A process to produce a dry purified furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is described. After oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (5-HMF), a crude FDCA stream is produced that is fed to a crystallization zone followed by a solid-liquid displacement zone to form a low impurity slurry stream. The solids in the low impurity slurry stream are dissolved in a dissolution zone to produce a hydrogenation feed that is hydrogenated in a hydrogenation reactor to generate a hydrogenated FDCA composition. The hydrogenated FDCA composition is routed to a crystallization zone to form a crystallized produce stream that is separated from liquid in a solid-liquid separation zone to generate a purified wet cake stream containing FDCA that can be dried in a drying zone to generate a dry purified FDCA product stream.

Aromatic dicarboxylic acids such as terephthalic acid and isophthalic acid are used to produce a variety of polyester products, important examples of which are poly (ethylene terephthalate) and its copolymers. These aromatic dicarboxylic acids are synthesized by the catalyzed autoxidation of the corresponding dialkyl aromatic compounds which are obtained from fossil fuels (US 2006/0205977 A1). There is a growing interest in the use of renewable resources as feed stocks for the chemical industries mainly due to the progressive reduction of fossil reserves and their related environmental impacts.
Furan 2,5-dicarboxylic acid ("FDCA") is a versatile intermediate considered as a promising closest biobased alternative to terephthalic acid and isophthalic acid. It is synthesized by the catalytic oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (5-HMF) as shown in equation 1 below; or by the catalytic oxidation of 5-HMF esters (5-R(CO)OCH2-furfural where R=alkyl, cycloalkyl and aryl) as shown in equation 2 below; or by the catalytic oxidation of 5-HMF ethers (5-R′OCH2-furfural, where R′=alkyl, cycloalkyl and aryl) as shown in equation 3 below; or by the catalytic oxidation of 5-alkyl furfurals (5-R″-furfural, where R″=alkyl, cycloalkyl and aryl) as shown in equation 4 below; in each case using a Co/Mn/Br catalyst system. Mixed feedstocks of 5-HMF and 5-HMF esters, mixed feedstocks of 5-HMF and 5-HMF ethers, and mixed feedstocks of 5-HMF and 5-alkyl furfurals can also be used.

We have found that the above reactions work well. However a number of impurities are produced, particularly mono-carboxylic acid species such as 5-formyl furan-2-carboxyic acid (FFCA). These mono-carboxylic acids are not desirable since they terminate the chain growth of a polymer resulting in lower polymer viscosity. If colored bodies are present in the crude FDCA or remaining in the purified FDCA, these colored bodies carry through to compounds or polymers using the FDCA as a reactive monomer to thereby color the compound or polymer. Therefore, it is necessary to purify the crude FDCA to remove the color bodies while minimizing the presence of FFCA in the purified FDCA.
FDCA has been prepared by oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural (5-HMF) under air using homogenous catalysts (US2003/0055271 A1 and Partenheimer, W.; Grushin, V. V. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2001, 343, 102-111.) but only a maximum of 44.8% yield using Co/Mn/Br catalysts system and a maximum of 60.9% yield was reported using Co/Mn/Br/Zr catalysts combination. Heterogeneous catalysis oxidation of 5-HMF using ZrO2 mixed with platinum (II) acetylacetonate in water has been reported in U.S. Pat. No. 7,700,788 B2, but due to very low solubility of FDCA in water, this process needs to be conducted under very dilute conditions to avoid precipitation of FDCA on the catalysts surface which makes the process not economical. Another heterogeneous catalysis oxidation of 5-HMF is reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,283 using molecular O2 and a Pt/C catalyst. High FDCA yield was achieved but at the extra expense of feeding purified O2 and continually adjusting pH via sodium hydroxide addition. The reaction product was the disodium salt of FDCA leading to a wasteful salt by-product in the conversion to FDCA.
There remains a need to produce a FDCA at high yields and isolate purified FDCA product that has low color.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Process for purifying crude furan 2,5-dicarboxylic acid using hydrogenation


The present invention relates to a control system for a hybrid excavator including an engine, a hydraulic pump driven by the engine to drive a hydraulic actuator by hydraulic fluid, a generator driven by the engine to generate electric energy, and an energy storage device charging the electric energy generated by the generator and supplying the electric energy to an electric actuator, the control system comprising: a required torque detection means for detecting a torque that is required to drive the hydraulic pump; a charge amount detection means for detecting a charge rate (or charge amount) of the electric energy storage device; a memory storing a generation degree (or generation amount) in accordance with the torque and the charge rate (or charge amount); and a hybrid control means for controlling the generator in accordance with the torque value detected by the required torque detection means and the generation amount in a memory means that corresponds to the charge rate value (or charge amount) detected by the charge amount detection means. According to the control system, the fuel efficiency is optimized by driving the electric generator attached to the engine based on the required torque of the hydraulic pump and the preset generation amount value corresponding to the SOC (State Of Charge).

In general, a construction machine such as an excavator in the prior art adopts a hydraulic driving system in which a hydraulic pump is driven by a fuel engine and an actuator is driven by hydraulic pressure. Such a conventional excavator performs not only work that requires the maximum output power but also work that requires an output power lower than the maximum output power, for example, about 80% or 50% of the maximum output power. In the case of performing work with such a low output power, the engine efficiency and the fuel efficiency deteriorate. FIG. 1 is a necessary torque output relationship diagram illustrating an excavator system according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, in a conventional hydraulic excavator, an opening area of a main control valve (MCV) 7 is adjusted in accordance with an output of a pilot valve 6 through a user's manipulation of a lever 5.
Hydraulic fluid discharged from a hydraulic pump 13 is transferred to respective hydraulic systems with its flow rate adjusted in accordance with the opening area of the MCV 7.
In such a conventional hydraulic excavator, it is sometimes required to perform work while greatly changing the output power of an engine so as to cope with a great load change, and it is required to seek the improvement of the engine's fuel efficiency by effectively utilizing the engine output. Accordingly, a hybrid technology using an electric generator that is adopted in a hybrid vehicle has been planned to be applied to an excavator. That is, a hybrid excavator has been proposed in which an electric generator is connected to an engine. According to the hybrid excavator, in the case of performing a light-load operation, the electric generator is operated to generate electricity to charge a battery using a portion of the engine output, while in the case of performing a swing operation or using another electric device, electric energy is supplied from the battery to drive the actuator.
However, the excavator has the characteristics of an engine output power, a torque/speed operation region, and a power transfer device, which are quite different from those of a hybrid vehicle, and thus it is not easy to apply the hybrid technology to the excavator. According to a control system for a hybrid excavator proposed in the prior art, in which the drive torque of the hydraulic pump and the output torque of the engine are simply compared with each other, such that the motor-generator generates power to charge a battery using a surplus engine output torque in the case of performing the light-load operation, whereas in the case of performing the heavy-load operation, electric energy charged in the battery is supplied to the motor-generator to operate the motor-generator as a motor so that the engine is supplemented as much as the shortage of the engine output torque, it is difficult to seek improvement of the fuel efficiency by effectively utilizing the output of the engine of the excavator which has the characteristics of working region of diverse loads, engine output, torque/speed operation region, and power transfer device which are quite different from those of the hybrid vehicle.
In particular, since the excavator performs various kinds of work, in which working loads are different from one another, such as excavating, dipping-out, leveling, pounding, and the like, the transmission technology for the hybrid vehicle is not adopted in the hybrid excavator in the prior art, and thus it is very difficult to optimize the fuel efficiency.
Further, in the excavator, if the relationship between the kind (or mode) of the work and the engine output or the battery charging state is not taken into consideration, problems, such as energy waste, deterioration of working efficiency, and the like, may occur.


A driving method of a display device in which the number of voltage levels of scanning lines during a non-selection period is only one, and the voltage level of a data line corresponding to a display element that present no image is set to the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period. The power consumption of the display device is thus reduced.

