Bleeding in the gastrointestinal (“GI”) tract may be associated with various ulcers, lesions, cancers and the like. For example, peptic ulcers in the upper GI tract have been identified as a common cause of GI bleeding. If left untreated, GI bleeding may lead to anemia-like symptoms (e.g., fatigue, dizziness and chest pain), hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome, shock and death.
Successful treatment of GI bleeding typically includes addressing the cause of the bleeding and/or haemostasis. For example, peptic ulcers may be associated with an infection of Helicobacter pylori and, therefore, may require treatment of the infection to reduce the risk of re-bleeding coupled with tissue coagulation to achieve haemostasis.
Haemostasis may be achieved by invasive surgery or by various less invasive endoscopic techniques, such as laser treatment, bipolar electrocautery, heat probing, injections with sclerosing agents (e.g., epinephrine) or application of mechanical clips. While prior art endoscopic haemostasis techniques have presented some success, physicians continue to seek improved techniques for achieving haemostasis, while reducing damage to tissue adjacent to the treated tissue.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved apparatus and system for achieving haemostasis in the GI tract.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a direct coupling type power amplifier for use with audio circuits and more particularly to such a direct coupling type power amplifier having a muting function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical type of audio power amplifier circuit for amplifying audio signals, an inpact or popping sound unpleasant to the ears is sometimes generated from its load speaker immediately after the power source is turned on, due to a rapid change in bias voltages in a preamplifier such as an equalizer used in a first input amplifier stage of the power amplifier circuit. The impact sound is not only unpleasant to the ears, but also exposes the speaker to the danger of being damaged.
There has been provided a power amplifier circuit free from the generation of impact or popping sounds, in which a muting function is provided by breaking a signal transfer path through the actuation of an electromagnetic relay for a certain time interval after the turn-on of the power source. However, such a power amplifier circuit is expensive since the electromagnetic relay used therein is rather costly and moreover the switching sound of the relay is felt to be unpleasant.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power tool driven by a battery and, more particularly, to a power tool that can prevent an arc between the body of the power tool and the battery when the battery mounted is detached from the body during operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a known power tool driven by a battery, the battery supplies driving current to a motor in order to drive a tool bit. For example, a known screwdriver includes a body having a motor housing and a hand grip, and a battery detachably coupled to the body. The motor housing includes the motor for driving the driver bit. The hand grip is connected to the motor housing. The battery is detachably coupled to the lower end portion of the hand grip. The battery is defined as one element of a power circuit to drive the motor by means of a connecting terminal. Thus, the battery supplies driving current to the motor via the power circuit.
Within the known power tool, because the battery is detachably coupled to the body, user of the power tool may unintentionally remove the battery from the body during the operation. Because the battery defines one element of the motor driving power circuit via a connecting terminal and the battery supplies driving current to the motor during its operation. Therefore, when the battery is removed from the body during the operation of the power tool, the power circuit may possibly be interrupted abruptly. When the power circuit for driving the motor is interrupted during the operation of the motor, arc may be generated at the contacts between the body of the power tool and the battery. Arc may adversely affect corrosion-resistance of the power tool.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a varifocal lens for a TV camera which in particular may be mounted on an end scope, having a lens barrel, which is provided with guide indentations for radial pins may be moved toward each other for setting the focal length and together for focussing.
By way of illustration, TV cameras have increasingly been employed for taking endoscopic pictures. Such TV cameras must be as small and lightweight as possible in order not to hamper the physician during the operation. TV cameras with varifocal lenses, which would permit adjustment of the field of vision and adaption to various instruments have, for this reason, only been proposed now and again without having had any particular impact in practice.
An object of the present invention is to provide as small and light as possible a varifocal lens for a TV camera, which is particularly meant to be mounted on an endoscope.
An inventive solution to the object of the present invention and its further embodiments is described in the following.
An inventive step is that the lens barrel is guided in a support bearing, which is fixed in relation to the encasement of the TV camera, in such a manner that it can be moved in the direction of the optical axis of the lens and is secured to prevent rotary motion. Furthermore, the guide indentations are slits, which are open at the front and at the back and consist of a straight section abutting upon the front or rear end of the barrel and running parallel to the optical axis, a section running concentrically to the optical axis, and the hereto abutting actual cam for controlling the movement of the lens groups.
As a result the following advantages are yielded:
The lens mounting can be inserted into the lens barrel through the front or rear slits in such a manner that the lens barrel does not have to be constructed out of two half shells that consequently would have to be securely joined by means of a medium, thereby increasing the diameter. The support bearing, which prevents rotary motion while permitting moving the lens for focussing, does not increase the diameter of the varifocal lens.
Due to the one-piece construction of the lens barrel, it suffices to arrange onto the lens barrel a second barrel in such a manner that it can be rotated, the inner surface of which is provided with indentations running parallel to the optical axis for the pins to engage. The focal length of the varifocal lens can easily be set by turning this second barrel.
For varying the focal length, the second barrel may, of course, be turned manually or by means of a setting lever.
However, it is particularly advantageous if a tooth system is provided on the outer surface of the second barrel, which meshes together with a castellated wheel, as in this manner a simple knurled wheel on the outer side of the varifocal lens is all that is needed for setting the focal length permitting, as opposed to a setting ring that runs concentrically to the optical axis, easy one-handed operation for setting both the focal length as well as focussing. The knurled wheel for focussing may, by way of illustration, engages the eccentric, elliptical indentations in the second barrel by means of pins.
The stability of the slit lens barrel and a steadiness of the setting are substantially increased by means of the further embodiment wherein the lens mountings, on the one hand, give the lens barrel stability and, on the other hand, as a result of this embodiment they cannot tip.
A further embodiment described in claim 4 hereto, which is provided with two lugs that run parallel to the optical axis, makes very compact assembly possible as the support bearing can be provided at the point of separation between the lens and the tube for the TV camera, where it takes up practically no additional room.
Yet a further embodiment, which is provided with knurled wheels for focussing as well as for setting the focal length, is ergonomically advantageous, as it makes one-hand operation possible without changing the lever position.
A water protection rim also contributes to solving the object to of the present invention as no measures that would increase volume or weight, like those required according to the state of the art, are needed when flanging the varifocal lens to an endoscope in order to prevent water from running onto the front cover.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active matrix display apparatus having pixels each including a light-emitting device, and to a method for making the active matrix display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, increasing efforts have been made to develop flat self-emission display apparatuses in which organic electroluminescent (EL) devices are used as light-emitting devices. An organic EL device is a device using a phenomenon in which an organic thin film emits light when an electric field is applied thereto. The organic EL device, which is driven by the application of a voltage of 10 V or less, is a low power consumption device. At the same time, since the organic EL device, which is a self-emission device capable of emitting light by itself, requires no illuminating unit, it is easy to produce an organic EL device that is thin and lightweight. Additionally, since the response speed of the organic EL device is as very high as several microseconds (μs), it is possible to prevent an afterimage from appearing when a moving image is displayed.
Of flat self-emission display apparatuses with pixels each including an organic EL device, active matrix display apparatuses in which thin-film transistors (TFTs) are formed as drive devices in each pixel in an integrated manner have been particularly actively developed. For example, flat self-emission display apparatuses of active matrix type are described in the following documents: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. 2003-255856, 2003-271095, 2004-133240, 2004-029791, 2004-093682, and 2005-166687.
An active matrix display apparatus of related art includes a substrate having wiring lines including signal lines arranged in columns, scanning lines arranged in rows, and predetermined power supply lines; and a matrix of pixels, each pixel being disposed at an intersection between a signal line and a scanning line. The wiring lines are formed by patterning a conductor film. Each pixel includes active devices (for example, TFTs) and a light-emitting device (for example, an organic EL device) which are connected to the wiring lines. The pixel operates in response to a control signal supplied from a scanning line. According to a video signal supplied from a signal line, the pixel causes a drive current supplied from a power supply line to flow through the light-emitting device.


Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a hydraulic hose fitting. More specifically, the present invention relates to a hydraulic hose fitting that is used with a hydraulic device (e.g., a hydraulic brake operating device, a hydraulic brake caliper, etc.).
Background Information
In recent years, some bicycles have been provided with hydraulic braking systems. The hydraulic braking system for a bicycle typically has a hydraulic brake operating device that is fluidly coupled to a hydraulic brake caliper by a hydraulic hose. The hydraulic brake caliper is hydraulically actuated by hydraulic fluid flowing through the hydraulic brake hose in response to operation of the hydraulic brake operating device. In particular, operation of the hydraulic brake operating device forces hydraulic fluid through the hydraulic hose to the brake caliper. The hydraulic fluid then moves one of more pistons to cause brake pads of the hydraulic brake caliper to squeeze a rotor that is attached to a hub of a bicycle wheel. Often, a hydraulic hose fitting is used at each end of the hydraulic hose to connect the hydraulic hose to the hydraulic brake operating device and the hydraulic brake caliper.


