A measuring gauge intended for use in conjunction with an automotive vehicle alignment system is disclosed to measure and record various measurements associated with automotive maintenance such as tire tread depth, tire pressure, and brake rotor thickness. The measuring gauge comprises a spring loaded plunger axially mounted within a cylindrical body or housing. Extending beyond the housing, one end of the plunger is adapted to linearly engage surface being measured. The opposite end, also extending beyond the housing, is adapted for insertion with a sensor port on an alignment system, and includes a series of annular grooves adapted to drive a rotary encoding sensor within the port. During use, the contact end of the plunger is depressed by the surface undergoing measurement, and the insertion end proportionally extended, revealing a number of the annular grooves. An internal lock secures the plunger in the depressed position upon removal of the gauge from the surface undergoing measurement. Insertion of the insertion end of the gauge within the sensor port engages the rotary encoder sensor with the annular groove. Releasing the locking mechanism causes the spring loaded plunger to return to its original extended position. The rotary encoder sensor detects this displacement and the associated measurement is recorded.

This invention relates to devices designed to facilitate measurements commonly associated with automotive applications, and more specifically, to a device associated with an automotive wheel alignment system for measuring and recording measurements specific to each wheel on a vehicle.
During automotive maintenance, it is often necessary to record numerous measurements of the various vehicle components to determine if a part is worn or in need of replacement. This is particularly applicable to vehicle components associated with the wheels and brakes. Since most vehicle have several wheels, there is a degree of repetition associated with taking and recording such measurements. Oftentimes, measurements of tire tread depth, tire pressure, and brake rotor thickness are recorded by hand, and later entered into a computer system along with identification means indicating at which wheel they were recorded. Commonly, these types of measurements are taken when a vehicle is positioned on an wheel alignment rack or system which provides alignment sensors at each wheel position.
Accordingly, the present invention discloses a multi-purpose measuring gauge adapted for use in conjunction with an automotive alignment system, such that measurements taken at an individual wheel may be entered into the alignment system computer by means of a sensor or port associated with the wheel alignment and ride height sensor for each particular wheel. The invention, which will be described in detail hereinafter, in one embodiment is designed to operate in conjunction with automotive systems and sensors for measuring vehicle alignment which have been adapted with additional sensor ports as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,602 to Naas et al., the disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference.


A dielectric support arm is provided for use with a yoke platform with the yoke platform being secured to the outer end of the innermost boom section of a truck mounted boom structure. The dielectric support arm is positioned between the yoke adapter and the yoke platform.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a yoke platform for use with a telescopic boom structure and more particularly to a yoke platform including a passive dielectric support arm.
2. Description of the Related Art
Yoke platforms or man baskets are commonly used in association with a telescopic boom structure mounted on a truck. The yoke platforms of the prior art are commonly used during the construction of high voltage transmission lines. Although the high voltage transmission lines are not electrified during the construction phase, transmission lines adjacent the transmission lines being constructed may transfer electrical current to the lines being constructed. Further, the transmission lines being constructed may be struck with lightning which will obviously cause harm to those workers in the yoke platform if they come into contact with the transmission lines under construction. Although most boom structures have some form of dielectric protection associated therewith, if those dielectric protections fail, the workers in the yoke platform may suffer severe injury upon coming into contact with the transmission lines.

Dielectric support arm for a yoke platform


A collaboration message is received at a computer system network node of a computer network that operates in a decentralized arrangement such that network nodes comprise work process sources and destinations, and the collaboration messages convey process state updates among the collaborators. There is no central authority though which all process messages and state updates must pass and which thereby may create a system bottleneck and limit system growth. The computer system is scalable and system operation remains efficient with increasing numbers of network nodes.

The management of work projects, group efforts, and the like has resulted in the development of computer-based support systems typically referred to as process management systems. Such systems typically support computer network communications between a central authority computer system and multiple users at respective computer workstations. Work projects, also referred to as processes, are created and managed by the central authority, which controls the state of the project and manages the communications, maintains project management information, and ensures proper messaging among the multiple users who are working on the projects. The users update the central authority as they complete project tasks, so the central authority can maintain data about the project status and can rollout the current project status to the other users. To maintain the data and provide the project management, all network communications and status changes regarding the project are typically channeled through the central authority.
Utilizing a central authority concentrates management tasks at a single point and can simplify the system design and operation. Such centralization, however, can lead to processing bottlenecks as the central authority can be subject to a heavy workload as users update their work on projects, and can increase complication for dealing with users who alternately come online to the network and go offline, while the central authority attempts to update project status. Such systems also may have difficulty in keeping up with an expanded base of users, as more workstations are added to the system.
Techniques for greater efficiency, scalability with expanding user bases, and flexibility for improved process management are needed. Disclosed herein are techniques to provide such improved process support.


A surface processing device includes: a first gas supplying passage disposed near a surface of a wafer for supplying TEOS insusceptible to heating by microwave; a second gas supplying passage disposed near the wafer surface for supplying H.sub.2 O susceptible to heating by microwave; and a microwave generating unit disposed near the wafer surface for irradiating TEOS supplied from the first supplying passage and H.sub.2 O gas supplied from the second gas supplying passage with microwave and selectively heating only H.sub.2 O so that TEOS reacts with H.sub.2 O to form an SiO.sub.2 film on the wafer surface. Thus, a surface processing device capable of precisely controlling CVD reaction and thus forming a thin film having good step coverage is provided. A method of processing surfaces is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface processing device and a method of processing a surface. It particularly relates to a surface processing device and a method of processing a surface which contemplate improvement in processing a surface of an object to be processed.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally in the process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, various types of surface processing are performed, typically including film forming and etching. The film forming process includes the CVD method and sputtering.
An example of a conventional plasma CVD system will now be described with reference to FIG. 5.
A conventional plasma CVD system 300 has an electrode 306 and a holder electrode 308 contained opposite to each other within an evacuated container 304 which is evacuated by an evacuating device 312. Holder electrode 308 is grounded. Mounted on holder electrode 308 is a substrate 302 to the surface of which film forming process is applied. Substrate 302 is heated, for example, by a heater 310 within holder electrode 308.
A raw material gas 320 is introduced into evacuated container 304 via gas introducing portion 314 communicating with electrode 306. As raw material gas 320, SiH.sub.4 (silane)+H.sub.2 O is used, and recently, TEOS (tetraethoxysilane)+H.sub.2 O or the like has come to be used in view of processing at lower temperature and for planarization of silicon oxide films.
In plasma CVD system 300, gas introducing portion 314 is supplied with TEOS from a gas source 322 and H.sub.2 O from a gas source 324. Furthermore, mass flow controllers 326 and 328 are provided at supplying passages of TEOS and H.sub.2 O, respectively, and a heater 330 for vaporizing TEOS is also provided at the TEOS supplying passage.
Radio frequency (RF) power is supplied to the space between electrode 306 and holder electrode 308 from an RF generator 318 via a matching box 316. A continuous sign wave is used for the RF power and its frequency is generally 13.56 MHz.
In such a plasma CVD system, when raw material gas 320 as described above is introduced into evacuated container 304 to obtain a degree of vacuum, for example, of several hundred mTorr within evacuated container 304 while RF power is supplied to electrode 306 from RF generator 318, RF electric discharge is generated between electrodes 306 and 308, causing plasma 332 therebetween.
At that time, electrons are trapped in a blocking capacitor, which is generally contained in matching box 316, so that electrode 306 is negatively charged. This causes positive ions in plasma 332 to accelerate toward and collide against electrode 306 and electrons are thereby generated to maintain plasma 332.
Thus, due to plasma 332, raw material gas 320 is activated and chemical reactions proceed whereby a silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2) film is formed on a surface of substrate 302.
The reaction between the TEOS and H.sub.2 O described above can be expressed by the following chemical formulas: EQU Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4 +H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4-n (OH).sub.n +C.sub.2 H.sub.5 OH . . . (hydrolysis reaction) i) EQU Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4-n (OH).sub.n .fwdarw.SiO.sub.m (OH).sub.j (OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.k +H.sub.2 O . . . (dehydrating condensation reaction) ii) EQU SiO.sub.2 +H.sub.2 O+C.sub.2 H.sub.5 OH iii)
TEOS=Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4 PA1 silanol=Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4-n (OH).sub.n PA1 silicon polymer=SiO.sub.m (OH).sub.j (OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.k PA1 TEOS=Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4 PA1 silanol=Si(OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.4-n (OH).sub.n PA1 silicon polymer=SiO.sub.m (OH).sub.j (OC.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.k
In the system of reaction between TEOS and H.sub.2 O, silanol is first produced by the hydrolysis reaction expressed by chemical formula (i). Then, by the dehydrating condensation reaction expressed by chemical formula (ii), silicon polymer having an appropriate molecular weight is produced from the silanol as an intermediate. The silicon polymer adheres to a surface of an object to be processed and is fluidized to realize a planarized film formed on the substrate surface. Thereafter, as expressed by chemical formula (iii), the silicon polymer also dehydrates to produce SiO.sub.2 and thus SiO.sub.2 film is formed on the substrate surface.
However, in the reactions in the above plasma CVD system, since a chemical reaction is caused by electrons of several eV, the molecules of the raw material gases are decomposed into many kinds of molecules. This practically makes it difficult to selectively cause only the above desired reactions.
In forming a SiO.sub.2 film by reaction between TEOS and H.sub.2 O, it is important to produce silanol by reacting TEOS, the molecular structure of which is kept intact, with H.sub.2 O maintained at high temperature.
However, while the decomposition of the new material gases by plasma partially excites reaction (i), Si and SiO produced by decomposition of TEOS directly reacts with O produced by decomposition of H.sub.2 O, for example, causing a reaction dominantly producing SiO.sub.2, rather than silanol, as the intermediate. Thus, it is not practically ensured that the films formed are adequately planarized by silicon polymer.
Furthermore, in the above plasma CVD system, since silanol is less produced and SiO.sub.2 in gas phase dominantly adheres to the substrate surface, flatness of the films cannot be achieved without keeping the substrate at a low temperature of at most 120.degree. C. and restraining the dehydrating condensation rate of the silanol.
Thus, since a SiO.sub.2 film thus formed on a substrate maintained at low temperature has not experienced adequate reaction, it contains a large amount of OH group and has shortcomings such as large leakage current and low dielectric strength.
Furthermore, when heat treatment (300.degree. C.-400.degree. C.) is performed after the film formation to improve film quality, volumetric shrinkage is caused and thus tensile stress is caused, resulting in cracks or the like in the film.