The present invention relates to a method of driving a display device, a display device and an electronic apparatus and, in particular, to a technique for reducing the power consumption of the display device.
Since passive matrix type liquid-crystal display devices need no costly switching elements and are less expensive than active matrix type liquid-crystal display devices, the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display devices find widespread use as monitors of portable computers and portable electronic apparatuses.
The following methods are known as the methods of driving the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device.
(1) APT method (IEEE TRANSACTIONS OF ELECTRON DEVICE, VOL, ED-21, No.2, FEBRUARY 1974 P146-155 xe2x80x9cSCANNING LIMITATIONS OF LIQUID-CRYSTAL DISPLAYSxe2x80x9d P. ALT, P. PLESHKO, ALTandPLESHKO TECHNIC).
(2) Smart Addressing (LCD International ""95, Liquid-Crystal Display Seminars held under the sponsorship of Nikkei BP, C-4 Lecture No. (1), by Matsushita of Tottori SANYO Electric, Co., Ltd).
(3) Multi-line driving methods (for example, Japanese Patent Application 4-84007, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-46127, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-130910).
Besides the demand for miniaturization and light weight, there is a growing demand for longer time of displaying without the need for battery replacement in the field of the portable electronic apparatuses such as cellular telephones and pagers. Therefore, a low power consumption feature is rigorously required of the display device used in such portable electronic apparatuses.
The inventor of this invention has extensively studied the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device with a view to reducing power consumption.
The study has shown that prior art passive matrix liquid-crystal display devices have to supply an alternating current of 20 V or higher in amplitude to both scanning lines and signal lines even during a display-off time, that the power consumption in the power supply circuit for generating that alternating current is considerably large, and that currents flowing between the scanning lines and the data lines via liquid crystals are also considerably large.
The present invention has been developed with a view to resolving such problems.
One of the primary objects of the present invention is to reduce power consumption of a display device such as a passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, the number of voltage levels of scanning lines during a non-selection period is only one, and to set a display element to a display-off state, the voltage level of the data line corresponding to that display element is set to the voltage level of the scanning lines during a non-selection period.
In such a driving method, if image presentation is performed with the polarity of the selection voltage to the scanning lines being periodically alternated, the voltage level during a non-selection period remains unchanged (at a single level) regardless the polarity of the selection voltage for the scanning lines. By employing the voltage level of the data line as the non-selection voltage level of the scanning line, display-off state is easily performed.
The display-off state means a disabled state of the display. The screen of the display-off state corresponds to the screen in a display-off mode. The display-off mode is a mode available to achieve an extremely low power consumption. In the description that follows, the terms xe2x80x9cdisplay-off statexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdisplay-off modexe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cdisplay-off mode screenxe2x80x9d are frequently used.
In the present invention, when a scanning line is set to a non-selection voltage with a data line set to the same voltage, no voltage difference between both lines appears activating a display-off state (display-off mode).
Since the number non-selection voltage levels is only one, the power supply circuit for generating the non-selection voltage is simple, and the power consumption of the power supply circuit is reduced. Compared with the method where the non-selection voltage is changed periodically, equalizing the data line voltage to the scanning line voltage is easy, and the power consumption with a display panel attributed to the voltage difference between the scanning line and the data line is reduced. Thus, power consumption of the display device is accordingly reduced.
Even when a selection pulse enters the scanning line with the voltage level at the data line kept to the non-selection voltage level of the scanning line, the display-off state is maintained. This is because simply selecting a scanning line during a selection-period is not sufficient enough to exceed the threshold of liquid crystal and keeps the display-off state.
Based on this principle, one area in one screen is set to the display-off mode while the remaining area is allowed to present a predetermined image such as icons by controlling properly the voltage applied to the data line.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a display control signal is applied to each of a plurality of ICs to drive the data lines, and by the display control signals, at least parts of data line drive outputs from the ICs are set to the voltage level of the scanning lines during a non-selection period.
A plurality of ICs are arranged as data line drivers, and the data line drive outputs from the ICs on a per IC basis is kept to the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period. In this way, the area covered by that IC is set to the display-off state (display-off mode).
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when at least parts of data line drive outputs are set to the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period, the supply of, at least, either display data or a high-frequency clock for transferring the display data to the IC is suspended.
By suspending the display data in the area in display-off state (the area in the display-off mode) or the high-frequency clock to be used for the transfer of the display data, low power consumption design-is further promoted.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a display control signal is applied to the driving circuit for the data lines to individually control the data-line drive outputs and to selectively set a desired drive output to the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period.
With this arrangement, the area in the display-off state is flexibly set.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data-line driving circuit, constructed of a plurality of blocks, is supplied with the display control signal, which controls the data line drive outputs on a block by block basis so that the data line drive outputs within any block are set to the voltage level during the non-selection period.
In this way, the area in display-off state is flexibly set on a block by block basis.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, h scanning lines out of the plurality of scanning lines (h is an integer equal to or greater than 2) are simultaneously selected, and each of the selected scanning lines is supplied with a scan voltage based on a predetermined selection voltage pattern, while each of the data lines is supplied with a voltage that is determined by comparing the selection voltage pattern with the display data representative of the display status of each display element so that a desired display is presented, and to activate no image presentation state (display-off mode screen), the display control signal fed to the data-line driving circuit sets, at least, parts of the data line drive outputs to the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period.
The driving method of activating the display-off state (display-off mode screen) is applied to a display device which features a known multi-line driving technique.
In this case, along with the advantage of the multi-line driving method that the level of the selection voltage applied to the scanning lines is lowered during image presentation, the effect of low power consumption during the display-off state further promotes reduction of power consumption.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the number of scanning lines, h, simultaneously selected in the multi-line driving is set to be an even number.
When the number of simultaneously selected scanning lines is h, the number of voltage levels of the data lines is necessarily xe2x80x9ch+1xe2x80x9d. If h is an even number, xe2x80x9ch+1xe2x80x9d is an odd number, and the voltage levels of the data lines are symmetrically distributed with its xe2x80x9cpredetermined reference voltage levelxe2x80x9d placed centrally with one half the voltage levels on the positive side and the other half on the negative side of the predetermined reference voltage level. The xe2x80x9cpredetermined reference voltage levelxe2x80x9d can be set to coincide with the scan voltage level during the non-selection period. Specifically, when the number of the simultaneously selected scanning lines is even, the middle one of the voltage levels of the data lines may be set to coincide with the voltage level of the scanning lines during the non-selection period. For this reason, setting a new voltage level for the scanning line during the non-selection period as the voltage level for the data line is not required to activate display-off state. This arrangement simplifies design and avoids an increase in circuit complexity, thereby leading to reduction of power consumption.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the number of simultaneously selected scanning lines is 2, 4, 6, or 8.
As the number of simultaneously selected scanning lines increases, the scale of the circuit for driving them is accordingly enlarged, and the larger-scale driving circuit will work to the contrary to the prime object of the present invention of reducing power consumption. For this reason, the practicable number for simultaneously selected scanning lines, h, is 2, 4, 6, or 8.
The display device of the present invention incorporating the above-described driving method supplies desired data lines with the non-selection voltage, thereby flexibly setting a display-off state area (an area in display-off mode).
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, by decoding the display control data and display data, an area to be in display-off state is designated on a per data line basis, or by a combination of a plurality of display control signals, an area to be in display-off state is designated on a per block basis.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, a display-enabled area is set to be smaller in size than the display-off state area (the area in the display-off mode) so that needless power consumption during standby time is restricted.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, the display device has a section that covers at least part of the screen and the area covered by the section becomes a display-off state area.
The area in the display-off state remains invisible to a user. The section that covers at least part of the screen is constituted by at least one movable member, such as a sliding cover. The screen entirely or partly is retracted in the cabinet of the display device depending on operating conditions.
The electronic apparatus of the present invention is the one that incorporates the display device that is capable of designating properly the display-off area.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, to drive a display device that comprises N scanning lines (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2), M data lines (M is an integer equal to or greater than 2), a plurality of display elements, the display state of which is controlled by a voltage applied to the scanning lines and a voltage applied to the data lines, a driving circuit for the scanning lines, and a driving circuit for the data lines,
a display control signal is applied to the scanning-line driving circuit, consecutive K scanning lines (K is an integer equal to or greater than 2 but smaller than N) out of the N scanning lines are deselected from the range of selection, based on the display control signal, only (N-K) scanning lines are selected to be displayed, and the scanning line voltage level during the selection period when (N-K) scanning lines are driven is set to be lower than the scanning line voltage level during the selection period when N scanning lines are driven.
