to the lexicon of the language or to any other linguistic knowledge, resolving this at tokenization time was virtually impossible, leading to inappropriate syntactic analysis later in the natural language processing system.

Tokenizer for a natural language processing system


An apparatus for and method of utilizing an internet terminal coupled to the world wide web to access an existing proprietary data base management system having a dialog-based request format. The user request is received by a web server from the world wide web and converted into one or more sequenced data base management commands. These data base management commands are sequentially presented to the data base management system and the intermediate products stored. After all of the sequenced data base management commands have been executed, the web server combines the intermediate products to form a complete response to the initial user request. The response is transferred to the user over the world wide web. However, should the data base management system be unavailable to honor the service request of a user, an unavailability message is transferred from the data base management system indicating the unavailability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data base management systems and more particularly relates to enhancements for providing access to data base management systems via internet user terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Data base management systems are well known in the data processing art. Such commercial systems have been in general use for more than 20 years. One of the most successful data base management systems is available from Unisys Corporation and is called the Classic MAPPER® data base management system. The CLASSIC MAPPER system can be reviewed using the CLASSIC MAPPER User's Guide which may be obtained from Unisys Corporation.
The CLASSIC MAPPER system, which runs on proprietary hardware also available from Unisys Corporation, provides a way for clients to partition data bases into structures called filing cabinets and drawers, as a way to offer a more tangible format. The Mapper data base manager utilizes various predefined high-level instructions whereby the data base user may manipulate the data base to generate human-readable data presentations called "reports". The user is permitted to prepare lists of the various predefined high-level instructions into data base manager programs called "Mapper Runs". Thus, users of the CLASSIC MAPPER system may create, modify, and add to a given data base and also generate periodic and aperiodic reports using various Mapper Runs.
However, with the CLASSIC MAPPER system, as well as with similar proprietary data base management systems, the user must interface with the data base using a terminal coupled directly to the proprietary system and must access and manipulate the data using the Mapper Run command language of CLASSIC MAPPER. Ordinarily, that means that the user must either be co-located with the hardware which hosts the data base management system or must be coupled to that hardware through dedicated telephone, satellite, or other data links. Furthermore, the user usually needs to be schooled in the command language of CLASSIC MAPPER (or other proprietary data base management system) to be capable of generating Mapper Runs.
Since the advent of large scale, dedicated, proprietary data base management systems, the internet or world wide web has come into being. Unlike closed proprietary data base management systems, the internet has become a world wide bulletin board, permitting all to achieve nearly equal access using a wide variety of hardware, software, and communication protocols. Even though some standardization has developed, one of the important characteristics of the world wide web is its ability to constantly accept new and emerging techniques within a global framework. Many current users of the internet have utilized several generations of hardware and software from a wide variety of suppliers from all over the world. It is not uncommon for current day young children to have ready access to the world wide web and to have substantial experience in data access using the internet.
Thus, the major advantage of the internet is its universality. Nearly anyone, anywhere can become a user. That means that virtually all persons are potentially internet users without the need for specialized training and/or proprietary hardware and software. One can readily see that providing access to a proprietary data base management system, such as CLASSIC MAPPER, through the internet would yield an extremely inexpensive and universally available means for accessing the data which it contains and such access would be without the need for considerable specialized training.
There are several basic problems with permitting internet access to a proprietary data base. The first is a matter of security. Because the internet is basically a means to publish information, great care must be taken to avoid intentional or inadvertent access to certain data by unauthorized internet users. In practice this is substantially complicated by the need to provide various levels of authorization to internet users to take full advantage of the technique. For example, one might have a first level involving no special security features available to any internet user. A second level might be for specific customers, whereas a third level might be authorized only for employees. One or more fourth levels of security might be available for officers or others having specialized data access needs.
Existing data base managers have security systems, of course. However, because of the physical security with a proprietary system, a certain degree of security is inherent in the limited access. On the other hand, access via the internet is virtually unlimited which makes the security issue much more acute.
The second major problem is imposed by the internet protocol itself. One of the characteristics of the internet which makes it so universal is that any single transaction in HTML language combines a single transfer (or request) from a user coupled with a single response from the internet server. In general, there is no means for linking multiple transfers (or requests) and multiple responses. In this manner, the internet utilizes a transaction model which may be referred to as "stateless". This limitation ensures that the internet, its users, and its servers remain sufficiently independent during operation that no one entity or group of entities can unduly delay or "hang-up" the communications system or any of its major components. Each transmissions results in a termination of the transaction. Thus, there is no general purpose means to link data from one internet transaction to another, even though in certain specialized applications limited amounts of data may be coupled using "cookies" or via attaching data to a specific HTML screen.
However, some of the most powerful data base management functions or services of necessity rely on coupling data from one transaction to another in dialog fashion. In fact this linking is of the essence of Mapper Runs which assume change of state from one command language statement to the next. True statelessness from a first Mapper command to the next or subsequent Mapper command would preclude much of the power of CLASSIC MAPPER (or any other modern data base management system) as a data base management tool and would eliminate data base management as we now know it.
A special problem related to the protocol is the inherent inability of the internet to describe the status of a requested resource. In general, the only information that the internet can determine from the unavailability of a requested resource is that the requested resource is unavailable. Ordinarily, this is accomplished by a simple time-out. However, if the requestor is provided no further information, it is unknown whether the resource is unavailable because it is busy, unavailable because it is not functioning, unavailable because it has been improperly addressed, unavailable because it does not exist, etc. As a result, the user is given no help with regard to what should be done concerning the unavailability of the requested resource.
For many internet transactions, this lack of information is acceptable, because when making a resource request, the user is often searching for something without knowing exactly what type of response to expect. Unavailability simply means to continue the search elsewhere. However, users of existing proprietary data base management systems need to be provided with further information, because they are accustomed to utilizing a dedicated resource having defined and known characteristics. They are not at liberty to simply search elsewhere. They need to know that they have properly addressed an existing resource. If the resource is unavailable because it is busy or has failed, they need to know when to try again.

Method and apparatus for providing an availability message to a remote user


An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is designed for low-speed, low altitude, long endurance missions typical to UAVs of this size and class. The UAV structure is configured to be substantially impervious to small arms fire and to have a very small representative radar cross-section. The UAV is modular such that the main wings and tail wing assembly are quickly and easily, detached from the fuselage for ease of transport and to provide an airframe that is quickly and easily adapted to any particular mission.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and more particularly to unmanned aerial vehicles designed for low-speed, low altitude, long endurance missions typical to UAVs of this size and class (sometimes called MALE UAVs).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Particular military and civil emergency environments sometimes require aerial response capabilities. One example might be a rescue at sea environment in which aerial sensing, targeting, detection and communication capability can directly or indirectly aid persons in peril. Time sensitive emergency operations in particular require highly accurate aerial sensing and data transmission, delivered preferably via highly mobile, man-portable, GPS-referenced, flexible aerial platforms capable of rapidly launching various payloads and sensors, and being readily adaptable to changes in mission objectives and payload requirements.
Surveillance capabilities in related applications that are essential to policing or peace-keeping, but generally not available to the average peace office or foot soldier, would include logistical or transit route survey, damage assessment, targeting, threat, and weather analysis.
Aerial sensing and data communications by use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is often employed in emergency and hostile environments. Small UAVs are currently employed by various governments to achieve some of the benefits of such a vehicle, primarily in military and paramilitary operations. These UAVs are typically costly and have somewhat limited various operating parameters, including but not limited to, mission modularity, portability and survivability.
Accordingly, a need remains to provide an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for low-speed, low altitude, long endurance missions within the aforementioned military and paramilitary and emergency response scenarios.

