The incorporation of the heterocyclic saccharin functionality into the alkenylsuccinimide dispersant structures via the Mannich alkylaminoalkylation procedure provides a class of ashless non-phosphorus dispersants with multifunctional antiwear, antioxidant and corrosion inhibiting properties in lubricant compositions.

1. Field of the Invention
This application is directed to ashless dispersants derived from Mannich Reaction of hydrocarbyl succinimides and saccharin.
2. Description of Related Art
Alkyl- or alkenylsuccinimides are well known in the art as ashless dispersants for lubricants and fuels. Their principal function in such applications is to prevent the deleterious sludge accumulation on engine parts. Because of today's hotter running engines, the performance properties of ashless dispersants are being optimized to cope with the increased sludge formation resulting from increased thermal and oxidative degradation of lubricant formulations.
This invention is directed to novel multifunctional ashless dispersants derived from Mannich reaction of hydrocarbyl succinimides, saccharin and carbonyl compounds. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,850. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,130,036 and 4,857,214 which disclose ashless dispersants comprising a hydrocarbyl succinimide, a mixed ester/amide, hydroxyesters and the Mannich condensation products of hydrocarbyl-substituted phenols, formaldehyde and polyamines.
Saccharin, of course has found widespread use in the sweetening art. However, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,218 discloses an effervescent composition with analgesic activity having an artificial sweetener such as saccharin, a binder and a lubricant such as polyethylene glycol.
Today's hotter running engines require more highly dispersant oil formulas to minimize the increased sludge formation and deposits on engine parts. Consequently, in addition to increased dispersant activity, the ashless dispersants must be compatible with, and if possible, provide additional performance protection to these oil compositions. By incorporating antiwear and antioxidant functionalities into existing succinimide ashless dispersants, the chemistry of this invention has made it possible to optimize their effectiveness and also expand their application. This is especially significant in view of current and projected industry-wide efforts to minimize the concentration of, or replace, the zinc dithiophosphates (ZnDTP) which have, historically, provided the multifunctional antiwear and antioxidant protection to a large variety of lubricant formulations.
The synergistic combination of the succinimide and the sulfur-and nitrogen-containing heterocyclic saccharin functionalities in the products of this invention provides ashless dispersants with additional multifunctional antioxidant, antiwear and potential metal passivator properties for lubricant compositions. To the best of our knowledge, the syntheses and applications of this class of compounds have not been disclosed elsewhere and are, therefore, novel.


A system and method for displaying data provided by a sensor in Polar coordinates on a raster scan device operating in Cartesian coordinates. Cartesian coordinates for display points on said raster scan device are converted to corresponding Polar coordinates, and sensor data values for said Polar coordinates are fetched for display on said raster scan device. The coordinates are converted by differentiating the equations mapping Polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates, and solving the differential relationships using a suitable integration method. Preferable the integration method is a Midpoint method. In order to avoid divisions and speed up the conversion process, synthetic division in Newton-Ralphson iteration is used instead.

Data from sensors such as radars and sonars are sampled in polar or spherical coordinate systems, i.e. the sensors are scanning the surroundings with an angularly displaced beam. In the past, the received data were also displayed in polar coordinates on Plan Position Indicators using a rotating beam on a cathode ray tube. However, most modern display systems are raster scan devices, which operate in Cartesian coordinate system. The sensor data must therefore be converted into Cartesian coordinates. The conversion is a very processing intensive process, and this is in particular true for sensor systems on a moving mobile platform.
Prior art systems for coordinate transformation are based on one of the following techniques:                Direct mapping of (r,phi) to (x,y) coordinates by using "on the fly" calculations or by use of tables.        Use of inverse mapping of (x,y) to (r,phi) coordinates by using on the fly calculations or by use of tables.        Use of inverse mapping of (x,y) to (r,phi) coordinates by use of special circuits such as Pythagoras processors (ex. Plessey Semiconductor PDSP16330).
The direct mapping approach will miss many pixels in the display system because the mapping is neither a one-to-one nor an onto-mapping. Some interpolation or "spoke filling" is therefore necessary.
The inverse mapping approach will avoid the interpolation problem, but would also be more computer-intensive in the mapping calculations. Using tables will require recalculation of a new mapping table every time the area of display is moved or scaled. In mobile sensor scenarios where the display area is geographically fixed this can require time consuming recalculations of the tables. Hence, this is not an optimal solution for a system needing real-time performance.

Coordinate transformation for presentation in display systems


A sheet feeding device has suction cups carried by a linkage which is driven by a drive motor to sequentially press the suction cups onto a paper sheet, transfer the sheet held by the suction cups to another location, and release the sheet from the suction cups. The drive motor is connected to the linkage through a firction gearing mechanism which, through frictional slippage, prevents the suction cups from exerting excessive pressure on the sheets.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sheet feeding device, and more particularly to an improvement in such a device taking a sheet coated with an airtight material on the surface thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the purpose of producing hard copies of color pictures projected on a display screen of a CAD/CAM system, a thermal transferring printer or an inkjet printer is used. However, there are some problems with these techniques. It takes long to print out a picture, and only one color can be presented per dot so that the area of one picture element is large, therefore, the pictures printed are rough and not of the resolution.
In order to solve the above problems, another approach shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,209 was proposed. A color imaging system that forms images by image-wise exposing a layer containing coloring precursors and a plurality of photosensitive compositions encapsulated in a layer of pressure rupturable microcapsules. The microcapsules are broken after putting then upon an image-receiving sheet applied with a developing material on the surface thereof, and the developing material reacts with the coloring precursors encapsulated in the ruptured microcapsules so that a predetermined image is transferred from the imaging sheet onto the image-receiving sheet. This imaging system seeks to present picture elements having the same size as those of the microcapsules. Therefore, color pictures can be printed with extremely high resolution.
However, there have been problems such that, since a powder developer is coated on the surface of the image-receiving sheet, the image-receiving sheet is scratched by a sheet feeding roller when it is taken out from a cassette causing the peeling off of the developing material, which not only deteriorates the picture image quality, but also causes duplicate sheets to be supplied because the sheet becomes difficult to slide due to the friction between the sheets.

