A re-settable fuse is provided with a movable cartridge containing a plurality of fuse elements. When a fuse is blown, a replacement fuse element may be installed into a circuit by moving, rotating or otherwise altering the position of the cartridge such that a new fuse element is inserted between electrical contacts mounted within the interior of the housing of the fuse. The bottom of the housing is configured to conform to a standardized shape of a fuse so that it may be installed into ordinary fuse box. Within the housing is a conductor which connects the fuse and the fuse element with the circuit wired into the fuse box. This conductor is exposed at the bottom of the fuse for connecting with the circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a fuse that can be re-set, and more specifically to a fuse having a plurality of fuse elements which can be moved into position between fuse leads to re-set a fuse.
2. Related Art
Fuses are a necessary component of many electrical systems. Fuses maintain the safety of a circuit by physically opening themselves to interrupt the flow of an electrical current whenever an excessive electrical current has been detected. In prior inventions, the detection of an excessive electrical current was accomplished by means of a fuse filament which was designed to melt in response to the heat produced by an excessive electrical current. This excessive current may exist because too many electrical devices or appliances are operating as to create excessively low resistances within the circuit, thereby risking the hazard of a fire.
Because of their simplicity of design and operation, many varieties of fuses can be mass produced at low cost, thereby providing an inexpensive means to ensure circuit safety.
However, there are disadvantages when maintaining safety through the use of fuses. Paramount is that fuses do not replace themselves. Unlike a circuit breaker, which need only be reset after the unsafe electrical condition has been abated, once a fuse has burned out, it remains lodged within the circuit requiring a person to perform a manual and tedious chore to remove the opened fuse and reinsert another entirely new fuse of like size, specification and capacity. Often this task of replacement requires the use of tools. If tools are not used, and sometimes even if they are, there is a risk to the person replacing the fuse of electrical shock as his or her skin might come into contact with a powered circuit.
Furthermore, fuse replacement is often made more aggravating by the fact that the open fuse must first be located among many similar fuses which are still in working order. Typically, all of the fuses for a system are grouped together within a single cabinet known as a "fuse box." Because fuse boxes are not pleasing to the eye, they are often installed within locations that are not conveniently or directly accessible to the consumer of electrical power. Once located, the consumer finds the fuse box to be packed with many identical or near identical fuses that are positioned in an arrangement that obscures the identity of the particular fuse which is in non-working order.
Accordingly, to locate the opened fuse, a person must use a chart to identify the component or circuit that has discontinued operating, and then match the chart against the arrangement of fuses within the fuse box to locate the non-working fuse. As one might expect, such a search for a blown fuse is much more difficult to perform if conducted in the absence of adequate lighting.
Also, since fuses blow at times that are inconvenient to the user, there exists a need for a storage device by which a replacement fuse element can be housed in a position that is electrically insulated from the circuit it is later to protect, but close enough to its future operating site that the consumer of electrical power does not have to conduct a rambling and disorganized search, often at a relatively remote location from the fuse box, for a compatible replacement fuse.
Ideally, it would be preferable if the replacement fuse element could be inserted into the circuit without the need for actual physical contact with the installer. In other words, to quickly move the fuse element from its storage position directly into the circuit to be protected. Such an system of replacement would eliminate nearly all of the tediousness and inconvenience that arise during the time of replacement.
Furthermore, such a system could abate the need for using an entirely new fuse to replace a blown fuse. Rather, only a component of the fuse, the fuse element, would need to be replaced.
Examples of previous efforts at re-settable circuit protection devices include:
Ahuja, U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,022 discloses an auto-rest circuit breaker having at least one solid state switch ( e.g. a triac, SCR or complimentary FET) that is biased to be normally closed and mounted in series with a shunt resistor or shunt resistor network. The shunt resistor creates a drop in voltage that is continuously measured, and may be converted from an analog to a digital value, to protect the circuit within the line from over-voltage or over-current conditions. Not relying upon thermal or electromagnetic relays, the circuit breaker provides instantaneous protection at an electronic speed.
Kowalski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,589 discloses a fuse circuit having a single physical fuse that is to be electrically blown and a non-volatile memory cell which confirms the condition of the fuse by measuring the current though a transistorized current divider network. Detection of a blown fuse is accomplished in the following manner: in the intact state, the low resistance of the fuse causes the current to bypass a parallel mounted transistor circuit and electrical ground. Should voltage overload conditions cause the fuse element to deteriorate, the resulting high resistance of the open fuse causes the current to reach electrical ground via the lower resistance path of the transistor circuit. The transistor circuit is preferably an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) type floating gate transistor that is made of technology similar to that of the fuse.
Swensen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,561 discloses a circuit breaker or re-settable fuse device having a normally relaxed shape memory wire which receives heat from a resistor. Under prolonged overload current conditions, the resistor generated heat causes the shape memory wire to contract and shift a moveable terminal out of contact with a fixed stationary terminal, thereby interrupting electrical current in the circuit to be protected. Only when the overload conditions are removed does the current though the resistor drop to a point where the resultant heat is insufficient to maintain the contracted condition of the shape memory wire. The breaker or fuse thereby automatically resets itself.
Ball, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,402 discloses a device that houses a conventional fuse and permits installation without the use of tools. The interior of the rigid housing contains a pair of terminals and a fuse element that is positioned between these terminals by electrical contacts. Attached to the exterior of the housing are two plug portions, each of which extend in opposite axial directions, that are shaped for insertion and retention within the fuse socket. By removing or inserting the plug portion, the fuse is removed or installed within the circuit to be protected.
Canada, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,049 discloses a fuse blow circuit. The circuit includes an address buffer incorporated within a VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated) semiconductor chip, which makes use of its existing input/output pads that are dedicated to other circuit functions, to determine the condition of fuses. Also included are a fuse latch chip, a fuse blow chip and a fuse sense chip. These three chips are required for each fuse used. A fuse control circuit is included and may be shared for a bank of fuses. The fuse sense circuit continuously tests a fuse by measuring a voltage drop across a resistor that receives a trickle current from a transistor. If an excessively high voltage opens a fuse element, the transistor becomes saturated. The fuse latch circuit determines if a fuse is to be blown or electrically overridden.
Shamir, U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,559 discloses both an electrical plug and a spare fuse holder embodied within a single fire retardant plastic housing. The housing is configured to have a channel wherein a spliced electrical cord may be inserted with no danger of inadvertently making contact without being in series with the fuse element. The housing also contains two chambers: The first chamber has a cavity where the fuse element can be separately contained while being in series with the inserted conductor. A second chamber stores the replacement fuse so that it is not part of the circuit to be protected. The housing and its fuse chambers are shaped, positioned and constructed so that the replacement fuse need only be withdrawn from its storage chamber and inserted into the first chamber which formerly held the blown fuse. The chambers are formed to be easily opened to permit easy fuse replacement.
None of these previous efforts disclose all of the benefits of the present invention, nor do these previous patents teach or suggest all of the elements of the present invention.


The present invention provides method and apparatus for facilitating base station selection/handover by a user terminal in a distributed (e.g., cellular-type) wireless communication system. In accordance with one aspect, hysteresis is adaptively determined as a function of the variance of receive signal strength fluctuations. In turn, an adaptive hysteresis factor can be obtained and used for a subsequent handover decision, for example, based on a cost function that takes into account the hysteresis. In accordance with another aspect, base station selection depends on a number of criteria, such as received signal strength, base station load, and estimated distance between a receiving user terminal and one or more base stations.

