An automated feeding system for pets with special diets includes a feeder dish which is made accessible to a pet only when an ID tag on the pet is recognized as authorized by a receiver on the device and only for a certain time period. The appropriate amount of food is thereby made available at appropriate time intervals. If a plurality of tags is pre-programmed as authorized, each animal's tag can sequentially activate the feeding device to feed each animal, respectively. However, if more than one authorized tag is present in the feeding time set for one animal, the drawer closes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to animal feeding and, more particularly, to an automatic device and method for identifying specific pets for the purposes of allowing or disallowing feedings, and maintaining animal-specific diets and feeding schedules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some animals are restricted to certain diets for health reasons. However, it is often inconvenient based on the pet owner's schedule to accommodate the dietary needs of the animal. This is particularly true when the pet owner has more than one pet, each requiring different dietary needs. Also, animals can overheat if large amounts of food are simply made available and the animal tends to overeat.
It is desired to have a system that automatically replenishes an animal's food so that the animal can be repeatedly fed without the need for the pet owner being present.
It is also desired that the food be available to the animal only during its feeding time, to avoid other animals being interested in eating the food, and to prevent young children present in the household from playing with and/or eating the pet's food.
It is also desirable for the pet owner that the pet be able to determine its own feeding time by "requesting" access to the food, but said access is only given within a controlled schedule set by the pet owner.
It is further desired by pet owners with difficult working hours and/or with multiple pets to have a more convenient and reliable manner of controlling the feeding of the animal(s) with less personal intervention/responsibility.
Also, sometimes a pet owner has only one pet or otherwise cares for only one pet, and doesn't want its food accessed by other animals. For example, someone who cares for a barn cat may want to offer food thereto, but prevent birds, mice, etc., from having access to the food.
Further, any such pet feeding device must be convenient to use and healthy for the pet.
Various types of "automatic" animal feeding devices are known in the art. They generally rely upon timer mechanisms that are programmed to operate on a 24 hour timetable. When a predetermined elapsed time or specific "clock" time is met, the animal is simply allowed access to the food. Others do not rely on a timer, but allow a bulk storage device to automatically fill a completely exposed bowl by gravity feed or similar method.
Other systems are known wherein the availability of the food is dictated by the presence of the pet at the feeding device. More particularly, as described in Targa's U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,655 (Col 1, lines 28–52), the early work of Lee et al. (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,897,753 and 4,036,178) relates to a rather complex control system that generates an electric field around an open food receptacle. An animal wearing a special collar that is provided with a conductive portion to alter the electric field signals to the system that the proper animal is near, thereby disabling a shock or other signal generating device. In the converse situation, if an animal not wearing the special collar reaches over the lip of the receptacle, and makes contact with the metallic strip, it receives a shock, thereby frightening the animal away from the receptacle. Instead of the conductive collar, the device can rely on radio frequency ("RF") technology. In an alternate embodiment, identifying the presence of a "tagged" animal can activate a hopper to fill a food receptacle.
While the Lee et al. system appears to have the ability to distinguish between those animals entitled to access and those who are not, the system is unreasonably complex. In addition, the fact that this system administers a shock to repel an animal may be deemed to be inhumane. Further, as the food is always exposed in the dish, this creates the risk that small children in the household will play with or eat the pet's food, as discussed by Lewis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,671, Col. 10, lines 52–56.
Targa, supra, seeks to overcome the complexity of the Lee et al. devices by providing a dish that includes reed switches which cause an alarm to sound if a pet without a special collar seeks to feed from the dish. Again, the dish is always exposed, and the device has no ability to distinguish between pets as to the amount or time for feeding. Also, there is no way to automatically replenish food in the dish.
Lanfranchi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,328, provides a cone-shaped device which partially opens when a receiver in the device receives a signal from a collar on a pet. There is no ability to automatically refill the food bowl. Also, since only a small triangular opening is provided for feeding, it is possible that the animal will get its head stuck in the device, and the animal is unlikely to want to return to such a device, as suggested by Lewis et al., supra, (Col. 10, lines 37–45).
Lewis et al., on the other hand, provides at least one refrigerated dish of food accessible to an animal via a pair of movable doors, and relies on RF technology through a pet collar. Again, there is no way to automatically replenish the food in each dish, after the animal has eaten. Also, the system is rather complicated in having a plurality of solenoids, doors, cold plates, etc. Further, in order to feed a plurality of animals, a corresponding plurality of feeding devices appears required. Col. 6, lines 49–60 and Cols. 8 and 9.
Matsuura et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,795, shows an animal tag having a memory for pre-storing a history of the animal feeding times. The device samples the tag every 10 minutes or so and, if the animal is present, the food is dispensed to a separate dish. Again, the food is exposed once dispensed, so it is available for other animals or children to gain access thereto. This device also appears rather complicated, especially when it is considered that it can only feed one animal. Further, by requiring the tag to have a memory, the cost increases.
Thus, there remains a need for a simplified technique of controlling access by a plurality of animals to food, which is relatively cost-effective, can prevent overeating and is therefore more healthy, easy to use and clean, avoids shocks, is relatively less complex in regard to its use and operation, does not leave food exposed for other animals and possibly children to gain access, can regulate both the amount of food made available and the duration of time in which it is available, and which can automatically refill the food on a regular schedule, after each feeding.


When a first damper contacts both of a protruding portion of a pulley body and a protruding portion of a center hub, a second damper is disposed as being apart from the protruding portion of the center hub with a gap. Even when the pulley body is rotated in a reverse direction, no reverse torque is thereby transmitted to the center hub as long as the gap exists, or before the second damper contacts the protruding portion of the center hub. As a result, torque fluctuation is sufficiently absorbed. This prevents the following: a reverse torque is transmitted to the center hub; a torque limiter wrongly acts; a fastening part between a shaft and the center hub loosens; or abnormal noise or aversive vibration takes place.

For instance, as disclosed in JP-A-2002-147485, torque fluctuation in a torque transmission system is conventionally absorbed by using a damper that is formed of elastic material such as rubber when a torque is transmitted from a driving-side rotating unit to a driven-side rotating unit. Here, in the damper disclosed in JP-A-2002-147485, an elastic coefficient k1 in a portion on which a torque acts in a normal rotation direction is greater than an elastic coefficient k2 in a portion on which a torque acts in a reverse rotation direction. The damper is thereby prevented from exceeding an elastic limit, so that the damper transmits a great torque along with absorbing the torque fluctuation.
A so-called direct injection type of an internal combustion engine, which directly supplies a combustion room with fuel, has greater torque fluctuation, due to its large fluctuation of a rotation angle, than a previously mixing type of an internal combustion engine that previously mixes fuel and air. Therefore, in the direct injection type of the internal combustion engine, the torque transmission system disclosed in JP-A-2002-147485 may not sufficiently absorb the torque fluctuation.
When the torque fluctuation is not sufficiently absorbed, various kinds of defects take place. Namely, a torque limiter wrongly acts, a fastening part between a shaft of a compressor and a hub of the torque transmission system loosens, or abnormal noise or aversive vibration takes place.


A central control circuit in a semiconductor memory device includes a command decoder and an MRS output circuit. The command decoder decodes an internal control signal. The MRS output circuit generates a control signal for writing a set value of a mode register into a memory cell. According to the control signal, the set value of the mode register is transferred to a data input/output line. A data input/output buffer receives data from the data input/output line, and the data is written into a specific memory cell. The written data is output at a data input/output pin by a normal read operation. A semiconductor memory device allowing externally monitoring a set value of a mode register is thus provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to a semiconductor memory device provided with a mode register.
2. Description of the Background Art
A synchronous DRAM (a synchronous semiconductor memory device) is provided with a mode register. An operation mode for the synchronous DRAM can be designated by setting the mode register.
In a conventional semiconductor memory device, such a mode register has been used to determine its operation mode.
In such a semiconductor memory device, however, once the operation mode has been set, it is impossible to confirm the set value in the mode register, or, to check whether a desired value has been set to the mode register or not. Therefore, in practical use, a test must be conducted to check whether the semiconductor memory device operates as desired in order to determine whether or not a desired value has been set. Such a test is laborsome and time consuming.

