A two-way Opencable multi-input and multi-output device used with a tuner, and the multi-input and multi-output device includes an over-the-air signal input port connected for an over-the-air signal, a cable signal input port connected for a cable signal, at least one or more splitters to split the over-the-air signal or the cable signal to plural output ports, a shield cable to connect the splitter connected to the over-the-air signal input port and the splitter connected to the cable signal input port. The two-way OpenCable system can prevent transient states upon channel changes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept generally relates to a multi-input and multi-output device and a tuner for two-way OpenCable. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to a splitter and a tuner enabling a two-way communication system of OpenCable and a terrestrial 2 PIP function to be effectively implemented.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time, various broadcast media, such as analog over-the-air broadcasts, digital over-the-air broadcasts, analog cable broadcasts, and digital cable broadcasts, broadcast a variety of programs, so that devices connected to an antenna and/or cable are needed to receive different broadcast programs. Thus, a splitter is required to split signals of various formats input through the antenna or cable to corresponding receivers. Furthermore, in general, a multimedia device has a picture-in-picture (PIP) function displaying two screens on one display unit at the same time.
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are views illustrating a multi-input and multi-output switching device and a receiver having the same, which are disclosed in the Korean patent publication number of 01-2003-54438.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a signal-receiving system using a conventional multi-input and multi-output switching device, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a signal-receiving system having a PIP function as shown in FIG. 1. The first input port 21a of the multi-input and multi-output switching part 20 is connected to an antenna for terrestrial waves, and the second input port 21b of the same is connected to cable, the first output port 21c is connected to a tuner 25 for both analog and digital signals, the second output port 21d of the same is connected to the VTR 26, and the loop-through output port 21e of the same is connected to a cable modem or a web box 27.
Thus, the first splitter circuit 22a is connected to the first input port 21a, and splits into two signals an analog or a digital terrestrial broadcast signal past through a low noise amplifier (LNA) 21. The third splitter circuit 22c splits into two signals an input signal, that is, a cable broadcast signal, of the second input port 21b that is applied through the second splitter circuit 22b. The first switching circuit 23 operates according to an external control signal (second voltage), and applies to the first output port 21c one of the first split signal of the first splitter circuit 22a and the first split signal of the third splitter circuit 22c. The second switching circuit 24 operates according to an external control signal (first voltage), and applies to the second output port 21d one of the second split signal of the first splitter circuit 22a and the second split signal of the third splitter circuit 22c. Thus, the first and second output ports 21c and 21d can output a terrestrial broadcast signal or a cable broadcast signal, respectively. That is, signals to be output to the first and second output ports 21c and 21d can be diversely selected depending on the structure of a signal-receiving system.
The loop-through output port 21e is a port used upon two-way communications through cable connected to the second input port 21b, connected to a cable modem or the web box 27. Data input to and output from the loop-through output port 21e has different bands from the cable broadcast signal, so that the data is output to the second input port 21b through the second splitter circuit 22b regardless of the receptions of the cable broadcast signal, and sent to the cable.
Since an RF splitter is needed to implement a PIP function, the RF splitter necessarily selects and outputs either a terrestrial signal or a cable signal to the first output port 21c and the second output port 21d. The tuner connected to the first output port 21c is a sub tuner, and has a compatible tuner 25 generally carrying out the digital (8VSB) and analog (NTSC) functions to implement the 2 PIP since the turner 25 can input a digital signal or an analog signal as an over-the-air broadcast signal. The tuner connected to the second output port 21d has functions capable of processing diverse digital signals for QAM, QPSK, and 8VSB, and a NTSC signal, and operates as a main tuner 30 (refer to FIG. 2).
If a terrestrial waves (a 8VSB digital signal or an NTSC analog signal) are selected and output to the first and second output ports 21c and 21d, four PIPs such as digital-digital, analog-analog, analog-digital, and digital-analog PIPs can be achieved. The electromagnetic field intensity of an over-the-air signal of terrestrial wave can be very low, and, if the electromagnetic field intensity of a signal is very low, the low noise amplifier 21 operates. In general, the low noise amplifier 21 operates only in the over-the-air input mode since the electromagnetic field intensity of a cable signal is appropriate.
If an input signal for cable is output to the first and second output ports 21c and 21d in the same manner, it is configured to carry out fourfold PIPs even in the case that a terrestrial wave is selected at the first output port 21c and a cable signal is selected at the second output port 21d, or, the cable signal is selected at the first output port 21c and the terrestrial wave is selected at the second output port 21d.
However, the conventional technologies for the above configuration have problems as below.
Since one low noise amplifier 21 is used for the first input port (or over-the-air input port) 21a and an output signal of the low noise amplifier 21 is commonly applied to the first and second output ports 21c and 21d, a sub screen completely disappears and then appears in two seconds every time the channels of the main tuner 30 are changed or scanned, when the tuner 25 is set to a specific channel. In detail, in case of the 2 PIP, in fact, it hardly tells which screen is the main or the sub screen. Thus, the sub screen can be displayed as a small window on the screen, but the screen can be divided in halves to have a dual window. Furthermore, the characteristics of a digital signal cause a screen to completely disappear and then appear after quite a while, that is, in about two seconds, over the extent that the screen momentarily shivers, since the digital channel demodulator operates again in case of failure in locking as well as the MPEG and AC-3 decoding blocks at next stages have to newly process a signal. To overcome the above problems, it can be considered to install the low noise amplifier 21 only on the side of the main tuner 30, but, in this case, the performance of the tuner 25 can be degraded if the electromagnetic field of a signal is weak. That is, in case of the 2 PIP, as stated above, in order to prevent a severe transient state of a digital signal, the tuner is not controlled, but a video signal at rear stages is changed, in the swapping mode of the main and sub screens. In case of the 2 PIP, the tuner is not directly controlled since there are various functions, that is, various swapping functions such as smooth swapping function of main and sub screens, but the video signal at rear stages is switched to each other. However, the low noise amplifier 21 is installed only on the side of the main tuner 30, so that, if the main and sub screens are swapped, the sub tuner 25 having no low noise amplifier (LNA) 21 serves as the main tuner 30 and the main tuner 30 having the low noise amplifier 21 serves as the sub tuner 25. Since the sub tuner 25 having no low noise amplifier 21 serves as the main tuner 30, the performance of the main tuner 30 becomes degraded.
The United States has adopted the one-way OpenCable standards, but the Republic of Korea has adopted the two-way OpenCable standards. The United States are to adopt the two-way OpenCable standards. Thus, in the existing one-way standards, there is no problem in that the OOB RX block 33 receives a signal through the diplexer 31 inside the main tuner 30. On behalf of the Return channel, the main tuner 30 has therein the blocks of OOB RX 33 (receiving signals) and OOB TX 34 (transmitting signals) connected with the diplexer 31 by a cable 36. In the above, the OOB (Out of band) refers to a channel separately providing information on encoding keys, channel modulation modes, and other channel tables. The main tuner is also capable of handling In-Band signals with an In-Band block 32, and the main tuner also has a demodulator 35 capable of processing both OOB and In-Band signals. The two-way OpenCable tuner 30 has the diplexer 31 therein since the existing two-way cable modems are mostly the set-top boxes without consideration of PIP functions. However, in the OpenCable market in the future, if the television sets having a Cable signal-receiving function is compulsorily installed with a CableCARD and has the two-way function instead of the one-way function currently widespread, high-quality television sets with the conventional RF splitter and tuner can not have the two-way function since it is provided with the PIP function. In order to implement the two-way OpenCable, the input port (second splitter circuit 22b of FIG. 1) of the tuner 20 has to be split, so one of the split input ports is used for the In-Band channel and the other of the same is used for the Out-of-Band (OOB). If the RF splitter is used prior to the tuner on behalf of the general PIP function, there occurs a problem of interrupting a path from the signal-receiving stage to the signal-transmitting stage for the OOB return channel since amplifiers of the RF splitter have one-way characteristics. That is, the above prior art has the loop-through output port 21e as a port for two-way communications, but, since the RF splitter supports one-way communications as above, there occurs a problem in that the two-way OpenCable can not be implemented while having the PIP function.
There occurs a problem in the prior art in that the PIP mode using the cable and terrestrial signals can not be implemented due to the interferences of the cable and terrestrial signals in the same channel.

Multi-input and multi-output device and tuner for two-way opencable


Various embodiments of orthodontic appliances are disclosed to dispose a patient's lower dentition (2) and upper dentition (2) in Class I occlusion. A representative appliance (180) includes an occlusal ridge (182) that extends over the mesio-lingual cusp and the mesio-buccal cusp of a lower first molar (14a) on one side of the patient's dentition (2), and includes another occlusal ridge (182) that extends over the mesio-lingual cusp and the mesio-buccal cusp of a lower first molar (14b) on the other side of the patient's dentition (2). Such an appliance (180) addresses a Class II malocclusion by encouraging or facilitating movement of the mandible in a mesial or anterior direction such that each such occlusal ridge (182) ends up being disposed between a corresponding upper first molar (32a, 32b) and a corresponding second bicuspid (30a, 30b).