Sheet feeding device for image recording apparatus


Apparatus and an accompanying method, for forming and embedding a highly tamper-resistant cryptographic identifier, i.e., a watermark, within non-marked executable code, e.g., an application program, to generate a “watermarked” version of that code. Specifically, the watermark, containing, e.g., a relatively large number of separate executable routines, is tightly integrated into a flow pattern of non-marked executable code, e.g., an application program, through randomly establishing additional control flows in the executable code and inserting a selected one of the routines along each such flow. Since the flow pattern of the watermark is highly intertwined with the flow pattern of the non-marked code, the watermark is effectively impossible to either remove from the code and/or circumvent. The routines are added in such a manner that the flow pattern of resulting watermarked code is not substantially different from that of the non-marked code, thus frustrating third party detection of the watermark using, e.g., standard flow analysis tools. To enhance tamper-resistance of the watermarked code, each such routine can provide a pre-defined function such that if that routine were to be removed from the marked code by, e.g., a third party adversary, then the marked code will prematurely terminate its execution.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a technique including both apparatus and an accompanying method, for forming and embedding a hidden highly tamper-resistant cryptographic identifier, i.e., a watermark, within non-marked computer executable code, e.g., an application program, to generate a "watermarked" version of that code. This technique can also be used to tightly integrate, in a highly tamper-resistant manner, other pre-defined executable code, such as security code, as part of the watermark, into the non-marked code in order to form the watermarked code.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the past decade or so, personal computers (PCs) have become rather ubiquitous with PC hardware and software sales experiencing significant growth. However, coincident with an ever widening market for PCs, unauthorized copying of PC software, whether it be application programs or operating systems, continues to expand to rather significant proportions. Given that in certain countries sales lost to such copying can significantly exceed legitimate sales, over the years software manufacturers have attempted to drastically reduce the incidence of unauthorized copying though, practically speaking, with only limited success.
One such technique, probably one of the oldest techniques used and usually rather ineffective, is simply to append a copyright and other legal proprietary rights notices to object code as distributed on mass (magnetic or optical) media. The intention in doing so is to deter unauthorized copying by simply placing a third party on notice that a copy of the program, embodied by that code, is legally protected and that its owner may take legal action to enforce its rights in the program against that party to prevent such copying. These notices can be readily discovered in program code listings and simply excised by the third party prior to copying and distributing illicit copies. Other such notices can be excised by a third party adversary from the software media itself and the program packaging as well. Though these notices are often necessary in many jurisdictions to secure full legal remedies against third parties, in practice, these notices have provided little, if any, real protection against third party copying.
Another technique that is recently seeing increasing use is to require a PC, on which the program is to execute, to hold a valid digital "certificate" provided by the manufacturer of the program. The certificate will typically be loaded as a separate step during manufacture of the PC. During initialization, the program will test the certificate and confirm its authenticity and validity. If the certificate is authentic and valid, the program will continue to execute; otherwise, the program will simply terminate. Unfortunately, the certificate and associated testing routines are often very loosely bound to the remainder of the program code. Currently available software analysis tools can display execution flow among program instructions in a program under test. Consequently, with such tools, a programmer, with knowledge of an operational sequence implemented by the program and by analyzing a flow pattern inherent in that program, as it executes, can readily discern the program code that implements a certificate testing function. Once this code is detected, the programmer can readily excise that portion from the program itself and simply modify the remaining program code, by, e.g., by inclusion of appropriate jump instruction(s), to compensate for the excised portion; thus, totally frustrating the protection which the certificate was intended to provide against unauthorized copying. Once having done so, a third party adversary can then produce and distribute unauthorized, but fully executable, copies of the program free of all such protection. Thus, in practice, this approach has proven to be easily compromised and hence afforded very little, if any, real protection against illicit copying.
Other techniques have relied on using serialized hardware or other hardware centric arrangements to limit access to a program to one or more users at one particular PC and preclude that program from being loaded onto another PC. Generally, these techniques, often referred to as "copy protect" schemes and which were popular several years ago, relied on inserting a writeable program distribution diskette, such as a floppy diskette, into a PC and then, during execution of an installation process from that diskette, have that PC store machine specific data, such as a hardware identification code, onto the diskette. Thereafter, during each subsequent installation of the program, an installation process would check the stored machine specific data on the installation diskette against that for a specific PC on which the program was then being installed. If the two pieces of data matched, installation would proceed; otherwise, it would prematurely terminate. Unfortunately, such schemes, while generally effective against unauthorized copying, often precluded legitimate archival copying as well as a legitimate installation of the program on a different PC. In view of substantial inconveniences imposed on the user community, such "copy protect" schemes quickly fell into disuse and hence where basically abandoned shortly after they first saw widespread use. Moreover, any such technique that relies on storing information on the distribution media itself during program installation is no longer practical when today software is distributed on massive read-only optical media, such as CDROM or, soon, digital video disk (DVD).
Therefore, given the drawbacks associated with copy protect and certificate based schemes, one would think that embedding an identifier of some sort into a program, during its manufacture and/or installation and subsequently testing for that identifier during subsequent execution of an installed version of that program at a user PC, would hold promise.
However, for such an identifier based approach to be feasible, a need exists in the art for an identifier, such as a watermark, that can be tightly integrated into a program itself such that the watermark would be extremely difficult, if not effectively impossible, for a third party to discern, such as through flow analysis, and then circumvent, such as by removal.
In particular, such a watermark could be embedded in some fashion into a non-marked program. Then, subsequently, at runtime of an installed version of that program at a user PC, a "secret" key(s) based cryptographic process could be used to reveal the presence of and test the watermark. The key(s) would be separately stored down, to the PC, as a software value(s). If the correct watermark were then detected, execution of the installed program would continue; else, execution would halt. Fortunately, such an approach would likely impose essentially no burden on, and preferably be totally transparent to, the user, and not frustrate legitimate copying.
If such an identifier could be made sufficiently impervious to third party detection and tampering, then advantageously its use, with, for example, such an approach, may well prove effective, in practice, at reducing unauthorized third party copying.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Technique for producing through watermarking highly tamper-resistant executable code and resulting “watermarked” code so formed


The path changing rotational conveyor for lightweight articles includes a rotor with receiving configurations distributed along its periphery to be coupled with the lightweight articles and a perimetric wall with a plurality of suction openings in correspondence with the receiving configurations; and a stationary negative pressure chamber defining a laterally open channel facing the perimetric wall of the rotor along a predetermined circumferential arc. The negative pressure chamber is partly delimited by the perimetric wall of the rotor and, when the rotor rotates, the suction openings are communicated directly with the negative pressure chamber along the predetermined circumferential arc. The rotor is connected to a rotation device and the chamber is communicated with a suction source.