Distributed or "cellular" radio communication systems are typically comprised of a number of cells, with each cell corresponding roughly to a geographical area. Each cell has an associated base station (BS) which is a local central site providing access to the communication system to a number of radio transmitter/receiver units (user terminals (UTs)) within the cell.
In such distributed wireless communication systems, a user terminal generally has the capability to move in and out of various cells. While a base station typically handles traffic exchange with a number of user terminals within its cell, a user terminal typically exchanges traffic with a single base station at a time. However, when communication quality degrade swith respect to a particular base station(s) and improves with respect to one or more other base stations (e.g., due to changes in the RF environment, movement of the user terminal away/toward cells, etc.), the user terminal should be able to handover "active communication" to the base station providing better communication.
FIG. 1 depicts a typical distributed voice and/or data network topology, in accordance with the prior art. As shown, a number of base stations 102, 104, and 106 are distributed geographically, such that each provides a cell coverage area (or simply cell) 112, 114, and 116, respectively. In turn, the cells 112, 114, and 116 each has an associated cell boundary 118, 120, and 122, respectively, simplistically depicted circularly in FIG. 1.
As a user terminal 108 shown in cell 114 (and therefore assumed to be in active communication, i.e., exchanging voice and/or data traffic, with the associated base station 104 which may be coupled to a larger voice and/or data network, such as PSTN or the internet) moves in a direction 110 away from the base station 104 and toward the base station 106 and its associated cell boundary 122, handover will typically take place—i.e., the user terminal's active communication session will transfer to the new base station 106. As such, if the user is, for example, exchanging data with a device coupled to the internet (which in turn is coupled to the base stations shown in the network 100 of FIG. 1), such exchange will not be interrupted due to the user terminal's movement away from the cell coverage of one station; the exchange or session will be handed over to another base station.
Handover schemes are typically based on optimizing a cost function (C) that depends on one or more parameters, such as the received signal strengths (RSSI) from one or more base stations within the communication range of the user terminal, or visa versa, at a given time. As such, the scheme can be implemented by the user terminal, the base station, or a combination thereof. Most common schemes involve user terminal-centric handover, i.e., measurements (e.g., RSSI) made by the UT are solely used in the handover cost function. In such schemes, the user terminal periodically samples transmissions (e.g., the broadcast message(s)) from a set of base stations, including any with which it is in active communication, and optimizes the cost function to select the best base station.
Because of the fluctuations (e.g., due to shadowing and other real-world RF effects) in the power of each base station as experienced by a user terminal, the handover cost function C usually should include a margin, sometimes known as a hysteresis margin. In other words,C=(SA−Si)+h,  (1)where h is the hysteresis (sometimes also referred to as the hysteresis margin or factor), SA is the RSSI of the current (or also sometimes referred to as the active) base station, and Si is the RSSI of an ith candidate base station. When C<0, then handover should be initiated.
The hysteresis margin h is included in the cost function to prevent the user terminal from frequent "ping ponging" between two or more base stations due to the power fluctuations of their transmissions. This particular need for h is further illustrated and described in connection with FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a graphical representation of the theoretical and practical signal strengths of two base stations experienced by a user terminal as the user terminal moves away from one of the base stations with which it is in active communication and toward the other base station. The signal strength of each base station's transmissions as received at the user terminal 108 is represented by the vertical axis as a function of distance as the user terminal 108 moves with a velocity 110 away from base station 104 and toward base station 106.
Ignoring the practical power fluctuations described above, the pathloss associated with the base stations 104 and 106, given the user terminal 108's described motion, could be represented by the lines 204 and 206, respectively, in which case there would be no need for h. In this ideal case, once the two lines cross and the RSSI associated with base station 106 exceeds that associated with the base station 104, handover to base station 106 can occur smoothly without the ping pong effect alluded to above.
However, because of a somewhat chaotic RF environment, where shadowing, scattering, etc., cause power fluctuations and a non-linear pathloss to occur, the actual pathloss associated with base stations 104 and 106 and experienced by the receiving user terminal 108 might appear more like the irregular graphical lines 202 and 208, respectively. And as evident from the regions 210 and 212, for example, there may be instances where the RSSI of one base station exceeds the other, but then shortly later, the situation may reverse, contributing to a back-and-forth or "ping pong" handover effect.
To prevent a ping pong handover effect from occurring, some prior techniques select a relatively large h to use in the handover cost function C. However, if the hysteresis factor h is fixed at too large a value, then communication quality may degrade too much before handover takes place. On the other hand, if the hysteresis is too small, then there may still exist a potential for the above-described ping pong effect to occur. To illustrate, the behavior of the pathloss lines 202 and 208, for example, near the intersection of their ideal counterparts 204 and 206, respectively, show that (1) if h is fixed value that is selected too small, it will likely contribute to an undesired ping pong effect and (2) if h is fixed value that is selected to be too large, handover may be delayed until communication quality degrades beyond a desirable level.
Because the velocity of the user terminal influences signal strength (e.g., RSSI) calculations when windowing is used, some handover techniques use a variable measuring window in which to take signal strength measurements, and then change the window length relative to the calculated velocity of the user terminal. Unfortunately, this technique suffers from drawbacks. First, estimating the velocity of the user terminal is a relatively difficult task. Second, using a variable window length renders implementation, for example in a digital signal processor (DSP), impractical since buffers need to change.
In addition, though the cost function (C) primarily is a function of signal strength, there may be instances where selecting a base station whose C is optimized relative to other base stations may not provide optimum performance. Unfortunately, most prior techniques have not addressed using other selection criteria for selecting a base station.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for facilitating base station selection, including handover, to overcome the above-mentioned limitations of prior systems and methods.

Adaptive determination of hysteresis for facilitating base station selection, including handover, in a wireless communication system


The invention relates to a vehicle, having a cooling air duct disposed within a battery to move cooling air for cooling the battery, so as to enable same to be compact and improve space utilization, in order to optimize cooling performance within a limited space. The vehicle of the present invention also includes a battery-cooling unit that exchanges heat and cools air ventilated from the passenger compartment and then supplies the air to the battery, so as to use the air from the passenger compartment with minimal effects on the air temperature in the passenger compartment, and more efficiently cool the battery. Further, the vehicle and method for controlling same according to the present invention can detect the temperatures of the battery and of the passenger compartment, and determine whether to cool the air in the passenger compartment using a heat exchanger in accordance with each detected temperature, or control the rotation speed of a ventilation fan, in order to more efficiently cool the battery. Accordingly, overheating of the battery can be prevented, and the service life of the battery can be extended. Additionally, the vehicle and method for controlling same according to the present invention involve a dehumidifying unit for supplying cool air inside the battery and dehumidifying the inside of the battery, so as to control the moisture inside the battery and thereby reduce the possibility of electrical hazards and malfunctions occurring due to condensation.

A vehicle is a means of transportation which produces power from an engine and transmits the produced power to wheels to transport a passenger or freight on a road.
The vehicle may be mainly divided into a vehicle body forming the external appearance of the vehicle and a chassis to which various devices are connected. The chassis includes principal devices, such as a vehicle engine which is motive power for travelling, a power transmission device, a steering device, a suspension device, and a brake device.
Most vehicle engines are four-stroke internal combustion engines. A four-stroke internal combustion engine is an internal combustion engine in which four strokes, such as an intake stroke, a compression stroke, a power stroke, and an exhaust stroke, constitute one cycle. Such a four-stroke internal combustion engine is the most common example of a reciprocating engine. An internal combustion engine, which mainly uses a volatile fuel, may directly obtain kinetic energy from thermal energy generated by compressing and burning the fuel in a state in which the fuel is fully mixed with oxygen in the air so that the fuel can be completely combusted.
The internal combustion engine, which uses such a volatile fuel, causes environmental pollution due to exhaust gas and also contributes to depletion of petroleum resources. An electric vehicle (EV), which is driven by electric current as power, has come to the front as an alternative to the internal combustion engine which uses the volatile fuel. The electric vehicle is a nonpolluting vehicle having no exhaust gas and noise. However, the electric vehicle has not been put to practical use due to high production cost, low maximum velocity, a short range, and overheating of a battery.
High oil price and recently strengthened restrictions on exhaust gas have increased speed in development of electric vehicles, and the market scale thereof is rapidly growing.


A display device may include a display panel, an input sensing unit, and a driving circuit board. The display panel includes a base substrate and a driving pad, and the input sensing unit includes an encapsulation substrate and an input pad. The driving circuit board may be provided on one of side surfaces of the base substrate adjacent to the driving pad and on one of connection surfaces of the encapsulation substrate adjacent to the input pad and may be electrically connected to the driving pad and the input pad, respectively.

The present disclosure relates to a display device, and in particular, to a display device including a display panel and an input sensing unit.
A module assembling system is one of back-end systems for fabricating a display panel, used to electrically connect the display panel and a driver chip. Depending on a connection process, a method of mounting the driver chip is classified into a chip-on-glass (COG) mounting method and a tape-automated-bonding (TAB) mounting method.
In the COG mounting method, a driver chip is directly mounted on a gate region and a data region of a display panel and is used to transmit electrical signals to the display panel. In general, an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) is used to bond the driver chip to the display panel.
In the TAB mounting method, a tape carrier package mounted with a driver chip is bonded to a display panel. In this method, an anisotropic conductive film is used to bond the display panel to an end region of a tape carrier package and to bond a main circuit board to another end region of the tape carrier package.
In order to allow a display device to have an enlarged display region, a method of disposing a tape carrier package on a side surface of a display panel has been recently studied.


A control system for an internal combustion exhaust gas heater provides air and fuel to the heater in appropriate proportion to be rapidly ignited therein upon activation of the control system. When flame is present in the heater, the proportion of air and fuel is adjusted to provide maximum heat energy from the heater to the exhaust gas for a predetermined period of time.