Small unmanned airborne vehicle airframe


The present invention provides a gate driver on array circuit. The gate driver on array circuit comprises: multiple gate driver on array units connected in cascade. The n-th gate driver on array unit of the gate driver on array circuit comprises a (n−2)-th signal input terminal 21, a (n+2)-th signal input terminal 22, a clock signal first input terminal 23, a clock signal second input terminal 24, a first low-level input terminal 25, a second low-level input terminal 26, a first output terminal 27 and a second output terminal 28. The n-th gate driver on array unit further comprises: a pulling-up driving unit 32, a pulling-up unit 34, a first to a third pulling-down unit 36, 37, 38. The present invention adds a second low-level signal, which uses the second low-level to decrease the voltage difference (Vgs) between the gate and the source of the thin film transistor of the first output terminal, so that the leakage current of the thin film transistor is less and can be controlled precisely.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of display techniques, and in particular to a gate driver on array circuit.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal display (LCD) has many advantages of thin body, energy saving, and no radiation, which has been widely used. The existing LCD in the market is mostly backlight LCD, which comprises liquid crystal panel and backlight module. The working principle of the liquid panel is to provide liquid crystal molecules between two parallel glass substrates, and to provide driving voltage on the two glass substrates to control the rotating direction of the liquid crystal molecules, so that the light from the backlight module is refracted and generates the picture.
Recently, the development of LCD tends to high integration and low costs. A very important technology is gate drive on array (GOA) mass production technology, which uses gate drive on array technology to integrate the gate switching circuits on the array substrate of the liquid crystal panel, acting as shift register, so that the gate driver IC can be saved and then reduces the product costs from material costs and process steps.
The purpose of the gate driver on array circuit is to output the scanning waveform output from the integrated circuit through circuit operation, so that the pixel switch is turned on, and then input the data signal to the indium tin oxide (ITO) conducting electrode. After inputting the data signal, hold the data signal until the next frame is turned on. During the circuit operation, the turning off (holding) time of the scanning circuit is much longer than the scanning time. Referring to FIG. 1, assuming the resolution is 1366×768, the turning on time of a scanning circuit is 2.17 μs, and the scanning time of one frame is 16.67 ms (60 Hz). Because a scanning circuit is turned off in the remaining time of one frame after turning on, the requirement of stability characteristics of the thin film transistor (TFT) in the gate driver on array circuit is very high in this time. However, one driver circuit comprises more than ten thin film transistors, and it is difficult to keep each thin film transistor having stable switching characteristics during actual semiconductor manufacturing process. Therefore, the important thin film transistor (such as thin film transistor in each driver circuit output terminal) in the driver circuit requires fairly good switching characteristics
Each conventional driver circuit only has one Vss signal. When the driver circuit is turned off, the voltage difference Vgs between the gate and the source of the thin film transistor at the output terminal is 0V. Referring to FIG. 2, it is I-V curve of thin film transistor. It can be known that the current flowing through the thin film transistor is still in the linear region when Vgs is 0V. The leakage current of the thin film transistor is relatively large, which is hard to control precisely and not good for display quality of the LCD.

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A thermal translator device providing improved performance and faster expansion response, is described. Also described is an extrusion apparatus including a plurality of thermal translator devices operatively arranged for thermally actuated, localized action upon the lip. The thermal translator device includes a thermal energy source disposed within a structural member. The thermal energy source and the structural member are an integral unit. Also described is an extrusion apparatus including tie rods for a support assembly otherwise without support.

This invention relates to improved control of an extrusion apparatus lip gap.
As exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,208,047 and 5,423,668, having Peter F. Cloeren as a common inventor, an extrusion apparatus having an adjustment assembly for thermal and mechanical, localized adjustment of lip gap, is known. In the '047 patent, a cartridge heater is removably disposed within a bore in a push rod which extends to operatively contact the flex lip thereof, and which is constructed of a thermally responsive material for expansion and contraction and thereby for thermal adjustment of the lip gap. Also described in the '047 patent is a temperature-responsive push rod with a resistance heater wire coiled around in direct heat transfer contact. In either case, the thermal output is adjusted in response to thickness measurement of the film or sheet passing through the lip gap.
As described in the '047 and '668 patents, a lip adjustment screw having an end bearing upon a push rod for mechanical adjustment of the lip gap, is likewise known. The lip adjustment screw may be in threaded engagement with a nut disposed in a shoulder recess. Variations using a differential thread, adjustment screw are also known, for instance, a differential thread, adjustment screw in axial alignment with a push rod, rather than offset from the push rod axis, with coarser pitch threads in engagement with a nut disposed in a shoulder recess and with finer pitch threads in engagement with the push rod. Alternatively, the finer pitch threads may be in engagement with a second nut.
Again with regard to thermal adjustment of the lip gap, the state of the art as further illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,940,221 to Nissel, 4,454,084 to Smith et al, and 4,753,587 to Djordjevic et al, is a push rod of significantly greater length than the removably mounted, cartridge heater. As a result, the heating response of the push rod is dependent upon a substantially shorter heat source. The push rod functions as a translator to convert heat energy to mechanical force exerted upon the lip, by expansion and contraction.
In the Nissel device, the push rod passes through a thermal transfer block in which the cartridge heater is disposed. In the Smith structure and with particular reference to FIG. 3, a threaded push rod has an internally disposed cartridge heater, which by scale is about 70% of the push rod length. The Djordjevic device shown in FIG. 1 is similar, and by scale, the internally disposed cartridge heater is about 50% of the push rod length.
Also commercially known is an extrusion apparatus having a cartridge heater/push rod combination in which the internally disposed, cartridge heater is about 60% of the push rod length. In this apparatus, the push rod does not operatively contact the die lip; instead, this push rod bears upon another push rod which does operatively contact the die lip.
With reference particularly to FIG. 4 of Cloeren '047, the push rod structure corresponding thereto in commercial use, has a length of 6 inches and the cartridge heater has a length of 4 inches. In this device, the cartridge heater is about 66% of the push rod length.
The relatively greater length increases the structural mass of the push rod. In addition, whereas an exteriorly disposed, resistance heater wire as in FIG. 3 of Cloeren '047, provides for direct heat transfer contact with a temperature-responsive push rod, a drawback with an interiorly disposed, removable cartridge heater is lack of efficient thermal energy transfer to the temperature-responsive push rod.
Therefore, there is a long felt need to improve the performance of a thermal energy translator having an interiorly disposed, thermal energy source. More particularly, there exists a need for a thermal energy source/translator combination having faster expansion response, improved heat transfer from the thermal energy source to the thermal energy translator, and a more beneficial balance between the length of the heat source and the length of the thermal energy translator. In addition, there is an over-arching need to improve energy efficiency in connection with thermal control of the lip gap.


In a communication between a mobile unit (UE) and a gateway general packet radio system (GGRS) support node (GGSN) wherein resource reservations setup protocol (RSVP) capabilities are shared therebetween by a session setup mechanism, preferably session initiation protocol (SIP) in which RSVP capabilities of the UE and GGSN are defined and exchanged. In addition, the SIP is utilized to identify the preferred RSVP mode of operation by negotiations. The SIP is utilized to indicate that: the UE is RSVP capable; those media flows which are based on RSVP; the preferred mode of operation i.e. either UE based RSVP signaling or GGSN proxy based RSVP signaling and to communication a final setup mode for RSVP signaling to the UE from policy control function (PCF). The SIP may also be employed to enable the UE and network to indicate intended quality of service (QoS) protocol during a call setup procedure. The SIP is further utilized to enable the terminating UE and/or network to indicate in their response the capability of supporting a particular QoS protocol, the call being rejected with a clear indication of the cause when the terminating network is not capable of supporting the proposed QoS protocol.

The present invention relates to communications between a mobile unit and a general packet radio service (GPRS) gateway support node (GGSN). More particularly, the present invention relates to the employment of session initiation protocol (SIP) for establishing the proper resource reservation protocol RSVP capabilities and requirements as a prerequisite to establishing a communication using RSVP and further establishing quality of service (QoS) capabilities of the UE and GGSN to insure the desired quality of service (QoS).
Currently, the third generation partnership project protocol (3GPP) standards allow for the optional support of resource reservation setup protocol (RSVP) in the user equipment (UE) and in the GGSN as signaling protocol to ensure quality of service. Current standards provide a separation between call setup procedures and establishment of QoS. For example, a UE having RSVP-capability may initiate a call (session) to a non-RSVP capable UE operating in a non-capable RSVP network. The lengthy call establishment procedures will successfully take place but without any indication of the intended protocol to be used for QoS. Upon establishment of the call, the RSVP capable UE will start sending RSVP signaling messages in order to reserve resources that are necessary to carry the media stream along the route to the terminating end. These RSVP messages will be carried across the Internet, only to find a non-capable UE and a non-capable GGSN to complete the reservation procedures. The lack of response from the terminating side to the originator of the RSVP signaling will result in expirations of the resources allocated to this particular media stream at both sides during the call establishment stage, resulting in a dropping of the session and a billing for service that could not have been offered. This inefficient use of system resources reduces overall system capacity and efficiency due to the fact that such a scenario would be persistent in call (session) setups between capable and non-capable RSVP networks and UE. In addition, current technology provides optional support for resource reservation protocol (RSVP) in both user equipment (UE) and universal mobile telecommunication services (UMTS) core network GGSN. As a result, neither the UE nor the GGSN can make any assumptions regarding the support of such protocol except for that it is not applicable, i.e., NA is a default mode of operation. It is therefore important to provide a mechanism to enable an RSVP-capable UE and an RSVP-capable GGSN to inform one another of their RSVP capabilities before any communications can take place using RSVP.