Class II malocclusions exist when an individual's upper jaw or maxilla protrudes further out from the individual's face than his/her lower jaw or mandible. Conversely, Class III malocclusions exist when an individual's lower jaw or mandible protrudes further out from the individual's face than his/her upper jaw or maxilla. Treatment of a Class II malocclusion may entail exerting a functional orthopedic force on the individual's lower jaw or mandible so as to advance the same in a mesial or anterior direction.
One way in which orthodontic treatment forces have been applied to address a Class II malocclusion is through a facebow to retract the upper jaw or maxilla to match the position of a retruded mandible. As a large percentage of Class II malocclusions are due to a deficient mandible, it is more beneficial to the patient to advance the mandible than to retract the maxilla. This results in a better profile and a more balanced facial appearance compared to orthodontic techniques which retract the maxillary teeth to match the position of a retrusive mandible. The disadvantage of this approach is that the nose continues to grow, when the maxilla is retracted, and the nose becomes unduly prominent in the profile, while the maxilla and mandible are retracted to a retrusive position. This approach may align the anterior teeth, but at the same time, is detrimental to the patient's facial appearance.
An alternative to a functional orthopedic approach to correct a mandibular retrusion would entail a combination of orthodontic and surgical correction to align the teeth and advance the mandible to match the correctly positioned maxilla. Orthopedic correction achieves a similar result by correcting the mandibular position without surgery in many cases. It may be important to integrate orthopedic techniques with conventional orthodontic techniques in order to allow the simultaneous correction of skeletal and dental abnormalities.
Another option which has been utilized to affect mesially-directed mandibular advancement is through what has been characterized in the orthodontic industry as "bite blocks." Bite blocks generally include a planar surface which is disposed at an angle relative to an individual's occlusal plane when the bite blocks are installed on the patient. Typically a pair of bite blocks are installed on the occlusal surface of the patient's upper dental arch on opposite sides thereof (i.e., one on the right side of the upper dental arch, and another on the left side of the upper dental arch), while a pair of bite blocks are also installed on the occlusal surface of the patient's lower dental arch on opposite sides thereof (i.e., one on the right side of the lower dental arch, and another on the left side of the lower dental arch). Each of these bite blocks are installed so that there is a camming-like action between the two bite blocks which are occlusally installed on the patient's upper arch and their corresponding bite blocks which are occlusally installed on the patient's lower arch.
Both fixed and removable attachment techniques have been suggested for bite blocks generally of the above-noted type. "Fixed" in the orthodontic treatment sense means that a particular appliance is installed on the orthodontic patient in such a manner so that at least in theory the orthodontic patient will not be able to readily remove the appliance, but so that the appliance may be removed by the orthodontic practitioner utilizing the proper tool(s). "Removable" in the orthodontic treatment sense means that a particular appliance is installed on the orthodontic patient in such a manner so that the appliance may be readily removed by both the orthodontic patient and practitioner.


A tower or a tower segment of a wind turbine, having a door for entering the inside of the tower, comprising a door frame, which has a door opening that is preferably closed by a door leaf, and a door frame for a door of a tower of a wind turbine, the frame having a door opening that is preferably closed by a door leaf, and a wind turbine having a tower, a door provided for entering the inside of the tower, and a staircase leading to the door on the outside of the tower, and an air passage opening in at least one advantageous location. The door frame has at least one air passage opening, particularly an air inlet opening.

This application is a national phase application based on PCT/DE2009/000099, filed Jan. 28, 2009, and claims priority therefrom; and further claims priority from German applications DE 10 2008 006 776.0 (filed Jan. 30, 2008), DE 10 2008 012 664.0 (filed Mar. 5, 2008), and DE 10 2008 037 768.6 (filed Aug. 14, 2008, and the contents of all the afore-mentioned applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The invention relates to a tower or a tower segment of a wind power installation with a door for entering the interior of the tower, comprising a door frame comprising a door opening preferably to be closed with a door leaf.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a door frame for a door of a tower of a wind power installation that comprises a door opening to be closed preferably with a door leaf and relates to a wind power installation with a tower with a door provided for entering the interior of the tower and with stairs on the outside of the tower leading to the door, which tower is preferably a tower like the one initially cited.
Current wind power installations usually have a closed tower that is frequently built up from prefabricated tower segments, which tower can be entered through a door and in which an ascent is possible up to a so-called car on the tower head, possibly with an elevator. Electrical and/or electrotechnical apparatuses, for example, a converter and/or a transformer, are housed in this tower which heat up significantly in some cases and must therefore be tempered, especially cooled in order to avoid damage. To this end basically closed cooling circuits, especially with water cooling are considered; however they have the danger of leakages and are maintenance-intensive. A simpler air cooling of the tower interior or of selected areas of it, preferably with filtered air is therefore more to be recommended. For this, air must be able to enter into the tower at at least one suitable position and can exit again at this position or at another position in the same amount.

Wind power installation and a tower or tower segment and a door frame for it


A system and method for compressing and decompressing data using a plurality of data compression mechanisms. Representative samples of each block of data are tested to select an appropriate one of the data compression mechanisms to apply to the block. The block is then compressed using the selected one of the mechanisms and the compressed block is provided with an identifier of the selected mechanism. For decompression, the identifier is examined to select an appropriate one of the data decompression mechanisms to apply to the block. The block is then decompressed using the selected one of the mechanisms.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to data processing systems and, more specifically, to a system and method for compressing data.
2. Background of the Invention
In general, data compression involves taking a stream of symbols and transforming them into codes. If the compression is effective, the resulting stream of codes will be smaller than the original symbol stream. The decision to output a certain code for a certain symbol or set of symbols is based on a model. The model is simply a collection of data and rules used to process input symbols and determine which code(s) to output. A computer program may use the model to accurately define the probabilities for each symbol in order to produce an appropriate code based on those probabilities.
Data compression techniques often need to be lossless (without incidences of error or loss of data). Exceptions to this include, for example, certain applications pertaining to graphic images or digitized voice. Lossless compression consists of those techniques guaranteed to generate an exact duplicate of the input data stream after a compress/expand cycle. This is the type of compression often used when storing database records, spreadsheets, or word processing files. In these applications, the loss of even a single bit can be catastrophic.
Lossless data compression is generally implemented using one of two different types of modeling: statistical or dictionary-based. Statistical modeling reads in and encodes a single symbol at a time using the probability of that character's appearance. Statistical models achieve compression by encoding symbols into bit strings that use fewer bits than the original symbols. The quality of the compression goes up or down depending on how good the program is at developing a model. The model has to predict the correct probabilities for the symbols. The farther these probabilities are from a uniform distribution, the more compression that can be achieved.
In dictionary-based modeling, the coding problem is reduced in significance, making the model supremely important. The dictionary-based compression processes use a completely different method to compress data. This family of processes does not encode single symbols as variable-length bit strings; it encodes variable-length strings of symbols as single pointers. The pointers form an index to a phrase dictionary. If the pointers are smaller than the phrases they replace, compression occurs. In many respects, dictionary-based compression is easier for people to understand. In every day life, people use phone numbers, Dewey Decimal numbers, and postal codes to encode larger strings of text. This is essentially what a dictionary-based encoder does.
In general, dictionary-based compression replaces phrases with pointers. If the number of bits in the pointer is less than the number of bits in the phrase, compression will occur. However, the methods for building and maintaining a dictionary are varied.
A static dictionary is built up before compression occurs, and it does not change while the data is being compressed. For example, a database containing all motor-vehicle registrations for a state could use a static dictionary with only a few thousand entries that concentrate on words such as "Ford," "Jones," and "1994." Once this dictionary is compiled, it is used by both the encoder and the decoder as required.
There are advantages and disadvantages to static dictionaries. Nevertheless, dictionary-based compression schemes using static dictionaries are mostly ad hoc, implementation dependent, and not general purpose.
Many of the well-known dictionary-based processes are adaptive. Instead of having a completely defined dictionary when compression begins, adaptive schemes start out either with no dictionary or with a default baseline dictionary. As compression proceeds, the processes add new phrases to be used later as encoded tokens.
For a further discussion of data compression in general, please refer to The Data Compression Book, by Mark Nelson, .COPYRGT. 1992 by M&T Publishing, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
As mentioned, the history of past symbols of a sequence often provides valuable information about the behavior of the sequence in the future. Various universal techniques have been devised to use this information for data compression or prediction. For example, the Lempel-Ziv ("LZ") compression process, which is discussed within Compression of Individual Sequences by Variable Rate Coding, by J. Ziv and A. Lempel, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, IT-24: 530-536, 1978 (which is incorporated by reference herein), uses the past symbols to build up a dictionary of phrases and compresses the string using this dictionary. As Lempel and Ziv have shown, this process is universally optimal in that the compression ratio converges to the entropy for all stationary ergodic (of or related to a process in which every sequence or sizeable sample is equally representative of the whole) sequences. Thus, given an arbitrarily long sequence, such compression operates as well as if the distribution of the sequence was known in advance.
The Lempel-Ziv compression method has achieved great popularity because of its simplicity and ease of implementation (actually, Lempel-Ziv is often used to denote any dictionary based universal coding scheme, as a result, the standard method described herein is only one of this large class). It asymptotically achieves the entropy limit for data compression. However, the rate of convergence may be slow and there is scope for improvement for short sequences. In particular, at the end of each phrase, the process returns to the root of the phrase tree, so that contextual information is lost. One approach to this problem was suggested by Plotnik, Weinberger and Ziv for finite state sources, as described within Upper Bounds on the Probability of Sequences Emitted by Finite-State Sources and on the Redundancy of the Lempel-Ziv Algorithm, by E. Plotnik, M. J. Weinberger and J. Ziv, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, IT-38(1): 66-72, January 1992, which is incorporated by reference herein. Their idea was to maintain separate LZ like trees for each source state (or estimated state) of a finite state model of the source. Plotnik, Weinberger and Ziv showed that this procedure is asymptotically optimal.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/253,047, filed on Jun. 2, 1994 and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention describes a compression system wherein contextual information is implemented in conjunction with a dictionary-based compression process within a data processing system. Before encoding a next phrase within an input string of data, the compression system, through dynamic programming, derives the statistically best set of dictionaries for utilization in encoding the next phrase. The selection of this set of dictionaries is dependent upon each dictionary's past utilization within the process. Thus, the choice of dictionaries is directly related to each of their performance on compression, and not on a presumed model for the sequence as is required in a compression technique utilizing a state machine description of the source, which is available to both the encoder and decoder. The selected set of dictionaries is implemented by the data processing system to encode the next phrase of data. The context of the phrase is used to select a particular dictionary within the selected set for the encoding process, which computes a pointer to the phrase within the dictionary that corresponds to the next phrase.
The above-technique has the property that the compressor and de-compressor can each compute from the preceding string, the dictionary which will be used for the next phrase. This has the advantage that the identity of the dictionary need not be included. However, the chosen dictionary may not in fact be the best one to use, as the decision of which to use is based on estimates. Further, in some cases improved compression could result from using other types of compression techniques.