Semiconductor memory device having circuit for monitoring set value of mode register


Methods and arrangements are disclosed for digitally encoding and decoding sound—An input signal is split (811) into a primary frequency band and at least one secondary frequency band. The parts of the input signal in the frequency bands are separately encoded. Certain characteristics of the input signal in the primary frequency band and corresponding characteristics of the input signal in at least one secondary frequency band are examined (302, 303, 814) in order to find out, whether there is certain resemblance therebetween. Alternatively certain characteristic features of the process applied to encoding the primary frequency band extracted (305, 813) and used (307) in encoding the secondary frequency band, or such extracted characteristic features are replaced (306, 501, 701, 815) with a locally generated, independent set of corresponding features.

Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) is a digital sound encoding principle according to which the encoder repeatedly constructs, for each short sequence of input samples, a linear all-pole filter that with a certain excitation signal enables producing a replica of the corresponding input sample sequence. The encoder transmits information representing the filter parameters and the exitation signal to the decoder. Known variations of LPC include but are not limited to transformation coding or code excitation according to what is the selected approach to generating the excitation signal, as well as various selections with respect to whether filter parameters are transmitted directly or in some transformed form. Such variations have no effect to the applicability of the general principle of the present invention.
The selection of input signal bandwidth has great influence to the naturalness of the eventually reproduced sound. A narrow bandwidth of the input signal is advantageous in terms of saving required transmission capacity. Accepting a wider band of input frequencies to encoding would enable reproducing the sound in a more natural way at the receiving end, but simultaneously increases the demand for transmission bandwidth.
FIG. 1 illustrates a band split coding principle that offers possibilities for enhancing the quality of reproduced sound while keeping requirements for transmission bandwidth reasonable. The signal coming from an input signal source 101 is taken through a band split filter 102, which directs a certain lower band of the input signal frequencies to a low band encoder 103 and a corresponding upper band of the input signal frequencies to a high band encoder 104. In the digital encoding of speech the lower band includes frequencies from a lower limit near zero to a few kHz, for example 3.4 kHz or 6.4 kHz. The upper band extends above the lower band to some upper limit, like 8 kHz or 12 kHz. The output signals of the low and high band encoders 103 and 104 are combined for transmission and transmitted through some transmitting channel 105 to a receiving device, where a low band decoder 106 and a high band decoder 107 decode the parts of the transmitted signal coming from the low band encoder 103 and high band encoder 104 respectively. A band reconstruction block 108 combines the outputs of the low and high band decoders 106 and 107, after which the reconstructed signal is taken to a sound reproducing arrangement or corresponding signal sink 109.
In a very basic arrangement the low and high band encoders 103 and 104 operate independently, and selection is applied according to whether the outputs of both of them or only the low band encoder 103 are transmitted. More advanced arrangements utilise some information from the low band encoding and decoding in performing the high band encoding and decoding respectively, which is illustrated as vertical arrows between the appropriate functional blocks in FIG. 1. The principle is generally referred to as bandwith extension, and it works well with input signals like speech, where correlation between the low and high bands is strong. Bandwidth extension is discussed for example in a prior art publication Yasheng Qian, Peter Kabal: "Pseudo-wideband speech reconstruction from telephone speech", Proc. Biennial Symposium on Communications (Kingston, ON), pp. 524-527, June 2002.
FIG. 2 illustrates a known arrangement for high band encoding, in which an input signal coming from a band split filter is subjected to LPC analysis in block 201. From an associated low band encoder an excitation signal is taken. Due to a different excitation sampling frequency the low band excitation signal is not directly usable in the high band encoder, but this can be corrected by taking it through a resampling block 202, which resamples the low band excitation signal onto a suitable sampling frequency. The LPC parameters from the LPC analyser block 201 and the resampled low band extension signal from the resampling block 202 are directed to an LPC synthesis block 203, which produces a synthesized high band signal. The LPC synthesis function implemented in block 203 is an inverse of the LPC analysis function of block 201, so transmitting the parameters used in the LPC synthesis will enable a receiver (not shown in FIG. 2) to similarly synthesize the high band signal. In order to align the synthesized signal energy with the original high band signal the high band signal gain needs to be calculated in a gain control block 204, which is coupled to receive the original high band audio signal (or at least information about its signal energy) as well as the output of the LPC synthesis block 203. The output of the gain control block 204 is transmitted to the receiver along with the parameters obtained from block 203.
The drawback of the arrangement of FIG. 2 is that in situations where the low band contains a strongly voiced signal but the frequency spectrum of the high band is relatively flat, it causes annoying, unnatural effects to the synthesized audio signal. This effect is rarely encountered with speech, but is clearly noticeable for example when the input signal is music.

Excitation for higher band coding in a codec utilising band split coding methods


A hot diffusion welding method wherein a first part generally made from a material different from a second part and the second part made from copper alloy are united with an insert material interposed between the joint faces thereof under a heated and pressurized condition. The insert material at the joint between the first and second parts is copper plating formed on the joint face of the first part made from the different material, so that the thermal conductivity between the two parts is improved to perform smooth resistance heating. This enables continuous welding operation without polishing the conductive surfaces of a pair of electrodes in order to eliminate oxides therefrom.. When the insert material interposed between the joint faces of the two parts is a normal brazing filler metal, resistance heating is carried out with an even number of superposed bodies in each of which the second part, insert material, first part are superposed, the superposed bodies being assembled in such a manner that the respective second parts are brought into contact with each other. In this case, the first parts having a greater thermal capacity are in contact with the pair of electrodes, whereby polishing for eliminating oxides from the conductive surfaces of the electrodes is no longer necessary and continuous welding operation can be thus accomplished.

In order to produce machine parts capable of serving their individual, characteristic functions, a casting method has been conventionally and extensively employed in joining the first and second parts which are formed of metallic materials having different properties (in this specification, the first part is a part to which another part is to be joined and the second part is a part to be joined to the first part). However, such a casting method is limited in its application when the second part is made from an alloy. Because it is inevitably required in the casting method to completely melt the second part, and in the case that the second part is made from an alloy and this alloy especially contains a metal having a low-boiling point, such a metal vaporizes during the melting of the entire alloy. This causes such a phenomenon that when the second part is made from an alloy of copper and zinc for example, zinc vaporizes just before the melting point of the alloy and forms a layer of zinc or zinc oxide on the surface of the second part. This phenomenon reduces the bonding strength of the second part at the joint face of the first part, or causes a difference between the copper-zinc composition ratio of the second part and that of the casting material. Therefore, it has been thought to be very difficult to unite the second part made from an alloy to the surface of the first part by means of the casting method.
Diffusion welding is a method of uniting parts by not melting but applying pressure to the second part so as to be joined to the first part. Like the ultra-high pressure welding method and the HIP method, in which ultra-high pressure (hydrostatic pressure in the case of the HIP method) is applied to the first and second parts which have been superposed, in the coaxial superposed direction thereof, diffusion welding is suitably employed for the second part made from one of the above-mentioned materials that are difficult to unite by casting.
Of the above welding techniques taken in a solid phase condition, the hot diffusion welding method, in which an insert material is interposed between the first and second parts and each part is subjected to heating and pressurizing so that they are united, can be the most promising in achieving excellent bonding effects by suitably selecting an insert material.
In the hot diffusion welding method, it is common to utilize resistance heat as heating means, the resistance heat being generated by supplying a current. One example of such a technique conventionally used can be seen in the welding of a sliding member for a hydraulic apparatus. According to this conventional technique, as shown in FIG. 3, a brazing filler metal of normal type 33 serving as the insert material is interposed between a first part 31 such as a shoe formed of a SCM material and a second part 32 such as a sliding member formed of a PBC material, thereby forming a body in which the first part 31, the brazing filler metal 33 and the second part 32 are superposed. Then, the hot diffusion welding method is performed in such a way that while a pressure 38 being applied to the superposed body thus obtained, the superposed body is heated by supplying a current from a power source 39 through a copper electrode 34 and another copper electrode 35. In the above-described conventional hot diffusion welding method, heat is not easily transferred between the first part 31 and the second part 32 because of the interposition of the normal brazing filler metal 33. Further, since the second part 32 is generally thin in its shape and has a small thermal capacity, Joule heat generated at the second part 32 is transmitted to the copper electrode 34 when the second part 32 is brought into direct contact with the copper electrode 34 which has been water-cooled, with the result that the joint faces cannot be heated to a temperature which is high enough to carry out diffusion welding with the melting behaviour of the brazing filler metal 33 interposed between the joint faces. It is, therefore, unavoidably necessary to provide an auxiliary electrode 36 of doughnut shape serving as a heat insulating material between the copper electrode 34 and the second part 32, as well as an electrode such as a silver-tungsten electrode 37 for compensating for the electric conductivity of the auxiliary electrode 36.
In the resistance heating means in the conventional technique as mentioned above, even the silver-tungsten electrode 37 is oxidized at the surface thereof as the number of welding operations increases, so that the deformation rate of the silver-tungsuten electrode 37 which is in contact with the surface of the second part 32 increases as well with the increased welding operations. This causes such a trouble that it becomes necessary to polish the silver-tungsten electrode 37 to remove the oxide film formed thereon when the deformation rate exceeds a certain level. Furthermore, electrodes other than the copper electrodes 34 and 35, namely, the auxiliary electrode 36 and the silver-tungsten electrode 37 need to be prepared for every size of the second part 32, and this increases the complexity of the apparatus for carrying out hot diffusion welding.
In the conventional hot diffusion welding method where resistance heating is utilized as heating means, there are limitations in using a brazing filler metal as the insert material. Taking amorphous metals used as the brazing filler metal in hot diffusion welding method for example, those metals available in the market are limited in their quality and characteristics and therefore often fail in achieving a satisfactory bonding strength. Concretely, amorphous metals have the following disadvantages:
(a) most of them are in the form of metal foils having low melting points and high ductility, so that the bonding strength decreases when heat generated by friction or shear force is added;
(b) although some amorphous metals containing components such as tungsten and molybdenum have high melting points, they still have disadvantages in wettability for the adaptability with the first part and/or second part; and
(c) in the first part and/or second part, they create fragile intermetallic compounds between metals contained as impurities and metals constituting the parts.
Therefore, brazing filler metals unavoidably exhibit a poor bonding strength when used in the welding of machine parts such as sliding members of a hydraulic apparatus where high heat resistance is required and where a great shear force is applied.


