The terminal block assembly of this invention provides a finger safe method of distributing power while at the same time enabling the installer to make uniform and correct connections to a multiplicity of taps or ports. Each connection includes an abutment or seat physically to engage the end of the conductor and in addition the construction of the block and its insulating case provides the installer with visual access to the tip of the conductor in its proper seated position before the conductor is secured to the block with clamp screws. In order to provide such visual access the walls partially blocking the seating end of each conductor socket are scalloped or provided with an inverted conical section which enables the tip of each conductor to be seen from the top of the block. To facilitate this visual access the entire top of the insulating case is made from a transparent material. In one embodiment the top is provided with interior projections serving both to gauge and limit retraction of some of the clamp screws to prevent loose screws in the case. In another embodiment the screws, even though fully retracted or disengaged from the blcok, are held in axial alignment with their respective sockets and can't become loose in the case.

In the distribution of electric power, distribution blocks are often employed. These assemblies have widely been used for distributing incoming electrical power to a number of distinct circuits. Applications may vary widely such as power distribution to houses from a common transformer, or in electrical distribution panel boards where the blocks may be mounted on a common rail for distribution in mono-polar or multi-polar applications.
Typically the block includes a connection for a larger conductor cable or bus and a plurality of tap connections for smaller conductors. The bare ends of the conductors are inserted in socket ports or holes and held in place typically by a clamp or binding screw threaded in a hole perpendicular to the socket receiving the conductor.
One of the problems with these types of distribution blocks is that many of the tap connections are added at a later time after the system is in operation and the block energized. To make the connection safely the system may require to be shut down, and this in turn may create a raft of problems, particularly if the power is shut down for any length of time.
In order to protect the block from incidental contact many are enclosed in insulating enclosures or cases which protect the block from direct contact. To make a connection the case may be provided with large windows or ports or even hinged covers which may be opened for access, or the cases may be removed entirely, all of which permits finger contact with the block by the installer.
The use of insulating cases makes the proper installation of primary and tap connections more problematic. In a connection using a typical blind socket port or hole the installer simply inserts the bare or stripped end of the conductor into the socket until resistence is felt and then tightens the binding screw. It may not be determined that an improper connection was made until the power is turned on again or until the connection fails because the bare end of the conductor wasn't properly positioned with respect to the binding screw. The conductor may have hung-up on an obstruction which was not the blind end of the hole or port. If the conductor is inserted too far, the projecting end may interfere with or obstruct something else, and the binding screw may be tightened on insulation. Moreover non-uniform projecting conductors create a mess, particularly when all the taps are used making service and inspection difficult.
It would accordingly be advantageous for the installer to be able to have both the abutment afforded by the blind end of the port and a visual check to see that the conductor is properly inserted or placed before the binding screw is tightened. In this manner, ensured uniform connections can be made for each of the taps, with the ends of the conductors projecting beyond the screws a uniform distance, and not too far or not far enough.
Another problem with insulating cases involves loose screws. If there is enough clearance between the top of the block and the cover of the case, the binding screws may be backed out too far and become disengaged with the threaded socket. The result is a loose screw inside the insulating case and the only way it can be repositioned or reinserted in its threaded socket is to open the case, which in turn compromises the goal of providing a finger safe assembly without shutting off the power.
It would also of course be desirable that these uniform tap connections could all be made without turning off the power or opening an insulating case. It would therefore be desirable to be able to make such uniform connections having both the visual and physical abutment check without finger contact with the block and without opening the case. A power distribution block with such connections which is finger-safe once the incoming line is installed is highly desirable.
It would also be advantageous to have an assembly where the screws could not be backed out far enough to become disengaged from their respective threaded sockets. But if they did become disengaged, without becoming loose or losing their alignment with their respective threaded socket, and all without losing both the visual and physical check of proper placement of the conductor within the gallery or port of the block.


Systems and processes can reduce or divide images of road networks into sub-images that depict straight or substantially straight sections of roads in the road networks. These sub-images or image segments can be normalized by, for example, rotating each of the sub-images such that the depicted roads are horizontal or otherwise share the same angle. By aligning disparate images of roads, it is possible to both reduce the amount of training data used to generate a machine learning model and to increase the accuracy of an automated lane marking or labelling system. Further, the use of normalized images by the machine learning model enables a reduction in computing resources used to perform automated lane marking processes while maintaining or improving accuracy of the lane marking processes.

Vehicles—such as vehicles used for ride-sharing purposes, vehicles that provide driver-assist functionality, and/or automated or autonomous vehicles (AVs)—may obtain and process sensor data using an on-board data processing system to perform a variety of functions. For example, functions can include determining and/or displaying navigational routes, identifying road signs, detecting objects and/or road obstructions, controlling vehicle operation, and/or the like.
Some of the variety of functions performed by the on-board data processing system relate to the use of maps and/or images of roads. For example, providing navigational routes may rely on maps provided to the on-board data processing system. These maps may be obtained using imaging systems and/or user-provided data. Sometimes the maps are out-of-date or provide less than optimal information for certain functions (e.g., navigational routing) because, for example, changes in road networks, accidents, weather conditions, or unexpected events. Further, even when maps are current, some maps are insufficiently granular for certain functions. For example, a map that illustrates the existence of roads may be sufficient for providing a route, but may be insufficient for autonomous driving, which may require additional information (e.g., speed zone information).

Image pre-processing in a lane marking determination system

Beijing DiDi Infinity Technology and Development Co., Ltd.


The invention is a method for emission tomographic reconstruction from measurement data, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining the measurement data corresponding to activity of particle emissions of a volume from a tomographic imaging system, and performing at least one iteration step to obtain emission density data of particle emissions of the volume from the measurement data, wherein the at least one iteration step comprises a forward projection being a projection from the emission density data to the measurement data, and a back projection being a projection from the measurement data to the emission density data, and the at least one iteration step is carried out in a parallel hardware architecture, wherein both the forward projection and the back projection are of at least partially gathering type, and the measurement data is of binned type. The invention also relates to computer readable medium and a system for processing tomographic reconstruction from measurement data.

