A photometric device is provided with a light receiving section including a diffusing member which has a spherical diffusing surface to diffuse incident light to provide a predetermined oblique incidence angle characteristics, and a plurality of light receiving units which each receive light diffused by the diffusing member, each of the light receiving units including a light receiving surface that is a symmetrical form with respect to an optical axis of the light receiving section. The oblique incidence angle characteristics in the latitudinal direction can be made regardless of or independently of an oblique incidence angle characteristics in the longitudinal direction.

This invention relates to a photometric device such as colormeter for photography, illuminancemeter, and usual colormeter, and also to a light receiving section provided in a photometric device.
Conventionally, photometric devices such as colormeter for photography, illuminancemeter and usual colormeter have been known. Such a photometric device is required to have a characteristics according to its application. Particularly, it is necessary to design the photometric device such that it has a specified oblique incidence angle characteristics which is a common characteristics among photometric devices.
This oblique incidence angle characteristics is described with reference to FIG. 9. A photometric device 111 is provided with a light receiving section 112, whose center O is so arranged as to coincide with Z-axis of X, Y, Z-orthogonal coordinate systems. On this center O is incident an incident light L as a measurement object. Assuming that an angle formed by the incident light L and the Z-axis is a latitude and an angle formed by the incident light L and an XZ-plane on an XY-plane is a longitude, an oblique incidence angle is expressed by an incidence angle .alpha. in the longitudinal direction and an incidence angle .beta. in the latitudinal direction (the incidence angle .alpha. is an angle formed between the incident light L and the Z-axis and the incidence angle .beta. is an angle formed between a plane including the incident light L and the Z-axis and the XZ-plane). The oblique incidence angle characteristics refers to an output dependency of the light receiving section on the incidence angles .alpha. and .beta..
For example, in the case that the photometric device is an illuminancemeter, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in relation to the incidence angle .alpha. is required to satisfy the so-called cosine characteristics standardized by the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS C 1609) or the like. Further, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in relation to the incidence angle .beta. needs to be designed to eliminate an angular dependency lest measurement vales should vary depending upon how the apparatus is installed (orientation of the light receiving section).
Of course, in the colormeter for photography and usual colormeter other than the illuminancemeter, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in relation to the incidence angle .beta. also need to be similarly designed to eliminate the angular dependency.
In order to attain the oblique incidence angle characteristics in relation to the incidence angle .alpha. as above, a milky acrylic plate or the like diffusing member is placed on the front surface of the light receiving section to sufficiently diffuse the incident light. Further, the diffusing member is shaped to have a semispherical surface and/or the shape of a diffusing member holder around a window for the light receiving section 12 is devised.
Further, as a photometric device with a single light receiving section having a plurality of light receiving elements therein, a colormeter for photography has been, for example, known.
In the colormeter for photography, it is necessary to arrange three light receiving elements (light receiving elements having sensitivities in three wavelength ranges of blue, green and red). FIGS. 10A and 10B show a construction of a colormeter for photography, wherein FIG. 10A is a front view and FIG. 10B is a section taken along the Y-axis. In this colormeter 111, light receiving elements 113, 114, 115 having sensitivities to the respective wavelength ranges of red, green and blue are circumferentially arranged about the center O of the light receiving section 112. FIG. 10A shows a state where a diffusing member 116 of the light receiving section 112 is removed. The diffusing member is a planar member as shown in FIG. 10B.
If all these light receiving elements can be arranged in the center of the light receiving section, they are symmetrical with respect to the optical axis of the light receiving section 112 for a reason described later. Even if the diffusing member placed on the front surfaces of the light receiving elements were spherical, the oblique incidence angle dependency in the longitudinal direction could be, in principle, eliminated. However, since it is, in reality, physically difficult, the light receiving elements have to be circumferentially arranged about the center O of the light receiving section. Accordingly, the diffusing member is not allowed to have a curved surface, i.e., it has a planar surface.
In other words, the diffusing member has to have a planar surface so as to eliminate the oblique incidence angle dependency in the longitudinal direction even for the light receiving element arranged in a position displaced from the center O. As a result, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in the longitudinal direction is automatically determined by the material and thickness of the diffusing member.
Next, the illuminancemeter is described. The spectral sensitivity of the light receiving section of the illuminancemeter is required to agree with a relative luminous sensitivity characteristics V(.lambda.) of the CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) standard observer. In conventional illuminancemeters, a filter method has been adopted according to which the spectral sensitivity of the light receiving section is made to maximally approximate to the relative luminous sensitivity characteristics V(.lambda.) by combining light receiving elements such as silicone photosensors with a color glass filter, interference filter, film filter (gelatin filter or acetate filter) or like filter.
However, the aforementioned filter method has a problem that, if an attempt is made to maximally approximate the spectral sensitivity of the light receiving section to V(.lambda.), the number of filters increases and the amount of light reaching the light receiving elements is reduced. If the number of the filters are reduced in order to increase the light amount, a degree of approximation to V(.lambda.) is disadvantageously degraded Further, even if there are variations in the respective characteristics of the light receiving elements, there is no problem if variation in the total spectral characteristics by combination of the filters and the light receiving elements lies within a permissible range. However, a strict administering is necessary so that the respective parts lie within such permissible ranges.
In order to overcome these problems, the following technique has been used in the prior art. Specifically, the light receiving section is constructed by combining a plurality of light receiving elements and filters having mutually different spectral transmittance characteristics, and the outputs of the light receiving elements are increased or decreased later by multiplying weight factors to attain a desired spectral sensitivity. Such a technique for synthesizing the desired spectral sensitivity using a plurality of light receiving elements is well-known not only in the illuminancemeter art but also in the art which seeks to attain a desired spectral sensitivity. For example, a colormeter adopting a three element method, taking advantage of a property that, out of three spectral sensitivities of the CIE spectral tristimulus values x(.lambda.), y(.lambda.), z(.lambda.), the shape of the short-wavelength side one of two concave curves of sensitivity in a visible region is analogous to that of z(.lambda.), equivalently calculates a total output of x(.lambda.) by multiplying the output of the light receiving element of z(.lambda.) by a specific factor and adding this multiplied output to the output of the light receiving element having a sensitivity of the long wavelength side of x(.lambda.). Further, in order to improve the accuracy of the spectral sensitivity characteristics of a colormeter, a proposal has been made to add and/or subtract the outputs of the three spectral stimulus values to and/or from each other (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2(HEI)-45718). Another proposal has also been made to apply this concept to the standard relative luminous efficiency (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7(HEI)-318423).
In the illuminancemeter of the spectral sensitivity synthesizing type using a plurality of light receiving elements as well, the problem arises that it is physically difficult to arrange all light receiving elements about the center O, similar to the aforementioned colormeter for photography.
In the aforementioned colormeter for photography, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in the longitudinal direction is automatically determined by the material and thickness of the diffusing member since the planar diffusing member is used in the light receiving window. Accordingly, the characteristics which should originally be inherent cannot be attained.
Specifically, the colormeter for photography is a device for analyzing the illumination condition of the same object in the same photographic scene (illumination condition) as a general incident light type exposure meter for photography. Accordingly, the oblique incidence angle characteristics of the both should originally agree with each other. However, the oblique incidence angle characteristics of the conventional colormeter for photography and that of the incident light type exposure meter could not agree with each other as described in detail below.
Generally in the incident light type exposure meter for photography, a light receiving sphere as a diffusing member having a semispherical surface is mounted on the light receiving section in the case that a three-dimensional object such as a person is photographed in an actual photographic scene. A measurement is performed by setting the light receiving section such that it faces a lens of a camera from the position of the object.
The oblique incidence angle characteristics in the latitudinal direction .alpha. when the light receiving sphere is mounted on the light receiving section of the incident light type exposure meter is so designed as to display an oblique incidence angle characteristics of the so-called cardioid shape as shown in FIG. 12. This characteristics considers lights which influence the photographing such as light La propagating toward a camera 201 from a side surface of an object 200 and light Lb propagating toward the camera 201 from a position obliquely behind the object 200.
The incident light type exposure meter and the colormeter for photography are adapted to measure and analyze the amount of light and the quality of illumination, receptively, in the same photographic scene (illumination condition). Accordingly, the oblique incidence angle characteristics should originally agree with each other. Specifically, in the colormeter for photography as well, light illuminating the object should be collectively measured in an actual photographic scene, using the light receiving sphere. However, in this colormeter, a planar diffusing member as a diffusing member has to be used for the following reason.
Specifically, the oblique incidence angle characteristics in the latitudinal direction of the colormeter for photography is automatically determined by the characteristics of the planar diffusing member, hence the oblique incidence angle in the latitudinal direction of "cardioid shape" as in the usual exposure meter cannot be realized. In other words, the oblique incidence angle characteristics of the conventional colormeter for photography is narrower than that of the general incident light type exposure meter and, thus, the illumination light rays from the lateral side of the object and from the obliquely behind of the object are evaluated with low degrees. Conversely, if a diffusing member having a spherical surface is used to realize the oblique incidence angle characteristics of "cardioid shape", balance in the incident light amount on the respective light receiving elements of red, green and blue is lost depending on the incident direction in the longitudinal direction, thereby making a deviation of analysis value larger.
FIG. 11 shows an example of oblique incidence angle characteristics of a light receiving element arranged outside the optical axis, for example, of the green light receiving element 114 in FIG. 10, in the longitudinal direction .beta. with respect to oblique incident light when the diffusing member has a spherical surface. Ideally, the oblique incidence angle characteristics should be a circular characteristics about an origin of the coordinate systems where sensitivity is constant independently of the longitude as characteristics N shown by the broken line in FIG. 11. However, in reality, the characteristics is displaced with respect to the origin like characteristics M shown by the solid line in FIG. 11 due to the angular dependency in the longitudinal direction .beta.. An effort is being given to improve a degree of diffusion by devising the characteristics of the diffusing member arranged on the front surface of the light receiving elements so that the oblique incident light can also be uniformly incident on the respective light receiving elements. However, if the degree of diffusion is increased to the extent that the oblique incidence angle dependency in the longitudinal direction becomes negligible, the level of amount of light incident on the light receiving elements is reduced. Thus, the oblique incidence angle dependency in the longitudinal direction cannot completely be eliminated and the elimination of this dependency should, at present, be compromised at a certain degree.