Patent FR-A-2499034, filed on Nov. 14, 1980, describes a rotational device for redirecting bottles or similar articles coming from a conveyor line towards other conveyor lines. The device comprises a rotor formed by an upper plate and a lower plate which are superimposed, separated and connected to rotate together with respect to a vertical axis. Upper indentations are formed in a perimetric edge of the upper plate and lower indentations are formed in a perimetric edge of the lower plate, such that the mentioned upper and lower indentations, which are vertically aligned, form a plurality of receiving configurations uniformly distributed along the periphery of the rotor to be coupled with the bottles. Between the two plates there is arranged a plurality of outwardly facing suction cups, and each suction cup is in a position corresponding to one of the mentioned receiving configurations. The suction cups are connected by respective conduits to a negative pressure chamber formed in the hub of the rotor, and the negative pressure chamber is in communication with a vacuum source through a rotary joint. A valve is arranged in each of the mentioned conduits, and when the rotor rotates, the valves are selectively opened along a circumferential arc and closed again by cams fixed in a static support. When a valve is opened, the corresponding suction cup experiences a depression capable of holding by suction a bottle against the receiving configuration of the rotor along said circumferential arc. When the valve is closed again, the bottle is released onto another conveyor line.
Patent JP-A-58172109, filed on Apr. 5, 1982, discloses a device for removing defective bottles from a bottle conveying line in response to a signal generated by inspection means. The device comprises a rotor having a construction that is very similar to that described in the mentioned patent FR-A-2499034, except in that here each suction cup is in communication through a conduit with a corresponding hole formed in the lower plate. The lower plate rotates in frictional contact on a stationary fluid distribution plate where there are formed elongated holes connected with a vacuum source through conduits and electrically controlled valves which are selectively opened and closed according to said signal generated by the inspection means. When the rotor rotates, each suction cup can be put in communication with the fluid source when the corresponding hole of the lower plate of the rotor passes over one of the elongated holes of the stationary distribution plate to hold the bottle to the corresponding receiving configuration of the rotor and when one of the mentioned valves is opened.
A drawback of the use of suction cups is that for the operation thereof a type of vacuum at a relatively low relative pressure and a relatively small flow rate is necessary, which is typically obtained by means of a vacuum pump associated to a vacuum tank, which involves relatively high installation and maintenance economic costs. Furthermore, the need to provide a suction cup with its corresponding arrangement of conduits associated to each receiving configuration makes the construction of the rotor complex and increases the economic costs thereof.
Patent EP-A-1594781, with Italian priority of Feb. 19, 2003, describes a rotational conveyor for introducing or extracting empty plastic bottles or containers into or from a positioning machine. The conveyor comprises a rotor formed by separated upper and lower plates, and a plurality of indentations uniformly distributed along the periphery of said two plates, such that the indentations of the upper plate are vertically aligned with the indentations of the lower plate forming receiving configurations to be coupled with the bottles. Each receiving configuration is equipped with a box-like element supported by the lower plate, and each of said box-like elements has a vertical opening made in an outer wall following the concave profile of the corresponding receiving configuration. Horizontal openings are formed in the lower plate, each of which is in communication with one of the box-like elements. The mentioned horizontal openings are arranged along a circumference which is superimposed on an elongated curvilinear slot defined in a stationary chamber in which a negative pressure is created, said elongated slot extending along a predetermined circumferential arc. Thus, when, upon the rotation of the rotor, each horizontal opening passes above the elongated slot, the corresponding box-like element is in communication with the negative pressure chamber and a suction occurs through the vertical opening of the corresponding receiving configuration along the mentioned circumferential arc, said suction being sufficient to hold the empty bottle against the surface of the receiving configuration.
A drawback of this rotational conveyor is that it needs a box-like element associated to each receiving configuration to carry out a function similar to that of the suction cups in the aforementioned documents, and the need to provide a large number of box-like elements makes the construction of the rotor relatively complex and expensive. Furthermore, the receiving configurations of the rotor are adapted for a single bottle format, and providing a different rotor for each bottle format is not cost-effective.
International patent application WO 2007/031239, with Italian priority of Sep. 12, 2005, describes a rotational conveyor with a construction very similar to that of the mentioned patent EP-A-1594781, with the difference that the rotor comprises a plurality of interchangeable receiving elements, each of said receiving elements having a receiving configuration and a vertical opening which is in communication with the corresponding box-like element when the receiving elements is installed in the rotor. The receiving elements have quick connection means for the connection with the upper and lower plates of the rotor. This allows having different sets of receiving elements adapted for different bottle formats. A drawback is that when the rotor is to be adapted to bottles or containers of a different format, a large number of receiving elements of a first type must be uninstalled to then install a large number of receiving elements of a second type, and this operation requires time and is not cost-effective.
Document DE-A-102006055963 discloses a rotary device for transferring objects comprising a rotor having a thick perimetric wall with a plurality of receiving configurations uniformly distributed along its periphery for receiving said objects and conduits through said thick perimetric wall communicating said receiving configurations with a cylindrical inner surface of the thick perimetric wall. Rotation means are provided to make said rotor rotate. A stationary negative pressure chamber connected to a suction source is formed inside the rotor, and said negative pressure chamber is partly delimited by said cylindrical inner surface of the thick perimetric wall of the rotor along a predetermined circumferential arc, such that suction is provided through said conduits to each receiving configuration to hold by suction one of the objects in the receiving configuration along said predetermined circumferential arc.
A drawback with said rotary device is that the conduits communicating the negative pressure chamber with the receiving configurations cause a significant pressure loss due to the small diameter of the conduits with regard the dimensions of the receiving configurations and to the long length thereof due to the large thickness of the perimetric wall. Another drawback is that the thick perimetric wall makes the rotor heavy and difficult to be handled for installing and uninstalling it to and from the device. Still another drawback is that the rotor with the receiving configurations and the conduits has to be obtained by mechanizing a thick block of material, which makes the rotor expensive to be manufactured. The above drawbacks are made worse when the rotor is intended to handle articles of relative big size, such as bottles or containers, instead of small objects such as the preforms described in all the embodiments of cited document DE-A-102006055963.

Path changing rotational conveyor for lightweight articles


A matte synthetic paper is a biaxially oriented polypropylene synthetic paper having a thickness of 25 to 300 μm, and includes a printing surface layer as an outermost paper layer. Moreover, by adding a mist flour or a thermoplastic elastomer, the haze and gloss of the printing surface layer can be improved. According to Tappi T480, the printing surface layer having gloss of 15 to 50% is suitable to be printing paper.