Services such as Google Maps (maps.google.com) allow users to conduct searches that are limited to particular geographic areas. For example, while viewing a street or satellite map of New York City on a web browser such as Google Chrome, a user may search for the word “pizza”. In response, the servers cause the user's computer to display icons indicating the positions of listings that match the query, such as restaurants that have “pizza” in their name.
The results of the query may be sent in a way that permits a great deal of interactivity. For example, the map is sent as tiles of images and descriptions of the results and their positions are sent as text (such as data formatted as JSON (Javascript Object Notation) or HTML). This allows the user's computer to display icons on the map and a text listing of the results next to the map. Using Javascript provided by the server, the client computer can determine whether the user has clicked an area of the map occupied by an interactive icon and perform a number of actions in response, such as displaying a balloon containing even more information about the listing.
Google Maps also permits layers. For example, it is capable of showing icons for entries on Wikipedia.org that are associated with latitude/longitude coordinates matching the geographic area currently being viewed (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Geographica 1_coordinates). The icons of entries are sent as an image to be overlaid on the map, along with information relating to the entries. The information is sent in JSON with information identifying the entry's position on the map and an identification of the entry. The position information may be used by the user's computer to determine whether the user actuated the icon (such as by clicking it or hovering a mouse cursor over it) and the identification information may be used to obtain more information from a server if the icon is actuated. YouTube results may also be shown as a layer. These results are not filtered based on the query but, rather, show all entries in the area covered by the map.
Google Maps also features a “Places of Interest” layer that allows users to display icons associated with all businesses falling within certain pre-selected categories sent by the server, such as “Italian” and “Pizza” restaurants, banks, gas stations, and the like. Although the user may collectively display search results from the pre-selected categories and from searches based on custom search terms that are not pre-selected, the results are separate, i.e., the preselected category icons do not change based on the user-defined term and vice versa. For example, the user may check a box next to “pizza” and type in the term “vegetarian”, in which case Google Maps combines and displays the search results together; however, the results associated with “pizza” are not selected based on the “vegetarian” query nor are the results associated with the “vegetarian” query selected based on the selection of “pizza” from the list. Sites such as www.tavernoxoros.gr (showing many locations on a map in response to a user's selection of pre-selected categories) and www.smalltownbrooklyn.com (which may be capable of showing all businesses on a map) are similarly able to show all results associated with pre-selected categories.


The present invention relates to structures and methods of placing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a substrate. More particularly, the present invention is generally directed to structures and methods that include selective electrostatic placement based on a dipole-to-dipole interaction of electron-rich carbon nanotubes onto an electron-deficient pre-patterned surface.
CNTs can be semiconducting and therefore are of interest for electronic applications. Semiconducting CNTs can replace or complement traditional semiconductors in both high-performance and low-cost thin film transistor devices. To make any electronic device, one needs to precisely place the nanostructure over large areas. Various approaches have been developed for placing CNTs on a substrate.


The present invention relates in general to an apparatus for lifting and carrying large, heavy loads and, in particular, to an apparatus for moving objects up to and around on the roof of a building.
Many commercial buildings are constructed with a relatively flat roof. Such roofs are typically covered with strips of roofing material which are delivered to the building site in large, heavy rolls. These rolls must be lifted to the roof of the building and then typically moved by hand by the workers installing the roofing material. Such an operation is difficult and time consuming. Such operations also can require the movement of the old roofing materials and objects such as air conditioning units.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of soybean breeding. In particular, the invention relates to the novel soybean variety 01051076.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to drought and heat, better agronomic quality, resistance to herbicides, and improvements in compositional traits.
Soybean, Glycine max (L.), is a valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of plant breeders is to develop stable, high yielding soybean varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.
The oil extracted from soybeans is widely used in food products, such as margarine, cooking oil, and salad dressings. Soybean oil is composed of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with a typical composition of 11% palmitic, 4% stearic, 25% oleic, 50% linoleic, and 9% linolenic fatty acid content (“Economic Implications of Modified Soybean Traits Summary Report,” Iowa Soybean Promotion Board & American Soybean Association Special Report 92S, May 1990).


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a turbine blade tip seal, and more specifically to a turbine blade tip seal with tip cooling.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
In a gas turbine engine, especially an industrial gas turbine engine, the turbine includes stages of turbine blades that rotate within a shroud that forms a gap between the rotating blade tip and the stationary shroud. Engine performance and blade tip life can be increased by minimizing the gap so that less hot gas flow leakage occurs.
High temperature turbine blade tip section heat load is a function of the blade tip leakage flow. A high leakage flow will induce a high heat load onto the blade tip section. Thus, blade tip section sealing and cooling have to be addressed as a single problem. A prior art turbine blade tip design is shown in FIGS. 1-3 and includes a squealer tip rail that extends around the perimeter of the airfoil flush with the airfoil wall to form an inner squealer pocket. The main purpose of incorporating the squealer tip in a blade design is to reduce the blade tip leakage and also to provide for improved rubbing capability for the blade. The narrow tip rail provides for a small surface area to rub up against the inner surface of the shroud that forms the tip gap. Thus, less friction and less heat are developed when the tip rubs.
Traditionally, blade tip cooling is accomplished by drilling holes into the upper extremes of the serpentine coolant passages formed within the body of the blade from both the pressure and suction surfaces near the blade tip edge and the top surface of the squealer cavity. In general, film cooling holes are built in along the airfoil pressure side and suction side tip sections and extend from the leading edge to the trailing edge to provide edge cooling for the blade squealer tip. Also, convective cooling holes also built in along the tip rail at the inner portion of the squealer pocket provide additional cooling for the squealer tip rail. Since the blade tip region is subject to severe secondary flow field, this requires a large number of film cooling holes that requires more cooling flow for cooling the blade tip periphery. FIG. 1 shows the prior art squealer tip cooling arrangement and the secondary hot gas flow migration around the blade tip section. FIG. 2 shows a profile view of the pressure side and FIG. 3 shows the suction side each with tip peripheral cooling holes for the prior art turbine blade of FIG. 1.
The blade squealer tip rail is subject to heating from three exposed side: 1) heat load from the airfoil hot gas side surface of the tip rail, 2) heat load from the top portion of the tip rail, and 3) heat load from the back side of the tip rail. Cooling of the squealer tip rail by means of discharge row of film cooling holes along the blade pressure side and suction peripheral and conduction through the base region of the squealer pocket becomes insufficient. This is primarily due to the combination of squealer pocket geometry and the interaction of hot gas secondary flow mixing. The effectiveness induced by the pressure film cooling and tip section convective cooling holes become very limited.
One prior art reference, U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,364 issued to Kildea on Dec. 19, 1995 and entitled TIP SEAL AND ANTI-CONTAMINATION FOR TURBINE BLADES shows a turbine blade with a tip region having a plurality of spaced holes or slots extending chordwise from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the blade tip, the holes being connected to an internal cooling passage, the holes opening into a cavity formed on the outer surface of the tip. The cavities are separate from each other along the tip edge and all are connected to the internal cooling air passage to discharge cooling air out onto the corner of the tip on the pressure side. The cavities in the Kildea patent are not diffusion openings and do not allow for a formation of a layer of film cooling air on the side of the tip that flows over the tip edge as does the trenches in the present invention.
This problem associated with turbine airfoil tip edge cooling can be minimized by incorporation of a new and effective blade tip cooling geometry design of the present invention into the prior art airfoil tip section cooling design.