Adaptive multiple dictionary data compression

International Business Machines Corporation


A fibrous material or composite including a plurality of layers joined to one another, for example, by needlepunching, is disclosed. The fibrous composite generally has an asymmetrical stretch profile, such that the fibrous composite is more extensible in the cross-machine direction than in the machine direction. The fibrous composite may find particular use in forming a cure-in-place pipe liner.

It is known that pipelines may degrade structurally over time. Due to the difficulty of digging up and replacing pipelines, various techniques have been used to line the interior of the pipes in situ. Most commonly, a flexible liner material or sleeve is inserted into the pipe and expanded radially. A curable resin applied to (or impregnated into) the pipe liner material bonds the expanded liner to the interior surface of the pipe to form a hardened internal pipe liner.
Unfortunately, when typical liners are expanded radially as described above, the liner also tends to expand in the lengthwise or axial direction, thereby making it difficult to cut the liner to the appropriate length before inserting it into the pipe. Therefore, there is a need for a pipe liner that expands radially but resists stretching in the axial direction. There is further a need for a material suitable for use in forming such a pipe liner.

Asymmetrical stretch composite for pipe liner


A structure for use in a compressible resilient pad. The structure contains both axially elastomeric strands and relatively inelastic strands co-extruded in various patterns. The structure has a high degree of both compressibility under an applied normal load and excellent recovery (resiliency or spring back) upon removal of that load.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compressible/resilient structure for various uses such as, for example, in athletic shoes, regular shoes, boots, floor carpets, carpet pads, sports floors etc. The structure itself can be the final product or the structure can be a component of another structure. Uses envisioned include, but are not limited to: automobile parts and other composites; flooring; subfloors especially in gymnasiums or other sports arenas; press pads; ballistic cloth such as body armor or hurricane window protection; sporting equipment padding such as baseball catcher chest protectors; knee/elbow pads for runners, racers, skaters, volleyball players; cricket shin/knee pads; football hip pads; wall padding in stadiums, gymnasiums, arenas; shoe inserts (orthotics); heels/soles for athletic shoes e.g. running shoes; cushioning layer for bedding, vehicle seats, pillows; and other end uses where through thickness compressibility and resiliency is required.
Description of Prior Art
In related art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,420 discloses an extruded bicomponent elastomeric netting having unidirectional elasticity. The structure disclosed in the '420 patent is a nonwoven article employing an inelastic material such as polypropylene in one direction and an elastic material such as a styrene block copolymer in the other direction.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0202314, PCT Application No. WO 2007/067949 and U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0194490 are examples where "crossless" structures are used as the substrate. Substitution of the structure according to the present invention for at least some of these layers allows through thickness compression and spring back, and results in an improved overall structure.
The inventive structure can also be used as shoe inserts or orthotic inserts, which are usually molded solid resin. Incorporation of a layer of the structure according to the present invention improves the cushioning effect thereof. For soles/heels for sports shoes, which are usually solid viscoelastomeric materials, some attempts to improve "cushioning" have been to mold in for example "air channels or pockets." However, the rigidity of the molded material is such that cushioning effects are limited. Incorporation of the structure according to the present invention as a layer in the cast structure, free of "resin" to allow movement, substantially improves the cushioning effect of running/athletic shoes. And if the "resin" is a polyurethane foam or silicone foam, then it can impregnate or even encapsulate the mesh structure.
Therefore, it would be an advancement in the state of the "pad-making" art to provide a pad that provides excellent elastic behavior under load with high through thickness recovery.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pad comprising an extruded mesh and method of making thereof


A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes the steps of forming a field oxide layer on a first conductivity-type semiconductor substrate, and forming a pattern of first active regions. The field oxide layer is selectively removed between the first active regions to pattern a second active region and word lines are formed substantially perpendicular to each of the first active regions. A second conductivity-type impurity is implanted into the substrate using a mask to form impurity diffusion regions in the first and second active regions. A first insulating layer is formed over an overall surface of the substrate, and forming a first contact hole in the second active region. A bit line is formed for contacting with the impurity diffusion region on the second active region through the first contact hole. A second insulating layer is formed over the first insulating layer and the bit line, and the second impurity layer is selectively removed to form second contact holes on portions of the first active regions, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device with high reliability and density.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As semiconductor devices become highly integrated, the size tends to decrease. Line widths of patterns for forming such highly integrated semiconductor devices and intervals between the line widths reach a resolution limit for photolithography Particularly, in a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), if a storage capacitance is reduced in accordance with a reduction in the size of a memory cell, it becomes difficult to store and transmit information accurately. Moreover, information may be distorted due to alpha particles. This deteriorates the reliability of a device.
Therefore, to obtain a sufficient storage capacitance in a limited area, studies have been done for a stacked capacitor cell in which a capacitor is formed on a switching transistor. In this case, however, after forming the capacitor, a bit line for transmitting a signal to the switching transistor must be connected to a source or drain of the switching transistor, which is spaced apart from a storage electrode or plate electrode of the capacitor. This puts a restriction on how much the surface area of the capacitor can be increased.
An interconnection of a conventional semiconductor device will be explained below with reference to the accompanying drawings FIG. 1 is a layout showing an interconnection of a conventional semiconductor device as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,635.
As shown in FIG. 1, a bit line 1 is formed first before a capacitor is formed to thereby increase the area of a storage electrode 2 until a minimum interval between neighboring storage electrodes is reached. As a result, the capacitance is increased. In the interconnection described above, the storage electrode 2 should be connected to a source/drain region of a switching transistor, spaced from the bit line 1. Thus, the center or middle portion of an active region 3 forms a 45.degree. angle with word line 4 and bit line 1.
However, since the center of the active region is placed at an angle with the other portions in order to increase the capacitance, the aforementioned conventional interconnection has the following problems. One disadvantage or problem is that during photolithography for forming the active region pattern, distortion of the pattern may occur easily. Also, when a field oxide layer for electrical isolation is formed around the active region, a substrate stress profile at a bending portion of the active region pattern is different from that of the other portions. Accordingly, patterns are not correctly formed.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device


A system and method for representing a textual document based on the occurrence of repeats are disclosed. The system includes a sequence generator which defines a sequence representing words forming a collection of documents. A repeat calculator identifies a set of repeats within the sequence, the set of repeats comprising subsequences of the sequence which each occur more than once. A representation generator generates a representation for at least one document in the collection of documents based on occurrence, in the document, of repeats from the set of repeats.