A ferroelectric random access memory having a discharge circuit for stably discharging pyroelectric charges generated in a ferroelectric capacitor without affecting write and read operations is provided. In the ferroelectric random access memory having the discharge circuit according to the present invention, the pyroelectric charges between the ferroelectric capacitor and the FET of the memory cell, generated during the write and read operations are automatically discharged through a resistor since the resistor is included as a discharge path between the contact point of the ferroelectric capacitor and the FET of the memory unit cell and the grounding point. Accordingly, the function of turning on and off the discharge path for discharging the pyroelectric charges is not necessary and the polarization turbulence due to the pyroelectric charges is not generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ferroelectric memory having a circuit for stably discharging pyroelectric charges generated in a ferroelectric capacitor without affecting write and read operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that a ferroelectric material has a pyroelectric effect wherein electric charges are generated on the ferroelectric material by a change in temperature. The pyroelectric effect of ferroelectric material should be low to enabled desired memory characteristics in a ferroelectric memory. The amount of pyroelectric charge generated when the ferroelectric material is heated, is determined according to the heating rate. When there is no circuit through which pyroelectric charges are discharged, a back voltage is generated, thus switching the polarization. Therefore, a ferroelectric material having a low pyroelectric effect is required. A pyroelectric coefficient p is determined by the dielectric constant c and the amount of polarization Ps of the ferroelectric material as follows.
-p=.epsilon..beta.Ps
wherein, .beta. is a constant determined by the properties of the material. The pyroelectric coefficient, in general, has direction opposite to that of the polarization of the ferroelectric material since an atomic displacement direction during the polarization of the material is opposite to that during generation of the pyroelectric charges.
This can disturb the polarization characteristics of the ferroelectric material used to store information in a ferroelectric memory. For example, during the fabrication of a ferroelectric memory device, when the ferroelectric material generates pyroelectric charges in a certain thermal fluctuation environment, the charges may permanently affect the polarization, thus deteriorating the function of the memory.
FIG. 1a is a circuit diagram of a conventional ferroelectric random access memory unit cell. As shown in FIG. 1a, the unit cells of the conventional ferroelectric random access memory have a structure in which a ferroelectric capacitor 2 is connected to the source of a field effect transistor (FET) 1. Information is stored by generating a polarity in the ferroelectric material by a voltage applied to the ferroelectric capacitor 2 by the switching operation of the FET 1 and information is read by reading the voltage generated by the polarization of the ferroelectric capacitor 2. However, in the ferroelectric random access memory having the above structure, the ferroelectric material generates pyroelectric charges when information is stored or read, as shown in FIG. 1b. When there is no path through which the pyroelectric charges can be discharged, the pyroelectric charges are diffused to the source of the FET 1. The pyroelectric charges cannot be discharged because of the p-n junction source and thus accumulate. The accumulated pyroelectric charges generate a back voltage in the FET 1, thus switching the polarization and deteriorating the function of the memory.
A ferroelectric random access memory in which a path 3 for discharging pyroelectric charges generated in the ferroelectric capacitor 2 to ground has been provided in order to solve the pyroelectric charge problem, as shown in FIG. 2. A ferroelectric random access memory having a pyroelectric charge discharging path 3 has an advantage that a back voltage is formed by the pyroelectric charges. However, the path must be temporarily disrupted when information is stored in or read from the ferroelectric capacitor 2.

Ferroelectric memory having circuit for discharging pyroelectric charges


Techniques are described herein for detecting and handling failures in other automated assistants. A method includes: executing a first automated assistant in an inactive state at least in part on a computing device operated by a user; while in the inactive state, determining, by the first automated assistant, that a second automated assistant failed to fulfill a request of the user; in response to determining that the second automated assistant failed to fulfill the request of the user, the first automated assistant processing cached audio data that captures a spoken utterance of the user comprising the request that the second automated assistant failed to fulfill, or features of the cached audio data, to determine a response that fulfills the request of the user; and providing, by the first automated assistant to the user, the response that fulfills the request of the user.

Humans can engage in human-to-computer dialogs with interactive software applications referred to herein as "automated assistants" (also referred to as "digital agents", "interactive personal assistants", "intelligent personal assistants", "assistant applications", "conversational agents", etc.). For example, humans (which when they interact with automated assistants may be referred to as "users") may provide commands and/or requests to an automated assistant using spoken natural language input (i.e., utterances), which may in some cases be converted into text and then processed, by providing textual (e.g., typed) natural language input, and/or through touch and/or utterance free physical movement(s) (e.g., hand gesture(s), eye gaze, facial movement, etc.). An automated assistant responds to a request by providing responsive user interface output (e.g., audible and/or visual user interface output), controlling one or more smart devices, and/or controlling one or more function(s) of a device implementing the automated assistant (e.g., controlling other application(s) of the device).
As mentioned above, many automated assistants are configured to be interacted with via spoken utterances. To preserve user privacy and/or to conserve resources, automated assistants refrain from performing one or more automated assistant functions based on all spoken utterances that are present in audio data detected via microphone(s) of a client device that implements (at least in part) the automated assistant. Rather, certain processing based on spoken utterances occurs only in response to determining certain condition(s) are present.
For example, many client devices, that include and/or interface with an automated assistant, include a hotword detection model. When microphone(s) of such a client device are not deactivated, the client device can continuously process audio data detected via the microphone(s), using the hotword detection model, to generate predicted output that indicates whether one or more hotwords (inclusive of multi-word phrases) are present, such as "Hey Assistant", "OK Assistant", and/or "Assistant". When the predicted output indicates that a hotword is present, any audio data that follows within a threshold amount of time (and optionally that is determined to include voice activity) can be processed by one or more on-device and/or remote automated assistant components such as speech recognition component(s), voice activity detection component(s), etc. Further, recognized text (from the speech recognition component(s)) can be processed using natural language understanding engine(s) and/or action(s) can be performed based on the natural language understanding engine output. The action(s) can include, for example, generating and providing a response and/or controlling one or more application(s) and/or smart device(s)). However, when predicted output indicates that a hotword is not present, corresponding audio data will be discarded without any further processing, thereby conserving resources and user privacy.
As automated assistants become more widespread, it is increasingly common to have multiple, different automated assistants running on the same client device, or across different client devices that are located near each other (e.g., in the same room). In some situations, multiple automated assistants may come preinstalled on some client devices, or alternatively users may be provided with the option to install one or more new, additional automated assistants which can specialize in a particular area or at performing certain tasks.
In a situation where multiple automated assistants are running on the same client device and/or across different client devices that are near each other, there may be cases where a user directs a request to a first automated assistant (e.g., by using a hotword associated with the first automated assistant), but the first automated assistant fails to handle the request or returns a suboptimal, inaccurate, or incomplete result in response to the request. However, had the user directed the request to the second automated assistant (e.g., by using a hotword associated with the second automated assistant), the second automated assistant could have handled the request correctly.