1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a display apparatus and a method for driving the display apparatus, and more particularly, to a display apparatus of which backlight is operated as being divided into an upper part and a lower part and a method for driving the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus may display a three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic image as a 120 Hz image. In addition, an LCD apparatus may add a blank image (B) between a left eye image (L) and a right eye image (R) (that is, display an image frame in the order of LBRB) to prevent cross talk effect of the left eye image and the right eye image of the 3D image.
A backlight of an LCD display apparatus operates as being divided into an upper part and a lower part, and the time when the upper part and the lower part are turned on is different from each other. If the upper part of a backlight is turned on while the lower part of the backlight is turned off or vice versa, brightness in a vertical direction of a screen of the LCD apparatus becomes out of balance.
A user desires to watch an even and high quality image. Therefore, a method for improving balance in a vertical brightness of an LCD apparatus is required.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a electrostatically-driven/capacitance-detection type gyro sensor
2. Description of Related Art
As one type of the gyro sensor used for sensing angular velocity, there is known a electrostatically-driven/capacitance-detection type gyro sensor. As shown in FIG. 17, the gyro sensor of this type is constituted by a sensing element 101 including a movable part displaceable in a certain plane (referred to as “motion plane” hereinafter), and a detector unit 102 driving the movable part for detecting the angular velocity of rotative motion imparted to the sensing element around an axis orthogonal to the motion plane (refer to Published Japanese Translation No. 2001-515201 of a PCT Application, for example).
The sensing element 101 includes a drive electrode generating an electrostatic force with the movable part to vibrate the movable part along a predetermined direction (refereed to as “driving direction” hereinafter) in the motion plane, a monitor electrode forming a monitoring variable capacitor with the movable part whose capacitance varies depending on the displacement of the movable part along the driving direction, a sense electrode forming a sensing variable capacitor with the movable part whose capacitance varies depending on the displacement of the movable part in the motion plane along a direction orthogonal to the driving direction, and a movable electrode through which the movable part is applied with a bias voltage.
By properly controlling the voltage applied between the movable electrode and the drive electrode, it is possible that the movable part continues to vibrate along the driving direction. If the sensing element 101 is imparted with rotative motion around an axis orthogonal to the motion plane when the movable part is vibrating along the driving direction, the movable part develops vibration in the direction orthogonal to the driving direction by the action of the Coriolis force which depends on the angular velocity of the sensing element 101.
The detector unit 102 includes a reference voltage generating section 108 generating a reference voltage Vref, a high voltage generating section 106 amplifying the reference voltage Vref to generate the bias voltage VK (=kRK·Vref, kRK being the gain of the high voltage generating section 106) to be applied to the movable electrode, a drive buffer 105 generating a sinusoidal drive signal VD(t) having an offset voltage proportional to the reference voltage Vref, a CV (Capacitance to Voltage) converting section 103 generating a monitor signal VM(t) whose voltage level varies depending on the variation of the capacitance of the monitoring variable capacitor (that is, the vibration state of the movable part vibrating under the action of the drive signal), and generating a sense signal VS(t) whose voltage level varies depending on the variation of the capacitance of the sensing variable capacitor (that is, the vibration state of the movable part vibrating under the action of the Coriolis force), a drive signal controlling section 104 controlling the amplitude and phase of the drive signal VD(t) generated by the drive buffer 105 in accordance with the monitor signal generated by the CV converting section 103 such that the vibration of the movable part along the driving direction continues, and a sensor output signal generating section 107 outputting a sensor output signal VYAW that has an offset voltage proportional to the reference voltage Vref and has a voltage level varying depending on the Coriolis force applied to the movable part (that is, the angular velocity of the movable part).
In the gyro sensor having the configuration described above, the drive force driving the movable part depends on the voltage difference between the movable electrode and the drive electrode, and the conversion gain of the CV converting section 103 generating the monitor signal VM(t) and sense signal VS(t) depends on the voltage differences between the movable electrode and the monitor electrode or sense electrode. On the other hand, the gain for converting the rotative motion imparted to the sensing element 101 into the Coriolis force (referred to as “element sensitivity” hereinafter) depends on the vibrating state of the movable part vibrating under the action of the drive force.
Accordingly, if the reference voltage Vref varies depending on the variation of the power supply voltage VCC, the gain for converting the angular velocity of the sensing element 101 into the sensor output signal VYAW (referred to as “sensor sensitivity” hereinafter) changes, since the element sensitivity and the circuit characteristics of the detector unit 102 including the CV converting section 103 change depending on the variation of the power supply voltage VCC.
Accordingly, in order that the sensor output signal VYAW is not affected by the variation of the power supply voltage VCC, the reference voltage generating section 108 is configured to generate the reference voltage Vref by use of a constant voltage not affected by the variation of the power supply voltage VCC, such as a band-gap voltage.
In a microcomputer-based system using such a gyro sensor, it is common that the sensor output signal VYAW outputted from the gyro sensor is converted to a digital signal by use of an A/D converter, and then supplied to a microcomputer.
Generally, in such a system, a reference voltage which the A/D converter uses for performing the A/D conversion is generated by dividing down the power supply voltage VCC. Since the sensor output signal VYAW varies between both polarities with respect to a predetermined offset voltage, the microcomputer processes the digital signal outputted from the A/D converter by using the center value of the output range of the A/D converter as a zero point. Generally, in order to maximize the dynamic range of the sensor output signal VYAW, the offset voltage corresponding to the zero point is set at half the power supply voltage VCC.
Accordingly, when the power supply voltage VCC is 5V, the offset voltage thereof is set at 2.5V. As explained above, although the zero point of the sensor output signal VYAW outputted from the gyro sensor is set in accordance with the reference voltage Vref, and is therefore maintained unchanged even if the power supply voltage VCC varies, the zero point recognized by the microcomputer varies in proportion to the power supply voltage VCC. Accordingly, if the power supply voltage VCC deviates from its rated value for some reason, there arises a difference between the zero point recognized by the microcomputer and the zero point of the sensor output signal VYAW outputted from the gyro sensor. This lowers the accuracy of angular velocity detection.
Furthermore, such a system has another problem in that, if the power supply voltage VCC deviates from its rated value, although there occurs no change in the sensor output signal VYAW, there occurs a change in the dynamic range of the A/D converter. This causes a change in the incremental value of the sensor output signal VYAW per bit of the digital signal which the A/D converter generates. This changes the conversion ratio of the A/D converter, which also lowers the accuracy of angular velocity detection.
It may occur that the accuracy of the angular velocity detection can be avoided from being lowered if the microcomputer operates to detect the deviation of the power supply voltage VCC or the deviation of the reference voltage Vref due to the deviation of the power supply voltage VCC, and to compensate for the deviation of the zero point or the sensitivity in accordance with the result of the detection. However, this considerably increases the burden of the microcomputer.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a transparent composite system comprising polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) plates and an intermediate layer of an elastomeric resin.
2. Discussion of the Background
Polymethyl methacrylate, and copolymers of methyl methacrylate, exhibit characteristics which are desirable for glazing materials: particularly high transparency and good weather resistance, and--in comparison with silicate glass--a lower weight. But these advantageous, optical characteristics of PMMA and its copolymers are diminished by the brittleness of these materials. This brittleness exhibits itself in the splintering off of shards or parts of the PMMA when it undergoes mechanical stress.
This intrinsic brittleness of PMMA (in addition to its poor scratch resistance and its flammability) naturally reduces its application, especially as a construction material or in areas of high traffic or public use. Several attempts to eliminate these disadvantages have been reported. (see H. Rauch-Puntigam, Th. Volker, Acryl- und Methacrylverbindungen, Springer-Verlag 1967, p. 291).
For example, German Patent Application 29 14 223 recommends, e.g. a clear, transparent synthetic resin composite plate consisting of a clear, transparent plastic base plate with a thickness of at least 1 mm and with parallel surfaces, at least one clear, transparent plastic foil with a scratch resistance not less than that of the base plate, and at least one clear, transparent adhesive resin layer positioned between the base plate and plastic foil, which adheres to the foil in fixed manner and which can be pulled off the base plate.
Japanese Application 61 132 343 (Chem. Abstr. 105, 154387e) discloses an acrylic glass laminate consisting of two exterior hard plastic plates and an intermediate plate of soft plastic with an electrically conductive layer on or near the surface. The intermediate layer is, e.g., an MMA-methacrylate-elastomer equipped on both sides with an antistatic agent and an acrylate adhesive.
German Application 31 28 985 discloses laminated, thermoplastic objects. The laminates are obtained by joining at least one PMMA film with at least one impact-resistant methacrylate polymer by calendaring.
European Patent 419 166 describes co-extruded multi-layer webs consisting of a complex configuration of individual layers with a thickness of 0.3 to 6 mm each. The first exterior layer consists of a blend of polyvinylidene fluoride with M.sub.n <250,000, 30-60% by weight C1-C8 alkyl methacrylate with M.sub.n .ltoreq.150,000, and possibly 10-30% by weight of a graft elastomer of C1-C8 alkyl acrylate, grafted and cross-linked with allylmethacrylate, as well as at least one second layer of an alkyl methacrylate homopolymer or copolymer. The co-extrusion is performed through a multiple extrusion nozzle.
There are also papers on laminates from different plastics. Illinger et al. in Polym. Sci. Technol. 1975, 9A (Adhes. Sci. Technol) 217-232, e.g., proposes laminates of acrylate-polyurethane-polycarbonate for the protection of windshields, whereby it is emphasized that the impact resistance and the optical clarity of the laminates depend on the chemical composition of the intermediate adhesion layer. European Patent Application 138 083 proposes polymer mixtures as an intermediate adhesion layer for laminates, said intermediate adhesion layers consisting of copolymers of firstly 81-99 weight parts olefin and unsaturated carboxylic acids and secondly of 1-19 weight parts thermoplastic elastomers, whereby the former are present dispersed as particles. The use of fiber inserts, particularly glass and carbon fiber inserts, has also been considered in attempting to improve the splintering safety of thermoplasts, such as acrylic glasses (cf. European Patent 0 510 927).