A technique for managing control protocol information in a network node involves identifying messages as control protocol messages and checking the messages to see if the messages carry any updated control protocol information. If a control protocol message carries updated control protocol information, then the message is forwarded to a control protocol processor and if the message does not carry any updated control protocol information then the message is dropped before getting to the control protocol processor. The determination as to whether or not a control protocol message carries updated control protocol information can be made by generating a digest from a control protocol message and comparing the digest to a digest generated from a previously received control protocol message. A mismatch between the newly generated digest and the digest from the previously received control protocol message is an indication that the current message carries updated control protocol information.

Control protocols in frame-based network perform control functions such as topology management, link aggregation, connectivity fault management, bidirectional flow detection, etc. Many network control protocols call for the transmission of control protocol messages to communicate control protocol information to other nodes in the network. Some control protocols require the transmission of control protocol messages at a specified fixed interval. Often times control protocol messages are required to be transmitted at the specified fixed interval whether or not there is any updated control protocol information to be communicated. For example, after an initial period of protocol convergence, control protocol messages are transmitted at regular intervals from a first peer entity to indicate to a second peer entity that the first peer entity is still alive.
Typically, network nodes are configured to recognize control protocol messages and to automatically provide the control protocol messages to a control protocol processor for protocol processing. The control protocol processor consumes resources processing each control protocol message that is received whether or not the received control protocol message includes updated control protocol information that may affect the protocol state. During steady state operation of a control protocol, many of the received control protocol messages do not carry any information that will change the control protocol state (e.g., the information carried in the control protocol messages only indicates that the peer entity is alive and that connectivity to the peer entity is not broken), yet valuable computing resources are consumed processing these control protocol messages.
In view of this, what is needed is a technique for managing protocol information that reduces the burden of processing control protocol messages that have no affect on the protocol state without negatively affecting the function of the control protocols.

Managing the distribution of control protocol information in a network node


The present invention provides methods of analyzing and evaluating phosphorus bearing monomeric units as to their suitability for use in preparing randomer oligomer libraries. The invention further provides methods for preparing such randomer oligomer libraries from the selected monomers.

There is an increasing need to find new molecules that can effectively modulate a wide range of biological processes. Rational drug design methodologies which have been used historical to design new drugs and other useful compositions, have been limited by the fact that the new drugs are generally derived from a known starting point. Recently, new technologies have focused on non-rational drug design. These methodologies generally rely upon the use of combinatorial libraries of randomly created polymers. Some work has been done to optimize the "randomness" of peptide libraries. Rutter and Santi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,175, focuses upon identifying the binding rate constants of amino acid units and modifying incorporation of each amino acid depending upon the rate constant for a given amino acid. Lam, et al., PCT/US91/04666 filed Jul. 1, 1991, teach coupling amino acid units to a solid support, mixing the solid supports, and aliquoting the solid supports into equal portions. Thereafter the coupling, aliquoting, and mixing are repeated. Similarly, Owens, et al., 1991, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 181, 402-408, teach several coupling reactions each with different amino acids conducted simultaneously and then combined to generate a near equimolar mixture before coupling additional residues. Houghten et al., PCT/US91/08694 filed Nov. 20, 1991, teach a process for the synthesis of a complex mixture pool of solid support-coupled monomeric repeating units, such as amino acids, by reacting the monomeric units with solid supports and mixing the solid supports linked to the monomeric units to form a reaction product pool. Thereafter the reaction pool is separated into a number of aliquots of equal weight and the process is repeated to produce peptides of a desired length.
As compared to amino acids, nucleotide monomers and chemical species related thereto represent a very different class of chemicals having very different properties. These difference are of such extent so as to require very dissimilar chemistries to prepare polymeric species from the monomers. Additionally they present other problems and differences such as purification that must be overcome in the preparation of random libraries. Until now, little work has been done to optimize the preparation and use of nucleotide based combinatorial libraries. Huse, et al., PCT/US91/05939 filed Aug. 20, 1991, teach a method of synthesizing oligonucleotides having random tuplets (i.e. doublets, triplets, or quartets) using individual monomers whereby monomers are sequentially coupled in separate reaction vessels on separate supports. Thereafter the supports are mixed, and the mixture is aliquoted. The tuplets are designed so as to provide the entire genetic code, excepting those degenerate codons.
Methods of reducing bias by equalizing binding of each unit in an oligonucleotide pool are greatly desired. These and other objects are provided by the present invention.

Random oligonucleotide libraries and methods of making the same


Disclosed herein is a light emitting device including one or more light emitting diodes to primarily emit light having different wavelengths in the wavelength range of ultraviolet rays and/or blue light, and a wavelength-conversion means to convert the primary light into secondary light in the visible light wavelength range. The light emitting device of the current invention has a high color temperature of 2000 to 8000 K or 10000 K and a high color rendering index of 90 or more, thus easily realizing desired emission on the color coordinate system. Therefore, the lighting emitting device is applicable to mobile phones, notebook computers, and keypads or backlight units for various electronic products, and, in particular, automobiles and exterior and interior lighting fixtures.