In emission tomography the density data of particle emissions (in the following: emission density data) in a volume has to be found on the basis of measurement data. Emitting particles are for instance positrons or gamma photons. Emitted particles may get scattered or get absorbed, and may also change their type in the volume or before detection. Emitted particles or the particles originating from the emitted particles arrive in detector devices that report detection events. The above mentioned physical phenomena complicate the tomographic reconstruction, and for an appropriate result these have to be taken into account in the course of the reconstruction. An emission tomographic reconstruction method reconstructs the emission density data based on the measurement data obtained from signals of detector devices comprising a plurality of detector elements.
In Positron Emission Tomography (PET) the density of radioactive tracer materials has to be found, which is proportional with its emission density data. In the case of PET, the particles emitted from the tracer material are positrons, which are replaced by pairs of approximately oppositely directed gamma photons when they annihilate with electrons (cf. Physics reference manual, Geant4 9.1. Technical Report, CERN, 2007). These gamma photons may get scattered in the body and/or in the detector elements before they get finally absorbed in a detector element comprised in the detector device or module. The detector elements are usually in the form of detector crystals. In PET the detector device should detect pairs of gamma photons arriving almost simultaneously, so an event occurs if two detector elements nearly simultaneously detect two photons. This means that in PET, a pair of detector elements, sometimes called detector crystals, represents a conceptual detector, which is also called Line Of Response (LOR).
In Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT), emitted particles are gamma photons. A particle may also get scattered or absorbed in the object, in the collimator or in the detector crystals comprised in a detector device rotating around the object to be investigated. A detector crystal—i.e. a detector element—is able to detect gamma photons that went through a collimator associated to it. The collimator can be for example parallel hole, pinhole, multi-pinhole, fan or cone beam, slit-slat type or any other type. Thus in SPECT, a conceptual detector is defined by the actual orientation of the detector device, i.e. of its detector elements and the corresponding collimators. The line characterizing this orientation is called the projection line.
Two main types of the reconstruction methods are known. If the emission density is reconstructed only from the number of events per conceptual detector, then the reconstruction process is said to be based on binned data. In a binned type reconstruction the inputs comprise the total number of hits in conceptual detectors acquired during the measurement. Consequently, when binned reconstruction is applied, individual detector events undergo binning and the emission density data has to be reconstructed from the spatial histogram of photon pair hits in the case of PET or from the photon hits in the case of SPECT.
However, if the reconstruction method considers events one-by-one in their order, then the reconstruction is of a list mode. A list mode reconstruction may involve more information, like the timing of individual events. The differences between binned and list mode reconstruction are given in more detail below.
The required output of a reconstruction method of any type is the emission density function x({right arrow over (v)}) in points {right arrow over (v)} of a volume of interest □, which is typically discretized on a voxel grid. In the case of binned reconstruction the input of the reconstruction method is the measurement data, the measured number of hits in the conceptual detectors, which is connected to the output by a system matrix. An element of the system matrix represents the probability that a particle generated in a voxel is detected by a conceptual detector.
For typical systems, both the number of conceptual detectors and the number of voxels may be in the range of several hundred millions, thus the system matrix has a very large size and the reconstruction method must scale up well and must be appropriate for high performance computation platforms. The known time-consuming processes of iterative tomography reconstruction are targeted by pre-computing system dependent information and always needed more efficient computational platforms (A. J. Reader and H. Zaidi: Advances in PET Image Reconstruction, PET Clinics, Vol. 2, pp. 173-190 (2007)).
Using a pre-computed (U.S. Pat. No. 7,332,721 B2, S. Moehrs, M. Defrise, N. Belcari, A Del Guerra, A. Bartoli, S. Fabbri, and G. Zanetti: Multi-ray-based system matrix generation for 3D PET reconstruction, Phys. Med. Biol., Vol. 53, pp. 6925-6945 (2008) and J. Qi, R. M. Leahy, S. R. Cherry, A. Chatziioannou, and T. H. Farquhar: High-resolution 3D Bayesian image reconstruction using the microPET small-animal scanner. Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 43, pp. 1001-1013 (1998)) or a measured (V. Y. Panin, F. Kehren, C. Michel, and M. Casey: Fully 3-D PET reconstruction with system matrix derived from point source measurements, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 25, pp. 907-921 (2006)) system matrix seems to be an attractive option, but in high resolution real three-dimensional scanners this would pose prohibitive memory requirements disadvantageously, even if the matrix is compressed, decomposed as a product of a series of smaller matrices (J. Qi, R. M. Leahy, S. R. Cherry. A. Chatziioannou, and T. H. Farquhar: High-resolution 3D Bayesian image reconstruction using the microPET small-animal scanner, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 43, pp. 1001-1013 (1998)), or symmetry is exploited (J. L. Herraiz. S. Espaa. S. Garcia, R. Cabido, A. S. Montemayor, M. Desco, J. J. Vaquero, and J. M. Udias: GPU acceleration of a fully 3D iterative reconstruction software for PET using CUDA, in: Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC), 2009 IEEE, pp. 4064-4067 (2009)). On the other hand, in case of a pre-computed or measured system matrix, phenomena like object and material dependent positron range, absorption or scattering cannot be considered, disadvantageously.
Among the high-performance computing possibilities, like Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) (M. Leeser, S. Coric, E. Miller, H. Yu, and M. Trepanier: Parallel-beam back projection: an FPGA implementation optimized for medical imaging, in: Proc. Tenth Int. Symposium on FPGA, pp. 217-226 (2002) and US 2008/0095300 A1), multi-CPU systems (D. W. Shattuck, J. Rapela, E. Asma, A. Chatzioannou, J. Qi, and R. M. Leahy: Internet2-based 3D PET image reconstruction using a PC cluster, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 47, pp. 2785-2795 (2002)), cell processors (M. Kacheiries, M. Knaup, and O. Bockenbach: Hyperfast parallel-beam and conebeam back projection using the CELL general purpose hardware, Medical Physics, Vol. 34. pp. 1474-1486 (2007)), and GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) (F. Xu and K. Mueller: Real-time 3D computed tomographic reconstruction using commodity graphics hardware, Physics in Medicine and Biology, pp. 3405-3419 (2007)), in a comparison to other architectures, the massively parallel GPU has proven to be the most cost-effective platform for tomographic reconstruction tasks (N. Gac, S. Mancini, M. Desvignes, and D. Houzet: High speed 3D tomography on CPU, GPU, and FPGA, EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems, Article ID 930250 (2008)).
GPUs can be programmed with two different programming models. Shader APIs (Application Programming Interface) present the GPU hardware as the direct implementation of the incremental rendering pipeline (L. Szirmay-Kalos, L. Szcsi. M. Sbert: GPU-Based Techniques for Global Illumination Effects, Morgan and Claypool Publishers, San Rafael, USA (2008)), including both programmable and fixed processing stages. On the other hand, GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) APIs like CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) (NVIDIA, http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda, in: The CUDA Homepage) and OpenCL (Open Computing Language) provide access to the multiprocessors of the GPU where each multiprocessor contains a set of scalar processors sharing the instruction unit, and therefore acting as a SIMD (Single Instruction. Multiple Data) hardware. If only the geometric projection is considered in a tomographic reconstruction, then the shader API implementation is more appropriate since rasterizer and alpha-blending units accessible only through the shader API support these simple calculations (B. Bai, A. Smith: Fast 3D iterative reconstruction of PET images using PC graphics hardware, in: IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, pp. 2787-2790 (2006); F. Xu and K. Mueller: Real-time 3D computed tomographic reconstruction using commodity graphics hardware, Physics in Medicine and Biology, pp. 3405-3419 (2007); G. Pratx, C. Chinn, P. D. Olcott, C. S. Levin: Fast, accurate and shift-varying line projections for iterative reconstruction using the GPU, IEEE Trans. on Medical Imaging, Vol. 28, pp. 435-445 (2009)). A tomographic imaging technique for GPU is described in F. Xu and K. Mueller: GPU-Acceleration of Attenuation and Scattering Compensation in Emission Computed Tomography, in: 9th Fully Three-Dimensional Image Reconstruction in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine '07 (2007). However, when an algorithm gets more complex, the incremental rendering pipeline view of the shader API becomes too restrictive and less intuitive (G. Pratx, L. Xing: GPU computing in medical physics: A review, Med. Phys., Vol. 38, pp. 2685-2698 (2011)), and GPGPU APIs become the better choice for such tasks. The critical issue of the GPGPU programming is thread mapping, i.e. the decomposition of the algorithm to parallel threads that can run efficiently. For example, while simulating particle transport, it is intuitive to mimic how nature works in parallel, and assign parallel computational threads, for example, to randomly generated photon paths (A. Wirth, A. Cserkaszky, B. Kári, D. Légrády, S. Fehér, S. Czifrus, B. Domonkos: Implementation of 3D Monte Carlo PET reconstruction algorithm on GPU, in: Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC), IEEE, pp. 4106-4109 (2009)). However, while significant speed ups can be obtained with respect to a CPU implementation, this somehow natural thread mapping cannot exploit the full potential of GPUs.
In an iterative tomographic reconstruction, forward projection computing the expected detector hits from an actual estimation on emission density data and back projection correcting the emission density data based on the measured and expected detector responses, alternate. Equations of forward projection and back projection are similar in the way that they take many input values—voxel intensities and data of conceptual detectors, respectively—and compute many unknown values—again, data of conceptual detectors and voxel intensities, respectively. This kind of "many to many" computation can be organized in two different ways. Known values can be taken one-by-one obtaining the contribution of a single known value to all of the unknowns, and accumulate the contributions as the different known values are visited. This scheme is called scattering. The opposite—sometimes called orthogonal—approach takes unknown values one-by-one, and obtains the contribution of all known values to this particular unknown value. This approach is called gathering. Generally, input-driven algorithms are of scattering type, while output-driven ones are of gathering type.
A list mode PET reconstruction using GPU architecture is described in US 2011/0182491 A1 and further detailed in a paper (J. Cui, G. Pratx, S. Prevrhal, C. S. Levin: Fully 3D list-mode time-of-flight PET image reconstruction on GPUs using CUDA, Med. Phys., Vol. 38, No. 12 (2011)). These documents state that for a reconstruction using a GPU it is worth if both the forward projection and the back projection is of gathering type. However, the back projection detailed in the documents is of scattering type.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,778,392 B1 such a computer tomography reconstruction method is described, where the back projection is optimized for GPU architecture. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,876,944 B2 a medical image reconstruction method is described, where a GPU-optimized back projection step is applied.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,325 B1 such a reconstruction method is described, where the end points of the LORs are randomly distributed on the surface of a detector element. In US 2007/0201611 A1 such a PET reconstruction method for a GPU is described, in which tri-linear interpolation is used. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,333,107 B2 a gather-scatter approach is detailed in connection with the forward- and back projection, and the reuse of an already computed data is described for a GPU. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,283 B2, US 2010/0266178 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,873,236 B2 and US 2011/0051893 A1 medical image processing methods are described for a GPU. In US 2010/0128046 A1 Poisson-disk distribution is used for sampling in a GPU architecture.
Unmatching forward and back projection is described for tomographic reconstruction in G. Zeng, G. Gullberg: Unmatched projector/backprojector pairs in an iterative reconstruction algorithm, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 19, pp. 548-555 (2000); R. Guedouar, B. Zarrad: A comparative study between matched and mis-matched projection/back projection pairs used with ASIRT reconstruction method, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Vol. 619, pp. 225-229 (2010); V.-G. Nguyen, S.-J. Lee, M. N. Lee: GPU-accelerated 3D Bayesian image reconstruction from Compton scattered data, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 56. pp. 2817 (2011); and N.-Y. Lee, Y. Choi: Theoretical investigation on an unmatched backprojector for iterative reconstruction in emission computed tomography, Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 59, pp. 367-375 (2011).
In US 2008/0095300 A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,769,217 B2 and 8,000,513 B2 it is described that the forward projection and the back projection are advantageously matching algorithms. It is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,856,129 B2 that the method detailed therein can be generalized to unmatching projections. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,414,623 and 7,596,202 B2 such methods are described, where a filtering is applied between forward and back projection.
In US 2011/0164799 A1 and US 2011/0194747 A1 such methods are described where filtering is applied for the reconstruction data in the Fourier space.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,381,960 B1, 7,759,647 B2 and 7,835,782 B2 the problem of positron propagation before annihilation is detailed. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,835,782 B2 a scheme for handling this problem is described. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,923,690 B2 and US 2011/0248765 A1 it is described that the problem of the positron propagation is not handled.
Tomographic systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,373,059 B1, 7,211,799 B2, US 2010/0108896 A1 and US 2011/0127434 A1, in which the different sensitivities of the detector elements on the detection of an event are taken into account. In US 2007/0221855 A1 and WO 2011/036436 A1 the photon transport through adjacent detector elements is handled.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,015,477 B2, 7,332,721 B2, 7,876,941 B2, US 2011/0044546 A1, US 2011/0164031 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,983,465 B2 the possible solutions of the equations of forward- and/or back projection are described.
A tomographic reconstruction method is disclosed in M. Magdics, L. Szirmay-Kalos, Á. Szlavecz, G. Hesz, B. Benyó, Á. Cserkaszky, J. Lantos, D. Légrády, Sz. Czifrus, A. Wirth, B. Kári, G. Patay, D. Vögyes, T. Bükki, P. Major, G. Németh, B. Domonkos: TeraTomo project: a fully 3D GPU based reconstruction code for exploiting the imaging capability of the NanoPET/CT system, 2010 World Molecular Imaging Congress, 11 Sep. 2010. This paper discusses direct Monte Carlo particle transport and presents an adjoint Monte Carlo method which applies gathering type approach both in forward and back projection. Both direct photon hits and scattered photon hits are considered.
Several methods for handling gamma photon scattering in the detector modules are disclosed in M. Magdics, B. Tóth, L. Szécsi, B. Csébfalvi, L. Szirmay-Kalos, Á. Szlavecz, G. Hesz, B. Benyó, Á. Cserkaszky, D. Légrády. Sz. Czifrus, A. Wirth, B. Kári, J. Lantos, G. Patay, D. Völgyes, P. Major. G. Németh, T. Bükki, B. Domonkos: Detector Modelling Techniques for Pre-Clinical 3D PET Reconstruction on the GPU, Proceedings of the 11th International Meeting on Fully 3D Image Reconstruction in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, 11 Jul. 2011, pp. 375-378.
A photon transport simulation method, that executes the very same instruction in parallel threads at a time and eliminates the conditional instructions, is disclosed in L. Szirmay-Kalos, B. Tóth, M. Magdics, D. Légrády, and A. Penzov: Gamma Photon Transport on the GPU for PET, in: Large-scale scientific computing, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 435-442, 4 Jun. 2009.
It is a disadvantage of many of the prior art solutions that the level of optimization of the reconstruction methods used for the parallel architectures is not high enough.

