391results about How to "Less variation" patented technology

The present invention provides a new method and an apparatus for spectral envelope encoding. The invention teaches how to perform and signal compactly a time / frequency mapping of the envelope representation, and further, encode the spectral envelope data efficiently using adaptive time / frequency directional coding. The method is applicable to both natural audio coding and speech coding systems and is especially suited for coders using SBR [WO 98 / 57436] or other high frequency reconstruction methods.

A method of fabricating a plurality of FinFETs on a semiconductor substrate in which the gate width of each individual FinFET is defined utilizing only a single etching process, instead of two or more, is provided. The inventive method results in improved gate width control and less variation of the gate width of each individual gate across the entire surface of the substrate. The inventive method achieves the above by utilizing a modified sidewall image transfer (SIT) process in which an insulating spacer that is later replaced by a gate conductor is employed and a high-density bottom up oxide fill is used to isolate the gate from the substrate.

The present invention provides a display device which can display characters clearly and display images smoothly. An area gray scale method is adopted and a configuration of one pixel is changed depending on a mode, by selecting one or more display regions in each pixel. When characters are needed to be displayed clearly, one pixel is configured by selecting a stripe arrangement. Thus, clear display can be conducted. When images are needed to be displayed, one pixel is configured by selecting an indented state. Thus, smooth display can be conducted.

An output buffer includes a first drive circuit that receives an input signal having a sharp waveform and generates an output signal that has a gentle waveform. A second drive circuit is connected to the first drive circuit at an output terminal and has a lower impedance than the first drive circuit. A delay circuit is also connected to the output terminal and generates a delayed output signal. A first control circuit is connected between the delay circuit and the second drive circuit and receives the input signal and the delayed output signal and generates a first control signal used to drive the second drive circuit.

One feature of the present invention includes first to third steps of holding a voltage, corresponding to a difference between a voltage applied to a first power supply line and a threshold voltage of a first transistor, between both electrodes of first and second storage capacitors; holding a voltage, corresponding to a difference between a voltage applied to the first power supply line and a gate-source voltage of the first transistor, which is necessary to supply a light-emitting element with a current equivalent to a video signal current inputted into a signal line, between both the electrodes of the second storage capacitor; and applying a voltage based on the voltage held in the first and second storage capacitors in the first and second steps to a gate electrode of the first transistor; therefore, a current is supplied to the light-emitting element through the first transistor.

Method and systems for enabling low-latency streaming of segments over at least one network to a client are described wherein said client is configured to request and receive segments from at least one server on the basis of a manifest file. Said method comprises: collecting quality of service information experienced by said client in at least a part of said network and storing said quality of service information in a quality database in said network; sending at least part of said quality of service information to said content processing device; determining on the basis of said at least part of said quality of service information one or more configuration parameters for a buffer, preferably a play-out buffer; and / or, for a segment request function in said content processing device; and, configuring said buffer and / or, said segment request function in accordance with said configuration parameters.

A pharmaceutical composition comprises a solid adsorbate comprising a drug adsorbed onto a substrate and a lipophilic microphase-forming material. The solid adsorbate may also be co-administered with a lipophilic microphase-forming material to an in vivo use environment. The compositions of the present invention enhance the concentration of drug in a use environment.

The present invention includes perfusion bioreactors, automated cell culture systems, and methods for production of cells and cell-derived products.

Water-based invisible red fluorescent inks provide machine-readable, inverse contrast invisible images and can be printed using conventional ink jet printers. The inks employ rare earth complexed ligand fluorophores having narrow excitation and emission spectra. In one embodiment the images are printed with an ink comprising water and a water-soluble organic fluorescent fluorophore, which when printed and dried on paper is invisible to the eye and fluoresces in the green to infrared range, e.g., from about 550 to 1200 nm, when irradiated with short wave length UV radiation, e.g., from 230 nm to 280 nm. The highly specific excitation and emission rates, coupled with a high inverse contrast on papers of all colors, makes them particularly useful as ink jet inks for postal and other purposes.

A light access can be integrally formed with a light guide on at least one end of the light guide. A printed circuit board with an LED lamp mounted thereon can be press-fitted in the light access for transient arrangement, and can be fixed by a cover. The position of the printed circuit board can be determined in relation to the light guide. For example, engagement hooks of the light access can be fitted with recesses in the printed circuit board for positioning the circuit board in a plane normal to the longitudinal direction of the light guide. Similarly, positioning ribs of the light guide can be employed for positioning in the longitudinal direction of the light guide. The light guide can be formed in an almost rod shape having four sides in section normal to the longitudinal direction of the light guide. A light guide lens can be formed in one surface and a diffuser cut can be formed in the opposite surface of the light guide.

A modular hip prosthesis includes a femoral stem, a spherical head and a coupling member extending from the head defining a neck whose lower end forms a base which plugs into a socket at the top of the stem to form a tapered neck / stem junction. That junction is aligned with the stem axis and has a cross-section with opposite sides that extend generally parallel to the sides of the stem. With such an arrangement, that junction may be relatively long and have a relatively large cross-sectional area thus making a strong junction even in smaller femoral implants.