Phosphatidylinositol (hereinafter abbreviated as “PI”) is one of the phospholipids in cell membranes. In recent years it has become clear that PI plays an important role also in intracellular signal transduction. It is well recognized in the art that PI (4,5) bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2 or PIP2) is degraded into diacylglycerol and inositol (1,4,5) triphosphate by phospholipase C to induce activation of protein kinase C and intracellular calcium mobilization, respectively [M. J. Berridge et al., Nature, 312, 315 (1984); Y. Nishizuka, Science, 225, 1365 (1984)].
Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (“PI3K”) is an enzyme that phosphorylates the 3-position of the inositol ring of phosphatidylinositol [D. Whitman et al., Nature, 332, 664 (1988)]. Pluralities of PI3K subtypes exist. Three major subtypes of PI3Ks have now been identified on the basis of their in vitro substrate specificity, and these three are designated class 1 (a & b), class II, and class III [B. Vanhaesebroeck, Trend in Biol. Sci., 22, 267 (1997)].
The class Ia PI3K subtype has been most extensively investigated to date. Within the class Ia subtype there are three isoforms (α, β, & δ) that exist as hetero dimers of a catalytic 110-kDa subunit and regulatory subunits of 50-85 kDa. The regulatory subunits contain SH2 domains that bind to phosphorylated tyrosine residues within growth factor receptors or adaptor molecules and thereby localize PI3K to the inner cell membrane. At the inner cell membrane PI3K converts PIP2 to PIPS (phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate) that serves to localize the downstream effectors PDK1 and Akt to the inner cell membrane where Akt activation occurs. Activated Akt mediates a diverse array of effects including inhibition of apoptosis, cell cycle progression, response to insulin signaling, and cell proliferation. Class Ia PI3K subtypes also contain Ras binding domains (RBD) that allow association with activated Ras providing another mechanism for PI3K membrane localization. Activated, oncogenic forms of growth factor receptors, Ras, and even PI3K kinase have been shown to aberrantly elevate signaling in the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway resulting in cell transformation. As a central component of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway PI3K (particularly the class Ia a isoform) has become a major therapeutic target in cancer drug discovery.
Substrates for class 1 PI3Ks are PI, PI(4)P and PI(4,5)P2, with PI(4,5)P2 being the most favored. Class 1 PI3Ks are further divided into two groups, class Ia and class Ib, because of their activation mechanism and associated regulatory subunits. The class Ib PI3K is p110γ that is activated by interaction with G protein-coupled receptors. Interaction between p110γ and G protein-coupled receptors is mediated by regulatory subunits of 110, 87, and 84 kDa.
PI and PI(4)P are the known substrates for class II PI3Ks; PI(4,5)P2 is not a substrate for the enzymes of this class. Class II PI3Ks include PI3K C2α, C2β and C2γ isoforms, which contain C2 domains at the C terminus, implying that their activity is regulated by calcium ions.
The substrate for class III PI3Ks is PI only. A mechanism for activation of the class III PI3Ks has not been clarified. Because each subtype has its own mechanism for regulating activity, it is likely that activation mechanism(s) depend on stimuli specific to each respective class of PI3K.
The compound PI103 (3-(4-(4-morpholinyl)pyrido[3′,2′:4,5]furo[3,2-d]pyrimidin-2-yl)phenol) inhibits PI3Ka and P13 Kg as well as the mTOR enzymes with IC50 values of 2, 3, and 50-80 nM respectively. I.P. dosing in mice of this compound in human tumor xenograft models of cancer demonstrated activity against a number of human tumor models, including the glioblastoma (PTEN null U87MG), prostate (PC3), breast (MDA-MB-468 and MDA-MB-435) colon carcinoma (HCT 116); and ovarian carcinoma (SKOV3 and IGROV-1); (Raynaud et al, Pharmacologic Characterization of a Potent Inhibitor of Class I Phosphatidylinositide 3-Kinases, Cancer Res. 2007 67: 5840-5850).
The compound ZSTK474 (2-(2-difluoromethylbenzoimidazol-1-yl)-4,6-dimorpholino-1,3,5-triazine) inhibits PI3Ka and P13 Kg but not the mTOR enzymes with an IC50 values of 16, 4.6 and >10,000 nM respectively (Dexin Kong and Takao Yamori, ZSTK474 is an ATP-competitive inhibitor of class I phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase isoforms, Cancer Science, 2007, 98:10 1638-1642). Chronic oral administration of ZSTK474 in mouse human xenograft cancer models, completely inhibited growth which originated from a non-small-cell lung cancer (A549), a prostate cancer (PC-3), and a colon cancer (WiDr) at a dose of 400 mg/kg. (Yaguchi et al, Antitumor Activity of ZSTK474, a New Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Inhibitor, J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 98: 545-556).
The compound NVP-BEZ-235 (2-methyl-2-(4-(3-methyl-2-oxo-8-(quinolin-3-yl)-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinolin-1-yl)phenyl)propanenitrile) inhibits both PI3Ka and PI3Kg as well as the mTOR enzymes with IC50 values 4, 5, and “nanomolar”. Testing in human tumor xenograft models of cancer demonstrated activity against human tumor models of prostrate (PC-3) and glioblastoma (U-87) cancer. It entered clinical trials in December of 2006 (Verheijen, J. C. and Zask, A., Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors as anticancer drugs, Drugs Fut. 2007, 32(6): 537-547).
The compound SF-1126 (a prodrug form of LY-294002, which is 2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one) is “a pan-PI3K inhibitor”. It is active in preclinical mouse cancer models of prostrate, breast, ovarian, lung, multiple myeloma, and brain cancers. (Verheijen, J. C. and Zask, A., Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors as anticancer drugs, Drugs Fut. 2007, 32(6): 537-547).
Although it seems clear that inhibition of the α isoform is essential for the antitumor activity of PI3K inhibitors, it is not clear whether a more selective inhibitor of a particular PI3K isoform may lead to fewer unwanted biological effects. It has recently been reported that non-PI3Kα class I isoforms (PI3Kβ, δ and γ) have the ability to induce oncogenic transformation of cells, suggesting that nonisoform-specific inhibitors may offer enhanced therapeutic potential over specific inhibitors.
Selectivity versus other related kinases is also an important consideration for the development of PI3K inhibitors. While selective inhibitors may be preferred in order to avoid unwanted side effects, there have been reports that inhibition of multiple targets in the PI3K/Akt pathway (e.g., PI3Kα and mTOR [mammalian target of rapamycin]) may lead to greater efficacy. It is possible that lipid kinase inhibitors may parallel protein kinase inhibitors in that nonselective inhibitors may also be brought forward to the clinic.
Mammalian Target of Rapamycin, mTOR, is a cell-signaling protein that regulates the response of tumor cells to nutrients and growth factors, as well as controlling tumor blood supply through effects on Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, VEGF. Inhibitors of mTOR starve cancer cells and shrink tumors by inhibiting the effect of mTOR. All mTOR inhibitors bind to the mTOR kinase. This has at least two important effects. First, mTOR is a downstream mediator of the PI3K/Akt pathway. The PI3K/Akt pathway is thought to be over activated in numerous cancers and may account for the widespread response from various cancers to mTOR inhibitors. The over-activation of the upstream pathway would normally cause mTOR kinase to be over activated as well. However, in the presence of mTOR inhibitors, this process is blocked. The blocking effect prevents mTOR from signaling to downstream pathways that control cell growth. Over-activation of the PI3K/Akt kinase pathway is frequently associated with mutations in the PTEN gene, which is common in many cancers and may help predict what tumors will respond to mTOR inhibitors. The second major effect of mTOR inhibition is anti-angiogenesis, via the lowering of VEGF levels.
In lab tests, certain chemotherapy agents were found to be more effective in the presence of mTOR inhibitors. George, J. N., et al., Cancer Research, 61, 1527-1532, 2001. Additional lab results have shown that some rhabdomyosarcoma cells die in the presence of mTOR inhibitors.
There are three mTOR inhibitors, which have progressed into clinical trials. These compounds are Wyeth's Torisel, also known as 42-(3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-rapamycin 2-methylpropanoate, CCI-779 or Temsirolimus; Novartis' Everolimus, also known as 42-O-(2-hydroxyethyl)-rapamycin, or RAD 001; and Ariad's AP23573 also known as 42-(dimethylphopsinoyl)-rapamycin. The FDA has approved Torisel for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. In addition, Torisel is active in a NOS/SCID xenograft mouse model of acute lymphoblastic leukemia [Teachey et al, Blood, 107(3), 1149-1155, 2006]. On Mar. 30, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Everolimus (AFINITOR™) for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. AP23573 has been given orphan drug and fast-track status by the FDA for treatment of soft-tissue and bone sarcomas.
The three mTOR inhibitors have non-linear, although reproducible pharmacokinetic profiles. Mean area under the curve (AUC) values for these drugs increase at a less than dose related way. The three compounds are all semi-synthetic derivatives of the natural macrolide antibiotic rapamycin. It would be desirable to find fully synthetic compounds, which inhibit mTOR that are more potent and exhibit improved pharmacokinetic behaviors.


Various kinds of nitride semiconductor devices using a nitride semiconductor, such as gallium nitride, have been developed. Examples thereof include semiconductor light emitting devices, such as an ultraviolet, blue, or green light emitting diode (LED), and a purple-blue or blue laser diode (LD).
A GaN layer of the nitride semiconductor device is usually formed on a sapphire substrate or the like. However, due to a reduction in cost and an increase in diameter of a wafer, it is desirable to establish a technique for growing the GaN layer on a substrate other than the sapphire substrate.


The present invent relates to a camera, and more particularly to a camera which can be mounted in box and dome camera configurations.
Cameras, also referred as camera lenses, are widely used in the area of field monitoring, video recording, conducting surveillance and video recording of traffic conditions, production status, and status of a particular area.
Currently, cameras are generally utilized in two configurations, namely, the box camera configuration and the dome camera configuration. In the box camera configuration, a camera is substantially housed in a columnar housing with a lens extending out from the front end of the housing, and the housing of the camera is mounted on, for example, a wall or a traffic signal mount by using a mounting bracket, the lens being positioned at a particular viewing angle. In addition, under desired circumstances, said bracket may have a function of panning or tilting, or both, to adjust the viewing angle of the camera. Such a configuration is commonly seen in the outdoor mounting of cameras. In the dome camera configuration, a camera is generally suspended and mounted onto the ceiling, the entirety of which is covered by a hemispherical transparent dome, and outer images can be captured by a lens of the camera through the hemispherical transparent dome. This lens is generally supported by a gimbal member, and the viewing angle is controlled by an appropriate control mechanism. The camera in dome camera configuration has relatively nice looking and occupies a relatively small volume; therefore, dome camera configurations are commonly used indoors or in an elevator.