Method, computer readable medium and system for tomographic reconstruction

Mediso Orvosi Berendezes Fejleszto es Szerviz Kft.


An apparatus which is a single portable device for scanning and downloading data. The apparatus employs a laser within an optical scanner to accomplish both scanning and downloading functions. In addition to the optical scanner, the apparatus employs control and communication circuitry for switching from scanning to downloading and for modulating an outgoing laser beam during downloading. A modulating material, such as a liquid crystal display or electrochromic lens, is excited to modulate the outgoing laser beam passing through it. The optical scanner also includes a motor-driven mirrored spinner which may be stopped to accomplish a high rate of data transfer during downloading using a highly directional beam.

The present invention relates to portable optical scanners and more specifically to an apparatus for scanning and downloading data, including bar code information.
Optical scanners are well known for their usefulness in retail checkout and inventory control. Optical scanners generally employ a laser diode, the light from which is focused and collimated to produce a scanning beam. A mirrored spinner directs the beam against a plurality of stationary mirrors, and a detector collects the beam after it is reflected by a bar code label. A motor rotates the spinner. The pattern produced by such a scanner is characterized by lines oriented at various angles to one another.
In a typical portable scanning environment, both gathering and data downloading must be performed. Data gathering is normally accomplished using a laser scanner. Data downloading to a host computer is normally accomplished through an RF transmitter or wired serial communications scheme. However, such methods of downloading data require additional communications circuitry, which adds weight and cost to portable scanning units.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a scanning apparatus which can download data without using an RF or wired serial communications module.

Apparatus for scanning and downloading data


A thematic vehicle interior (10) is provided. The thematic vehicle interior (10) is comprised of a passenger cabin, a cosmetic trim (14) for attachment to the vehicle (12) within the passenger cabin, and a feedback system (16) for playing one or more audio programs. The audio programs are utilized in combination with the cosmetic trim (14) for creating a predetermined theme. Additionally, the audio programs are also utilized for indicating one or more predetermined vehicle conditions. The vehicle conditions include one or more of the following: an open-door condition, a low-fuel condition, a maintenance-required condition, a low-tire-pressure condition, a headlights-on condition, a key-in-the-ignition condition, an unfastened-seatbelt condition, an engine-start condition, and an engine-shut-off condition. Also, the thematic vehicle interior (10) includes a sensor (18) for detecting a vehicle condition and actuating the feedback system (16) to play the audio program.

Automotive manufacturers currently produce vehicles having passenger cabins with various kinds of cosmetic trim. Typically, the cosmetic trim is substantially uniform throughout each passenger cabin so as to create a specific style. For instance, a well-appointed luxury car can include leather seats, wood-trimmed doors, a wood-trimmed steering wheel, a wood-trimmed gear shift, and a wood-trimmed dashboard fascia. Also, a typical sports car can include two-tone leather seats, metallic dashboard fascia, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, and a leather-trimmed gear shift.
Moreover, these vehicles typically include substantially similar warning systems for alerting an occupant when the warning systems detect predetermined vehicle conditions. For example, the warning systems of various cars typically play a generic chime when the warning systems detect that a vehicle door is open and a key has been left in the ignition. However, it is also understood that the warning systems typically utilize generic chimes for indicating a variety of other vehicle conditions. In addition, it will also be appreciated that these warning systems are integrated within various other kinds of vehicles besides luxury cars and sports cars.
It would therefore be desirable to provide thematic vehicle passenger cabin that coordinates a warning system and a cosmetic trim of the interior so as to provide a predetermined theme.


A cleaning implement includes a cleaning head having on the bottom a cleaning operation surface and a valve opening and closing device that is connected to the cleaning head and can hold a first container for receiving a first fluid or a second container for receiving a second fluid. The cleaning implement further includes a first circulation path through which the first fluid is ejectable from the cleaning head and a second circulation path through which the second fluid is ejectable by interrupting the first circulation path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cleaning implement adapted to cleaning floor surfaces, etc., of houses and offices, and more particularly, to cleaning implement including a liquid supply device.
2. Related Art
By way of example, a conventional cleaning implement is designed to have a cleaning head arranged at a distal end of a holding portion obtained by connecting pipes. A water container is arranged in the middle of the holding portion. A nozzle is provided to the cleaning head. A handle is provided to a grip of the holding portion. When operating the handle, a piston arranged in the water container is actuated to eject from the nozzle water in the water container. Refer, for example, to Patent Document 1 (Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3094858).
The cleaning implement according to Patent Document 1 produces an effect that the floor can be washed by ejecting water from the nozzle.


A method and an electronic apparatus for adjusting display frames by detecting touch of a cover are provided. The electronic apparatus includes a touch screen and a cover, and the cover has at least one transparent area. In the method, a touch of the cover is detected by using the touch screen. At least one cover range of the at least one transparent area of the cover on the touch screen is determined according to a detected energy variation, in which the at least one transparent area and other areas of the cover have different conductivities. The frames displayed by the touch screen are adjusted in response to the at least one cover range of the at least one transparent area on the touch screen.

[Field of the Invention]
The invention relates to a display method and an apparatus, and more particularly relates to a method and an electronic apparatus for adjusting a display frame according to touch.
[Description of Related Art]
Compared with the traditional keyboard input, the operation of a touch screen is simpler and more intuitive. Therefore, more and more consumer electronic products, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, tablet computers, or even laptop computers, desktop computers, and a variety of household appliances use the touch screen instead of the traditional keyboard, as the input interface.
Because the touch screen is vulnerable to scratches caused by foreign objects, many users would purchase protective cases for their portable electronic devices, e.g. smart phones and tablet computers, for protecting the screens when the devices are not in use. Generally, such protective cases are opaque. When the touch screen is covered by the protective case, the user is not able to see the frame of the touch screen directly. Thus, to read a message received by the electronic device, the user needs to open the protective case by hand and unlock the device to open the application program, which may be inconvenient for the user. Even though some protective cases may be formed with holes or transparent areas, the electronic devices are unable to detect the positions of the holes or transparent areas and can only display the full frame. Besides, some electronic devices may be able to display frames at predetermined positions based on the original settings; however, such a method is not applicable to all brands or types of protective cases.