Generally, an LED is advantageous because it has low power consumption and a long lifetime, and also, it can be mounted in limited spaces and is highly resistant to vibration. Recently, single color LEDs, for example, red, blue or green LEDs, and as well, white LEDs have been disclosed. Of these LEDs, the white LED is expected to be increasingly used as it is applied to automotive products and lighting fixtures.
In the LED techniques, white color is mainly realized by the two following methods. In the first method, red, blue and green light emitting diodes are disposed to be adjacent to one another, and colors of light emitted by the light emitting diodes combine to realize white light. However, since the light emitting diodes have different thermal or temporal properties, the hue changes depending on usage conditions. In particular, non-uniform color, such as color irregularity, is exhibited.
As a second method, a phosphor is included in the light emitting diode, and thus, primary light emitted by the light emitting diode is partially combined with secondary light converted into a predetermined wavelength by the phosphor to realize a white color. This method, for example, adopts a blue light emitting diode having a peak emission wavelength between 450 and 490 nm and a YAG phosphor to absorb light emitted by the blue light emitting diode and convert it into almost yellow fluorescent rays, and is disclosed in WO 98/05078 and WO 98/12757.
However, the above second method is disadvantageous because it cannot provide high white emission properties due to the YAG phosphor. That is, the YAG phosphor exhibits high emission efficiency only in the wavelength range lower than a peak emission wavelength of 560 nm. Thus, when such a phosphor is mixed with a blue light emitting diode having a wavelength between 450 and 490 nm, a low color temperature of 6000 to 8000 K and a low color rendering index of 60 to 75 are manifested, thus exhibiting a cool blue-white color.
Therefore, limitations are imposed on applications of the conventional white LEDs to various products. In particular, such an LED cannot be used for lighting fixtures.

White light emitting device comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes with different peak emission wavelengths and a wavelength converter


A cleaning vehicle including an all-wheel steering mechanism. First, second and third wheels are mounted to the vehicle for rotation about respective first, second and third rotational axes and for pivotal movement about respective first, second and third pivot axes. The first and second wheels are located transversely across from one another and are both driven by a drive mechanism. The steering mechanism includes a pivot arm pivotally attached to the vehicle. A first steering linkage operatively connects the pivot arm to the first wheel, a second steering linkage operatively connects the pivot arm to the second wheel, and a third steering linkage operatively connects the pivot arm to the third wheel. Pivotal movement of the pivot arm causes conjoint pivotal movement of the first and second wheels in a first pivotal direction and pivotal movement of the third wheel in a second opposite pivotal direction.

The present invention relates to cleaning vehicles and in particular to a steering mechanism for a cleaning vehicle which conjointly turns or pivots all of the wheels of the cleaning vehicle when a change in vehicle direction is desired.
Cleaning vehicles such as rider sweepers, rider scrubbers, and combination sweeping and scrubbing machines need to be very maneuverable in order to do an effective job in cleaning floors or other surfaces around obstacles and in tight locations within factories or other types of facilities. A typical three-wheel cleaning vehicle is configured such that the third wheel, which is longitudinally offset from the other two wheels of the vehicle, is located at the front of the vehicle and is selectively pivotal, while the other two wheels are non-pivotal, such that the cleaning vehicle steers from the front. The third wheel can alternatively be located behind the other two wheels at the rear of the vehicle and consequently the vehicle will steer from the rear. With just one wheel being pivotal to steer the vehicle, the vehicle is limited in maneuverability when it is positioned close to objects, such as when sweeping and scrubbing along a wall. When a rear-steering vehicle is being used to clean along the edge of a wall, the vehicle must be inched away from the wall well in advance of encountering the upcoming obstruction in order to steer the vehicle away from the wall when the obstruction is encountered. Otherwise, in a rear-steering vehicle, a sharp turn will shift the back end of the vehicle up against the wall creating interference and possibly damaging the vehicle and the wall.
When the third wheel that steers the vehicle is located at the front of the vehicle, such as on a typical direct-throw style sweeper, the wheel is placed directly in the path of the debris and limits the effectiveness of this type of sweeper. Often, to maximize maneuverability on a three-wheeled vehicle, the third wheel is also the drive wheel as well as the steering wheel. Thus, the power that propels the vehicle is transferred through just one wheel to the support surface. When just one drive wheel is used, having sufficient traction between the drive wheel and the support surface is a concern and a problem, especially in connection with scrubbing machines where the drive wheel encounters wet surfaces created by the cleaning vehicle.
The present all-wheel steering mechanism powers two front wheels for improved traction over a one-wheel powered design. The steering mechanism connects the two front wheels and a third rear wheel such that each wheel conjointly turns or pivots when a change in direction of the vehicle is desired. When the cleaning vehicle of the present invention with the all-wheel steering mechanism is scrubbing or sweeping close to a wall and makes a turn, the vehicle may be pulled away from the wall by conjointly turning both front wheels in a first direction, such that the front end of the vehicle moves away from the wall, and conjointly turning the rear wheel in a second opposite direction, such that the back end of the vehicle moves toward the wall. This provides a quick break-away from the wall or other obstruction without creating any interference. The third wheel is located at the rear of the vehicle behind the two front drive wheels. Therefore the sweeping mechanism of the cleaning vehicle, which is a direct-throw style, has no wheels in the debris path causing interference. As the two front drive wheels are powered and are located ahead of the scrubbing system, they will typically be located on a dry surface to provide enhanced traction and driving control.

All-wheel steering mechanism for a cleaning vehicle


The present invention is directed towards an automated bending device for bending a strip of material into a desired shape. Particularly towards an automated bending device for bending a strip of metal into at least one side panel used to form three-dimensional letters in signs.

Lighted signs are commonly used as a tool for identifying stores or other types of businesses. Often, these signs are formed from a series of discrete, three-dimensional letters. These letters, commonly known as a "channel letters," typically include congruent front and/or back panels spaced apart by a rigid spacer band extending perpendicularly between the panel perimeters. The spacer band maintains the panels in a parallel, spaced-apart orientation. With this arrangement, the letters may be fitted with an internal light source and lit from within. Usually, at least the front panel of these letters is transparent or translucent, allowing light from within the letter to pass through the front panel, thereby illuminating the letter to passerby.
Various methods have been developed to efficiently and accurately produce these letters. The front and rear panels may be formed, for example, by cutting around a template or stencil. The letter may also be stamped from large sheets of material. Corresponding spacing strips, however, are harder to produce. Typically, the letter panel spacing strips are formed by cutting a strip of metal sheet stock to a predetermined length appropriate for the desired letter. Then the strip is bent at a series of key locations to produce a bounded region that will follow the contours of the selected letter. The strips also often include edge flanges that increase structural integrity. Collectively, these flanges also form surfaces that allow secure attachment of panels to the spacing strip. Additionally, the flanges maybe used to secure the completed letter to a wall or other mounting surface.


The present invention relates to a coating composition containing a combination of ultraviolet light absorbing compounds, one or more of which is bound to a polymer, and a method for reducing degradation of coating compositions due to ultraviolet light exposure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating composition containing a combination of polymer-bound ultraviolet light absorbing compounds.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Ultraviolet absorbers are used in coating compositions to reduce the degradation of the coating resulting from the effects of atmospheric oxygen, moisture and ultraviolet light. The degradation is manifest in cracking, loss of gloss, changes in shade, delamination and formation of bubbles in the cured coating films. It is known that stabilizers, such as ultraviolet (uv) absorbers, substantially prevent or minimize such damage in coatings.
Examples of ultraviolet light absorbers include benzotriazoles, 2-hydroxybenzophenones oxanilide, and 2-hydroxyphenyltriazines. Benzotriazoles are highly effective ultraviolet light absorbers over a broad spectrum, but these compounds are often not stable and may migrate to other coating layers in a multi-layer coating system or may chemically degrade in the coating composition, thereby losing efficacy as ultraviolet light absorbers. Triazine ultraviolet absorber compounds are more chemically stable, but do not have the range of ultraviolet light absorption that the benzotriazoles have.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the stability of ultraviolet light absorbers in a coating composition, to enhance ultraviolet light absorption and to reduce degradation of a coating composition due to ultraviolet light exposure.