The invention relates to an electrical terminal connection for the electrodes of a gas discharge over or surge voltage arrester with the following features:
(a) the electrodes to be connected consist of a material with good current conductivity;
(b) the connection should respectively occur at a wire consisting of a material with good current conductivity.
Efficient over-voltage arresters must be able to arrest surge currents>10 kA. In dual-path over-voltage arresters, this meas that a sum current>20 kA flows across a common center electrode. Given electrical terminal connections via resiliently contacting contacts, such high surge currents cause sputtering of the contact material and thereby damage the sockets. Terminal wires which are soldered in and which generally consist of copper and then exhibit a diameter of approximately 1 mm offer a better electrical terminal connection for such currents. Copper is likewise preferably selected as the electrode material for electrical and economic reasons. The rigid connection between the electrode and the terminal wire can then be produced by means of soldering or welding.
Both are proposed, for example, in German OS No. 28 28 650, incorporated herein by reference. On the one hand, the possibility is there described of soldering a tubular rivet to the floor of the cup-shaped electrode and then squeezing (FIG. 4) the terminal wire in the tubular rivet. On the other hand, a welded connection is provided to "press" a cylinder to the floor of the cup-shaped electrode, the diameter of said cylinder being approximately 1.5 times as great as the diameter of the terminal wire. The terminal wire is welded blunt to said cylinder. Said cylinder has the object of reducing the thermal dissipation during the welding operation. Welding to the smooth bottom of the electrode or, respectively, to the jacket surface of a center electrode would not be possible given material which has high current conductivity and, thus also has high thermal conductivity.
Even given a cylinder dimensioned in such manner, however, a welded connection is only possible as a short-time welding, for instance as pulsed resistance welding. Particularly given a connection of copper to copper, this, however produces unreliable connections.


A pervasive trend in modern integrated circuit manufacture is to produce semiconductor devices, such as memory cells, that are as small as possible. A typical memory cell, which generally is formed from a field effect transistor (FET), includes a source and a drain formed in an active region of a semiconductor substrate by implanting N-type or P-type impurities in the semiconductor substrate. Disposed between the source and the drain is a channel (or body) region. Disposed above the body region is a gate electrode. The gate electrode and the body are spaced apart by a gate dielectric layer. It is noted that memory cells can be formed in bulk format (for example, the active region being formed in a silicon substrate) or in a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) format (for example, in a silicon film that is disposed on an insulating layer that is, in turn, disposed on a silicon substrate).
Although the fabrication of smaller transistors allows more transistors to be placed on a single monolithic substrate for the formation of relatively large circuit systems in a relatively small die area, this downscaling can result in a number of performance degrading effects. In FET devices with a channel having a relatively short length, the FET can experience a number of undesirable electrical characteristics referred to as short channel effect (SCE). SCE generally occur when the gate does not have adequate control over the channel region, and can include threshold voltage (Vt) roll-off, off current (Ioff) roll-up and drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL). As the physical dimensions decrease, SCE can become more severe. SCE is the result of intrinsic properties of the crystalline materials used in the FET devices. Namely, the band gap and built-in potential at the source/body and drain/body junctions are non-scalable with the reduction of physical device dimensions, such as a reduction in channel length.
Another problem due to downscaling of transistors is charge loss in the oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) layer. Charge loss is due in part to ONO damage during an erase cycle. During the erase cycle, the relatively high voltage (Vpp) applied across the oxide causes tunneling of electrons from the charge trapping nitride layer to the drain region. At the same time, the high voltage could cause holes from the drain to be injected into the oxide. These holes can degrade the performance of the oxide by creating a leakage path in the oxide between the drain and the nitride layer.
Since the oxide is the barrier for electrons traveling to and from the charge trapping layer, the charging and discharging current of a memory cell depends on the voltage applied across the oxide layer, I=C(dv/dt). Therefore, the voltage applied across the oxide has a direct effect on electron tunneling and is the main cause of undesirable hole injection into the oxide during an erase operation.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for semiconductor devices, such as memory cells, that have reduced SCE and for fabrication techniques to make those semiconductor devices. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for semiconductor devices that have reduced ONO damage during erase operations of the device.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of coalescing laser beams, and more particularly to a method of coalescing two or more laser beams on an object to get a multiplied power of the laser beams on the object. The "coalescing" means mingling or doubling of two or more laser beams on an object onto which the laser beams are to impinge in the doubled or multiplied power.
In the present invention, the two or more laser beams are first merged into a single laser beam in which the laser beams are substantially aligned with each other or one another to make a doubled or multiplied laser beam, in which however the laser beams are usually not perfectly merged into a single laser beam. In this specification, however, the laser beams thus merged or roughly mixed together are called "merged laser beams" or "a single merged laser beam" because they are substantially "merged". In a more precise sense, on the other hand, these laser beams first merged into a substantial single laser beam are not perfectly aligned with each other or one another but are out of perfect parallelism and out of perfect coincidence or alignment. In this sense, the laser beams thus merged are then "collimated" in a precise sense so that they are directed to a common focal point through a converging lens. Of course, the collimated laser beams after "merged" are so close to each other or one another that they advance through the substantially the same part of the same optical elements such as lenses and mirrors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Laser beams are widely used for optical communication, measurement, processing such as laser welding, laser drilling, and the like. When two or more laser beams are used, it is often required to make them coalesced to get a multiplied power or a laser beam of wider wavelength coverage.
For example, in printing scanners, when a color image original is read out by use of a He-Ne laser beam, an Ar.sup.+ laser beam and a He-Cd laser beam and a monochromatic image is reproduced on a photosensitive material by use of the electric signal obtained by the read-out, it is necessary to converge three laser beams to a single point on the color image original for conducting the read-out. Also, in a radiation image recording and reproducing system as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,258,264 and 4,346,295, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 56(1981)-11395, a stimulable phosphor sheet carrying a radiation image stored therein is scanned with a laser beam which causes the stimulable phosphor sheet to emit light in proportion to the radiation energy stored. The emitted light is detected and converted into an electric signal, and a photosensitive material is scanned with a laser beam modulated based on the electric signal by a light modulator, thereby reproducing an image in the photosensitive material. In this case, in order to increase the read-out speed and the reproducing speed, it is necessary to increase the scanning speed of the laser beam. However, if only the scanning speed of the laser beam is increased with the power thereof maintained on the same level, the intensity of the laser beam per unit area of the surface of the stimulable phosphor sheet or a film scanned thereby inevitably becomes low. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the scanning speed and, at the same time, to increase the power of the laser beam. In order to increase the power of the laser beam, the output power of the laser beam source should be increased. However, when the output power of the laser beam source is increased, the size of the laser beam source inevitably becomes large, and the problem that the laser beam source cannot be incorporated in the radiation image recording and reproducing system or the problem that the radiation image recording and reproducing system must be made large arises. One approach to elimination of the problem is to use two laser beam sources and to coalesce the laser beams emitted thereby by use of an optical merging means such as a polarization beam splitter or a diffraction grating, thereby multiplying the laser beam power. This method is based on the finding that, in the case where the same level of laser beam power should be obtained, it is possible to make the size of the laser beam emitting system smaller when two laser beam sources are used and the laser beams emitted thereby are merged than when a single laser beam source is used. However, also in this method, it is required to make the two laser beams align with each other. The same thing is required also in laser processing apparatuses such as laser welding apparatuses.
However, the step of making two or more very thin laser beams align with each other is not always easy to conduct, or requires a complicated mechanism, or requires much time to adjust the mechanism.