A conventional biaxially oriented polypropylene synthetic paper (hereinafter referred to as synthetic paper) is a synthetic paper of a multi-layer laminated structure. The synthetic paper 10 with a three-layer structure, as shown in FIG. 1, is composed of an outermost paper layer (A1), a foamed middle layer (C1), and an innermost paper layer (E1) that are sequentially stacked. A manufacturing process thereof, as shown in FIG. 2, is to use three extruders (a1, c1, and e1) to form a three-layer laminated product of hot-melt state by squeezing the composition of each layer into a homo-T-die.
A synthetic paper 15 with a five-layer structure, as shown in FIG. 3, is composed of an outermost paper layer (A2), an upper resin layer (B2), a foamed middle layer (C2), a lower resin layer (D2), and an innermost paper layer (E2) that are sequentially stacked. The manufacturing process thereof, as shown in FIG. 4, is to use five extruders (a1, b1, c1, d1, and e1) to form a five-layer laminated product of hot-melt state by squeezing the composition of each layer into the homo-T-die.
The prepared hot-melt three-layer or five-layer laminated product is rapidly cooled by a cooling molding device 20, longitudinally extended 2.5 to 8 times by a longitudinal extension device 30, and transversely extended 2.5 to 8 times by a transverse extension device 40. After a high-frequency treatment of a corona treatment device 50, the surface tension is raised, and then a synthetic paper 10 with the three-layer structure or the synthetic paper 15 with the five-layer structure is collected with a coiler 60.
However, after nearly 20 years of development, the quality of the biaxially oriented polypropylene synthetic paper still has the disadvantage of uneven printing haze, so that it has not reached the goal of replacing natural paper products.


A heat transfer unit includes housing that includes a compressor, a condenser, one or more fans, and an air duct disposed on a side of the compressor unit. The heat transfer unit is configured such that the unit may operate in a mini-split or stacked configuration.

Thermal climate control is a technology that provides immense capabilities and benefits to the developed world. One example may be advancements in refrigeration or air conditioning. Refrigeration allows items that, under normal environmental conditions, would perish after a particular amount of time common to the item, to be preserved for longer periods of time than is common. For example, the expected useful life for items such as food, pharmaceutical drugs, etc., may be extended from refrigeration. With advancements in technology, refrigeration can now be placed or used in diverse locations or applications. One such application may include the use of reefer units on commercial trucks. These reefer units allow the trailer of a semi-truck to remain at a predetermined temperature for the entire duration of the truck's travel.
However, even in the developed world, refrigeration comes at great cost. The cost associated with the energy required to power refrigeration is often very high. Additionally, refrigeration units do not provide a one size fits all solution. For example, the reefer unit attached to a commercial semi-truck may not provide the best solution for storing food in a warehouse or grocery store. Therefore, these units are often tailored for a specific use to be most efficient for one specific use. This may increase the cost of individual units that need to be form fitted for a specific application. Furthermore, in remote locations or in developing countries, a perfectly tailored solution may not be readily attainable. In remote locations and in developing countries, it can be difficult to bring refrigeration units into these regions. Further, once the refrigeration unit is on site, the unit typically is used in a single application.
Thus, a solution is desired for a single heat transfer system/unit (i.e., heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, refrigeration unit, etc.) to be implemented in a variety of different applications. Additionally, it is desired that such a solution would allow users to easily configure the unit between different operating modes to accommodate the specific need.


An apparatus for preventing short circuit including an input/output terminal electrically connected, via a second external power line, to an external apparatus that is electrically connected to one of a driving voltage supply or a ground via a first external power line; an internal power line electrically connecting one of the driving voltage supply or the ground to the input/output terminal; a switch mounted on the internal power line to energize or block the internal power line; a variable resistor mounted on the internal power line; and a controller determining whether the input/output terminal is shorted based on a measurement current value of a current flowing through the internal power line and controlling a set resistance value of the variable resistor based on whether the input/output terminal is shorted.

The paradigm for automobile technology has recently been shifting from individual functions to an integrated system. For example, safety and convenience are improved through convergence of heterogeneous technologies including IT, electrics/electronics, environment, material science, etc. In particular, growth in techniques related to electrics/electronics is prominent; electronics parts include electric and electronic components that operate by receiving power of a vehicle battery, small-sized substrates including resistors or capacitors, and also direct current relays for vehicles.
A direct current relay for vehicles, from among electronics parts, is an apparatus that opens or closes another circuit by operating when an input reaches a certain value, and its importance is gradually increasing in respect of driver's safety and maintenance of the vehicle. In particular, in case an over-current occurs, it may lead to an explosion of the direct current relay for vehicles, and thus, it is essential to test reaction of a vehicle relay to an over-current.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are configuration diagrams of a relay testing apparatus according to the related art, respectively before and after a short circuit.
A relay testing apparatus 10 according to the related art will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. A power supply 11 and an external apparatus 15 are connected via a power line, and a relay 14 is mounted on the power line. Also, a voltage sensor 12 measuring a voltage difference between both ends of the relay 14 is mounted at both ends of the relay 14.
Next, an operating state of the relay 14 is controlled via a control unit 13, and the relay 14 is diagnosed based on a voltage difference at both ends measured using the voltage sensor 12 based on the operating state of the relay 14.
Here, as illustrated in FIG. 2, when a short circuit occurs in a section between the relay 14 and the external apparatus 15 from a ground due to a vehicle accident or incorrect connection of circuits, an internal circuit of the relay testing apparatus 10 is changed to a nonleaded state and a high current flows accordingly. Thus, the power supply 11 of the relay testing apparatus 10 is discharged, thus preventing diagnosing the relay 14.

Apparatus and method for preventing short circuit


A fuse assembly for a car incorporates therein an indicating bulb having two electrodes in order that the user can easily know that the fuse therein is blasted. The assembly includes a crosssectionally generally rectangular housing having a central room and two side rooms, two conducting plates received in the rooms, and a fuse connected between and integrally formed with the plates, in which the housing and the plates clamp therebetween the electrodes in order to position the bulb in the central room.

The present invention relates to a fuse, and more particularly to a fuse assembly for a car.
The conventional fuse assembly for a car includes a transparent tube, two metallic covering sleeves mounted on two ends of the tube and a fuse received in the tube and connected to the covering sleeves. Such fuse assembly is getting used fewer and fewer now since it cannot be conveniently put into practice and/or use.
In order to overcome the above shortcoming, there has been developed a fuse assembly 10 which as shown in FIG. 1 includes a hollow insulating housing 11 having a receiving room 12, two conducting plates 13 parallelly juxtaposed in the receiving room 12 and each of which has an inserting end 14 protruding beyond the housing 11, and a fuse 15 mounted between and integrally formed with the conducting plates 13. In use, the inserting ends 114 of the conducting plates 13 are inserted into a fuse assembly socket 20 having a plurality of socket slots 21 and electrically connected to various circuit system of the car. Such structure is advantageous in that the user can conveniently use or replace the fuse assembly 10 and the fuse assembly socket 20 can insert thereon a relatively great number of the fuse assembliess 10.
Nevertheless, either one of the above described two types of fuse assemblies is disadvantageous in that it is difficult for the user to determine whether a particular fuse assembly is out of order since a car normally has about 10.about.20 fuse assemblies grouped together.
It is therefore tried by the Applicant to deal with the shortcomings encounted by the prior art.