Photometric device and a light receiving section for use in a photometric device


A connector for connecting tubes or the like includes at least one main body with a connecting surface arranged thereon for the connection or flange-mounting of tubes wherein the at least one main body includes or consists of a cross-linked plastic material.

Various connecting devices are known for connecting tubes and pipes, which are suitably adapted to their respective purpose of use.
For example metal tube connectors were used in the pneumatics art in relation to tubes and pipes of for example a diameter of 32 or 50 mm. Those connectors which were generally cast are either in-line connectors or T-shaped connectors in order to connect together either two or three tubes. Metal connectors of that kind however suffer from serious disadvantages. When dealing with the above-indicated tube diameters, that already involves a very high weight for the metal connector and that weight, with even larger tube diameters, increases not in a linear relationship but approximately with the third power of the tube diameter. Furthermore the metals used are generally unstable in relation to acids and are frequently not permitted for foodstuffs. Although special alloys such as for example chromium-nickel steels admittedly have a higher level of chemical stability, they are however difficult to process and extremely expensive.
As plastic tubing is increasingly being used across an ever widening range of uses, the use of metals is here too rather undesirable. Because of differences in thermal expansion characteristics, stresses occur in the metal-plastic transition and the properties of the metal result in an undesirable decline in the otherwise high level of attraction of plastic tubing.
Hitherto different component.,s were used for respective different purposes of use in the sectors of pneumatics, domestic installations, sewage and fresh water systems and the chemical industry.


Embodiments relate to systems and methods for sample image capture using integrated control. A digital microscope or other imaging device can be associated with a sample chamber containing cell, tissue, or other sample material. The chamber can be configured to operate using a variety of environmental variables, including gas concentration, temperature, humidity, and others. The imaging device can be configured to operate using a variety of imaging variables, including magnification, focal length, illumination, and others. A central system control module can be used to configure the settings of those hardware elements, as well as others, to set up and carry out an image capture event. The system control module can be operated to control the physical, optical, chemical, and/or other parameters of the overall imaging environment from one central control point. The variables used to produce the image capture can be configured to dynamically variable during the media capture event.

In the field of microscopy for medical, research, and other applications, it has been known to use digital imaging to capture video of incubated samples contained within a sample chamber. In those types of applications and others, an electronically controlled microscope has been coupled to various control logic to adjust focal length, depth, illumination parameters, and other settings to control the exposures being taken by the video device.
In those types of applications, samples are typically housed for imaging by the imaging device in a sample or environmental chamber. The chamber may enclose a plate containing medical samples, such as tissue or cell cultures used for various diagnostic purposes. The chamber can include one or more environmental variables that can be set for the duration of an exposure event. Those variables can include conditions such as the amount or concentration of environmental gases present in the chamber, such as carbon dioxide or oxygen. Those variables can likewise include conditions such as the temperature, humidity, and other physical conditions of the chamber. The growth rate or other characteristics of the sample in the chamber can therefore be imaged and examined, based on those sets of conditions or others. The positioning of that chamber and the setting of environmental conditions within that chamber
However, in known digital microscopy platforms, the settings of the environmental chamber, the settings of the video or other media captured by the imaging device, and the settings of the imaging device itself are controlled by separate control logic, manufactured by separate vendors and not provided with interoperable features. Thus, users who need to prepare an exposure event, arrange the video or other capture of that event, conduct that controlled exposure and record the resulting media for future review, are forced to interact with several independent and possibly incompatible systems. Moreover, even once the various configuration settings, event timing, and related operational details are prepared, conventional digital microscopy platforms are locked into performing the exposure or experiment based on those settings, with no possibility of adjusting or altering those settings while the exposure event is taking place.
It may be desirable to provide methods and systems for sample image capture using integrated control, in which a digital imaging platform can be controlled and operated from a single control point in a comprehensive fashion, and during which various environmental conditions in the sample chamber can be dynamically changed during the exposure run.

Systems and methods for sample image capture using integrated control


An angle adjustable sawing table adapted to allow the installation of a circular saw. Wood material is placed at pre-set geometric angles. One end of a gage is placed on a table, and another end of the gage is flush against a measurement member for adjustment to a preset angle.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an angle adjustable sawing table, and more particularly, to one that allows direct measurement of geometric angles of wood materials for cutting.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
A sawing table on site is perhaps the most important tool in any decoration job for a carpenter. Usually the table has a foundation comprised of four pieces of boards including two girders and two stretchers with a table inserted on the top and a circular saw below the table.
In the prior art, the board is placed on the table and measured manually for the geometric angle and the finished size to be cut; then the board is marked when the angle is determined, to allow the circular saw to cut the board into the size and angle desired. However, in the absence of any measurement tools designed for the sawing table, all the measurements and geometric angles must be done manually resulting in wasted time, and poor accuracy and efficiency.