We start by presenting some basic concepts to facilitate the understanding of the numerous policing techniques that are presented afterwards.
Packets
A data sender usually splits data to be sent into small units known as packets. Each packet consists of a header and a payload carrying the data to be delivered. The header contains fields defined by the relevant communication protocol. The great majority of packets carried by commercial networks nowadays are so-called IP packets. IP is the Internet Protocol. This ensures that a network of routers can forward any packet from the source to its destination. IP is a connectionless protocol—that means that the header information in each data packet is sufficiently self-contained for routers to deliver it independently of other packets; each packet could even take a different route to reach the destination.
Distributed Bandwidth Sharing and Congestion
Data traversing the Internet follows a path between a series of routers, controlled by various routing protocols. Each router seeks to move the packet closer to its final destination. If too much traffic traverses the same router in the network, the router can become congested and packets start to experience excessive delays whilst using that network path. If sources persist in sending traffic through that router it could become seriously overloaded (congested) and even drop traffic (when its buffers overflow). If sources still persist in sending traffic through this bottleneck it could force more routers to become congested, and if the phenomenon keeps spreading, that can lead to a congestion collapse for the whole Internet—which occurred regularly in the mid-1980s.
The solution to that problem has been to ensure that sources take responsibility for the rate at which they send data over the Internet by implementing congestion control mechanisms. Sources monitor feedback from the receiver of the metric that characterises path congestion in order to detect when the path their data is following is getting congested, in which case they react by reducing their throughput—while they may slowly increase their rate when there is no sign of the path becoming congested.
Typical path characterisation metrics that sources monitor are average roundtrip time (RTT) for the data path, variance of the roundtrip time (jitter) and level of congestion on the path.
The congestion level can be signalled either implicitly (through congested routers dropping packets when their buffers overflow or to protect themselves) or explicitly (through mechanisms such as explicit congestion notification—see next subsection). Currently the most common option is implicit signalling.
Sources using TCP are able to detect losses, because a packet loss causes a gap in the sequence; whenever a TCP source detects a loss, it is meant to halve its data transmission rate, but no more than once per round trip time, which alleviates the congestion on the router at the bottleneck.
DEC-Bit Scheme
The DEC-bit scheme was the ancestor of modern mechanisms to convey congestion notification in packet networks by providing explicit congestion notification to the sources. This is discussed in a paper entitled “A Binary Feedback Scheme for Congestion Avoidance in Computer Networks” by Ramakrishnan and Jain, which will be referred to for convenience as [RAN90a]. Bibliographic details of this and other prior art documents are provided in the “References” section below. With this scheme when a router detects congestion it sets a bit (CI) in each packet, the receiver then relays this information back to the sender in its acknowledgments, and the sender in turn adjusts its transmission rate. In the router the congestion detection algorithm is based on average queue length. The source reaction to DEC-bit in acknowledgments is an Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) response which means that congestion window grows at linear rate in the absence of congestion feedback and it declines multiplicatively (i.e. exponentially) for every congestion feedback event.
Explicit Congestion Notification
Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) [RFC3168] conveys congestion in TCP/IP networks by means of two-bit ECN field in the IP header, whether in IPv4 (see FIG. 1) and IPv6 (see FIG. 2). Prior to the introduction of ECN, these two bits were present in both types of IP header, but always set to zero. Therefore, if these bits are both zero, a queue management process assumes that the packet comes from a transport protocol on the end-systems that will not understand the ECN protocol so it only uses drop, not ECN, to signal congestion.
The meaning of all four combinations of the two ECN bits is shown in FIG. 3. If either bit is one, it tells a queue management process that the packet has come from an ECN-capable transport (ECT) that will understand ECN marking, as well as drop, as a signal of congestion. When a queue management process detects congestion, for packets with a non-zero ECN field, it sets the ECN field to the Congestion Experienced (CE) codepoint. On receipt of such a marked packet, a TCP receiver sets the Echo Congestion Experienced (ECE) flag in the TCP header, which the TCP source interprets as if the packet has been dropped for the purpose of its rate control.
Drop and congestion signals are not mutually exclusive signals, and flows that enable ECN have the potential to detect and respond to both signals.
As well as the idea of ECN being adopted in IP, it was previously adopted in Frame Relay and ATM, but in these latter two protocols the network arranges feedback of the congestion signals internally, and the network enforces traffic limits to prevent congestion build-up [ITU-T Rec.I.371]. When a cell arriving at a switch causes a congestion threshold to be exceeded, then its EFCI bit is set.
The IEEE has standardised an explicit congestion approach where Ethernet switches not the end systems arrange to feedback the congestion signals, although the Ethernet device on the sending system is expected to co-operate by reducing its rate in response to the signals. The approach is tailored exclusively for homogeneous data centre environments.
In previous approaches, each frame (or packet) carried just a binary flag and the strength of the congestion signal depended on the proportion of marked frames—effectively a unary encoding of the congestion signal in a stream of zeroes and ones. However, the IEEE scheme signals a multi-bit level of congestion in each feedback frame, hence its name: Quantised Congestion Notification or QCN [IEEE802.1Qau].
Random Early Detection (RED)
Historically, routers would drop packets when they got completely saturated (i.e. when a traffic burst cannot be accommodated in the buffer of the router)—this policy is called drop-tail. Random early detection (RED) [RED] is an improvement intended to desynchronise TCP flows (synchronisation occurs when multiple TCP flows increase and decrease their transmission window at the same time). RED is an active queue management (AQM) process that monitors the average queue length in a buffer and when this is higher than a given threshold, the router starts to drop/mark packets with a probability which increases with the excess length of the averaged queue over the threshold. RED is widely used in today's Internet because it allows sources to react more promptly to incipient congestion and it keeps queues from growing unnecessarily long. Equipment vendors have implemented variants of RED, e.g. Cisco' proprietary implementation is Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED). However, it is well known that RED is very sensitive to parameter setting.
In the course of experimental work to investigate the sensitivity of RED to its parameter settings, the timescale over which RED averaged the queue was investigated, and in one case at least averaging was turned off completely, instead using the instantaneous queue [RED-params].
The use of an Active Queue Management (AQM) technique using Random Early Detection (RED) will be described with reference to FIG. 4.
RED randomly drops/marks packets with a probability p that depends upon the smoothed queue qave. In a RED-based AQM, a smoothed queue qave is continuously estimated by means of an exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) of the real queue q:qave←(1−wq)qave+wqq where wq is the weight given to the real queue's length; see FIG. 4a) for an example of real queue versus smoothed queue evolution over time.
When the smoothed queue size qave is below a minimum threshold q0 then no packets are dropped/marked. When qave is between q0 and q1 then packets are discarded with a probability p, between 0 and p1, that is linearly proportional to qave. When qave is greater than threshold q1 then probabilistic drop/mark continues with an increased probability ranging between p1 and pmax, which still depends linearly on qave. This is also known as the Gentle variant of RED algorithm [GRED] (see FIG. 4b)). Its behaviour differs from the original RED between q1 and qmax: while GRED drops/marks packets with a probability which depends linearly upon smoothed queue length with a maximum probability pmax, in such interval RED marks with a maximum probability pmax. See FIG. 4c) for an example of time evolution of packet drop/mark probability. Assuming the Sources of packet load are responsive to congestion, it can be seen that a period of drops/marks p>0 results in senders slowing down, which results in reduced queue length and hence no drop/mark p=0; subsequently senders increase their transmission rate which results in an increased queue length, note that it takes some time before p>0 again because of the queue length smoothing.
Fairness Improvement for RED (FI-RED)
A paper entitled “FI-RED: AQM Mechanism for Improving Fairness among TCP Connections in Tandem Networks” by H. Ohsaki et al [FI-RED] discusses an active queue management mechanism for improving fairness among heterogeneous TCP connections. In FI-RED, an ECN-based technique is used for differentiating the packet marking probability of RED in dependence on whether the CE (Congestion Experienced) bit is set in arriving packets. With FI-RED, congestion indications to TCP connections with a large number of hops (i.e. those connections with a high probability that the CE bit is set) are suppressed. By virtue of such a modification to RED, a TCP connection with a large number of hops will suffer almost the same packet marking probability as one with a small number of hops. This is intended to improve fairness among TCP connections with different numbers of hops. It will be noted that with FI-RED, ECN marks are assigned to packets with a marking probability based on pre-existing congestion markings on the arriving packets (not the ECN-capability itself), which is then compared with the marking probability determined from the local queue length by the traditional RED algorithm.
Random Exponential Marking (REM) [REM]
Whereas with RED, congestion notification depends upon the average queue length, with the REM AQM, congestion signals depend on rate deviation (i.e. queue growth over a period) and queue deviation (i.e. difference between queue length and a target queue length). The queue is sampled periodically. Between samples, the congestion signal thus depends on a delayed rather than an instantaneous measure of the queue. The probability of marking or dropping in the REM AQM is characterised by an exponential as opposed to a piece-wise linear function used by RED, and similarly to RED congestion feedback can be by dropping or by ECN marking. The exponential function in REM ensures that signals accumulated along a path are precisely summed to signal end-to-end congestion to the source.
BLUE
BLUE [BLUE] is an AQM designed to overcome the inefficiencies that arise in the presence of bursty traffic and AQMs based on a smoothed queue such as RED. With bursty traffic, queue length often oscillates wildly and RED-like AQMs that drop based on smoothed queue length are unable to react sufficiently quickly. BLUE maintains a probability of packet marking or dropping which is based on actual queue occupancy hence, congestion notification (drop or ECN-mark) depends upon actual queue length and not smoothed queue length. This marking probability is increased when packets are being dropped and is decreased when there is less congestion.
Proportional-Integral (PI)
Proportional-integral [PI] controllers are controllers based on feedback control theory which perform AQM functions. Like BLUE, a key feature of the PI controller is to use the instantaneous queue size not an averaged queue length to determine marking and/or loss probability, in order to minimise delay of the feedback signal.
RED in a Different Light (nRED)
nRED is a self-configuring variant of RED which is available online [nRED] but has not been published in peer reviewed journals or conferences. This AQM estimates the persistent queue, which differs from the smoothed-RED queue as it only seeks to track persistent buffer occupancy that has not cleared within a given time interval. This is achieved by means of a filtered function of the instantaneous queue length. It compares the instantaneous queue to the filtered value and, if it is greater, the filtered function rises using the same exponentially weighted moving average as RED, but if it is less, the filtered value tracks the instantaneous queue downwards.
Controlled Delay (CoDel)
CoDel [CoDel] superseded nRED. It uses the service time (or sojourn time) that a packet spends in a queue as the characterisation of queue length and produces a smoothed value of recent sojourn times by taking the minimum sojourn time seen over a recent time interval.
Sample Path Shadow Pricing (SPSP)
Sample Path Shadow Pricing (SPSP) [GI99] is a scheme which prescribes to mark packets that cause the unsmoothed queue to exceed a threshold and then lead to buffer overflow. This is unattainable in practice, as a packet may have left the queue by the time a decision is made that it should have been marked. However, it is used as a theoretical ideal e.g. to define the SPSP marking fairness principle, that is, a marking algorithm satisfies SPSP fairness if it marks the same number of packets that SPSP would have marked. SPSP purely concerns ECN marking and does not consider loss.
Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN)
The IETF pre-congestion notification (PCN) architecture is a framework that supports Quality of Service (QoS) of inelastic traffic within a DiffServ domain. Admission control (or flow termination) of inelastic traffic in a PCN-domain depends upon the marked PCN-traffic observed within the priority class reserved for PCN-traffic. PCN traffic can coexist with other traffic and receive different treatment within the queue. Two PCN marking algorithms have been standardised[PCN] based on the idea of virtual queue [GI99] which is a fictitious queue that emulates the behaviour of a real queue if it were draining at a slower rate that the actual link capacity.
The standardised PCN marking algorithms both use the instantaneous length of the virtual queue, not a smoothed queue length as with DEC-bit or RED. PCN uses the Not-ECT codepoint in the ECN field (FIG. 3) in a similar way to ECN, in order to support a mixture of traffic sharing the same queue, some of which is capable of being PCN-marked and some hot. Non-PCN traffic sharing a priority queue would be dropped rather than marked if it exceeded the policed rate of the priority queue.
Congestion Control for High Bandwidth-Delay-Product (BDP) Networks
Traditional TCP/IP congestion control and recovery mechanics can be detrimental to the performance of delay sensitive applications. This is particularly problematic for high Bandwidth-Delay-Product (BDP) networks (also known as Long Fat Networks (LFN)). The literature on congestion control improvements for LFN is vast. It will not be covered further here, given the focus on AQM mechanisms in queues rather than congestion control algorithms in end-systems.
Reach Overload, Send ECN (ROSE)
The ROSE algorithm [WI99] is a queue marking variant of RED [RED] designed to improve its fairness while scaling to large networks. This is achieved by marking all packets whenever the queue size exceeds a threshold b and dynamically adapting b as follows:                if a packet would have been marked by SPSP, then decrease b, i.e. such that b←b−κε;        when a packet is marked then increase b, i.e. such that b←b+ε;where κ is a variable indicating how many marks are equivalent to a drop (1 or more) and ε is an infinitesimally small variable. This algorithm, which is based on actual queue length, can be shown to be fair to flows as it marks packets proportionally to the congestion they cause.
ROSE is particularly relevant because it starts from the premise that an ECN mark need not be equivalent to a drop, instead the two being linearly related through the parameter κ. However, ROSE is a theoretical demonstration of a point, rather than a concrete algorithm proposal, so it does not actually specify the algorithm that should be used to drop packets rather than mark them, although perhaps it is implied that ROSE would be used with κ=1.
Mark and Drop Signals
As discussed in [open-ECN], the ECN specification for TCP/IP [RFC3168] stipulates that a packet should only be congestion marked if it would have been dropped, were it unmarkable. It is even stipulated that this assumption should be embedded in implementations, by stating that the ECT flag should only be checked after the decision has been made to drop a packet. Exactly mimicking drop behaviour is motivated by the need to provide incentives for hosts to switch to ECN capability when competing with unmarkable flows.
The [open-ECN] report was an openly published review of the ECN specification during its progress along the IETF's standards track. It agrees with the ECN specification that one ECN mark needs to be equivalent to one drop, but only within the best efforts service, for incremental deployment reasons. For other service disciplines than best efforts, it takes the position of Wischik [WI99] that one ECN mark need not be equivalent to one drop.
Data Centre TCP
Data-centre TCP (DCTCP), proposed by Alizadeh Attar et al. [ALI10] and also discussed in US patent application US2011/0211449 (Attar et al) has shown the considerable benefit of signalling congestion based on the instantaneous length of the queue rather than signalling congestion dependent on a moving average of the queue length. As a result, DCTCP keeps buffers nearly empty nearly all the time, resulting in very low and very predictable delay and extremely low loss-rates, both of which lead to significantly superior performance.
DCTCP is an enhancement of TCP aimed at meeting the requirements of the applications running in data centres, so as to simultaneously achieve high throughput and burst tolerance as well as low latency. It relies on the usage of Explicit Congestion Notification [RFC3168]. The analysis of traffic patterns within Microsoft data centres have shown that even in the absence of the smoothing effects arising from multiplexing, DCTCP can achieve low queuing delay with low variance. DCTCP departs from earlier proposals by prescribing changes both at the senders and within network switches, which can be arranged to be deployed within a data centre where a single entity administers both:                Switch-side: the AQM in switches signals congestion by ECN marking packets based on instantaneous buffer length (i.e. no queue smoothing is carried out in switches as for example in RED). If the queue is greater than a threshold then it marks packets, otherwise it doesn't mark. This can be implemented with a RED AQM in commodity switches with a suitable choice of threshold parameters and the queue averaging parameter set to 1, which effectively turns off averaging.        Sender-side: it reacts to every congestion indication in proportion to congestion levels, i.e. the greater the number of ECN marks observed the greater the reduction in congestion window, Cwnd. The algorithm maintains average α of fraction F of packets marked in each RTT as follows:F=(Number of marked ACKs)/(Total ACKs)α←(1−g)α+g F (where 0<g<1 weight given to new samples)Cwnd←(1−α/2)Cwnd
DCTCP does not specify what the AQM should do for packets that do not support ECN, because ECN support is enabled by construction of the scheme throughout the data centre.
Phantom Queue
The phantom queue [PR11] is aimed at achieving ultra-low latency solutions, particularly in data centres. The aim is to remove buffering delay from the data centre forwarding fabric by using a virtual queue on the switch (similar to PCN [PCN]) in combination with DCTCP [ALI10] on the end-systems.
Other Techniques
US patent application US2003/0088690 (Zuckerman et al) relates to an AQM process which splits ECN and non-ECN packets into separate queues, then treats them differently. When congestion rises, the rate of ECN-marking on ECN-capable packets is increased. For non-ECN-capable packets, delay is introduced as an alternative to increasing loss.
A paper entitled “A fair AQM scheme for aggregated ECN and non-ECN traffic” by Chong at al [ARQUA] describes a technique called ARQUA-DAB, which applies separate AQM algorithms to ECN and non-ECN traffic. ARQUA-DAB divides the capacity of the real link over two virtual buffers, each with service rates proportional to the number of ECN and non-ECN flows. It runs a substantially similar AQM algorithm in each virtual buffer, the only difference being the rates at which it drains the buffers.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,139,281 relates to a method of active queue management for handling prioritised traffic in a packet transmission system.
US2011292801 relates to a proposed modification to the ECN protocol to allow a receiver terminal to exhibit some control of bandwidth share relative to other receiver terminals.
US2003112814 relates to a system and method for traffic management and regulation in a packet-based communication network which aims to facilitate proactive, discriminating congestion control on a per flow basis of packets traversing the Internet via use of a WRED algorithm that monitors the incoming packet queue and optimises enqueuing or discard of incoming packets to stabilise queue length and promote efficient packet processing.
US2004179479 relates to methods for alleviating traffic congestion by selectively discarding packets in a switch or router. In particular, it is directed to the problem of calculating average queue depth for RED in a manner that responds to rapid increases and decreases in the instantaneous queue depth.