In an exhaust-gas recycling device for an internal combustion engine, especially a diesel engine, in which the quantity of the recycled exhaust-gas part stream is controlled by an exhaust-gas recycling valve equipped with a diaphragm, the material of which can be destroyed above a specific temperature, a reliable closing of the valve before the critical diaphragm temperature is reached will be achieved. For this purpose, the diaphragm is loaded by a spring, the spring force of which is temperature-dependent. If the temperature dependence is to set, for example by the use of a memory material, that, in a predeterminable upper temperature range, the spring force increases with an increasing temperature, the valve can be closed to prevent diaphragm overheating in an engine-operating state in which it would still be opened per set for the recycling of exhaust gas. Not only a memory alloy, but also a bimetal or combination of these two materials is suitable as a material for a spring acting in this way.

The invention relates to an exhaust-gas recycling device for an internal-combustion engine, especially a diesel engine, in which an exhaust-gas part stream can be returned to the combustion spaces of the engine by means of a line which can be shut off by a spring-loaded exhaust-gas recycling valve, the spring of the exhaust-gas recycling valve pressing against a diaphragm exposed to a vacuum dependent on engine-operating data, with the force directed counter to the vacuum, the valve being closed in the case of an excess of the spring force and the valve being opened ranging from partially to completely in the case of an excess of the force of the vacuum, depending on the amount of this excess.
A device of this type is known, for example, from German Patent Document DE 2,549,959 B.
The diaphragm installed in such an exhaust-gas recycling valve tolerates only a specific maximum temperature load by virtue of its material. If the admissible temperature limit is exceeded, there is the danger that the diaphragm will be damaged. This problem has hitherto been solved by setting, at any point of the engine in the engine housing, a temperature beyond which the vacuum acting on the diaphragm has been reduced, with the result that the exhaust-gas recycling valve has automatically closed under the still effective pressure of the spring. The disadvantage of this solution is that the measured temperature is merely an experimentally determined reference temperature for the temperature to be expected on the diaphragm. In this method, therefore, there is a relatively high degree of unreliability as regards a correct detection of the temperature of the diaphragm. This means, in turn, that, as a safeguard against the destruction of the diaphragm, the limiting temperature at the reference point has to be set so low that, even in the most unfavorable circumstances, the admissible temperature is not exceeded on the diaphragm itself. A measurement of the diaphragm temperature itself, so as to use this as a direct criterion for controlling or canceling the vacuum when the admissible diaphragm temperature is exceeded, involves an outlay which, as a rule, cannot be justified on economic grounds.
Starting from the above-explained background, an object on which the invention is based is to make it possible to close the exhaust-gas recycling valve at an inadmissibly high diaphragm temperature as simply as possible and in a way ensuring a complete utilization of the admissible temperature range. Furthermore, it will also be possible, at low outside temperatures, to keep the exhaust-gas valve closed even in those engine-operating states in which it would actually already have been opened as a result of the vacuum dependent on those operating data.
This object is achieved in that the force of the spring acting on the diaphragm of the exhaust-gas recycling valve is temperature-dependent.
The spring resting on the diaphragm is exposed, by way of this contact, to approximately the same temperature as the diaphragm, with the result that it is possible with high accuracy to adhere exactly to the upper limiting temperature diaphragm predetermined by virtue of its material.
Since it is mainly expedient to close the valve when and only when the upper limiting temperature which the diaphragm can tolerate is reached, it is appropriate to activate the temperature dependence of the spring only shortly before this limiting temperature is reached, whilst in the temperature range below it the spring force remains essentially unchanged.
To safeguard the diaphragm against overheating in a predetermined upper temperature range, the temperature dependence of the spring force must be designed in such a way that the spring force increases with an increasing temperature.
Moreover, for a lower temperature range the temperature dependence can be set so that, from a lower temperature limit value, the spring force likewise increases with a decreasing temperature. The last-mentioned setting is useful for starting and running up a cold engine, for example for starting an engine which is at temperature below 0 degrees Celsius. In these instances, in view of the engine-operating state it is sometimes desirable to prevent exhaust-gas recycling, even it would already have occurred per se according to the control dependent on the engine-operating conditions and usually taking place by means of a vacuum.
Under all circumstances, between an upper and a lower temperature range in which the spring force is temperature-dependent in the above-described way, there should be a middle temperature range in which the spring force remains independent of temperature, so that the valve can be controlled as a function of the engine-operating state solely by means of the vacuum applied to the diaphragm. Of course, the control dependent on the engine-operating state can also be obtained via any other control medium instead of by means of a vacuum.
The desired temperature dependence of the diaphragm spring can be achieved if the spring consists of a memory material which, as a result of material-property changes adjustable to specific temperature ranges, produces spring forces differing as a function of temperature.
Since, where memory materials are concerned, the temperature ranges in which material-property variations occur are, as a rule, relatively restricted, a plurality of spring elements consisting of differently set memory materials can be connected in series.
If a memory material is used as the diaphragm spring, it is recommended to employ a helical spring.
A temperature-dependent variation of the spring force can also be obtained by the use of bimetallic materials. The bimetallic materials here can be employed, for example, in the form of cup springs, if appropriately connected in series. The combination of a conventional helical spring of a spring force which is not temperature-dependent with bimetallic elements experiencing deformation as a function of temperature is also possible. In instances of such a combination, the bimetal should have as direct a contact with the diaphragm as possible, so as to possess temperature identity with the diaphragm. Springs made of memory material can also be combined with bimetallic elements.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Exhaust-gas recycling device for an internal-combustion engine, epsecially a diesel engine


A system, method, and computer program product for determining the structure of a document are provided. The method includes receiving a set of document pages for a document and linking one page frame to each of a plurality of document pages in the set. For each document page linked to a page frame, a content bounding box surrounding the content on the document page is identified, and the document page categorized, based at least in part on the geometrical relationship between the page frame and the content bounding box of the document page. The document page can then be identified as a logical cut based at least in part on the categorization of the document page. Information, such as a table of contents or updated table of contents, can then be output, based on the determined logical unit(s) of the document.