Utilizing session initiation protocol for identifying user equipment resource reservation setup protocol capabilities


A developing device which can withstand resistance at a time a coagulated toner is scraped off is provided merely by providing a rotating shaft with a strength needed for agitating and conveying toner during normal operation. When the coagulated toner is scraped off, a large load is applied to the rotating shaft through an agitator. The rotating shaft bends, and a crank portion of the rotating shaft moves off of an axis. As a result, the crank portion is supported in a cut portion in a support plate. Therefore, strength of the rotating shaft becomes apparently greater. During normal operation, the crank portion of the rotating shaft moves out of the cut portion so as to be set in a state of non-contact with the cut portion. Therefore, no unnecessary load is applied to the rotating shaft, and the crank portion and the cut portion are not worn.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing device in the field of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A developing device accommodating a toner therein is mounted detachably to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Images are formed by setting a developing roll provided at the developing device in opposition to a photosensitive drum, feeding the toner accommodated in a toner tank to the developing roll while agitating and conveying the toner by an agitator, and making an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum visible by the toner.
If left to stand for a while, the toner accommodated in the toner tank coagulates. Therefore, the initial resistance at the time the toner is scraped off from the mass of toner, which has coagulated in the toner tank, and is agitated by the agitator is large.
Here, in order to minimize the resistance at the initial stages of agitation of the toner, there are proposed structures such as using an elastic member for the agitator (Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 3-149579, 4-191768), and changing by 180 degrees the projecting direction of the agitator mounted on a rotating shaft, at a central portion and the both end portions of the rotating shaft (JP-A-4-204466).
However, in either of these developing devices, the rotating shaft must have a strength sufficient to endure the resistance when the coagulated toner is scraped off. Consequently, the rotating shaft must be provided with a strength greater than or equal to the strength necessary for agitating and feeding the toner at the time of normal operation. Thus, the device becomes large and the manufacturing cost thereof rises.

Developing device with support structure for conveying means


A vehicle battery decking device for installing and removing vehicle batteries from a vehicle chassis using a battery tray and a plurality of hydraulic cylinders attached at a first end to the battery tray and attached at a second end to the vehicle chassis in which the battery is being installed or removed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a material or article handling apparatus found in U.S. Class 414. This invention further relates to a load-engaging structure of an elevator or hoist type as found in sub-class 785 of U.S. Class 414. The apparatus of this invention moves a vehicle battery into or out of contact with a vehicle chassis for battery installation or removal.
2. Summary of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,563 to Teti describes a battery carrier integral to a vehicle for supporting the battery and for moving the battery into and out of a battery compartment in the vehicle. The Teti apparatus includes a plurality of hydraulic pistons that, when activated pivotally, move a battery into or out of a battery compartment.
The apparatus of this invention, in certain preferred embodiments, includes a plurality of hydraulic cylinders for moving a vehicle battery. The hydraulic cylinders, however, differ greatly from the pistons of the Teti patent in their orientation and operation. The pistons of the Teti apparatus are fixed to the vehicle and pivot about a single axis to rotate the battery into and out of a battery compartment. In contrast, the hydraulic lifting devices of this invention are not fixed, they are reversibly attached to a vehicle chassis and the hydraulic cylinders lift, and do not pivot a battery into place in a vehicle chassis, using the vehicle chassis to support the weight of the battery and the weight of the apparatus.


In an image processing apparatus, the amount of motion between a low-resolution image as a datum image and each of N low-resolution images is detected and, based on the detected amounts of motion, the datum image, and M consulted images (N>M≧1) selected out of the N low-resolution images, a high-resolution image is generated. An image evaluator, which selects the consulted images, takes each of the N low-resolution images as an evaluated image and arranges, based on the amounts of motion, the datum image and the evaluated images in a common coordinate system. Based on a pixel position on the datum image in the common coordinate system, a datum position in the common coordinate system is set. For each evaluated image, the distance from the datum position to a pixel position on that evaluated image is evaluated so that evaluated images corresponding to relatively small distances are selected as consulted images, while evaluated images corresponding to relatively great distances are excluded from the M consulted images.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus that generates a high-resolution image from a plurality of low-resolution images. The present invention also relates to an image processing method and an electronic appliance.
2. Description of Related Art
Recent years have seen advancements in various digital technologies, accompanied by the wide spread of image sensing apparatuses that acquire digital images through shooting using a solid-state image sensing device such as a CCD (charge-coupled device) or CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor and display apparatuses that display such digital images. The image sensing apparatuses include, for example, digital still cameras and digital video cameras; the display apparatuses include, for example, liquid crystal displays and plasma televisions. In these image sensing apparatuses and display apparatuses, there have been proposed image processing technologies for converting a plurality of digital images shot at different times into an image of higher resolution.
One type of conventionally proposed processing for such high-resolution conversion is "super-resolution processing", relying on estimating a single high-resolution image from a plurality of low-resolution images displaced from one another. And one conventionally proposed method for achieving super-resolution processing is the "reconstruction-based" method. In the reconstruction-based method, after a high-resolution image is estimated, this high-resolution image is degraded back to estimate the original low-resolution images from which the high-resolution image was constructed; then, based on the result of comparison between the estimated low-resolution images and the original low-resolution images, the high-resolution image is brought closer and closer to the ideal.
More specifically, in the reconstruction-based method, first, an initial high-resolution image is estimated from a plurality of low-resolution images (Step 31A); next, this high-resolution image is degraded back to estimate the original low-resolution images from which the high-resolution image was constructed (Step 32A); then the estimated low-resolution images are compared with the original low-resolution images (Step 33A) and, based on the result of the comparison, a new high-resolution image is estimated such as to make smaller the difference in pixel value at each corresponding pixel position between the two images compared (Step 34A). As the processing from Steps 32A through 34A is executed repeatedly such as to make the difference converge, the high-resolution image is brought closer and closer to the ideal.
Examples of conventionally proposed methods for achieving the reconstruction-based method include the ML (maximum-likelihood) method, the MAP (maximum a posterior) method, the POCS (projection onto convex set) method, the IBP (iterative back projection) method, etc. In the ML method, the squared errors between the pixel values of the low-resolution images estimated back from the high-resolution image and the pixel values of the actual low-resolution images are taken as an evaluation function, and a high-resolution image is generated such as to minimize the evaluation function. That is, super-resolution processing employing the ML method is based on the principle of maximum likelihood estimation.
In the MAP method, the squared errors between the pixel values of the low-resolution images estimated back from the high-resolution image and the pixel values of the actual low-resolution images are, after the probability information of the high-resolution image is added to them, taken as an evaluation function, and a high-resolution image is generated such as to minimize the evaluation function. That is, in the MAP method, an optimal high-resolution image is generated by estimating, based on "a priori" knowledge, a high-resolution image that maximizes the probability of occurrence in the "a posteriori" probability distribution.
In the POCS method, simultaneous equations are created with respect to the pixel values of the high-resolution image and the pixel values of the low-resolution images; as these simultaneous equations are solved one after another, the optimal pixel values of the high-resolution image are acquired and thereby a new high-resolution image is generated. In the IBP method, a high-resolution image is generated from a plurality of low-resolution images that are shot at different shooting positions but that overlap with one another over certain pixel positions on the subject.
In this way, to acquire a high-resolution image by super-resolution processing as described above, a series of low-resolution images is used. The series consists of a plurality of chronologically ordered low-resolution images. The super-resolution processing is performed by a super-resolution processor, which can select, out of a given series of low-resolution images, a plurality of low-resolution images that it will actually use in super-resolution processing. If the selected low-resolution images are fit for the estimation of a high-resolution image, it is possible to generate a satisfactory high-resolution image. The selection processing here is therefore important.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and electronic appliance


A method 10 for forming a relatively stiff and/or a substantially tight joint 10, 30, 46 while concomitantly reducing the likelihood that the applied adhesive 12 will seep from the joint 10, 30, 46. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the adhesive 12 is placed upon about one half of the coverage portion and upon about ten percent of the fillet portion of each coach and one-half coach joint 10, 30. The adhesive 12 is further placed upon at least fifty percent of the coverage portion 48 of a lap joint 46.