Detecting and handling failures in other assistants


One aspect of the present invention is a system for classifying element nodes in a subtree-structured XML database. The XQE structural-textual classification system is sensitive to both the textual resemblance between document elements as well as the structural resemblance between document elements. The XQE structural-textual classification system might use the XQE parent-child index described in Lindblad II-A for the purpose of forming vectors of “terms” which encode both the structural and the textual content of XML elements. The element vectors are processed by a classifier to create class prototype vectors which can be used to classify elements as they are added to the database.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to classification of elements in an XML database on a network, and more specifically, to classifying nodes in one or more subtree-structured XML databases over a network and methods of analysis for classification.
2. Description of Related Art
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a restricted form of SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language defined in ISO 8879 and XML is one form of structuring data. XML is more fully described in "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)", W3C Recommendation (6 Oct. 2000), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes [and available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006] (hereinafter, "XML Recommendation"). XML is a useful form of structuring data because it is an open format that is human-readable and machine-interpretable. Other structured languages without these features or with similar features might be used instead of XML, but XML is currently a popular structured language used to encapsulate (obtain, store, process, etc.) data in a structured manner.
An XML document has two parts: 1) a markup document and 2) a document schema. The markup document and the schema are made up of storage units called "elements", which can be nested to form a hierarchical structure. An example of an XML markup document 10 is shown in FIG. 1. Document 10 (at least the portions shown) contains data for one "citation" element. The "citation" element has within it a "title" element, and "author" element and an "abstract" element. In turn, the "author" element has within it a "last" element (last name of the author) and a "first" element (first name of the author). Thus, an XML document comprises text organized in freely-structured outline form with tags indicating the beginning and end of each outline element.
Generally, an XML document comprises text organized in freely-structured outline form with tags indicating the beginning and end of each outline element. In XML, a tag is delimited with angle brackets followed by the tag's name, with the opening and closing tags distinguished by having the closing tag beginning with a forward slash after the initial angle bracket.
Elements can contain either parsed or unparsed data. Only parsed data is shown for document 10. Unparsed data is made up of arbitrary character sequences. Parsed data is made up of characters, some of which form character data and some of which form markup. The markup encodes a description of the document's storage layout and logical structure. XML elements can have associated attributes, in the form of name-value pairs, such as the publication date attribute of the "citation" element. The name-value pairs appear within the angle brackets of an XML tag, following the tag name.
XML schemas specify constraints on the structures and types of elements and attribute values in an XML document. The basic schema for XML is the XML Schema, which is described in "XML Schema Part 1: Structures", W3C Working Draft (24 Sep. 1999), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes [and available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-xmlschema-1-19990924]. A previous and very widely used schema format is the DTD (Document Type Definition), which is described in the XML Recommendation.
Since XML documents are typically in text format, they can be searched using conventional text search tools. However such tools might ignore the information content provided by the structure of the document, one of the key benefits of XML. Several query languages have been proposed for searching and reformatting XML documents that do consider the XML documents as structured documents. One such language is XQuery, which is described in "XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language", W3C Working Draft (20 Dec. 2001), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes [and available at http://www.w3.org/TR/XQuery]. An example of a general form for an XQuery query is shown in FIG. 2. Note that the ellipses at line [03] indicate the possible presence of any number of additional namespace prefix to URI mappings, the ellipses at line [12] indicate the possible presence of any number of additional function definitions and the ellipses at line [17] indicate the possible presence of any number of additional FOR or LET clauses.
XQuery is derived from an XML query language called Quilt [described at http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/chamberlin/quilt.html], which in turn borrowed features from several other languages, including XPath 1.0 [described at http://www.w3.org/TR/XPath.html], XQL [described at Http://www.w3.org/TandS/QL/QL98/pp/xql.html], XML-QL [described at http://www.research.att.com/˜mfflfiles/final.html] and OQL.
Query languages predated the development of XML and many relational databases use a standardized query language called SQL, as described in ISO/IEC 9075-1:1999. The SQL language has established itself as the linquafranca for relational database management and provides the basis for systems interoperability, application portability, client/server operation, and distributed databases. XQuery is proposed to fulfill a similar same role with respect to XML database systems. As XML becomes the standard for information exchange between peer data stores, and between client visualization tools and data servers, XQuery may become the standard method for storing and retrieving data from XML databases.
With SQL query systems, much work has been done on the issue of efficiency, such as how to process a query, retrieve matching data and present that to the human or computer query issuer with efficient use of computing resources to allow responses to be quickly made to queries. As XQuery and other tools are relied on more and more for querying XML documents, efficiency will be more essential.
One problem with data analysis is that qualities of data often need to be determined for classification, comparison or other analytical purposes. A simple quality is whether or not the data contains a specified element. With text documents, an inquiry can be made as to whether a text document contains a string of interest. A search system, for example, can find all files in a corpus that contain a particular string, set of strings, regular expression, etc. Another analysis that can be done on data is comparison for similarity. Many techniques have been developed to measure similarity among data sets. Where the data being tested comprises text documents, well-developed techniques could be used to determine a similarity measure between two text documents. Where the data being tested comprises database tables, a similarity measure might be based on whether the records of one database contain the same or similar data elements in given locations in those records as data elements in another database in corresponding locations.
While many comparison and similarity measuring techniques have been developed, most are unsuitable to properly analyze certain data, such as structured text as might be found in an XML document

XML database mixed structural-textual classification system


Provided is a method of selecting a stent for implantation in the circulatory system of a human being. The method comprises obtaining a blood sample from a patient who requires implantation of a stent and testing said blood sample to determine a platelet coagulability level. The determined platelet coagulability level of said blood sample is compared with a threshold level of blood platelet coagulability. A determined platelet coagulability level above said threshold level indicates that a risk of restenosis is relatively high. If the determined platelet coagulability level is below said threshold level, a bare metal stent is selected. If the determined platelet coagulability level is at or above said threshold level, a drug-eluting stent is selected.