The exemplary embodiment relates to systems and methods for representing a textual document using identified repeats, which facilitates interpretation of documents such as classifying the textual document, and comparing or clustering of documents.
In order to perform mathematical operations on a document, the first step is to define a mapping that represents the document as a data structure. For example, sequences are standard representations for documents in the bioinformatics field. However, the high dimensionality and lack of flexibility inherent in sequence representations make them unpopular for natural language applications. Accordingly, the most popular representation for documents in natural language applications is the vector space model. In the vector space model, a document d is mapped into a vector v(d)εD. Normally, such a mapping proceeds by extracting a defined set of features from d, which are subsequently weighted through a scoring scheme.
The standard approach for extracting features and creating representations for textual documents is called the "bag-of-words," where each dimension in the vector space model represents one word. However, this standard approach of just counting words, or unigrams, has some well-known shortcomings. For instance, it is a lossy representation and as such can map different documents into the same representation. While less problematic in query systems, the bag-of-words approach becomes an issue when comparing full-length documents. Another drawback of counting single words is that multi-words expressions (collocations) are missed. Thus, a document where "New York" occurs may not be recognized as different from one which contains separate occurrences of the words "New" and "York."
One way of addressing the issues with the bag-of-words and unigrams is by using a higher level language model such as n-grams. However, the n-gram approach introduces other issues, e.g., the dimension of the vocabularies increases exponentially with n, which decreases computational efficiency. Additionally, the vector representation becomes much sparser, which makes it difficult to compute similarities. In general, n-gram models with n≧3 become so problematic that performance decreases considerably.
There remains need for a more principled way of using n-grams in document representations, without the limitation of a fixed size and the derived shortcoming of missing shorter or longer terms.

Bag-of-repeats representation of documents


A reverse flow hydrocarbon trap is provided that improves the conversion of hydrocarbons present in the exhaust gases of a vehicle to more environmentally benign compounds during cold engine starts. The trap includes a substrate having at least one exhaust gas passage therethrough, with the walls of the exhaust gas passage including a hydrocarbon trapping material and an oxidative catalyst. The substrate includes an inlet for hot exhaust gas from a vehicle engine and an outlet for the exhaust gas and further includes an inlet channel, an outlet channel, and an intermediate channel through which exhaust gas flows. The intermediate channel is oriented such that the flow of exhaust gas through the exhaust gas passage is reversed from the direction of flow in the inlet and outlet channels to improve the performance of the hydrocarbon trap.

The subject matter described herein relates to hydrocarbon traps used in automotive exhaust systems and to methods of operating such traps to improve their performance in trapping cold start engine emissions.
In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to reduce the level of hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from vehicle engines to meet increasingly stringent emissions standards. Conventional exhaust treatment catalysts such as three-way catalysts (TWC) achieve conversion of hydrocarbons to water and carbon dioxide and help prevent the exit of unburned or partially burned hydrocarbon emissions from a vehicle. Such three-way catalysts are effective to convert over 99% of hydrocarbon emissions in engine exhaust during normal engine operation after warm-up. However, hydrocarbon emissions are high during cold starting of the engine and enter the vehicle's exhaust system before the latent heat of the exhaust gases allows the catalyst to become active, i.e., before the catalyst has reached its "light-off" temperature, defined as the temperature at which the three-way catalyst is effective to convert at least 50% of the unburned hydrocarbon emissions.
Hydrocarbon traps have been developed for reducing emissions during cold-start by trapping/adsorbing hydrocarbon (HC) emissions at low temperatures and releasing/desorbing them from the trap once sufficiently elevated temperatures are reached for oxidation over a catalyst, such as a three-way catalyst. Currently, zeolites are the most widely used adsorption materials for hydrocarbon traps due to their unique cage-like lattice structures. In a conventional hydrocarbon trap design, trapping material such as a zeolite is coated on the walls of, for example, a honeycomb substrate having gas flow passages or channels therethrough. Three-way catalyst is washcoated over the hydrocarbon trap material. As exhaust gases flow through the trap, hydrocarbon emissions are adsorbed by the zeolite material during cold start and are ideally released when the three-way catalyst is warmed to its light-off temperature from the heat in the exhaust gases.
However one major obstacle is that hydrocarbon storage materials such as zeolites normally cannot retain all of the hydrocarbons until the light-off temperature for the three-way catalyst is reached. Typically, on cold starting, more than 50% of the trapped hydrocarbons have already desorbed from the trapping material and have passed through the trap before light-off temperature has been reached. These desorbed hydrocarbons have no chance of being catalytically converted prior to exiting the vehicle exhaust system. In order for a high percentage of hydrocarbons to be converted, the three-way catalyst should be fully active as the hydrocarbons are desorbed from the zeolite trapping materials. This temperature mismatch between a conventional layer configuration design of zeolite and three-way catalyst results in overall poor hydrocarbon trap performance during cold starts.
The art has attempted to improve upon the performance of trapping materials and three-way catalysts with the objective to adsorb more hydrocarbons at low temperatures, delay the release of adsorbed hydrocarbons until higher temperatures are reached, and develop three-way catalysts that have lower light-off temperatures. A further complication is that after the materials in conventional hydrocarbon traps have aged through repeated use, the hydrocarbon trapping materials tend to absorb fewer hydrocarbons and release them at lower temperatures, and the three-way catalysts tend to require higher temperatures to reach light-off.
Accordingly, there remains a need in this art for hydrocarbon traps that are better able to achieve the desired goals of reducing hydrocarbon emissions from vehicle exhaust systems during cold start ups.


The system disclosed implements a secure method for facilitating secure exchange of health information among various stakeholders, including data owners or contributors, data requestors or miners, and medical providers, including hospitals, clinics, and research laboratories. Additional aspects of the system provide means for conducting secure research on health data collected from data contributors. Health information is exchanged using a decentralized system that incentivizes data contributors to provide health data to data miners. The data miners, which may be pharmaceutical companies, medical laboratories, or hospitals, use various methods in order to perform research on aggregated contributor data, while maintaining contributor privacy.

Medical information technology has progressed rapidly in the last few decades, but barriers to effective health data collection still exist. When additional data is required to perform medical research, healthcare providers, research laboratories, hospitals, and clinics must collect it from patients. These patients may not be willing to share their data, out of privacy concerns. The patients may not be affiliated with the entity requesting their data, requiring the entity to partner with other healthcare providers or facilities in order to collect the data securely.

System for decentralized ownership and secure sharing of personalized health data

Hangzhou Nuowei Information Technology Co., Ltd.


Changes to the functionality and the detection and an expansion of a signal processing apparatus that processes an input signal are disclosed. A first signal processing means processes the input signal, and an expansion means adds a second signal processing means. A detecting means detects whether the one or more additional second signal processing means has been added on to the expansion means, a communication means for performing data transfers between the first signal processing means and second additional signal processing means via wireless communication, and a control means for coordinating the first signal processing means and the one or more additional signal processing means. The input signal is processed in accordance with a combination of the function of the first signal processing means, the respective functions of the one or more additional signal processing means, and the coordination of the first signal processing means and the one or more additional signal processing means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal processing apparatus, a signal processing method, a signal processing system, program and medium. In particular, the present invention relates to a signal processing apparatus, a signal processing method, a signal processing system, program and medium which, when a plurality of apparatuses are connected, changes the functions of the apparatuses to make it possible for the processing performed on an input signal to be shared out among the plurality of apparatuses, thereby making it possible to obtain a higher quality processing result than when a single apparatus is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
As examples, devices such as a digital VTR (Video Tape Recorder) and a DVD (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) player are used by connecting them to a television receiver or the like so that users can watch and listen to reproduced images and audio. This is to say, the images and audio reproduced by a digital VTR or the like are supplied to a television receiver with the images being displayed on the screen and the audio being outputted from a speaker or speakers.
When images and audio that are reproduced by a digital VTR are outputted by a television receiver, some of the signal processing circuits provided in the television receiver do not perform any particular processing.
This is to say, when as one example, component signals are outputted from a digital VTR, the signal processing circuits in the television receiver that convert a composite signal into component signals do not need to perform any processing, and so become idle.
On the other hand, when a television receiver is connected to a digital VTR as described above, it is believed that it would be possible to provide users with higher-quality images and audio if the signal processing circuit of the television receiver and the signal processing circuit of the digital VTR could be made to operate in concert to share the processing performed on signals such as images and audio.
However, as a rule, all of the circuits in the internal circuitry of an appliance such as a television receiver are electrically connected via circuit boards or the like. Accordingly, there is the problem that it is not easy to change the internal circuits.
When a plurality of appliances are connected, such as when a television receiver and a digital VTR are connected, some kind of signal cable is provided and image signals, audio signals, etc., are transferred via this signal cable, though there is the problem of the time and effort required to connect the devices with a signal cable.
It should be noted that while the preceding explanation refers to the example of an image appliance, such as a television receiver, the same problem also exists for various other types of electronic devices.
The present invention was conceived in view of the above situation, and it is an object of the present invention to simplify changes in the functions of apparatuses and the adding of other appliances by making it unnecessary to change the internal wiring or to connect devices with signal cables.