The present invention relates to a method for the co-processing of waste rubber and carbonaceous material. More particularly, it relates to an improved method for liquefying waste rubber in mixture with a carbonaceous material such as coal to permit use of depolymerized rubber as a hydrogen donor solvent and carbon black reinforcing pigment as a liquefaction catalyst.
In the United States, worn and used rubber products are creating an increasingly large disposal problem. During the past few years, it is estimated that about 200 million used tires are discarded each year. Each tire contains about 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of organic materials and 2 kilograms of carbon black. If the rubber in these tires could be reprocessed with coal at about a 1-to-1 weight ratio, approximately 40,000 barrels per day of transportation fuels could be produced. In addition to the used tires, there is also a substantial amount of other waste rubber products that could be reprocessed. At the present time, most of these tires and rubber products are serving no useful purpose but are occupying significant space in waste dumps, vacant lots, and other vacant facilities.
Coal liquefaction is typically achieved by heating the coal in the presence of a hydrogen donor solvent often with an added liquefaction catalyst. The most common solvent used are fractions derived from the liquified coal or heavy fractions from the petroleum industry in a co-processing operation. The liquefaction of coal is dependent on its hydrogenation which can be a function of the hydrogen donor solvent or the ability of the catalysts to promote reaction with hydrogen gas. Representative single and two-stage coal liquefaction processes are described generally in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,506, and other issued U.S. Patents cited therein.
Typically, particulate coal feed is slurried in a coal-derived recycle solvent and the resulting slurry is preheated to near the reaction temperature and fed with hydrogen into a catalytic reactor. The reactor operates at relatively high temperature and pressure conditions to hydroconvert and liquefy a major portion of the coal and thereby produce hydrocarbon gas and liquid fractions.
Unfortunately, a large fraction of the coal liquefaction product is a residual oil containing preasphaltenes and asphaltene compounds having a low hydrogen content. It is these heavy, hydrogen-lean fractions that are often recycled for slurrying with the incoming coal to place an additional burden on the hydrogenation reactor.


