Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a module for identifying a background of a scene depicted in an acquired stream of video frames that may be used by a video-analysis system. For each pixel or block of pixels in an acquired video frame a comparison measure is determined. The comparison measure depends on difference of color values exhibited in the acquired video frame and in a background image respectively by the pixel or block of pixels and a corresponding pixel and block of pixels in the background image. To determine the comparison measure, the resulting difference is considered in relation to a range of possible color values. If the comparison measure is above a dynamically adjusted threshold, the pixel or the block of pixels is classified as a part of the background of the scene.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to analyzing recorded video, and more particularly to analyzing a stream of video frames to generate a background/foreground image of a scene depicted in the video frames.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some currently available video analysis systems include video content analysis capabilities. Such systems may be configured to analyze streams of video frames, whether recorded or in real-time, to detect abnormal behaviors or suspicious activities. However, many such video analysis systems lack efficiency in processing video content. For example, while the importance of isolating background and foreground images has been acknowledged, many of the video analysis systems fail in implementation. Furthermore, currently available video analysis systems are often inadequate in maintaining the background/foreground classification as objects move about a scene over time. Moreover, maintaining accurate background/foreground classifications when environmental conditions of the scene change has also been a challenge. For example, lighting changes over time, clouds casting shadows, or a car headlight in a dark parking garage can all disrupt the background/foreground classification process.

Dark scene compensation in a background-foreground module of a video analysis system


A processing-efficient chirp generator that allows flexibility in controlling phase, frequency and slope, i.e., rate of change of frequency. In one embodiment, a fine phase propagation block generates phase values in increments of the fine time step, each phase value also offset from other phase values by multiples of a coarse time step. The phase samples are realigned in time after conversion to digital-to-analog converter (DAC) values.

1. Field
One or more aspects of embodiments according to the present invention relate to chirp generators, and more specifically to a direct digital synthesis (DDS) chirp generator capable of responding to commands ds to change the slope, frequency or phase during operation.
2. Description of Related Art
Signal generators employing direct digital synthesis (DDS) may, in some applications, be composed of a digital circuit connected to a digital to analog converter (DAC). The digital circuitry of the digital to analog converter may operate at a clock rate that is a multiple, N, say, of the clock rate at which the digital circuit operates, and in this case the digital circuit may be required to generate N outputs per clock cycle which are then multiplexed into the DAC.
In the case of a chirp generator, i.e. a DDS system which generates a sinusoidal signal with a frequency that changes at a certain, e.g., piecewise constant, rate, the DAC may be driven from a set of sine tables, which in turn are indexed by phase produced by a double accumulator taking as input the chirp rate, which may also be referred to as the slope, i.e., the rate of change of frequency. In this configuration, the output of the first accumulator of the slope is the frequency, and the output of the second accumulator is the phase. When N samples are needed to be generated during each clock cycle, parallel versions of the double accumulator are employed where there is a separate double accumulator for each of the N samples constructed in a cycle. For this case, each double accumulator generates frequency and phase samples separated by N samples.
It may be advantageous for a chirp generator to have the capability to respond to commands to change the slope, frequency or phase during operation. With a conventional double accumulator, where the clock rate of the accumulator is the same as the DAC rate, responding to the command changes is easily implemented. Implementing this capability with parallel versions of the double accumulator, however, results in the need for a complex compensation scheme to maintain the desired analog output as commanded changes in slope, frequency, or phase take effect. Thus, there is a need for a simple system for generating a chirp by direct digital synthesis that is capable of responding to commands to change the slope, frequency or phase during operation and of generating N outputs per clock cycle.


The present invention provides a lubricant for recording media that does not readily decompose, and which has high adhesion to recording media, and a magnetic disk that is durable against continuous sliding under high-speed rotation.

As lubricants for magnetic disks, perfluoropolyether compounds are generally used. Among various perfluoropolyether compounds, Fomblin-based (product of Solvay Solexis K.K.) compounds having low surface energies and low frictional forces are most frequently used. Fomblin-based compounds are perfluoropolyether compounds wherein the basic skeleton of its main chain is (CF2CF2O)m(CF2O)n.
However, it is known that Fomblin-based compounds react with alumina (Al2O3) contained in head members, so that cleavage of the main chain can occur (Macromolecules, 1992, Vol. 25, pp. 6791-6799). As this cleavage progresses, the perfluoropolyether is depolymerized and eventually volatilized from the magnetic disk.
There are two modes for driving a magnetic disk drive, namely contact start/stop (CSS) wherein the head and the disk come into contact when the device starts or stops, and ramp loading/unloading (L/UL) wherein the head retracts to outside the disk surface when the device stops. The properties required of a lubricant vary depending on the mode employed.
In recent years, there has been a demand for increased storage densities and processing speeds of disk units. In order to meet such demand, it is necessary to decrease the distance between the head and disk (flying height) and/or accelerate the rotation of the disk. Even in the L/UL mode, wherein the head basically does not come into contact with the disk, with a decrease in flying height and increase in rotational speed, the head comes into contact with the disk more often, and this results in transfer of the lubricant from the surface of the disk to the head and/or splashing of the lubricant beyond the disk. This may damage the disk, and therefore a lubricant having a strong adhesion to the surface of the disk is preferable. An example of such a lubricant is a Fomblin-based perfluoropolyether compound having a plurality of polar groups (e.g., "Z-Tetraol", product of Solvay Solexis K.K.); however, this lubricant cannot solve the problems with decomposition due to alumina.
Compounds in which an end of the perfluoropolyether skeleton is modified with a phosphazene functional group (specifications of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,608,009 and 6,605,335) are known as examples of compounds that can reduce decomposition due to alumina despite containing a perfluoropolyether chain. These compounds prevent decomposition due to alumina by the effect of the modifying phosphazene functional group. These compounds have a high compatibility with other perfluoropolyether compounds and have an excellent CSS resistance. However, they have a low adhesion to the disk surface and therefore are not particularly preferable as lubricants for use in the L/UL mode.
In order to increase the speed of recording/reading of information, it is expected that rotational speeds of magnetic disks will reach 15,000 rpm or more in the near future. As the rotational speed of a magnetic disk increases, the amount of lubricant splashed tends to be increased. If sliding is conducted for a long time while rotating the disk at a high speed, the lubricating layer becomes thin due to decomposition, and the magnetic disk eventually breaks. In order to surely obtain reliability of magnetic disk drives, use of a lubricant having a strong adhesion to the magnetic disk and which dose not readily decompose is necessary.

Lubricant for recording medium and magnetic disk

Abstract: The present invention provides a lubricant for recording media containing:                a perfluoropolyether compound represented by Formula (1),R1—CH2CF2O—(CF2CF2O)m—(CF2O)n—CF2CH2—R2  (1)        wherein R1 represents

Abstract: R represents a C1-4 haloalkyl group, R2 represents —OCH2CH(OH)CH2OH, and m and n are each independently 1-30; and        another perfluoropolyether compound represented by Formula (2),R1—CH2CF2O—(CF2CF2O)m—(CF2O)n—CF2CH2—R3  (2)        wherein R1, m and n are as defined above and R3 represents —OCH2CH(OH)CH2OCH2CH(OH)CH2OH. The present invention also provides a magnetic disk having a lubricating layer essentially consists of such a lubricant.


A keyboard equipped with multipoint press positions comprises at least a baseboard, a keycap assembly and a command trigger assembly. The keycap assembly includes a support frame to hold a plurality of keycaps. The command trigger assembly includes a command circuit board and a plurality of elastic switches. The command circuit board includes a plurality of trigger portions corresponding to the keycaps and triggered by the keycaps, and at least one primary command circuit electrically connected to each trigger portion. The elastic switches are corresponding to and depressible by the keycaps to trigger the trigger portions. Each elastic switch includes a base and a primary movement portion, a first secondary movement portion and a second secondary movement portion that are respectively corresponding to a primary trigger switch and at least two secondary trigger switches of the trigger portions. The keyboard thus formed can provide higher press sensitivity.