Signal processing apparatus, signal processing method, signal processing system, program and medium


The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus and driving method thereof. The plasma display apparatus according to the present invention comprises a Plasma Display Panel (PDP) including scan electrodes and sustain electrodes, a driver that supplies a pre-reset waveform to the scan electrodes or the sustain electrodes prior to a reset period of one or more sub-fields, and a controller that controls a period between a last sustain pulse, which is supplied to the scan electrodes or the sustain electrodes during a sustain period of a (n−1)th sub-field (where n is a positive integer), and an initialization signal, which is applied to the scan electrodes during a reset period of an nth sub-field, depending on a temperature of the PDP or an ambient temperature of the PDP.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus and a driving method thereof.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, a plasma display apparatus displays images by light-emitting phosphors with ultraviolet generated during the discharge of an inert mixed gas such as He+Xe, Ne+Xe or He+Ne+Xe. This plasma display apparatus can be manufactured to be thin and have a large screensize. The picture quality of the plasma display apparatus has improved given recent technological developments.
To implement the gray scales of images, a plasma display apparatus is time-driven with one frame being divided into several sub-fields having a different number of emissions. Each of the sub-fields is divided into a reset period for initializing the entire screen, an address period for selecting a scan line and selecting a discharge cell from the selected scan line and a sustain period for implementing the gray scales depending on the number of discharges.
For example, to display an image with 256 gray scales, a frame period (16.67 ms) corresponding to 1/60 seconds is divided into eight sub-fields (SF1 to SF8), as shown in FIG. 1. Each of the eight sub-fields (SF1 to SF8) is divided into an initialization period, an address period and a sustain period. The initialization period and the address period of each of the sub-fields are the same for every sub-field. The sustain period and the number of sustain pulses allocated thereto increase in the ratio of 2n (n=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) in each sub-field.
FIG. 2 schematically shows the arrangements of electrodes of a three-electrode AC surface discharge type plasma display panel (hereinafter, referred to as "P(DP)") in the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional three-electrode AC surface discharge type P(DP) comprises scan electrodes Y1 to Yn and sustain electrodes Z formed on an upper substrate and address electrodes X1 to Xm formed on a lower substrate to intersect the scan electrodes Y1 to Yn and the sustain electrodes Z.
Discharge cells 1 for displaying one of red, green or blue visible rays are disposed at the intersections of the scan electrodes Y1 to Yn, the sustain electrodes Z and the address electrodes X1 to Xm in matrix form.
A dielectric layer (not shown) and an MgO protection layer (not shown) are formed on the upper substrate in which the scan electrodes Y1 to Yn and the sustain electrodes Z are formed.
Barrier ribs for preventing optical and electrical interference among neighboring discharge cells 1 are formed on the lower substrate in which the address electrodes X1 to Xm are formed. Phosphors, which are excited by ultraviolet ray to emit a visible ray, are formed on the surfaces of the lower substrate and the barrier ribs.
An inert mixed gas, such as He+Xe, Ne+Xe or He+Xe+Ne, is injected into discharge spaces partitioned between the upper substrate and the lower substrate of the P(DP).
FIG. 3 shows a driving waveform supplied to the P(DP) as shown in FIG. 2. The driving waveform of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the wall charge distribution of FIGS. 4a to 4e.
Referring to FIG. 3, each of the sub-fields (SFn−1, SFn) comprises a reset period (RP) for initializing the discharge cells 1 of the entire screen, an address period (AP) for selecting discharge cells, a sustain period (SP) for sustaining the discharge of selected discharge cells 1, and an erase period (EP) for erasing wall charges within the discharge cells 1.
In the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1), an erase ramp waveform (ERR) is applied to the sustain electrodes Z. during the erase period (EP), 0V is applied to the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X. The erase ramp waveform (ERR) is a positive ramp waveform whose voltage gradually rises from 0V to a positive sustain voltage (Vs). An erase discharge is generated between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z within on-cells in which the sustain discharge is generated by the erase ramp waveform (ERR). Wall charges within the on-cells are erased by the erase discharge. As a result, each of the discharge cells 1 has the wall charge distribution as shown in FIG. 4a soon after the erase period (EP).
In a set-up period (SU) of the reset period (RP) where the nth sub-field (SFn) begins, a positive ramp waveform (PR) is applied to all the scan electrodes Y, and 0V is applied to the sustain electrodes Z and the address electrodes X. A voltage on the scan electrodes Y gradually rises from the positive sustain voltage (Vs) to a reset voltage (Vr), which is higher than the positive sustain voltage (Vs), by means of the positive ramp waveform (PR) of the set-up period (UP). A dark discharge is generated between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X within the discharge cells of the entire screen as well as between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z by means of the positive ramp waveform (PR).
As a result of the dark discharge, positive wall charges remain on the address electrodes X and the sustain electrodes Z immediately after the set-up period (SU), and negative wall charges remain on the scan electrodes Y, as shown in FIG. 4b. While the dark discharge is generated in the set-up period (SU), a gap voltage (Vg) between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z and a gap voltage between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X are initialized to a voltage close upon a firing voltage (Vf) which can generate a discharge.
In a set-down period (SD) of the reset period (RP) after the set-up period (SU), a negative ramp waveform (NR) is applied to the scan electrodes Y. At the same time, the positive sustain voltage (Vs) is applied to the sustain electrodes Z and 0V is applied to the address electrodes X. A voltage on the scan electrodes Y gradually falls from the positive sustain voltage (Vs) to a negative erase voltage (Ve) by means of the negative ramp waveform (NR).
A dark discharge is generated between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z as well as between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X within the discharge cells of the entire screen by means of the negative ramp waveform (NR). As a result of the dark discharge of the set-down period (SD), the wall charge distribution within each of the discharge cells 1 is changed to an optimal address condition, as shown in FIG. 4c. Except for a predetermined amount of required wall charges, excessive wall charges unnecessary for an address discharge are erased from the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X within each of the discharge cells 1.
The polarity of the wall charges on the sustain electrodes Z inverts from a positive polarity to a negative polarity as negative wall charges move from the scan electrodes Y accumulate on the sustain electrodes Z. While the dark discharge is generated in the set-down period (SD) of the reset period (RP), a gap voltage between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z and a gap voltage between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X becomes close to the firing voltage (Vf).
In the address period (AP), while negative scan pulses (−SCNP) are sequentially applied to the scan electrodes Y, a positive data pulse (DP) is applied to the address electrodes X in synchronization with the scan pulse (−SCNP). A voltage of the scan pulse (−SCNP) is a scan voltage (Vsc), which falls from 0V or a negative scan bias voltage (Vyb) to about a 0V to a negative scan voltage (−Vy). A voltage of the data pulse (DP) is a positive data voltage (Va). During the address period (AP), a positive Z bias voltage (Vzb), which is lower than the positive sustain voltage (Vs), is applied to the sustain electrodes Z.
In a state where the gap voltage is adjusted to a voltage of about to the firing voltage (Vf) immediately after the reset period (RP), an address discharge is generated between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X while the gap voltage between the electrodes Y and X exceeds the firing voltage (Vf) within on-cells to which the scan voltage (Vsc) and the data voltage (Va) are applied. The first address discharge between the scan electrode Y and the address electrode X generates priming charged particles within the discharge cells, and thus induces a second discharge between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z, as shown in FIG. 4d. The wall charge distribution within on-cells in which the address discharge is generated is shown in FIG. 4e.
The wall charge distribution within off-cells in which the address discharge is not generated substantially keeps the state shown in FIG. 4c.
In the sustain period (SP), sustain pulses (SUSP) of a positive sustain voltage (Vs) are alternately applied to the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z. A sustain discharge is generated between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z within on-cells selected by the address discharge every sustain pulse (SUSP) owing to the wall charge distribution of FIG. 4e. However, a discharge is not generated within off-cells during the sustain period. This is because the gap voltage between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z cannot exceed the firing voltage (Vf) when the first positive sustain voltage (Vs) is applied to the scan electrodes Y since the wall charge distribution of the off-cells remains in the state shown in FIG. 4c.
In the conventional plasma display apparatus, however, several discharges are generated to control the initialization and wall charges of the discharge cells 1 through the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1) and the reset period (RP) of the nth sub-field (SFn). Therefore, problems arise because a dark room contrast value decreases and the contrast ratio decreases accordingly. Table 1 below shows the type and number of discharges, which are generated in the erase period (EP) and the reset period (RP) of the previous sub-field (SFn−1) in the conventional plasma display apparatus.
TABLE 1Operating TimeRP of SFnCell StateEP of SFn − 1SUSDOn-cells turned onCounter Discharge (Y-X◯◯in SFn − 1X)Surface Discharge (Y-◯◯◯Z)Off-cells turned offCounter Discharge (Y-X◯◯in SFn − 1X)Surface Discharge (Y-X◯◯Z)