The source / drain zones (140 and 142 or 160 and 162) of a p-channel IGFET (120 or 122) are provided with graded-junction characteristics to reduce junction capacitance, thereby increasing switching speed. Each source / drain zone contains a main portion (140M, 142M, 160M, or 162M) and a more lightly doped lower portion (140L, 142L, 160L, or 162L) underlying, and vertically continuous with, the main portion.

This invention provides minimally invasive mechanical instruments that are capable of laparoscopic or endoscopic approximation and fastening of soft tissues in a variety of interventional procedures. The devices of the present invention generally consist of a proximal handle assembly incorporating actuation means, an elongate tubular assembly (which may be flexible, rigid or combinations thereof) and a distal tool assembly incorporating mechanisms for engaging tissue at two or more spaced-apart locations on a tissue surface as well as mechanisms for deploying one or more tissue fasteners to securely hold the tissues in the approximated configuration. Typically the devices are provided in an initial collapsed (i.e. pre-deployed) configuration for insertion into the patient. After being deployed to an expanded configuration, tissue is contacted and engaged at two or more locations, and upon subsequent actuation by the user, at least one of the tissue engagement mechanisms, with tissue engaged, is repositioned by moving it toward another engaged tissue location, thereby approximating the engaged tissue locations near the distal end of the device. A variety of fasteners and fastener delivery mechanisms may be integrated into the devices of the present invention to securely and permanently hold the approximated tissues in the approximated configuration. Devices of the present invention provide surgeons the ability to carry out a variety of interventional procedures in which tissue approximation and fastening is required, in a safer and more efficient manner. Certain embodiments of the present invention enable entirely new minimally invasive tissue approximation and fastening procedures to be performed, such as closure of holes in the gastrointestinal lumen created to provide access to the abdominal cavity during natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) or laparoscopic plication gastroplasty procedures that reduce stomach volume from its external surface in the treatment of obesity.

Electrical characteristics of transistors using an oxide semiconductor are greatly varied in a substrate, between substrates, and between lots, and the electrical characteristics are changed due to heat, bias, light, or the like in some cases. In view of the above, a semiconductor device using an oxide semiconductor with high reliability and small variation in electrical characteristics is manufactured. In a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, hydrogen in a film and at an interface between films is removed in a transistor using an oxide semiconductor. In order to remove hydrogen at the interface between the films, the substrate is transferred under a vacuum between film formations. Further, as for a substrate having a surface exposed to the air, hydrogen on the surface of the substrate may be removed by heat treatment or plasma treatment.

There is provided an automated data driven method for predicting one or more operational states, such as wear or degradation, of a mechanical system over time. The method comprises the steps of collecting data on the mechanical system from a data recording device, preprocessing the collected data, selecting a training data set that represents a base condition for statistical comparison, fitting a statistical model to the training data set to relate a predicted response to nuisance variables at the base condition, and using an output model to predict what an observed response would have been at the base condition and calculating the difference between the observed response and the predicted response to predict the one or more operational states of the mechanical system.

A ceramic material powder for a translucent ceramic is molded with a binder, and the resulting green compact is embedded in a ceramic powder having the same composition with the ceramic material powder. After removing the binder, the green compact embedded in the ceramic powder is fired in an atmosphere having an oxygen concentration higher than that in the removal procedure of the binder and thereby yields a translucent ceramic represented by Formula I: Ba{(SnuZr1-u)xMgyTaz}vOw, Formula II: Ba(ZrxMgyTaz)vOw or Formula III: Ba{(SnuZr1-u)xZntMg1-t)yNbz}vOw. The translucent ceramic has a refractive index of 1.9 or more and is paraelectric.

An object is to reduce a pseudo contour occurring in time gray scale method display. One pixel is divided into m subpixels (m is an integer of m≧2), and the area of the (s+1)th subpixel (1≦s≦m−1) is twice the area of the s-th subpixel. Further, one frame is divided into n subframes (n is an integer of n≧2), and a lighting period of the (p+1)th subframe (1≦p≦n−1) is 2m times longer than a lighting period of a p-th subframe. Then, at least one subframe of the n subframes is divided into a plurality of subpixels each having a lighting period shorter than that of the subframe so that the n subframes are increased to t subframes (t>n). In at least one subframe of the t subframes, lighting periods of the subframes in a lighting state are sequentially added by the m subpixels, so that a gray scale of the pixel is expressed. (174 words)

A character reading technique recognizes character strings in grayscale images where characters within such strings have poor contrast, are variable in position or rotation with respect to other characters in the string, or where portions of characters in the string are partially obscured. The method improves classification accuracy by improving the robustness of the underlying correlation operation. Characters are divided into regions before performing correlations. Based upon the relative individual region results, region results are combined into a whole character result. Using the characters that are read, a running checksum is computed and, based upon the checksum result, characters are replaced to produce a valid result.