The exemplary embodiment relates to document processing. It finds particular application in connection with a system and method for the unsupervised determination of a logical structure of a document based on trailing and leading pages.
There are a large number of existing documents that do not have a table of contents (TOC), or that have a TOC that is out of date and unreliable. This may occur when a large book is digitally scanned to generate a digital document, or when the content of a digital document is updated without creating and/or updating a corresponding TOC. The lack of a reliable TOC for a document makes it more difficult to determine quickly and efficiently whether a document contains a particular piece of information and if so, where in the document the information is located. Existing methods for determining the logical structure of a document (and by extension, a TOC for the document) are computationally expensive and are prone to skewed results. An example of such a method is described in Emmanuel Giguet, Alexandre Baudrillart and Nadine Lucas, "Resurgence for the Book Structure Extraction Competition," INEX 2009 Workshop Pre-proceedings (hereinafter, "Giguet"). Giguet utilizes a four-page sliding window that is used to detect chapter transitions. However, this method is computationally expensive because it computes data for at least four pages at a time and compares the four pages of each four page window to determine chapter transitions. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a more efficient and reliable method of determining the logical structure of a document.

System and method for logical structuring of documents based on trailing and leading pages


A data compression device and a compression method are provided. The data compression device includes a quantization table processing unit and a quantization unit. The quantization table processing unit determines a target quantization table in which a quantization coefficient satisfies a data distortion rate and a compression ratio of a preset condition according to a target compression ratio. By constructing different quantization tables for different data, a distortion rate is greatly reduced based on satisfying a compression ratio, and issues that the distortion rate and the compression ratio cannot be simultaneously satisfied in the prior art are alleviated.

In current displays, compensation algorithms are often used to compensate for uneven display performance of liquid crystal panels. As a resolution of the liquid crystal panel increases, a storage unit required to compensate data becomes larger and larger, the cost is also higher and higher, and compensation data needs to be compressed.
Existing compression processing of compensation data includes lossy compression and lossless compression. However, lossless compression usually has a low compression ratio and cannot achieve compression requirements. Lossy compression has a high compression ratio, but distortion is more serious after the data is compressed.
Therefore, the existing data compression method has issues that the distortion rate and the compression ratio cannot be simultaneously satisfied and needs to be improved.

Data compression device and compression method configured to gradually adjust a quantization step size to obtain an optimal target quantization step size

TCL CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A system and method for analyzing concurrent programs that guarantees optimality in the number of thread inter-leavings to be explored. Optimality is ensured by globally constraining the inter-leavings of the local operations of its threads so that only quasi-monotonic sequences of threads operations are explored. For efficiency, a SAT/SMT solver is used to explore the quasi-monotonic computations of the given concurrent program. Constraints are added dynamically during exploration of the concurrent program via a SAT/SMT solver to ensure quasi-montonicity for model checking.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer program analysis and more particularly to a system and method for monotonic partial order reduction in evaluation of concurrent programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In concurrent systems, like device drivers, the number of interleavings of transitions from different threads or processes can be very large. This results in large state spaces and makes verification difficult for concurrent programs. Existing partial order reduction methods for pruning redundant interleavings during verification are either non-optimal, not accurate enough or not suited for symbolic implementation.
Existing partial order reduction methods for pruning redundant interleaving during verification are based either on computing persistent sets by using static analysis to compute the set of dependencies. Since static analysis typically over-approximates the set of behaviors of the given program, it may over-estimate the set of dependencies between transitions—making these techniques non-optimal. Moreover, these methods are not easy to incorporate in a symbolic model checking framework.
In explicit-state model checking, partial order reduction (POR) techniques have been developed to exploit the equivalence of interleavings of independent transitions in order to reduce the search state space. Since computing the precise dependence relation may be as hard as verification itself, existing POR methods often use a conservative static analysis to compute an approximation for it. Dynamic and Cartesian partial order reduction obviate the need for applying static analysis a priori by detecting collisions (data dependencies) on-the-fly. These methods can, in general, achieve more reduction due to the more accurate collision detection. However, applying these POR methods (which were designed for explicit-state algorithms) to symbolic model checking is a non-trivial task.
A major strength of SAT-based (satisfiability-based) symbolic methods is that property dependent and data dependent search space reduction is automatically exploited inside modern SAT or SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theory) solvers, through the addition of conflict clauses and non-chronological backtracking. Symbolic methods are often more efficient in reasoning about variables with large domains. However, combining classic POR methods (e.g., those based on persistent-sets) with symbolic algorithms has proven to be difficult. The difficulty arises from the fact that symbolic methods implicitly manipulate large sets of states as opposed to manipulating states individually. Capturing and exploiting transitions that are dynamically independent with respect to a set of states is much harder than for individual states.
Consider the example program shown in FIG. 1 comprised of two concurrent threads accessing a global array α[ ] and an interleaving lattice 20. The two pointers p and q may be aliased. Statically, transitions tA, tB in thread T1 are dependent with tar tα, tβ in T2. Therefore, POR methods relying on a static analysis may be ineffective. Note that when i≠j holds in some executions, tA,tB and tα,tβ become independent, meaning that the two sequences tA; tB; tα; tβ; tC; tγ; and tα; tβ; tA, tB; tC; tγ; are equivalent. However, none of the existing symbolic partial order reduction methods takes advantage of such information.
Among explicit-state POR methods, dynamic partial order reduction and Cartesian partial order reduction are able to achieve some reduction by detecting conflicts on-the-fly. In any individual state s, the values of i and j (as well as p and q) are fully determined, making it much easier to detect conflicts. However, it is not clear how to directly apply these techniques to symbolic model checking, where conflict detection is performed with respect to a set of states. Missing out on these kind of partial-order reductions can be costly, since a symbolic model checker needs to exhaustively search among the reduced set of execution sequences. The number of valid interleavings (sequences) can be large even for moderate sized programs.
Recently, a new technique called Peephole Partial Order Reduction (PPOR) has been proposed that allows partial order reduction to be integrated with symbolic state space exploration techniques. The key idea behind PPOR is to place constraints on which processes can be scheduled to execute in the next two steps starting at each global state. If in a global state, transitions tr and tr′ such that tid(tr)<tid(tr′), where tid denotes thread-id, are enabled and independent then tr′ cannot execute immediately before tr. It was shown that PPOR is optimal for programs with two threads but non-optimal for programs with more than two. The reason is that to achieve optimality for programs with more than two threads, we might need to track dependency chains involving many processes. These chains, which could be spread out over an entire computation, are hard to capture via local scheduling constraints.

System and method for monotonic partial order reduction


A camera crane tractor includes first and second spaced apart and parallel wheel decks on a chassis. The tractor has left and right side treads supported on tread rollers on the chassis, and a motor for driving the treads. One or more angled wheel guide strips may be provided on each of the wheel decks, to guide the wheels of a mobile base rolling onto the wheel decks. The wheel guide strips may have an angle complimentary to an angled sidewall of the wheels of the mobile base. Wheels stops are positioned at the ends of the wheel decks to prevent longitudinal movement of the mobile base after it is loaded onto the tractor. Threaded holes may be provided in the chassis between the wheel decks to allow the mobile base to be clamped down onto the tractor.