With rapid growth of information technology electronic equipments also become very popular. Take the commonly used computers as example, they can be grouped to desktop computers, notebook computers and tablet computers. To increase computer document processing speed most computers are incorporated with a keyboard to facilitate data entry operation of users. The keyboard generally has keycaps and a baseboard. Each keycap and the baseboard are bridged by a key strut. When the keycap is stricken by a user the key strut supports the keycap to form vertical movement against the baseboard. Thus, when the keycap is pressed a switch on the baseboard can be triggered to transmit a reference signal to the processor to output a desired output signal. In addition, to avoid the keycap from being stricken by the user at two sides rather than in the center and result in tilting and unstable, or unable to trigger the switch, a high sensitive keyboard has been developed in the industry to enable the user to strike the key even on corners and still can trigger the switch.
For instance, Taiwan patent No. 1346965 discloses a high sensitive key structure. It mainly provides a plurality of protruding units on outer sides of a keycap and a plurality of suspending arm units on a baseboard. When a user presses the edges of the keycap the protruding units touch the suspending arm units to make the free end of suspending arm units to set on a circuit switch via the lever principle. Hence even if the key is being pressed unevenly the circuit switch still can be activated, thus can achieve high sensitivity.
In addition, Taiwan patent No. 1396218 also proposes a keyboard which mainly has a plurality of trigger portions on a keycap and a plurality of switches on a thin film circuit board corresponding to the trigger portions. A user can press merely any corner of the keycap to touch and set on a switch to output a signal, therefore can improve the sensitivity of the keycap.
The aforesaid keyboards use an elastic support rack to support the keycap, then through a press point protruding sideward from the elastic support rack to touch a switch on a circuit board that is located on a corresponding press point. Furthermore, all the aforesaid keyboards include an elastic support rack. The press point of the keycap generates a relative swing about the elastic support rack as a fulcrum. However, the elastic support rack makes shrinking the size of the keyboard difficult. Moreover, user has to forcefully press the keycap to deform the elastic support rack to make the press point to touch the switch. If the user lightly touches the corners of the keycap set-on connection could fail. All this shows that to design a high sensitivity multipoint contact keyboard that also is thin and light still is an issue pending to be resolved.

Keyboard equipped with multipoint press positions


At least one mode signaling syntax element is provided based on an encoded representation of a picture in a video sequence. The at least one mode signaling syntax element is employed to determine whether at least one final reference picture list is the same for all slices of a same slice type in the picture. The at least one mode signaling syntax element thereby signals to a decoder that it does not necessarily have to repeat computationally complex reference picture list construction functions for each slice in the picture.

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a new video coding standard currently being developed in Joint Collaborative Team-Video Coding (JCT-VC). JCT-VC is a collaborative project between Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Strandardization Sector (ITU-T). Currently, an HEVC Model (HM) is defined that includes a number of new tools and is considerably more efficient than H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC).
A picture in HEVC is partitioned into one or more slices, where each slice is an independently decodable segment of the picture. This means that if a slice is missing, for instance got lost during transmission, the other slices of that picture can still be decoded correctly. In order to make slices independent, they do not depend on each other. No bitstream element of another slice is required for decoding any element of a given slice.
Each slice contains a slice header which independently provides all required data for the slice to be independently decodable. One example of a data element present in the slice header is the slice address, which is used for the decoder to know the spatial location of the slice. Another example is the slice quantization delta which is used by the decoder to know what quantization parameter to use for the start of the slice. There are many more data elements in the slice header.
HEVC also has mechanisms for handling reference pictures, which are previously decoded pictures to be used for decoding a current picture. The reference pictures are included in reference picture lists, which for HEVC is similar to the reference picture list in H.264.
In the draft HEVC specification three types of slices are defined:                I slices, also referred to as slice type 2, which does not use inter prediction and does not have any reference picture lists;        P slices, also referred to as slice type 0, which has only one reference picture list L0; and        B slices, also referred to as slice type 1, which has three reference picture lists L0, L1 and LC.
In H.264, the reference picture lists L0 and L1 are first initialized. Then there is an optional modification process that is controlled by bitstream syntax elements that are present in the bitstream.
It has been proposed that HEVC should have three reference picture lists that are initialized similarly to H.264. They are called L0, L1 and LC. Also here there are syntax elements to modify the reference picture lists. The reference picture lists are then used in the decoding process of the current slice in the current picture.
For both H.264 and HEVC there is the possibility to modify the reference picture lists independently for each slice. That is done by indicating how the reference picture lists should be modified according to a specified syntax. One slice may for instance use the initialized reference picture lists without modification while for another slice there are syntax elements present that change the reference picture lists of the slice and make them different to the initialized reference picture lists.
The decoding process to generate final reference picture lists is as follows:                1. The decoder constructs initial reference picture lists. This is also referred to as the decoder initializes the reference picture lists.        2. The decoder checks whether optional list modification syntax elements are present in the bitstream. This is done by checking the values of list modification flags that are present in the bitstream.        3. If there are no list modification syntax elements present according to step 2, the initial reference picture lists from step 1 are used in the decoding process of the current slice. If there are list modification syntax elements according to step 2, the decoder decodes list modification syntax elements and performs list modification operations on the initial reference picture lists from step 1. These modified reference picture lists are then used in the decoding process of the current slice.
A problem with the prior art technique is that the reference picture handling implies complex hardware decoder designs in order to be able to provide full flexibility of slices and handle the list initialization and modification processes. A hardware decoder will typically run the list construction on a slow processor and not with dedicated hardware. If an encoded picture is split into a high number of slices and modifications are used for the slices, the decoding complexity of list construction will be significant.


A gate driver for driving a display device is disclosed. The gate driver, which includes: a first input buffer configured to for receiving a reference voltage and outputting a first buffered voltage, a control circuit configured to for outputting a plurality of scan starting signals and compensating starting signals, a plurality of compensating output buffers, and a plurality of scan output buffers. Each of the plurality of compensating output buffers is configured to respectively receive one of the compensating starting signals and respectively output a compensating signal, wherein, each compensating output buffer receives the first buffered voltage as power. Each of the plurality of scanning output buffers is configured to respectively receive one of the scan starting signals and output a scan signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gate driver, and in particular, to a gate driver with an input buffer.
2. Background of the Invention
A liquid crystal display device includes a substrate and other related driving device. Further, there are a plurality of data lines and scan lines on the substrate, and a plurality of pixels that are defined by the intersection of the plurality of data lines and the plurality of scan lines. In order to display a frame, a source driver and a gate driver respectively provide a data signal and a scan signal to the corresponding data lines and the scan lines, as a result, each pixel will display a predetermined brightness and color. Besides, the gate driver can be coupled to the display device on the substrate.
FIG. 1A is a simplified diagram showing a plurality of gate drivers arranged on a substrate of a display device. In the FIG. 1A, the gate drivers 113, 115, and 117 are arranged on the substrate 110, and all are connected to reference voltages VSH and VSL via the wiring on the substrate 110. However, due to the resistance variation between the wiring, there must be a different voltage drop while a current flows through the wiring. The phenomenon is meant to be an "IR drop" on the wiring, resulting in different voltage values on different positions of the wiring. Consequently, the gate driver 113 receives input voltages VSH1 and VSL1, the gate driver 115 receives input voltages VSH2 and VSL2, and the gate driver 117 receives input voltages VSH3 and VSL3, where the values of each input voltage VSH1, VSH2 and VSH3 are different from each other. Additionally, the values of each input voltage VSL1, VSL2 and VSL3 are also different from each other as well. As described above, due to voltage drop variations caused by the current flowing through the wiring, the input voltages of the gate drivers 113, 115 and 117 are not the same, thus, the voltage output from the gate drivers 113, 115 and 117 differs from their predetermined voltage values. Therefore, it may be advantageous to adopt other configurations for arranging the plurality of gate drivers on the substrate.
Referring to FIG. 1B, showing a simplified diagram of a plurality of gate drivers on a display device, gate drivers 123, 125 and 127 are configured on the substrate 120 and connected by the wiring on substrate 120. The gate driver 123 is coupled to the reference voltage VSH and VSL and receives input voltages VSH4 and VSL4. The gate driver 125 is connected to gate driver 123 and receives input voltages VSH5 and VSL5. The gate driver 127 is also connected to the gate driver 125 and receives input voltages VSH6 and VSL6.
Similarly, due to the voltage drop caused by the current flowing through the wiring, the input voltages of the gate driver 123, 125 and 127 are not the same, thus, voltage output from the gate drivers 123, 125 and 127 differs from their predetermined voltage values.


A method is disclosed for making a porous punctal plug by providing a multi-filament fibrous strand and extrusion coating the fibrous strand with a polymeric material coating and cutting the coated fibrous strand to adequate length for insertion into a mammal's punctal opening.

Examination of the prior art reveals a large number of patents and pending patent applications that relate to the subject matter of the present invention, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,949,750, 5,171,270, 5,283,063, 5,437,625, 5,469,867, 5,593,393, 5,723,005, 5,817,335, 5,962,548, 6,020,445, 6,099,852, 6,234,175, 6,238,363, 6,306,114, 6,367,929, 6,428,502, 6,679,605, 6,822,016, 6,923,800, 7,998,497, 8,277,830 and 8,298,578 and U.S. Pending Application No. US 20050095269, 20050197614, 20050232972, 20060106352, 20060172972, 20070233037, 20070298075, 20070299516, 20080045911, 20080114076 and 20090240276. Each of these listed Patents and Pending Patent Applications and their respective teachings are incorporated in the present invention, in their respective entireties, by reference.