The present invention discloses a display panel driving device and a driving method thereof, wherein the display panel driving device includes a plurality of mapping table units and a source driver. The mapping table units receive a plurality of primary color signals respectively, and convert grayscale levels of the primary colors into a plurality of mapping grayscale level values corresponding to a single gamma curve according to the grayscale level mapping relation between the single gamma curve and a plurality of primary color gamma curves. The source driver is electrically connected to the mapping table units to receive the mapping grayscale level values generated by the mapping table units, and convert the mapping grayscale level values into a plurality of driving voltages according to the relation between grayscale levels and voltages of the single gamma curve for inputting the driving voltages into a display panel.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel driving device and a driving method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a display panel driving device using a single gamma curve and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, in order to improve display quality and provide grayscale levels of each primary color that can be accurately sensed by the eye, gamma curves are usually used to relate the grayscale levels of each primary color to driving voltages required by display devices. FIG. 1 is a curve diagram showing gamma curves of each primary color of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), wherein the horizontal axis stands for grayscale level and the vertical axis stands for voltage. A red light gamma curve 101 almost overlaps a blue light gamma curve 102, which are shown by one common curve in FIG. 1, while a green light curve 103 is apparently different from the curves 101 and 102. FIG. 2 shows a circuit block diagram of a conventional OLED display 200. The OLED display 200 comprises a source driver 21, an OLED panel 22 and a gate driver 23. The source driver 21 receives data and three groups of gamma voltages of red light, green light and blue light, wherein the three groups of gamma voltages are sampled values from the red, green and blue primary color gamma curves, respectively. The source driver 21 converts grayscale levels of three primary colors in the input data into three groups of driving voltages with reference to the red light, green light and blue light gamma voltages, and then outputs the three groups of driving voltages to the OLED panel 22. The OLED panel 22 is sequentially scanned by the gate driver 23 controlled by the input signal. As three groups of gamma voltages are needed, the complexity of the circuit is greatly increased and the development time of the product is prolonged so that there is a risk of revealing secrets during the long product research/development process.
FIG. 3 shows a circuit block diagram of another conventional OLED display 300. The OLED display 300 comprises a source driver 31, an OLED panel 32 and a gate driver 33. Data are input into the source driver 31 by an external device (not shown), and the grayscale levels of red light, green light and blue light in the input data are converted into driving voltages by the source driver 31 according to a single group of gamma voltages of a single gamma curve and then the driving voltages are input into the OLED panel 32. The gate driver 33 receives a control signal to sequentially scan the OLED panel 32. Referring to both FIGS. 1 and 3, as the source driver 31 generates driving voltages of each primary color according to a single gamma curve, for example, assume the single gamma curve is the red light gamma curve 101, the driving voltage may be too high for the green light when the input data represents an all white frame, thereby resulting in a greenish frame. On the other hand, if the single gamma curve is the green light gamma curve 103, the driving voltages are apparently insufficient for the red light and the blue light when the input data represents an all white frame, also resulting in a greenish frame.

Display panel driving device and driving method thereof


A bracelet connection tool is disclosed that assists in the installation of a bracelet. The bracelet installation tool includes a base, a support beam, and a clamp. The support beam supports the clamp in a spaced relationship with the base. The clamp is capable of engaging a portion of the bracelet during installation. A method of installing a bracelet with the bracelet connection tool is also disclosed.

Bracelets, watches, and other jewelry or electronics are commonly worn on one or both wrists of an individual. Such items are referred to herein collectively as "bracelets." Bracelets often include a fastener having a first member located at one end of the bracelet, and a second member located at the other end of the bracelet. The first member and the second member can be connected together to attach the bracelet around the wrist of the individual.
A wide variety of fasteners exist for connecting the ends of the bracelet together. For example, one type of fastener includes a loop or ring at one end, and a clasp or clip at the other end. To connect the clasp to the loop, a small tab protruding from the clasp is depressed to open the clasp. A portion of the clasp is next inserted into the loop. The tab is then released to cause the clasp to close, fastening the clasp to the loop. Many other bracelet fastener designs also exist.
It is often difficult for the individual to install the bracelet on his or her own wrist due to the fact that only one hand is available to perform the necessary operations. Therefore, there is a need for a tool that will assist an individual in installing bracelets, wrist-worn ornamentation, or other devices.


A macroscopically perforated porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene sheet material having a microstructure of nodes interconnected by fibrils wherein the perforations have a minimum diameter of about 0.1 mm and wherein the orientation of a fibril varies as a function of the proximity of a fibril to the edge of a perforation. The length of the fibrils may also vary as a function of the proximity of a fibril to the edge of a perforation. The sheet material may alternatively be provided in a tubular form.

Strong porous polytetrafluoroethylene (hereinafter PTFE) products and their method of manufacture involving expansion by stretching were first described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,953,566 and 4,187,390. These products have found widespread acceptance in a variety of fields including medical devices, fabrics, electrical insulation, filtration, sealants and packings, and threads and filaments for weaving and sewing. Porous expanded PTFE products have been particularly useful in the field of medical devices because of the highly inert chemical character of PTFE and because the characteristics of the microstructure of the porous expanded PTFE can be controlled to either allow or preclude ingrowth of living tissues. These medical devices include vascular grafts, vascular and hernia patch repair materials, sutures, ligaments and periodontal repair materials. In fabric constructions, porous expanded PTFE materials have been particularly useful because they are both waterproof and breathable. Porous expanded PTFE is particularly useful as an electrical insulating material because of its high dielectric constant. All of these articles using porous expanded PTFE made as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,566 have a microstructure of nodes interconnected by fibrils.
Heretofore, there have been relatively few applications calling for porous expanded PTFE materials containing macroscopic perforations through the thickness of the material. A paper by J. M. Schakenraad describing GORE-TEX.RTM. Soft Tissue Patch repair material containing perforations made with a 22 gauge needle (25 perforations per square cm) suggests that such a perforated material allows for faster tissue ingrowth than a comparable unperforated material (Improved tissue ingrowth and anchorage of expanded PTFE by perforation: an experimental study in the rat. Biomaterials 1991 vol 12 January). Microscopic evaluation of perforations made in porous expanded PTFE materials that had been expanded prior to perforation reveals that the perforations have extremely rough edges, apparently resulting from irregular cutting and distortion of the material during penetration by the needle. It has been found that alternative methods of making perforations in porous expanded PTFE, such as by removing material with a sharp blade, also result in perforations having rough edges. Further, these methods of forming perforations in porous expanded PTFE result in only slight deformation of the node and fibril microstructure immediately adjacent to the edge of the perforation.
The present invention relates to a macroscopically perforated porous expanded PTFE sheet material having perforations formed prior to the expansion of the PTFE sheet material. The macroscopically perforated porous expanded PTFE sheet material of the present invention may optionally have perforations with substantially smooth edges as opposed to the rough edges resulting from perforations created subsequent to expansion.
U.S. Pat, No. 4,647,416 teaches a method of providing reinforcing ribs on the exterior of a porous expanded PTFE tube by exteriorly circumferentially scoring the wall of a tubular PTFE extrudate prior to expansion of the extrudate. The scoring is required to be of a depth substantially less than the thickness of the wall to avoid weakening and perforating the tube.

Macroscopically perforated porous polytetrafluoroethylene materials


A method and system for facilitating the management of user identities includes an ownership component, a registration component, and a servicing component. When a user first desires to access a system using the present invention, the registration component verifies the user's ownership of the underlying account by asking a variety of questions. Thereafter, when a user desires to service his account, the user may be re-queried to determine if he is attempting to access the correct information. An authentication and access component provides the functionality to access a system of the present invention. An audit component can be configured to periodically monitor the various accounts to ensure a continued linking between users and accounts.

Computer systems have evolved to the point where it is possible for a user to remotely access personal information via a computer. For example, one can monitor account balances, purchase securities, purchase goods, check the status of goods, and the like, through the use of a personal computer by using, for example, a web browser connected to the Internet.
In providing services such as those listed above, it is desirable that certain types of information be accessible only by authorized users. For example, only the account holder should be able to access information regarding his bank account, be able to perform certain activities (e.g., transfers and withdrawals) on said bank account, or be able to purchase goods using funds from said bank account.
In the past, such security has typically been provided in the form of the combination of a user id and a password. For example, an account at a bank may be protected by having a user "log in" to a banking application by providing a user id and password. However, such a security system may not provide as much security as desired. For example, if an unauthorized person were to become aware of the user id and password, the unauthorized person would then be able to access information and perform tasks that should be limited to a select group of authorized users.
There are several other problems with the above-described scenario. The association between a user ID and an account may become broken. For example, a user named John Smith may select, as a user ID, JSMITH1 and an associated password for use with a bank account. Another person named Joe Smith may select, as a user ID, JSMITH2 and an associated password for use with a different account. After a few months of non-use, Joe Smith attempts to login to his brokerage account. Not remembering his user ID, he thinks his user ID is JSMITH1. After several unsuccessful log-in attempts, he contacts a customer service representative.
In the prior art, the typical method of customer service verifying the user would be to verify ownership of the account. After verifying several pieces of information with Joe Smith (e.g., social security number, mailing address, etc.), the customer service representative is convinced that Joe Smith is who he says he is and grants him access to his brokerage account using the name JSMITH1. When John Smith later tries to login, the same scenario may occur, as John Smith is no longer able to use the JSMITH1 name that he established and contacts customer service to change the password. The result is that the JSMITH1 user ID becomes associated with both the accounts of John Smith and Joe Smith and customer service needs to intervene in order to grant the users their desired authorization level.
Thus, no sufficient system exists that accurately associates customer relationship and validates the continuing integrity of the customer relationship. In particular, the prior art is solely concerned with verifying the ownership of the account, and not verifying the relationship between the user ID and the account. It is desirable to have a more robust method of managing user identities in a computerized system.