In the production of motion picture, television and video recordings, the camera must often be supported at a fixed position or moved in a precise trajectory to follow actors or other subjects. The camera movements may require a change in camera position, camera angle, or camera elevation. The camera movement must be performed smoothly, as even small amounts of shock and vibration of the camera can result in unsatisfactory filming, due to shaky or erratic recorded images. Various camera cranes have been used for this purpose.
Typically, a fixed length or telescoping camera crane arm is mounted on a mobile base or other similar vehicle having wheels. The mobile base may be manually pushed and steered by the camera crew, or the mobile base may be self-propelled via one or more electric motors. While these known designs have met with varying degrees of success, existing mobile bases tend to perform poorly on soft surfaces, such as sand or mud. They are also limited to use on relatively flat or only gradually inclined surfaces. Accordingly, engineering challenges remain in providing camera cranes and equipment suitable for use on wide ranges of surfaces, including soft surfaces and steeply inclined surfaces.
Other objects, features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description.


A system for diagnosing a motor vehicle has a diagnosis device including a computer having a central processing unit and an input/output interface, a first connector for connecting the input/output interface to the control system. A memory cartridge is detachably connected to the diagnosis device through a second connector. First auxiliary terminals are provided on the first connector for connecting the diagnosis device with the control system, and second auxiliary terminals are provided on the second connector. The first auxiliary terminals are connected with the second auxiliary terminals through communication lines provided in the diagnosis device, and the second auxiliary terminals are connected with the input/output interface through communication lines provided in the memory cartridge.

The present invention relates to a trouble diagnosis system for a motor vehicle.
Recently, a motor vehicle has been equipped with an electronic control system for controlling various components of an engine, such as fuel injectors, thereby improving driveability, exhaust gas emission, fuel consumption, and engine power. The electronic control system controls the components based on information represented by output signals from various sensors for detecting engine operating conditions. Accordingly, if malfunctions of components and sensors occur, the engine does not properly operate.
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open 59-61740 discloses a self-diagnosis system where signaling lamps provided on the vehicle are lit or flashed when abnormalities occur in sensors and actuators such as injectors. However, the nature of the defective condition of the sensors and actuators cannot be known only by the lit or flashing lamps. Accordingly, a trouble diagnosis device for easily checking the electronic control system should be provided as equipment in an auto shop.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 58-12848 discloses a diagnosis system in which a checking device is provided for measuring the pulse duration of fuel injection and an engine speed, and for checking whether idling speed is normal.
However, the system is provided for diagnosing only a designated type of motor vehicle by using an exclusive checking device.
In order to diagnose various vehicles, it is necessary to provide several types of checking devices corresponding to respective types of motor vehicles.
FIG. 6 shows a recently proposed diagnosis system which comprises a diagnosis device 102 and a memory cartridge 103 detachably attached to the device 102. The memory cartridge 103 has a memory such as a ROM for storing diagnosis programs and fixed data for the type and the model year of a vehicle 100. Various cartridges 103 (only one being illustrated) for all vehicle types are provided and the cartridge for the presented vehicle is selected and attached to the diagnosis device 102. A two-way communication between the cartridge 103 and an electronic control system 101 on the vehicle 100 is performed for diagnosing the electronic control system.
However, since the program stored in the fixed capacity ROM of the cartridge in the system can not be expanded for additional functions, if additional sensors and actuators are mounted on the motor vehicle, the control system can not diagnose the additional equipment. Further, in the case where a plurality of input signals from the control system must be simultaneously calculated and treated by the diagnosis device, such operations can not be performed by a single device, even if the memory cartridge is changed. Further, there is a weakness in that if the two-way communication system between the control system and the diagnosis device is changed, the diagnosis device can not diagnose it.


An electric vehicle comprises a vehicle body including a head pipe supporting a steering shaft, and a main frame extending rearward from the head pipe; an electric motor which generates driving power for driving a wheel; and a battery case accommodating a plurality of batteries storing DC power to be supplied to the electric motor, in a battery space in an interior of the battery case, wherein the battery case includes a casing body, and a reinforcement frame provided on the casing body to reinforce the main frame, and the reinforcement frame is fastened to the main frame by a fastening member.

In recent years, an electric vehicle which drives a wheel with driving power generated in an electric motor using electric power supplied from batteries has been developed. Patent Literature 1 discloses an electric motorcycle as an exemplary electric vehicle. In this electric motorcycle, batteries accommodated in a battery case are placed above a rear frame and below a seat.


A method and an apparatus for controlling internet of things devices. The method includes: receiving a control instruction configured to control the internet of things devices and sent by a control application, where the control instruction includes an identification number of the control application and identification numbers of a plurality of internet of things devices; determining, according to the control instruction, whether the control application has authority to access the internet of things devices; sending the control instruction to the internet of things devices to enable the internet of things devices to execute the control instruction when it is determined that the control application has the authority to access the internet of things devices. Compared to a case where each internet of things device is corresponding to a control application specific thereto, efficiency of control of an intelligent terminal over the internet of things devices is improved.

The internet of things is an internet of connected things, which has two levels of meaning: first, the core and foundation of the internet of things are still internet, and it is extended and expanded based on internet; second, the user side of the internet of things is extended to any items, that is, the internet of things allows for information exchange and communications among any items.
In the prior art, with the development of intelligent terminals, more and more internet of things devices can be connected to and managed by the intelligent terminals. Specifically, manufactures of the internet of things devices provide control applications directed to different intelligent operation systems while manufacturing the internet of things devices, and the intelligent terminals may mange the internet of things devices after being installed with the control applications.
However, each internet of things device is corresponding to a control application specific thereto. As more and more internet of things devices are connected to the intelligent terminals, the number of the control applications that need to be installed with an intelligent terminal also increases, resulting in low efficiency of control of the intelligent terminals over the internet of things devices.

Method and apparatus for controlling internet of things devices

CHINA UNITED NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS GROUP COMPANY LIMITED


This disclosure relates generally to consent management, and more particularly to a method and system for generating consent recommendation. The system determines a user aspect indicating consent preferences of the user, and identifies/predicts a reference privacy profile as matching the user aspect. The system uses a machine learning model to process the user aspect and to predict the matching reference privacy profile. Further, based on the matching reference privacy profile, the system generates one or more consent recommendations. The system can also be configured to obtain feedback for the generated consent recommendations and re-recommends consents based on the obtained feedback.