Punctal plugs for insertion into the tear ducts to slow drainage of eye moisture and methods for the manufacture thereof


An x-ray film holder is provided to attach to a dental simulation model and to support an x-ray film. The x-ray film holder includes a base with a releasable contact fastener for attaching the dental simulation model thereto. The x-ray film holder also includes a support member to releasably hold an x-ray film. The support member can be configured as an adjustable support member for accommodating x-ray films of various film thicknesses.

The present invention relates to an x-ray film holder for use with dental simulation models. In particular, the x-ray film holder includes a base for holding a portion of the dental simulation model anterior to an x-ray film also held by the x-ray holder for taking x-rays of the dental simulation model.
Dental simulation models are well known for teaching the art of dentistry. Typically, dental simulation models are used in dental schools, and particularly in the dental licensure examination, to simulate teeth 2 and gums 3 of a human mouth. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a conventional dental simulation model 1 that includes an upper or lower arch 4, 5 or both, as shown in FIG. 1, or only one of the upper or lower arches 4, 5 or a section or sextant 6 of one of the upper or lower arches 4, 5, as shown in FIG. 2. The sextant 6 (FIG. 2) is selectively removable from the dental simulation model 1 so it can be examined by an aspiring dentist, an instructor or an examiner. The sextant 6, for example, may include an indent 7, between two teeth 2 that is filed with resin that replicates a decayed tooth (not shown) for simulating an endodontic procedure.
After a procedure is performed on the dental simulation model 1 or an x-ray is otherwise required, the sextant 6 is removed from the dental simulation model 1 and taken to an x-ray machine for x-raying. The x-ray machine is too expensive and large to be provided for individual dental chairs, so moving the sextant 6 to the x-ray machine allows for multiple students to share one or more x-ray machines.
The sextant 6 is then placed within an open-topped box that is slightly larger than the sextant 6 along with a digital or traditional electromagnetic radiation x-ray film which is positioned along one side of the box. However, the sextant 6 may move unintentionally with respect to the film as the box is being positioned for x-raying or a student may attempt to cheat by altering the angle of the sextant 6 with respect to the x-ray film from the standard angle for the taking of x-rays to achieve a desired appearance of the drilling and or filling performed on the sextant 6.
What is therefore needed, but not provided in the prior art, is an x-ray film holder that releasably holds the sextant 6 in place at a fixed location and/or orientation relative to the x-ray film, a means to indicate on the resulting x-ray film the orientation of the sextant 6 with respect to the x-ray film, and a means to hold x-ray films of various film thicknesses.

X-ray film holder for use with dental simulation models


A method to realize efficient remote control of the server in a client with a limited display function, while maintaining a GUI-based image and minimizing a data transfer amount from the server, includes: receiving a command concerning a control operation to request an operation of the server from the client; in response to reception of the command, dividing an image displayed on a display screen of the server and detecting a change in the image in each of the divided areas; based on the detected change of the image, generating data of an image for status display to be displayed on the client; and transmitting the data of the image for status display to the client.

Currently, a network-based computer system environment is widely used, wherein clients (client devices, client computers and the like) are connected to a server system composed of a server computer and its peripheral devices (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "server") via a network such as the Internet or the intranet (including in-house LAN). In particular, with the prevalence of the mobile cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), it has become increasingly common to use such instruments as the clients to enable remote control of the server.
FIG. 1 shows a common network-based computer system environment 100 in which a mobile cell phone and a personal digital assistant are used as the clients. As shown in the figure, in the case where a server 102 exists in an intranet 104 that is a local network in an enterprise or organization, a gateway 110 having a firewall 108 for preventing illegal access from the outside is disposed between the intranet and an external network 106 such as the Internet. As such, in order to access the server 102 from clients 112, 114 in an external network environment for the purposes of remote control or the like, it is always necessary to access the gateway 110.
Communication between the gateway and the client such as a mobile cell phone is generally made according to the HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), which means that in order to remotely control the server from the client, it is necessary to know the status of the server by allowing the content of the image displayed on a display of the server as a control target to be displayed on the client side as well. In other words, in order to perform a series of control operations for the remote control, the succeeding control operations need to be performed in accordance with the content of the image displayed on the display of the server that was acquired by the client.
The image displayed on the display of the server, however, cannot be observed by the user on the client side in real time; what can be observed is only the stationary image obtained from the server at that time point. It is often difficult, from only the information of the acquired image, to determine how the image has changed from its previous state.
Further, the mobile cell phone or the personal digital assistant has the display screen of a limited size (that is, the total number of pixels for display is much smaller than that of the display of the server), which means that, if it is tried to display the entire image displayed on the display of the server as a control target on the display screen of a limited size of the mobile cell phone or the like, the image initially expressed using a great number of pixels in the server should be expressed using less pixels, which inevitably results in coarse resolution of the image displayed on the mobile cell phone or the like. For the user observing the image of such coarse resolution displayed on the display screen of the client, it would be very difficult to make accurate judgment of the situation for the succeeding control operation of the server (for example, which portion should be clicked on next).
On the contrary, if it is tried to display an image on the display screen of such a limited size of the client in the same pixel resolution as the one displayed on the display of the server as the control target, only a part of the whole image displayed on the display of the server would be displayed on the display screen of the mobile cell phone or the like, which results in poor prospect of the entire image and, thus, is disadvantageous in terms of user's operability as well as operating efficiency. Furthermore, in this case, particularly when the mobile cell phone or the like has a full browser function, screen scrolling will readily be performed on the display screen of the client if not only the part of the image data but also the image data covering a wide range including its peripheral region is fetched from the server and temporarily stored in an image buffer or the like of the client. In such a case, if the image data for the whole display screen of the server is transferred as the image of the wide range, the amount of data transferred from the server to the client would be huge, which is disadvantageous in terms of communication cost across the network and response speed to the control operation (performance).
There exists a conventional technology for efficiently performing remote control of the server from the client such as a mobile cell phone having a display screen of a small size as described above. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-111893 discloses an invention of a method for remotely controlling an external computer (i.e., server) in the GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment by a mobile cell phone or other personal digital assistant (i.e., client). Specifically, in response to a control operation from the personal digital assistant, each GUI part displayed on a screen of the external computer is detected, and based on its analysis result, the GUI part is converted into a text or the like so that it can readily be displayed on the personal digital assistant, and the converted data is transmitted to the personal digital assistant to enable remote control of the computer in the GUI environment from the personal digital assistant having a limited display function or the like, with a considerably reduced communication cost therebetween.
This method, however, aims only at implementing remote control of the server in the GUI environment by the client, and the GUI image displayed on the server side is not displayed on the client side exactly in the same form. Further, while it is described that the state of the display screen of the server or its change is detected, it only means that a screen analysis portion and a screen change detection portion obtain information about the name and position of the icon being displayed thereon, from the operating system via the API (Application Programming Interface) or the like. As such, it is not possible to detect a change on screen for an inactive window, or it is not possible even for an active application window to detect in detail how the display therein has changed.

Method, program and apparatus for generating image data

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides three zinc binding proteins (designated individually as ZB-1, ZB-2, and ZB-3, and collectively as ZB) and polynucleotides which identify and encode ZB. The invention also provides genetically engineered expression vectors and host cells comprising the nucleic acid sequences encoding ZB and a method for producing ZB. The invention also provides for use of ZB and agonists, antibodies, or antagonists specifically binding ZB, in the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with expression of ZB. Additionally, the invention provides for the use of antisense molecules to polynucleotides encoding ZB for the treatment of diseases associated with the expression of ZB. The invention also provides diagnostic assays which utilize the polynucleotide, or fragments or the complement thereof, and antibodies specifically binding ZB.