It is generally known that undesirable emissions of internal combustion engines may be significantly reduced by passing the engine exhaust gas through catalytic converters. When conventional converters are at light-off temperatures, such as temperatures above 350 degrees Celsius, exothermic reactions occur therein, resulting in efficient reduction of engine emissions. Converter temperature may be elevated to light-off temperature from latent exhaust gas heat. On cold start, a converter heated with latent exhaust gas heat may, under normal engine warm-up conditions, require 75 seconds or more to reach its light-off temperature.
Additional heat sources have been proposed for more rapid heating of the converter, so that efficient conversion of undesirable exhaust gas constituents may begin earlier after engine cold start. For instance, electrically heated converters have been proposed, in which electrical energy is selectively applied to a device that converts the electrical energy to thermal energy, which is made available to the converter. The efficiency of such heating systems requires that substantial electrical energy be expended before any significant emission reductions may be provided.
Alternatively, burner systems have been proposed for rapid heating of the converter. An example of such systems is provided in copending application U.S. Ser. No. 07/936467, filed Aug. 28, 1992, entitled "Exhaust Burner Catalyst Preheater," assigned to the assignee of this application. Such systems attempt to ignite an air/fuel mixture at a point upstream of the converter, whereby the released combustion energy operates to rapidly increase converter temperature. Although not suffering from the drawbacks of electrically heated units, such systems require coordinated control of a fuel input, an air input, and ignition, to ensure that the air/fuel mixture ignites as soon as possible at engine start-up, and that once lit, the burner expediently heats the catalytic converter to its light-off temperature.


A system for depressurizing and cooling a high pressure, high temperature fine solid particles stream having entrained gas therein. In one aspect, the system has an apparatus for cooling the high pressure, high temperature fine solid particles stream having entrained gas therein and a pressure letdown device for depressurization by separating the cooled fine solid particles from a portion of the fine solid particles stream having entrained gas therein, resulting in a lower temperature, lower pressure outlet of solid particles for disposal or handling by downstream equipment.

Operating a pressurized reactor such as a fluidized bed coal gasifier or combustor involves discharging fine particles under high pressure and temperatures to storage bins under atmospheric pressure and low temperature (i.e., below 350° F.). The most commonly used method in such systems is a combination of a lock vessel and a screw cooler system. The screw cooler receives solids under high pressure and temperature and cools the solids by contacting them with the screw and the inner surface of the container.
In this conventional system, the lock vessel typically is a pressure swing vessel and has inlet and outlet valves. The lock vessel receives the cooled solids under pressure from the screw cooler through a normally open inlet valve. When the predetermined amount of solids enters the lock vessel, the inlet valve is closed and the vessel is subsequently depressurized to almost atmospheric pressure. The bottom discharge valve is then opened to discharge the solids to an atmospheric vessel. The solids in the atmospheric vessel can be disposed to proper storage vessels.
However, there are numerous disadvantages to the conventional system. One inherent disadvantage of this system is the number of moving parts which need to cycle often and operate in a synchronous manner. A second disadvantage is the difficulty in sealing the two ends of the shaft of the screw when the shaft is rotating under high pressure. Additionally, there are number of valves around the lock vessel, and the reliability of these valves can be less than desired because during each cycle, the valves must open and close in dusty environment. In normal operating conditions, the valves selectively are opened and closed millions of times under high pressure with a rapid flow of solid particles, thereby eroding the valves. Thus, conventional commercially available systems can have availabilities on average of less than 70%.
What is needed then is a system for cooling and continuously depressurizing the fine particles without the inherent issues mentioned above.

Continuous fine ash depressurization system


A tool holder, drill holder, reamer holder, and milling cutter holder. The abstract of the disclosure is submitted herewith as required by 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b). As stated in 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b): A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification must commence on a separate sheet, preferably following the claims, under the heading “Abstract of the Disclosure.” The purpose of the abstract is to enable the Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The abstract shall not be used for interpreting the scope of the claims. Therefore, any statements made relating to the abstract are not intended to limit the claims in any manner and should not be interpreted as limiting the claims in any manner.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to a tool holder, drill holder, reamer holder, and milling cutter holder.
2. Background Information
The tool holder serves for holding a tool accurately and reliably with as little expenditure as possible. The tool can be, for example, a drill, a milling cutter or a reamer. To fasten the tool on the tool holder, it is placed in the receptacle of the tool holder. Then, the clamping screw is tightened, so that the tool is firmly mounted on the tool holder by means of the clamping screw. The clamping tool for tightening the clamping screw can be, for example, a hexagon wrench or a screw driver.
In the known tool holders, the access opening lies on the longitudinal axis of the clamping screw. Clamping is effected either from the back of the tool holder, i.e. through the shank of the tool holder, or from the front. If the clamping screw is tightened and released from the back, the tool holder will have to be removed from the machine tool whenever the tool shall be exchanged. If the clamping screw is tightened and released from the front, the tool will have to be provided with an access opening extending through its center. In some cases, this is technically impossible. Furthermore, the actuation of the clamping screw from the front will be particularly impractical if the tool consists of several subassemblies placed on top of each other. To remove the entire tool from the tool holder, the tool will have to be taken apart into its subassemblies to release the lowermost clamping screw.

Tool holder, drill holder, reamer holder, and milling cutter holder


Systems and methods for an intelligent camera system are provided. A method includes receiving, from a first camera in a vehicle, view data corresponding to an area from a vantage point of the vehicle. The method further includes detecting a region of interest from the view data provided by the first camera. The method also includes providing the region of interest to a second camera in the vehicle. The method further includes receiving, from the second camera, zoom view data corresponding to a zoom view of the region of interest.

Automobile drivers and autonomous vehicles alike encounter objects that require careful attention. Other vehicles, pedestrians, and road hazards all pose collision hazards that require active monitoring. Passengers can often act as a second pair of eyes for a driver by alerting the driver to a potential hazard upon which the driver may not be focused.
However, drivers are often alone in their vehicles and forced to rely solely upon their own vision to detect all potential hazards. Even when passengers are present to provide additional sets of eyes, many hazards are not clearly visible to the human eye due to distance, speed, and/or obscurity. For example, vehicles can emerge quickly from around a 'blind corner' that leaves a driver with little time to react. Autonomous vehicles face similar challenges posed by such hazards. While conventional camera systems offer drivers limited viewing assistance, such as a rear-view camera to reveal objects directly behind the vehicle, this does not identify or predict potential hazards.
Therefore, a need exists to alert drivers and assist autonomous vehicles with improved detection of potential hazards to preemptively recognize and avoid hazards.

Methods and systems providing an intelligent camera system


An active-matrix organic light emitting diode display. The active-matrix organic light emitting diode display comprises an organic light emitting diode, a first driving transistor, a second driving transistor and a switch transistor. The switch transistor connects and switches the first and second driving transistors. The first driving transistor connects an anode of the organic light emitting diode and a first driving voltage having a first waveform. The second driving transistor connects an anode of the organic light emitting diode and a second driving voltage having a second waveform, wherein the first waveform and the second waveform are complementary to alternatively drive the organic light emitting diode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, and in particular to an active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) which increase display life.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic electroluminescent devices or organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays have the characteristics of self-emission and can be arranged in a matrix without requiring a backlight module. Organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays are thin and light-weight, and also have the advantages of high contrast, high resolution, low power consumption, and wide viewing angle. Due to these advantages, it is expected to that OLEDs will be adopted as the next generation of display devices.
Generally, an active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) display is driven by electric current to provide illumination. FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration scheme of a pixel unit in a conventional active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) display. Referring to FIG. 1, the AM-OLED display pixel unit comprises an organic light emitting diode 1, a switch transistor T1, a driving transistor T2 and a capacitor 2, wherein the transistors T1 and T2 are Thin Film Transistors (TFTs).
As shown in FIG. 1, a display signal "data line" connects the drain of the switch transistor (TFT) T1, and a scan data signal "scan line" connects the gate to switch the switch transistor T1 on and off. Furthermore, a voltage drive source V+ connects the drain of the driving transistor T2 and the source is connected to the anode of an organic light emitting diode 1. A capacitor 2 is coupled between the sources of the transistors T1 and T2. The capacitor 2 can be charged keeping a hold voltage to enable the driving transistor T2 such that a current passes through the driving transistor T2 to drive the organic light emitting diode 1 provide illumination.
As mentioned above, an active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) display requires adequate current passing through the driving transistor T2 to drive the organic light emitting diode 1. Long term use, however, leads to deterioration of the electrical characteristics. Specifically, the threshold voltage increases when current passes through the driving transistor T2 and leads to device degradation. Therefore, after long term use the driving current will degrade such that the illumination and life time of the organic light emitting diode 1 decrease.
As shown in FIG. 1, only a driving transistor T2 is used to drive the organic light emitting diode 1 in a pixel unit of the conventional active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) display. A disadvantage to the current structure is that when the driving transistor T2 is turned on for an extended period of time, the temperature of the driving transistor T2 increases while the threshold voltage decreases due to the heat generated by current continuously passing through the driving transistor T2. Therefore, this pattern of increasing current, temperature, and heat ultimately cause the driving transistor T2 to fail.
To overcome the above mentioned disadvantages, the present invention provides an active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AM-OLED) display with increased life.