Method and electronic apparatus for adjusting display frames by detecting touch of cover


An oscillation circuit of phase-shift type includes a surface acoustic wave filter in a feedback circuit, the surface acoustic wave filter having first and second one-port surface acoustic wave resonators of different resonance frequencies connected in a ladder configuration. The oscillation circuit has a high C/N ratio with a large bandwidth of variable frequency and can be fabricated in a small size with low costs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oscillation circuit, and more particularly to an oscillation circuit of phase-shift type employing a surface acoustic wave device.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Oscillation circuits with less noise which employ a resonator having a large Q value are used in various fields of electronic industries. There are two types of oscillation circuits: one is an oscillation circuit with a fixed frequency, and the other is an oscillation circuit of voltage controlled type whose oscillation frequency can be varied with an external voltage (hereafter referred to as VCO: Voltage Controlled Oscillator). Oscillation circuits of voltage controlled type are used in various electronic apparatus and, recently, there has been a need for oscillation circuits of voltage controlled type having a high C/N ratio with a large bandwidth of variable frequency especially in the fields of mobile communication and optical communication. Particularly, it is required that oscillation circuits of voltage controlled type demanded in the mobile communication terminal such as a car phone or a portable phone are provided in a smaller size and with lower costs. In view of this, oscillation circuits of phase-shift type are a prospect among the oscillation circuits of voltage controlled type.
Conventionally, oscillation circuits employing a dielectric resonator or VCOs employing a micro strip line as a resonator are used in the field of mobile communication. However, the former is provided in a large size with high costs, and therefore is not suitable as a VCO for mobile communication. The latter can be provided in a small size with low costs and can be furnished with a large bandwidth of variable frequency, but it cannot have a large C/N ratio because the Q value is low.
Also, there were reports on VCOs employing a surface acoustic wave resonator (SAW) or a surface acoustic wave filter (hereafter referred to as a SAW filter). Oscillation circuits employing a quartz as a material for the substrate of a SAW filter have a high Q value and excellent C/N ratio but the frequency range that can be controlled with voltage is narrow.
In order to overcome the aforementioned problems, oscillation circuits are proposed in which a piezoelectric single crystal having a large electromechanical coupling factor is used as a substrate material. For example, there have been reports on an oscillation circuit employing LiTaO.sub.3 ("Surface acoustic wave oscillation circuits with a large bandwidth of variation" (Kouichi Sugawara and Bunji Yamamoto, Technical reports by Electronic Data Communication Society, US78-12, pp. 21-28) and on an oscillation circuit employing LiNbO.sub.3 ("Review on voltage controlled oscillation circuits for mobile wireless transceivers employing a SAW resonator" (Mitsutaka Hikida, Junji Sumioka, and Yukinari Fujiwara, Technical reports by Electronic Data Communication Society, MW90-102, pp. 15-20).
However, conventional VCOs employing a SAW device (a SAW filter or a SAW resonator) having a substrate with a high electromechanical coupling factor are accompanied by the following problems.
(1) A VCO having a one-port SAW resonator formed on a LiNbO.sub.3 substrate
FIG. 21 shows a structural view of a conventional one-port SAW resonator. The one-port SAW resonator includes an IDT (interdigital transducer) and reflectors. The IDT is disposed at the center of the resonator and composed of finger-like electrodes. The reflectors are disposed on both sides of the IDT. FIG. 22 shows impedance-frequency characteristics of this one-port SAW resonator, in which the vertical axis represents an imaginary part of the impedance, fr being a resonance frequency and fa being an anti-resonance frequency.
FIG. 23 is a circuit diagram of a VCO employing a one-port SAW resonator. In principle, this VCO has a variable frequency within the range from the resonance frequency fr to the anti-resonance frequency fa of the resonator, as shown in FIG. 22. The frequency difference fa-fr is determined by the capacitance ratio .gamma. of the resonator and is a value substantially determined by the electromechanical coupling factor of the substrate material (piezoelectric single crystal) for the SAW resonator. In other words, the difference fa-fr increases in accordance with the increase in the electromechanical coupling factor, whereby the bandwidth of variable frequency as a VCO will be larger.
Therefore, a variable frequency bandwidth of about 2.5% in terms of fractional bandwidth is conventionally realized by employing a LiNbO.sub.3 substrate having a large electromechanical coupling factor. However, a variable frequency bandwidth of about 3 to 3.5% in terms of fractional bandwidth is required in the field of mobile communication, especially of portable phones and wireless LAN, so that the conventional VCO could not be used in this field.
(2) A VCO employing a transversal SAW filter formed on a LiTaO.sub.3 substrate.
FIG. 24 shows a circuit diagram of a VCO employing a conventional transversal SAW filter. This VCO has a transversal SAW filter formed on a LiTaO.sub.3 substrate as shown in FIG. 24. The SAW filter is disposed at the feedback circuit portion of a phase-shift oscillation circuit for obtaining an oscillation. In this case, it is possible to enlarge the variable frequency bandwidth in principle by reducing the number of electrode pairs of the transversal filter and decreasing the delay distance between the input and output electrodes.
However, there is a problem that ripple in band inevitably occurs due to the TTE wave (Triple Transit Echo: the delayed wave generated by triple reflection in the SAW filter between the input and output electrodes), thus failing to satisfy the condition for stable oscillation. Also, in this example, the reduction of the number of electrode pairs is limited in view of preventing the side lobe, so that the obtained bandwidth of variable frequency was a fractional bandwidth of only about 2.5%.

Phase-shift oscillator having ladder-type saw filter feedback circuit


A low power white noise source is fabricated on an integrated circuit. The noise source includes a bipolar junction transistor (Q.sub.BJT) having an emitter terminal coupled to a common circuit potential, a collector terminal coupled to a source of current (CS), and a base terminal coupled through a resistance (R.sub.B) to a bias signal (V.sub.bias). The resistance has a resistance value selected to enhance a noise signal generated by the transistor in a collector current thereof. The noise source further includes a transresistance amplifier (AMP) having an input coupled to the collector terminal for converting the noise signal to a voltage signal (NOISE OUT) having white noise characteristics.

It is known to the inventor to generate a broad spectrum noise signal, or "white" noise, with a circuit that employs an avalanche breakdown of a pn junction. Various embodiments of this technique include the use of a Zener diode, the use of a lateral diode biased to "soft" breakdown, or the use of an emitter-collector breakdown of a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) that is operated with an open base circuit.
However, the noise produced by any of these three embodiments is characteristically of relatively low power. Also, the Zener diode embodiment typically requires a supply voltage in excess of the five volts that is readily available in many systems. The use of a voltage doubler, to increase the supply voltage for the Zener diode, typically contaminates the noise signal and requires a large amount of capacitance. The use of a voltage doubler also adds complexity and consumes substrate surface area, an important consideration when integrating the noise source onto an integrated circuit. The lateral diode embodiment exhibits a large and poorly controlled output impedance that tends to reduce the bandwidth of the noise source. For the BJT approach (also referred to as a BVceo approach) the breakdown voltage is often too near the minimum supply voltage, and is also too strong a function of the transistor current gain, to properly control. The output noise also typically exhibits a narrow bandwidth.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a flat white noise spectrum that is generated with a supply voltage that is less than that required for pn junction breakdown-based noise sources, allowing operation with a single five volt supply, or with a lower voltage battery.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a white noise source having a lower output impedance, a higher noise power, and a wider noise bandwidth, than is obtained with a conventional junction breakdown white noise source.

Low power integrated circuit white noise source


This invention provides a hybrid orientation (HOT) semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) structure having an isolation region, e.g. a shallow trench isolation region (STI), and a method for forming the STI structure that is easy to control. The method of forming the isolation region includes an etch of the insulating material, selective to the semiconductor material, followed by an etch of the semiconductor material, selective to the insulating material, and then filling any high aspect ratio gaps with a CVD oxide, and filling the remainder of the STI with an HDP oxide.