Zinc binding (ZB) domains are found in numerous proteins which are involved in protein-nucleic acid or protein-protein interactions. ZB proteins are commonly involved in the regulation of gene expression, and may serve as transcription factors and signal transduction molecules. A ZB domain is generally composed of 25 to 30 amino acid residues which form one or more tetrahedral ion binding sites. The binding sites contain four ligands consisting of the sidechains of cysteine, histidine and occasionally aspartate or glutamate. The binding of zinc allows the relatively short stretches of polypeptide to fold into defined structural units which are well-suited to participate in macromolecular interactions (Berg, J. M. et al. (1996) Science 271:1081-1085).
Classes of ZB domains are characterized according to the number and positions of the residues involved in the zinc atom coordination. ZB domains of the C.sub.2 H.sub.2 type were first identified in the protein transcription factor IIIA (TFIIIA; Hanas, J. et al. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258:14120-14125) and represent the most abundant DNA binding motif in eukaryotic transcription factors (Berg, supra). These domains, also known as "zinc fingers", are characterized by tandem arrays of sequences that approximate the consensus sequence (Tyr, Phe)-X-Cys-X.sub.(2-4) -Cys-X.sub.3 -Phe-X.sub.5 -Leu-X.sub.2 -His-X.sub.(3-5) -His, wherein X represents a more variable amino acid. The cysteine and histidine residues coordinate a zinc ion, the three other conserved residues form a hydrophobic core adjacent to the metal coordination unit, and the variable amino acids mediate interactions with other molecules. The overall structure consists of two antiparallel .beta.-strands adjacent to an .alpha.-helix (Berg, supra). A protein may contain one or more zinc fingers which interact independently of each other. In many instances, proteins which contain zinc finger domains interact with specific double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) sequences, and carry out roles as transcription factors. Some zinc finger proteins, such as TFIIIA, bind to both dsDNA and to single-stranded RNA, while others, such as p43, appear to bind only to single-stranded 5S RNA (Berg, supra). Furthermore, certain zinc finger proteins, including the human transcription factor SP1, bind DNA-RNA heteroduplexes with affinities comparable to or greater than those for DNA duplexes (Shi, Y. et al. (1995) Science 268:282-284).
A variant of the zinc finger described by a C.sub.2 C.sub.2 sequence motif is found in the Xenopus G10 protein (McGrew, L. L. et al. (1989) Genes Dev. 3: 803-815). G10 mRNA is a maternal transcript that is translationally activated during oocyte maturation. G10 protein consists of N-terminal containing a nuclear translocation signal (NTS) and alternating acidic and basic residues, and C-terminal sequence containing the C.sub.2 C.sub.2 -type zinc finger motif. G10 appears to function as a nuclear regulatory protein (McGrew et al., supra). Sequences highly homologous to G10 have been found in various organisms, including C. elegans, rice, and S. cerevisiae (Benit, P. et al. (1992) Yeast 8:147-153).
ZB domains which contain a C.sub.3 HC.sub.4 sequence motif are known as RING domains (Lovering, R. et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:2112-2116). The RING domain binds two zinc ions in an arrangement structurally different from that of the zinc finger. The RING domain consists of eight metal binding residues, and the sequences that bind the two metal ions overlap (Barlow, P. N. et al. (1994) J. Mol. Biol. 237:201-211). The consensus sequence C-X.sub.2 -C-X.sub.(9-27) -C-X.sub.(1-3) -H-X.sub.(2-3) -C-X.sub.2 -C-X.sub.(4-48) -C-X.sub.2 -C provides for loops of varying length which form the overlapping Zn binding sites. The two Zn binding sites are formed by four pairs of metal-binding Cys and His residues. The first and third pairs bind one metal ion, while the second and fourth pairs bind the other (Barlow, et al., supra). Functions of RING finger proteins are mediated through DNA binding and include the regulation of gene expression, DNA recombination, and DNA repair.
The murine BMI-1 gene encodes a protein of 324 amino acids. This protein, which is found in the nuclei of a variety of normal cells, contains a RING domain near the aminoterminus (Haupt, Y. et al. (1991) Cell 65:753-763). Retroviral insertional mutagenesis of E-mu/myc transgenic mice by infection with Moloney murine leukemia virus (MuLV) accelerates development of B lymphoid tumors. In about half of independently induced pre-B-cell lymphomas, the provirus integrates in or near the BMI-1 gene, which results in enhanced transcription of that gene. Haupt et al. (supra) concluded that myc-induced lymphomagenesis may entail the concerted action of several genes, including the putative nuclear regulator BMI-1. The human BMI-1 gene encodes a protein of 326 amino acids which shares 98% identity to the amino acid sequence of the mouse protein (Alkema, M. J. et al. (1993) Hum. Mol. Genet. 2:1597-1603). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on metaphase chromosome spreads localized the human BMI-1 proto-oncogene to the short arm of chromosome 10 (10p13), a region known to be involved in translocations in various leukemias (Alkema et al., supra).
The breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility-1 (BRCA1) gene encodes a predicted protein of 1,863 amino acids which contains a RING domain in the amino-terminal region (Miki, Y. et al. (1994) Science 266:66-71). BRCA1 is expressed in numerous tissues, including breast and ovary. In sporadic breast cancer, BRCA1 mRNA levels are markedly decreased during the transition from carcinoma in situ to invasive cancer (Thompson M. E. et al. (1995) Nature Genet. 9:444-450). Furthermore, experimental inhibition of BRCA1 expression with antisense oligonucleotides produced accelerated growth of normal and malignant mammary cells, but had no effect on nonmammary epithelial cells. Thompson et al. interpreted these results as an indication that BRCA1 may normally serve as a negative regulator of mammary epithelial cell growth and that this function is compromised in breast cancer either by direct mutation or by alterations in gene expression.
A variation of the RING finger motif in which a His replaces the fourth Cys of the consensus (C.sub.3 HHC.sub.3) is found in the protein product of the Drosophila developmental gene goliath (G1; Bouchard M. L. et al. (1993) Gene 125:205-209). The G1 gene is an abundant transcript of the visceral mesoderm of the Drosophila embryo. Mesoderm is one of the fundamental embryonic germ layers which gives rise to internal structures such as the body and gut musculature, fat body and heart. A high frequency of hydrophobic and uncharged residues, primarily Ser, Gln and Pro (SQP-rich region), is found in the last one-third of the G1 protein. Based on the observation that similar domains impart transcriptional activation ability to eukaryotic DNA-binding proteins (Mitchell, P. J. et al. (1989) Science 245:371-378), Bouchard et al. suggest that the SQP-rich region of G1 is a potential transcriptional activation domain.
The discovery of polynucleotides encoding human zinc binding proteins, and the molecules themselves, provides a means to investigate physiological processes relating to the control of cellular differentiation and proliferation under normal and disease conditions. Discovery of novel zinc binding proteins satisfies a need in the art by providing new diagnostic or therapeutic compositions useful in diagnosing and treating diseases relating to disregulated cell growth and proliferation including cancer.


In a quality degradation (QD) portion estimating method on a network, a passive measuring unit connected with a management target network measures E2E flow quality (FQ) data on a route from a transmitting terminal connected with a different network to a receiving terminal connected with the management target network and upstream FQ data on the route from the transmitting terminal to the passive measuring unit in the management target network. A QD portion estimating section connected with the management target network collects E2E FQ data and upper stream FQ data measured by said passive measuring unit. A detecting section detects as a QD flow in the management target network, a flow related to the E2E FQ data that does not show degradation of FQ, for the upstream FQ data related to the same transmitting and receiving terminals, from among the E2E FQ data which show the degradation of FQ.

Typically, as the method of measuring quality of a communication network, there are two methods of an active measuring method and a passive measuring method. The active measuring method is a method of estimating the quality of the network by transmitting a test packet to the network and detecting delay and loss of the packet. On the other hand, the passive measuring method is a method of estimating the quality of the network by monitoring the state of a packet flowing through the network without transmitting any test packet. Each of them has a drawback and an advantage, and there are various specific attaining methods.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-P2002-64545A) (Related Art 1) is described a passive measuring method, in which in a network system where a voice packet is transmitted from a communication system to a communication terminal through a packet communication network, the qualities such as a packet loss rate in an end-to-end (E2E) and a variation time of the voice packet between the communication system and the communication terminal are measured based on an RTCP-RR (RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) Control Protocol-Receiver Report) packet that is returned from the communication terminal to the communication system.
Also, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-P2005-210515A) (Related Art 2) is described a packet measuring method, in which a certain one point between a transmission terminal and a reception terminal is defined as a passive measurement point, and a flow between the start and end of communication between the transmission and reception terminals is extracted, and a quality data including a data of a packet loss in E2E between the transmission terminal and the reception terminal is estimated from a time series data of packet arrival at the reception terminal based on a header data having the sequence number of the packet.
On the other hand, a technique has been conventionally proposed in which degradation of flow quality is determined from a quality data of a flow through the network so as to estimate a degradation portion. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-P2002-271392A) (Related Art 3) is described a method of determining flows of good quality and flows of bad quality based on quality data of communication flows and a predetermined quality threshold, determining a link through which the flows of bad quality pass based on route data, and estimating a link on which the route data of the flows of bad quality overlap, as a quality degradation portion.
In a current communication network system, a plurality of networks that are managed by corporations different from each other are connected to each other, to form a large network. In such a communication network system, communication is carried out between terminals connected to different networks in addition to communication between terminals connected to the same network. The communication quality in case of the communication between the terminals connected to different networks is determined based on the communication qualities of all the networks on the route, and when the quality is deteriorated in any one network, the quality of the entire flow is deteriorated. Thus, a network manager of each network is required to early detect the degradation and carry out necessary countermeasure.
When the network manager of each network measures E2E flow quality data between transmitting and receiving terminals, which are connected to the network administrated by the network manager, by the passive measuring method in order to detect degradation in the communication quality in the network administrated by the network manager, if the degradation of quality is detected in the E2E flow quality data between the transmitting and receiving terminals, the network manager can instantly determine that there is a cause in the network. However, when any one of the terminals is connected to another network, the network manager cannot determine whether a cause exists in the network or the other network, even if the degradation of quality is detected in the E2E flow quality data between the transmitting and receiving terminals. This reason is that even if the quality degradation exists in the network, or the quality degradation exists in the other network, the measured E2E flow quality data exhibits the degradation in both the cases.
Also, when by applying the technique indicated in the related art 3 to the flow extending over the plurality of networks, and determining links through which the flow of the bad quality passes from the route data, one of the links in which the route data of flows of the had qualities overlap is estimated as a quality degradation portion, it is possible to determine whether the quality degradation portion exists in the network or in another network. However, although the route data of the network managed by a certain network manager can be generally used by the network manager, the route data of the network that is not managed by the network manager itself (the other network) cannot be used by the network manager. Thus, it is difficult to apply the technique indicated in the related art 3 to the flow extending over the plurality of networks.
In this way, among the E2E flow quality data which is measured by the passive measuring method in communication between the transmitting and receiving terminals, the E2E flow quality data when any one of the transmitting and receiving terminals exists in another network cannot be conventionally used for the quality management of the network at all.