Coating composition and method for reducing ultraviolet light degradation


According to a method of data processing in a data processing system, a hardware management component receives from a software component of the data processing system a request for management access to a hardware component of the data processing system. In response to receipt of the request for management access, the hardware management component determines whether or not the request contains a parameter indicative of the intended scope of hardware components to be accessed in response to the request. In response to the request, the hardware management component selects a scope in accordance with the determination and issues one or more hardware management commands to one or more target hardware components of the data processing system within the selected scope, such that an operating state of the one or more target hardware components is modified.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and in particular to the addition of a hardware component to a running data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The desire for higher performance and greater functionality in data processing systems in both the personal and commercial contexts has led the computer industry to continually improve computer systems. Generally, for both commercial and personal computer systems, improvements have focused on providing faster processors, larger upper level caches, larger random access memory (RAM), higher frequency buses, etc.
Additionally, with commercial systems in particular, improvements have also included providing greater processing resources, i.e., rather than replacing existing processors with faster ones, augmenting the total number of processors and linking them together to provide greater overall processing capability. Most current commercial systems are designed with multiple processors in a single system, and many commercial systems are distributed and/or networked systems with multiple individual systems interconnected to each other and sharing the processing workload. Even these "large-scale" commercial systems, however, are frequently upgraded or expanded as customer needs change.
When a data processing system is upgraded or changed, particularly with respect to its internal components, it is often necessary to power the system down before completing the installation. With externally connected I/O components, however, it may be possible to merely plug the component in while the system is powered-up and running. Irrespective of the method utilized to add the component (internally or externally), the system detects or receives an input indicating that additional hardware has been added or simply that a change in the system configuration has occurred. In response, the data processing system will (either automatically or with administrator intervention) initiate a system configuration upgrade and, if necessary, load the required drivers to complete the installation of the new hardware.
With large-scale commercial systems, the upgrade processes can be extremely time intensive, requiring up to several hours to complete in some situations. During that downtime, the customer cannot utilize the data processing system or a portion thereof. The outage is therefore very visible to the customer and may result in substantial financial loss, depending on the industry or specific use of the system. Also, a partial or full reboot of the system may be required to complete the integration of newly installed hardware components into the data processing system.

Addition of a hardware component to a running system

International Business Machines Corporation


A wrist exerciser includes a casing comprised of upper and lower casing members mounted together to form a substantially spherical shape. A rotor has opposite shafts rotatably received in the holes defined in the casing for rotatably supporting the rotor in the casing. Illumination elements are mounted on an outside surface of the rotor. A power source is fixed in the rotor for powering the illumination elements. A control circuit is in electrical connection with the power source and the illumination elements for selectively lighting the illumination elements. A transmission device is mounted in the rotor and has an interface circuit connected to the control circuit and a socket connector in connection with the interface circuit. A transmission cable has opposite ends forming first and second connectors, wherein the first connector is mateable with the socket connector of the transmission device of the rotor and the second connector is engageable with for example a personal computer for transferring control programs from the external device to the control circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a wrist exerciser that is held by a palm of a user and having an internal rotor that is caused to rotate by the user exercising his or her wrist muscles, and in particular to a wrist exerciser having display and transmission device for displaying and receiving images from an external device, such as a computer.
2. The Related Art
A wrist exerciser is employed to exercise and rehabilitate wrist-related muscles of a user. Apparent therapeutic result can be obtained in the user for rehabilitation purposes. Examples of the wrist exercisers are shown in Taiwan Utility Model No. 135058 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,311, both disclose wrist exercises in which wrist related muscles are well exercised by simply rotating the wrist exerciser with the wrist.
The conventional wrist exercisers have a simple structure and are operated by a user exercising his or her wrist muscles to cause rotation of an internal rotor. The rotation of the rotor induces centrifugal force that acts against the force of wrist muscles, realizing exerciser of the wrist muscles. Thus, the wrist exerciser is considered an exercising measure having only monotonic function of muscle exercising so that the wrist exerciser is generally not very appealing to the general consumers.
Wrist exercisers having display means are known, such as Taiwan Patent Publication No. 552982 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,405, both being filed in the name of the present inventor. Those conventional display-incorporated wrist exercisers, however, are still insufficient to attract the attention of the general consumers and thus, the present invention is aimed to further improve the wrist exerciser for the purpose of at least making the wrist exerciser more appealing to the general consumers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Wrist exerciser having display and transmission device


A white polyester film is described that includes at least a layer including, as a main component, a polyester resin (A), a thermoplastic resin (B) incompatible with the polyester resin (A), and an inorganic particle (C), where the white polyester film achieves high reflectance and a concealing property without increasing the thickness of the reflective film, the layer including voids in which the thermoplastic resin (B) functions as nuclei, wherein in a vertical section of the white film, NB2/NB1×100 (%) is 15% or more, wherein NB1 represents the number of the nuclei of the thermoplastic resin (B), and NB2 represents the number of the sections of the thermoplastic resin (B), the sections including the inorganic particle (C) inside.

In recent years, many displays in which liquid crystal is used have been used as a display device for a personal computer, a television, a mobile phone, or the like. These liquid crystal displays are irradiated with light from the back side by providing a surface light source called backlight for the display operation. The backlight has a surface light source structure called edge light type or direct type in order to meet the requirement of uniform irradiation of the entire screen. Particularly for use in thin liquid crystal displays used in notebook computers that are desired to be slimmed and downsized, an edge light type backlight, that is, a backlight of a type in which a light source is provided at the side of a screen is applied.
In the edge light type backlight, a cold cathode ray tube or an LED is used as a light source, and light is uniformly propagated and diffused from the edge of the light-guiding plate to uniformly irradiate the entire liquid crystal display. In order to further efficiently utilize the light, a reflective film is provided around the light source, and in order to efficiently irradiate the liquid crystal screen side with the light diffused from the light-guiding plate, a reflective film is provided on the back face of the light-guiding plate. As a result, the loss of the light from the light source is reduced, and the function of brightening the liquid crystal screen is imparted.
As a reflective film used in such a backlight for a liquid crystal display, a film to which a white pigment is added or a film that includes fine air bubbles inside has been conventionally used singly or in a state that the film is adhered to a metal plate, a plastic plate, or the like. In particular, the film that includes fine air bubbles inside is widely used because it has an effect of improving the luminance and a certain effect of uniformizing the screen luminance (Patent Documents 1 and 2).
As mobile phones/smartphones and notebook computers are slimmed and downsized, and as the screen sizes of televisions are increased, a reflective film is required to have high reflectivity, a high light concealing property, and high rigidity despite the small thickness of the reflective film. In so-called 4K and 8K high-definition liquid crystal televisions, the transmittance of the liquid crystal panel tends to decrease, and higher reflectivity is particularly required.
In a reflective film, a configuration is widely employed in which reflection of light due to a difference in refractive index at the interface between the fine bubbles included in the film and the matrix resin is utilized. In order to increase the reflectivity, it is necessary to increase the number of interfaces. In order to increase the number of interfaces, formation of a void in which an inorganic particle having a relatively small particle size functions as a nucleus has been studied (Patent Documents 3 and 4).
However, if the number of interfaces is increased, the film-forming property is deteriorated, therefore, the reflective film needs to have a sufficient thickness, so that it is difficult to reduce the film thickness.


It has been discovered that annatto oil is a highly effective cosmetic enhancement for suntanning. When annatto is added to the formulation of a suntan oil, preferably with other naturally occurring oils, the wearer receives a suntan that is cosmetically more desirable than that attained with formulations that do not contain annatto. A preferred formulation is disclosed herein that is over 99.9% composed of naturally occurring ingredients.