When the border of the display-off state area is arranged in the direction of the scanning lines (in the Y direction), K scanning lines corresponding to the display-off state area are excluded from the range of selection. With this arrangement, the duty factor (thus, the number of scanning lines driven) in the driving of the display device changes, and along with the duty factor change, the selection voltage level for the scanning lines for appropriate image presentation is accordingly lowered. The lowered selection voltage level in turn reduces power-consumption.
The change of the voltage level of the scanning lines during the selection period is performed by using the display control signal that changes the level of the voltage a variable voltage source supplies to the scanning-line driving circuit. The variable voltage source may be constituted by a bootstrap circuit, for example.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, resolution conversion is performed to a displayed image when the multi-line driving method is employed to present the image.
The resolution conversion is performed by applying the same scan voltage to consecutively arranged Q scanning lines when a resolution 1/Q (Q is an integer equal to or greater than 2) is designated by a resolution conversion signal, and by selecting simultaneously (Qxc3x97h) scanning lines. The resolution 1/Q means not only that the duty factor in the driving of the display device varies, but also that the size of the image is multiplied by Q times. In this case, while power consumption remains almost unchanged, the size of the image is enlarged, and appeal to the user""s vision is substantially increased.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, to drive a display device that comprises N scanning lines (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2), M data lines (M is an integer equal to or greater than 2), a plurality of display elements, the display state of which is controlled by a voltage applied to the scanning lines and a voltage applied to the data lines, a driving circuit for the scanning lines, and a driving circuit for the data lines,
the number of voltage levels of the scanning lines during a non-selection period is only one,
a display control signal is applied to the driving circuit for the scanning lines, an area corresponding to consecutive K scanning lines (K is an integer equal to or greater than 2 but smaller than N) out of N scanning lines is set as an area not to be displayed, an area corresponding to the remaining scanning lines is set as a display-enabled area, the K scanning lines are kept to the voltage level during the non-selection period without applying a selection voltage thereto, while the data lines are supplied with the voltage, which is fet for image presentation, for a duration in which the K scanning lines should otherwise be selected.
When the border of the display-off state area is arranged in the direction of the scanning line (in the Y direction), the K scanning lines corresponding to the area in display-off state are included in the range of selection without varying the duty factor in the driving of the device, and on the other hand, the data lines are supplied with the voltage of the level for displaying rather than with the scanning line voltage during the non-selection period, for a duration corresponding to the display-off state area. No change in the selection voltage of the scanning lines is required, because the driving duty factor remains unchanged. Thus, the complexity in the construction of the power supply circuit is not increased. When a driving method of selecting simultaneously a plurality of scanning lines is adopted, the above driving method may be applied.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, during a standby time, the area other than the smallest display area required is set as the display-off state area (screen in the display-off mode) by using one of a variety of above driving methods to reduce power consumption.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, a plurality of switch means are arranged in voltage paths to the scanning lines or data lines, and when no image is presented, the switch means are put to open state to float electrically scanning lines or data lines.
In this case, the conductive paths interconnecting the scanning lines, electro-optic elements such as liquid crystals existing between the scanning lines and data lines, and the data lines are completely disconnected from a voltage source. For this reason, unwanted currents are prevented from flowing through the electro-optic elements. Since the scanning lines and data lines are electrically unstable with this arrangement, an unwanted display may be created by static electricity or the like, and thus a cover is preferably mounted entirely on a display panel to relieve the user of uncomfortable feelings.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, at least two display panels are provided, and the duty factor in the driving of one of the two panels is adequately set so that the selection voltage level of the scanning lines are set to coincide with the voltage level applied to the data lines. With this arrangement, the construction of the power supply circuit is simplified.
In a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, the driving circuit for driving a display matrix is provided with both one function for driving the scanning lines and the other function for driving the data lines.
The functions of the driving circuit are adequately switched in accordance with the size and shape of image display area to vary the duty factor in the driving of the device, and thus the voltage of the scanning lines during selection period is reduced, and thus the power consumption during image presentation is reduced.
FIG. 1A shows exemplary voltage levels of scanning lines and data lines in the driving method of the display device of the present invention, FIG. 1B shows another exemplary voltage levels for the scanning lines and data lines,
FIG. 2 shows the principle of the driving method of the display device of-the present invention,
FIG. 3A shows an exemplary construction of the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the driving method of the present invention, FIG. 3B shows an exemplary display screen of the device of FIG. 3A,
FIG. 4A shows another exemplary construction of the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the driving method of the present invention, FIG. 4B shows an exemplary display screen of the device of FIG. 4A,
FIG. 5 shows voltage levels for the scanning lines and data lines in the present invention where the driving method of sequentially selecting the scanning lines one by one (ATP driving method) is incorporated,
FIG. 6 shows the relationship between applied voltage and light transmittance ratio in the liquid-crystal display device,
FIG. 7A shows an exemplary construction of the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the driving method of the present invention, FIG. 7B is a timing diagram showing the operation characteristic of the device of FIG. 7A,
FIG. 8A is a timing diagram showing an exemplary operation of the liquid-crystal display device of FIG. 7A, FIG. 8B is a timing diagram showing another exemplary operation,
FIG. 9 shows an exemplary construction of the passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the driving method of the present invention,
FIG. 10A is a timing diagram showing an exemplary operation of the liquid-crystal display device of FIG. 9, FIG. 10B is a timing diagram showing another exemplary operation,
FIG. 11 shows an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B, and FIG. 12C respectively show display controls in the liquid-crystal display device of FIG. 11,
FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an exemplary construction of a major portion of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing another exemplary construction of the major portion of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 15 shows a specific circuit arrangement of the decoder of FIG. 14,
FIG. 16A shows voltage levels for the scanning lines and data lines when four scanning lines are simultaneously selected to be driven, FIG. 16B shows the relationship between the number of simultaneous selection and the number of voltage levels for the data lines,
FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention into which a multi-line driving method is implemented,
FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing another exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention into which the multi-line driving method is implemented,
FIG. 19 shows an exemplary construction of the major portion of the liquid-crystal display device in FIG. 17 or FIG. 18,
FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the feature of the multi-line driving method,
FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the feature of the operation of the multi-line driving method,
FIG. 22 shows the changes of voltages for the scanning lines, data line and pixels in the liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the multi-line driving method,
FIG. 23A and FIG. 23B respectively show exemplary scan voltage patterns in the multi-line driving method,
FIG. 24A shows an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention (in which display control is performed in the direction in which the scanning lines are arranged), FIG. 24B shows the display control in the liquid-crystal display device of FIG. 24A,
FIG. 25 shows an example of display control in the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 26 shows an example of a variable voltage source (a bootstrap circuits shown in FIG. 25,
FIG. 27 shows an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device that incorporates the multi-line driving method to carry out the display control shown in FIG. 25,
FIG. 28A shows a screen on which no image is presented, FIG. 28B shows a screen, one half of which presents an image, FIG. 28C shows a screen, which presents the image of FIG. 28B in double sizing (with a resolution of half that of the image of FIG. 28B),
FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram of a circuit for performing resolution conversion as shown in FIG. 28B and FIG. 28C,
FIG. 30A and FIG. 30B respectively show the operation of the circuit shown in FIG. 29,
FIG. 31 shows specifically display control carried out by the liquid-crystal display device (incorporating the multi-line driving) of the present invention,
FIG. 32 is a timing diagram showing the operation of the device of FIG. 31,
FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device that carries out the display control shown in FIG. 31,
FIG. 34A shows a major portion of the construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention, FIG. 34B shows the feature of the construction of FIG. 34A,
FIG. 35 shows-a major portion of the construction of the liquid-crystal display device which incorporates the multi-line driving method and carries out the display control shown in FIG. 34A and FIG. 34B,
FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing a more specific construction of the construction shown in FIG. 35,
FIG. 37 is a diagram showing an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 38 is a diagram showing an exemplary construction of the liquid-crystal display device of the present invention,
FIG. 39A is a front view showing a portable telephone in its normal use which incorporates the display device of the present invention, FIG. 39B is a front view showing the portable telephone of FIG. 39A in its special use,
FIG. 40A and FIG. 40B are respectively perspective views showing a portable electronic dictionary,
FIG. 41A and FIG. 41B are respectively external views of an electronic apparatus which incorporates the display device of the present invention,
FIG. 42A and FIG. 42B are respectively perspective views showing a portable electronic translator,
FIG. 43 is an external view of a portable telephone which incorporates the display device,
FIG. 44 is a diagram showing a major construction of a standard passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device,
FIG. 45 is a diagram showing voltage levels for scanning lines and data lines in the driving method of a prior art liquid-crystal display device,
FIG. 46 is a timing diagram showing the operation of a standard passive matrix type liquid-crystal display device, and
FIG. 47 is a diagram showing the problem associated with the driving method of the prior art liquid-crystal display device.