Active-matrix organic light emitting diode display


A medium circulating apparatus of engine oil, which improves startability and warm up ability of an internal combustion engine, includes a microbubble generator that generates microbubbles and mixes the microbubbles into the circulating engine oil. Further, the medium circulating apparatus includes a medium temperature acquiring unit that acquires a temperature of the engine oil. The microbubbles are generated by the microbubble generator when the temperature of the engine oil is less than or equal to a predetermined value in order to decrease a viscosity, a heat conductivity, and a heat capacity of the engine oil in which the microbubbles are mixed.

In general, an internal combustion engine and a transmission are installed in a vehicle such as a car, a truck, and a bus, and a medium circulates through the internal combustion engine and the transmission. Internal combustion engine circulating oil (engine oil) used for lubricating a driven part, driving a movable part, and cooling a heated part when the internal combustion engine is driven, represents the medium that circulates through the internal combustion engine. Further, coolant water is a refrigerant or the medium that suppresses rise of a temperature of the internal combustion engine when the internal combustion engine is driven. On the other hand, transmission circulating oil (mission oil) used for lubricating the driven part, driving the movable part, and cooling the heated part when the transmission changes an output of the internal combustion engine depending on a driving state to transmit the output to a road through a wheel, is a medium that circulates through the transmission.
In general, friction at a low temperature state of the internal combustion engine is preferably reduced when the internal combustion engine is started in order to improve startability. Further, the temperature of the internal combustion engine is preferably raised in a short time from the low temperature state while warming up the internal combustion engine in order to improve warm up ability. Here, the medium circulates through the internal combustion engine and through the transmission at the low temperature state even at the starting and the warming up of the internal combustion engine. Therefore, startability and warm up ability of the internal combustion engine cannot be improved since the medium at the low temperature state circulates therethrough.
In the engine oil and in the mission oil for example, the friction cannot be reduced compared to the friction thereof at a high temperature even if the driven part of the internal combustion engine or the transmission that is connected to the internal combustion engine is lubricated since viscosities of the engine oil and the mission oil increase as the temperatures thereof decrease. Further, a rate at which the temperature of the internal combustion engine rises slows down as the temperature of the coolant water decreases since the coolant water receives heat generated by the internal combustion engine through which the coolant water circulates.
A technique in which an apparent viscosity of the oil is decreased is proposed. For example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (JP-U) No. S63-78122 discloses a cooling device that cools the internal combustion engine by circulating the oil through an oil jacket formed on a cylinder block of the internal combustion engine. In the cooling device, a bubble generator is disposed at a predetermined position of the oil jacket to mix fine bubbles into the oil so that the apparent viscosity of the oil is decreased.
In JP-U No. S63-78122, air is injected from one side of an ultrafine fine mesh net and one side of ultrafine small holes drilled and formed on a surface of the bubble generator, to other side thereof to generate ultrafine bubbles. A diameter of the ultrafine bubble is required to be less than or equal to 1 mm. However, the bubbles generated by the small holes and the net can be visually recognized even if the bubbles are said to be small, because for example, the bubble has the diameter of approximately 0.2 mm. Therefore, the bubbles might become larger bubbles by absorbing and combining with each other. Consequently, a pump that sucks and discharges the oil sucks the large bubbles when the oil is circulated, and discharge ability of the pump might decrease. Thus, friction might increase since enough engine oil is not supplied to a section to be lubricated of the driven part of the internal combustion engine.

Medium circulating apparatus for improving startability and warm up ability


A plant lighting device, constructed at an indoor planting system, includes an illumination module and a power module. The illumination module includes an assembly seat, and an illumination unit including a plurality of light emitting elements that emit light toward at least one plant when powered up. The power module, mounted on the assembly seat, includes a power input line, a ring transformer module connected to the power input line and receiving an external power to perform power transformation, and a power output line connected to the ring transformer module and the illumination unit. The ring transformer module includes a ring core, a primary coil winding around the ring core and connected to the power input line, and a secondary coil winding around the ring core and forming magnetic coupling with the primary coil to output a non-harmonic alternating current power to the power output line.

As greenhouse planting technologies mature, many industrialists now replace the solar light by artificial light sources to lead plants to grow rapidly and thus reduce the growth cycle of the plants.
Currently, artificial light sources commonly referred to as plant lights are frequently used to hasten the growth of plants. Among these plant lights, light emitting diodes (LED) are often used as the main light source, such as the Taiwan Patent No. M437051. A plant light needs to be established with an electronic rectifier that transforms an alternating current (AC) power to a direct current (DC) power to turn on and drive the LED for illumination. During the process of power transformation of the electronic rectifier, power loss is resulted such that components may be heated. Therefore, many industrialists have proposed solutions for the issue of waste heat generated by the electronic rectifier, e.g., by additionally providing a heat dissipation structure. However, for the plant light, such means leads to not only a volume that cannot be effectively reduced but also increased costs unfavorable for sales. On the other hand, a main reason causing a malfunctioning plant light is due to the damage in the electronic rectifier. In other words, the probability of damage of the electronic rectifier is higher than that of the LED. In addition to issues of a complicated layout structure and unsatisfactory heat dissipation, the electronic rectifier further includes a high-frequency switch that likely generates high-frequency harmonics and electromagnetic interference (EMI) with the circuit board of the plant light, thus causing negative effects on the application of the LED.


In one embodiment, the invention provides a method. The method comprises projecting multiple scenes simultaneously on a display screen in interlaced-fashion; and directing light for each scene to a distinct viewing zone defined spatially in relation to the display screen. A system comprising a display; and a lenticular mechanism coupled to the display and having a plurality of lens elements to direct light from the display into distinct viewing zones defined spatially in relation to the display is also provided.

Multiple-view displays attempt to project two views of video data to a viewer in order to achieve a stereoscopic effect. The inventor has determined that there may be uses for a multiple-view display which does not achieve a stereoscopic effect. For example in order to create an immersive environment, such as is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/136,111 (which is hereby incorporated by reference), a multiple-view display which achieves a stereoscopic effect is not required.