This invention pertains to suntan oil formulations and more particularly to suntan oil formulations that contain a cosmetic enhancement.
It is well known that the cosmetically desirable effect of suntanning the human skin is due to radiation exposure. Specifically, the required rays reside in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum at a wavelength from about 3,150 to about 3,650 angstroms. Accordingly, a large number of commercial suntanning products are presently marketed which are intended to accentuate this skin darkening process. Such products generally work in two fashions. A first is to increase the skin's exposure to ultraviolet rays by enabling the skin to reside longer in the ultraviolet wave source. A second is to offer cosmetic aids in the formulation that enhance the existing tan by altering the tanned skin's hue. Of these numerous commercially prepared products, many use artificially synthesized compounds to pursue their goal.
However, a substantial number of persons do not desire to use formulations containing artificially synthesized chemical compounds and would prefer to use a suntan product containing naturally occurring substances. While some naturally occurring substances such as lanolin, peanut oil, sesame oil, and petrolatum have been disclosed as being suitable for use as a suntan oil, such naturally occurring materials do not generally contain cosmetic aids acceptable to the person desiring only naturally occurring compounds. Another problem associated with such cosmetic aids currently in use is that they do not successfully alter the existing tan's hue to a quality level that is acceptable to the wearer.

Suntanning oil formulation containing annatto


A modular shoulder prosthesis for the replacement of a portion of the humerus is provided. The prosthesis is assembled from a kit that includes a stem sized to be received in the humerus, a body sized to replace a portion of the humerus, the body being attachable to the stem, and a head member sized to replace the head of the humerus, the head member being eccentrically attachable to the body. A collar is inserted between the head member and the body to help stabilize the assembled prosthesis.

The present invention relates to prostheses for replacement of a portion of the shoulder joint. More particularly, the present invention relates to a modular prosthesis for replacement of the upper portion of the humerus.
Conventional prostheses for the replacement of the upper portion of the humerus are typically unitary structures, generally including a stem designed to extend downwardly into a cavity within the humerus. The stem of the conventional prostheses is secured within the bone of the humerus by bone cement or through the use of coatings that promote bone ingrowth to secure the stem. The stem is attached to a body portion designed to replace portions of the humerus in the vicinity of the anatomical neck of the humerus. The conventional shoulder prosthesis also includes a generally spherical head portion configured to replace the head of the humerus. A collar is generally provided between the head portion and the stem to stabilize the prosthesis on the resected humerus. Generally, the collar rests on the resected surface of the humerus to distribute imposed loading on the prosthesis over a greater area of bone.
One difficulty with conventional unitary shoulder prostheses is the necessity of maintaining large inventories of differently sized prostheses to accommodate the different bone sizes of prospective patients. With such unitary shoulder prostheses, the patient is typically evaluated by x-ray to determine the approximate prosthesis size needed for bone replacement. A number of differently sized prostheses are selected as possible candidates for bone replacement on the basis of this evaluation, and the final selection of the appropriate prosthesis is selected during the replacement operation.
Fully or partially modular prostheses that diminish the problem of maintaining a large inventory are known for use as femur replacements. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,559 discloses a prosthesis that includes a separate threaded stem that is adapted to be screwed into a prepared cavity within the femur. The prosthesis separately comprises a head portion that includes a neck and collar that is adapted to be mated with the stem. This prosthesis is not designed to be assembled prior to insertion within the patient. The stem must first be screwed into the cavity within the femur. The head portion is then attached to the installed stem by a bolt. The collar is designed to rest upon the resected surface of the femur to support the load placed on the prosthesis. Because of the design of the stem, the head portion must include the collar in order to support the weight that will be placed on the prosthesis. The modularity of this prosthesis is limited because the neck and collar is a unitary structure.
Another prosthesis having a stem and a separate head portion is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,957, which discloses a prosthesis that includes a separate stem having a broadened proximal end. The broadened proximal end of the stem is configured to receive a head and threaded neck portion to form a complete prosthesis. The neck may be elongated or shortened depending on the specific anatomy of different patients. This prosthesis, like the prosthesis disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,559, is limited in flexibility because the head and neck portion is a unitary structure, and because the head and neck portion attaches directly into the stem.
A prosthesis in which the stem comprises more than one component is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,499. U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,499 discloses a prosthesis having a stem or shank component that includes two parts, an anchoring part and a transition part. A ball is connected to the transition part. Also, a collar may be included between the ball and a portion of the femur. The anchoring part is provided with external threads that are adapted to tap themselves into the femur. The transition part is coupled to the anchoring part by a guide pin and securing screw. The ball is adapted to be screwed onto the free end of the transition part. The prosthesis is designed to be placed in position within the body component by component, and assembled sequentially.
In addition to modular femoral prostheses, partially modular humeral prostheses have been described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,605 to Dines et al. discloses a shoulder prosthesis having a humeral component and a glenoid component. The humeral component includes a stem and an integrally attached collar. A spherical head having a stem fittable into a tapered bore in the stem of the humeral component to provide a friction tight attachment between the head and the stem of the humeral component is also described. Both the head and the stem of the humeral component are available in different sizes.
According to the present invention, a kit for the assembly of a shoulder prosthesis for the replacement of a portion of a humerus is provided. The kit includes at least two stems of differing size, with each stem sized for insertion into the humerus and at least two bodies, with each body sized to replace a portion of the humerus. In addition, the kit includes at least two head members, with each head member sized to replace the head of the humerus. Attachment means for fixedly attaching one of the at least two head members to one of the at least two bodies is also provided. Optionally, the kit can contain at least two collars, with each collar configured to be positioned between one of the at least two head members and one of the at least two bodies to contact humeral bone and stabilize the position of the inserted shoulder prosthesis.
Preferably, the kit of the present invention consists of a plurality of stems, bodies, collars, and head members all having various sizes and shapes. These separate components are adapted to be assembled together to form a custom prosthesis of a desired size and shape. One advantage of this feature is that a shoulder prosthesis of a desired size and shape may be assembled from the kit at the time of the operation. Another advantage results from the large number of varying configuration shoulder prostheses that can be assembled from the component parts without needing to increase the number of assembled shoulder prostheses maintained in hospital inventory.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides for an implant apparatus for replacing a portion of a humerus that includes a body formed to define a bore therein. A head member sized to replace the head of the humerus is eccentrically or centrally attached to the body. Eccentric attachment allows adjustable superior/inferior or anterior/posterior positioning of the head member relative to the body to provide a better fit for the implanted shoulder prosthesis. In preferred embodiments, the eccentric or central attachment is maintained by the interaction of a locking socket defined in the bore of the body to have a polygonal cross section, and a lock finger defined by the head member to present a lock element configured to fit in the locking socket. The locking socket can be formed to have a hexagonal cross section and the lock element of the lock finger hexagonally configured to fit in the locking socket so that the head member can be positioned relative to the body in one of six possible orientations.
The modular shoulder prosthesis of the present invention thus provides the ability to assemble a custom prosthesis by selecting different sizes, shapes, and orientations of individual components to meet the requirements of the individual patient exactly. The provision of the kit greatly reduces the inventory required to be maintained by the hospital. Also, the kit form of the prosthesis increases greatly the flexibility of the implant apparatus, and provides for the assembly of a prosthesis that may otherwise be unavailable.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.