Method and system for implementing and managing an enterprise identity management for distributed security in a computer system

American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.


Methods of making substantially phase-pure and thermally stable crystalline alumina compositions stabilized with an oxide of silicon, germanium, phosphorus, arsenic or a mixture thereof. Also provided are crystalline alumina compositions and catalyst supports made using these methods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel crystalline alumina compositions and methods of making the compositions, to articles made from the compositions, and to catalyst systems and methods utilizing the compositions. In another aspect, the present invention relates to novel thermally and hydro-thermally stable, substantially phase-pure, crystalline alumina compositions that are similar, but not identical to, .delta.-alumina compositions, to methods of making the compositions from boehmite or pseudo boehmite, and to catalyst supports made from such compositions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gaseous waste products resulting from the combustion or incomplete combustion of hydrocarbonaceous fuels, such as gasoline and fuel oils, generally include carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and/or nitrogen oxides. These waste products pose a serious health problem with respect to pollution of the atmosphere. Sources of such gases include exhaust from stationary engines, industrial furnaces, and vehicle engines.
The amount of waste products in such exhaust gases must generally be removed to levels established by government environmental regulations. Typically, this is done by placing in the exhaust stream catalysts which are capable of removing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides at the same time.
Such catalysts for treating such exhaust gases are well known in the art. More specifically, these catalysts contain platinum, palladium and/or rhodium and are known as three-way catalysts, and may also include other stabilizers and promoters to improve the activity of these catalysts. However, these catalysts have characteristically tended to lose surface area or become otherwise unstable over time and extended use, particularly at high temperatures, i.e., those above about 1000.degree. C.
For the past twenty years or so, tightening environmental regulations have provided the incentive to improve the performance of such engine exhaust catalysts. The art is replete with numerous patents and articles directed toward such catalysts. However, in spite of the number of prior art catalyst systems, there is a never-ending search for improving catalyst technology, particularly for catalyst systems that are thermally and hydrothermally stable.
For example, there is a need in the art for a .delta.-alumina composition that is stable against loss of surface area and phase integrity when exposed to repeated and/or extended use at temperatures in excess of 1000.degree. C.
There is also a need in the art for engine exhaust catalyst supports made from a thermally stable .delta.-alumina composition. Another need in the art is for a catalyst system having at least one catalytically active component on a thermally stable .delta.-alumina composition. Still another need in the art is for a method of purifying automotive and other engine exhausts utilizing a catalyst system having an active component on a thermally stable .delta.-alumina composition.
That these and other needs in the art have been met by this invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon review of this specification.

Methods of making stabilized crystalline alumina compositions, and alumina compositions and catalyst supports made therefrom

ASEC Manufacturing, a General Partnership


A holding recess (14) for holding the self-supporting-type cable (1) is formed between elastic holding portions (12, 13). Retaining projections (12a, 13a) are formed respectively on those side surfaces of the elastic holding portions (12, 13), exposed to the holding recess (14), in stepped relation to each other. Even when the self-supporting-type cable (1) is held in any posture, with its cable body portion (2) or its wire support portion (3) first introduced into the holding recess (14), the cable body portion (2) is engaged with the two retaining projections (12a, 13a) in a press-contacted manner to be prevented from withdrawal, or the cable body portion is engaged with the retaining projection (13a) and the bottom of the holding recess (14) in a press-contacted manner, and therefore is held in a stable manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire harness-fixing clamp for holding a wire harness comprising wires or a cable, and more particularly to such a clamp suited for holding a self-supporting-type communication cable called xe2x80x9ca hanger gourd-shaped cablexe2x80x9d.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 11-233535, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a self-supporting-type cable 1 (called xe2x80x9ca hanger gourd-shaped cablexe2x80x9d) which is a kind of communication cable.
The self-supporting-type cable 1, having the illustrated configuration, includes a cable body portion 2, and a support wire portion 3 integrally formed with the cable body portion 2. Such self-supporting-type cables have various characteristics, and therefore have been extensively used in accordance with the purpose of use and a place where it is used. The cable body portion 2 comprises a conductor (cable core) 2a, an insulating layer 2b formed on the conductor 2a to cover the same, and a protective sheath 4 formed on the insulating layer 2b to cover the same. The support wire portion 3 comprises a support wire 3a, and the sheath 4 formed on the support wire 3a to cover the same, so that the support wire portion 3 is integrally connected to the cable body portion 2. The cable body portion 2 and the support wire portion 3 are interconnected by a sheath connection portion 4a at the boundary between the two portions 2 and 3.
In the installation of the self-supporting-type cable 1 of the above configuration, this cable is often fixed by clip-type clamps at suitable portions thereof spaced along the entire length thereof. One example of such clamps is a wire harness clamp disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho. 63-179717.
This clamp 5, shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, includes a pair of left and right elastic holding portions 5a and 5b extending upwardly from a clamp body molded of a resin, and a holding recess 5c of an upwardly-open U-shape (in the drawings) is formed between the two elastic holding portions 5a and 5b. A retaining projection 5d is formed at an upper end of one of the elastic holding portions 5a, and bulges to be exposed to the holding recess 5c.
When installing the self-supporting-type cable 1, this cable 1 is fixed to a mounting panel or the like at suitable portions thereof by the use of the clamps 5. More specifically, when the clamp 5 is mounted in an upwardly-directed posture as shown in FIG. 4A, the self-supporting-type cable 1 is usually fitted into the holding recess 5c, with the support wire portion 3 directed downwardly, so that the cable body portion 2 is disposed at a level above the support wire portion 3. The cable body portion 2, thus disposed at the higher level, is held between the left and right elastic holding portions 5a and 5b, and is retained by the elastic force of the resin, and the retaining projection 5d is press-contacted with the cable body portion 2 to prevent the same from withdrawal from the holding recess 5c.
When the self-supporting-type cable 1 is set in an inverted posture in the related clip-type clamp 5 as shown in FIG. 4B, there is encountered the following disadvantage. More specifically, when the self-supporting-type cable 1 is attached to the clamp 5 in such a manner that the cable body portion 2 is directed downwardly, and is first fitted into the holding recess 5c, the support wire portion 3 projects outwardly from the clamp 5, so that the fixing of the cable is unstable. As a result, in use, the cable can flutter to produce noises, and in the worst case, the self-supporting-type cable is disengaged from the clamp 5.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wire harness-fixing clamp particularly best suited for holding a self-supporting-type communication cable (called xe2x80x9ca hanger gourd-shaped cable) among wire harnesses in a stable condition.
To achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wire harness-fixing clamp which comprises a clamp body, a pair of elastic holding portions extending from the clamp body, the elastic holding portions being opposed to each other to form therebetween a holding recess, into which a wire is insertable, and which is operative to hold the wire, and a plurality of retaining projections formed respectively on the elastic holding portions to project into the holding recess, wherein when the wire is inserted into the holding recess, at least one of the retaining projections is operative to retain the wire in the holding recess. When the wire is held in the holding recess, the retaining projections are operative to engage the wire from such a direction as to prevent withdrawal of the wire from the holding recess. The retaining projections may be formed in a bulged manner respectively on inner surfaces of the elastic holding portions.
In the related art, the retaining projection is formed on only one of the elastic holding portions, and therefore there were occasions when the fixing of the wire harness was unstable. In the above construction of the present invention, however, the retaining projections are formed on the opposed elastic holding portions, respectively, and therefore even when the wire harness is set in any posture, the clamp can hold the wire harness in a stable manner.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the wire may include a body portion, a connection portion, and a support wire portion connected to the body portion through the connection portion. In this case, when the wire is inserted into the holding recess so that the support wire portion is first introduced into the holding recess, the body portion is engaged with the retaining projections to be prevented from withdrawal from the holding recess. Further, when the wire is inserted into the holding recess so that the body portion is first introduced and pressed into the holding recess, the body portion is engaged with one of the retaining projections and a bottom of the holding recess. The wire may be a self-supporting-type cable having a hanger gourd-shape.
Accordingly, even when the wire is set in a proper posture or an inverted posture, with the support wire portion or the body portion first introduced into the holding recess, the body portion is positively held in a press-contacted manner, and therefore the self-supporting-type cable is positively held in a stable condition.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the retaining projections are offset from each other in a longitudinal direction of the holding recess. More specifically, one of the retaining projections may be formed on an intermediate portion of one of the elastic holding portions, and the other one of the retaining projections may be formed on a distal end portion of the other one of the elastic holding portions. In this case, the retaining projections press-contact with the body portion of the wire, or the one of the retaining projections and the bottom of the holding recess press-contact with the body portion of the wire.
That is, the retaining projections are formed on the suitable portions of the opposed elastic holding portions, respectively. More specifically, the one retaining projection is formed on one of the two elastic holding portions intermediate the opposite ends thereof, whereas the other retaining projection is formed on the distal end portion of the other elastic holding portion. With this construction, the body portion is held between the two retaining projections, and are press-contacted with these retaining projections to be prevented from withdrawal from the holding recess. Alternatively, the body portion is held between the one retaining projection and the bottom of the holding recess in a press-contacted manner, and therefore is stably held against withdrawal from the holding recess.