Multiple-view display for non-stereoscopic viewing


In simultaneous stream recording and playback, after playback catches up with real time live broadcast, a playback speed changing unit 2 smoothly changes a playback speed to single speed. Nevertheless, an output switching unit 4 continues to perform single-speed playback. During single-speed playback, a switching timing indicating unit 3 indicates a timing of switching to real time live broadcast to the output switching unit 4. Upon receiving the indication from the switching timing indicating unit 3, the output switching unit 4 switches its output to real time live broadcast. With this, in the case of catching-up playback, it is possible to prevent adverse effects caused by dropout of sound information at an instant when the output is changed from catching-up playback to real time live broadcast.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording/playback devices and, more specifically, to a recording/playback device having a function of simultaneously recording and reproducing television broadcast signals and audio broadcast signals.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, recording/playback devices for simultaneously recording and playing back television broadcast streams or audio broadcast streams have utilized either one or both of two types of program playback schemes: chasing playback and catching-up playback. Chasing playback simply allows simultaneous recording and playback. For example, when a user gets back home in the course of preprogrammed recording and desires to watch the program being recorded, the program is played back from the beginning at single speed without a wait for the end of recording but with recording being continued. On the other hand, catching-up playback allows fast-forward playback of a program at a speed higher than single speed with recording being continued. With this, a missed portion of the program can be quickly viewed and then, eventually, a portion currently being broadcasted can be caught up with. An example of such catching-up playback is achieved by a recording/playback device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-119671, wherein fast-forward playback is performed at a constant "1.5 times speed with natural voice" with voice pitch not being varied. With this, speech can be easy to listen even at the time of fast-forward playback, and therefore speech information will not be missed at the time of catching-up playback.
The structure of a conventional recording/playback device adopting such a scheme as mentioned above is described below with reference to FIGS. 10 through 13.
FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing the conventional recording/playback device. In FIG. 10, the conventional recording/playback device includes a simultaneous recording/reading unit 1, a playback speed changing unit 15, and an output switching unit 4. The simultaneous recording/reading unit 1 simultaneously records an input signal in a storage device and reads a signal recorded in the storage device, and detects a delay time of a signal read from the storage device (hereinafter simply referred to a read signal) with respect to the input signal. The playback speed changing unit 15 changes a playback speed of the read signal. The output switching unit 4 selects either one of the input signal and the read signal for output. At the start of catching-up playback, the output switching unit 4 outputs the read signal. When the delay time detected by the simultaneous recording/reading unit 1 is below a predetermined time, that is, immediately before played-back images catch up with real-time live broadcast, the output switching unit 4 switches its output from the read signal to the input signal.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of the simultaneous recording/reading unit 1. In FIG. 11, the simultaneous recording/reading unit 1 includes a data recording section 5, the storage device 6, a data reading section 7, and a time difference detecting section 8.
The data recording section 5 records an input signal in the storage device 6. The data recording section 5 may have incorporated therein an A/D converter for digitizing an analog signal or an encoder for encoding a digital signal. The encoder includes, for example, a video encoder and an audio encoder. The video encoder is an encoding means complying with moving picture compression standards, such as MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, or Windows(R) Media Video (WMV). The audio encoder is an encoding means complying with audio compression standards, such as Dolby(R) AC3, dts, MPEG1-Layer II, MPEG2-AAC, MLP, or MPEG1-Layer III (MP3). Also, in order to achieve simultaneous recording and playback, a time for recording in the storage device 6 and a time for reading from the storage device 6 may be separated from each other for alternately perform recording and playback. In this case, the data recording section 5 is generally provided with a buffer memory for temporarily recording moving pictures and sounds.
The storage device 6 is a storage medium for digital signals and has a recording capacity sufficient for storing signal data for several tens of hours. For example, as the storage device 6, a hard disk drive, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, or a Blu-ray Disc can be used.
The data reading section 7 reads the data recorded by the data recording section 5 in the storage device 6 for output as the read signal. The data reading section 7 is generally provided with a buffer memory for temporarily recording moving pictures and sounds. This makes it possible in simultaneous recording and playback to achieve a process of alternately performing recording and playback by separating the time for recording in the storage device 6 and the time for reading from the storage device 6 from each other. The data reading section 7 can have incorporated therein a decoder for decoding a digital signal. The decoder includes, for example, a video decoder and an audio decoder. The video decoder is a decoding means complying with moving picture compression standards, such as MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, or Windows(R) Media Video (WMV). The audio decoder is a decoding means complying with audio compression standards, such as The audio encoder is an encoding means complying with audio compression standards, such as Dolby(R) AC3, dts, MPEG1-Layer II, MPEG2-AAC, MLP, or MPEG1-Layer III (MP3).
The time difference detecting section 8 detects a difference in the time domain between a signal handled by the data recording section 5 and a signal handled by the data reading section 7. During catching-up playback, the time difference detecting section 8 compares a time stamp of the signal being recorded by the data recoding section 5 and a time stamp of the signal being read by the data reading section 7, and then detects their time difference.
Referring back to FIG. 10, the playback speed changing unit 15 includes a motion picture playback speed changing section and an audio playback speed changing section, both of which are not shown. The motion picture playback speed changing section changes a motion picture playback speed by using a playback scheme, such as, under MPEG standards, a playback scheme of skipping P pictures and B pictures or a playback scheme of skipping only B pictures. The audio playback speed changing section changes an audio playback speed by using the Pointer Interval Controlled OverLap and Add (PICOLA), in which decimation and insertion of a repetitive time waveform portion is performed to achieve compression and expansion of time-domain data, the OLA, in which cross fading of adjacent pieces of frame data is performed at predetermined time intervals to achieve compression and expansion of time-domain data, or the SOLA, in which a correlation between adjacent pieces of frame data is calculated and then the cross fading of a portion having the closest correlation is performed to achieve compression and expansion with high sound quality. Here, when the user selects catching-up playback through operation of a built-in button of the device or a remote controller, the playback speed changing unit 15 performs fast-forward playback. When fast-forward playback catches up with real time live broadcast currently being recorded, the playback speed changing unit 15 stops the speed changing process. At the same time, the simultaneous recording/reading unit 1 (the time difference detecting section 8) reports to the output switching unit 1 that catching-up playback has caught up with real time live broadcast. Upon reception of the report, the output switching unit 4 instantly switches the output to real time live broadcast.
As such, by combining a simultaneous recording/playback process and a playback speed changing process, a catching-up playback function can be achieved such that, for example, after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of recording a program being broadcasted, the program is played back from the beginning at a 1.5 times speed while the recording continues, and then playback eventually catches up with real time live broadcast. FIG. 12 depicts an output (read signal or input signal) from the output switching unit 4. In FIG. 12, the horizontal axis represents a real time, whilst the vertical axis represents a broadcast time. FIG. 12 depicts an exemplary case where a real time live broadcast program (a two-hour program is assumed herein) is started to be broadcasted and recorded simultaneously and, when 20 minutes elapse from the start, catching-up playback (fast-forward playback at an approximately 1.4 times speed) is started. For example, when 50 minutes elapse from the start of recording, broadcast contents at a time after 40 minutes from the start of broadcasting the program are output. When 55 minutes elapse from the start of catching-up playback (that is, after 75 minutes from the start of recording), catching-up playback catches up with real time live broadcast. At this time, the output from the output switching unit 4 is switched from the read signal (catching-up playback) to the input signal (real time live broadcast).
However, the above-described conventional recording/playback device has the following problems. In the conventional recording/playback device, when catching-up playback catches up with real time live broadcast, simultaneous recording/playback is instantly switched to real time live broadcast. Whilst the recording process requires a procedure including a series of processes of encoding an input signal, recording the encoded signal in the storage device, reading the recorded signal from the recording device, and then decoding the read signal, real time live broadcast does not require such procedure. Therefore, a time lag always occurs between the input signal and the read signal. Therefore, dropout of sound information occurs at an instant when a switch is made to real time live broadcast. Moreover, the user cannot control over a switching timing. Therefore, when a switch is made while an actor is speaking his lines, for example, these lines cannot be completely output, thereby making the user feel uncomfortable. FIG. 13 depicts a state where dropout of sound information at a switching timing (at the time of around 75 minutes from the start of the program) occurs. In FIG. 13, when the time lag is one second, for example, the conventional recording/playback device determines that catching-up playback catches up with real time live broadcast when outputting broadcast contents at the time of 75 minutes sharp from the start of the program, and then switches the output. Consequently, sound information between 75 minutes sharp to 75 minutes and one second is not played back and therefore is dropped.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A housing structure of an acoustic controller having a lower case which is lightweight, high in the degree of freedom in shape design, and capable of suppressing a deformation of side walls thereof after being molded. The lower case is integrally formed from resin into a rectangular dish shape having front, rear, left, right, and bottom plates. An upper unit is attached to an open upper part of the lower case. The left and right plates of the lower case have upper parts thereof formed into brim portions protruding outward in the left-to-right direction. Front and rear parts of each brim portion are further protruded outward and formed into flanges that function as mounting portions used for mounting the acoustic controller to a rack.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a housing structure of an acoustic controller, and more particularly, to a housing structure of an acoustic controller that makes the controller usable both in a stationarily placed state and in a rack-mounted state.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known an acoustic controller such as a mixer apparatus that can be used both in a state where the controller is stationarily placed and in a state where it is rack-mounted (see, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-111657). Such an acoustic controller includes a housing having side surfaces thereof to which angle members for rack-mount installation are detachably attached. When the controller is stationarily placed on a tabletop or the like for stand-alone use, the angle members function to protect stepped portions of the housing. To rack-mount the controller, the angle members are reattached to the housing of the controller in different direction, and the housing is then mounted to a rack via the angle members.
The angle members or other mounting members of the conventional acoustic controller are formed separately from the housing for being fixed thereto by screws. Hence, the controller requires an increased number of component parts. In addition, the mounting members must be reattached to the housing each time to change the controller between tabletop use and rack mount use, thus requiring cumbersome operation.
The housing of the conventional acoustic controller which is generally made of metal is low in the degree of freedom in shape design and difficult to be made lightweight. In the case of the housing being die-molded from synthetic resin to make the housing lightweight, on the other hand, there is a fear that due to shrinkage of the molded housing or the like, left and right side walls of the housing are deformed such as being inclined inward or undulated in a front-to-rear direction thereof.

Housing structure of acoustic controller


The present disclosure provides a method, includes: a first stepped-impedance transmission line configured to receive a first signal of a first differential signal; a second stepped-impedance transmission line configured to receive a second signal of the first differential signal, where the first stepped-impedance transmission line and the second stepped-impedance transmission line superpose the first signal of the first differential signal on the second signal of the first differential signal to obtain a first frequency multiplied signal; a first inverse stepped-impedance transmission line configured to be inversely ground-coupled with the first stepped-impedance transmission line and grounded at an end near an output end of the first stepped-impedance transmission line; a second inverse stepped-impedance transmission line configured to be inversely ground-coupled with the second stepped-impedance transmission line and grounded at an end near an output end of the second stepped-impedance transmission line.