A chip battery includes an element body including a solid electrolyte layer, a positive electrode layer, and a negative electrode layer. Current collectors are provided on the positive electrode layer and the negative electrode layer, respectively, of the element body using a conductive material, such as Pt. In addition, protective films are provided on both end surfaces of the element body and on the current collectors so that the current collectors are exposed near the respective ends in the longitudinal direction of the element body. Further, protective films are provided on the side surfaces of the element body to define a base body. Further, terminal electrodes are provided on the base body so as to be brought into surface contact with the exposed surfaces of the current collectors on both end sides in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction of the element body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip battery including a solid electrolyte.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chip battery includes an element body including, for example, a solid electrolyte layer and positive and negative electrode layers provided on both surfaces of the solid electrolyte layer. In addition, terminal electrodes are provided on the positive and negative electrode layers of the element body. In order to increase the battery capacity of such a chip battery, it is necessary to increase the amount of the electrode active material included in each of the positive and negative electrode layers. Also, in order to increase the output current, it is necessary to increase the opposing area between the terminal electrode and the positive electrode layer and the opposing area between the terminal electrode and the negative electrode layer. On the other hand, chip batteries are often mounted on substrates, and chip batteries are required to have a lower profile as other devices have lower profiles.
In order to satisfy these conditions, a solid electrolyte layer, a positive electrode layer, a negative electrode layer, and terminal electrodes are preferably laminated in a direction substantially perpendicular to a mounting surface of a chip battery. However, when terminal electrodes are provided on both sides in the direction substantially perpendicular to a mounting surface of a chip battery, it is necessary to perform wire bonding between the terminal electrode on the upper surface and a substrate and to accommodate the chip battery in a package which can be surface-mounted, thereby preventing surface-mounting of the chip battery as a single unit. In order to surface-mount a chip battery, terminal electrodes are preferably provided on both ends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction of an element body as in a chip capacitor.
Therefore, a configuration of a chip battery is shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B. A chip battery 1 includes a solid electrolyte layer 2. In addition, a positive electrode layer 3 is provided on one of the surfaces of the solid electrolyte layer 2, and a negative electrode layer 4 is provided on the other surface of the solid electrolyte layer 2. Further, current collectors 5a and 5b are provided on the positive electrode layer 3 and the negative electrode layer 4, respectively. The positive electrode layer 3 and the current collector 5a are arranged so as to extend from one of the ends to the other end in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction of the solid electrolyte layer 2 and the positive and negative electrode layers 3 and 4 and so as not to be exposed at the other end. The negative electrode layer 4 and the current collector 5b are arranged so as to extend from the other end to the one end in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction of the solid electrolyte layer 2 and the positive and negative electrode layers 3 and 4 and so as not to be exposed at the one end.
Furthermore, an insulator layer 6 is provided on each of the current collectors 5a and 5b. In addition, terminal electrodes 7 and 8 are provided on both end surfaces of the laminate in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction thereof. The ends of the positive electrode layer 3 and the current collector 5a are electrically connected to one 7 of the terminal electrodes. The ends of the negative electrode layer 4 and the current collector 5b are electrically connected to the other terminal electrode 8. Further, a resin layer 9 is provided on each of the lamination surfaces of the laminate between the terminal electrodes 7 and 8.
In such a chip battery 1, good charge-discharge properties can be achieved by optimizing the thickness of each of the solid electrolyte layer 2 and the positive and negative electrode layers 3 and 4. Also, the current collectors 5a and 5b are brought into line contact with the terminal electrodes 7 and 8, respectively, thereby decreasing the area of the contact portions between the current collectors 5a and 5b and the terminal electrodes 7 and 8. Therefore, even when unit cells are laminated to define a chip battery having a multi-cell structure, a small chip battery without increasing the mounting area can be achieved (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-352850).
The chip battery shown in FIG. 8 includes the element body including layers laminated in a direction substantially perpendicular to a mounting surface, and the terminal electrodes provided on both end surfaces of the element body in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lamination direction thereof, thereby permitting surface mounting. However, since a current collector is brought into line contact with each terminal electrode, the contact area therebetween and the reliability of connection between the current collector and the terminal electrode are decreased and the internal resistance of the chip battery is increased.


This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for video capture of a three-dimensional region of interest in a scene using an array of video cameras. The video cameras of the array are positioned for viewing the three-dimensional region of interest in the scene from their respective viewpoints. A triggering mechanism is provided for staggering the capture of a set of frames by the video cameras of the array. The apparatus has a processing unit for combining and operating on the set of frames captured by the array of cameras to generate a new visual output, such as high-speed video or spatio-temporal structure and motion models, that has a synthetic viewpoint of the three-dimensional region of interest. The processing involves spatio-temporal interpolation for determining the synthetic viewpoint space-time trajectory. In some embodiments, the apparatus computes a multibaseline spatio-temporal optical flow.

The use of separate video cameras for high-speed video capture and 3-dimensional scene or object reconstruction is known in the art. General information on multi-camera systems and associated image processing can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,475,422; 5,517,236; 5,675,377; 5,710,875; 6,084,979; 6,198,852.
Now, U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,499 to Oguma et al. discloses a high-speed video camera using solid-state sensors. This system does not scale to a large number of cameras and thus limits the highest achievable system frame rate. In addition, due to small number of cameras it suffers from rolling shutter distortion when capturing fast moving objects in the scene. This distortion cannot be corrected without having visible seams in the image.
E. Shechtman, et al., "Increasing space-time resolution in video" European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), May 2002 teach the use of multiple cameras and align to a plane, but they do not have control over triggering. As a result, they cannot guarantee a constant frame rate for the final sequence. More importantly, their formulation relies on overlapping exposure times, resulting in blurry images. They attempt to remove the blur (and increase the temporal resolution) by a regularized deconvolution. This operation is known to be ill-conditioned and is only marginally successful while being computationally intensive.
Some known methods for controlling trigger timing are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,871, which teaches simultaneous triggering, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,154,251 and 5,659,233, which also teach simultaneous capture. Other approaches to triggering of synchronized camera arrays with arbitrary offsets all use cameras with dedicated synchronization inputs. Some commercial technologies exist for creating phase-shifted copies of triggering or timing signals for different cameras. These do not, however, scale well to large numbers of cameras. Moreover, they require different synchronization signals for each camera.
Still other prior art methods use still cameras with a configurable delay between triggers. These methods, as practiced, e.g., by Manex Entertainment, apparently use a trigger signal that propagates from one camera to the next after some delay. Because of the delay between cameras the trigger must run serially through the entire array of cameras and as it does so, each delay adds some timing uncertainty in addition to the propagation time for the signal. More importantly, this system works only for still cameras, since video cameras usually run at constant frame rates. The Manex system cannot guarantee that, especially with large numbers of cameras and arbitrary delays. The time from one frame acquisition to the next is at least the time for the delay signal to traverse the entire camera array. More generally, these methods and systems are not designed to allow the user to derive arbitrary space-time trajectories after filming just once. They are only designed to capture one space-time arc, or simulate one high speed, moving camera.
Much work has been done on view interpolation for scenes at a single instant in time. For some general prior art teachings on view interpolation the reader is referred to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,097,394 and 6,831,643.
Multiple cameras are used to capture frames from a finite number of viewing positions. For a static (non-moving) scene, one could also take several images from different viewing positions using the same camera. View interpolation methods create new visual outputs or pictures of the scene that appear to have been taken from virtual viewpoints other than the actual viewpoints of the cameras. These methods are often extended trivially to video by ensuring that all of the cameras are synchronized to trigger frame capture simultaneously such that all frames or images at a given instant in time represent the same "frozen" scene.
Spatiotemporal view interpolation methods create new images of a scene from virtual viewing positions or viewpoints and at times other than the actual times and positions corresponding to the captured frames or images. For example, using a synchronized 30 frames per second (fps) camera array (triggered simultaneously), view interpolation methods could be used to create images from viewpoints other than the viewpoint of any of the cameras, but at the same time instants as the captured images. Spatiotemporal view interpolation methods can create images at new times, too. Thus, in principle, videos can be created that appear to come from video cameras with higher frame rates than those actually used to capture the frames.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,533 Shum, et al. describe a minimum sampling rate and a minimum sampling curve for image-based rendering. However, Shum provides no teaching on temporal sampling for image-based rendering.
Additional work on spatio-temporal view interpolation is described by S. Vedula, et al., "Spatio-temporal view interpolation", Eurographics Workshop on Rendering, 2002, pp. 65-75 and R. Carceroni and K. Kutulakos, "Multi-view scene capture by surfel sampling: From video streams to nonrigid 3d motion, shape & reflectance", International Conference on Computer Vision 2001. Both of these use cameras synchronized to trigger simultaneously, and both deduce structural and reflectance models for the scene. For static scenes, this is still a challenging vision problem that requires sophisticated computational methods that incorporate data from all or many images. For spatiotemporal view interpolation, they must also infer the motion of their scene models across time.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, it would be an advance in the art to provide an apparatus and method that provide for deliberately and precisely controlled camera arrays for capturing scenes in a format that is well-suited for processing. In particular, it would be desirable to provide for a frame capture staging for camera arrays so as to permit spatio-temporal interpolation and processing of new visual outputs with minimal computational load.