Restenosis remains a major limiting factor in the percutaneous treatment of coronary artery disease. Despite improvements in restenosis rates achieved from the use of stents and the introduction of drug-eluting stents, restenosis persists in a small percentage of patients. The sequence of events contributing to restenosis is initiated at the stent site as a result of arterial wall trauma, endothelial injury and the release of growth factors, chemoattractants, and inflammatory mediators. These events induce platelet and leukocyte activation and trigger the coagulation cascade. Although the underlying pathophysiology is not uniformly accepted, major pathological findings in acute or chronic stent failure include the deposition of fibrin and platelets, suggesting that a key event in development of restenosis is thrombus formation.
Treatment with stents reduces restenosis compared to balloon angioplasty and now drug-eluting stents have further reduced restenosis rates. However, it is well recognized that most patients treated with bare metal stents develop clinically irrelevant degrees of intimal proliferation and therefore would not necessarily have benefited from the implantation of a drug-eluting stent. See R. Moreno, et al., Drug-eluting stent thrombosis: results from a pooled analysis including 10 randomized studies; J Am Coll Cardiol. 2005; 45: 9549. Nevertheless, the current practice is to implant the more costly drug-eluting stents in the majority of patients undergoing percutaneous intervention. See H. C. Lowe, et al., Coronary in-stent restenosis: current status and future strategies; J Am Coll Cardiol. 2002; 39: 183-93. The ability to predict which patients are most prone to developing neointimal formation could lead to more selective use of drug-eluting stents and tailor the intensity of antiproliferative therapy.
Platelet-related periprocedural thrombotic and inflammatory processes that influence neointimal hyperplasia and angiogenesis are considered important risk factors for restenosis. See B. Chandrasekar et al., Platelets and restenosis; J Am Coll Cardiol. 2000; 35: 555-62. In addition, preexisting inflammatory mediators and hypercoagulable factors have also been proposed to influence the process. Despite an established mechanism linking thrombogenesis to the restenosis process, there are few data in humans that have examined the relation of ex vivo measurements of platelet reactivity to restenosis. This information might be clinically useful in evaluating patients undergoing Percutaneous Cardiovascular Intervention (PCI) to identify a subgroup who may benefit from more aggressive therapy aimed at disrupting the sequence of events leading to restenosis. The ability to predict which patients are most prone to developing neointimal formation could also lead to more selective use of the more costly drug-eluting stents (DES). Use of DES has reduced restenosis rates. Currently, DES are routinely implanted in the majority of patients undergoing PCI without consideration as to whether the clinically irrelevant degrees of intimal proliferation that develop in most patients treated with bare metal stents warrant this practice. Moreover, there is concern that DES have a greater risk of thrombosis than bare metal stents.
At this time, there is no uniformly accepted method to determine which patients are at greatest risk for developing stent restenosis. A major cost savings would result from a method that reliably predicted those patients at greatest risk. These patients would be treated with the more costly drug-eluting strategy whereas those at minimal risk would receive the less expensive bare metal stent. It is well known that specific angiographic and clinical features are associated with a higher risk of restenosis. These include the presence of diabetes, small vessels, long lesions and bifurcation disease. In addition, a strategy that determines who will benefit from DES will entail much less use of dual antiplatelet therapy that is required indefinitely in patients treated with DES due to the excess hazard of stent thrombosis.
Presently, there are no laboratory tests that predict the occurrence of restenosis. Platelets play a fundamental role in the genesis of stent restenosis by modulating coagulation, inflammation, and smooth muscle proliferation. Thrombi with high tensile strength may facilitate neointimal hyperplasia at the stent site. Platelet-related periprocedural thrombotic and inflammatory processes that influence neointimal hyperplasia and angiogenesis are considered important risk factors for restenosis in animal models. See P. A. Gurbel, et al., Platelet reactivity in patients and recurrent events post-stenting: results of the PREPARE POST-STENTING Study; J Am Coll Cardiol. 2005; 46: 1820-26. Despite these established mechanisms, there are few data in humans that examined the relation of ex vivo measurements of platelet reactivity to restenosis. Moreover, preexisting inflammatory and hypercoaguable factors have also been proposed as important factors influencing restenosis. Moreover, patients with rapid thrombin generation would be expected to readily form thrombi.
There is a need in the field for a method to accurately risk-stratify patients for restenosis. This methodology would therefore tailor patient therapy during stent implantation. This method would assist in the decision making for using a bare metal stent versus a drug-eluting stent and, moreover, would also determine the intensity of drug delivery based on the individual patient's risk.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detection of restenosis risk in patients receiving a stent by measuring the characteristics of blood clotting including the measurement of maximum thrombin-induced clot strength


A display unit is provided, on a substrate, with a first wiring layer and a device section. The device section has a plurality of pixels. The device section includes, in each of the pixels, a light-emitting device section and a drive device. The light-emitting device section includes a light-emitting device and a light-emitting surface. The drive device drives the light-emitting device section and is electrically coupled to the light-emitting device section through the first wiring layer. An end of the light-emitting surface of the light-emitting device section is disposed at a position as high as an upper end of the drive device, or at a position higher than the upper end.

In recent years, a display unit has been developed, in which a light-emitting device and a driving integrated circuit (IC) that drives such a light-emitting device are mounted together in a single pixel (for example, see PTL 1). In such a display unit, various types of semiconductor devices such as the light-emitting device and the driving IC are formed and encapsulated on a temporary substrate, and thereafter inter-device couplings are made utilizing a transcription technique, a through-silicon via (TSV) technique, or any other equivalent technique. A device substrate thus formed is mounted on a printed circuit board such as an interposer.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation


A gas discharge laser system bandwidth control mechanism and method of operation for controlling bandwidth in a laser output light pulse generated in the gas discharge laser system is disclosed which may comprise a bandwidth controller which may comprise an active bandwidth adjustment mechanism; a controller actively controlling the active bandwidth adjustment mechanism utilizing an algorithm implementing bandwidth thermal transient correction based upon a model of the impact of laser system operation on the wavefront of the laser light pulse being generated and line narrowed in the laser system as it is incident on the bandwidth adjustment mechanism. The controller algorithm may comprises a function of the power deposition history in at least a portion of an optical train of the gas discharge laser system, e.g., a linear function, e.g., a combination of a plurality of decay functions each comprising a respective decay time constant and a respective coefficient.

Laser systems of the type noted above can exhibit bandwidth transients in response to duty cycle changes, whether of the single chamber or multi-chamber configuration, e.g., master oscillator/power amplifier ("MOPA") excimer laser systems, e.g., of the ArF or KrF variety. The transients are believed by applicant to be the result of thermally induced changes to laser light pulses in the laser system optical train, e.g., cylindrical wavefront deformation in the line narrowing module ("LNM") optics, optical coatings, and/or surrounding purge gas.
According to aspects of an embodiment of the present invention applicant proposes an apparatus and method for compensating for bandwidth and center wavelength transients with an actuated bandwidth control device ("BCD"), e.g., a mechanism for changing the curvature of the wavelength selection optical element, e.g., an eschelle grating, or a similar actuated optical element that can, e.g., introduce a cylindrical wavefront deformation on demand based, e.g., upon a feed forward controller algorithm.

Method and apparatus for gas discharge laser bandwidth and center wavelength control


A simple wire probe is positioned between work stations of a multi-spindle automatic screw machine so that, when the spindles of the machine are indexed, the probe is contacted by the distal end of a properly-sized workpiece and a signal is sent to a conventional programmable logic controller ("PLC"). At the initiation of each cyclical indexing of the machine's spindles, an electronic timing "window" is opened in the PLC and, so long as the signal is received from the probe while the timing window is open, the PLC permits the machine's cyclical operations to continue. If, however, no signal is received during the preset time interval, indicating a "short part", the PLC is programmed to stop the machine drive and to provide a sensible indication (e.g., a flashing light) to call to the attention of the machine operator. The location of the probe does not limit the normal use or operation of any tool at any work station of the machine.

Multiple-spindle automatic screw machines (e.g., Davenports, Acme, etc.) have long been the world's primary means for forming and cutting off small parts (e.g., screws, bolts, pins, etc.) from the ends of workpieces of long bar stock (cylindrical metal bars). Such automatic screw machines have multiple spindles (which each receive and hold a respective bar stock workpiece), and they have automatic cyclical drives that serially feed and position the distal end of each workpiece bar in a respective one of the work-holding spindles.
The screw machine's automatic operations also serially index the spindles relative to a plurality of sequential tool-holding work stations. At the first work station, the distal end of each workpiece bar is serially fed to a pre-shaping location within its respective work-holding spindle so that a distal end portion of the bar projects beyond the face of the spindle a predetermined distance. Thereafter, at each successive work station, each spindle holds and/or rotates its respective workpiece while a respective tool, which is adjustably mounted at each work station, shapes a portion of the rotating workpiece. As the spindles index through each successive work station, the distal end portion of each bar workpiece is formed into a desired product having specified dimensions. At a final work station, the product is separated from the workpiece bar; and as the machine is indexed once more, a new length of workpiece is fed into the spindle which is then returned to the first work station to begin the formation of another part.
The inadvertent manufacture of "short parts" (improper length) has been a chronic problem for the operators of such machines since their inception nearly a hundred years ago. That is, parts having a length that is less than a predetermined minimum requirement may be turned out by the hundreds before the operator notes that the machine is producing such an unacceptable product. However, with recent "zero defect" quality control requirements for parts suppliers, the production of even a single short part can expose the part manufacturer to returns and complaints and, more importantly, can affect consumer safety in many applications.
Very sophisticated and accurate part cutting machinery is well known, and all include very complex measuring apparatus for determining part accuracy. For example, such complex measuring apparatus often comprise specially constructed position probes (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,464 to Tanaka), optical encoders (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,064 to Neff et al.), sophisticated electronic circuitry, etc. These known prior art part measuring systems are all relatively expensive to install; difficult to set up; and, for generally unattended automatic screw machines, impractical to use.
The invention disclosed herein is a simple and relatively inexpensive accessory which can be readily affixed to existing standard (unsophisticated) screw machines for overcoming the chronic and expensive "short part" problem.