Method of estimating quality degradation on network in communication network system


A method of computerized content analysis that gives “approximately unbiased and statistically consistent estimates” of a distribution of elements of structured, unstructured, and partially structured source data among a set of categories. In one embodiment, this is done by analyzing a distribution of small set of individually-classified elements in a plurality of categories and then using the information determined from the analysis to extrapolate a distribution in a larger population set. This extrapolation is performed without constraining the distribution of the unlabeled elements to be equal to the distribution of labeled elements, nor constraining a content distribution of content of elements in the labeled set (e.g., a distribution of words used by elements in the labeled set) to be equal to a content distribution of elements in the unlabeled set. Not being constrained in these ways allows the estimation techniques described herein to provide distinct advantages over conventional aggregation techniques.

Efforts to extract meaning from source data—including documents and files containing text, audio, video, and other communication media—by classifying them into given categories, have a long history. In Europe in the late 1600s, for example, the Church kept track of the spread of nonreligious printed matter that it thought challenged its authority by classifying newspaper stories and studying the resulting distribution. Some early prominent social scientists also did systematic textual analysis, including on the social-psychological effects of reading different material, and on evidence for cross-national coordination in war propaganda.
Content analyses like these have spread to a vast array of fields, with automated methods now joining projects based on hand coding. Systematic content analyses of all types have increased at least six-fold from 1980 to 2002. Moreover, the recent explosive increase in web pages, blogs, emails, digitized books and articles, audio recordings (converted to text), and electronic versions of formal government reports and legislative hearings and records creates many challenges for those who desire to mine such voluminous information sources for useful meaning.
Applicants have appreciated that, frequently, it is not the specific content of an individual element of source data (e.g., a document in a set of documents or one or thousands of calls to a call center) that is of interest, but, rather, a profile or distribution of the data elements among a set of categories. Many conventional techniques rely on individual classification of elements of source data (i.e., individual documents in a set of documents) to determine such a distribution. This is done in a variety of ways, including automated analysis of the elements and/or hand coding of elements by humans. Individual classification of elements by hand coding may be done in any suitable manner, such as by having workers review individual elements, then categorize the elements based on their review. For large data sets, prior attempts at both hand coding and automated coding of each elements have proven time-consuming and expensive.
Conventional techniques for determining distribution of classifications have focused on increasing the percentage of individual elements classified correctly, and techniques for doing so, and then assuming an aggregate proportion of individually classified elements is representative of a distribution in a broader population of unexamined elements. Unfortunately, substantial biases in aggregate proportions such as these can remain even with impressive classification accuracy of individual elements, and the challenge increases with the size and complexity of the data set, leaving these conventional techniques unsuitable for many applications.
Accordingly, individual classification of elements of source data—including by automated analysis or hand coding—on a large scale is infeasible. Indeed, large-scale projects based solely on individual classification have stopped altogether in some fields. Applicants have appreciated, however, that there is a growing desire for performing analyses, including classification, of source data, and, correspondingly, a fast-growing need for automated methods for performing these analyses.
Accordingly, there is need for improved techniques for mining a set of data to determine useful properties, including a distribution of data elements among a set of categories of interest.

System for estimating a distribution of message content categories in source data

President and Fellows of Harvard College


An integrated circuit for controlling a switching power supply includes a signal input terminal in addition to a switching input terminal that is also provided in a conventional integrated circuit and is a terminal to switch IC operation modes using an external control signal. The switching input terminal signal is made valid when the signal input terminal voltage is higher than a threshold voltage, such that mode switching using an external control signal is enabled. When the signal input terminal voltage is lower than the threshold voltage, mode switching is automatically conducted by switching a MOSFET ON or OFF using output signals of portions of a comparator connected to a feedback terminal to which an output voltage of a power supply device is applied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit (IC) for controlling a switching power supply.
2. Description of the Background Art
One example of recent efforts to reduce the burden on the environment is reducing the standby power consumption of electronic products. Switching power supplies, which convert a commercial power supply to a direct current in order to supply power to electronic products, are also no exception. And because there are many products to which timers and remote controllers are added, reducing power consumption during standby is becoming particularly urgent.
In a switching power supply having a relatively low output power, standby power consumption can be reduced by lowering the switching frequency and reducing switching loss during standby. Further, in such a relatively low power output switching power supply, a power supply for a normal load and a power supply for standby (sub-power supply) can be provided, and standby power consumption can be reduced by switching between the power supplies and causing them to operate in response to the state of the load.
One way of reducing standby power consumption with a single switching power supply, without using a sub-power supply, is a method using a switching power supply control IC having two modes—a normal operating mode and a standby operating mode. With a dedicated terminal, it is possible to switch between these two modes with a control signal external to the IC. In some cases where the external switching control signal is generated with a power supply device, and in other cases a signal from a microcomputer or the like is utilized (e.g., see Japanese Patent No. 2,956,681).
FIG. 5 shows an example of a control IC circuit having a dedicated terminal to which an external switching control signal is inputted, and which can be used as a control circuit of the converter system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2002-209381, which employs a switching method that is the same as that in the conventional example described in Japanese Patent No. 2,956,681.
In the control IC shown in FIG. 5, continuous switching is implemented in the normal operating mode, and burst switching using a burst frequency and a burst ON period created inside the control IC is implemented in the standby operating mode. Further, burst switching is an operation that repeatedly starts and stops high-frequency switching at a burst frequency that is lower than the frequency of the high-frequency switching operation. This will be described with reference to FIG. 5.
The double circles shown in FIG. 5 represent terminals of the control IC. FB, CB and STB at the left side of FIG. 5 are input terminals, and OUT at the right side of FIG. 5 is an output terminal that drives the gate of a power MOSFET. Ordinarily, a photodiode or a phototransistor is connected with respect to GND (ground), and a return signal corresponding to the output voltage of the power supply is inputted to the FB terminal. This signal and an oscillation waveform that is an internal oscillation circuit (OSC) output are inputted to a comparator represented by the PWM portion, whereby a pulse having a width corresponding to the splitting of each signal is generated. This pulse becomes an output pulse for conducting pulse width modulation (PWM) control where the pulse width changes due to the return signal corresponding to the output voltage of the power supply.
A capacitor for determining the burst oscillation frequency in the standby operating mode is connected to the CB terminal. A burst circuit BURSTOSC switches between a constant sink/source current in accordance with the terminal voltage and outputs this to the CB terminal. The sink/source current is outputted with respect to the capacitor connected to the CB terminal, whereby triangle wave oscillation is conducted. The comparator represented by the OnTB portion compares the FB terminal voltage and the CB terminal voltage in the same manner that the PWM control pulse is generated, and generates a pulse with a width corresponding to the splitting of both voltages. The frequency of this pulse becomes the burst frequency, and the pulse width becomes the burst ON period.
The STB terminal is an input terminal for switching the operating modes of the control IC with an external signal, and inputs one of a High and a Low voltage. When the STB terminal voltage is High, the output signal of the OnTB portion is not transmitted from the next stage on by the OR circuit to which the STB terminal voltage is inputted. Thus, a pulse that is the same as the PWM portion output is outputted to the OUT terminal. This condition is called the normal operating mode, and the switching frequency at this time (i.e., the oscillation frequency of the circuit OSC) is f_OSC.
When the STB terminal voltage is Low, the OR circuit causes the output signal of the OnTB portion to be transmitted from the next stage on. Thus, AND outputs of the PWM portion and the OnTB portion appear at the OUT terminal. Here, assuming that f_OSCB represents the oscillation frequency determined by the circuit BURSTOSC and the CB terminal capacitor, f_OSCB is the burst frequency and is set to be about 1/100 or less with respect to f_OSC. Performing the AND operation between the high frequency pulse and the low frequency pulse in this manner implements burst switching.
As shown in FIG. 6, the circuit OSC comprises comparators CP1 and CP2, a reset/set flip-flop RSFF, inverters I1 and I2, two constant current circuits Ict, two switches SW, and a capacitor C. The circuit OSC uses the comparators CP1 and CP2 to compare the output voltage Vct with a predetermined set value, charge or discharge the capacitor C in accordance with the result, and output the triangle wave signal that is illustrated.
The circuit BURSTOSC is configured in exactly the same manner as the circuit OSC shown in FIG. 6. However, because their circuit constants are mutually different (e.g., the switching frequency f_OSC is higher than the burst frequency f_OSCB), the OSC current Ict is made larger than the Ict of the BURSTOSC so that the external capacitor can be quickly charged/discharged. That which finally determines the frequency is the capacitance value of the external capacitor.
In the circuit shown in, FIG. 5, it is necessary to provide a signal generating circuit inside the switching power supply to input a signal from outside of the control IC in order to switch between the normal operating mode and the standby operating mode. Even when the signal generating circuit is outside the switching power supply, it is necessary to provide a circuit for receiving the signal inside the control IC. Thus, there is the problem that the number of parts of the device itself is increased.