Apparatus and method for capturing a scene using staggered triggering of dense camera arrays

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A first power source line is formed around a memory area having a memory cell array, column decoder, row decoder and sense amplifier formed therein. The first power source line is applied with a potential which is obtained by lowering a power source voltage supplied from the exterior. A second power source line is formed in the surrounding region of the first power source line. The second power source line is applied with a ground potential. A first peripheral circuit driven by a voltage between the lowered potential and the ground potential is disposed in an area between the first and second power source lines. The first peripheral circuit is a circuit used for the memory area. A third power source line is formed in the surrounding region of the second power source line. The third power source line is applied with a power source potential supplied from the exterior. A second peripheral circuit driven by a voltage between the power source potential and the ground potential is disposed in an area between the second and third power source lines. The second peripheral circuit is a circuit used for an external circuit of a chip.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the chip layout of a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to the pattern layout of power source lines in a semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various configurations of the chip layout in a semiconductor memory device such as a dynamic RAM or static RAM are disclosed in "ELECTRONIC PARTS AND MATERIALS" May 1983, pp 123-129 "Noticeable Articles in ISSCC'83" issued from the Industry Researching Society, for example.
In recent years, the integration density of the semiconductor memory device has been markedly increased, and with the formation of the semiconductor memory device of even higher integration density, the size of memory cells has been reduced. Since the thickness of the insulation film of the miniaturized memory cell is reduced, the breakdown voltage thereof becomes lower and the reliability thereof becomes lower. In order to ensure the high reliability of the memory cell, attempts have been made to lower the power source potential of a memory area and a circuit used for the memory area. That is, the power source potential supplied to the chip from the exterior is set to 5V, for example, which is the same level as that used at present and the power source potential for the memory area and the circuit used for the memory area is set to a potential level (for example, 3.OV to 3.5V) which is lower than 5V. Therefore, even if a thin insulation film is used in the miniaturized memory cell, the dielectric breakdown can be suppressed and the reliability can be kept high.
However, in a device formed based on the above method, three power source lines, that is, a power source line for applying 5V to the chip, a power source line applied with a voltage less than 5V and a power source line applied with a ground potential are required. As a result, the number of power source lines in the above device is increased in comparison with a case of the conventional device in which only a 5V power source is used. Further, since not only a peripheral circuit used for the memory area but also a peripheral circuit used for the external portion of the chip are provided in the chip, a useless area may be provided on the chip and the chip area may be increased unless special and careful attention is given to the arrangement of the peripheral circuits and the laying of the power source lines.

Pattern layout of power source lines in semiconductor memory device


An overhead people detection and tracking system and method is provided. The system includes a memory having computer-readable instructions stored therein. The system includes a processor configured to access a plurality of video frames captured using one or more overhead video cameras installed in a space. The processor is configured to extract one or more images of the space from the plurality of video frames. Further, the processor is configured to process the one or more images to identify person detections in the space. Each detection corresponds to a person present in the space. In addition, the processor is configured to analyze the detections to define at least one of true positives and false positives associated with movement of one or more persons within the space. Furthermore, the processor is configured to maintain a count of the one or more persons entering and/or exiting the space based upon at least one of the true positives and the false positives.

With the development of intelligent monitoring technologies, people detection and tracking has made a lot of progress in recent years. Counting people is useful in understanding the flow of people in public resource management and video surveillance. Real time people detection and counting in spaces has been researched and is used in a wide range of applications from efficient allocation of resources in smart buildings to retail outlets to handling emergency situations.
Most of the work in the field of object/people detection has been approached using front to-parallel or front view of the objects in space such as pedestrian detection algorithms. However, due to occlusion and depth perception, the tracking and detection results may not be accurate. Moreover, it requires extra hardware such as multiple cameras, for detection and tracking of multiple people in cluttered scenes. The processing power required and cost of multiple cameras makes the use of such methods undesirable. Alternatively, top view detection and tracking solutions allow to detect and track with minimal or no occlusions.
Moreover, constant movement of people, including people of different age groups and body types makes people detection a challenging process. In addition, there is a significant variation in a person's appearances depending only on their position in the space. Other techniques like blob detection using BG subtract may not perform well in cluttered environments. These techniques are also very susceptible to outdoor scenarios with shadows and where light conditions change constantly. Such solutions are susceptible to illumination changes, shadows and reflections.
Most recently, certain deep learning solutions have been used in people tracking and detection. However, such solutions are computationally expensive and require specialized hardware to obtain the results in real time. Similarly, classic and effective techniques like Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG), SVM and their modifications do not perform well in the current detection techniques. Moreover, factors such as presence of obstacles and varying lighting conditions make the process of accurately estimating the number of people in an area at given time very difficult.
Other single and multi-object trackers achieve a very low frame speed. For example, MDNet and VITAL give 1 FPS and 1.5 FPS respectively with Tesla GPU, while MSDAT, RDT, BACF gives 30-40 FPS but requires GPU. Consequently, both detection as well as tracking of people becomes highly challenging and ambiguous.
Each algorithm performs differently in terms of efficiency, flexibility and accuracy for different scenarios. The performance of such algorithms under real-time scenarios demonstrates the need for more accurate and faster people detection algorithms. It is challenging to evaluate these algorithms with respect to different real-time application scenarios and other environment conditions. Thus, there is a need of achieving a real time detection and tracking technique that is computationally light and at the same time provides accurate results.

Overhead people detection and tracking system and method

CAPILLARY TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL PTE LTD


An envelope adapted to hold a disc such as a computer disc or a CD and being adapted to be bound into a spine of a publication. The envelope is formed from a blank and has a front face, a back face, a top edge, a bottom edge, and side edges. One of the side edges is formed from the fold in the blank. Margins are formed around the remaining side edges, the margins defining an area sized to accept the disc. Adhesive strips are provided in the side and bottom margins to glue the front and back faces of the envelope together so that the envelope will be sealed along three of the four sides and opened along the top edge. A flap is provided in the top margin in the front face. The flap can be bent away from the back face to allow for access to the area. A peel-and-seal strip is placed in the top margin to seal to opened edge once the disc has been inserted in the area. A tear strip is provided in the flap to facilitate removal of the disc from the envelope. The side margin is sufficiently wide to space the disc from the spine of the publication to permit the envelope to be bound into the spine of the publication.

This invention relates to envelopes sized to accept discs, such as computer discs, computer CDs, music CDs, etc., and in particular, to such an envelope which may be incorporated into a magazine or the like.
Publishers of magazines and books, especially magazines and books related to computers and software, often include computer disks with the publications. Currently, publishers of books typically glue a sleeve to the inside of the back cover of the book, or wrap the book in cellophane, to package a disc with the book. Periodicals which include discs are typically wrapped in cellophane to prevent the disc from separating from the magazine during shipment of the magazine.

Paperboard envelope for a computer disc or CD which is insertable in a bound publication


Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for prioritizing patching of vulnerable components are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes obtaining information indicative of a first set of components embedded in a software package; determining risk levels for respective ones of the components in the first set based on a data flow representation of the software package; and assigning a priority for patching a software vulnerability in a given component of the first set based at least in part on the risk level of the given component.

Increasingly, customers are insisting on improved transparency regarding components included in software packages so that they can assess the security of their environment and infrastructure in the face of dynamic threats. Some vendors include a Software Bill of Materials (S-BOM) along with the software, which includes component level information. When a vulnerability is announced, customers can reference the S-BOM to determine whether their software includes the component corresponding to the vulnerability. A software patch may be applied in some instances to address the vulnerability. The S-BOM often causes false positives (e.g., the component may have been modified by the vendor or the component may not be exploitable), thereby creating unnecessary work for both the customer and the vendor. False positive rates may also result, for example, from sharing software component information.
A need exists for improved techniques for efficiently prioritizing patches to improve the overall security of the system.