Functions of a programmable logic controller are located in physically separable units. These physically separable units include a program execution device, or control device, whose function is limited to sequencing through the user logic program and a communication/programming device, which provides the programmability function. The micro controller incorporates a micro processor, RAM, and a re-programmable Flash EPROM in a single package implements the logical core of the program execution device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flash memory and, more particularly, to a re-programmable flash memory micro controller. The flash memory may be configured as a programmable logic controller.
2. Related Information
Programmable logic controllers on the market today generally have a common architecture. Typically, the controller CPU includes a microprocessor, possibly supplemented with a custom control instruction processor (boolean processor), for execution of the user program under the supervision of an operating system, random access data memory (RAM) for user and operating system data, battery backed RAM or non-volatile EEPROM for storing the user program, and a permanent ROM or EPROM for storage of the operating system software.
The user program is typically prepared on a general purpose computer and loaded into the PLC in symbolic form. The loading is typically by means of a serial communications protocol, though a removable memory cartridge may sometimes be used to by-pass this step. Within the PLC, the symbolic code is converted to executable code by a compiler. Included in the system software that must be permanently stored in ROM, there is the actual operating system that coordinates execution, the communications software to support transfer of the user program and data, and the compiler which converts the symbolic user program to executable form.
The operating system has to coordinate the communications, compilation, and program execution functions. This requires some sophistication of the operating system to respond to communications events, queue/de queue deferred tasks, and manage mode transitions between program mode and run mode. The compiler and communications software functions may be quite large, and significantly extend permanent storage requirements beyond that needed for controlling the execution of the user program.
Recently introduced models designed for low cost have used micro controllers including the data RAM and operating system ROM on a single chip with the microprocessor. The user program is contained in an external storage device: battery backed RAM, EPROM, or EEPROM, possibly added to the basic unit as a removable memory cartridge.

Re-programmable flash memory micro controller as programmable logic controller


A system and method for replacing degenerated spinal disks in accordance with the present invention can substitute for interbody fusion techniques by replacing degenerated spinal disks with artificial spinal disks. In one embodiment, the system can comprise one or more artificial spinal disks, each comprising an upper and lower housing, a first spacer and a second spacer partially enclosed by a cavity formed by the housings, and a shaft with a spring positioned between the first spacer and the second spacer such that the spacers are urged apart.

A common procedure for handling pain associated with degenerative spinal disk disease is the use of devices for fusing together two or more adjacent vertebral bodies. The procedure is known by a number of terms, one of which is vertebral interbody fusion. Interbody fusion can be accomplished through the use of a number of devices and methods known in the art. These include screw arrangements, solid bone implant methodologies, and fusion devices which include a cage or other mechanism which is packed with bone and/or bone growth inducing substances. All of the above are implanted between adjacent vertebral bodies in order to fuse the vertebral bodies together, alleviating associated pain.
There are a number of drawbacks to undergoing interbody fusion. One drawback is that interbody fusion at one or more levels of the spine may cause decreased motion of the spine. Another drawback is that having interbody fusion at one or more levels of the spine may cause more stress to be transferred to adjacent levels. Transferred stress may cause new problems to develop at other levels of the spine, which may lead to additional back surgery.
Alternatives to interbody fusion surgery have been proposed including the use of artificial spinal disks. Such artificial spinal disks act like cushions or "shock absorbers" between vertebrae and may contribute to the flexibility and motion of the spinal column. Thus a purpose and advantage of such artificial spinal disks is to replace a degenerated spinal disk, while preserving the range of motion of the spine. Replacement of a spinal disk with an artificial disk may treat underlying back pain, while protecting patients from developing problems at an adjacent level of the spine.
A number of different artificial disks have been proposed. For example, one such proposal includes an artificial disk primarily comprising two metal metallic plates between which is a core that allows for motion. Another proposal includes two spinal disk halves connected at a pivot point. Other artificial disks have been proposed in the art.

System and method for replacing degenerated spinal disks


A test device is formed on a chip which allows the susceptibility to failure of functional circuitry formed on the chip to be tested. The test device allows aggressive design of chips which include sensitive circuitry, such as precharged dynamic logic, by testing whether deviations from the design specification introduced during manufacturing of the chip are sufficient to cause failure of the functional circuitry.

The present invention is directed to a test device and method, and more particularly to a test device and method for testing the susceptibility to failure of a functional circuit implemented in a semiconductor chip.
Over the past several years semiconductor chips have become the basis of nearly all modern electronic devices. For example, modern computers employ various processing chips to implement their function. Such computer chips are increasingly employing larger numbers of basic components, such as transistors, in order to improve both performance and processing capability of the computer chip. In order to increase the number of components used, it is necessary to increase the integration of the devices on the chip. Higher integration can be achieved by reducing the number of components needed to implement a desired function and by packing the individual components closer together. As more individual components are placed on a single chip the overall production cost is reduced.
Various approaches have been used to implement different functionality on a chip. For example, precharged dynamic logic circuits have been increasingly employed to implement logic functionality in modern computer chips. Dynamic logic is desirable because of its small size and fast performance. One drawback associated with using dynamic logic circuits is that such circuits tend to be quite sensitive to noise and other influences arising on the chip. External influences, such as noise and crosstalk introduced from other circuitry on the chip located in the vicinity of the dynamic logic circuit, must be carefully considered in designing chips using dynamic logic circuits.
The problems associated with the external influences on the operation of the dynamic logic circuitry becomes even more significant when the density of the components used to form the circuitry is increased. For example, where a number of dynamic logic circuits are grouped together in the same horizontal plane of the chip, the adjacent circuits may have a significant influence on each other. One notable problem involves signal wiring of such circuitry. If relatively long coupling lengths are used in the wiring layer, significant portions of the wiring may lie adjacent to wiring associated with one or more other circuits. A charge associated with a signal on an adjacent line may be capacitively coupled to the wiring of an adjacent dynamic circuit. The amount of voltage capacitively coupled onto a given line depends on the spacing between the adjacent wiring and on the coupling length because longer coupling lengths tend to increase the amount of adjacent wiring. As the spacing between the adjacent wiring decreases the amount of capacitively coupled voltage increases. A large enough voltage capacitively coupled to a wiring line of a dynamic circuit will cause undesirable switching in the dynamic circuit causing the chip to fail.
In order to prevent external influences, such as capacitively coupled voltages, from adversely affecting the operation of horizontally adjacent dynamic circuits, design specifications must be made in consideration of the potential external influences. For example, the dynamic circuits may be designed using components which are more noise resistant. One such approach is to provide a large, noise resistant pull-up transistor in a half latch of the dynamic logic circuit to maintain a desired voltage on a precharge node of the dynamic logic circuit despite the presence of capacitively coupled voltages which cause leakage through a control transistor. This approach, however, reduces the performance of the circuit because the large pull-up transistor also resists desired switching operations making it more difficult to switch the dynamic logic circuit during normal operation.
Another technique employed to avoid failure as a result of influences on the chip from devices external to the dynamic logic circuitry is to prescribe conservative horizontal wiring rules to ensure that crosstalk, for example, does not exceed acceptable levels for the components used in the dynamic circuitry. Such rules include prescribing an acceptable pitch or spacing between adjacent lines and an acceptable coupled length for the design.
A problem with such an approach is that conservative guidelines must account for potential deviations, from the ideal design parameters, which occur during the actual manufacturing process of the device. For example, for a given design using selected components it may be necessary to avoid a spacing between two 1.0 micron wide lines of less than 1.0 micron. This constraint may be necessary to avoid excessive capacitive coupling between the two lines. If manufacturing process limitations indicated that the actual line width can vary as much as 0.25 microns, then a designer must prescribe a spacing between the wiring lines of 1.5 microns to ensure that the required 1.0 micron spacing is present in circuits exhibiting the worst case process deviations, that is, two adjacent wiring lines each formed 1.25 microns wide. While such large process deviations may occur in only a very small percentage of the produced chips, the conservative design is required to ensure that none of the chips fail. As can be appreciated, such conservative design specifications significantly increase the overall size of the chip.
As the above example illustrates, when the process limitations are taken into account extremely conservative guidelines must be imposed in the manufacturing process to prevent shipment of bad chips. This problem becomes even more pronounced when the worst case scenario is concurrently extended to include the maximum potential deviations for each variable and component in the design.
The above approach severely hampers the design of chips using larger numbers of small, fast devices. Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a mechanism allowing aggressive design using, for example, precharged dynamic logic circuitry, while ensuring any failure arising as a result of process limitations can be detected in chips manufactured using the aggressive design.