A pair of members are typically required to be selectively interconnected at or along respective surfaces in order to allow these members to cooperatively form a desired assembly and/or to perform some desired overall function. Particularly, these interconnecting surfaces and members cooperatively form a "joint". Typically, three types of joints exist and/or are selectively formed and are respectively referred to as a "lap joint", a "one-half coach joint", and a "coach joint".
Particularly, a lap joint is formed by the selective interconnection of two substantially flat or planar members while a coach joint is formed by the selective interconnection of two arcuate members. The arcuate members cooperatively form a flared and open end. A one-half coach joint is formed by the selective interconnection of a substantially planar member and an arcuate member. Each of these joints is "tightened", "stiffened" or respectively secured or interconnected by the use of an adhesive material which selectively resides and/or is applied within the joint in a substantially "wet" state and allowed to cure. The cured adhesive then typically joins the various joint forming surfaces and allows the formed joint to perform a desired function.
While the adhesive material does desirably allow a relatively tight or stiff joint to be formed, it does frequently "seep" out of the joint and undesirably adhere to the joint-forming members or to other machinery, tools, or members in close proximity to the formed joint. Such seepage may cause damage to such machinery or members and may undesirably interfere with an overall manufacturing process. Moreover, since many such joints are typically formed during a manufacturing process, such seepage from all or a substantial number of these joints may greatly and undesirably reduce the efficiency of product production and increase the overall cost of the product manufacturing process.
Moreover, many business enterprises have not created and/or adopted a standardized method for forming a joint, thereby causing the various and respective manufacturing facilities of these business enterprises to produce joints having various "amounts of" or "degree of" stiffness, thereby increasing the variability of certain attributes of the products respectively produced by these business enterprises (i.e., overall product stiffness and/or reliability).
Traditionally, such seepage is substantially eliminated by the alternative use of other relatively costly and "mechanical" joint securing methods (i.e., by the use of fastening members) and/or by greatly diminishing the amount of the adhesive which is placed within the joint. While diminishing the amount of adhesive which is selectively placed within the joint does reduce seepage, it undesirably produces a relatively loose joint.
There is therefore a need for a method for forming a joint and for applying an adhesive within a joint which allows a relatively tight joint to be formed while concomitantly and substantially reducing the likelihood of seepage of the adhesive from the joint. There is further a need for a standardized method for forming a joint and/or for placing adhesive material within a joint, effective to allow and/or cause a business enterprise to consistently produce relatively stiff joints in a manner which overcomes at least some of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior methods and which substantially reduces the amount of variability associated with certain attributes and/or characteristics of the products produced by a business organization.


In a hearing aid having a switched amplifier, an amplifier circuit is provided so that the pulse amplitude of the switched output signal is adjusted as a function of the envelope of the audio signal to be amplified. A controllable amplifier is switched in series ahead of the switched amplifier, whereby its control by the audio signal to be amplified proceeds in such a manner that the product of the amplifications of the two amplifiers remains constant for all audio signal levels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hearing aid having a switched amplifier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Switched amplifiers, known also as class D-amplifiers have been employed in hearing aids such as for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,087. The purpose of the amplifier is to output the microphone signal to the earphone with a sufficiently high power.
Important considerations in a hearing aid application are integrateability, i.e., the amplifier should lend itself to be designed as a so called integrated circuit, and low power consumption. A switched amplifier meets these demands better than an amplifier which operates with permanently controlled transistors (see "Modulated Pulse Audio Power Amplifiers for integrated circuits" by H. R. Camenzind, IEEE-Trans. Vol. AU-14, Nr. 3, September 1966).
Switched amplifiers also transmit an alternating current U to the earphone when no audio signal is fed from the microphone. In such a case the signal U is without any modulation and consists only of an alternating voltage component of which the frequency f is high enough that it is not emitted from the earphone as an accoustic signal. Despite that, a so called holding current flows in the earphone, which is undesired and may in practical cases make up to 50% of the total holding current consumption of the hearing aid. The holding current amounts to: EQU I=U/Z.sub.f
In order to reduce I it is possible to increase the impedance Z.sub.f for the frequency f of the unmodulated output signal U by a low-pass filter, which is a common procedure for applications outside of the field of hearing aids but would occupy two much space in a hearing aid. A reduction of U does indeed reduce I, but limits the output power level which is attainable.


The invention relates to the use of von Willebrand Factor (vWF) with a prolonged biological half-life for the production of a preparation for stabilization of blood coagulation Factor VIII (FVIII:C) in a mammal. Additionally, a pharmaceutical preparation is provided comprising a biologically active FVIII:C/vWF complex with improved pharmokinetic properties, said complex containing a vWF with a prolonged biological half-life.

vWF is present in human plasma as a heterogeneous homo-multimer with a molecular weight of 450 kD to more than 10,000 kD. vWF serves as a carrier protein for coagulation factor VIII and contributes to adhesion of blood platelets to the endothelium of injured blood vessels.
In hemophilia, blood coagulation is disturbed by a lack of certain plasmatic blood coagulation factors. In hemophilia A, the tendency to hemorrhage is based on a lack of Factor VIII and/or a lack of vWF. Hemophilia A is treated through replacement of the missing coagulation factor by factor concentrates of conserved blood, for example by intravenous infusion of Factor VIII, a vWF/Factor VIII complex or vWF.
There are several syndromes which are associated with the underproduction or overproduction of von Willebrand Factor. Thus, an overproduction of vWF leads, for example, to an increased tendency of thrombosis, whereas an insufficient supply of vWF results in an increased tendency to hemorrhage or in prolonged bleeding time.
von Willebrand's syndrome can be manifested as several types. All forms are distinguished by a prolonged bleeding time which can be accounted for by an absolute lack of a functional vWF. The lack of vWF can also cause a phenotypic hemophilia A because vWF is an essential component of the functional Factor VIII complex. In these cases, the half-life of Factor VIII is decreased in such a manner that it cannot assert its specific functions in blood coagulation.
Patients with vW disease have a lack of functionally active vWF as a cause of hemorrhages. For therapy of vW disease, therapeutic plasma concentrates which contain vWF are proposed above all. However, the vWF originating from plasma (pdvWF) has an altered multimer distribution. The high molecular multimers are degraded during the manufacturing process for which reason a decreased hemostatic action of the plasma concentrates is presumed. Soluble proteases and/or proteases bound to blood platelets or leukocytes are considered to be primarily responsible for the degradation of high-molecular vWF multimers (Mannucci et al. Blood 83, 3018-3027 (1994)).
For prevention of problems which are associated with the production of pdvWF, the production of recombinant vWF (rvWF) by fermentation of recombinant cells has already been proposed. Fischer et al. (FEBS Letters 351, 345-348 (1994)) describe the expression of wild-type vWF in CHO cells. The cDNA for vWF has been described in EP 0 197 592. The rvWF produced was examined for its molecular structure. A gel electrophoretic examination showed that the multimer structure of rvWF corresponds with the ideal structure of pdvWF, whereby the high-molecular structure could also be detected. However, it was found that the rvWF is not separated into the triplet structure which is characteristic for pdvWF. This triplet structure comprises a predominant band and two or more satellite bands which occur in a complex with the predominant band of pdvWF.
The large-scale production of rvWF is described by Schlokat et al. (Thrombosis and Haemostasis 73, abstr. 993 (1995)). The rvWF produced in CHO cells was chromatographically purified, whereby no reduction of the specific ristocetin cofactor activity occurred. The processing of the pro-protein to mature rvWF was attained by co-expression of the enzyme furin. The obtained ristocetin cofactor activity was relatively high for all examined clones, for example, 70 units per unit vWF antigen.
The ristocetin cofactor activity of vWF is typically determined according to the instructions of Weiss et al. (Journal of Clinical Investigation 52, 2708-2716 (1973)). Thereby, the activity of vWF as a cofactor for the ristocetin-induced aggregation of blood platelets is examined.
This activity serves as a measure for the effectiveness of vWF for treatment of vW disease. From Fricke et al. (Thrombosis and Haemostasis 70, 351-356 (1993)) a very high ratio of 0.92 ristocetin-cofactor activity (RCoF) to vWF antigen (vWF:Ag) was found for Factor VIII and vWF in a plasma standard of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The vWF preparations described in the art contain vWF in proteolytically degraded form. Therefore, the stability of these preparations is limited. Attempts to prevent the proteolysis after drawing a blood sample in the presence of suitable inhibitors also did not lead to a vWF with intact structure.
Additionally, all vWF concentrates that are obtained by purification of the protein from human blood plasma or are separated in contact with biological material from mammals are potentially at risk of containing pathogenic molecules from plasma donors, such as for example, viruses.
A further problem for state of the art vWF preparations constitutes the short half-life of vWF after administration to a patient. In this connection, a decreased half-life of FVIII:C was also determined. The half-life for exogenous FVIII:C generally lies below that of endogenous FVIII:C, in the case of plasmatic FVIII:C typically approximately 10 h, and in the case of recombinant FVIII:C not more than approximately 12 h.
Thus, the half-life for a FVIII:C/vWF concentrate from the Centre Regional de Transfusion Sanguine de Lille (France) according to the product description 1992 lies at 10 to 14 h; after administration of this preparation, an increase in the endogenous FVIII:C to merely to 1 to 3 units per milliliter in 24 hours could be observed. For another FVIII:C/vWF-containing preparation (Haemate.RTM. HS Behring), the half-life is given as 7 hours in type 3 vW disease, 12.3 h in type 2A and 13.8 h in type 1.