"Short part" detector for automatic screw machine


An antireflection film laminate comprising a low refractive index film on the surface side and a high refractive index film which is disposed under the low refractive index film in contact therewith, wherein the high refractive index film is formed as a discontinuous layer in the planar direction. If the high refractive index film is formed as a discontinuous layer, the high refractive index film can enter into the low refractive index film to restrain movement of the low refractive index film, and therefore an antireflection film laminate exhibiting superior antiscratching property and transparency can be obtained.

As materials for forming an antireflection film, for example, heat-curable type polysiloxane compositions are known, and they are disclosed in JP-A-61-247743, JP-A-6-25599, JP-A-7-331115, JP-A-10-232301 and so forth.
However, antireflection films obtained by using such heat-curable type polysiloxane compositions are formed with a layer continuous in the planar direction, and therefore they have a problem that they suffer from insufficient antiscratching property and as a result, insufficient durability.
Further, in the production of such antireflection films, a heat treatment at a high temperature for a long period of time is required. Thus, they suffer from problems of low productivity and limited types of applicable substrates.
Therefore, as disclosed in JP-A-8-94806, an optically functional film has been proposed which is prepared by laminating a high refractive index film comprising fine particles localized in a high refractive index binder resin and formed as a layer continuous in the planer direction and a low refractive index film made of a fluorine type copolymer in this order on a substrate.
More specifically, for forming the high refractive index film as a continuous layer, a layer of fine particles such as metal oxide particles having a diameter of 200 nm or less is formed on process paper in advance, and the layer is then pressed onto the high refractive index binder resin on the substrate to embed the fine particle layer in the high refractive index binder resin and thereby localize the fine particles.
Further, the low refractive index film is formed by curing a resin composition comprising 100 parts by weight of a fluorine-containing copolymer formed by copolymerizing of a monomer composition containing 30 to 90% by weight of vinylidene fluoride and 5 to 50% by weight of hexafluoropropylene, and having a fluorine content of 60 to 70% by weight, 30 to 150 parts by weight of a polymerizable compound having an ethylenically unsaturated group and a polymerization initiator in an amount of 0.5 to 10 parts by weight with respect to the total weight of the fluorine-containing copolymer and the polymerizable compound taken as 100 parts by weight to form a thin film having a film thickness of 200 nm or less.
However, the process of producing the high refractive index film of the optically functional film disclosed in JP-A-8-94806 as a continuous layer is complicated, and as a result, it is difficult to prepare an optically functional film exhibiting uniform characteristics.
Furthermore, in such an optically functional film, surface toughness of the low refractive index film, relationship thereof with film thickness and surface roughness value of the high, refractive index film are not taken into consideration, and therefore it suffers from a problem of insufficient antiscratching property of the low refractive index film.

Reflection preventing film laminated body and method of manufacturing the laminated body


A vehicle drive mechanism includes a power transmission mechanism which has a rotary electric motor and a gear mechanism for transmitting mechanical power from the rotary electric motor to a drive shaft disposed coaxially with an output shaft of the rotary electric motor, and a control unit formed of a plurality of elements and controlling an operation of the rotary electric motor. At least one of the elements which constitute the control unit is disposed on a periphery of at least one of the rotary electric motor, the drive shaft, and the gear mechanism.

Recently, attention has been focused on a Hybrid Vehicle as an environment-friendly motor vehicle. Hybrid vehicles are identified as a motor vehicle that uses a power transmission mechanism driven by a direct-current power supply via an inverter in a power control unit, as well as the conventional engine, as mechanical power sources. Stated differently, a hybrid vehicle obtains a mechanical power source by driving the engine, and additionally, obtains a mechanical power source by converting a direct-current voltage from the direct-current power supply into an alternating-current voltage by means of the inverter, and using the alternating-current voltage obtained by conversion to rotate a motor in the power transmission mechanism.
The power transmission mechanism splits a power output from the engine at a gear mechanism such as a planetary gear, for providing the same to a rotary electric motor for control and an output side for running, controls the rotary electric motor for control such that it mainly serves as a generator to steplessly control output torque of the planetary gear described above, and furthermore, combines torque of another electrical motor for driving (assisting) with the output torque of the planetary gear described above, as needed, to output the same to the output shaft. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-66898 describes a vehicle drive mechanism of an FR hybrid vehicle. A power control unit that includes an inverter, a converter, a reactor, and a capacitor is generally accommodated in a PCU casing, and disposed in an engine room.
In recent years, as described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-297846, there has been proposed a vehicle drive mechanism in which a plurality of coolers are disposed radially by setting a motor shaft or a driving shaft as the center, and allowing cooling surfaces of the coolers to be parallel with the drive shaft or the driving shaft, and one or both of the cooling surfaces of each of the coolers is equipped with a semiconductor module for supplying electric power to a rotary electric motor, so that a power transmission mechanism and a power control unit are integrated without causing excessive increase in size.
Generally, in the power transmission mechanism, a radius of a gear mechanism such as a planetary gear measured from the drive shaft, and a radius of a rotary electric motor measured from the drive shaft are not the same, and different from each other. Therefore, a space identified as a dead space is left in an enclosure of the power transmission mechanism, on an outer peripheral side of the planetary gear and an outer peripheral side of the rotary electric motor. In the conventional vehicle drive mechanism described above, effective use of a space in the power transmission mechanism has not yet been achieved sufficiently.
In contrast, the PCU casing disposed in the engine room accommodates various electrical apparatuses such as a capacitor, a boost inverter, and a converter. The PCU casing has a large volume, and hence a ratio at which the PCU casing occupies the engine room is high.
The vehicle drive mechanism, which is described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-297846 described above, does not aim to effectively utilize a dead space in the power transmission mechanism, and merely modifies the positions of the semiconductor modules, which have been accommodated in the PCU casing. Therefore, the vehicle drive mechanism having the semiconductor module and the power transmission mechanism integrated therein has increased in volume, and disadvantageously, a volume of the engine room is even more decreased accordingly.


A shielded back plane connector is disclosed comprising a header assembly and a daughter board connector. The daughter board connector includes an upper and lower shield where the upper and lower shields include stamped windows thereby forming passages for allowing structural ribs of the housing to pass therethrough while providing a contact for contact with grounding pins disposed in the header assembly. A cross talk shield can be positioned intermediate each of the terminal sub-assemblies thereby reducing the cross talk between adjacent terminals. A shield includes a contact portion for contacting the centre terminal in the shielded sub-assembly, for using the centre terminal as a ground terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a shielded back plane connector which can be mounted to a back plane, which receives a shielded daughter card connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common in electronic architecture to provide for a header connector having a plurality of male pins to be mounted to a mother board connector. A daughter board connector is mounted to a daughter card and is profiled for receipt within the header connector, the daughter board connector having a plurality of receptacle sockets for electrical connection with the male pins in the header. It is also known to shield the mother board connector and the daughter board connector to improve their EMI/RFI characteristics for example, EP Patent application 0,422,785 shows such an assembly, where the shielded back plane connector can be interconnected to a shielded daughter board connector. One of the necessities which has been presented in this technology has been to reduce the size requirements of the overall packaged system.
The object of the invention then is to provide for a shielded back plane assembly having overall reduced dimensions, without compromising on other characteristics such as EMI/RFI, signal speed, and the like.