Under requirements of high-speed and high-traffic wireless communication, working frequencies of a communication system are becoming higher and higher and working bandwidths are becoming larger and larger. A local frequency source having a high working frequency in a system is facing a great challenge. Therefore, a frequency multiplier (especially a frequency multiplier having a simple structure) is widely used to increase a working frequency band of a frequency source. However, a conventional frequency multiplier has a problem of being unable to suppress an even harmonic wave.
A solution using a frequency multiplier with discrete element design has been proposed. The frequency multiplier is a frequency synthesizer circuit with double-ended input and single-ended output. An electrical length of every branch transmission line is an integral multiple of one half wavelength corresponding to a reference working frequency. The electrical length of the transmission line is adjusted to output a resonance point corresponding to a load, so that the entire circuit works with a multiplied frequency of the reference working frequency, thereby implementing frequency synthesis.
However, the conventional frequency multiplier is capable of outputting only one frequency multiplied signal and cannot output differential signals.

Frequency multiplier and method for generating frequency multiplied signals


An antenna device of a mobile terminal for enabling to receive a wireless signal of a new frequency band by appropriately connecting a plurality of antennas through a switch is provided. The antenna device includes a plurality of communication units for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal of a plurality of frequency bands through a plurality of antennas, a plurality of switches for turning on/off an electrical connection between the plurality of antennas and the plurality of communication units, and a controller for controlling the plurality of switches to turn off an electrical connection between the plurality of antennas and the plurality of communication units.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna device of a mobile terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an antenna device of a mobile terminal for enabling reception of a wireless signal of a new frequency band by appropriately connecting a plurality of antennas through a switch.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, due to the remarkable development of information and communication technology, as well as semiconductor technology, the use of mobile terminals has rapidly increased and become widespread. A mobile terminal typically provides various functions. For example, the mobile terminal may provide a music reproduction function (e.g., MPEG audio layer-3 (MP3)), a photographing function, and a data communication function in addition to general mobile communication functions such as audio dedicated communication or reception and transmission of messages. More particularly, recent mobile terminals provide a plurality of wireless communication functions, for example a Global Positioning System (GPS) reception function, a Bluetooth communication function, a Wi-Fi communication function, a Wireless Broadband (WiBro) communication function, a digital broadcasting reception function (e.g., mobile broadcasting such as Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) or Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)), an Internet connection function, and a location information providing function.
To support the various wireless communication functions of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal includes a plurality of antennas. For example, the mobile terminal may include a mobile communication antenna for providing a mobile communication service, a GPS antenna for receiving a GPS signal, a Bluetooth antenna for Bluetooth communication, a Wi-Fi antenna for Wi-Fi communication, a broadcasting reception antenna for receiving digital broadcasting, a Frequency Modulation (FM) reception antenna for receiving FM radio, and a WiBro antenna for WiBro communication. However, as a plurality of antennas are mounted in the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal has difficulty in securing antenna mounting space and an antenna performance.
Therefore, a need exists for reducing the total number of antennas necessary to support the various functions provided by a mobile terminal.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.


In an organic EL display device including a TFT (40) and an organic EL element (60) formed on an insulating substrate (10) of a glass substrate, insulating films, namely, a planarization insulating film (17), an interlayer insulating film (15), and a gate insulating film (12), for forming the TFT (40) are not provided at a region for forming the organic EL element (60). Instead, an opening (65) formed by removing these insulating films is provided to expose the glass substrate (10), and at this exposed region an anode (61), an emissive element layer (62), and a cathode (63) are formed in this order. Consequently, light emitted from the emissive element layer (62) is prevented from reflecting at interfaces between these insulating films (12, 15, and 17), and efficiently exits from the glass substrate (10) side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electroluminescence (EL) display device comprising a thin film transistor (TFT) and an EL element in which the TFT is employed as a switching element.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a display pixel portion of an EL display device of the a related art, and FIGS. 2A and 2B are cross sectional views illustrating the EL display device taken along the lines Axe2x80x94A and Bxe2x80x94B in FIG. 1, respectively.
Referring to FIG. 1, a display pixel is formed in a region surrounded by gate signal lines 51 and drain signal lines 52. A first TFT 30 is provided near an intersection of these signal lines, and has a source 13s serving as a capacitor electrode 55 which forms a capacitor with a storage capacitor electrode line 54, and connected to a gate 41 of the second TFT 40. The second TFT 40 has a source 43s connected to an anode 61 of an organic EL element 60, and a drain 43d connected to a power source line 53 for driving the organic EL element.
The storage capacitor electrode line 54 is disposed near the TFTs in parallel to the gate signal line 51. The line 54 is composed of chromium or the like and stores electric charges to form a capacitor with the capacitor electrode 55 connected to the source 13s of the TFT with a gate insulating film 12 interposed therebetween. The storage capacitor is provided to retain a voltage applied to the gate electrode 41 of the second TFT 40.
Thus, display pixels each having the organic EL element 60 and the TFTs 30 and 40 are arranged in a matrix on a substrate 10, thereby forming an organic EL display device.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, the organic EL display device is composed of the TFTs and the organic EL element formed in succession on a substrate 10, such as a substrate formed of glass, synthetic resin, or the like, an electrically conductive substrate, and a semiconductor substrate. When a conductive or semiconductor substrate is used for the substrate 10, an insulating film of SiO2, SiN, or the like is first formed on the substrate 10 before the TFTs 30 and 40 and the organic EL display element 60 are provided.
The first TFT 30 for switching operation will next be described.
As shown in FIG. 2A, on the insulating substrate 10 of quartz glass, non-alkaline glass, or the like, the gate signal line 51 formed of refractory metal, such as chromium (Cr) and molybdenum (Mo), and serving as a gate electrode 11, and the drain signal line 52 formed of aluminum (Al) are provided, and the power source line 53 formed of Al and serving as a driving power source for the organic EL element is disposed.
Thereafter, a gate insulating film 12 and an active layer 13 of a polysilicon (p-Si) film are formed in this order. The active layer 13 is of a so-called LDD (lightly doped drain) structure, and the source 13s and a drain 13d are provided on the outer sides thereof.
An interlayer insulating film 15 composed of an SiO2 film, an SiN film, and an SiO2 film formed in this order is provided over the entire surface, covering the gate insulating film 12, the active layer 13, and a stopper insulating film 14. A drain electrode 16 is formed by filling a metal such as Al in a contact hole provided corresponding to the drain 13d. Further, a planarization insulating film 17 is formed of organic resin or the like over the entire surface for planarization.
The second TFT 40 for driving the organic EL element 60 will next be described.
As shown in FIG. 2B, the gate electrode 41 is formed of refractory metal, such as Cr and Mo, on the insulating substrate 10 formed of quartz glass, non-alkaline glass, or the like.
The gate insulating film 12 and an active layer 43 formed of a p-Si film are provided in succession.
The active layer 43 includes an intrinsic, or substantially intrinsic, channel 43c provided over the gate electrode 41, and the source 43s and the drain 43d provided on respective sides of the channel 43c by ion doping.
The interlayer insulating film 15 composed of an SiO2 film, an SiN film, and an SiO2 film formed in this order is next provided over the entire surface to cover the gate insulating film 12 and the active layer 43. The power source line 53 connected to a driving power source 50 is formed by filling a metal such as Al in a contact hole provided corresponding to the drain 43d. The planarization insulating film 17 of organic resin or the like is formed over the entire surface for the purpose of planarization.
A contact hole is formed in the planarization insulating film 17 and the interlayer insulating film 15 at a position corresponding to the source 43s. A transparent electrode formed of ITO , i.e. the anode 61 of the organic EL element, is formed on the planarization insulating film 17 so as to contact the source 13s through the contact hole.
The organic EL element 60 includes the anode 61 formed of a transparent electrode of ITO or the like, an emissive element layer 62 of an organic compound, and a cathode 63 of a magnesium-indium alloy, formed in this order. The cathode 63 is provided over the entire surface of the substrate 10 which forms the organic EL display device, i.e. over the entire plane of the FIG. 1.
In the organic EL element, holes and electrons injected from the anode and cathode, respectively, are recombined in the emissive layer to excite organic molecules forming the emissive layer, thereby producing excitons. Light is released from the emissive layer during the process in which the excitons deactivate, and this release of light from the transparent anode through the transparent insulating substrate results in the emission of light.
With such a configuration, after the anode 61 is formed, an insulating film 64 is formed in the peripheral region of the anode 61 (the region excluding the area surrounded by broken lines) to prevent a short circuit between the cathode 63 and the anode 61, which would otherwise be generated from a crack in the emissive layer resulting from a difference in level created by the thickness of the anode 61. The emissive element layer 62 and the cathode 63 are next formed. Light emitted from the emissive element layer 62 exits after being transmitted through the insulating substrate 10.
It should be noted that while light emitted from the emissive element layer 62 advances radially outward from the emissive layer 62, not all components of the light emitted from the emissive layer 62 toward the substrate 10 reach the insulating substrate 10, and some light is reflected by, for example, the surface of the planarization insulating film, or attenuated in the film.
This results from a difference in materials between the interlayer insulating film and the planarization insulating film, especially from a difference in refractive index between these insulating films. The light may be partly reflected at the interface between respective insulating films, or even if transmitted through the film, the light may be attenuated as it is repeatedly reflected within the insulating film depending on the angle incident to the insulating film.
FIG. 3 shows how light radiated from the emissive layer travels toward the substrate.
Referring to FIG. 3, the emitted light incident on the SiN film advances at an angle al from a normal line C to the SiN film, and is then reflected at the interface between the SiN film (having a refractive index n1=2.0) and the SiO2 film (having a refractive index n2=1.46). Assuming that the reflected ray forms an angle xcex12 with the normal line C, an equation n1xc3x97Sin xcex11=n2xc3x97Sin xcex12 holds true from Snell""s law, and xcex11=Sinxe2x88x921 (n1/n2)≈47xc2x0. As the value n1 is larger than the value n2 in this example, light is totally reflected at this interface when the angle xcex11 exceeds 47xc2x0.
Therefore, only the components with the angle xcex11 smaller than 47xc2x0 can travel downward, i.e. to the SiO2 film, and efficiency of extracting light at this interface is 47xc2x0/90xc2x0≈52%.
As the lower region of the organic EL element includes films having different refractive indices, there is always an angle that causes total reflection when light travels from a substance with a larger refractive index to a substance with a smaller refractive index. As a result, light projected from the lower glass substrate will always have a reduced intensity.
Thus, light radiated from the emissive layer is diminished by the time it exits the insulating substrate 10, resulting in an inefficient use of the light and darkened display of the EL display device.
The present invention was conceived in view of the above-described problems, and aims to provide an EL display device allowing light emitted from an emissive layer to efficiently exit from an insulating substrate, to thereby obtain a bright display.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a light emissive display device comprising, for each pixel, an emissive element composed of a first electrode of a transparent, electrically conductive material; an emissive element layer; and a second electrode of an opaque, electrically conductive material formed in this order, and a switching element for driving the emissive element. At least part of the first electrode of the emissive element is formed in a direct contact with a surface of the transparent substrate.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the switching element is formed on the transparent substrate, and an insulating layer is formed over the switching element to insulate the emissive element from the switching element except for a necessary region and separate these two elements. The insulating layer includes an opening in each pixel region, and the first electrode of the emissive element covers the surface of the transparent substrate exposed by the opening.
According to a still another aspect of the present invention, the switching element is a thin film transistor, and a gate insulating layer is formed on the transparent substrate for insulating a gate of the thin film transistor from an active layer, and the opening of said insulating layer passes through said gate insulating.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the insulating layer for insulating a region of the emissive element from the switching element and for separating the two elements includes an interlayer insulating layer and a planarization insulating layer for planarizing a surface of a region located over the switching element.
For example, the interlayer insulating layer may be composed of multiple layers including silicon dioxide and/or silicon nitride, and the planarization insulating layer includes insulating resin. The first electrode may include indium tin oxide. The gate insulating layer may include, for example, silicon dioxide. The first electrode may include, for example, indium tin oxide.
In the device structured as described above, no layers with different refractive indices exist in a region where the first electrode directly contacts the transparent substrate, so that undesirable reflection of light emitted from the emissive element layer at an interface between layers with different refractive indices can be prevented, thereby making it possible for light to efficiently pass outside after being transmitted through the first electrode and the transparent substrate.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the switching element is formed on the transparent substrate, an insulating layer is formed over the switching element for insulating the emissive element from the switching element except for a necessary region and separating the two elements, and includes an opening, in each pixel region, having a diameter increasing from the center of the region toward an outer end.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the switching element is formed on the transparent substrate, and an insulating layer is formed over the switching element for insulating the emissive element from the switching element except for a necessary region and separating the two elements, and has an opening, in each pixel region, having a diameter increasing from the center of the region toward an outer end. Further, the first electrode is formed as an individual electrode in each pixel, and a planarization insulating film is formed in the vicinity of an edge of the first electrode for separating the first electrode from the emissive element layer and the second electrode and having a tapered surface with a thickness increasing from the center of the first electrode toward an outer end.
Tapering the opening in the insulating film for insulating and separating the emissive element from the switching element prevents generation of a discontinuity which would otherwise be generated by a difference in level created in the vicinity of an end of the opening in the first electrode, the emissive element layer, the second electrode, and the like formed to cover the opening.
A planarization insulating film is formed in the vicinity of the end of the first electrode for separating the first electrode from the emissive element layer and the second electrode, and having a tapered surface with a thickness increasing from the center of the first electrode toward an outer end. This will lead to prevention of a discontinuity in the second electrode in the vicinity of the end of the first electrode.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the emissive element is an electroluminescence element.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the emissive element is an organic electroluminescence element with the emissive element layer formed of an organic compound.
Forming the emissive element layer of an organic compound is extremely advantageous in display devices and the like because this configuration offers a wide variety of displayable colors and a wide range of options for the material used.