Method of driving display device, display device and electronic apparatus

Abstract: A minimum area of the entire screen of the device is used for image presentation while the remaining area is set to a display-off state (display-off mode) using the above driving method, and thus the power consumption of the display device, for example, in a standby state is reduced. Each of the display-enabled area and the display-off area is flexibly set.

Abstract: A combination of a multi-line driving method and the above driving method helps further reduce power consumption.


A magnetic disc apparatus includes a magnetic disc for recording information; a thin film magnetic head including a magnetic pole structure having an upper magnetic pole tip and a lower magnetic pole tip arranged to provide a magnetic gap at respective end portions thereof for writing and reading information in and from the magnetic disc; a device for rotating the magnetic disc; and a device for positioning the thin film magnetic head; the upper and lower magnetic pole tips having different contours at the respective end portions as viewed from a side confronting the magnetic disc wherein the difference (.DELTA.CW in .mu.m) in the width, along the magnetic gap, of the upper magnetic pole tip and the width, along the magnetic gap, of the lower magnetic pole tip satisfies the relation EQU 0<.DELTA.CW.ltoreq.5000/Tr. for the magnetic disc having a track density Tr of 1800 or more tracks per inch.

1. Field of The Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic disc apparatus and a method of recording and reproducing information in the magnetic disc apparatus, and more particularly to a magnetic disc apparatus suitable for use as an external storage of a host device such as computer, to a thin film magnetic head for use in that magnetic disc apparatus and to a method for recording/reproduction of information in that magnetic disc apparatus.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Concomitantly with an increase in the storage capacity of the magnetic disc apparatus, the track density of the magnetic disc tends to increase more and more.
Therefore, the dimension of the track width of the magnetic pole tip of the thin film magnetic head mounted to the magnetic disc apparatus is decreased more and more.
In the thin film magnetic head, upper and lower magnetic cores form a magnetic circuit having a gap at their tips confronting the magnetic disc with an insulating film of a non-magnetic material interposed therebetween.
The magnetic circuit is activated to permit writing or reading a recording medium exemplified as the magnetic disc
The magnetized state of the recording medium which governs the recording density is affected by the magnitude of a magnetic field generated in the magnetic gap region.
The configuration of the upper and lower magnetic pole tips of the thin film magnetic head confronting the magnetic disc is one of the main factors for determining the recording density of the magnetic disc apparatus.
The configuration of the magnetic pole tip confronting the magnetic disc has hitherto been studied from various viewpoints.
The difference in width between the upper and lower magnetic pole tips has not been noticed frequently but is particularly referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,855 and in SHINGAKU GIHO, Vol. 85, No. 137, MR85-22 (1985). The term "width" of the magnetic pole tip indicates a lateral dimension of the pole tip face to be faced to the recording medium when recording or reproducing as measured in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the magnetic head relative to the recording medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,855 describes that by making the width of the upper magnetic core tip smaller than that of the lower magnetic pole tip, an undesirable contour called a wraparound due to non-uniformity in manufacture can be avoided.
In SHINGAKU GIHO, Vol. 85, No. 137, MR85-22 (1985), computer simulation is used to study the relation of the difference in width between the upper and lower magnetic pole tips to the magnitude of a magnetic field at fringes of both sides of the magnetic pole tips. The term "magnetic fringe field" or "fringe flux" is used in this specification to indicate a part of the magnetic field or flux produced by a magnetic head at fringes slightly exceeding the width of the magnetic pole tip.
The latter literature describes that the magnetic fringe field adversely affects write/read characteristics and therefore the difference in width between the upper and lower magnetic pole tips should desirably be zero. The fringe field is also disclosed in "Magneto-optic Determination of Magnetic Recording Head Fields" by Mark E. Re et al. in IEEE Transaction on Magnetics. Vol. MAG. 22, No. 5, September 1986.
The prior art described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,855 fails to refer to how much the prescribed difference in width between the upper and lower magnetic pole tips should be in order to obtain a magnetic field distribution suitable for increasing the recording density.
Also, the prior art described in the aforementioned SHINGAKU GIHO, Vol. 85, No. 137, MR85-22 (1985) in no way points out that as the track width decreases, the magnetic fringe field rather improves write/read characteristics.
Further, neither of these two references gives the knowledge of the optimum relation between the track density of the magnetic disc and the difference in width between the upper and lower magnetic pole tips which is optimized for increasing the recording density of the magnetic disc apparatus.

Magnetic disc apparatus with thin film head suitable for high-density recording


Light emitting devices and components having excellent chemical resistance and related methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a component of a light emitting device can include a silver (Ag) portion, which can be silver on a substrate, and a protective layer disposed over the Ag portion. The protective layer can at least partially include an inorganic material for increasing the chemical resistance of the Ag portion.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs), can be utilized in light emitting devices or packages for providing white light (e.g., perceived as being white or near-white), and are developing as replacements for incandescent, fluorescent, and metal halide high-intensity discharge (HID) light products. Conventional LED devices or packages can incorporate components such as metallic traces or mounting surfaces which can become tarnished, corroded, or otherwise degraded when exposed to various undesirable chemicals and/or chemical vapors. Such chemicals and/or chemical vapors can enter conventional LED devices, for example, by permeating an encapsulant filling material disposed over such components. In one aspect, undesirable chemicals and/or chemical vapors can contain sulfur, sulfur-containing compounds (e.g., sulfides, sulfites, sulfates, SOX), chlorine and bromine containing complexes, nitric oxide or nitrogen dioxides (e.g., NOx), and oxidizing organic vapor compounds which can permeate the encapsulant and physically degrade various components within the LED device via corroding, oxidizing, darkening, and/or tarnishing such components. Such degradation can adversely affect brightness, reliability, and/or thermal properties of conventional LED devices over time, and can further adversely affect the performance of the devices during operation.
Despite the availability of various light emitting devices in the marketplace, a need remains for devices and components having improved chemical resistance and related methods for preventing undesirable chemicals and/or chemical vapors from reaching and subsequently degrading components within the devices. Devices, components, and methods described herein can advantageously improve chemical resistance to undesirable chemicals and/or chemical vapors within encapsulated LED devices, while promoting ease of manufacture and increasing device reliability and performance in high power and/or high brightness applications. Described methods can be used and applied to create chemically resistant surface mount device (SMD) type of LED devices of any size, thickness, and/or dimension. Devices, components, and methods described herein can advantageously be used and adapted within any style of LED device, for example, devices including a single LED chip, multiple chips, and/or multi-arrays of LEDs and/or devices incorporating different materials for the body or submount such as plastic, ceramic, glass, aluminum nitride (AlN), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), printed circuit board (PCB), metal core printed circuit board (MCPCB), and aluminum panel based devices. Notably, devices, components, and methods herein can prevent degradation of optical and/or thermal properties of devices or packages incorporating silver (Ag) or Ag plated components by preventing tarnishing of the Ag or Ag-plated components.

Light emitting devices and components having improved chemical resistance and related methods


This invention includes a first filter (27) connected between a susceptor (21) and ground and having a variable impedance, a sensor (28) for detecting an electrical signal based on the state of a plasma (P) generated in a process chamber (11), and a control means (36) for controlling the impedance of the first filter (27) on the basis of a detection result output from the sensor (28). Thus, a preferable plasma distribution to match the object of the plasma process can be realized.

The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus which performs a predetermined process by generating a plasma.
In the manufacture of a semiconductor device or flat panel display, plasma processing apparatuses are used often to perform processes such as formation of an oxide film, crystal growth of a semiconductor layer, etching, and ashing. A case wherein a plasma processing apparatus is applied to an etching apparatus will be described. FIG. 9 is a view showing an arrangement of an etching apparatus using a conventional plasma processing apparatus.
A susceptor 521 having a support surface for placing a wafer W thereon and an upper electrode 531 parallel to the support surface of the susceptor 521 are arranged in a process chamber 511. The susceptor 521 also serves as a lower electrode.
Exhaust ports 513 for evacuating the interior of the process chamber 511 to a predetermined vacuum degree are formed in the bottom of the process chamber 511, and a gas supply nozzle 514 for supplying process gases into the process chamber 511 is provided to the side wall of the process chamber 511.
The upper electrode 531 is connected to an RF power supply 534, which outputs an RF power of, e.g., 60 MHz, through a matching circuit 535. When the power supply 534 starts supplying the RF power with a frequency of 60 MHz to the upper electrode 531, an electric field with a frequency of 60 MHz is formed in the space between the upper electrode 531 and susceptor 521. This electric field ionizes the gases supplied from the gas supply nozzle 514 to generate a plasma P. The plasma P is utilized for etching the wafer W placed on the support surface of the susceptor 521.
When performing an etching process, the distribution of the plasma P is preferably not distributed in the entire process chamber 511 but distributed over the support surface of the susceptor 521 with a high density. This is because with this distribution, the etching process can be performed efficiently and etching of the inner wall surface of the process chamber 511 by the plasma P can be suppressed, so that the service life of the process chamber 511 can be prolonged.
In view of this, according to this etching apparatus, a filter 527 formed of an LC series resonance circuit is inserted between the susceptor 521 and ground. The resonance frequency of the filter 527 is set to 60 MHz, which is the same as the frequency of the RF power to be supplied to the upper electrode 531. For example, if L=0.07 μH and C=100 pF, the resonance frequency of the filter 527 can be set to 60 MHz. The frequency characteristics of the filter 527 are as indicated by a solid line in FIG. 10, and the impedance is the minimum when the frequency is 60 MHz.
When the plasma P is generated, however, an ion sheath SH is formed between the plasma bulk and the upper electrode 531 or susceptor 521. An electric field is formed in the layer of the ion sheath SH, and accordingly a new capacitance is generated between the upper electrode 531 and susceptor 521 by the generation of the plasma P. For example, assume that a capacitance of 200 pF is generated by the ion sheath SH. Even when the resonance frequency of the filter 527 is designed at 60 MHz as described above, the frequency characteristics of the first path extending from the upper electrode 531 to reach ground through the susceptor 521 and filter 527 are as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 10, and the resonance frequency of the first path becomes 74 MHz. Hence, even if the filter 527 is designed without considering the influence of the ion sheath SH as in the prior art, the frequency of the RF power cannot cause resonance when the plasma P is generated, so the impedance of the first path cannot be decreased sufficiently. Consequently, the plasma P cannot be sufficiently concentrated on the support surface of the susceptor 521.
When process conditions such as the power value of the RF power to be supplied to the upper electrode 531, the pressure in the process chamber 511, the type and mixing ratio of the process gases, and the like are changed, the capacitance obtained by the ion sheath SH described above also changes. Accordingly, even when the filter 527 is designed with a consideration to the influence of the ion sheath SH formed when a plasma is generated under predetermined process conditions, if the process conditions differ from the predetermined process conditions, the frequency (e.g., 60 MHz) of the RF power cannot cause resonance.
When the etching process is to be performed, the plasma P is preferably concentratedly distributed on the support surface of the susceptor 521, as described above. When the interior of the process chamber 511 is to be cleaned, the plasma P is rather preferably diffused in the entire process chamber 511. In this manner, preferable plasma distribution differs depending on the object of the process. Conventionally, the filter 527 is designed for the etching process, and accordingly its characteristics are fixed. Hence, the interior of the process chamber 511 cannot be cleaned under preferable conditions.
When deposits attaching to the inner wall surface or the like of the process chamber 511 peel off during the etching process and form particles, the particles attach to the wafer W to decrease the yield of elements to be formed on the wafer W. Therefore, desirably no deposit preferably attaches at all to the inner wall surface of the like of the process chamber 511, or if any, they desirably attach stably so they will not peel off during the process. The deposit attaching state, however, changes depending on the process conditions as described above. When the process is performed after changing the process condition, the deposit attaching state changes to form particles, which may decrease the yield.
The above problems arise not only when the plasma processing apparatus is applied to an etching apparatus, but are common among plasma processing apparatuses.