In present semiconductor technology, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices, such as nFETs (i.e., n-channel MOSFETs) or pFETs (i.e., p-channel MOSFETs), are typically fabricated upon semiconductor wafers, such as Si, that have a single crystal orientation. In particular, most of today's semiconductor devices are built upon Si having a (100) crystal orientation.
Electrons are known to have a high mobility for a (100) Si surface orientation, but holes are known to have high mobility for a (110) surface orientation. That is, hole mobility values on (100) Si are roughly 2×-4× lower than the corresponding electron mobility for this crystallographic orientation. To compensate for this discrepancy, pFETs are typically designed with larger widths in order to balance pull-up currents against the nFET pull-down currents and achieve uniform circuit switching. pFETs having larger widths are undesirable since they take up a significant amount of chip area.
On the other hand, hole mobilities on (110) Si are 2× higher than on (100) Si; therefore, pFETs formed on a (110) surface will exhibit significantly higher drive currents than pFETs formed on a (100) surface. Unfortunately, electron mobilities on (110) Si surfaces are significantly degraded compared to (100) Si surfaces.
As can be deduced from the above, the (110) Si surface is optimal for pFET devices because of excellent hole mobility, yet such a crystal orientation is completely inappropriate for nFET devices. Instead, the (100) Si surface is optimal for nFET devices since that crystal orientation favors electron mobility.
Methods have been proposed to form such an integrated semiconductor device in which both the nFETs and the pFETs are formed on a same substrate having different crystallographic orientations.
For example, co-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,998,684, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses an integrated circuit structure that has a substrate having at least two types of crystalline orientations, in which first-type transistors (e.g. NFETs) are formed on first portions of the substrate having a first type of crystalline orientation, and second-type transistors (e.g. PFETs) are formed on second portions of the substrate having a second type of crystalline orientation.
One challenge encountered in the formation of such hybrid orientation technology (HOT) devices occurs during the formation of the shallow trench isolation (STI) structures, formed to isolate the devices formed in portions of the substrate having the first type of crystalline orientation from devices formed in portions of the substrate having the second type of crystalline orientation. In particular, the formation of the trench may require controlled etching of multiple materials in a single process step, for example, when the HOT devices are formed on bulk crystalline semiconductor portion adjacent an SOI portion, which may be difficult to control, and may lead to defects that impact yield.
For the reasons discussed above, it would be desirable to form HOT semiconductor device including isolation regions between bulk and SOI devices that uses a more controllable process that will lead to improved yield.

Subground rule STI fill for hot structure

International Business Machines Corporation


A cut-off machine for cutting off predetermined lengths from a moving length of roll form material such as tubing adapted to be positioned downstream from a source comprising a plurality of cut-off assemblies which are reciprocated longitudinally of the moving length of material and operated during the movement to sever plural predetermined lengths. A servo motor crank drive assembly is provided which includes a crank having a roller which is yieldingly engaged with a cam track that has a flat tangential portion such that the roller traverses the flat portion. During this movement across the flat portion, the cut-off assemblies are reciprocated driven at a speed corresponding to the speed of movement of the tube at the time the lengths of tubing are being cut off. The apparatus can be adjusted to cut tubes of different lengths by moving the pivot point of a differential beam pivot assembly wherein one end of the beam is driven in a linear reciprocating path by a crank and the other end of the beam is connected to reciprocate the cut-off assemblies such that they are driven at a speed corresponding to the speed of the tube at the time the lengths of tubing are cut off.

In manufacture of many products, such as heat exchanger tubes, for example, there is a need for large quantities of tubes cut to very precise lengths with ends accurately perpendicular to the axis of the tube stock. Machines for cutting such tubes to length have been provided heretofore. From the standpoint of economy, it is a practical necessity that such machines be capable of cutting tubes while a continuous length of tube stock is moving in the direction of its length at relatively high speed, preferably as the tubing leaves the last forming stage of a tube mill. Thus, such machines invariably employ a slide of some type on which a cut-off device is mounted and means for moving the slide at the same speed as the tube during the severing operation. Heretofore, complicated and costly devices have been employed for synchronizing the speed of the tubing and the slide on which the cut-off device is mounted. Such synchronizing devices have been not only expensive, but also incapable of functioning accurately when the tube speed is high, for example, in excess of about 175 feet per minute.
In prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,290, a tube cut-off unit is arranged at the downstream end of a tube mill and is powered by a drive unit mechanically driven by the main shaft of the mill that drives the tube forming rolls. The drive unit mechanically rotates a crank which, through a link, reciprocates a slide along the path of travel of the tube. A tube cut-off blade on the slide is cam actuated by motion of the slide along its base to move in a straight line laterally of the tube to sever the tube. The slide moves at a constant speed and at the same speed as the tube when the tube is severed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,967, the cut-off machine comprises a plurality of cut-off assemblies that are reciprocated on a slide longitudinally of the moving length of tube formed by the mill, and are operated during such movement to sever plural predetermined lengths. The reciprocating and cutting movements are mechanically derived from an electric motor driven in synchronism with the speed of the tubing length. The apparatus includes mechanisms that permit the length of the severed tubes tube to be changed while the machine is operating. Each cut-off assembly includes a knife blade mounted on a chain for movement in an endless path in a plane perpendicular to the path of the tubing. A portion of the blade path is in a straight line transversely to the axis of movement of the moving length of tubing when the blade intersects the tubing path and severs the tube stock.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,801, there is described an apparatus wherein a continuous length of material such as tube stock is severed into individual stock lengths by propelling the stock in a continuous uninterrupted motion in the direction of its length along a predefined path. A slide or carriage is continually reciprocated in a direction parallel to the stock path in synchronism with motion of the stock along the path such that velocity of the carriage is equal to velocity of the stock during a portion of each carriage motion cycle. A knife blade is continually rotated on the carriage about an axis parallel to the stock path and in synchronism with motion of the stock along the path such that the knife blade intersects the stock path during the portion of the carriage motion cycle in which carriage velocity equals stock velocity. As the knife blade intersects the path, the knife blade is moved radially inwardly of its axis of rotation, such that the compound result of rotary and radial motion of the knife blade with respect to its axis of rotation moves the knife blade in a straight line tangential to its axis and transverse to the path when the knife blade intersects the stock path and severe the stock.
Such cut-off machines utilize a relatively complex crank mechanism for moving the crank for reciprocating the cut off assemblies as well as an electronic circuit for controlling the servo motor insuring that the speed of movement of the cut off assemblies at cut off is synchronized with the speed of the servo motors, as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,801.
In copending United States application Ser. No. 07/682,725 filed Apr. 9, 1991, there is disclosed a cut-off machine for cutting off predetermined lengths from a moving length of roll form material such as tubing adapted to be positioned downstream from a source such as a tube mill for receiving a moving length from the mill and severing plural predetermined lengths from the moving length. The machine comprises a plurality of cut-off assemblies which are reciprocated longitudinally of the moving length of material formed by the mill and operated during the movement to sever plural predetermined lengths. The reciprocating and cutting movements are derived from a differential beam pivot assembly wherein one end of the beam is driven in a linear reciprocating path by a crank and the other end of the beam is connected to reciprocate the cut-off assemblies such that they are driven at a speed corresponding to the speed of the tube at the time the lengths of tubing are cut off. The apparatus can be adjusted to cut tubes of different lengths by moving the pivot point of the differential beam.
Among the objectives of the present invention are to provide a tube cut-off machine wherein the cut-off assemblies are being reciprocated at a speed corresponding with the speed of movement of the tube during the time that the lengths of tubing are being cut-off; wherein the machine achieves such results mechanically; and wherein the machine functions reliably and efficiently.
In accordance with the invention, the cut-off machine includes a servo motor crank drive assembly which includes a crank having a roller which is yieldingly engaged with a cam track that has a flat tangential portion such that the roller dwells at said flat portion. During this movement, the cut-off assemblies are reciprocated driven at a speed corresponding to the speed of movement of the tube at the time the lengths of tubing are being cut-off.


A technique for boron implantation is disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique may be realized by an apparatus for boron implantation. The apparatus may comprise a reaction chamber. The apparatus may also comprise a source of pentaborane coupled to the reaction chamber, wherein the source is capable of supplying a substantially pure form of pentaborane into the reaction chamber. The apparatus may further comprise a power supply that is configured to energize the pentaborane in the reaction chamber sufficiently to produce a plasma discharge having boron-bearing ions.