A helmet to be worn on a head of a wearer includes a shell comprised of a hard impact resistant material. The shell has inner and outer surfaces and is adapted to surround at least a portion of the cranial part of wearer's head with the inner surface of the shell being spaced from the wearer's head at an initial pre-impact relative position when the helmet is worn. A subliner, at least a part of which is adapted to be in contact with the wearer's head when the helmet is worn prior to an impact and during an impact, includes at least one subliner element extending from the inner surface of the shell. The at least one subliner element is constructed of an energy absorbing viscoelastic foam material. The at least one subliner element is radially partitioned into individual and independent segments. The independent segments are nested with respect to each other with double-sided nano tape positioned therebetween such that the nested segments have side surfaces in direct contacting engagement with the nano tape.

The present disclosure generally relates to a helmet whose purpose is to protect a wearer's head during a head impact. Extending radially outward from the wearer's head, the helmet may consist of one or multiple liner portions and one or multiple shell portions. Either way, there is typically a liner portion in contact with the wearer's head initially or during impact, that liner portion being herein defined as the subliner. The subliner may be comprised of individual subliner elements. The subliner is typically attached to an inner shell portion, the term inner having been added to unambiguously differentiate it from an outer shell portion in the case of a helmet with multiple shell portions. In helmets having just a single liner portion and a single shell portion, the liner portion would be the same as the subliner and the shell portion would be the same as the inner shell portion. In some helmets (typically hockey helmets) the inner shell portion may consist of individual shell segments. The subliner and inner shell portion together are herein defined as the helmet subliner system, and the present disclosure comprises an improved helmet subliner system, and an improved outer liner portion in the case of multiple shell helmets, to better protect the wearer from sustaining concussions and other head injuries.
Especially in multiple liner, multiple shell helmets, the subliner, as defined herein has been used primarily for obtaining the best fit and best comfort for the wearer. But as will be shown in this specification, the subliner, and more generally the subliner system may also be used to substantially improve the head protection performance of the helmet. The disclosure recognizes and takes advantage of the fact that all the forces that are applied to the wearer's head during a head impact are preferably applied through the subliner and its elements.
Recent postmortem brain investigations have found a high instance of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the donated brains of deceased NFL football players, many of whom had suffered debilitating symptoms during their lifetimes, including unexplained rage, extreme mood swings, and substantial cognitive degeneration, all of which may have begun years after their football playing ended. Current research shows that CTE can almost always be traced back to long term repetitive head impacts which may include both concussive and sub-concussive impacts.
It is believed those impacts would have been characterized by a high level of head angular acceleration, sometimes called rotational acceleration. The improved helmet subliner system configuration of the present disclosure is specifically designed to help reduce the level of head angular acceleration during a head impact.