A method and device for testing artificial or natural venous valves. The device comprises chamber (10) a sample for mounting a test valve (V) on a liquid flow path and a muscle pump component (16) and/or respiratory pump component (50) and/or capacitance reservoir (58) and/or vertical hydrostatic column component (102) fluidly connected to the flow path to mimic the muscle pump, respiratory pump, capacitance and hydrostatic impedance effects on venous circulation in the mammalian body. Included in the invention are methods of testing venous valves by mimicking known hemodynamic flow conditions within a mammalian body.

In mammals, the hemodynamics of venous return (i.e. bloodflow through the veins of the body) are influenced by three significant factors, including: (1) the action of the heart itself in continually pumping blood through the arterial circulation and into the capillary beds of the vascular tree; (2) a "muscle pump" effect created by movements of the visceral organs and somatic muscles; and (3) a "respiratory pump" effect created by the normal cyclic variations in intrathoracic pressure which occur during respiration due to respiratory movement of the thoracic muscles and diaphragm.
In many mammals, small semilunar valves known as "venous valves" (syn. valvulae vienosa) are found within the extremity veins. Such venous valves function as one-way check valves to maintain the flow of venous return blood in the direction toward the heart, while preventing blood from backflowing in a direction away from the heart. Such venous valves are particularly important in the veins of the lower extremities, as venous blood returning from the lower extremities is required to move against a long hydrostatic column, especially when the subject animal is in a standing or upright position.
Acquired venous valvular incompetence occurs in humans as a result of trauma (e.g. crushing injury to the vein) or disease (e.g. inflammatory thrombophlebitis). Hereditary factors may also result in incompetence or absence of venous valves in some individuals.
Any condition which results in chronic incompetence or absence of venous valves, especially in the veins of the lower extremities, is likely to give rise to troublesome pathologic consequences. For example, incompetence or absence of venous valves at the saphenofemoral or saphenopopliteal junction may result in varices of the primary (and/or secondary) veins of the lower leg and ankle. Such veins tend to become enlarged, dilated and tortuous, often resulting in pain as well as noncosmetic appearance. Additionally, incompetence or absence of venous valves may cause deep venous hypertension of the lower limbs with resultant lymphedema, aberrant pigmentation of the skin and, in severe cases, the formation of necrotizing lesions (i.e. "venous ulcers"). If not successfully treated, the presence of necrotizing lesions may eventually require limb amputation.
Several surgical procedures have been developed for treating venous valvular insufficiency. Such surgical procedures include: (a) surgical valvuloplasty procedures wherein some or all of the incompetent valves are surgically repaired or reconstructed; see, Garcia-Rinaldi, R, et al., "Femoral Vein Valve Incompetence: Treatment with a Xenograft Monocusp Patch", Journal of Vascular Surgery, Vol. 3, No. 6; pp. 932-935 (June 1986); (b) surgical bypass procedures wherein a segment of viable vein is utilized to bypass a region of veins having incompetent or absent venous valves positioned therein; and (c) surgical valve transplantation procedures whereby incompetent or absent venous valves are excised, removed and replaced by transplanted segments of viable vein having functioning venous valves therein. See, Gotlob R. and May R. Venous valves V Section 3, pp. 183-208, "Reconstruction of Venous Valves" (Springer-Verlang/Wien 1986). Additionally, efforts have been directed toward the development of man-made prosthetic venous valves for surgical implantation in patients who suffer from venous valvular incompetence. See, Hill, R. et al., "Development of a Prosthetic Venous Valve; Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Vol. 19, pp. 827-832 (1985); Taheri, S. A. et al., "Experimental Prosthetic Vein Valve", The American Journal of Surgery, Vol. 156, pp. 111-114 (1988).
Although surgical venous valve "bypass" and "transplant" procedures may be viable modes of treating chronic venous valvular insufficiency, the process of locating and harvesting autograft tissue (i.e. segments of viable vein taken from the patient's own veins and used for subsequent transplant or bypass graft) are often problematic (a) because of difficulties encountered in locating suitable segments of vein having viable venous valves therein and/or (b) because of the necessity for performing a separate incision or second surgery to harvest a venous valve autograft from a separate location and/or (c) size mis-matching of the harvested venous valve autograft relative to the implant site, as may result in subsequent failure of the implanted valve.
In view of the limitations and shortcomings in the prior art uses of autograft tissue for venous valvular transplantation or bypass grafting, it is desirable to develop methods of preparing and preserving venous valvular allograft or heterograft tissues harvested from the veins of animals or cadaverous human sources for subsequent surgical implantation (i.e. valvular transplantation or bypass grafting) in humans suffering from venous valvular insufficiency. Also, it is desirable to design and develop implantable artificial venous valves (i.e. made of synthetic materials) capable of carrying out the same physiological functions as venous valves of natural origin.
In furtherance of programs aimed at developing means and methods of preparing venous valvular implants of biological or artificial origin, there exists a need for a mechanical device capable of testing the function of such natural or artificial venous valves. Such venous valve testing device will preferably be capable of mimicking or simulating the normal physiological and hemodynamic conditions encountered by venous valves in situ. The development of such venous valve function testing device will provide a means for conveniently testing new methods and materials for preparing artificial and/or natural venous valves for subsequent surgical implantation and will minimize the need for conducting such testing and experimentation in live animals.
While the prior art has included several devices for functional testing of heart valves (e.g. mitral valves, aortic valves). Such heart valve function testing devices are not suitable for use in testing the function of venous valves because the hemodynamic variables encountered by venous valves in situ are grossly different from those encountered by heart valves. One example of a commercially available heart valve function testing device of the prior art is known as the "Heart and Load" Model MHL 6991, (Vivitro Systems, Inc., Victoria, British Columbia).
It is noted that, in the prior art, there has also existed at least one durability/fatigue testing device for testing the long term (e.g. 5 months) operability of venous valves. However, such durability/fatigue testing device serves only to effect continual oscillatory flow of liquid through the subject valve and does not incorporate means for altering and changing hemodynamic pressure and flow variables (i.e. "respiratory pump" effects, capacitance changes, etc. ) to permit simulation of various hemodynamic pressure and/or flow waveforms as may be encountered by venous valves in situ. One example of a venous valve durability/fatigue testing device is disclosed in Taheri, S. A. et al., "Experimental Prosthetic Vein Valve", American Journal of Surgery, Vol 156, pp. 111-114 (1988).
Given the foregoing shortcomings of the prior art, there exists a need for a mechanical venous valve function testing device which is capable of mimicking or simulating various hemodynamic and flow conditions encountered by venous valves in situ.


A video system examines the transform domain content of various spatially related blocks in a compressed video bitstream to determine whether predetermined types of similarities exist between multiple blocks. When certain selected similarities are found, the video system spatially combines the blocks in a predetermined manner. In some embodiments, DCT coefficients of a plurality of blocks are averaged to form one averaged block and the averaged block is inverse discrete cosine transformed. The averaged and IDCT transformed block is written to the display at the position of each of the averaged blocks. In some embodiments, a representative block of a plurality of DCT coefficient blocks is selected and inverse discrete cosine transformed. The selected and IDCT transformed block is written to the display at the position of each of the plurality of blocks.