Test device and method facilitating aggressive circuit design

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention performs multiscreen configuration and multiscreen management by using a plurality of screens and a plurality of methods in order to represent a plurality of service contents. In accordance with a multiscreen configuration method of the present invention, by mutually assigning one or more broadcasting services, one or more logical screens, one or more display screens, and one or more output ports, ultimately outputting service contents which are executed on screens assigned by output ports, and setting, changing, and reporting configuration of a multiscreen, the configuration of the multiscreen may be set or reset so as to effectively output various service contents on the multiscreen by using a desired method.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to configuring a screen on which a plurality of services are displayed, and more particularly, to configuring a final output screen including a plurality of screens on which a plurality of services are presented or displayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, related art broadcast receiving systems, such as digital television (TVs) or digital set-top boxes, provide only one content element on a single physical display device or simultaneously display a main screen and a sub-screen on a single physical display device. However, even though the related art broadcast receiving systems can simultaneously display both the main screen and the sub-screen on the same display screen, they can only arrange the main screen and the sub-screen in a limited number of manners. Also, there are limited kinds of display devices capable of combining and displaying services from various sources such as a broadcaster, a digital versatile disk (DVD), and an external device connected to an input terminal. While all of a video service, an audio service, and a data service can be displayed on the main screen, a data service cannot be displayed on the sub screen.
FIG. 1 illustrates screen configurations formed by a related art picture-in-picture (PIP) method. The related art PIP method displays a main screen and a sub screen on a physical display screen. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, sub screens 105, 115, 125, 135, 142, 144, 152, and 154 are displayed on physical display screens 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, and 150. Since positions or sizes of the sub screens 105, 115, 125, 135, 142, 144, 152, and 154 are restricted, there is a limitation in flexibly implementing the related art PIP method.
In an interactive TV application program environment, such as Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), Application Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP), and OpenCable Application platform (OCAP), it is assumed that only one screen is output. In the interactive TV application program environment, a Home Audio/Visual Interface (HAVi) User Interface (UI) is adopted. According to the HAVi UI, even though no restriction is imposed on the number of screens displayed on a physical display device, only one screen is generally displayed. Also, application programs share only one screen that is displayed.
Accordingly, the related art application program environment for broadcasting service has a limitation in displaying various kinds of service content on a dynamically configured screen.

Method and apparatus for multiscreen management for multiple screen configuration


A method of creating a unique deacetylated, depolymerized chitosan which may be employed to provide a time release chitosan-drug complex. The chitosan is deacetylated at least 60 percent and preferably at least 70 percent. It is preferred to employ a chitosan having a molecular weight of about 3.5 kDa to 250 kDa and preferably about 3.5 kDa to 75 kDa. The complex may be employed in various delivery systems including tablets, films, matrix supported drug delivery units or as coatings or films on implants. A method of making a drug delivering implant includes providing an implant, creating a complex of a depolymerized chitosan and a drug and establishing a layer of a chitosan drug complex on at least a portion of said implant. The chitosan-drug complex is preferably created through ionic bonding and may be a coating or a film self-adhered to a portion of an exterior surface of the implant. It is also preferred to deacetylate the chitosan prior to depolymerization. The layer of the chitosan-drug complex is characterized by a prolonged drug time release property as compared with complexes made from polymerized chitosan. A corresponding method of providing drug delivery to the locale of the implant within a patient is disclosed as is the implant.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of creating a unique chitosan and the use of such chitosans to form complexes with drugs to provide a drug delivery system. The present invention also relates to a method of making an implant which has enhanced efficiency of drug delivery in the specific location of an implant as a result of the use of a deacetylated, depolymerized chitosan-drug complex, as well as the related implant and the corresponding procedure for delivering the drug and implant within a patient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As medicine has advanced in recent decades, numerous uses of synthetic prosthetic devices, including implants, have been known. One of the problems with the use of such implants is the exposure of the patient to risk of infection and other medical problems, such as pain and joint inflammation.
It is known that the physico-chemical properties, such as solubility and reactivity of chitosan, can be improved by N-deacetylation of chitin and chitosan.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,897 discloses the creation of a thixotropic thickener and a stabilizer made from chitin. It discloses the use of chitin for its resistance to severe food processes. The chitin may be in the form of a microcrystalline chitin in an aqueous stable thixotropic dispersion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,087 discloses a method of making microcrystalline chitin powder. The molecular weight is said to be in the range of about 5,000 to 450,000.
While, in general, the use of medications which are delivered through the bloodstream has been effective for numerous conditions, the risk of infection is not adequately precluded through bloodstream delivery of drugs when there is clot formation or trauma to an affected area. As a result, there remains a need for an improved system which will effect more direct and immediate delivery of a drug in the locale where it is needed in connection with surgical implants.
There is also a need for improved drug delivery systems which involve oral administration of drugs by swallowing or positioning within the oral cavity or topical application.
There is also the problem that local delivery, in the context of implants, must be provided over a sustained period of time and, therefore, control of time release of medication is of great importance.

Methods of creating a unique chitosan and employing the same to form complexes with drugs, delivery of the same within a patient and a related dosage form


An air conditioning apparatus includes a seal wall having a seal surface to which one end surface of an air mixing door is contacted in the maximum heating state. A defroster warm air leading passage is constructed by the seal wall, a warm air guide portion and an inner surface of an air conditioning case. The defroster warm air leading passage is formed in a space opposite to the seal surface of the seal wall at a downstream air side of the seal wall. Because cool air hardly flows through the space opposite to the seal surface of the seal wall and the defroster warm air leading passage is formed by effectively using the space, the size of the air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, and more particularly a temperature adjustment of the air conditioning apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle as shown in JP-A-1-114507, a temperature of conditioned air blown out from a foot air outlet is higher than a temperature of conditioned air blown out from a defroster air outlet in a foot mode or a foot/defroster mode for blowing out conditioned air from both of the foot air outlet and the defroster air outlet. In the conventional air conditioning apparatus, cool air flowing through a cool air passage and warm air flowing through a warm air passage are mixed together in an air mixing chamber portion, the defroster air outlet is disposed in the air mixing chamber portion at a downstream air side of the cool air passage, and the foot air outlet is disposed in the air mixing chamber portion at a downstream air side of the warm air passage.
In addition, in the air conditioning apparatus, an additional warm air leading passage is formed to increase the temperature of conditioned air blown out from the defroster air outlet to improve an effect for defrosting the windshield of the vehicle.
However, the warm air leading passage is separately formed to project to an outside of an air conditioning unit. Thus, there is a problem that the size of the air conditioning apparatus becomes large by forming the warm air leading passage.


A moldable seating system for use with a cushion comprising a moldable seat base and a moldable backrest. The moldable seat base comprises a central portion and a perimeter having a plurality of individually adjustable fingers extending there from. The moldable backrest comprises a moldable center backrest portion and a head support portion. The sides of the moldable center backrest portion comprise a plurality of individually adjustable fingers extending there from. Each of the individual fingers of the moldable seat base and the moldable backrest may be further divided into individually adjustable sections.