Use of von willebrand factor and pharmaceutical formulation


An optical amplifier prevents generation of an optical surge when an input signal to the optical amplifier is interrupted. A synthesized signal of an input signal light and a pumping light is input to an optical amplifying medium. An input signal light interruption detecting circuit detects an interruption of the input signal light. A variable attenuator element is provided on a signal light input side of the optical amplifying medium so as to attenuate the input signal light. The variable attenuator element is controlled based on an output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit so that a degree of attenuation of the variable attenuator element is increased when the input signal light is interrupted and the degree of attenuation is gradually decreased when the input signal light returns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical amplifier used for an optical transmission system or an application for an optical measuring instrument. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical amplifier which can prevent an optical surge from occurring when an output signal is interrupted for a moment.
In an optical transmission system, an optical amplifier is used for increasing a transmissible distance or reducing a system cost of a conventional 3R regeneration relay. Additionally, a demand for an optical amplifier which can generate high-power light to be used in a measuring application for design or evaluation of an optical transmission has been increased.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an optical transmission system or measuring application, many systems are used in which an optical amplifier using an erbium doped fiber (EDF) directly amplifies an optical signal. In such an EDF amplifier, a high-power light (optical surge) which greatly exceeds a preset optical output level is transitively generated during an instantaneous interruption of an input optical signal.
The optical surge can be defined as follows. It is assumed that an optical power of an output signal shown in a lower half of FIG. 1 is obtained as a result of amplification of an input signal having an optical power shown in an upper half of FIG. 1. The optical surge is defined by a ratio of a peak level to a normal output level when a high-power light having a level exceeding a normal level is generated. EQU optical surge level (dB)=10 log(p2/p1)
where P2 is a peak level (W) of the output optical surge, and P1 is a normal optical output level (W).
It should be noted that .DELTA.tr shown in FIG. 1 is a period of time on an order of micro seconds (.mu.s).
FIG. 2 is a conceptual illustration of generation of an optical surge.
FIG. 2-(a) indicates a state where both a pumping light and a signal light are incident on an optical amplifier medium (for example, EDF). EQU .DELTA.E=E2-E1=h.nu.
where .DELTA.E is an energy gap, E2 is an excitation level, E1 is a ground level or a low energy level, h is Plank's constant, and .nu. is a frequency of an output light. In this state, a ratio of density of optically amplifying media (Er ions) in each of the excited level (E2) and the ground level (E2) is constant, and the excited level and the ground level are balanced (A density N2 in the excited level and a density N1 in the ground level are equal to each other.)
FIG. 2-(b) indicates a state where the signal light input to the optically amplifying media is stopped or interrupted but the pumping light is continuously incident on the optically amplifying media. In this state, the ratio of density of the optically amplifying media in the excited state is increased (N2>>N1), and an excitation rate (population inversion ratio) is at a high level. Accordingly, a spontaneous emission light which satisfies the relationship .DELTA.E=E2-E1=h.nu. is emitted.
FIG. 2-(c) indicates a state where the input signal light is returned from the interrupted state to the normal state. In this state, the optical amplifier media at the excited level emits energy to the input signal light more than that of the state (a) so that the optical amplifier medium rapidly returns to the state (a) where the ratio of density of the optical amplifier medium at either the excited level or the ground level is balanced. As a result, the signal output after the return has an optical surge having a level exceeding the normal output level.
FIG. 3 shows a relationship between an amount of the optical surge and the instantaneous interruption time in a case where the pumping light is stopped when the interruption of the pumping light occurs. As shown in FIG. 3, the amount of the optical surge decreases when the instantaneous interruption time exceeds about 1 ms.
A relationship between the optical surge and the instantaneous interruption time when the pumping light is not stopped is shown in FIG. 4. The graph shown in FIG. 4 includes an optical surge ungenerated time area A and an optical surge generated time area B. In the optical surge ungenerated time area A, an optical surge is not generated since the interruption time is not so short such that a rare earth doped fiber used as an optical amplifying medium cannot respond.
As a means for preventing an occurrence of such an optical surge, two measures have been taken conventionally. One of them is shown in FIG. 5. In the conventional system shown in FIG. 5, an amount of optical surge is suppressed by stopping the pumping light by detecting an interruption of the input signal light. The suppression of the amount of the optical surge can be achieved by speeding up the stopping of the pumping light. That is, the optical surge in the output signal light can be suppressed by decreasing accumulation of energy at a minimum by speeding up the stopping of the pumping light.
In the system shown in FIG. 5, the amount of optical surge is suppressed by stopping the pumping light by detecting the input signal light. In this system, an erbium dopes optical fiber EDF is used as an optical amplifying medium. The input signal light is input to an input terminal 1, and is synthesized with the pumping light by a wave length division multiplexer WDM. The synthesized light is incident on the erbium doped optical fiber FDF, and an amplified output signal light is obtained at an output terminal 2.
Additionally, in the system shown in FIG. 5, the input signal light input from the terminal 1 is monitored by a path of a beam splitter BS and a photo diode PD so as to stop the pumping light by decreasing a reference voltage (ALC-ref) of an ALC (automatic level control) circuit when the input signal light is decreased to a threshold value (Vref).
FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of an example of the ALC circuit. A relationship between the optical surge and the instantaneous interruption time of the example shown in FIG. 6 corresponds to that shown in FIG. 3. Different from the graph shown in FIG. 4, the graph shown in FIG. 3 includes an optical surge ungenerated time area C. This area is generated due to stopping of the pumping light. That is, as shown in FIG. 2-(b), even if a density of carriers at an excitation level is high at an initial state, the density at the excited level decreases as radiation light is gradually emitted while no carrier is raised to the excited level due to the stopping of the pumping light. As a result, the density of carriers at the excited level is decreased and, thereby, the optical surge is not generated in the area C when the input light returns. The start time of this time area is substantially equal to an average life time of the carrier at the excited level in the rare earth doped optical fiber, which is an optical amplifying medium, when the time is measured from the time when the pumping light is stopped.
The amount of optical surge in the circuit shown in FIG. 5 is dependent on 1) an output pumping light entering after the interruption of the input signal light, 2) an increasing speed of the input signal light which returns after the interruption and 3) the interruption time of the input signal light. Among these factors, the factor 1) is able to be handled in the optical amplifier by increasing the speed of stopping the pumping light, whereas the factors 2) and 3) cannot be handled by the optical amplifier alone since the factors 2) and 3) are external factors for the optical amplifier. Accordingly, an optical surge may always be generated depending on the condition of the increasing speed at the time for returning the input signal light after an interruption and an interruption time of the input signal light.
FIG. 7 shows an example of a system which improves on the system shown in FIG. 5. In the system shown in FIG. 7, an optical transmission delay fiber TDF for delaying transmission is connected subsequent to the optical amplifying medium EDF, and an optical surge which has already been generated is suppressed by using a variable attenuator element ATT. A part of the amplified signal is split by a beam splitter BS2, and is monitored by a photo diode PD2 so that, when an optical surge is generated, the optical surge is prevented from being output from the output terminal 2 by increasing a degree of attenuation while the optical surge is delayed by the transmission delay optical fiber TDF.
In this technique, 1) the transmission delay optical fiber is needed, and 2) the variable attenuator element must be connected subsequent to the optical amplifying medium EDF. Since the variable attenuator element at the present time generates a transmission loss (1 to 2 dB), the loss must be compensated so as to obtain the same output.
Accordingly, the above-mentioned improved technique has drawbacks in that:
1) the need for the transmission delay optical fiber is a problem for downsizing the optical amplifier; and PA1 2) the connection of the loss generating factor is a problem for obtaining a high output. PA1 an input signal light interruption detecting circuit detecting an interruption of the input signal light; and PA1 a variable attenuator element attenuating the input signal light, the variable attenuator element provided on a signal light input side of the optical amplifying medium, PA1 wherein the variable attenuator element is controlled based on an output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit so that a degree of attenuation of the variable attenuator element is increased when the input signal light is interrupted and the degree of attenuation is gradually decreased when the input signal light returns. PA1 an input signal light interruption detecting circuit detecting an interruption of the input signal light; PA1 a timer for measuring a time after the input signal light is interrupted upon receipt of an output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit; and PA1 a variable attenuator element attenuating the input signal light, the variable attenuator element provided on a signal light input side of the optical amplifying medium, PA1 wherein the variable attenuator element is controlled based on the output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit so that a degree of attenuation of the variable attenuator element is increased when a predetermined time is elapsed after the input signal light is interrupted and the degree of attenuation is gradually decreased when the input signal light returns. PA1 an input signal light interruption detecting circuit detecting an interruption of the input signal light; PA1 a timer for measuring a time after the input signal light is interrupted upon receipt of an output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit; and PA1 a variable attenuator element attenuating the input signal light, the variable attenuator element provided on a signal light input side of the optical amplifying medium, PA1 wherein the variable attenuator element is controlled based on an output of the timer so that a degree of attenuation of the variable attenuator element is increased when the input signal light is interrupted and the degree of attenuation is decreased at a time when an optical surge is no longer generated after a period during which an optical surge is generated is passed. PA1 an input signal light interruption detecting circuit detecting an interruption of the input signal light; PA1 a timer for measuring a time after the input signal light is interrupted upon receipt of an output of the input signal light interruption detecting circuit; and PA1 a variable attenuator element attenuating the input signal light, the variable attenuator element provided on a signal light input side of the optical amplifying medium, PA1 wherein the variable attenuator element is controlled based on an output of the timer so that a degree of attenuation of the variable attenuator element is increased when a predetermined time is elapsed after the input signal light is interrupted and the degree of attenuation is decreased at a time when the optical surge is no longer generated.