Video information requires a large amount of storage space, therefore video information is generally compressed before it is stored. Accordingly, to display compressed video information which is stored, for example, on a compact disk read only memory (CD ROM), the compressed video information is decompressed to furnish decompressed video information. The decompressed video information is then communicated in a bit stream to a display. The bit stream of video information is generally stored in a plurality of memory storage locations corresponding to pixel locations on a display. The stored video information is generally referred to as a bit map. The video information representing a single screen of information on a display is called a picture. A goal of many video systems is to quickly and efficiently decode compressed video information to enable a motion video capability.
Standardization of recording media, devices and various aspects of data handling, such as video compression, is highly desirable for continued growth of this technology and its applications. One compression standard which has attained wide spread use for compressing and decompressing video information is the moving pictures expert group (MPEG) standard for video encoding and decoding. The MPEG standard is defined in International Standard ISO/IEC 11172-1, "Information Technology--Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1.5 Mbit/s", Parts 1, 2 and 3, First edition 1993-08-01 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Pictures within the MPEG standard are divided into 16.times.16 pixel macroblocks. Each macroblock includes six 8.times.8 blocks: four luminance (Y) blocks, one chrominance red (Cr) block and one chrominance blue (Cb) block. The luminance blocks correspond to sets of 8.times.8 pixels on a display and control the brightness of respective pixels. The chrominance blocks to a large extent control the colors for sets of four pixels. For each set of four pixels on the display, there is a single Cr characteristic and a single Cb characteristic.
For example, referring to FIG. 1, labeled prior art, a picture presented by a typical display includes 240 lines of video information in which each line has 352 pixels. Accordingly, a picture includes 240.times.352=84,480 pixel locations. Under the MPEG standard, this picture of video includes 44 by 30 luminance blocks or 1320 blocks of luminance video information. Additionally, because each macroblock of information also includes two corresponding chrominance blocks, each picture of video information also includes 330 Cr blocks and 330 Cb blocks. Accordingly, each picture of video information requires 126,720 pixels or a total of 1,013,760 bits of bit mapped storage space for presentation on a display.
Video systems that comply with various imaging coding standards, such as the MPEG standard, utilize video compression in which blocks of pixels in a picture of a series of pictures are encoded using prediction. In prediction encoding, pixels in a predicted picture are predicted from a previous picture using a motion compensation operation in which pixels have generally the same values as pixels of the previous picture except that pixels are shifted. A motion compensated picture is compactly encoded by storing the motion vector from the previous picture to the predicted picture. To more accurately encode the predicted picture, error terms are added to the motion compensated picture to account for differences between the motion compensated picture and the actual previous picture. At the encoder, the error terms are transformed using the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and quantized to reduce the number of bits encoded. At the decoder, the error terms are computed by inverse quantization and inverse discrete cosine transformation (IDCT). The result of the IDCT operation are restored error terms. A motion compensated picture is reconstructed in accordance with the encoded motion vector. Restored error terms are added to pixels of the reconstructed motion compensated picture. Due to quantization, the restored picture is typically not exactly the same as the original pixels prior to compression.
There are three types of pictures of video information which are defined by the MPEG standard, intra-pictures (I picture), forward predicted pictures (P picture) and bi-predicted pictures (B picture).
An I picture is encoded as a single image having no reference to any past or future picture. Each block of an I picture is encoded independently. Accordingly, when decoding an I picture, no motion processing is necessary. However, for the reasons discussed below, it is necessary to store and access I pictures for use in decoding other types of pictures.
A P picture is encoded relative to a past reference picture. A reference picture is a P or I picture. The past reference picture is the closest preceding reference picture. Each macroblock in a P picture can be encoded either as an I macroblock or as a P macroblock. A P macroblock is stored as a translated 16.times.16 area of a past reference picture plus an error term. To specify the location of the P macroblock, a motion vector (i.e., an indication of the relative position of the macroblock in the current picture to the position of the translated area in the past reference picture) is also encoded. When decoding a P macroblock, the 16.times.16 area from the reference picture is offset according to a motion vector. The decoding function accordingly includes motion compensation, which is performed on a macroblock, in combination with error (IDCT) terms, which are defined on a block by block basis.
A B picture is encoded relative to the past reference picture and a future reference picture. The future reference picture is the closest proceeding reference picture. Accordingly, the decoding of a B picture is similar to that of an P picture with the exception that a B picture motion vector may refer to areas in the future of the reference picture. For macroblocks that use both past and future reference pictures, the two 16.times.16 areas are averaged. The macroblocks from the reference pictures are offset according to motion vectors.
Pictures are coded using a discrete cosine transform (DCT) coding scheme which transforms pixels (or error terms) into a set of coefficients corresponding to amplitudes of specific cosine basis functions. The discrete cosine transform is applied in image compression to decorrelate picture data prior to quantization. The DCT coefficients are further coded using variable length coding. Variable length coding (VLC) is a statistical coding technique that assigns codewords to values to be encoded. Values of high frequency of occurrence are assigned short codewords, and those of infrequent occurrence are assigned long codewords. On the average, the more frequent shorter codewords dominate so that the code string is shorter than the original data.
For a video system to provide a motion video capability, compressed video information must be quickly and efficiently decoded. One aspect of the decoding process is inverse discrete cosine transformation (IDCT). A second aspect is a motion compensation operation. Both the IDCT operation and the motion compensation operation are computationally intensive operations. Over a wide range of processor capabilities and image characteristics, a condition sometimes arises in which the picture decoding operation overburdens a video system. Under this condition, video frames are commonly dropped or a lag in motion video results.
A technique for improving the efficiency of operation of the IDCT and motion compensation operations is needed to prevent overburdening of the video system.

Method and apparatus for improved video decompression by selective reduction of spatial resolution


The present invention relates generally to a novel plant promoter. More particularly, the present invention provides a plant promoter capable of induction by physical and/or environmental stimuli in cells in which the promoter is indigenous and, in the absence of any negative regulatory mechanism, is capable of constitutive expression in cells in which the promoter is non-indigenous. The present invention is further directed to derivatives of the subject promoter including modular forms of the promoter which are, for example, inducible by different physical and environmental stimuli or which are constitutively expressed. The promoter of the present invention has a range of uses including directing expression of genes conferring useful traits on plants.

Bibliographic details of the publications referred to in this specification are collected at the end of the description.
The subject specification contains nucleotide and amino acid sequence information prepared using the programme PatentIn Version 2.0, presented herein after the bibliography. Each nucleotide or amino acid sequence is identified in the sequence listing by the numeric indicator <210> followed by the sequence identifier (e.g. <210>1, <210>2, etc). The length, type of sequence (DNA, protein (PRT), etc) and source organism for each nucleotide or amino acid sequence are indicated by information provided in the numeric indicator fields <211>, <212> and <213>, respectively. Nucleotide and amino acid sequences referred to in the specification are defined by their sequence identifier (e.g. SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, etc).
The designation of nucleotide residues referred to herein are those recommended by the IUPAC-IUB Biochemical Nomenclature Commission, wherein A represents Adenine, C represents Cytosine, G represents Guanine, T represents Thymine, Y represents a pyrimidine residue, R represents a purine residue, M represents Adenine or Cytosine, K represents Guanine or Thymine, S represents Guanine or Cytosine, W represents Adenine or Thymine, H represents a nucleotide other than Guanine, B represents a nucleotide other than Adenine, V represents a nucleotide other than Thymine, D represents a nucleotide other than Cytosine and N represents any nucleotide residue.
The rapidly increasing sophistication of recombinant DNA technology is greatly facilitating research and development of a range of biotechnologically-related industries. This is particularly the case in the horticultural, agricultural and plant industries. Substantial progress, for example, has been achieved in the genetic development of plant varieties exhibiting new or improved traits such as disease resistance, enhanced nutritional properties, greater tolerance to adverse environmental conditions and altered flower colour. However, progress in the genetic manipulation of some plants has been hampered by the lack of sufficient effective promoters and/or the lack of promoters capable of being induced by commercially inexpensive and useful effector stimuli. Furthermore, more promoters are required to facilitate expression of multiple traits in a target species. There is a need, therefore, to identify new promoters and to identify and characterize effector molecules and stimuli which are capable of inducing these promoters. There is also a need to identify promoters which are capable of directing constitutive expression.
Plants are subject to a variety of environmental and mechanical stimuli including stress. Although mechanical stress has been postulated to involve ethylene-mediated meristem morphogenesis (Selker et al., 1992), little is known about how mechanical stress induces ethylene production or the signal transduction process involved.
In work leading to the present invention, the inventors sought to identify and isolate promoters involved in mechanical stress-induced expression of genetic traits in Vigna radiata (mung bean). Mung bean plants are a useful model for physical and chemical induction of phenotypic expression of genetic traits due to their morphology, rapid growth rate and the ability to obtain a large number of uniform plants and, therefore, sufficient amounts of tissues to conduct analyses.
In accordance with the present invention, the inventors have isolated a promoter capable of induction following physical stimulus in cells in which the promoter is indigenous, i.e., cells of mung bean plants. The promoter is also capable of being induced by a range of chemical and other environmental stimuli. However, in cells in which the promoter is non-indigenous, the promoter is constitutively expressed. The promoter of the present invention is useful in the genetic manipulation of plants.