LIONHEAD HELMET INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, LP


To divide and transfer a printing job so that the printing job can be efficiently rasterized by plural processors and improve the processing rate of the whole system in a printing system in which plural processors are roughly connected via a network, the following means are provided: Processing resource information extracting means extracts resource information required every divided job. If a processor is not provided with a required resource, it instructs a processor provided with the resource to transfer it using resource transfer means and receives the resource. Prior information means informs a processor and others of required processing prior to transfer. As the processor and others execute required processing based upon the contents of prior information, they can immediately start processing when a file is transferred.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system for processing and printing print information described in a page description language and others and to a method of performing same.
2. Description of the Related Art
On a client computer, text entry software, plotting software, image editing software and other software are run and a document can be widely composed. A document is described in the internal format of each software and the internal format is converted to a format suitable for printing when the document is printed. For a description format, PostScript (PS), Interpress, GDI, QuickDraw (any is a trademark or a registered trademark) and others can be given as an example. The language specifications of PostScript which is a typical example are published as PostScript Reference Manual by Adobe Systems. The language specifications of Interpress are published as Interpress The Source Book by Xerox (in the United States). The basic description of the language and the processing process are described in the second chapter, "The Programming Language" of The Source Book. Interpress is a stack-type language in which an operand is pushed into a stack, and when an operator part is executed, its operand is removed from a stack and is replaced with the result. Such operation of an operator has a more important property as a process for generating a page image efficiently than as a process for returning a result particularly in an imaging operator. Software for executing this task is roughly classified into two categories. One is an interpreter for interpreting a language and the other is an imager for generating a visible image in a memory. The respective specifications are different, however, PostScript is also basically similar and the language and the execution are described in detail in the second and third chapters of PostScript Reference Manual. For example, on the 40th page, it is described that "PostScript has no concept of reading a program prior to the execution and instead every time PostScript interpreter reads one grammatical entity, it executes the entity." This is the characteristic of an interpreter for sequentially executing a program.
That is, in a conventional type page description language processing printer, sequential interpretation is executed by the central processing unit (CPU) of the printer and printing is executed by the body of the printer. An example in which a memory for receiving and storing a program for printing transmitted from a computer (hereinafter called a printing job), a processor for sequentially interpreting the printing job and a printer for printing according to the interpreted printing job are provided, and after the printing job is transmitted from the computer to the printer, the printer translates the printing job and prints to reduce the load of the computer and to enhance the processing rate of the whole system is described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 1-188374. However, it is known that if conversion from a page description language to a print picture element (hereinafter called rasterization) is realized by software, a large quantity of processing time is required. Further, it is feared that more and more loads will be imposed on a processor in the future to meet the recent requirements of higher quality and coloring.
Some techniques are proposed to process a printing job at higher speed and for a conventional type example related to the present invention, a printing system in which plural processors are roughly connected by a network and a printing job is interpreted in parallel by distribution in a network is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Applications No. Hei 3-507018 and No. Hei 6-168087.
However, a printing system disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-507018 is constituted so that after a client process for dividing a printing job into plural processors and instructing parallel rasterization or a print configuration server for controlling synchronization of the division of a printing job and parallel rasterization with plural processors collects print picture elements and synthesizes them in an image memory, the synthesized print picture elements are transferred to a printer for executing printing. That is, in the above printing system, a large quantity of rasterized print picture element information is transferred at least twice via a network. Therefore, in the printing system disclosed in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-507018, network traffic is increased, and it takes much time to output a print and the effect of parallel rasterization by plural processors cannot be obtained sufficiently.
In the meantime, a printing system disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-168087 is constituted so that a management object (or a manager) for managing parallel rasterization by plural processors instructs a print object in each processor to print using each CPU and the print object controls a printer when it receives a print message and sends rasterized print picture element information to the printer. Further, the division on a page of a divided, rasterized and collected printing job is not considered and it is premised that division is in units of page. Therefore, the effect of distributed processing described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-168087 greatly depends upon the number of pages included in a printing job and it is clear that if the number of pages included in a printing job is small, the effect of distributed processing cannot be obtained sufficiently.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-12392, a scheduler allocates processing to a computer in order by allocating to a computer the total amount processed, which is small, from a large quantity of processing in order and updating the total amount. In the case of general calculation, the result is regardless of the computer that used. However, in the case of a printing job, there are computer which can process a particular printing job and computers which cannot process it, and therefore, a printing job cannot be scheduled based upon simply totalized amount of processing. A printing job is required to be synchronized in units of page. However, in the above patent application, if a distributed job in units of page cannot be successively collected even if processing is uniformly finished in a printing job consisting of plural pages, printing cannot be started until the whole distributed job is collected and the effect of distribution in printing cannot be obtained. In the case of the above patent application, each computer has similar functions and resources such as the utilization factor of CPU, the stability of CPU, the limit of time in which CPU is utilized and CPU rate are managed. However, as apparatuses for executing processing for printing are not provided with the same function, but rather processors are provided with different characteristics, and further a collector and a printer are required, and a printer the total amount of processing of which is small and to which a job is not allocated is selected by a user, inconvenience occurs in usual use. As a printing job is divided in units of page, it is difficult to estimate the amount of a job simply based upon the total amount of processing. As a printing job is sequentially processed, is output on paper and the location is defined differently from a general computer job, information to understand the progress of the whole job is also essential to distributed processing, however, heretofore, no such control means of a printing job existed.
When processing is executed via a network, a print file is created by various applications and in addition, many types of files are created. If a divided file is a raster file apropriate for printing such as a photograph, it is difficult to divide a printing job as it is and as the size of a file consisting of raster data is very large, time required for processing a raster file and time required for transferring it become bottlenecks.


The present disclosure provides methods of treating diabetic retinopathy and ocular inflammatory diseases with anti-ceramide antibodies and antibody fragments.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) affects blood vessels in the light-sensitive tissue called the retina that lines the back of the eye. It is the most common cause of vision loss among people with diabetes and the leading cause of vision impairment and blindness among working-age adults. A consequence of diabetic retinopathy is swelling in an area of the retina called the macula, termed diabetic macular edema (DME).
Existing treatments for DR and DME include anti-VEGF immunotherapy, which has some efficacy in treating both neovascular diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). However, several large clinical studies reveal that about 40% of patients do not respond to anti-VEGF therapy. Moreover, anti-VEGF treatment is directed at the very late stage in the disease, when full reversal of retinal damage is difficult.
There remains an unmet need for safe and effective treatments for DR and DME.

Methods for treating diabetic retinopathy using anti-ceramide monoclonal antibody 2A2

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY


An adapter for laboratory cell strainer is disclosed. The adapter includes a unitary structure having an annular top surface, an annular bottom surface, a smooth inner surface, an outer surface, and an opening extending therethrough. The adapter has a downwardly and radially inwardly sloped funnel section terminating in a cylindrical edge at the annular bottom surface with a lower section of the funnel section having a narrowed, tapered diameter. The outer surface of a middle section of the funnel section has an annular neck configured therearound with a plurality of radially protruding ribs. The unitary structure is configured for connection to the laboratory cell strainer at the annular top surface and placement inside a various sized laboratory tube for receiving filtered liquid during use.

Conventional adapters used in the laboratory environment have many disadvantages. First, a single conventional adapter is unable to fit various sized laboratory tubes and hence if a variety of adapter sizes is required, a large inventory of adapters must be acquired and stored. Second, existing adapters fail to provide a secure fit and stability when used with various sized laboratory tubes. Third, conventional adapters tend to have sharp, interior surfaces that are prone to catching or retaining liquids. Fourth, existing adapters used with laboratory cell strainer systems have not solved the problem of air-lock, which prevents filtered liquid from flowing freely into the laboratory tube.
It would thus be desirable to have an improved adapter for use with other laboratory products, among other desirable features as described herein, which avoids the disadvantages of conventional adapters used in the laboratory.


Support device (1) for a container enclosing a pneumatic life raft, comprising a support plate (2) and means (3) for stowing the container on the plate which comprises two separate bases (4) located opposite one another, in line with one another and at a distance from one another; the stowing means being able to comprise a rigid bar (5) of variable length extending from one base to the other by spanning the container with one end (6) articulated in rotation (11, 12) on a base (4a) and its other end (7) which may be fixed by releasable fixing means to the other base (4b); blocking means (8) blocking the container transversely to the bar; said support device may support containers of various dimensions.

Various embodiments of support devices for life raft containers are known which may, in particular, be intended to be fixed (for example by screwing) to the bridge, the pulpit, the binnacle roof, the upper stern or an equivalent superstructure of a yacht.
In said known devices, the support plate, whatever its shape (in particular a basket-shaped plate consisting of shaped metal sections) is dimensionally adapted to the shape and dimensions of a specific container, such that it is necessary to design as many support plates as there are containers of different dimensions. Being of limited distribution due to their specific shape, such support plates have a high cost price.
Certain plates of extremely simplified structure do not achieve a sufficiently efficient retention of the container which risks being carried away by, for example, a violent wave.
The fixing of the container to the support plate is generally carried out using straps fixed to the support plate by being tightened over the container. The drawback of the fixing method lies in the poor performance of the straps over time in the presence of sunshine, rain and the sea air. The straps loosen and have to be retensioned regularly; they deteriorate rapidly and have to be replaced regularly.
Sometimes, the fixing of the container to the support plate is carried out by means of one or more metal bars fixed to the plate, spanning the container. The drawback with this solution, once again, lies in the fact that the bars are dimensionally adapted to the shape and dimensions of a specific container.