Prioritizing patching of vulnerable components


A portable lighting lamp comprises a housing containing a lighting module with light-emitting diodes, an electric power source by means of batteries, and a switch for control of lighting of the light-emitting diodes. The housing comprises an intermediate support made of insulating plastic material which is equipped with a securing device on the front wall for fitting of the lighting module, positioning means imbricated on the two opposite sides between contacts in electrical connection with the light-emitting diodes and the batteries, and recesses on the rear wall for housing the batteries between the contacts.

The invention relates to a portable lighting lamp comprising a housing containing a lighting module with light-emitting diodes LED, an electrical power source, notably by means of batteries, rechargeable or not, and a switch to control lighting of the light-emitting diodes LED.
Light-emitting diodes generally have a longer lifetime than that of filament bulbs and have a high electrical efficiency.
The documents DE 2,971,229, DE 3,916,875 and DE 3,929,125 describe lighting devices making use of light-emitting diodes. Assembly of these devices is complicated and requires a large amount of space.
The object of the invention is to achieve a lighting lamp with light-emitting diodes having a structure making for quick assembly and compact dimensions.
The lighting lamp according to the invention is characterized in that the housing comprises an intermediate insulating support equipped with:
a securing means on the front wall for fitting of the lighting module,
positioning means imbricated on the two opposite sides between contacts in electrical connection with the light-emitting diodes and the power supply batteries,
and recesses on the rear wall for housing the batteries between the contacts.
According to a preferred embodiment, the positioning means are arranged to enable the intermediate support to be clipped onto a dish-shaped base and onto a front enclosure so as to confine a first compartment housing the lighting module and a second compartment accommodating the batteries. The lighting module comprises an insulating base-part having a series of recesses for housing the light-emitting diodes, one of the sides of said base-part enabling parallel connection of the wires whereas the other side acts as support for the switch having a flexible contact blade operating in conjunction with a fixed conductor. The contact blade is actuated by a control button accessible in a groove of the enclosure. The control button is secured to a mobile slide urging the contact blade to the closed position or the open position of the switch.
According to one feature of the invention, a reflector is provided with circular holes for passage of the light-emitting diodes, said reflector being arranged in the first compartment between the lighting module and a glass pane of the front enclosure.
According to another feature of the invention, the intermediate support is joined to the base by hinges formed by a pair of flexible plastic tabs clipped onto studs of the base.

Portable lighting lamp with light-emitting diodes


A method for automatically transferring spouted pouches provides a simple, efficient approach for automatically loading spouted pouches from a container to a belt conveyor. And, an automatic pouch transferring assembly is also provided.

Spouted pouches are becoming more popular in many industries, such as food, beverage, laundry, hygiene and the like. On one hand, such spouted pouches are made with flexible films which are cost-effective and easy to ship and store. On the other hand, the spouts on such pouches can be used to effectively dispense liquid contents from the pouches. There is an increasingly wide variety of available spouts that can meet different liquid-dispensing needs. Many liquid products that are once limited to rigid packaging can now be stored in and dispensed from spouted pouches.
However, the current level of automation in packaging cannot effectively handle spouted pouches.
In most manufacturing facilities, empty spouted pouches are manually picked up from their containers and loaded onto an infeed belt conveyor for further processing. Such manual loading is both laborious and inefficient. This is probably due to the difficulty in detecting spouted pouches when they are packed tightly inside a container (for example, a carton). Further, the spouted pouches so packed may not be arranged in order, resulting in further difficulties in locating and gripping these pouches. Additionally, the spouted pouches are very thin and flexible, making it harder to be gripped and transferred out of the container.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to develop a method for automatically transferring spouted pouches from a container to an infeed belt conveyor as well as a system for implementing such method.

Method for automatically transferring spouted pouches and automatic pouch transferring assembly


A predetermined steel containing Te: 0.0005 mass % to 0.0050 mass % is heated to 1320° C. or lower to be subjected to hot rolling, and is subjected to annealing, cold rolling, decarburization annealing, and nitridation annealing, and thereby a decarburized nitrided steel sheet is obtained. Further, an annealing separating agent is applied on the surface of the decarburized nitrided steel sheet and finish annealing is performed, and thereby a glass coating film is formed. The N content of the decarburized nitrided steel sheet is set to 0.0150 mass % to 0.0250 mass % and the relationship of 2×[Te]+[N]≦0.0300 mass % is set to be established. Note that [Te] represents the Te content and [N] represents the N content.

A grain-oriented electrical steel sheet is a steel sheet that contains Si and of which the orientation of crystal grains is highly integrated in the {110}<001> orientation, and is used as a material of a wound iron core and so on of a stationary induction apparatus such as a transformer. The control of the orientation of the crystal grains is performed by using an abnormal grain growth phenomenon called secondary recrystallization.
In recent years, there has been a growing tendency to save energy, so that as a method to achieve the above secondary recrystallization, the following manufacturing techniques have been established. In Patent Literature 1, there has been disclosed a low-temperature slab heating method in which based on heating a slab at a temperature of 1280° C. or lower, in a nitridation annealing step performed after cold rolling, fine dispersed precipitates such as AlN, (Al.Si)N being inhibitors are precipitated.
Further, there has been known a method of containing an auxiliary element that strengthens the function of inhibitors in a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet, in order to improve a magnetic property of a product. A method of utilizing Te as the element as above has been disclosed in Patent Literatures 2 to 5.
However, when Te is contained in the grain-oriented electrical steel sheet, the magnetic property of a product is improved, but there is caused a problem that a defect is caused on an appearance of a glass coating film existing on the surface of the grain-oriented electrical steel sheet.

Manufacturing method of grain-oriented electrical steel sheet

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation


A method for analyzing a biological sample is performed by analyzing a biological sample for the presence of one or more mutations or polymorphisms in the BCRA1 and/or BCRA2 genes.

African-American (AA) women under 50 years of age have the highest rate of new cases of breast cancer in the nation and tend to present at an earlier age with larger tumors and more advanced stage disease. This excess in breast cancer incidence among young AA women may be due to increased exposure to known risk factors, and/or a decreased exposure to protective factors, or due to genetic factors. Extensive studies designed to detect a possible molecular basis for this difference have not been reported.
A commercially available service for assessing a woman's risk of acquiring breast cancer involves detecting mutations in two genes—BRCA1 and BRCA2. This service is relatively expensive as it involves complete sequencing of these genes. Other methods for screening for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations include single stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and selected DNA sequencing of gene variants, or DHPLC and DNA sequencing of gene variants. These are labor-intensive, and would therefore likely be expensive if commercially implemented. Accordingly what is needed is a compilation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that could be used for screening for specific mutations/variants in subjects, particularly AA women.


A method performed by an electronic device is described. The method includes determining overlapping areas from neighboring images. The method also includes determining a difference measure between the overlapping areas. The method further includes determining a constraint measure corresponding to at least one of the overlapping areas. The method additionally includes determining a seam based on a combination of the difference measure and the constraint measure.

In the last several decades, the use of electronic devices has become common. In particular, advances in electronic technology have reduced the cost of increasingly complex and useful electronic devices. Cost reduction and consumer demand have proliferated the use of electronic devices such that they are practically ubiquitous in modern society. As the use of electronic devices has expanded, so has the demand for new and improved features of electronic devices. More specifically, electronic devices that perform new functions and/or that perform functions faster, more efficiently or with higher quality are often sought after.
Some electronic devices (e.g., cameras, video camcorders, digital cameras, cellular phones, smart phones, computers, televisions, etc.) capture and/or utilize images. For example, a digital camera may capture a digital image.
It may be difficult to implement some complex processing tasks efficiently. For example, some platforms may have limited processing, memory and/or energy resources. Furthermore, increasing power efficiency and/or reducing time to complete a complex processing task may be challenging. As can be observed from this discussion, systems and methods that improve image processing may be beneficial.

Systems and methods for determining a seam