Embodiments provide a method for transmitting a downlink control signal, and an apparatus. The method includes: sending, by a base station, one or more radio frames, where the one or more radio frames include a plurality of OFDM symbols that carry synchronization signals, each OFDM symbol that carries a synchronization signal is sent by using one or more downlink beams of the base station, and the OFDM symbol that carries the synchronization signal further carries a downlink control signal. The downlink control signal is placed in the OFDM symbol that carries the synchronization signal.

To meet requirements of a mobile communications system for large-capacity and high-rate transmission, a high frequency band, for example higher than 6 GHz, is introduced for communication to utilize high-bandwidth and high-rate transmission features of the high frequency band. This is a popular technology research topic of a 5G communications system. Due to a high path loss of high-frequency communication, a narrow beam needs to be used to ensure a propagation distance and a high beam gain. However, a coverage area of the narrow beam is limited. To ensure communication quality, narrow beam alignment needs to be performed between a high-frequency base station and a terminal device. This poses a challenge to the design of channels, such as a broadcast channel, a control channel, a synchronization channel, and a random access channel. In an existing cellular mobile communications system, the foregoing channels are sent and received using an omnidirectional antenna. A terminal in any location may receive information on the foregoing channels sent by the base station. However, in high-frequency communication, because the narrow beam is used as a directional beam, if an omnidirectional coverage effect in an existing mobile communications system needs to be achieved, all directional beam combinations at a transmit end and a receive end need to be traversed. If both the transmit end and the receive end use directional beams, there is a large quantity of beam combinations. For example, if the transmit end and the receive end each use four directional beams, a total of 16 directional beam combinations are generated, and cause a rapid increase of overheads of a high-frequency system. In addition, the base station needs to separately send signaling to notify the terminal device of corresponding beam resource information, thereby increasing system overheads.

Method for transmitting downlink control signal and apparatus


A phase-locked loop circuit has an output amplifier (27) and a main feedback path from the output of the output amplifier (27). A subsidiary feedback path is provided directly from the output of the circuit's VCO (32). At the start of operation, the output amplifier (27) is disabled and the subsidiary feedback path is used until lock is achieved. Then the output amplifier (27) is enabled and the main feedback loop is used. This avoids spurious outputs from the outer amplifier while to loop locks.

The present trend in portable communications devices such as mobile telephones is to increasingly lightweight devices with increased talk-time between battery recharge cycles. Such developments require ever more efficient radio-frequency (RF) amplifiers to minimise power consumption. In cellular systems such as GSM, the modulation scheme is a constant amplitude scheme, also referred to as constant envelope modulation, which permits use of efficient non-linear amplifiers. However, recent types of communication system such as EDGE and UMTS use non-constant envelope modulation schemes. The drawback is that the amplification of non-constant envelope RF signals requires the use of linear power amplifiers, which are inherently less efficient. The lower power efficiency of linear amplifiers translates into higher power consumption and higher heat dissipation.
A variety of linearisation architectures and schemes exist, including fixed and adaptive pre-distortion, adaptive bias, envelope elimination and restoration, polar loop and Cartesian loop transmitters. Details of such devices are shown in "Increasing Talk-Time with Efficient Linear PA's", IEE Seminar on TETRA Market and Technology Developments, Mann S, Beach M, Warr P and McGeehan J, Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, many of these devices and techniques are unsuitable for battery operated portable devices such as mobile telephones, or are incapable of meeting current RF design standards, such as the TETRA linearity standard, ETSI publication ETS 300 396-2; "Trans-European Trunked Radio (TETRA);—Voice plus Data (V+D)—Part 2: Air Interface (AI)"; March 1996.
Envelope elimination and restoration (EER) transmitters separate envelope and phase information from an input modulated signal. The phase information is then passed through a power amplifier as a constant envelope signal, permitting the use of efficient, non-linear amplifiers, while the envelope signal is added to the power amplifier output. In order to correct AM-PM distortion, phase feedback is employed and the power amplifier is effectively placed within phase-locked loop.
A problem arises in the spurious emissions are generated by the power amplifier in the period before the loop is locked at the beginning of a transmission.


One example method includes obtaining output powers at initial scanning points of photovoltaic strings in a first group and a second group. The output powers at the initial scan points of the photovoltaic strings in the first group can then be controlled to sequentially decrease, and the output powers at the initial scan points of the photovoltaic strings in the second group can then be controlled to sequentially increase. Scanning can then be performed in the initial scanning direction starting from output voltages corresponding to the output powers at the initial scan points of the first group. Scanning can then be performed in the initial scanning direction starting from output voltages corresponding to the output powers at the initial scan points of the second group, where output powers of the first group and the second group are kept to compensate each other during IV curve scanning.

With continuous promotion of energy conservation, emission reduction, and energy transformation in countries around the world, renewable energy power generation technologies have attracted increasing attention. Among the technologies, a photovoltaic power generation system is widely applied to a power system and a micro power grid due to factors such as technology maturity and economic efficiency thereof.
Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a typical photovoltaic power generation system.
A photovoltaic string 100 converts solar energy into electric energy by using a photovoltaic effect, and a converter 200 converts the electric energy output by the photovoltaic string 100 into an appropriate alternating current or direct current and supplies the current to a power grid or load 300.
In actual application, the photovoltaic string 100 usually includes a plurality of photovoltaic modules (also referred to as solar panels) connected in series and in parallel, to match a rated voltage and a rated current that are required by a system.
It can be learned from FIG. 1 that in the photovoltaic power generation system, the photovoltaic string 100 is a source of electric energy. Therefore, a working status of the photovoltaic string 100 determines a maximum power generation capability of the photovoltaic power generation system. Usually, a current-voltage (IV) curve output by the photovoltaic string 100 is used as an indicator for evaluating a power generation capability of the photovoltaic string 100.
FIG. 2 is a curve diagram of an output characteristic of a photovoltaic string.
In a normal case, the output characteristic of the photovoltaic string is indicated by solid lines in FIG. 2. The solid lines include an IV curve and a power-voltage (PV) curve, and both curves are comparatively smooth. A horizontal coordinate of the IV curve represents a voltage, and a vertical coordinate of the IV curve represents a current, where a maximum voltage is an open-circuit voltage Voc, and a maximum current is a short-circuit current Isc. A horizontal coordinate of the PV curve represents a voltage, and a vertical coordinate of the PV curve represents a power, where a maximum power is Pmax.
In actual application, because the photovoltaic string is exposed outdoors, there is a potential fault such as blocking, aging, or corrosion, and a power generation capability of the photovoltaic string is affected by a fault. In this case, the output characteristic of the photovoltaic string is indicated by dashed lines in FIG. 2. Both an IV curve in this case and a corresponding PV curve deviate from the curves indicated by the solid lines, and a peak power is far less than Pmax, that is, the power generation capability is impaired.
It can be learned from a comparison in FIG. 2 that a fault of the photovoltaic string directly affects a power generation capability of the photovoltaic power generation system. Therefore, obtaining the output characteristic, especially IV curve information, of the photovoltaic string in a timely and rapid manner helps find and locate an unexpected working status of the photovoltaic string as early as possible, provide a reference for operation and maintenance of the photovoltaic power generation system, and reduce a power generation loss caused by a fault of the photovoltaic string.
In the prior art, IV curve scanning is implemented in a manner in which a person carries a measurement device to a photovoltaic string site to perform measurement. However, a power station includes a huge quantity of photovoltaic strings. Therefore, the manual measurement manner consumes quite a long time, and is excessively inefficient.
In addition, IV curve scanning may be performed on photovoltaic strings at a power station in batches. However, scanning in batches causes a scan time interval. Besides, the photovoltaic strings convert solar energy into electric energy. Therefore, when measurement is performed in batches, a weather environment affects detection precision.

Intensity of current-voltage curve scanning method for photovoltaic string, converter, and system


A device and method for detecting an impingement of joint components of a joint includes detecting a spatial position of each joint component during a relative movement of the joint components; calculating an instantaneous center point of rotation or an instantaneous axis of rotation from the detected spatial positions of the joint components; when one joint component moves relative to the other joint component, establishing whether the calculated instantaneous center point of rotation moves within a first expectation range or whether the calculated instantaneous axis of rotation moves within a second expectation range; and establishing that there is an impingement of the joint components when at least one of the calculated instantaneous center point of rotation or the calculated instantaneous axis of rotation leaves or exits the respective expectation range.