A method of darkening a defective pixel including a short between a source electrode and a drain electrode in a thin film transistor substrate includes forming a gate line and a data line on a substrate to define a pixel region; forming a thin film transistor at a crossing of the gate line and the data line, the thin film transistor having a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode; forming a pixel electrode and a common electrode in the pixel region; forming a common line provided in parallel to the gate line and connected to the common electrode; forming an extended part of the drain electrode in parallel to the gate line; and cutting the extended part along a cutting line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor substrate for a liquid crystal display panel, and more particularly to a thin film transistor substrate of horizontal electric field type and a method of darkening a defective pixel in the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device controls the light transmittance of a liquid crystal material by applying an electric field to thereby display a picture. Liquid crystal displays are largely classified into vertical electric field type and horizontal electric field type, depending upon the direction of the applied electric field.
A liquid crystal display of a vertical electric field type drives a liquid crystal in a twisted nematic (TN) mode by applying a vertical electric field to the liquid crystal material. The vertical electric field is formed between a pixel electrode and a common electrode arranged opposite to each other on an upper substrate and lower substrate, respectively. The liquid crystal display of the vertical electric field type provides a large aperture ratio, but has a narrow viewing angle of about 90°.
The liquid crystal display of the horizontal electric field type drives a liquid crystal in an in plane switching (IPS) mode by applying a horizontal electric field to the liquid crystal material. The horizontal electric field is formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode arranged in parallel to each other on a lower substrate. The liquid crystal display of the horizontal electric field type provides a wide viewing angle of about 160°. More specifically, the liquid crystal display of the horizontal electric field type includes a thin film transistor substrate (i.e., lower substrate) and a color filter array substrate (i.e., upper substrate). The thin film transistor substrate and the color filter array substrate are joined opposite to each other. A spacer is provided to maintain a uniform cell gap between two substrates. The cell gap is filled with a liquid crystal material.
The thin film transistor substrate is comprised of a plurality of signal wires for forming a horizontal electric field for each pixel, a plurality of thin film transistors, and an alignment film coated thereon to align the liquid crystal. The color filter array substrate includes a color filter for color generation, a black matrix for preventing light leakage, and an alignment film coated thereon to align the liquid crystal material.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a structure of a related art thin film transistor substrate of a horizontal electric field type. Referring to FIG. 1, the thin film transistor substrate of the horizontal electric field type includes a gate line 2 and a data line 4. A gate signal is applied to the gate line 2 and a data signal is applied to the data line 4. A gate insulating film (not shown) is provided between the gate line 2 and the data line 4.
A thin film transistor 6 is provided at a crossing of the gate line 2 and the data line 4. A pixel region is defined by the crossing of the gate line 2 and the data line 4. A pixel electrode 18 and a common electrode 20 are provided in the pixel area for forming a horizontal electric field. A common line 16 is connected to the common electrode 20. The common line 16 supplies a reference voltage for driving the liquid crystal. The common line 16 is provided in parallel to the gate line 2 with the pixel area therebetween. The common line 16 is adjacent to a next-stage gate line 2.
The thin film transistor 6 allows a pixel signal of the data line 4 to be charged and maintained on the pixel electrode 18 in response to the gate signal from the gate line 2. To this end, the thin film transistor 6 includes a gate electrode 8, a source electrode 10, a drain electrode 12, and an active layer 14. The gate electrode 8 is connected to the gate line 2. The source electrode 10 is connected to the data line 4. The drain electrode 12 is connected to the pixel electrode 18 in opposition to the source electrode 10. The drain electrode 12 further includes an extended part 12A, which extends in parallel to the gate line 2. The extended part 12A of the drain electrode 12 is provided in opposition to a horizontal part 20B of the common electrode 20 with the gate insulating film (not shown) therebetween to form a first storage capacitor.
An active layer 14 overlaps the gate electrode 8 including the gate insulating film (not shown) therebetween to define a channel between the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12. The active layer 14 also overlaps the data line 4. On the active layer 14, an ohmic contact layer (not shown) is provided to establish an ohmic contact with the data line 4, the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12.
The pixel electrode 18, which is provided in the pixel area, is connected to the drain electrode 12 of the thin film transistor 6 via a first contact hole 24 through a protective film (not shown). The pixel electrode 18 includes a first horizontal part 18A overlapping the extended part 12A of the drain electrode 12, and a finger part 18B extended from the first horizontal part 18A into the pixel area. The pixel electrode 18 further includes a second horizontal part 18C commonly connected to the finger part 18B thereof and overlapping the common line 16 in order to form a second storage capacitor.
An upper storage electrode 22 is further provided between the common line 16 and the second horizontal part 18C of the pixel electrode 18 to increase a capacitance of the second storage capacitor. The upper storage electrode 22 overlaps the common line 16 having the gate insulating film (not shown) therebetween while overlapping the second horizontal part 18C of the pixel electrode 18 including the protective film (not shown) therebetween. The upper storage electrode 22 is connected to the second horizontal part 18C of the pixel electrode 18 via a second contact hole 26 through the protective film.
The common electrode 20 is connected to the common line 16 and is provided in the pixel area to form a horizontal electric field along the pixel electrode 18. To this end, the common electrode 20 includes a finger part 20A provided in parallel to the finger part 18C of the pixel electrode 18. Tthe common electrode 20 further includes a horizontal part 20B that is commonly connected to the finger part 20A thereof and overlaps the extended part 12A of the drain electrode 12 including the gate insulating film therebetween.
In related art the thin film transistor substrate of horizontal electric field type, the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12 are formed through the same mask process for patterning a source/drain metal layer along with the data line 4 and the upper storage electrode 22. In this case, when a distance between the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12 is relatively small, patterns are malformed causing shorts between the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12 like the A portion.

Thin film transistor substrate of a horizontal electric field type and method of darkening defective pixel in the same


A high-rise building has a stairwell, an air supply shaft, inlet openings connecting the air supply shaft to the stairwell, and a pressure system for keeping the stairwell free from smoke. The stairwell is vertically divided into several partial spaces. The separation is performed by at least one partition. Each partition has a door enabling a passage from one partial space of the stairwell into an adjacent partial space.