People who spend a significant amount of time sitting, particularly those who are confined to wheelchairs need a comfortable, safe, supportive and adaptable seating system to improve their quality of life. An uncomfortable seat can cause a wheelchair occupant to become anxious or agitated, which will correspondingly reduce quality of life. Such patients may move around considerably in an effort to become comfortable, which could lead to poor posture and eventual spinal problems. The result of such movement can also cause difficulty breathing.
Additionally, patients who require the almost constant use a wheelchair may have impaired sensation in the area of contact with a seating system or may be unable to shift their weight due to one of the following diagnoses: spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia or paraplegia, other spinal cord disease, multiple sclerosis, other demyelinating disease, cerebral palsy, anterior horn cell diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, post polio paralysis, brain injury resulting in quadriplegia, spina bifida, childhood cerebral degeneration, Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. For these people, it is imperative that the seating system relieve pressure on the patient's body, particularly over bony prominences. Failure of a seating system to adequately relieve pressure may result in the formation of life threatening decubitus ulcers as the skin and muscle breaks down over bony prominences.
Additionally, seating systems need to provide a balance between support for the patient and restriction of the patient's daily activities. For example, if the patient has difficulty sitting due to problems with controlling motion, weakness in one part of the body or muscle spasticity, the seating system should provide enough support to allow the patient to feel safe and secure in his/her posture. Too much support may hinder a patient's function and quality of life, restricting the patient's ability to eat, dress, work, learn, communicate and get around in the wheelchair. Too little support and the patient may attempt to "fix" his/her own posture. Sometimes, posture "fixing" can lead to contractures and deformities such as kyphosis or scoliosis and can hinder blood flow, digestion and breathing.
The seating system needs to be adaptable to the changing needs of the patient. Pediatric patients grow. Patients of all ages gain and lose weight. Patient's health conditions change over time. Additionally, patients are generally routinely reevaluated to ensure continued progress. To the extent that such progress, or lack thereof, dictates that changes be made to a patient's seating system, a seating system should be adaptable to accommodate the changing needs of the patient.


Provided are methods and systems for automatically generating input grammars for grammar-based fuzzing by utilizing machine-learning techniques and sample inputs. Neural-network-based statistical learning techniques are used for the automatic generation of input grammars. Recurrent neural networks are used for learning a statistical input model that is also generative in that the model is used to generate new inputs based on the probability distribution of the learnt model.

"Fuzzing" is the process of finding security vulnerabilities in input-parsing code by repeatedly testing the parser with modified, or "fuzzed," inputs. The main types of fuzzing techniques in use today include, for example: (1) blackbox random fuzzing, (2) whitebox constraint-based fuzzing, and (3) grammar-based fuzzing, which can be viewed as a variant of model-based testing.
Blackbox random fuzzing and whitebox constraint-based fuzzing are fully-automated techniques, and have historically proved to be very effective at finding security vulnerabilities in binary-format file parsers. On the other hand, existing techniques for grammar-based fuzzing are not fully automatic, but instead require an input grammar specifying the input format of the application under test. This grammar is typically written by hand, which is a laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone process. In addition, grammars for richer objects such as PDF are nearly impossible to write by hand. Nevertheless, grammar-based fuzzing is the most effective fuzzing technique known today for fuzzing applications with complex structured input formats such as, for example, web-browsers, which must take as (untrusted) inputs web-pages including complex HTML documents and JavaScript code.


Disclosed is a multimedia database for use in distributed network environments. A query processing module transforms user queries into search transformations that can be used for indexing; an attentional selection module records salient information represented in images by a hierarchy of feature maps, saliency maps and combined saliency maps; a declarative memory comprises active modules that update the representations acquired over time for the same images, as well as across images, to cluster, categorize and organize information extracted from different images by the attentional selection module; and an indexing mechanism utilizes the search transformations from the query processing module to search the declarative memory for an answer to a user query. The multimedia database is used in distributed network environments wherein a server can select and coordinate information flow between multiple database sites and user sites, provide effective multimedia representation, create indexes on multimedia content of said database sites to derive a set of target multimedia database sites and, enable database queries descriptions and final search results to be conveyed to a user, records information needed for database selection, generates useful query patterns based on memorization of responses patterns from various databases based on user queries, and directs interactive dialogue between a user and multimedia databases.

With the explosion of desktop publishing, the availability of digital media, and the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW), it is now possible to access large multimedia document repositories distributed throughout the world. Such access is becoming increasingly important in a number of applications including medical diagnostics, manufacturing, pharmaceutical research, surveillance, and distributed publishing of multimedia data from repositories. While data from widely distributed sources is becoming easily accessible, this also poses challenges in the design of multimedia databases as well as search agents at servers that now need to do intelligent site selection based on the integration of information from database sites and multimedia information in a query.
Accessing repositories in a distributed setting, either over a proprietary network or the more public Internet and its instantiation, the World Wide Web (WWW), poses quite a few challenges. In a typical scenario for such systems, the access to multimedia databases at remote web sites may be initiated by a client machine running a browser such as Netscape.TM. or Internet Explorer.TM.. The query is processed by the browser and sent to a web server. The web server selects the target multimedia database site and poses the query to the database in an acceptable form. The indexing mechanism of the database searches its repository for possible answers to the posed query. The answer is fed back to the web server for eventual relaying to the client. As can be seen from this scenario, system issues of security, consistency, versioning, persistence, etc., that are relevant for distributed access to traditional databases are also relevant for multimedia databases. More importantly, new technical issues arise due to the nature of the multimedia data. The traditional way of accessing such databases by assigning text annotations to image and video data are insufficient to unambiguously describe the media content, not to mention the time-consuming task of manually tagging the multimedia data. Automatic database creation and image content-based indexing, on the other hand, are difficult problems, for which effective methods are yet to emerge. While it is true that these problems exist also for multimedia databases designed for a stand alone use, they are felt more keenly when such databases are designed for use in a distributed (client-server) setting. Traditional methods of designing such systems using proprietary methods of query specification and data organization and search for specific fixed queries may not be suitable in such a setting where the remote user's queries may be unanticipated and referring to image content yet unextracted. Thus, there is a need for a coherent architectural framework for the design of such a database that admits incremental construction of the database in response to dynamically changing queries.
Even when individual databases are designed in a consistent manner, other issues of web-based access have to be taken into consideration. In particular, the process of selecting the relevant databases for a given query remains a challenging problem. Even though the number of multimedia databases linked by the network may be far fewer than text databases, it is still crucial to perform a careful selection of database sites for computational reasons, particularly because of the inherent complexity in image-content-based querying of each database. Secondly, if a query is posed to several databases, the answers may need consolidation and summarization before they can be presented to a user. Finally, the transformation of a user query (who may not be aware of the databases and their capabilities) into a form suitable for querying the remote multimedia databases may require eliciting more information from the user than that provided in the original query.
Although commercial systems are being developed that allow multiple text database to be accessed over the web via SQL, ODBC or Perl gateways, methods do not seem to currently exist that allow a user to interact with multiple remotely located multimedia databases. The system that come nearest is the University of Chicago's Webseer.TM. system. It is modeled after traditional search engines such as Lycos.TM. and Alta Vista.TM. in that it also creates its own indexed database at the web server site by navigating known web sites and recording text as well as image related information. More common are systems, such as Webseek.TM., Berkeley Digital Library.TM., that allow web users to use their pre-designed image databases by connecting to their specific URL. Such systems often reflect closed design strategies that are optimized for handling fixed a set of queries using representations all precomputed at the time of database creation. Being client-centric, they offer little capability for sharing and a potential for duplication and inconsistency.
Previous work does exist, however, on addressing individual aspects of web-based multimedia databases, particularly, in the design of image and video databases, and resource discovery systems. Issues of image data modeling, image matching and classification, similarity metrics for image content matching, the design of efficient data structure for image content representation, and visual query languages have all been explored. These issues were, however, examined in isolation in the context of the related applications with no coherent design framework emerging. Also, because most of the work in this area has come from the computer vision community, the image database itself has been treated as a list of image files or their abstracted representations. Commercial implementations have worked on integrating them into traditional databases such as relational as BLOBS (binary large objects), object-oriented databases using text annotation, and more recently, supporting content-based querying in object-relational systems such as in Illustra as described in an article by M. Ubell and M. Olson entitled "Embedding image query operations in an object-relational database management system," Proceedings SPIE Conference on Storage and Retrieval of Image and Video Databases, pp. 197-203, 1995. Even so, only a few approaches have attempted to establish a theoretical framework for multimedia database systems, notable among these is the work on structured multimedia database systems based on a mathematical model of a media instance as discussed by S. Marcus and V. S. Subrahmanian, "Foundations of multimedia database systems", Journal of the ACM, 43(3), pps. 474-523, 1996. In these systems, the integration of multimedia data in traditional database frameworks has focused mostly on providing image-content querying capabilities by suitable encapsulation of image-based search in the respective objects. An important aspect of such multimedia databases is also the variety of representations and image data organization schemes they employ in handling queries. The suitability of traditional databases in supporting such representations is yet to be investigated.
In order to make multimedia databases web-based, a critical issue is how the capability of such databases (metadata) can be described to enable a web server to perform an intelligent selection of relevant databases in response to user queries. Most of the site selection work has been focused towards handling text information. For example, web search engines such as Lycos.TM. and Alta Vista.TM. currently create web indices in their search engines by periodically scanning potential web sites and using the text information in their resident HTML pages. But most implementations of text-based distributed systems do not perform site selection, often posing a query to all sites in parallel as done in the CLASS (College Library Access and Storage System) and the NCSTRL (Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library) systems at Cornell University as discussed by C. Lagoze and J. Davis "Dienst: An architecture for distributed document libraries" Communications of ACM, 38(4), pg. 47, April 1995. More recently, techniques from information retrieval are being used for intelligent resource site selection. Examples of such systems include GLOSS (from Stanford) as discussed by L. Gavarno and H. Garcia-Molina, "Generalizing Gloss to Vector-Space Databases and Broker Hierarchies," Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, pages 78-89, 1995, WHOIS++ (from Bunyip Corporation) and HARVEST (from University of Colorado) as discussed by Michael Schwartz, "Internet Resource Discovery at the University of Colorado", IEEE Computer, pages 25-35, 1993. These systems employ statistical approaches to record the frequency of occurrence of text keywords from known sites to construct an index of relevant sites for directing a query. In particular, the GLOSS (generalized glossary of servers) server keeps statistics on the available databases to estimate which databases are potentially most useful for a given query using Boolean and vector-space retrieval models of document retrieval. Another approach has been to use inference networks for the text database discovery problem. This summarizes databases using document frequency information for each term together with the inverse collection frequency of different terms. An inference network then uses this information to rank the databases for a given query. Finally, the HARVEST system provides a flexible architecture for accessing information over the Internet using "Gatherer" modules to collect information about the data resources which is passed to the "Broker" modules. A structured representation of these broker modules is kept in the Harvest server registry which, in a sense, becomes the meta-database exposing information about the individual database sites.
The present invention employs network capabilities to achieve various advantageous ends. The previous references are intended to provide a background for any appropriate network implementation required by the disclosed embodiment below for the purpose of rendering or transporting database information. Disclosures of all of the references cited and/or discussed above in this Background are incorporated herein by reference.