The field of the disclosure relates generally to rotary machines, and more particularly, to a tip shroud of a turbine blade that includes notch features.
At least some known rotary machines include a compressor, a combustor coupled downstream from the compressor, a turbine coupled downstream from the combustor, and a rotor shaft rotatably coupled between the compressor and the turbine. Some known turbines include at least one rotor disk coupled to the rotor shaft, and a plurality of circumferentially-spaced turbine blades that extend outward from each rotor disk to define a stage of the turbine. Each turbine blade includes an airfoil that extends radially outward from a platform towards a turbine casing.
At least some known turbine blades include a shroud that extends from an outer tip end of the airfoil to reduce gas flow leakage between the airfoil and the turbine casing. An operational life cycle of at least some latter stage turbine blade tip shrouds may be limited by creep. Creep is the tendency of a material to deform over time when exposed to a combination of mechanical loading and high temperature. Turbine shroud creep rate may be greatly impacted by the high temperatures often seen at the shroud. To counter the effects of high temperatures, at least some known turbine blades include an internal cooling circuit, such as an interior tip shroud core cavity, or plenum, and/or passages that run transversely from the plenum toward the outer edges of the shroud. However, known tip shroud core plenums generally increase the complexity and expense of manufacture of the tip shroud, and impose design limits on other properties of the shroud, such as shape and thickness. Additionally, at least some known tip shrouds are shaped to reduce an area of the shroud that requires cooling. However, an ability to reduce the shroud area is limited by a need for the shrouds to cooperate structurally with adjacent shrouds.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel, and more particularly, to a plasma display panel that improves the luminance efficiency by increasing a plasma density by forming a magnetic field within a discharge space.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Plasma Display Panel (PDP) display, which is a flat panel display, has excellent characteristics, namely, displays a high-quality image, is extremely thin and light, and provides a wide viewing angle, while having a large screen. In addition, a PDP display can be more simply manufactured than other flat panel displays and can be easily enlarged, such that the PDP display is spotlighted as a next-generation flat panel display.
In a 3-electrode surface discharge PDP, address electrode lines AR1, AG1, . . . , AGm, and ABm, front and rear dielectric layers, Y electrode lines Y1, . . . , and Yn, X electrode lines X1, . . , and Xn, phosphors, barrier ribs, and a MgO protective layer are disposed between front and rear glass substrates of the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP.
The address electrode lines AR1, AG1, . . . , AGm, and ABm are arranged in a predetermined pattern over the rear glass substrate. The rear dielectric layer is entirely coated over the address electrode lines AR1, AG1, . . . , AGm, and ABm. The barrier ribs are formed on the front surface of the rear dielectric layer to be parallel to the address electrode lines AR1, AG1, . . . , AGm, and ABm. The barrier ribs define discharge areas of each discharge cell and prevent optical crosstalk between adjacent discharge cells. The phosphors 16 are coated between barrier ribs.
The X electrode lines X1, . . . , and Xn and the Y electrode lines Y1, . . , and Yn are patterned on a rear surface of the front glass substrate so as to be orthogonal to the address electrode lines AR1, AG1, . . . , AGm, and ABm. The respective intersections define corresponding discharge cells. The X electrode lines X1, . . . , and Xn and the Y electrode lines Y1, . . . , and Yn are each comprised of a transparent electrode line of a conductive material, such as, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), and a metal electrode line for increasing conductivity. For example, the X electrode line Xn is comprised of a transparent electrode line Xna and a metal electrode line Xnb, and the Y electrode line Yn is comprised of a transparent electrode line Yna and a metal electrode line Ynb. The front dielectric layer is entirely coated over the X electrode lines X1, . . . , and Xn and the Y electrode lines Y1, . . . , and Yn. The MgO protective layer for protecting the panel against strong electric fields is coated over the entire rear surface of the front dielectric layer. Discharge spaces are sealed with a gas therein for forming a plasma.
In the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP, not only the X electrode lines X1, . . . , and Xn, the Y electrode lines Y1, . . . , and Yn, but also the dielectric layer and the protective layer formed on the X and Y electrode lines exist on the front glass substrate. During discharge, visible rays emitted from the phosphors in the discharge spaces pass through the front substrate. However, the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP has a significant problem in that only about 60% of the visible rays are transmitted by the front substrate because of various components formed on the front substrate.
Also, in the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP, electrodes provoking the discharge are formed over the discharge spaces, namely, on the inner surface of the front substrate 10 through which the visible rays pass, such that the discharge is generated on the inner surface thereof and spreads. Hence, the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP has a low luminance efficiency.
Furthermore, when the 3-electrode surface discharge PDP is used for a long period of time, charged particles of a discharge gas cause ion sputtering on the phosphors due to an electric field, thereby generating a permanent residual image.


1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a jumper wire inserting apparatus for inserting a short wire having substantially no resistance, namely, a jumper wire into a pair of holes of a printed circuit substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, when a jumper wire inserting apparatus transforms a jumper wire responding to various distances, namely, pitches between two holes of a pair of holes of the printed circuit substrate and inserts the jumper wire into the holes by utilizing pushers and the like, both pushers are transferred in a horizontal direction responding to the various pitches of the holes. Therefore, the mechanism of the conventional jumper wire inserting apparatus is complicated and the accuracy of the transforming of the jumper wire is low.
Further, the horizontal direction transferring of the pushers and so on of the conventional jumper wire inserting apparatus does not have linkage with the operation of the jumper wire sending means for sending out a long wire for cutting to produce the jumper wire. Therefore, the accuracy of the operation of the conventional jumper wire inserting apparatus is low.
As above-mentioned, the conventional jumper wire inserting apparatus has various disadvantages.


In the related art, as an ignition system used in a combustion device of an internal combustion engine, a device, which includes a spark plug having a center electrode and a ground electrode, and forms a gap between both electrodes, a discharge power source such as an ignition coil supplying a voltage to the spark plug, and an ignition cable electrically connecting the spark plug and the discharge electrode, is known. In the above described ignition device, a high voltage is applied from the discharge power source to the spark plug via the ignition cable so that a spark discharge is generated in the gap of the spark plug. As a result, the fuel gas is ignited.
In recent years, a technique has been disclosed in which in order to improve an ignition ability, the spark discharge is generated by an AC power (a high frequency power) input from an AC power source to the gap, instead of the high voltage (for example, see JP-A-2009-8100).


1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relates to circuit simulating systems and methods, and more particularly, to a computing device and a method for checking signal transmission lines of a circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
A circuit board may be arranged with thousands of signal transmission lines. To ensure integrity of signals transmitted by the signal transmission lines, designs of the signal transmission lines should satisfy design standards. For example, a length of each line segment of a signal transmission line should satisfy a predetermined standard, so that each line segment of the signal transmission line has an appropriate impedance to ensure signal integrity. Spaces between neighboring signal transmission lines should also satisfy predetermined standards, to reduce crosstalk of the neighboring signal transmission lines. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate design simulations and checks during the design and layout process of the circuit board. However, presently, obtaining information from a circuit board layout are often acquired manually. With the large quantity of signal transmission lines distributed on the circuit board, manual operation is not only time-consuming, but also error-prone.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carbazole derivative and an organic light emitting device using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting device is a device in which a thin film including a fluorescent organic compound or a phosphorescent organic compound is interposed between an anode and a cathode. Further, electrons and holes are injected from the respective electrodes to generate exciton of the fluorescent compound or the phosphorescent compound, whereby light is emitted when the exciton return to a ground state is utilized.
According to a study at Eastman Kodak company in 1987 (Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 913 (1987)), there is reported a device having a function-separation type two-layer structure using ITO as an anode, a magnesium-silver alloy as a cathode, an aluminum quinolinol complex as an electron transporting material and a light emitting material, and a triphenylamine derivative as a hole transporting material. There has been reported a light emission of approximately 1,000 cd/m2 at an applied voltage of approximately 10 V.
Recent progress of an organic light emitting device is remarkable, and the characteristics of the device enable a light emitting device with a high luminance at a low applied voltage, a variety of emission wavelengths, high-speed responsiveness, thin and light weight. From this fact, it is suggested that the device have potential to find use in a wide variety of applications.
However, the present situation calls for optical output with even higher luminance or high conversion efficiency. In addition, many problems still remain to be solved regarding durability against the change over time due to long-term use, deterioration caused by atmospheric gas containing oxygen, moisture, or the like. Further, when considering application to a full color display, the present art is still insufficient against problems relating to the needs for light emission of blue, green, and red with a high color purity.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, there is proposed to use a carbazole derivative as a material for the organic light emitting device. As examples of the organic light emitting device using the carbazole derivative, there are given devices disclosed in “Journal of the American Chemical Society (2004), 126(19), 6035-6042,” and “Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society (2004), 25(8), 1202-1206.”


The present invention relates generally to vertebral implants and methods of use, and more particularly to implants and methods that include a flange that may be attached to a periphery of the implant body.
The spine is divided into four regions comprising the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacrococcygeal regions. The cervical region includes the top seven vertebral members identified as C1-C7. The thoracic region includes the next twelve vertebral members identified as T1-T12. The lumbar region includes five vertebral members L1-L5. The sacrococcygeal region includes nine fused vertebral members that form the sacrum and the coccyx. The vertebral members of the spine are aligned in a curved configuration that includes a cervical curve, thoracic curve, and lumbosacral curve. Intervertebral discs are positioned between the vertebral members and permit flexion, extension, lateral bending, and rotation.
Various conditions may lead to damage of the intervertebral discs and/or the vertebral members. The damage may result from a variety of causes including a specific event such as trauma, a degenerative condition, a tumor, or infection. Damage to the intervertebral discs and vertebral members can lead to pain, neurological deficit, and/or loss of motion.
Various procedures include replacing the entirety or a section of a vertebral member, the entirety or a section of an intervertebral disc, or both. One or more replacement implants may be inserted to replace the damaged vertebral members and/or discs. The implants may further include bone growth material to facilitate fusion of the implant to one or both adjacent vertebral members. The implant should provide for housing the bone growth material, and prevent inadvertent removal of the material from the implant.