Ion implantation is a standard technique for introducing conductivity-altering dopant materials into semiconductor wafers. In a conventional (beam-line type) ion implantation system, a desired dopant material is ionized in an ion source, the ions are accelerated to form an ion beam of a prescribed energy, and the ion beam is directed at a semiconductor wafer. The energetic ions in the beam penetrate into the bulk of the semiconductor material and are embedded into the crystalline lattice of the semiconductor material.
Compared with the traditional beam-line implanters which have low throughputs at low energies, plasma immersion implant technology is very attractive because it offers the potential of very high throughputs at relatively low implant energies. With the plasma immersion implant technology, an active plasma is typically created with an appropriate gas species, from which positive ions are extracted and implanted into a substrate with the application of direct current (DC) or radio frequency (RF) pulses.
For plasma immersion ion implantation to work, it is necessary to select gas species that, when subjected to either pulsed or continuous plasma discharge, produce desired ions. Gas species suitable for plasma immersion ion implantation typically have the following properties: (1) they are easy to store, either as a gas or in a solid or liquid source with a reasonable vapor pressure; (2) they can be handled by standard gas delivery systems; and (3) they are easily ionizable in a plasma. In addition, the ions produced by the plasma should be able to provide desired results for the specific application targeted, e.g. n-type or p-type implants, gate oxide nitridation, contact resistance reduction, hardening etc.
It is also desirable to prevent unwanted ions from co-implanting into the target wafer. For the specific application of p-type doping where fluorine atoms must be avoided, diborane (B2H6) is a commonly used gas species. Due to safety and stability problems, diborane cannot be provided in its pure state. Rather, diborane is typically diluted in helium or hydrogen. When such diluted diborane is used for plasma immersion ion implantation, the carrier (diluent) gas molecules can become ionized and get implanted in addition to the boron-bearing species, thereby adversely impacting the process by complicating dosimetry, introducing unwanted contaminants, and imposing process space limitations on the implant process.
Use of higher boranes such as octaborane and decaborane has been proposed and implemented in beam-line ion implantation systems. For these systems, the main advantage of higher boranes is the ability to achieve a specific implant depth with a relatively high beam energy. This is considered useful because beam-line implanters have higher beam currents (and therefore higher throughputs) at higher energies than they do at lower energies.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a solution for ion implantation which overcomes the above-described inadequacies and shortcomings.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


A pixel interpolation method for interpolating pixel values of a plurality of target positions of a target picture is disclosed. The pixel interpolation method includes: dynamically setting a plurality of edge detection ranges corresponding to the plurality of target positions, respectively; and for each of the plurality of target positions, performing a edge detection according to a corresponding edge detection range to determine an edge direction for the target position, and interpolating a pixel value for the target position according to pixel data corresponding to the edge direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing techniques, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for pixel interpolation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pixel interpolation operation is a widely used image processing technique. For instance, the pixel interpolation operation is usually employed for generating required pixel values in deinterlacing or image-scaling operations. Thus, the performance of pixel interpolation operation greatly affects the interpolated image quality.

Method and apparatus for pixel interpolation


An asynchronous peer-to-peer data replication method implemented within a replication cluster comprising at least one master node and at least a first client node includes entering an update in a data volume of the master node and storing the update in a master node storage. Next, updating a first active session in a master log and then sending a first message from the master node to the first client node. The first message comprises a first message content and first “piggybacked” data indicating that the first active session in the master log was updated. Next, receiving the first message by the first client node, registering that the first active session in the master log was updated and signaling internally that the first active session in the master log was updated. Next, sending an update request from the first client node to the master node, processing the update request by the master node and sending the update to the first client node. Finally, receiving the update by the first client node and updating the first active session in a first client log.

With the rise of the computer age and the ubiquity of the digital mass storage system, more and more of the most valuable data in our everyday lives have been entrusted to relatively fragile magnetic media. Everything from our credit card transactions and medical records to our music collections and photographs are being stored on disks. While it may not be as easy to assign a monetary cost to a one-of-a-kind photograph of a child as it is to a bank deposit, it is assured that a parent will keenly feel its loss.
The increased density of information stored in digital formats increases the risks of loss. Whether the data is stored in an enterprise or in a home, minor accidents like a power surge, the activation of a sprinkler system due to a small fire, or a moment's theft can result in a tremendous loss. One solution to this problem is data backup. Data backup involves transferring an amount of data, usually accumulated over a day or a week, to an offline magnetic storage medium and then moving the storage medium offsite where it is stored. This practice of backing up data to more durable, offline media mitigates some of the risk of loss, but requires a rigorous adherence to a schedule, and does not prevent the loss or damage to data stored between backup events.
Backup alone also does not suffice to protect data against common problems. Minor accidents have a tendency to become major as small fires spread, rainstorms become floods, and power surges become power outages. Quickly recovering access and restoring availability of data in the light of larger incidents require a degree of geographic separation between copies of data. While physically moving a backup off-site serves to mitigate some of the risk of data loss, restoring access to such remotely stored data is a tedious, error-prone process and frequently leads to a significant down time for the business operations.
A better approach to data recovery is the practice of automatically updating a remote replica of a computer storage system. This practice is called remote replication (often just replication). Backup is different from replication, since it saves a copy of data unchanged for a long period of time, whereas replication involves frequent data updates and quick recovery. Enterprises commonly use remote replication as a central part of their disaster recovery or business continuity planning.
Remote replication may be synchronous or asynchronous. A synchronous remote replication system maintains multiple identical copies of a data storage component in multiple locations, with the requirement that a host application does not receive acknowledgment of a successful change until the same change has been applied to all replicas. This requirement ensures that the data are always the same at all locations, and a failure at one site will not result in any lost data. However, this level of reliability comes at a high cost. The performance penalties of transmitting the data are paid at every update and the network hardware required is often prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, the costs increase dramatically as the distance between the sites increases.
Asynchronous remote replication systems relax the above mentioned requirement, allowing the remote updates to occur at some point after the host application has received the acknowledgments. There are a wide variety of approaches that are used in asynchronous replication, but they typically involve the local system maintaining some sort of log of updates, which is transmitted and applied to the remote system. When and how this log is transmitted has significant implications for the reliability characteristics of the replication system, as the amount of data that is stored in the log is also the amount of data that will be lost if a disaster occurs at the local site.
Remote replication is a tremendously powerful tool for business continuity. It also has the potential to be just as powerful a tool for other applications, in the home and in the business. However, the cost and complexity of the current solutions have prevented widespread adoption. Synchronous remote replication has too high a cost, both in network pricing and performance penalties, while asynchronous remote replication doesn't always fare much better.
Accordingly, there is a need for a remote replication solution that is inexpensive, easy to use and scalable without compromising performance.

System and method for remote asynchronous data replication


In a structure of connecting battery terminals 101 and 102 to bus bars 16 and 17 wherein the plus terminal 102 and the minus terminal 101, projecting from an upper surface of a battery 100, are connected respectively to the pair of bus bars 17 and 16projecting from a relay block 10, an insulative-resin cover portion 11b, which covers at least an upper surface of one (17) of the bus bars, and another insulative-resin cover 11g, which covers at least a lower surface of the other bus bar 16, project from a block body 11 of the relay block 10, thereby preventing short-circuit between the two bus bars 16 and 17.

This invention relates to a structure of connecting battery terminals to bus bars, and more particularly to such a structure in which short-circuiting will not occur between a pair of bus bars respectively connecting terminals of a high-voltage battery, mounted on an automobile, to a relay block.
Generally, a battery, having a rated voltage of 12V (maximum voltage of 14V) has heretofore been mounted on passenger cars, and the maximum voltage of 14V is supplied from the battery to bus bars or the like within an electric connection box, and the electric power is distributed by internal circuits in the electric connection box, and through wires, connected to the internal circuits, electrical equipments, mounted on the automobile, are controlled, and also signals are transmitted and received.
In recent years, the number of electrical equipments, mounted on an automobile, is increasing, and besides there is a tendency to increase the amount of supply of electric current to each electrical equipment, and therefore there is proposed a construction using a high-voltage battery for supplying a higher voltage (e.g. 42V) than that of the conventional batteries.
As shown in FIG. 6A, high voltage is applied to internal circuits of a relay block 1 connected via bus bars 2 and 3 to a plus (+) terminal 101 and a minus (−) terminal 102 of the high-voltage battery 100, and the internal circuits form branch circuits so as to control the supply of the electric power to various electrical equipments, and circuit protection function parts, such as a fusible link 1a and fuses 1b, are provided to prevent excess current from flowing to the electrical equipments.
However, the bus bars 2 and 3, connecting the high-voltage battery 100 to the relay block 1, are exposed to the exterior, and therefore when a screwdriver D or the like is inadvertently placed on the bus bars 2 and 3 during the working in such a manner that a metal portion Da of the screwdriver D connects the bus bars 2 and 3 together in a bridging manner as shown in FIG. 6B, short-circuiting occurs, and this is particularly dangerous since the voltage of the battery 100 is high.