Multimedia database for use over networks


There is disclosed a semiconductor device comprising a P-channel MIS transistor which includes an N-type semiconductor layer, a first gate insulating layer formed on the N-type semiconductor layer and containing a carbon compound of a metal, and an N-channel MIS transistor which includes a P-type semiconductor layer, a second gate insulating layer formed on the P-type semiconductor layer, and a second gate electrode formed on the second gate insulating layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of manufacturing a next-generation complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device in which a gate length is a submicron size, there is a high possibility that silicon which has been used in previous generations will not be able to be directly used as a gate electrode of a MIS transistor constituting the device.
One of the reasons of the above is that since sheet resistance of the silicon is as high as several tens Ω/□, a so-called RC delay cannot be ignored any more during a device operation, if the silicon is used for the gate electrode. It is generally considered that in the case of the device in which the gate length is the submicron size, the sheet resistance of the gate electrode which permits the RC delay to be ignored is 5Ω/□ or less.
Another of the above-mentioned reasons resides in depletion of the gate electrode. A solution limit of impurities (dopants) with respect to silicon is about 1×1020 cm−3. Therefore, when the gate electrode is made of silicon, a depletion layer of a limited length spreads in the gate electrode to cause deterioration in current driving force of the MIS transistor.
Specifically, as this depletion layer has a capacitance to be serially connected to a gate insulating layer between the gate electrode and a channel, a gate capacitance of the MIS transistor is substantially formed into a shape in which the capacitance of the deletion layer is added to the capacitance of the gate insulating layer. For example, when converted into a thickness of silicon oxide of the gate insulating layer, this added capacitance is about 0.3 nm.
It is likely in the future that a thickness of gate insulating layer of the MIS transistor will become 1.5 nm or less when the silicon oxide is used. Thus, the capacitance of the depletion layer will become 20 percent or more of that of the gate insulating layer, which will not be ignored any more.
As one of means to solve the problem, addition of a high concentration of impurities (phosphorus, boron, or the like) to the silicon gate electrode has been tried to reduce its specific resistance. However, in the case of the MIS transistor having the gate length set to the submicron size, the thickness of the gate insulating layer becomes 1.5 nm or less as described above. In this case, a problem occurs in which the impurities in the gate electrode pass through the gate insulating layer to diffuse to or penetrate a silicon substrate.
Such diffusion or penetration of the impurities causes a fluctuation in drive current or threshold voltage of the MIS transistor.
Recently, therefore, use of a high-melting point metal such as molybdenum, tungsten or tantalum, or a nitride thereof for the gate electrode has been tried. This is called a metal gate technology.
According to the metal gate technology, as the gate electrode is made of a metal whose specific resistance is lower than that of the silicon, an RC delay can basically be ignored. As no depletion layer is formed in the metal in principle, no reduction occurs in current driving force of the MIS transistor by the deletion layer formed in the silicon gate. Additionally, as it is not necessary to add any impurities to the metal gate to reduce its specific resistance, no fluctuation occurs in driving force or threshold voltage of the MIS transistor by diffusion or penetration of impurities.
However, the metal gate technology is not perfect. In the case of manufacturing a CMOS device by this technology, the following unique problems occur.
That is, according to the metal gate technology, a metal material having a work function close to that of P+ silicon must be used for a gate electrode in the case of a P-channel MIS transistor. A metal material having a work function close to that of N+-silicon must be used for a gate electrode in the case of an N-channel MIS transistor. This way, it is possible to set threshold values of the P-channel MIS transistor and the N-channel MIS transistor to proper values.
This is called a dual phi (φ) metal gate. In reality, however, it is difficult to discover a metal material having a work function close to that of the P+ silicon or the N+-silicon and high thermal stability. Thus far, no optimal materials that satisfy such conditions have been found for the gate insulating layer or the gate electrode.
Even if a metal material having high thermal stability and proper work function for the gate insulating layer or the gate electrode is discovered, it is useless unless the metal material can be formed by an LSI manufacturing process. In short, in addition to the structure of the MIS transistor by the dual φ metal gate technology, a manufacturing method without any increased number of steps and complexity is demanded.

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same


A tire wear tracking system including network interface hardware configured to communicatively couple a vehicle with a remote server, a processor, and a memory module that stores one or more processor-readable instructions. When executed by the processor, the one or more processor-readable instructions cause the tire wear tracking system to receive image data of one or more tires of a vehicle from one or more image sensors, determine tire information associated with the one or more tires, retrieve reference image data based on the determined tire information, compare the received image data with the retrieved reference image data; and generate an alert based on the comparison between the received image data and the retrieved reference image data.

Tires generally have a tread including a plurality of grooves and are made from a relatively soft, durable material. Over the life of the tire, the tread may degrade, negatively impacting the traction of the tire and requiring tire maintenance or replacement. Tires may wear more rapidly on some vehicles than others due to multiple factors, such as tire make and model, driving style, weather conditions, road grade, and other factors. Recommendations for changing tires may be based on regular intervals (e.g., a time or distance the tires have been in use) that are calculated across an entire make and/or model of tires without accounting for differences in these factors. Accordingly, systems and methods for measuring tire wear using embedded image sensors are needed.

Systems and methods for measuring tire wear using embedded image sensors