In high-rise buildings of up to about 197 ft, i.e., approx. 60 m, that is, with about 15-20 floors, the stairwell can reliably be kept free from smoke by a relatively homogeneous overpressure if, for example, supply air is blown in at the lowermost area of the stairwell and, simultaneously, via the air supply shaft through the inlet openings into the stairwell. This technique is the prior art on which the invention is based.
When buildings become higher, it becomes substantially more difficult, however, to establish a relatively homogeneous pressure column over the entire height of the stairwell. The reason for this lies in the geometry of the stairwell. The windings of the stairs and the banisters, but also large parts of the stairwell, form flow resistances. This leads to an average of 0.04 lb/ft2, which is 2 Pa (Pascal) pressure being lost per floor.
According to the European Standard EN 12101, Part 6, Issue September 2005, the following is prescribed for smoke-free evacuation paths in buildings:                Door opening force maximally 100 N (which is 22.5 lbf),        Overpressure in the stairwell with closed doors relative to the floors 50 Pa±10% (which is 1.04 lb/ft2), and        mean airspeed in the opened entrance door between the stairwell and the utilization unit≧2 m/s (≧6.56 ft/s) in the case of a fire-fighting operation by the fire department.
As the admissible pressure range is thus between 0.94 and 1.15 lb/ft2, i.e., 45 and 55 Pa, only five of the 15-20 floors are pressurized correctly in the above example. All floors above that have a pressure lower than 0.94 lb/ft2, i.e., lower than 45 Pa.
According to the prior art, this problem can be addressed by providing the inlet openings already mentioned from about the ninth floor; they are provided, for example, at every third floor. Through them, air is let into the stairwell from the air supply shaft, which is usually adjacent to the stairwell. A stable homogeneity of the pressure can thus be obtained over the entire height of the building.
However, this only applies to buildings up to a certain height. Given the efforts for increasingly higher high-rise buildings, for example beyond 393 ft, i.e., 120 m, physical effects such as the stack effect cannot remain left aside. In particular, the stack effect caused by the temperature difference between the internal and the external temperature (for example in the summer and in the winter) has negative effects on the forces for opening a door, and does so already during normal operation of the building, not just in extreme cases.
The following table shows a sample calculation for a high-rise building with 42 floors; the table shows how the pressures between the stairwell and the utilization unit adjust in normal operation, during the summer and the winter. As a rule, in the case of pressures higher than 1.04 lb/ft2, i.e., 50 Pa, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a person of normal weight and strength to open a door. The above-mentioned door opening force according to EN 12101-6, which is limited to a maximum of 22.5 lbf, i.e., 100 N, is exceeded.
In the table, the following notation is used for designating floors: floor 0 is the ground floor. Floor 1 is the first floor above the ground floor. Floor n in the n-th floor above floor 0. This system is different from the notation commonly used in the USA where floor 1 stands for the ground floor.
TABLE 1Overpressures of the stairwells relative to the floors in an emergency and in normalventilation operation while maintaining a minimum overpressure of 10 Pa anddifferent temperature conditionsHeightTemperatures theTemperaturesTemperatures higherabovesame on the insidehigher on the insideon the outsideseaand outsidethan the outsidethan the insidelevelΔpemerg-op.Δpnormal-op.Δpemerg-op.Δpnormal-op.Δpemerg-op.Δpnormal-op.FloormPaPaPaPaPaPa 0.0.0094.810.710.010.0149.965.8(Ground)Floor 1. Floor4.46592.410.713.916.3145.864.0 2. Floor8.9389.910.617.822.7141.662.3 3. Floor12.3088.110.620.827.4138.561.0 4. Floor15.6786.310.623.732.2135.359.7 5. Floor19.0484.410.626.737.0132.258.4 6. Floor22.4182.610.629.641.8129.157.1 7. Floor25.7880.710.632.646.5125.955.8 8. Floor29.1578.910.535.551.3122.854.5 9. Floor32.5277.010.538.556.1119.753.110. Floor35.8975.210.541.460.9116.551.811. Floor39.2673.410.544.365.6113.450.512. Floor42.6371.510.547.370.4110.349.213. Floor46.0069.710550.275.2107.147.914. Floor49.3767.810.553.280.0104.046.615. Floor52.7466.010.456.184.7100.945.316. Floor56.1164.110.459.189.597.744.017. Floor59.4862.310.462.094.394.642.718. Floor62.8560.510.465.099.191.441.419. Floor66.2258.610.467.9103.888.340.120. Floor69.5956.810.470.9108.685.238.821. Floor72.9654.910.373.8113.482.037.522. Floor76.3353.110.376.8118.278.936.123. Floor79.7051.210.379.7122.975.834.824. Floor83.0749.410.382.7127.772.633.525. Floor86.4447.610.385.6132.569.532.226. Floor89.8145.710.388.6137.366.430.927. Floor93.1843.910.291.5142.063.229.628. Floor96.5542.010.294.5146.860.128.329. Floor99.9240.210.297.4151.657.027.030. Floor103.2938.310.2100.4156.453.825.731. Floor106.6636.510.2103.3161.150.724.432. Floor110.0334.710.2106.3165.947.623.133. Floor113.4032.810.1109.2170.744.421.834. Floor116.7731.010.1112.2175.541.320.535. Floor120.1429.110.1115.1188.8.131.52. Floor123.5127.310.1118.1185.035.017.837. Floor126.8825.410.1121.0189.831.916.538. Floor130.2523.610.1124.0194.628.815.239. Floor133.6221.810.0126.9199.325.613.940. Floor136.9919.910.0129.9204.122.512.641. Floor140.3618.110.0132.8208.919.411.342. Floor143.7316.210.0135.8213.716.210.01 Pa is approximately 0.021 lb/ft2 and 1 m is approximately 3.28 ft.

High rise building with a stairwell and a intake air shaft


Image processing system for generating a multidimensional adaptive oriented filter to be applied to the point intensities of a d-dimensional image, comprising analyzing means with means (5, fi) to estimate at each image point a probability measure (Fi) of the presence of a type of feature of interest and a weighting control model (10) issuing a weighting control vector (11, VC) constructed from said probability measure, for the user to control synthesized adaptive kernels at each image point; and synthesizing means for generating the filter kernels at each image point adapted to the type of the features of interest, whose filtering strength is controlled by the weighting control vector. The system may comprise a selection unit (40) for the user to select synthesizing means for generating “pre-mixing filtering means” comprising combining means (30, XH) dependent on the type of the image features having inputs for the weighting control vector (11, VC) and the image data [I(x)] and having an aspect for weighted adaptive kernels (35, H) adapted to the type of the image features to produce the filtered image signal [H(x)], and/or “post-mixing filtering means” comprising both isotropic and anisotropic filtering means [15, gi)] applied independently of the type of the image features, whose outputs (Gi) are combined at each image point and adapted using the weighting control vector (11, VC) to produce the filtered image signal [G(x)].

A method to smooth and filter images is disclosed in the publication "A Framework for Anisotropic Adaptive Filtering and Analysis of Sequences and volume" in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASP); San Francisco Mar. 23-26, 1992; p. 469-472, vol. 3, by H. Knutsson, L. Haglund and G. H. Granlund. The approach described in the cited publication makes use of quadrature and steerable filters having a set of different orientations including at least three different orientations in the case of 2-D image processing, and at least six different orientations in the case of 3-D image processing. The algorithm written from this approach requires the application of all the filters involved in the filtering of one image. The resulting algorithm complexity has been found to be high. So, the calculation time is particularly long.

Image viewing system and method for generating filters for filtering image features according to their type


The present invention relates to novel oxo-prolinamide derivatives of formula (I) which modulate P2X7 receptor function and are capable of antagonizing the effects of ATP at the P2X7 receptor

The P2X7 receptor is a ligand-gated ion-channel which is expressed in cells of the hematopoietic lineage, e.g. macrophages, microglia, mast cells, and lymphocytes (T and B) (see, for example, Collo, et al. Neuropharmacology, Vol. 36, pp 1277-1283 (1997)), and is activated by extracellular nucleotides, particularly adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Activation of P2X7 receptors has been implicated in giant cell formation, degranulation, cytolytic cell death, CD62L shedding, regulation of cell proliferation, and release of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) (e.g. Ferrari, et al., J. Immunol., Vol. 176, pp 3877-3883 (2006)) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) (e.g. Hide, et al. Journal of Neurochemistry, Vol. 75, pp 965-972 (2000)). P2X7 receptors are also located on antigen presenting cells, keratinocytes, parotid cells, hepatocytes, erythrocytes, erythroleukaemic cells, monocytes, fibroblasts, bone marrow cells, neurones, and renal mesangial cells. Furthermore, the P2X7 receptor is expressed by presynaptic terminals in the central and peripheral nervous systems and has been shown to mediate glutamate release in glial cells (Anderson, C. et al. Drug. Dev. Res., Vol. 50, page 92 (2000)).
The localisation of the P2X7 receptor to key cells of the immune system, coupled with its ability to release important inflammatory mediators from these cells suggests a potential role of P2X7 receptor antagonists in the treatment of a wide range of diseases including pain and neurodegenerative disorders. Recent preclinical in vivo studies have directly implicated the P2X7 receptor in both inflammatory and neuropathic pain (Dell'Antonio et al., Neurosci. Lett., Vol. 327, pp 87-90 (2002), Chessell, I P., et al., Pain, Vol. 114, pp 386-396 (2005), Honore et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., Vol. 319, p 1376-1385 (2006)) while there is in vitro evidence that P2X7 receptors mediate microglial cell induced death of cortical neurons (Skaper, S. D., et al., Glia, Vol. 54, p 234-242 (2006)). In addition, up-regulation of the P2X7 receptor has been observed around β-amyloid plaques in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (Parvathenani, L. et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 278(15), pp 13309-13317 (2003)).

Receptor antagonists and their methods of use

Abstract: and the use of such compounds or pharmaceutical compositions thereof in the treatment of disorders mediated by the P2X7 receptor, for example pain, inflammation and neurodegeneration.