As shown in Table 1, the on-cells that are turned on in the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1) generate three surface discharges between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z and two counter discharges between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X, while during the erase period (EP) and the reset period (RP). The off-cells that are turned off in the previous sub-field (SFn) generate two surface discharges between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z and two counter discharges between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X, during the erase period (EP) and the reset period (RP).
Multiple discharges, which are generated in the erase period and in the reset period, increase the amount of light emission in the erase period and in the reset period even though the amount of light emission should be minimized to maintain proper contrast, thereby causing the dark room contrast value to decreases. More particularly, since the amount of light emission in the surface discharge between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z is more than the amount of light emission in the counter discharge between the scan electrodes Y and the address electrodes X, the amount of light in the surface discharge has a substantially adverse effect on the dark room contrast.
In the conventional plasma display apparatus, wall charges are not smoothly erased in the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1). Therefore, if negative wall charges are excessively accumulated on the scan electrodes Y, a dark discharge is not generated in the set-up period (SU) of the nth sub-field (SFn). If the dark discharge is not generated in the set-up period (SU) as described above, discharge cells are not initialized. In this case, to generate a discharge in the set-up period, the reset voltage (Vr) should be high.
If a dark discharge is not generated in the set-up period (SU), a condition within the discharge cells immediately after the reset period does not become an optimal address condition. This results in an abnormal discharge or an erroneous discharge.
If positive wall charges are excessively accumulated on the scan electrodes Y soon after the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1), a strong discharge is generated when the positive sustain voltage (Vs), i.e., a start voltage of the positive ramp waveform (PR), is applied to the scan electrodes Y in the set-up period (SU) of the nth sub-field (SFn). Therefore, initialization is not uniform in all of the cells. This problem will be described below in detail with reference to FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 shows an externally applied voltage (Vyz) between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z in the set-up period (SU) and a gap voltage (Vg) within a discharge cell. The externally applied voltage (Vyz) indicated by a solid line in FIG. 5 is an external voltage applied to the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z, respectively. Since the externally applied voltage (Vyz) of 0V is applied to the sustain electrodes Z, it is substantially the same as a voltage of the positive ramp waveform (PR). In FIG. 5, dotted lines {circle around (1)}, {circle around (2)} and {circle around (3)} indicate gap voltages (Vg) formed in a discharge gas by the wall charges within the discharge cell.
The gap voltages (Vg) are different as indicated by dotted lines {circle around (1)}, {circle around (2)} and {circle around (3)} because the amount of wall charges within the discharge cells is different depending on whether a discharge has occurred in a previous sub-field. The relationship between the externally applied voltage (Vyz) between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z and the gap voltage (Vg) formed in the discharge gas within the discharge cell can be expressed in the following Equation 1.Vyz=Vg+Vw  [Equation 1]
In FIG. 5, the gap voltage (Vg) of {circle around (1)} Defers to a case where wall charges within a discharge cell are sufficiently erased and the wall charges are sufficiently small. The gap voltage (Vg) increases in proportion to the externally applied voltage (Vyz), but generates a dark discharge if the gap voltage is about equal the firing voltage (Vf). The gap voltage within the discharge cells is initialized to the firing voltage (Vf) by the dark discharge.
In FIG. 5, the gap voltage (Vg) of {circle around (2)} refers to a case where a strong discharge is generated during the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1) and thus inverts the polarity of the wall charges in the wall charge distribution within the discharge cells. The polarity of wall charges accumulated on the scan electrodes Y soon after the erase period (EP) is inverted to a positive polarity because of the strong discharge.
Such a case is generated when the uniformity of discharge cells is low or the slope of the erase ramp waveform (ERR) is varies as the temperature fluctuates in a large sized PDP. In this case, as the initial gap voltage (Vg) rises too much as indicated by {circle around (2)} of FIG. 5, the gap voltage (Vg) exceeds the firing voltage (Vf) while the positive sustain voltage (Vs) is applied to the scan electrodes Y in the set-up period (SU). Therefore, a strong discharge is generated.
Since the discharge cells are not initialized to the wall charge distribution of an optimal address condition, i.e., the wall charge distribution of FIG. 4c by means of the strong discharge in the set-up period (SU) and the set-down period (SD), an address discharge may be generated in off-cells that should be turned off. In other words, if a strong erase discharge is generated in the erase period prior to the reset period, an erroneous discharge can be generated.
In FIG. 5, the gap voltage (Vg) of {circle around (3)} refers to a case where a wall charge distribution within discharge cells, which are formed as a result of a sustain discharge generated immediately before an erase discharge, remains intact because the erase discharge is not generated or a very weak erase discharge is generated during the erase period (EP) of the (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1). This will be described in more detail below. As shown in FIG. 3, the last sustain discharge is generated when the sustain pulse (SUSP) is applied to the scan electrodes Y.
As a result of the last sustain discharge, negative wall charges remain on the scan electrodes Y and positive wall charges remain on the sustain electrodes Z. However, although these wall charges must be erased for initialization to be normally performed in a next sub-field, the polarity of the wall charges remains intact if the erase discharge is not generated or a very weak discharge generated.
The reason why the erase discharge is not generated or a very weak erase discharge is generated is that the uniformity of discharge cells in a PDP is very low or the slope of the erase ramp waveform (ERR) has changed as a result of temperature fluctuations. In this case, since the initial gap voltage (Vg) is very low, i.e., a negative polarity as shown in {circle around (3)} of FIG. 5, the gap voltage (Vg) within the discharge cells does not equal the firing voltage (Vf) even if the positive ramp waveform (PR) rises up to the reset voltage (Vr) in the set-up period. Therefore, a dark discharge is not generated in the set-up period (SU) and the set-down period (SD). Consequently, if an erase discharge is not generated or a very weak erase discharge is generated in the erase period prior to the reset period, an erroneous discharge or an abnormal discharge is generated because initialization is not adequately performed.
In the case of {circle around (2)} in FIG. 5, the relation between the gap voltage (Vg) and the firing voltage (Vf) can be expressed in the following Equation 2. In the case of {circle around (3)} in FIG. 5, the relation between the gap voltage (Vg) and the firing voltage (Vf) can be expressed in the following Equation 3.Vgini+Vs>Vf  [Equation 2]Vgini+Vr<Vf  [Equation 3]
where Vgini is an initial gap voltage immediately before the set-up period (SU) as shown in FIG. 5.
In consideration of the above described problem, a gap voltage condition (or a wall voltage condition) for enabling initialization to be normally performed in the erase period (EP) and the reset period (RP) can be expressed in the following Equation 4, which fulfills both the equations 2 and 3.Vf−Vr<Vgini<Vf−Vs  [Equation 4]
If the initial gap voltage (Vgini) does not fulfill the condition of Equation 4 prior to the set-up period (SU), the conventional plasma display apparatus will generate an erroneous discharge, miss-discharge or abnormal discharge, and will have a narrow operational margin. In other words, to secure operational reliability and an operational margin in the conventional plasma display apparatus, an erase operation in the erase period (EP) must be performed. However, the erase operation can be performed abnormally depending on the uniformity of discharge cells and a use temperature of a PDP, as described above.
In the conventional plasma display apparatus, an erroneous discharge, miss-discharge or an abnormal discharge can be generated due to excessive spatial charges occurring under a high-temperature environment and an unstable wall charge distribution due to the amount of active motion of the spatial charges. Therefore, a problem arises because the operational margin decreases. This will be described in detail in connection with FIGS. 6a to 6c.
The amount of spatial charges generated upon discharge and the amount of motion of the spatial charges under a high-temperature environment, are more than those at room temperature or a low temperature. Therefore, in a sustain discharge of a (n−1)th sub-field (SFn−1), substantial number of spatial charges are generated. Many of the spatial charges 61 within the discharge space remain active even immediately after the set-up period (SU) of the nth sub-field (SFn), as shown in FIG. 6a.
If the data voltage (Va) is applied to the address electrodes X and the scan voltage (−Vy) is applied to the scan electrodes Y during the address period when there is active motion of the spatial charges 61 within the discharge space as shown in FIG. 6a, the negative spatial charges 61 are recombined with negative wall charges that have accumulated on the scan electrodes Y as a result of the set-up discharge in the set-up period (SU). The negative spatial charges 61 are recombined with positive wall charges that have been accumulated on the address electrodes Y as a result of the set-up discharge of the set-up period (SU), as shown in FIG. 6b.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 6c, the negative wall charges on the scan electrodes Y, which have been formed by the set-up discharge, and the positive wall charges on the address electrodes X, which have been formed by the set-up discharge, are erased. Although the data voltage (Va) and the scan voltage (−Vy) are applied to the address electrodes X and the scan electrodes Y, the gap voltage (Vg) does not equal the firing voltage (Vf). Therefore, an address discharge is not generated.
Therefore, in the case where the driving waveform as shown in FIG. 3 is applied to a PDP used in a high temperature environment, a problem arises because miss-writing of on-cells is frequently occurs.