In surgery in the region of an anatomical joint, such as during and after implantation of an artificial joint, care should be taken that the joint moves as freely as possible. For example, the joint should pivot and/or rotate without one joint component (artificially inserted as an implant) nudging or abutting another joint component during normal joint movement so as to jam when the joint is further moved. Such interference can lead to excessive wear and/or functional impairment of the joint.
According to known surgical methods, the condyles, as a precaution, should be trimmed anteriorly and posteriorly, as for example described in "The Oxford Phase 3, Unicompartmental Knee, Manual of the Surgical Procedure" published by Biomet Merck, "LCS Universal Kniesystem, OP-Technik" [LCS Universal Knee System, Operative Technique] published by DePuy, or "The M/G Unicompartmental Knee" published by Zimmer.
In order to detect an impingement, a method referred to as HIP ROM (range of motion) is known that can be implemented using a surgical navigation system, such as marketed by BrainLAB AG under the trade name Vector-Vision hip software. Marker arrays, for example, can be attached to each of the pelvis and the femur and can be tracked by a camera system. Then, after pivoting the hip joint about its center point, the coordinates of the pivoting point can be stored with respect to the pelvis and the femur. Since the hip joint can be regarded as a ball joint, during movement of the joint within its normal functional range, the two points coincide in the coordinate system of the camera. If, however, jamming occurs and a joint component is dislocated, for example, due to jamming, then these two points may deviate from each other. This deviation can be detected by software, although it is not possible to localize the jamming point or bearing point of the joints.
US 2005/0,113,720 A1, the contents of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a method for determining the center point of rotation of a bone in a rotary joint, such as for example a femur in the ilium. DE 100 62 580 A1, which also is incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses how the mechanical axis of a femur may be determined.
In general terms, the positions of joint components or bones can be detected, for example, by marker arrays or reference stars attached to the bones. The positions also can be detected by elements directly or indirectly connected to the bones, such as markers which can be localized, for example.

Method and device for detecting and localising an impingement of joint components


A system and method for tracking purchases in a location-based services system is disclosed wherein a request for information on a particular product is received from a consumer using a remote terminal. A geographically tailored response to the request is then generated with the location-based services system. At least one offer is then displayed to the consumer based on the geographically tailored response. An acceptance of a respective offer made by the consumer is then processed by the location-based services system and information is stored about the transaction in a usage data file or database.

Wireless communication devices have recently evolved from a technology used by an elite segment of the population to a technology that is used by the masses. In the year 2000, it has been estimated that well over 100 million people in the United States alone subscribed to at least one type of wireless communication service. Worldwide, the number of wireless communication device users has reached a staggering number and is growing all of the time. In the near future, it is envisioned that almost everyone will own or use some sort of wireless communication device that is capable of performing a variety of functions.
In addition to traditional wireless communication devices, many different types of portable electronic devices are in use today. In particular, notebook computers, palm-top computers, and personal digital assistants (PDA) are commonplace. The use of wireless communication devices is widespread and it is expected that in the near future combined mobile telephone/PDA devices will be widely used by the masses. Currently, most of these devices are only used by a small segment of the population due, in large part, to the fact that there are a limited number of applications and services available for such devices.
The Internet has become a widely used medium for providing business information in a variety of forms that are targeted to various types of individuals and businesses. Generally speaking, one of the problems associated with searching for business information on specific products and services using the Internet is being able to locate relevant business information for products and services that are available in a geographic area that is located near the user. As such, a need exists for a way to provide a broad range of business information and content to wireless communication devices and workstations that are based on the respective geographic location of the communication device at the time the information is requested.
Users of several different types of remote terminals often desire to use directory assistance services that are provided by various telephone companies. Many of these directory assistance calls originate in a respective metropolitan telephone service area and request listing information for listings contained in the same metropolitan service area. Most local directory assistance services in use today are handled by an operator that assists the requestor by manually inputting the requested information into an application that searches a database containing residential and business listings. As such, a need exists for providing an enhanced directory assistance system that is capable of automatically providing geographically targeted responses to requesters.
As set forth above, a need exists for location-based systems that allow users to search for relevant businesses, services or products based on the geographic location of the user. In order to monitor transactions completed or deals offered to consumers through the location-based system, a method and system is needed to track purchases and use of the location-based system.

Tracking purchases in a location-based services system


To combat data theft and/or sabotage, a network-level security client may monitor and selectively apply security protocols to manage risk in data transfers within, incoming to, and outgoing from an organization's data network. This top-down approach may become increasingly difficult to maintain within a data network with numerous connected terminals, storage devices, and other devices, many of which may be attempting data transfers simultaneously. In the presently disclosed technology, connected data storage devices each include an endpoint security client embedded in data storage device firmware. The endpoint security clients each establish a security client connection with a network security client upon connection to a data storage network, monitor data transfers within the data storage network, and selectively apply security protocols to manage risk in data transfers, thereby decentralizing some aspects of data security within the organization's data network.

Data security refers generally to the protection of digital data, such as that stored within one or more databases within an organization's data network. Unauthorized or authorized users may attempt unwanted actions on the organization's data network by performing cyberattacks and data theft. With the advent of economical portable storage drives with relatively large data storage capacity, relatively small physical size, and relatively fast data transfer rates (e.g., flash drives), transferring data onto a portable storage drive while connected to the organization's data network, and then physically taking the portable storage drive off-site is increasingly easy to accomplish and conceal.

Endpoint security client embedded in storage drive firmware


One aspect of the present invention relates to imaging a patient to determine whether he or she has suffered a myocardial infarction. According to this method, a patient is injected with a bolus having a radioactive tracer. A representative cycle is produced for both the right ventricular passage of the bolus and the left ventricular passage of the bolus based on planar coordinates over time of scintillation events of the tracer. A time activity curve based on activity in each segment of the respective representative cycles is generated. When a segment of heart muscle is damaged its contraction ceases or lags behind the normal surrounding myocardium resulting in a phase shift in the adjacent blood pool.

While cardiac imaging and functional analysis is the largest single nuclear medical imaging application, there remains a tremendous unmet need for improved cardiac imaging and functional analysis systems and methods. This need is exemplified by the fact that historically, for 30%-50% of those stricken with coronary artery (occlusive) disease (CAD), the first symptom of the disease is death. This has motivated considerable effort to develop diagnostic methods and apparatus to detect CAD prior to the onset of fatal symptoms and assist in the development and implementation of preventive measures.
Two strategies are presently used to reduce morbidity and mortality from CAD. The first involves screening for modifiable cardiac risk factors, such as hypertension, elevated serum cholesterol, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and diet. The second involves early detection of CAD. The principal tests for detecting CAD include resting and exercise ECGs, which can reveal the presence of myocardial infarctions and inducible myocardial ischemia. Tc-99m myocardial perfusion and computed tomography (CT) calcification scoring can provide visual evidence of plaques in the coronary arteries. Thallium-201 scintigraphy, exercise echocardiography, and ambulatory ECG (Holter monitoring) are less commonly used for screening purposes. None of these strategies has produced a solution to the high incidence of death due to undetected CAD. Accordingly, there remains an unsatisfied need for improved cardiac imaging and functional analysis systems and methods for reducing morbidity and mortality from CAD.

System and method for imaging myocardial infarction


A system includes a first photovoltaic module and a second photovoltaic module, each having a first end, an opposite second end, a first side extending from the first end to the second end, a second side opposite the first side and extending from the first end to the second end, a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, at least one solar cell, an encapsulant encapsulating the at least one solar cell, and a frontsheet juxtaposed with a first surface of the encapsulant. A second surface of the first photovoltaic module proximate to a second side thereof is attached to the first surface of the second photovoltaic module proximate to the first side thereof. A second surface of the first photovoltaic module proximate to a second end thereof is attached to the first surface of the second photovoltaic module proximate to the first end thereof.

Solar modules can be placed on building roofs (e.g., residential roofs) to generate electricity. One obstacle to mass-market adoption of solar roofing is poor aesthetics. Standard rack-mounted photovoltaic ("PV") systems have a very different appearance than traditional roofing materials (e.g., asphalt shingles, wooden shingles, slate shingles, etc.), which can draw unwanted attention. Even low-profile PV systems still receive poor aesthetic feedback from consumers.
Specifically, typical photovoltaic module materials and circuit formations are planar and do not visually match the look of asphalt roofing shingles, which themselves have multiple layers. Also, typical roof shingles overlap from one row to the next down the roof, ensuring that nails and any gaps are covered and preventing water from reaching the roof deck. photovoltaic modules that are larger than a single row do not have this overlapping and need to be separately flashed in with the other roofing material.

Three-dimensional laminate photovoltaic module