Integrated circuit for controlling a switching power supply

Fuji Electric Device Technology Co., Ltd.


A method of transforming a carbon single wall nanotube (SWNT) is provided. The method comprises exposing the SWNT to light having a power sufficient to ignite or reconstruct the SWNT such that the SWNT is ignited or reconstructed by the exposure to the light.

The present invention relates generally to carbon nanotubes and more particularly to transforming carbon nanotubes using light.
Ten years after their discovery, carbon nanotubes continue to reveal fascinating features. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have a range of remarkable mechanical and electronic properties due to their unique structure, as discussed in Dresselhaus, M. S., Dresselhaus, G., Avouris, P. "Carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structure, properties, and applications," Springer, Berlin, New York (2001). There has been a previous study on the elastic response (deformation) of nanotubes to visible light, as discussed in Zhang, Y. and Iijima, S. "Elastic response of carbon nanotube bundles to visible light", Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3472–3475 (1999). In other words, the authors of this study report that the nanotubes elastically deformed in response to irradiation by light and then returned to their original shape.


A NAND flash memory system is programmed with minimal program disturb and pass disturb during self-boosting without resorting to impurity implantation for bit line isolation, to p-well biasing or to bit line biasing techniques. A program voltage is applied to a selected word line in the form of a plurality of short pulses while synchronously applying a pulsed pass voltage to the unselected word lines until the selected cell is programmed. The duration of the pulses and the time between pulses are chosen to minimize the program disturb of unselected cells, especially unselected cells on the selected word line, without causing pass disturb of any cell in the array.

Conventional flash memory systems, otherwise known as flash electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), typically comprise a two-dimensional array of floating gate memory transistors, or "cells", formed on a semiconductor substrate. It includes several strings, known as NAND strings, of floating gate memory transistors, each transistor coupled to the next transistor in the string by coupling the source of one device to the drain of the next device to form bit lines. A plurality of word lines, perpendicular to the NAND strings, each connect to the control gate of one memory cell of each NAND string.
Initially, the cells are erased so as to have a certain threshold voltage, such as -2 volts. To program a cell, the selected cell is charged to a higher threshold voltage by applying a high voltage for a predetermined period of time, such as about 18 volts for about 100 .mu.s to about 250 .mu.s, to the word line of the selected cell, while the threshold voltage of the remaining ("unselected") cells remains unchanged.
A problem arises when it is desired to program one selected cell on a word line without programming other cells on the same word line. When a voltage is applied to a word line, that voltage is applied not only to the selected cell but also to the cells along the same word line which are unselected for programming. An unselected cell on the word line, especially a cell adjacent to the selected cell, may become inadvertently programmed. The unintentional programming of an unselected cell in a selected word line is referred to as "program disturb".
Several techniques in combination are typically employed to prevent program disturb. In a method known as "self-boosting", the unselected bit lines are electrically isolated and a pass voltage, such as about 10 volts, is applied to the unselected word lines during programming. The unselected word lines capacitively couple to the unselected bit lines, causing a voltage, such as about 8 volts, to exist on the unselected bit lines, which tends to reduce program disturb. Disadvantageously, if the boosted voltage leaks from the unselected bit lines to the selected bit line (which has no voltage applied to it) during programming, disturb may occur in unselected cells on the selected bit line. This condition, which limits the amount of pass voltage which can be safely applied, hence limiting the effectiveness of the self-boosting technique, is referred to as pass disturb. The leakage path from the unselected bit lines to the selected bit line can be shut off if a negative bias is put on the substrate (also called the p-well). However, applying this charge to the p-well significantly lengthens the time required for programming, and requires additional circuitry and a corresponding increase in the size of the memory system.
Yet another conventional technique for reducing disturb is to isolate adjacent bit lines with a dopant such as boron. However, there is a limit to the amount of dopant which can be implanted into the substrate without causing undesirable electrical effects. Furthermore, this technique is problematic given the current demands for miniaturization and increased circuit density, which necessitate moving the bit lines closer together, leaving less room for such implantation.
Another method used to reduce program disturb is to place a positive bias on the selected bit line. However, this also lengthens the time required for programming, and necessitates an increase in the programming voltage to compensate for the positive bias.
There exists a need for a method of programming a NAND flash memory system with minimal program disturb which does not cause pass disturb or increase the size and complexity of the memory system.

Method for reducing program disturb during self-boosting in a NAND flash memory


A twin beam base station antenna includes a first array that has a plurality of columns of first frequency band radiating elements, the first array configured to form a first antenna beam that provides coverage throughout a first sub-sector of a three-sector base station. The radiating elements in a first of the columns in the first array have a first azimuth boresight pointing direction and the radiating elements in a second of the columns in the first array have a second azimuth boresight pointing direction that is offset from the first azimuth boresight pointing direction by at least 10°. The radiating elements in the second of the columns in the first array are electrically steered.

Cellular communications systems are well known in the art. In a typical cellular communications system, a geographic area is divided into a series of regions that are referred to as "cells," and each cell is served by a base station. The base station may include baseband equipment, radios and base station antennas that are configured to provide two-way radio frequency ("RF") communications with subscribers that are positioned throughout the cell. In many cases, the cell may be divided into a plurality of "sectors," and separate base station antennas provide coverage to each of the sectors. The antennas are often mounted on a tower or other raised structure, with the radiation beam ("antenna beam") that is generated by each antenna directed outwardly to serve a respective sector. Typically, a base station antenna includes one or more phase-controlled arrays of radiating elements, with the radiating elements arranged in one or more vertical columns when the antenna is mounted for use. Herein, "vertical" refers to a direction that is perpendicular relative to the plane defined by the horizon.
A common base station configuration is a "three sector" configuration in which the cell is divided into three 120° sectors in the azimuth plane, and the base station includes three base station antennas that provide coverage to the three respective sectors. The azimuth plane refers to a horizontal plane that bisects the base station antenna and that is parallel to the plane defined by the horizon. In a three sector configuration, the antenna beams generated by each base station antenna typically have a Half Power Beam Width ("HPBW") in the azimuth plane of about 65° so that the antenna beams provide good coverage throughout a 120° sector. Typically, each base station antenna will include a vertically-extending column of radiating elements that is typically referred to as a "linear array." Each radiating element in the linear array may have a HPBW of approximately 65° so that the antenna beam generated by the linear array will provide coverage to a 120° sector in the azimuth plane. In many cases, the base station antenna may be a so-called "multi-band" antenna that includes different arrays of radiating elements that operate in different frequency bands.
Sector-splitting refers to a technique where the coverage area for a base station is divided into more than three sectors in the azimuth plane, such as six, nine or even twelve sectors. A six-sector base station will have six 60° sectors in the azimuth plane. Splitting each 120° sector into two sub-sectors increases system capacity because each antenna beam provides coverage to a smaller area, and therefore can provide higher antenna gain and/or allow for frequency reuse within a 120° sector. In six-sector sector-splitting applications, a single twin beam antenna is typically used for each 120° sector. The twin beam antenna generates separate antenna beams that each have a reduced size in the azimuth plane (typically about half the size of a normal sector antenna beam) and that each point in different directions in the azimuth plane (typically about −30° and 30° from the boresight pointing direction of the antenna) for at least one frequency band, thereby splitting the sector into two smaller sub-sectors.