Structure of connecting battery terminals to bus bars


In forward direction pulse shift, by turning off a sixteenth transistor, a through-current is prevented from flowing between the fifth transistor and the seventh transistor. In backward direction pulse shift, by turning off the fifteenth transistor, a through-current is prevented from flowing between the fifth and sixth transistors. Thus, a potential variation in an output signal of a shift register between the forward direction pulse shift and the backward direction pulse shift is prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bidirectional shift register capable of shifting a pulse in both forward and backward directions and to a drive circuit and a flat display device, both of which use the bidirectional shift register.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a flat display device typified by a liquid crystal display device has been used in various kinds of equipment because the device is thin, lightweight and low in power consumption. In order to realize further thinning, weight saving and reduction in cost, a technology of configuring a drive circuit by use of polysilicon thin-film transistors with higher electron mobility than conventional amorphous silicon thin-film transistors and forming this drive circuit on a glass array substrate has been recently established.
Generally, a liquid crystal display device includes an array substrate, a counter substrate disposed opposite thereto and a liquid crystal layer disposed in a gap between the both substrates. On the array substrate, a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of signal lines are disposed so as to intersect with each other. At respective intersections of these scan lines and signal lines, switching elements and pixel electrodes are disposed. Moreover, on the array substrate, a signal line drive circuit that drives the signal lines and a scan line drive circuit that drives the scan lines are disposed as drive circuits. The signal line drive circuit includes a horizontal shift register that outputs a pulse to each of the signal lines by shifting a phase of the pulse. The scan line drive circuit includes a vertical shift register that outputs a pulse to each of the scan lines by shifting a phase of the pulse. On the counter substrate, counter electrodes electrically corresponding to the pixel electrodes are disposed.
In general, for the horizontal shift register and the vertical shift register, a three-phase shift register having a plurality of series-connected shift registers with the same configuration is used. In this three-phase shift register, by use of three clock signals having different phases from each other, a shift register shifts a phase of a pulse before transmitting the pulse to other shift register in a subsequent stage.
However, in the case of transmitting the pulse in a backward direction, an output signal of each shift register cannot be obtained at a sufficient potential level with the same circuit configuration as that in the case of the forward direction. Moreover, there occurs a variation in the potential level of the output signal between the forward direction and the backward direction. Thus, variation was a factor deteriorating display quality.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bidirectional shift register that prevents variation in the potential level of the output signal between the forward direction and the backward direction in terms of the direction of transmitting the pulse.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a drive circuit and a flat display device, both of which use the foregoing bidirectional shift register.

Bidirectional shift register shifting pulse in both forward and backward directions

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.


At least one network device that moves storage blocks based upon a session layer or higher protocol set is employed to facilitate communication between at least one host and at least one target storage device. The at least one network device may include a server and a switch. Transactions related to data storage access are expressed in a non-network protocol and transmitted via a network protocol data unit across at least a portion of the network by employing encapsulation. An adapter card associated with the data storage unit is employed to extract the non-network protocol transaction. Multiple, mirrored data storage units that are separated by relatively large physical distance may be employed to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic data loss due to an event such as a fire. Further, READ transactions may be facilitated by preloading data storage units with READ metadata for subsequent transmission to a client device to enable expedited access to data stored on the data storage units.

Techniques that enable multiple computers to access multiple data storage devices in a network are known. For example, personal computers may access a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) through a server. The personal computers may communicate with the server via a Local Area Network (LAN) employing Ethernet, Token Ring or FDDI, while the server communicates with the storage devices associated with the RAID in accordance with a non-network protocol such as Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). However, such known configurations have limitations. For example, the number of data storage devices that can be addressed via each SCSI interface is limited to only 4, 8 or 16, depending on the version of SCSI that is implemented. Further, the physical characteristics of the SCSI cabling that connects the data storage devices to the server impose limitations on the geographic placement of the data storage devices. In particular, the server and the data storage devices must be located in relatively close physical proximity because the maximum practical length of the SCSI cabling is relatively short. Such proximity results in vulnerability to catastrophic data loss due to events such as fire. While techniques for communicating SCSI transmissions over larger distances via Internet Protocol (IP) and Fiber Channel (FC) have been proposed, some of the problems remain.

Applications for networked storage systems


A dimmable ballast circuit for a gas discharge lamp comprises a resonant load circuit with a resonant inductance, a resonant capacitance and circuitry for connecting to a gas discharge lamp. A d.c.-to-a.c. converter circuit is coupled to the resonant load circuit for inducing a.c. current therein, and comprises a pair of switches serially connected between a bus conductor at a d.c. voltage and a reference conductor. The voltage between a reference node and a control node of each switch determines the conduction state of the associated switch. The respective reference nodes of the switches are interconnected at a common node through which the a.c. current flows, and the respective control nodes of the switches are substantially directly interconnected. A gate drive arrangement for regeneratively controlling the switches comprises a driving inductor connected between the common node and the control nodes and mutually coupled to the resonant inductor for sensing current therein. A second inductor is serially connected to the driving inductor, and together with the driving inductor is connected between the common node and the control nodes. A clamping circuit limits the voltage across the second inductor to achieve desired lamp output, and includes a control winding mutually coupled to the second inductor. A control circuit controls voltage across the control winding in response to an error signal representing difference between a user-selectable set point signal and a feedback signal representing a time-averaged value of a lamp operating parameter.

The above-mentioned application Ser. No. 08/709,062, filed on Sep. 6, 1996 by the present inventor, discloses a ballast circuit using regenerative gate drive circuitry to control a pair of serially connected, complementary conduction type switches of an d.c.-to-a.c. converter. Such switches may comprise an n-channel enhancement mode MOSFET and a p-channel enhancement mode MOSFET, for example. In the disclosed ballast, the phase angle between a resonant load current and a control voltage for the switches moves towards 0.degree. during lamp ignition, providing reliable lamp ignitiion.
It would be desirable to adapt the foregoing ballast to allow a user to adjust the intensity of lamp output while the lamp is operating. For lamps having resistively heated cathodes, it would also be desirable to provide, upon initial power delivery to the ballast, a cathode preheat period during which the cathodes are heated to a desired temperature before igniting the lamp.

Dimmable ballast with complementary converter switches


A damping force control type hydraulic shock absorber capable of providing different damping force characteristics during the extension and retraction strokes when the piston speed is low. The hydraulic shock absorber has a piston having a first damping force generating mechanism. A bypass passage is formed in part by small orifice passages and an extension-side damping force generating mechanism. The bypass passage is further provided with large orifice passages (constituting a passage with relatively large cross-sectional area) and medium orifice passages (with a medium cross-sectional area). When all the orifice passages are closed with a shutter, "hard" characteristics are obtained by the first damping force generating mechanism. When the shutter is opened, "medium" characteristics are obtained by the cooperation of the extension-side damping force generating mechanism and the medium orifice passages, which come into effect during the retraction stroke. When the large and small orifice passages are opened, "soft" characteristics are obtained by the cooperation of the small orifice passages, which come into effect during the extension stroke and the large orifice passages, which come into effect during the contraction stroke.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a damping force control type hydraulic shock absorber for use in a suspension system of a vehicle, for example, an automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hydraulic shock absorbers for use in a suspension system of an automobile or other vehicle include damping force control type hydraulic shock absorbers which are designed so that the level of a damping force can be controlled properly in accordance with the road surface conditions, vehicle running conditions, etc., thereby making the vehicle even more comfortable to ride in and improving the steering stability.
Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure (KOKAI) No. 58-84241 (1983) discloses one example of the conventional hydraulic shock absorbers of the type described above. The disclosed hydraulic shock absorber includes a cylinder having a hydraulic fluid sealed therein, and a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder to divide the inside of the cylinder into two chambers. The prior art further includes a first damping force generating mechanism, a second damping force generating mechanism, and a variable orifice (which can be opened and closed as desired), which are provided in parallel to provide communication between the two chambers in the cylinder. In addition, a switching valve is provided for selectively opening and closing a hydraulic fluid passage of the second damping force generating mechanism.
With the above arrangement, when both the variable orifice and the switching valve are open, small damping force characteristics ("soft" characteristics) are obtained since the fluid flows through the first and second damping force generating mechanisms and the variable orifice; when the variable orifice is closed with the switching valve open, medium damping force characteristics ("medium" characteristics) are obtained since the fluid flows through the first and second damping force generating mechanisms; and when both the variable orifice and the switching valve are closed, large damping force characteristics ("hard" characteristics) are obtained by the fluid flowing through the first damping force generating mechanism alone.
The above-described conventional damping force control type hydraulic shock absorber suffers, however, from the problems stated below. Since a combination of a disk valve and an orifice is employed for each of the extension and retraction sides of the second damping force generating mechanism, when the piston speed is low and hence the disk valve is closed, a damping force is generated by the same orifice for both the extension and retraction strokes. Accordingly, when both the variable orifice and the switching valve are open (i.e., in the "soft" characteristic mode) and, at the same time, the piston speed is low, the same level of damping force is generated a for both the extension and retraction strokes by the cooperation of the variable orifice and the orifice of the second damping force generating mechanism. When the variable orifice is closed with the switching valve open (i.e., in the "medium" characteristic mode) and, at the same time, the piston speed is low, the same level of damping force is generated for both the extension and retraction strokes by the orifice of the second damping force generating mechanism. Thus, when the piston speed is low in either the "soft" or "medium" characteristic mode, the damping force characteristics obtained during the extension and retraction strokes are the same, which makes it difficult to obtain proper damping force characteristics for each particular purpose.

Damping force control type hydraulic shock absorber


A method and system for controlling hydrocarbon injection into engine exhaust to reduce NOx. The method and system inject the hydrocarbon into the engine exhaust in accordance with detection of a light-off event. The light-off event can be detected because when there is this hydrocarbon-O2 reaction, such reaction is an exothermic reaction and thus heat is generated and given off. The generation of such heat may be detected by measuring the difference in temperature across the catalyst. The peak in NOx conversion efficiency temperature changes with age. However, because the peak in NOx conversion efficiency temperature occurs at substantially the same light-off temperature, a determination of light-off by the system and method enables adjustment in the hydrocarbon injection level for maximum NOx reduction efficiency.