A character reading technique recognizes character strings in grayscale images where characters within such strings have poor contrast, are variable in position or rotation with respect to other characters in the string, or where portions of characters in the string are partially obscured. The method improves classification accuracy by improving the robustness of the underlying correlation operation. Characters are divided into regions before performing correlations. Based upon the relative individual region results, region results are combined into a whole character result. Using the characters that are read, a running checksum is computed and, based upon the checksum result, characters are replaced to produce a valid result.

A system for monitoring a business's operational characteristics and employee classifications, in real time, to obtain increased amounts of data relating to the total compensation for purposes of providing a more accurate determination of a cost of insurance for the risk, on a real-time basis, and to bill such charges directly to the risk according to their unique finance plan in direct relation to their payroll cycle.

Oxygen is released from the insulating layer, whereby oxygen deficiency in the oxide semiconductor layer and an interface state between the insulating layer and the oxide semiconductor layer can be reduced. Accordingly, a semiconductor device where reliability is high and variation in electric characteristics is small can be manufactured.

A field effect transistor according to the present invention has a semiconductor layer through which carriers injected from a source region travel toward a drain region, the semiconductor layer being formed from a composite material including an organic semiconductor material and nanotubes. The nanotubes may be nanotubes including plural ones joined with each other.

An output buffer includes a first drive circuit that receives an input signal having a sharp waveform and generates an output signal that has a gentle waveform. A second drive circuit is connected to the first drive circuit at an output terminal and has a lower impedance than the first drive circuit. A delay circuit is also connected to the output terminal and generates a delayed output signal. A first control circuit is connected between the delay circuit and the second drive circuit and receives the input signal and the delayed output signal and generates a first control signal used to drive the second drive circuit.

Disclosed is a sputtering target for an oxide semiconductor, comprising In, Ga, and Zn. Also disclosed are a process for producing the sputtering target, a thin film of an oxide semiconductor using a sputtering target, and a method for thin-film transistor formation. The sputtering target comprises an oxide sintered compact containing a compound having a homologous crystal structure represented by InGaO3(ZnO) and exhibits such an X-ray diffraction pattern that the proportion of peaks at 2θ=62 to 63 degrees to the maximum peak of InGaO3(ZnO) is not more than 3%.

The invention relates to a capsule endoscope layout capable of achieving a small-format, wide-angle, wide light-distribution arrangement with limited variations. A capsule endoscope 1 comprises an objective lens 4, a transparent dome 2 to cover the object side of the objective lens, and light emitter devices located around the outer periphery of the objective lens. The endoscope 1 further comprises an integral-piece holder member 30 adapted to hold the objective lens 4 in place and hold the light emitter devices 5 at a position set back from an end of, and around, the objective lens 4 while the light emitter devices 5 are inclined outward at an angle with a center axis of said objective lens 4.

A gas concentration sensor comprises an ultrasonic element 33 opposite a reflection surface 34. A depression 34a is formed on an edge portion of a reflection surface 34 which is in contact with a side wall of a measurement chamber 32 such that a bottom surface of the depression 34a is substantially in parallel with the reflection surface 34. The distance between the ultrasonic element 33 and the edge portion of the reflection surface 34 becomes greater than the distance between the ultrasonic element 33 and a central portion of the reflection surface 34. As a result, an indirect wave, which impinges obliquely on the side wall of the measurement chamber 32 and propagates along the side wall, is reflected from the bottom surface of the depression 34a and propagates. Thus, the propagation distance of this indirect wave becomes greater as compared to the case where the reflection surface 34 is flat, so that the indirect wave is not combined with a direct wave in the vicinity of a modulation point of the direct wave. That is, since the modulation point of the direct wave can be detected accurately, a time interval between a modulation point of a transmitted wave and that of a received wave can be measured as the propagation time of an ultrasonic wave, thereby enabling accurate determination of gas concentration.

An earphone antenna is provided in which two pairs of audio / high-frequency signal lines respectively corresponding to left and right earphone units are connected to a balun. The left and right earphone units are connected to terminals of the two pairs of audio / high-frequency signal lines remote from the balun via loading coils, respectively. The terminals of the two pairs of audio / high-frequency signal lines remote from the balun are further connected to each other by a pair of conductive lines via audio blocking means. The earphone antenna having such a structure can eliminate high-frequency adverse effects on a wireless device transmitted from a human body via an earphone.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: to realize a wide bandwidth light source capable of a stable operation providing a less spectrum variation. SOLUTION: Optical pulses 202 outputted by this optical pulse-generating device 201 are split by optical coupler 210. The one of split optical pulses is inputted in white light-emitting device 204 to emit the white light having the wide bandwidth. The other split is inputted in optical band pass filter 212 in operation-stabilizing circuit 207. Optical detector 213 detects a signal level of a specific wavelength and input in feedback circuit 215 to generate first and second feedback signals 205 and 206. Ring resonator fiber laser 208 uses any one of them and controls a rotation angle of the waveplate to realize stabilization of the output.