Multi-beam base station antennas having wideband radiating elements


A mechanically alloyed composition of matter containing 30-40% chromium, 0-15% cobalt, 0-10% iron, 0.2-1.0% aluminum, 0.3-1.2% titanium, greater than 1-5% tantalum and/or niobium, 0.2-1% yttria, usual processing and trace impurities, and the balance nickel. The addition of tantalum improves the workability characteristics of the alloy. The alloy is particularly useful for molten glass spinners.

There is a need for metallic materials that have useful strengths at temperatures in excess of 1090.degree. C. (1994.degree. F.). In ordinary usage, metallic materials operating at such temperatures are exposed to the deleterious effects of oxidation and sulfidation corrosion often in the presence of molten slag-like materials, for example molten silicate based slags and molten glass. In order to be practical, metallic materials operable at such temperatures must be hot workable so as to economically provide the shaped objects which are to be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,435, incorporated by reference, discloses a mechanically alloyed (MA) material with an approximate composition of 30-40% chromium, 5-25% cobalt, 0.5-10% iron, 0.2-0.6% aluminum, 0.3-1.2% titanium, 0.2-1% yttria and the balance nickel. Manganese may be present up to 2%, boron may be present to 0.05%, zirconium up to 0.4% and others (silicon, niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, tungsten, rhenium, hafnium, lanthanides and yttrium) up to about 1%. The consolidated and hot worked alloy has exceptional hot corrosion resistance and, when grain coarsened, good high (1093.degree. C. [1994.degree. F.]) temperature strength. Such an alloy is useful for the handling of molten glass.
Whereas this material can be hot formed to a plate product by conventional hot rolling, fabrication of molten glass spinners by hot spinning has been unsuccessful due to surface cracking and, in one instance, catastrophic brittle fracture. U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,435 states the alloy has excellent hot ductility if several conditions are met: (1) the carbon level is under 0.08% to minimize carbide precipitation, (2) the oxygen level should be less than 0.5% and best ductility is achieved when the oxygen is under 0.40%, (3) the weight percent titanium should be four times the weight percent nitrogen to insure the formation of innocuous titanium nitrides, and (4) the combined oxygen plus nitrogen level should be under 0.7%. Satisfying these conditions insures that the alloy has a 954.degree. C. (1750.degree. F.) high temperature tensile ductility over 40% which is an indicator of acceptable hot ductility. It is true that when these conditions are satisfied, the alloy does have a 954.degree. C. tensile ductility over 40%. However, this does not translate into adequate hot ductility for the spin forming operations.

Mechanically alloyed nickel-base composition having improved hot formability characteristics


An organic electroluminescence device comprising a pair of electrodes and at least one organic compound layer disposed therebetween, wherein at least one of the electrodes is a light-transmittable electrode exhibiting a light-transmittance peak centered in a range of an emission peak wavelength of the device xc2x1100 nm, and the light-transmittance peak has a half band width of 1 to 350 nm.

The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescence device exhibiting a high power efficiency.
An organic electroluminescence device, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9can organic EL devicexe2x80x9d, can be comparatively easily produced as a surface luminescence device by a vapor deposition method, a coating method, etc., thereby considered to be useful for a flat panel display. The organic EL device has been widely studied, and such that providing an excellent performance equal to an inorganic LED has been developed in recent years.
The organic EL device ordinarily comprises a pair of electrodes. Since the organic EL device acts as a surface luminescence device, at least one of the electrodes generally has a low resistance and a high light-transmittance. Well known as such an electrode is, for example, an electrode of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) where indium oxide is doped with tin (see, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-67460). Nevertheless, it has been desired to develop an electrode having a lower resistance and more efficient light-transmitting characteristics than those of known electrodes, and an organic EL device comprising the electrode to exhibit a higher power efficiency as compared with the prior art.
An object of the present invention is to provide an organic EL device exhibiting a high power efficiency.
As a result of intense research in view of the above object, the inventors have found that an organic EL device comprising a light-transmittable electrode having specific light-transmitting characteristics is excellent in the power efficiency. The present invention has been accomplished by the finding.
Thus, an organic EL device of the present invention comprises a pair of electrodes and at least one organic compound layer disposed therebetween, wherein at least one of the electrodes is a light-transmittable electrode exhibiting a light-transmittance peak centered in a range of an emission peak wavelength of the device xc2x1100 nm, and the light-transmittance peak has a half band width of 1 to 350 nm.
The organic EL device of the present invention provides a further improved power efficiency by satisfying the following conditions (1) to (4).
(1) It is preferable that the light-transmittable electrode has a surface resistance of 15 xcexa9/square or less.
(2) It is preferable that the light-transmittable electrode is a multi-layered thin film composed of preferably 2 or more materials, more preferably 3 or more materials.
(3) It is preferable that the light-transmittable electrode is mainly composed of ITO, indium oxide, tin oxide, and/or an indium oxide-zinc oxide alloy.
(4) It is preferable that the organic EL device emits light by applying a pulse voltage having a pulse width of 10xe2x88x929 to 10xe2x88x923 second.


A calorimetric sensor system requires a vehicle's internal combustion engine to cyclically operate between first and second conditions to repeatedly produce a varying exhaust gas composition which is consistent from cycle to cycle. The rate of change of the calorimetric sensor's signal as the engine cycles from one to the other condition is mathematically factored, after signal filtering at frequencies of the induced perturbation, to provide signals indicative of the emissions concentration in the exhaust gases, the air/fuel ratio of the engine and whether the engine is operating lean or rich. The signals can be used as fuel control engine signals as well as OBD signals. Additionally, the system can control industrial processes through small process perturbations affecting the compositions of process gases.