This invention relates to methods and apparatus for reducing NOx in engine exhaust and more particularly to method and apparatus for reducing NOx in engine exhaust using hydrocarbon to react with such engine exhaust.
As is known in the art, lean burn engines (e.g., diesel and DISI engines) provide great fuel efficiency compared to stoichiometric spark ignited engines at the expense of more complicated exhaust after-treatment. More particularly, one such after-treatment is the reduction of engine exhaust NOx. Lean NOx catalysts (ALNCs) are typically utilized to reduce tail pipe NOx emissions.
In a typical ALNC configuration, a reductant or reactant, e.g., urea or hydrocarbon, is introduced into the engine exhaust stream. In the case of a hydrocarbon (HC), the hydrocarbon is to react with the NOx in the engine exhaust stream and the reaction is facilitated in the catalyst. This NOx reduction arrangement is essentially an open-loop arrangement because a measurement of the effectiveness of the NOx reduction is not used to adjust the amount of reactant being introduced, or injected into the engine exhaust. This open-loop arrangement includes a look-up table which stores the relationship between the desired amount of hydrocarbon injection in accordance with engine speed, engine load, EGR level, catalyst temperature and space volume, inter alia. Typical injection strategies compute the HC quantity q1 to be injected as the product of a first function f1 (where f1 is a function itself of space velocity (SV), engine speed (RPM) and fuel quantity (fuel)) and a second function, f2, which is a function of catalyst temperature, Tcat. More particularly, q1=f1(SV, RPM, fuel)*f2(Tcat). Thus, f1 and f2 are determined a priori to thereby compute q1. The signal representative of q1 is used as the control signal for an HC injector.
It should be noted that f2 is a function of the optimum catalyst conversion (i.e., NOx reduction) temperature. Such function f2 is shown in FIG. 1. It is noted that f2 has a value of 0 for catalyst temperatures less than T_LOW and catalyst temperatures greater than T_HIGH. The function f2 is 1.0 between catalyst temperature T1 and T2, where the optimum conversion temperature T_CAT_OPTIMUM for the particular catalyst shown in FIG. 1 is between T1 and T2. Finally it is noted that the function f2 monotonically increases from 0 to 1 between T_LOW and T1 and monotonically decreases from 1 to 0 between T2 and T_HIGH. Finally, it should be noted that the function f2 shown in FIG. 1 is for the particular catalyst when such catalyst is green, or un-aged. The inventor has recognized that this function, and more particularly T_CAT_OPTIMUM, changes as the catalyst ages. Thus, while the function f2 may be accurate for a green, or un-aged, catalyst, this a priori determined function f2 is not accurate as the catalyst ages. Thus, the amount of HC added to the reaction may not be optimum as the catalyst ages. Further, because there is no NOx sensor downstream of the catalyst the NOx reduction effectiveness is not measured directly. That is, there being no measure of the NOx reduction effectiveness there is no feedback signal which may be provided to modulate or adjust the hydrocarbon injection process.
The inventor has discovered a method and apparatus which enables the development of a feedback signal indicative of the effectiveness of a reactant in reducing a substance reacted with such reactant without use of a sensor to detect the amount of un-reacted substance.

Method and apparatus for controlling hydrocarbon injection into engine exhaust to reduce NOx


A hybrid video encoder which carries out motion estimation and compensation (8) in the transform domain. In such an encoder, the calculation of a prediction block (Ŷ) from previously encoded blocks (Z) stored in the transform-domain frame memory (7) requires a large number of multiplications. This applies particularly to the motion estimation algorithm. In accordance with the invention, only a few DCT coefficients of candidate prediction blocks are calculated, for example, the DC coefficient and some AC coefficients. In a preferred embodiment, the AC coefficients are adaptively selected in dependence upon the motion vector which is being considered. The calculated coefficients of the candidate prediction blocks and the corresponding coefficients of the current input picture block (Y) are then compared to identify the best-matching prediction block.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of coding video pictures, comprising the steps of transforming picture blocks of a video picture into transform coefficients, and encoding the difference between the transform coefficients of each transformed picture block and corresponding transform coefficients of a prediction block which is obtained by applying motion estimation to a previously encoded picture. The invention also relates to an arrangement for carrying out the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video encoders operating in accordance with international coding standards such as MPEG and H.261 are hybrid encoders, in which transform coding and predictive coding are combined. The predictive coding, which includes motion estimation and compensation, is usually carried out in the pixel domain, and the transform coding (DCT) is applied to the predictively coded signal. In such encoders, an inverse DCT is required in the prediction loop.
Nowadays, research effort is being spent on carrying out the predictive coding in the transform domain. In such an embodiment of the hybrid encoder, the picture is transformed first and the predictive coding is then applied to the transform coefficients. The inverse DCT can now be dispensed with. A schematic diagram of such a hybrid video encoder has been published by the University of Maryland on the Internet (http://dspserv.eng.umd.edu:80.. xcx9ckoc /project/Video_Coding.html).
A drawback of the prior-art hybrid video encoder is that motion estimation and compensation in the transform domain are more complex than in the pixel domain because the calculation of a prediction block involves a large number of matrix multiplications. In particular, motion estimation is a severe problem. Motion estimation comprises the steps of calculating a plurality of candidate prediction blocks, comparing each candidate prediction block with the transformed picture block, and selecting one of the candidate prediction blocks to be the prediction block. With each plurality of candidate prediction blocks, said large number of calculations is involved.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of video encoding, alleviating the above mentioned drawbacks.
To achieve these and other objects, the method in accordance with the invention is characterized in that the steps of calculating a candidate prediction block and comparing the candidate prediction block with the transformed picture block, are carried out for a subset of the transform coefficients of said candidate prediction block and transformed picture block.
The invention is based on the recognition that the majority of bits for encoding a picture block are usually spent on a few transform coefficients and that it is beneficial to restrict the search for the most-resembling prediction block to these coefficients. The number of multiplications is considerably reduced thereby, in particular, in coding standards such as MPEG, where motion compensation is applied to 16*16 macroblocks comprising four 8*8 luminance blocks. Note that the eventually selected prediction block for the motion compensation will still be calculated completely. Picture quality is thus not affected.
Advantageously, the subset of transform coefficients comprises the DC coefficient and a predetermined number of adjacent AC coefficients, for example, the coefficients constituting a 2*2 or 3*3 submatrix in the upper left corner of an 8*8 block. The submatrix may extend in the horizontal direction (for example, 2*3 or 2*4) because most of the motion in normal video scenes is found to be horizontal. The number of multiplications is even further reduced when only coefficients of a single row or single column are calculated.
In a preferred embodiment, the coefficients are chosen in dependence upon the represented by the candidate prediction block and expressed by its associated candidate motion vector. If the candidate motion vector represents horizontal motion, a submatrix is chosen which substantially extends in the horizontal direction. If the candidate motion vector represents vertical motion, the submatrix chosen substantially extends in the vertical direction.


A photosensitive composition including: a plurality of quantum dots, wherein the quantum dot includes an organic ligand bound to a surface of the quantum dot; a photoinitiator; a binder including a carboxylic acid group; a photopolymerizable monomer having a carbon-carbon double bond; and a solvent, wherein the photoinitiator includes a first photoinitiator including an oxime compound and a second photoinitiator including at least one selected from a phosphine oxide compound and an amino ketone compound.

1. Field
A photosensitive composition, a method of preparation thereof, and a quantum dot-polymer composite pattern produced therefrom are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (hereinafter, LCD) is a display in which a polarized light passed through a liquid crystal expresses a color while it is passed through an absorptive color filter. Unfavorably, LCD has a narrow viewing angle and a low luminance due to low light transmittance of the absorptive color filter. When the absorptive color filter is replaced by a photoluminescent type color filter, it may widen viewing angles and improve the luminance.
Quantum dots, which are dispersed in a polymer host matrix to form a composite, are applicable in various display devices. Quantum dots (QD) may be used as a light conversion layer in a light emitting diode (LED) or the like by dispersing in a host matrix of an inorganic material or a polymer. When a quantum dot is colloid-synthesized, the particle size may be relatively freely and uniformly controlled. When quantum dot has a size of less than or equal to about 10 nanometers (nm), the quantum confinement effects, in which the bandgap is increased as the size of the particle decreases, becomes significant, leading to enhancement of the energy density. As quantum dot has a theoretical quantum efficiency (QY) of 100% and may emit light having a high color purity (e.g., full width at half maximum (FWHM) of less than or equal to about 40 nm), a luminous efficiency may be enhanced and a color reproducibility may be improved. Therefore, if the quantum dots are patternable, they may be applied to various devices. For example, a color filter for a liquid crystal display may be capable of developing a high quality photoluminescent type LCD.
Thus, it is desired to develop new techniques of patterning the quantum dot-polymer composite.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Photosensitive compositions, preparation methods thereof, and quantum dot polymer composite pattern produced therefrom