Plasma display apparatus and driving method thereof


In one embodiment of the invention a dispersion compensator is provided for use in a dense wavelength division multiplexed optical communication system. The dispersion compensator comprises a periodic-group-delay dispersion compensation module which provides a portion of the dispersion compensation for a dispersion managed span of the optical communication system. A remaining portion of the dispersion compensation for the dispersion managed span is provided by dispersion compensating fiber. The portions of the dispersion compensation provided by each of the periodic-group-delay dispersion compensation module and the dispersion compensating fiber is selected such that the collision-induced timing jitter is reduced.

DMS is a proven technology to extend the ultimate reach of high bit rate (e.g. 10 Gb/s) optical fiber communication systems by balancing the optical fiber's dispersion and nonlinearity. Dense WDM-DMS systems, however, tend to suffer one significant nonlinear penalty, i.e., a jitter in pulse arrival times resulting from the collisions between solitons of different channels.
When the dispersion compensation of a transmission span is accomplished with only dispersion-compensating fiber DCF, a pair of colliding pulses (from different channels) dart back and forth with respect to each other in retarded time, in a sawtooth motion typically several hundreds of picoseconds in amplitude (the dispersion of the span times the channel wavelength spacing). The net motion produced by each period of the sawtooth, governed by the path-average dispersion, is, however, quite small. Thus, before the colliding pulses finally separate, the pulses tend to interact with each other in a series of "mini-collisions", which in total comprise an overall collision that tends to be many thousands of kilometers long.
Since the repeated partial collisions that occur in the beginning stages of such an overall collision produce a steep staircase of frequency shift (from cross-phase modulation, or XPM), the net time shifts from such collisions are large (typically ˜5 ps each when adjacent channels are involved). It is these large per-collision time shifts, compounded by the poor statistics of just a handful of collisions, that tend to create eye-closing timing jitter for distances in excess of about 5000 km.
Prior art attempts to reduce the XPM penalty include schemes for increasing the rate at which colliding pulses pass through each other. For example, one scheme attempts to introduce a one bit-period delay between adjacent channels in each 100 km span with a Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometer, or with a succession of fiber Bragg-gratings. Such attempts were able to claim a 2 dB reduction in the power penalty from XPM in relatively short (≦500 km) non-return-to-zero (NRZ) transmissions. The significant benefit of such attempts was strongly focused on the immediate neighborhood of a one-bit-period delay between two adjacent WDM channels.
Another scheme considered the use of periodic group delay (PGD) devices for reduction of XPM-induced penalties, where, for the optimal dispersion maps, there was almost no improvement from numerical simulations. An experiment performed with a different set of parameters showed an improvement of only ˜0.85 dB.
The schemes discussed above were specifically used for NRZ transmission systems, without focusing on DMS systems that are intrinsically return-to-zero (RZ). The benefit of schemes using NRZ transmission stems from reduction of amplitude noise resulting from constructive interference between pulses from repeated mini-collisions. The benefit in a scheme using dispersion-managed solitons, however, stems from the reduction of XPM-induced frequency shifts and of the consequent timing jitter. The different nature of the penalties also results in the fact that whereas the XPM penalty in prior art schemes appears only with a non-optimized dispersion map, in a DMS scheme the XPM penalty tends to be inherent even with an optimized dispersion map for DMS.
Other prior art schemes for specifically reducing the collision-induced timing jitter in dense WDM-DMS systems includes frequency-guiding filters and jitter tolerant receivers, but these techniques are complex and not yet practical to implement in realistic systems. Accordingly, a need therefore exists for a method and apparatus to effectively reduce such collision-induced timing jitter and increase the transmission rate over optical WDM-DMS systems.

Dispersion compensation method and apparatus


Electroactive pores, devices including one or more electroactive pores are described, and methods of delivering therapeutic agents using one or more electroactive pores are described.

The field of the invention relates to electroactive pores, e.g., for use in the delivery of therapeutic agents.
Certain conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, hemophilia and other chronic conditions, can be especially taxing because they require ongoing therapeutic intervention. In many instances, patients can suffer not only the inconvenience caused by exceedingly frequent drug administration, but can also risk regular exposure to both toxic and ineffective plasma levels of drugs; toxic levels occurring soon after the drug is administered and ineffective levels occurring prior to the next scheduled administration.
Efforts have been directed toward development of controlled-release preparations such as matrixes, coated granules, or microcapsules. In addition, systems for delivery of a certain amount of drug per unit time have been developed. Systems that release drugs at a constant rate (zero-order drug delivery) are known.
One type of delivery system uses on an infusion pump for drug delivery.
In general, one aspect of the invention features a device including a member, an electroactive polymer and a biologically active transfer agent (BETA) associated with the electroactive polymer. The member has a pore passing therethrough, and the electroactive polymer is disposed so that when the electroactive polymer has a first state of charge a therapeutic agent has a first ability to pass through the pore, and when the electroactive polymer has a second state of charge different from the first state of charge the therapeutic agent has a second ability to pass through the pore different than the first ability to pass through the pore.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9celectroactive polymerxe2x80x9d refers to an electrically conductive polymer. In some embodiments, an electroactive polymer is a polymer whose conductivity has been modified with one or more electron acceptor and/or electron donor dopants so that the electrical conductivity of the polymer is greater than that of the undoped polymer. In certain embodiments, an electroactive polymer is preferably substantially linear, e.g., contains few, if any, branch points or cross-links. Examples of electroactive polymers are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,938, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
In another aspect, the invention generally features a method of administering a therapeutic agent. The method includes passing the therapeutic agent through a device. The device includes a member, an electroactive polymer and a biologically active transfer agent (BETA) associated with the electroactive polymer. The member has a pore passing therethrough, and the electroactive polymer is disposed so that when the electroactive polymer has a first state of charge a therapeutic agent has a first ability to pass through the pore, and when the electroactive polymer has a second state of charge different from the first state of charge the therapeutic agent has a second ability to pass through the pore different than the first ability to pass through the pore. The method optionally includes charging the electroactive pore.
In a further aspect, the invention generally features a method of administering a therapeutic agent. The method includes charging an electroactive polymer. The electroactive pore is disposed relative to a pore so that when the electroactive polymer has a first state of charge the therapeutic agent has a first ability to pass through the pore, and when the electroactive pore has a second state of charge different from the first state of charge the therapeutic agent has a second ability to pass through the pore different than the first ability to pass through the pore. The method also includes passing the therapeutic agent through the pore.
In certain embodiments, the electroactive polymer is at least partially disposed within the pore, e.g, entirely disposed within the pore. In some embodiments, the electroactive polymer is at least partially disposed outside the pore, e.g., entirely disposed outside the pore.
The BETA can be associated with the electroactive pore so that electronic charge can be transferred between the BETA and the electroactive pore. The BETA can be associated with the electroactive polymer by, e.g., crosslinking, ionic bonding, covalent bonding and combinations thereof.
In general, the BETA can be an enzyme or a functional derivative of an enzyme, e.g., glucose oxidase or a functional derivative thereof.
The device can further include one or more mediators to assist in transferring electric charge, e.g., one or more mediators to assist in transferring electric charge between the member and the electroactive pore and/or one or more mediators to assist in transferring electric charge between the electroactive pore and an analyte, e.g., glucose.
The device can further include a reservoir in fluid communication with the pore. The reservoir can contain a therapeutic agent. The reservoir can be constructed from essentially any material(s) that can be molded to form a cavity. The material(s) can be flexible or inflexible.
In some embodiments, the first state of charge has a lower absolute value than the second state of charge, and the first ability of the analyte to pass through the pore is greater than the second ability of the analyte to pass through the pore.
The electroactive polymer can include aromatic molecules. The electroactive polymer can include a series of alternating single and double bonds, e.g. thiophen, phenylene diamine, pyrrole, aniline, or substituted derivatives thereof. In some embodiments, the electroactive polymer is polyaniline.
In certain embodiments, the electroactive polymer is polyaniline, and the BETA is glucose oxidase.
The membrane can be a layer of a material.
The device can further include an attachment member, e.g., an adhesive pad, a belt and/or a strap, to attach the device to a patient.
The device can also include a relatively positive element, e.g., an electrode, and a relatively negative element, e.g., an electrode, that together form a bias current within the device.
In certain embodiments, e.g., when the device is used in vivo, the device can further include a microporous needle that can extend from the surface of the skin to the interstitial fluid or to the capillary bed. Similarly, the device can include a cathether that can extend from the surface of the skin to the interstitial fluid or to the capillary bed.
The member can be electrically conductive, e.g., contain an electrically conductive material, including metals or alloys, such as gold, platinum, palladium, iridium, or combinations thereof. The member can be formed predominantly of electrically conductive material, and/or the member can be formed of an electrically non-conductive (or relatively poorly conductive) material coated with a metal or alloy, e.g., gold, platinum, palladium, or iridium, or a combination thereof.
The manner in which the electroactive polymer is charged can be varied. For example, the charge on the electroactive pore can be fixed, variable or cyclical.
Therapeutic agents that can be used in the devices and methods of the invention include, for example, vaccines, chemotherapy agents, pain relief agents, dialysis-related agents, blood thinning agents, and compounds (e.g., monoclonal compounds) that can be targeted to carry compounds that can kill cancer cells. Examples of such agents include, insulin, heparin, morphine, interferon, EPO, vaccines towards tumors, and vaccines towards infectious diseases.
The device can be used to deliver a therapeutic agent to any primate, including human and non-human primates. The device can be used to deliver an agent, e.g., a therapeutic agent to an animal, e.g., a farm animal (such as a horse, cow, sheep, goat, or pig), to a laboratory animal (such as a mouse, rat, guinea pig or other rodent), or to a domesticated animal (such as a dog or cat). The animal to which the therapeutic agent is being delivered can have any ailment (e.g., cancer or diabetes). It is expected that the device may be most useful in treating chronic conditions. However, the device can also be used to deliver a therapeutic agent (such as a vaccine) to an animal that is not suffering from an ailment (or that is suffering from an ailment unrelated to that associated with the therapeutic agent). That is, the device can be used to deliver therapeutic agents prophylactically.
The devices and methods of the invention can be used to individually tailor the dosage of a therapeutic agent to a patient.
The devices and methods of the invention can allow for outpatient treatment with increased convenience, such as, for example, without the use of an I.V.
Devices described herein can be advantageous because they can be used to promote maintenance of the concentration of a therapeutic agent in a patient""s plasma within a safe and effective range. Moreover, the device can release therapeutic agents in response to the concentration of an analyte in the patient""s system. Thus, the rate of drug delivery can be appropriate for the patient""s physiological state as it changes, e.g., from moment to moment.
Additional advantages are provided by the design and use of the devices of the invention. For example, where a BETA are positioned within or adjacent one or more pores of a member, the BETA can be protected from external influences, such as those arising when the device is handled and used. This protection can be particularly advantageous, e.g., when the BETA is a protein, such as glucose oxidase. In such an event, it can be desirable to maintain the protein""s tertiary structure in order to retain maximal biological activity. In addition, because the device can be easily replaced (e.g., a patient can apply a device to the skin every day, or every other day) the amount of a therapeutic agent (e.g. insulin) within the device can be limited. Thus, in the unlikely event the device should malfunction, the risk of serious overdose can be limited. The patient could receive, e.g., at most, only as much of the therapeutic agent as would be delivered over one or two days of administration. In the event insulin is being delivered, in some embodiments the overdose could be limited to as little as about 25 units of insulin.