Optical amplifier having an attenuator for attenuating input power to eliminate a surge in an amplified optical signal


To process a signal from a plurality of detectors without being affected by a variation in the height of a substrate, and to detect more minute defects on the substrate, a defect inspection device is provided with a photoelectric converter having a plurality of rows of optical sensor arrays in each of first and second light-collecting/detecting unit and a processing unit for processing a detection signal from the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit to determine the extent to which the positions of the focal points of the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit are misaligned with respect to the surface of a test specimen, and processing the detection signal to correct a misalignment between the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit, and the corrected detection signal outputted from the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit are combined together to detect the defects on the test specimen.

The present invention concerns a method of detecting a minute defect occurred on a test specimen and a device therefor, and more particularly relates to a defect inspection method suitable for detecting a minute defect occurred on a semiconductor wafer with a fine pattern formed on its surface and a device therefor.
A semiconductor wafer is made more and more multi-layered in structure as the shape of a pattern to be formed on the wafer is more and more refined with high-integration of a circuit, and the number of producing steps thereof is being steadily increased. In order to stably produce a highly reliable high-integrated circuit by surely forming the fine pattern on the wafer, it becomes important to confirm that the fine pattern is surely formed and a defect such as a foreign matter or the like does not occur by inspecting the wafer on which the pattern is formed.
As a means for inspecting the wafer with the pattern formed thereon, there exist, for example, a pattern inspection device of light-field-based optical system (a light-field pattern inspection device), a defect inspection device of dark-field-based optical system (a dark-field defect inspection device) and others.
Although the applications of the light-field pattern inspection device and the dark-field inspection device are different from each other in general, the dark-field defect inspection device has such a feature that throughput of inspection is higher than that of the light-field pattern inspection device.
In such a dark-field defect inspection device as mentioned above, how a more minute defect is to be detected at a higher speed without being affected by light scattered from the pattern formed on the wafer is one of problems.
As a means for solving this problem, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-105203 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-512237 (Patent Document 2), there is a description that a wafer is obliquely irradiated with linear illumination light which is finely squeezed in one direction and light which has been scattered from a surface of the wafer with the linear illumination light is detected by a detection system above the wafer and detection systems disposed on its both sides while continuously moving the wafer in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the illumination light, thereby detecting a defect on the wafer by using respective detection signals.
In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-256340 (Patent Document 3), there is a description that a TDI (Time Delay Integration) sensor is used in a detection system and it is configured to asynchronously control a line rate of the TDI sensor and a stage scan speed to illuminate an object to be inspected with finely squeezed linear light so as to make only an arbitrary pixel line of the TDL sensor receive scattered light from the inspected object such that an aspect ratio of the size of a detection pixel can be controlled with a speed ratio of the line rate of the TDI sensor to the stage scan speed, thereby making inspection possible at a scan speed higher than the line rate of the TDI sensor.
Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-190722 (Patent Document 4), there is a description that a wafer is obliquely irradiated with linear illumination light which is finely squeezed in one direction, light which has been scattered upward from a surface of the wafer with the linear illumination light is collected while continuously moving the wafer in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the linear illumination light and is branched in accordance with a state of polarization, light transmitted through a spatial filter is detected by filtering diffracted light and scattered light from a normal pattern by the arrayed spatial filter, thereby detecting a defect independently of polarization characteristics of scattered light from the defect.

Defect inspection method and device therefor


The invention relates to a thermally efficient and low maintenance enclosed structure, such as a sunroom, made from a framework of joined structural members, thermally insulating kick panels, windows, optional door assembly, optional skylights, and a roof. The structural members include reinforced and non-reinforced polyvinyl chloride extrusions. The structural members are joined together at joints using hardware which cannot be seen from inside or outside the enclosure thereby enhancing the aesthetic appeal of the enclosure. Machines for making the enclosure from a small number of extruded profiles are also described.

Sunrooms are not new to the building industry. When adding onto or remodeling an existing home or other structure, many people turn to a sunroom or patio enclosure. Such rooms are relatively easy for trained technicians to construct and are inexpensive when compared to other improvements that can be made to a home, such as remodeled bathrooms or kitchens. Sunrooms have traditionally been constructed of an aluminum frame with windows or glass sections. Aluminum sunrooms are shaped with vertical walls that have a curved transition to the roof, although most may have a marque roof or gable type roof.
Aluminum framed rooms constructed in this manner, however, have several disadvantages. The main problem is poor thermal efficiency. Due to the high rate at which aluminum conducts heat, a room constructed from aluminum cannot stay comfortably cool in the summer without air conditioning or warm in the winter without supplemental heating. This drawback results in dramatically increased cooling and heating costs. Moreover, many of the windows in aluminum frame type sunrooms are generally installed in such a way that the windows cannot be opened and no screens are present. Another disadvantage is high maintenance. Aluminum must be painted if chipped and is easily dented. Construction of aluminum rooms is a major disadvantage as well. Because of the nature of the metal, the aluminum pieces must be assembled with external fasteners. External fasteners increase the time of assembly and degrade the overall aesthetics of the room.
In light of these various deficiencies, a need continues for a low maintenance sunroom/patio enclosure with improved thermal efficiency, screens, and sliding or double hung windows.