Combustion within the combustion chambers of an internal combustion engine is controlled by precise amounts of combustion air and fuel metered at a set ratio into the combustion chamber. The ratio of air and fuel in the mixture is conventionally known as the air-to-fuel ratio (AFR) and expressed as lambda, with stoichiometric combustion having a lambda value of 1. Regulatory standards limit the concentrations of noxious gases allowed in the products of combustion or exhaust gases emanating from the vehicle. Regulated emissions are typically hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrous oxides (NO.sub.x). Vehicles are equipped with catalytic converters to transform the regulated or noxious emissions to harmless, gaseous emissions. The catalytic converter systems in use today typically include a three-way catalyst, a TWC catalyst, capable of converting CO, HC and NO.sub.x.
Conventional TWCs work efficiently at or near stoichiometric conditions. When the engine runs rich, there is insufficient oxygen for CO and HC combustion. If the engine runs excessively lean, NO.sub.x concentrations in the exhaust gases increase and make it more difficult for the TWC to cleanse the NO emissions. To address this problem, TWCs are constructed with a composition (i.e., ceria) that can store oxygen when the engine runs lean and release the oxygen when the engine runs rich ("OSC"). With this capability added to the TWC, typical engine control strategies cycle the AFR about stoichiometric to provide alternating rich/lean exhaust gas mixtures. The engine control strategy prevents excessive NO.sub.x emissions from being produced during its "lean" condition while the oxygen stored during the "rich" operation is used in the "rich" mode to combust HC, CO and H.sub.2.
As the catalytic converter ages, its ability to convert noxious emissions diminish. The prior art has recognized that concentrations of certain emissions within the products of combustion produced by the engine can be controlled by changing the operating conditions of the engine to adjust for the aging of the catalytic converter. In this manner the engine control strategy can insure, to some point, that the emissions from the vehicle continue to meet regulatory standards thus prolonging the life of the catalytic converter provided, of course, that the emissions can be accurately measured. Reference can be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,025 to Abe and U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,929 to Saito et al., incorporated by reference herein, for techniques controlling the air-to-fuel ratio and reference can be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,824 to Yukawa et al., incorporated by reference herein, for controlling the perturbation rate (frequency) as well as the air-to-fuel ratio. In addition, it is known that exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) can be controlled to limit NO.sub.x emissions. Reference can be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,934 to Hunt et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,283 to Yano et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,673 to Isobe, incorporated by reference herein, for various techniques controlling EGR as well as other vehicle operating conditions such as spark timing, mass air flow, etc. to produce products of combustion having certain emissions capable of being converted by the TWC.
Any engine control strategy can only be as good as the instruments used to measure the results achieved when the control strategy is implemented. Specifically, the engine control strategies discussed above are implemented with the intent to insure that the vehicle meets emission standards while maintaining vehicular driveability. If the emissions are accurately measured, then the engine control technique, any engine control technique, can be verified. Until this invention, there was no known, reliable, consistent and commercially feasible system which could be mounted in the vehicle for continuous monitoring of the emissions actually produced by the vehicle, let alone, function as a feedback control for regulating the engine operating condition.
Engine control strategies and catalytic monitoring systems in widespread use today sense the oxygen concentrations in the exhaust gases. The oxygen sensor readings are used to set the air-to fuel ratio and also to monitor the OSC of the TWC. Such systems are inherently defective for monitoring emissions because they are incapable of directly measuring the regulated emissions.
Current OBD methods based on OSC rely upon correlating the deterioration of OSC with the loss of EC efficiency. In fact, OSC of the TWC has been demonstrated to poorly correlate with hydrocarbon conversion efficiencies. See J. S. Hepburn and H. S. Gandhi, The Relationship Between Catalyst Hydrocarbon Conversion Efficiency and Oxygen Storage Capacity, SAE paper 920831, 1992 and G. B. Fischer, J. R. Theis, M. B. Casarella, and S. T. Mahan, The Role of Ceria in Automotive Exhaust Catalysis and OBD-2 Catalyst Monitoring, SAE paper 931034, 1993. As the allowable emission levels are reduced with increasingly more stringent regulations, the OSC correlation becomes highly unreliable. Specifically, existing techniques which compare AFR before and after a portion of the TWC (sometimes at known operating engine conditions) will not have the required sensitivity to meaningfully monitor the emissions.
Further, emission regulations now coming into effect require that the vehicle control the emissions when the engine is cold or on start-up and not only when the vehicle has reached its operating temperature. This requirement is met by the use of close-coupled, light/off catalytic converters, which may be void of rare-earth metal oxides, the major components of OSC. Such catalytic converters may lack significant oxygen storage function and cannot employ or use oxygen sensors to measure oxygen storage capacity. Thus, current dual EGO sensor methods are incapable of OBD of such close-coupled, light/off catalytic converters.
In addition to such fundamental considerations which strongly dictate that measuring OSC will not meet proposed regulated monitoring standards, there are other disadvantages to the current system. Currently, the catalytic converter design, itself, has to be structured to put OSC into the monolith at concentrations sufficient to allow the aforementioned correlation to take place and to continue to take place as the converter ages. Further, the addition of OSC promotes sintering of the catalytic converter at high temperatures. A more durable catalytic converter could be designed at less expense and with higher concentrations of catalysts to give better conversion efficiencies at a longer life if OSC was not present or present in minute concentrations.
Exhaust gas oxygen (EGO) sensors (usually either a heated EGO (HEGO) or a universal EGO (UEGO)) are typically placed upstream and downstream of the catalytic converter and primarily function for engine fueling control. They are also used to determine OSC of the TWC. Both sensor types possess a platinum based coating which combusts residual reductants and oxidants present in the gas stream. Only after substantially all residual gases are combusted, is the oxygen concentration remaining determined. For rich mixtures the sensor detects no residual oxygen. For lean mixtures the oxygen not consumed by the combustion on the platinum electrode surface is detected. Thus, it is fundamentally important to note that neither sensor can detect the actual level of emissions in the exhaust gas. To emphasize the point, the EGO sensors can not differentiate a gas mixture composed of 0 ppm HC at lambda=1 from a second gas mixture composed of 3000 ppm HC at lambda=1.
In addition to the primary functions of the EGO sensors for engine fueling control, comparison of the signals generated by the upstream and downstream sensor have been used to determine the oxygen storage capacity (OSC) of a three-way catalyst (TWC). If the engine is operating at an AFR cycling around lambda=1, and when a catalyst is fresh and OSC is fully functional, the front EGO sensor rapidly indicates the changing AFR. The downstream sensor signal, however, only periodically changes to indicate the changing AFR owning to the ability of the TWC to store oxygen during lean conditions and release oxygen to combust excess reductants (HC, CO, H.sub.2) during rich conditions. As the TWC ages and OSC degrades, the signal generated from the downstream EGO begins to more closely resemble the upstream EGO. In the extreme case of complete loss of OSC functionality, the downstream EGO signal directly reflects the upstream EGO signal. Those skilled in the art realize that the above description is general, but establishes the basic principle behind two EGO sensors to determine OSC properties of a TWC.
Vehicle manufactures (OEMs) have successfully established correlations between OSC and the EC conversion efficiency of TWCs for vehicles with less stringent emissions requirements. However, for LEV (low emission vehicles) and ULEV (ultra-low emission vehicles) applications, the correlations are significantly more difficult to establish and are inherently unreliable. As a result, large error is associated with diagnosis and the OEMs must turn on a MIL often well before actual emissions are exceeded. Premature indication of failure is required owing to the large error in OBD to ensure that the MIL will be illuminated for all true failures. It is highly desirable to improve the catalytic converter OBD diagnostic resolution to avoid extreme premature indication while still complying with regulations.
The prior art has recognized the deficiencies in the oxygen sensing systems. Recent patents have correlated temperature changes in the catalytic converter to a catalytic converter efficiency measurement thus avoiding the usage of EGO sensors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,967 to Ries-Mueller correlates the time it takes the catalytic converter to reach operating temperature to an efficiency and U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,652 to Sultan takes temperature measurements before and after the catalytic converter.
A viable approach, made possible by this invention, which does not rely on OSC to determine compliance with emission regulations is the use of a calorimetric sensor to determine the concentration of the regulated emissions. Reference can be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,148 to Visser et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,012 to Zanini-Fischer; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,837 to Friese et al., incorporated by reference herein, for calorimetric sensors specifically designed for use in automotive, exhaust gas monitoring applications. Reference can be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,464 to Hamburg; U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,215 to Hamburg; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,974 to Beck et al. for monitoring system applications using calorimetric sensors. In Beck, the vehicle is operated at steady state condition with a lean air/fuel ratio whereat signals from the sensor are collected, histogrammed and analyzed to arrive at a pass/fail ratio. In the Hamburg references, a sample of the gas stream is tapped and sent to a chamber where the gas sample can be analyzed vis-a-vis the calorimetric sensor. Before this invention, the prior art used the calorimetric sensor only to monitor the exhaust gases and the monitoring was not done during the full range of engine operation.
The parent invention overcame the deficiencies in the calorimetric sensor systems of the prior art.
One of the basic problems solved by the parent invention arises from the very low concentrations of noxious emissions now being regulated. The low level of emissions cause very minor energy signals. If the calorimetric sensor is used to continuously monitor the exhaust stream as in Beck or as suggested in the prior art calorimetric sensor patents, the system energy and more importantly, the variations in system energy, simply prevent an absolute measurement from being recorded by the calorimetric sensor. The small energy signals attributed to the presence of minor concentrations of gaseous emissions cannot be consistently distinguished from any of the other system energy fluxes which produce significant quantities of energy affecting the sensor energy signal. A breakthrough in the emission monitoring art was achieved in the invention disclosed in parent application, Ser. No. 09/019,085, filed Feb. 6, 1998, incorporated by reference herein, which cycles the operating conditions of the engine to produce corresponding cyclical calorimetric signals which are detrended at the limits of the cycle and subtracted from one another to produce a relative signal indicative of the energy content of combustible gases in the exhaust stream. By selecting which engine operating condition is cycled, concentrations of selective emissions are detected and comparison of the signals obtained at the steady state limits of the cycle produce a relative signal which does not have to be correlated to a "zero" reference point to obtain an absolute measure of the concentration of the selected emission. The parent invention thus provides an accurate system for directly monitoring the catalytic converter efficiency based upon the emissions actually produced (and not some expected correlation based on an indirect property) at the very low ppm levels now being legislated which cannot be measured with current systems. The parent invention functions as an emission monitoring/catalytic evaluation system only. This invention extends some of the concepts discussed in the parent patent to not only monitor the emissions but also control the combustion process of the engine by a different system and method from that disclosed in the parent invention.
Within the vehicular art, frequency analysis has been known to accomplish OBD of engine components. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,902 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,538 to Glidewell et al. pressure waves are utilized to determine if the fuel pump is functional. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,425 to Rump et al. a frequency analysis is performed by a heat sensor to determine the presence of pollutants in ambient air and control the ventilation mode of the vehicle. A spectrum analysis of flow temperature is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,496 to Fattori et al. for turbine engines to control the air to fuel ratio. The spectral analysis detects the presence of oxygen compounds.
Outside the vehicular art, U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,775 to Reading et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,291 to Reading utilize frequency measurement resulting from the application of heat to determine phase transition of materials. U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,411 to Hughes utilizes frequency measurements to monitor and control the temperatures of blood within the heart for surgical procedures.
Despite the wide application of sophisticated techniques utilizing heat, there are many industrial processes and applications wherein chemical transformations can be utilized for monitoring or controlling the process if the chemical transformation can be induced, detected and analyzed.