The present invention provides a tactical outer protective shorts which is a lower torso body armor and which includes a plurality of ballistic panels each containing a plurality of layers of ballistic material for overlying a lower human torso, a panel carrier garment having the general appearance of a pair of shorts which houses the plurality of ballistic panels, and a shoulder harness connected to the panel carrier garment.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a body armor designed for protection of the lower torso of a soldier.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous types of body armor known for protection of the upper torso. These upper body armors are commonly called ballistic or tactical vests and are today standard issue for soldiers in combat zones. However soldiers are still vulnerable to severe injury or death in the lower torso. Vehicle operators and vehicle gunners are especially vulnerable in the lower torso since their lower torso is exposed during vehicle operation.
Heretofore there has never been developed a body armor for specific protection of the lower torso of a soldier. The term "lower torso" is intended to mean the lower intestines, colon, groin (penis, testicles, vagina), bladder, the soft vulnerable area between the legs near the femoral arteries, anus, lower portion of the back and spine, and the right and left kidney area.
During the Vietnam war, a body armor was developed for protection of the genitals of soldiers. The body armor was worn outside the soldier's uniform and resembled a diaper. However that body armor was uncomfortable to wear and offered very limited protection, since it did not cover the abdomen or legs. The ballistic material used was also far heavier than in use today.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide ballistic protection for the lower torso of a soldier, wherein the lower torso includes the lower intestines, colon, groin, bladder, the soft vulnerable area between the legs near the femoral arteries, anus, lower portion of the back and spine, and the right and left kidney area.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a lower torso body armor that is light in weight, flexible, relatively thin and comfortable to wear.
Another object of the invention is to provide a lower torso body armor that may be worn over the uniform of a soldier in conjunction with an upper torso body armor or tactical vest.
A further object of the invention is to provide a lower torso body armor which may prevent or limit the severity of potential wounds sustained from explosive blasts, shrapnel, bullets and other threats during combat.
A further object of the invention is to provide a single universal size body armor that is adjustable to all lower torso shapes and sizes.


A system and method of monitoring a powder-bed additive manufacturing process is provided where a layer of additive powder is fused using an energy source and electromagnetic emission signals are measured by a melt pool monitoring system to monitor the print process. The measured emission signals are analyzed to identify outlier emissions and clusters of outliers are identified by assessing the spatial proximity of the outlier emissions, e.g., using clustering algorithms, spatial control charts, etc. An alert may be provided or a process adjustment may be made when a cluster is identified or when a magnitude of a cluster exceeds a predetermined cluster threshold.

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes generally involve the buildup of one or more materials to make a net or near net shape (NNS) object, in contrast to subtractive manufacturing methods. Though "additive manufacturing" is an industry standard term (ISO/ASTM52900), AM encompasses various manufacturing and prototyping techniques known under a variety of names, including freeform fabrication, 3D printing, rapid prototyping/tooling, etc. AM techniques are capable of fabricating complex components from a wide variety of materials. Generally, a freestanding object can be fabricated from a computer aided design (CAD) model.
A particular type of AM process uses an energy source such as an irradiation emission directing device that directs an energy beam, for example, an electron beam or a laser beam, to sinter or melt a powder material, creating a solid three-dimensional object in which particles of the powder material are bonded together. AM processes may use different material systems or additive powders, such as engineering plastics, thermoplastic elastomers, metals, and/or ceramics. Laser sintering or melting is a notable AM process for rapid fabrication of functional prototypes and tools. Applications include direct manufacturing of complex workpieces, patterns for investment casting, metal molds for injection molding and die casting, and molds and cores for sand casting. Fabrication of prototype objects to enhance communication and testing of concepts during the design cycle are other common usages of AM processes.
Selective laser sintering, direct laser sintering, selective laser melting, and direct laser melting are common industry terms used to refer to producing three-dimensional (3D) objects by using a laser beam to sinter or melt a fine powder. More accurately, sintering entails fusing (agglomerating) particles of a powder at a temperature below the melting point of the powder material, whereas melting entails fully melting particles of a powder to form a solid homogeneous mass. The physical processes associated with laser sintering or laser melting include heat transfer to a powder material and then either sintering or melting the powder material. Although the laser sintering and melting processes can be applied to a broad range of powder materials, the scientific and technical aspects of the production route, for example, sintering or melting rate and the effects of processing parameters on the microstructural evolution during the layer manufacturing process have not been well understood. This method of fabrication is accompanied by multiple modes of heat, mass, and momentum transfer, and chemical reactions that make the process very complex.
During direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or direct metal laser melting (DMLM), an apparatus builds objects in a layer-by-layer manner by sintering or melting a powder material using an energy beam. The powder to be melted by the energy beam is spread evenly over a powder bed on a build platform, and the energy beam sinters or melts a cross sectional layer of the object being built under control of an irradiation emission directing device. The build platform is lowered and another layer of powder is spread over the powder bed and object being built, followed by successive melting/sintering of the powder. The process is repeated until the part is completely built up from the melted/sintered powder material.
After fabrication of the part is complete, various post-processing procedures may be applied to the part. Post processing procedures include removal of excess powder by, for example, blowing or vacuuming. Other post processing procedures include a stress relief process. Additionally, thermal, mechanical, and chemical post processing procedures can be used to finish the part.
In order to monitor the additive manufacturing process, certain conventional additive manufacturing machines include melt pool monitoring systems. These monitoring systems typically include one or more cameras or light sensors for detecting light that is radiated or otherwise emitted from the melt pool generated by the energy beam. The camera or sensor values can be used to evaluate the quality of the build after completion of the build process. The quality evaluation may be used to adjust the build process, stop the build process, troubleshoot build process anomalies, issue a warning to the machine operator, and/or identify suspect or poor quality parts resulting from the build. However, most melt pool monitoring systems perform data analysis after a build is completed or are otherwise complex and delayed in identifying process issues. Moreover, such melt pool monitoring systems are frequently not effective at identifying process faults that result in quality issues in finished parts, scrapped parts, increased material costs, and excessive machine downtime.
Accordingly, an additive manufacturing machine with improved error detection systems would be useful. More particularly, a system and method for utilizing a melt pool monitoring system to quickly and effectively detect process issues during operation of an additive manufacturing machine would be particularly beneficial.

Methods for detecting errors in an additive manufacturing process