A medical device having a heater with at least one heating element which has mains voltage applied to it by a heating control unit. The heating control unit includes a monitoring arrangement and a switching arrangement. The monitoring arrangement can recognize the zero crossings of the mains voltage, and the switching arrangement can switch the at least one heating element on or off in the zero crossing. The heating control unit controls the power of the heating by switching on and off of one or more half cycles of the mains AC voltage.

In dialysis machines, heating of dialysis fluid is usually realized as an ohmic heating element to which a heating control applies mains voltage to switch the heating element on or to disconnect the heating element from the mains voltage in order to switch it off.
The heating power can be set and adapted to the different rated voltages to split the heater into a plurality of heating elements or to control the heating elements via a phase angle control. Phase angle controls are, however, complicated and moreover have problems with electromagnetic irradiation. There is moreover a substantial power loss in the electronic system. The previously known division into a plurality of heating elements furthermore has the disadvantage that the devices have to be switched differently at different rated voltages of the mains power in order not to reach any unpermittedly high power consumption.


Provided is a perovskite-type oxide film having a perovskite-type crystal structure and containing lead as a chief component, which, when subjected to Raman microspectroscopy at a plurality of points on a surface thereof so as to measure Raman spectra upon application of an electric field of 100 kV/cm and upon application of no electric field, has a mean of absolute values of peak shift amounts that is 2.2 cm−1 or less, with the peak shift amounts being found between Raman spectra in a range of 500 to 650 cm−1 measured upon application of an electric field of 100 kV/cm and Raman spectra in the range of 500 to 650 cm−1 measured upon application of no electric field. A production process and an evaluation method for such a film as well as a device using such a film are also provided.

The present invention relates to perovskite-type oxide films, production processes and evaluation methods for such films, as well as devices using such films.
In recent years, research and development have been conducted actively on a variety of devices such as actuators, sensors and memory devices for which piezoelectric materials are used, whereupon piezoelectric films deposited by a vapor-phase deposition technique such as sputtering receive attention as high-performance, functional films. The piezoelectric films are used as a piezoelectric thin-film device for a piezoelectric actuator in an inkjet recording head (liquid ejecting device), a micropump, and so forth, of which a high piezoelectric performance is required.
At present, the piezoelectric thin-film device is decreased in displacing capability upon application of an electric field thereto, that is to say, deteriorated, as it is exposed to a higher relative humidity and temperature.
Specifically, a problem lies in that the moisture around a piezoelectric film increases a leakage current to cause dielectric breakdown or promotes ion migration by making a constituent of the piezoelectric film ionized.
Measures against heat and humidity are accordingly critical to the piezoelectric films of which a high piezoelectric performance is required, and also indispensable from the viewpoint of the durability of a device using a piezoelectric film.
For the purpose of increasing device durability, US 2006/0046319 A1, for instance, proposes distribution of the mean stress received by a piezoelectric film by providing a stress-relieving layer which is formed by orientational film deposition or epitaxial film deposition.
In JP 2005-253274 A, it is disclosed that a stress-relieving section for relieving the stress on a piezoelectric device is provided by cutting a slit in an electrode layer.
Such a stress-relieving layer or stress-relieving section as described in US 2006/0046319 A1 or JP 2005-253274 A, however, will be provided at the expense of much time and effort, and increase the fabrication costs.
Moreover, it is not possible with the conventional measures to fully relieve the stress generated in a piezoelectric film during the application of a voltage thereto so as to attain a satisfactory device durability. One reason for this is that, while deterioration is liable to begin where stress is localized, a localized stress cannot be removed by providing the stress-relieving layer or stress-relieving section.

Perovskite-type oxide film, piezoelectric thin-film device and liquid ejecting device using perovskite-type oxide film, as well as production process and evaluation method for perovskite-type oxide film


A thin hard mask is formed over a semiconductor substrate. The thin hard mask allows diffusion of a sacrificial material or pore-forming agent therethrough to form an underlying air gap or porous dielectric region. The thin hard mask may be a polymer or an initially porous material that may be later densified. The thin hard mask may be used to prevent etch steps used in forming an unlanded via from reaching layers below the hard mask.

The present invention relates generally to the field of integrated circuit manufacturing, and more specifically, to forming hard mask layers over air gaps or porous interlayer dielectric materials on a semiconductor substrate.
Low dielectric constant (low-k) materials are increasingly needed for use as interlayer dielectrics (ILDs) in semiconductor devices, to reduce RC delay and improve device performance. As devices sizes continue to shrink, the dielectric constant of the material between metal lines must decrease to maintain the improvement. For example, some integrated circuit devices are expected to require dielectric materials with k<2 in the near future. To produce dielectric materials having such low dielectric constants, greater porosity is required, or air gaps may be created between the metal lines. However, unlanded via formation is difficult to integrate with air gaps or on top of porous dielectric layers because the etch process cannot be controlled sufficiently to prevent unwanted metal deposition in various areas of the device.
In semiconductor devices, vias connect different layers of metal lines or electrically conductive materials. An insulator or dielectric material may be formed between separate planes of conductive material around the vias and also within the trenches in the circuit pattern of a layer of conductive material.
In the past, vias usually have been formed as landed vias (i.e., the via rests entirely on a conductive layer) rather than unlanded vias (i.e., the via rests partially on a conductive layer and partially on an insulator). For example, unlanded vias may result from some misalignment of masks that are used to form the openings in dielectric layers. As packing density of integrated circuits increase, and device geometries decrease, very slight misalignment, lithography, or etch registration errors may result in unlanded vias. To avoid the risk of poor electrical connections or device failure, efforts have been made to exclude unlanded vias from design rules, or to specify increasingly restrictive alignment tolerances to prevent unlanded vias. However, unlanded vias cannot be eliminated completely if higher packing densities are to be achieved.
Thus, unlanded vias may be necessarily encountered in semiconductor processing as devices shrink and packing densities increase. One such process is a dual damascene process that involves forming both a via and a trench in a dielectric layer or interlayer dielectric. After the via and trench are etched, they may be filled with a conductive material such as copper to form a complete conductive layer of interconnects.
In some processes, such as dual damascene processes, hard mask layers have been added, at least in part to handle unlanded vias. For example, a hard mask layer may provide an etch stop, i.e., to block or prevent conductive material in an unlanded via, or dry or wet etch chemicals used to form an unlanded via, from breaking through and/or spilling into one or more underlying layers and cause irretrievable damage to those layers. The lower layers that may be adversely affected include air gap layers or low-k dielectric materials that may have significant porosity. If the air gaps or porous dielectric layers are not isolated from etching steps, subsequent processing may provide the unwanted result of filling that gap or layer with metal.
Materials that have been used to form such protective hard mask layers include silicon oxide, silicon nitride or silicon carbide. Not only are the hard masks intended to prevent the etching steps from damaging dielectric or air gap layers below unlanded vias, but they also should provide mechanical support to build layers over the Lard mask layer. However, the materials that have been used for hard mask layers generally have a dielectric constant (k) of at least 5.0. As a result, hard mask layers tend to increase the overall effective dielectric constant of the dielectric stack. Additionally, the etch selectivity of a silicon nitride or silicon carbide hard mask layer to a dielectric material such as carbon doped oxide (CDO) is only in the range of approximately 2:1 or 3:1 for manufacturable etch processes, so there is a risk that the etching steps could penetrate hard mask that is thin.
What is needed is a thin hard mask layer over an air gap or dielectric material, in which the thin hard mask has an etch selectivity to the dielectric material substantially greater than 2:1 or 3:1. A hard mask layer also is needed for use in dual damascene and other multilayer semiconductor processes, that will contribute to a lower keff value, thereby reducing RC delay. A hard mask layer is needed that will allow diffusion of sacrificial material or pore-forming material therethrough to form air gaps or pores. A hard mask layer and method are needed that will allow use of unlanded vias and decrease the risk that etching steps could penetrate through to underlying layers. A hard mask layer is needed for semiconductor manufacturing process that will contribute to less restrictive, and therefore less costly, tolerances.

Forming thin hard mask over air gap or porous dielectric


An augmented Lagrangian genetic algorithm that may be used to generate solutions for optimization problems subject to linear, bound, and non-linear constraints is discussed. The augmented Lagrangian genetic algorithm uses an adaptive mutation operator to separately handle the linear, and bound constraints, and uses an augmented Lagrangian framework to handle non-linear constraints. The non-linear constraints are handled by creating a sub-problem without the linear and bound constraints and solving the sub-problem using Lagrange parameter estimates and a penalty factor. The exclusion of the linear constraints and boundary constraints from the sub-problem allows the sub-problem to be resolved in a more effective manner than is possible using conventional techniques.

Genetic algorithms provide a technique for solving optimization problems that are based on natural selection, the process that drives biological evolution. The optimization problem being solved may include linear constraints and boundary constraints as well as non-linear constraints. A genetic algorithm repeatedly modifies a population of individual solutions in order to create a new population. At each generation, the genetic algorithm selects individuals from the current population to be parents and uses the selected individuals to produce the children for the next generation. Over successive generations, the population "evolves" toward an "optimal solution.
A genetic algorithm uses three main types of operations to create the next population from the current population, namely elites, crossover, and mutation. Elites are individuals selected intact from the current population. Crossover is a technique to swap content from individuals in the current population to create new individuals for the next generation. The third type of operation, the mutation operation is of special interest for the current discussion and is discussed in detail below.
In a genetic algorithm, a mutation operator is a genetic operator used to maintain diversity in a population from one generation to the next. An example of a mutation operator involves the probability that some arbitrary element in a point vector (individual) will be changed from its original state. FIG. 1 illustrates a mutation example in which two elements are randomly chosen and changed to a random value. A point vector A (10) includes elements 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. A second point vector B (20) is also shown where B is an example of an individual selected by mutating selected elements within point vector A. Point vector B (20) includes elements 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25. Element 11 was mutated into element 21 and Element 15 was mutated into element 25. The values of elements 12, 13 and 14 is the same of that of respective elements 22, 23 and 24. The mutating of the individuals helps prevent premature convergence in the overall population.
FIG. 2 illustrates in a graph 30 the effect of a mutation operation in a conventional unconstrained optimization problem. An individual P2 (34) is generated via a mutation operation on current individual P1 (32) in an unconstrained optimization problem.
One of the difficulties with existing mutation algorithms, such as uniform random mutation and Gaussian mutation, is that while they are very useful in unconstrained optimization, it is very difficult to perform a mutation step in a constrained optimization while maintaining feasibility (a feasible individual represents an acceptable possible solution to the problem being optimized taking into consideration the applicable constraints). For example, in FIG. 3 a graph 40 depicts two linear constraints 46 and 48 and a point P1 (42). Conventional mutation operators that do not take into account the linear constraints 46 and 48 may generate an individual P2 (44) that is located outside the feasible region 50 and therefore not usable as a possible solution to the optimization problem.
A conventional technique for dealing with the generation of solutions to an optimization problem with constraints is to use a penalty method to account for the constraints. A discussion of a common use of the penalty method in optimization problems with linear, bound, and non-linear constraints follows below.
The optimization problem being solved may be represented as:
      Minimize    x                    f              (      x      )                      Such thatCi(x)≦0,i=1 . . . m Ci(x)=0,i=m+1 . . . mt Ax≦bAeqx=beq LB≦x≦UB  (A)where the Ci(x) are nonlinear inequality and equality constraints. The integer "m" is the number of nonlinear inequality constraints and mt is the total number of nonlinear constraints. Ax≦b and Aeqx=beq are linear constraints, LB and UB are lower and upper bounds on the decision variable x.
The most popular approach to perform optimization, subject to constraints, is to formulate a sub-problem with a penalty parameter, and then solve the sub-problem. The sub-problem formulated from the original problem (A) is shown below:
      Θ              (              x        ,        ρ            )        =            f                    (        x        )              -          ρ                    (                                            ∑                              i                =                1                            m                                                                                max                                            (                                  0                  ,                                      Ax                    -                    b                                                  )                                              +                                    ∑                              i                =                                  m                  +                  1                                            mt                                                                                                                                                    A                    eq                                                      x                                -                                  b                  eq                                                                            +                                    ∑                              i                =                1                            m                                                                                max                                            (                                  0                  ,                                                            c                      i                                                                                (                      x                      )                                                                      )                                              +                                    ∑                              i                =                                  m                  +                  1                                            mt                                                                                                                                c                  i                                                                  (                  x                  )                                                                                  )            This sub-problem is solved using a fixed value for ρ or by making ρ dependent on the generation number. Both the linear and the nonlinear constraints are included in the sub-problem, and this is solved subject to the bounds. Bounds are satisfied by choosing appropriate mutation and crossover operators. It should be noted that the linear constraints are included as part of the sub-problem.
Unfortunately, these conventional algorithms suffer from a number of drawbacks when it comes to constrained optimization problems. A difficult aspect of this approach is that it requires a user to choose the right value of ρ for different problems. Additionally, the combination of the linear and nonlinear constraints makes the sub-problem difficult to solve. The linear and bound constraints provide much information that is not used to solve the problem. Also, guessing a value of the penalty parameter ρ is not trivial and often requires some experimentation. If a dynamic penalty parameter is used, there is no adequate way to update this parameter. This type of conventional algorithm to handle constrained optimization also does not scale well as it is inefficient for larger problems that have more decision variables and constraints.

System and method for performing non-linear constrained optimization with a genetic algorithm


According to some embodiments, a receiving device: receives a radio frequency (RF) signal from a transmitting device over a wireless channel; performs a channel estimation of the wireless channel based on the RF signal; obtains a direct current (DC) bin measurement based on the channel estimation; determines a direct current (DC) offset correction based on the DC bin measurement; and sending the DC offset correction to the transmitting device via a local transmitter. The transmitting device: receives the DC offset correction information from the receiving device over a first wireless channel; receives data to be transmitted to the receiving device, where the DC offset correction information describing the DC offset correction; applies the DC offset correction to a transient signal that is based on the data; converts the transient signal to an RF signal; and transmits the RF signal to the receiving device over a second wireless channel.

1. Field of the Invention(s)
The present invention(s) relate to local oscillator leakage, and more particularly, to cancelling local oscillator leakage at a transmitter by way of information provided by a receiver.
2. Description of Related Art
Single carrier frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) is one of many approaches used for facilitating wireless communication. An advantage of SC-FDE over single carrier systems is computational efficiency of channel equalization since equalization is performed in frequency domain. In the frequency domain, channel equalization is a product of frequency transforms of a signal and an inverse of channel estimation, while in single carrier systems, channel equalization is a convolution of a signal and equalizer impulse response. An advantage of a SC-FDE over multi-carrier systems is lower peak to average power ratio (PAPR). SC-FDE systems operate in frames, with each frame starting with a preamble used for channel estimation and with each preamble being followed by data blocks (or blocks).
A disadvantage of SC-FDE systems is that signals are sent, received, and processed in blocks, rather than in samples. Block processing limits Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithms, and often causes delays among components of a communications receiver. Additionally, certain algorithms of a communications receiver still require sample-based processing and must be performed in the time domain, such as carrier recovery using a carrier phase-lock loop (PLL). Carrier recovery PLL is required for correcting carrier frequency offset, correcting phase offset, and filtering out carrier phase noise. Since a carrier recovery PLL is positioned after frequency-domain processing in SC-FDE systems (e.g., after FFT, channel estimation, equalization, and DC offset measurement), frequency-domain algorithms in such systems are affected by the carrier frequency and phase rotation. In addition, since blocks in SC-FDE systems are separated by a cyclic prefix (CP) when transmitted over the air-link, the CP removal in the communications receiver causes discrete jumps in carrier phase from block to block, prior to carrier recovery.
A disadvantage of direct conversion transceiver architectures is the local oscillator (LO) leakage generated in a transmitting device's IQ modulator due to the modulator imperfections. This LO leakage is converted on the receiving device as a direct current (DC) offset signal in I and Q baseband signals. The DC offset signal affects the received quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) symbol constellation by shifting the constellation away from the Gaussian plane origin and, hence, limiting the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal received by the receiving device. The situation is exacerbated by carrier frequency offset and phase noise impairments in the signal received, which can change the DC offset signal into a jittery low-frequency signal that usually cannot be removed by the receiving device.

Systems and methods for reducing effects of local oscillator leakage