In various circumstances, a data subject (who may be a user of an application, a website, and so on) may be required to share personal information. The personal information may be personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive personal information (SPI) such as but not limited to name, age, sex, date of birth, or may be user ID, credit/debit card numbers, and national identification number, or may be bank account information and so on. With strict data privacy rules in place, websites or applications or any such platforms that access user data requires user consent before accessing and using the user data.
The inventors here have recognized several technical problems with such conventional systems, as explained below. Most of the systems/platforms that are accessing such data are configured to obtain user consent before and/or while accessing and using such data. However for a user who interacts with multiple such platforms, it may be an inconvenience (in terms of time, and effort) to provide consent every time (or at least when the user accesses the platform for the first time) the platform is accessed.

Method and system for generating consent recommendation


A width A of the scanning area of the ink ejection orifices and a width B of the scanning area of the reacting liquid ejection orifices are respectively set as A=(n−a)×p and B=n×p, while amount of the feeding of the printing sheet during each scan corresponds to the width of the scanning area of the reacting liquid ejection orifices, that is, A=(n−a)×p. With this system, the width of the scanning area, wherein ejection of the reacting liquid precedes ejection of the ink, is made shorter by C=a×p than the width of following scanning area; the scanning area having the width C is scanned two times by the row of the ink ejection orifices, and the thinning process is applied to this area having the width C.

Ink-jet printing methods are that eject ink in the form of fine drops for being deposited on the surface of a printing medium such as a printing paper so as to perform printing. Among such methods, especially, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 61-059911 (1986), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 61-059912 (1986)and Japanese Patent Application Publication No.61-059914 (1986) respectively propose a method designed so that the electro-thermal conversion element is used as an ejection energy generating element so that heat energy generated from the electro-thermal conversion element is applied to the ink to generate a bubble in the ink and to eject an ink droplet. These methods enable a high-density multiple-orifice printing head to be made available easily and thereby enable a high-resolution and a high-quality image to be printed quickly.
However, ink used in conventional ink-jet printing methods, including those described in the above-mentioned documents, contains water as a main component and a water soluble solvent having a high melting point such as the glycol for preventing the ink from drying and clogging. When such an ink is used for printing on a plain paper, an image having an adequate optical density may not be obtained owing to permeation of the ink into inside the paper and an unevenness of the optical density of the image may occur owing to probable uneven distribution of a loading filler and a sizing in the surface layer of the paper. Further, especially when printing a color image, a plurality of colors of inks are sequentially applied on the ink, which has been applied and not yet fixed, and then the applied inks may spread at a boundary portion between different colors of the image to mix together(hereinafter referred to as bleeding). This mixing of deferent colors of inks results in deterioration of a print quality.
On the other hand, there are known methods for increasing the optical density of the image or decreasing the bleeding, which apply a liquid for making the coloring materials such as a dye or a pigment insoluble (referred to as a reacting liquid in the present specification) prior to applying ink. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-202328 (1993) proposes a method for preventing the bleeding by using the reaction between the polyvalent metal ion and the carboxyl group; further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-207424 (1997) proposes a method for reducing the bleeding by means of the reaction among the pigment, resin emulsion and polyvalent metallic salt.
Further, there are some proposals for the method for using the reacting liquid and the ink and carrying out the efficient printing by sequentially applying the reacting liquid and the ink. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-195823 (1995) describes a method in which printing is performed by ejecting the reacting liquid and the ink in this order, during a single scan (hereinafter may be also referred to as 1 pass). Besides, there is another known method wherein, for speeding up printing, the above described printing during 1-pass is performed during each of bidirectional two scans with the printing head (hereinafter also referred to as a bidirectional printing). Further, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the 1-pass and bidirectional printing is commonly performed so that printing for a single scanning area is completed during the single scan with the printing head, and this printing during the 1-pass is made to take place during each of the forward scan and the backward scan with the printing head. Then, a printing medium is fed by an amount corresponding to the width of the scanning area (i.e., the width of printing by the printing head) between any one scan and another scan. In FIG. 6, the black rectangular area represents the printing head whereas the vertical length thereof represents the width of the printing made by the printing head.
However, in the case of the bidirectional printing method, in applying the reacting liquid and the ink on the printing medium overlapping with each other, the order of applying the reacting liquid and the ink during the forward scan is reverse to that during the backward scan, thereby possibly causing the occurrence of uneven coloring and resultant deterioration of the printing quality due to the bidirectional printing process.
FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are diagrams schematically illustrating the condition described above. As shown in FIG. 1A, the arrangement of the printing heads for the inks, i.e., cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), black (K), and the reacting liquid Sp, is made so that the printing heads for the respective inks of colors are arranged along a direction of the scanning while the printing head for the reacting liquid Sp is arranged at one end of the series of printing heads for the inks. Further, in the diagram, each row of ejection orifices of the ink and the row of the reacting liquid ejection orifices are represented by the segment of straight line respectively. The same applies to the cases of other drawings referred later.
With the arrangement of the printing heads, in the case of 1-pass and bidirectional printing, for example, as shown in FIG. 1B, during the first pass of the forward scan, the overlapped application is made in the order of the reacting liquid Sp and ink M, while, during the second pass of the backward scan, the overlapped application occur in the order of the ink M and the reacting liquid Sp. In consequence, the order of the overlapped application of the ink and the reacting liquid during the forward scan differs from that during the backward scan, thereby causing the difference in the coloring between the image printed during the forward scan and the image printed during the backward scan, and then the delicate difference may be caused in the coloring of the printed image between scanning areas of the respective forward and backward scans to be unevenness coloring. Such situation is considered to result mainly from the difference in permeability to the printing medium between the reacting liquid and the ink and resultingly the amount of reacting of the reacting liquid with the ink varying depending on which of the reacting liquid and the ink is applied before the other.
In contrast, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2001-138554 proposes a system wherein, as shown in FIG. 2A, the printing heads for ejecting the reacting liquid Sp are arranged symmetrically similarly to the printing heads for respective color inks (i.e., C, M and Y) so that the orders of overlapping of the ink and the reacting liquid during respective forwarding and backward scans can be made to coincide with each other. In other words, as shown in the same figure, out of the printing heads for the reacting liquid Sp, one arranged on the leftmost end and the group of the printing heads for the respective color inks arranged on the left-hand side are used together for printing during the forwarding scan, while the printing heads for the reacting liquid arranged on the rightmost end and the group of the printing heads for the respective color inks arranged on the right-hand side are used together for printing during the backward scan, whereby, as shown in FIG. 2B, it can be made possible for the reacting liquid Sp to be applied always in first during any of the forward and the backward scans, and, subsequently, any one of inks C, M, Y or two or three different color inks can be applied in the order of C, M and Y.
However, arranging the printing heads for the reacting liquid in addition to the printing heads for the respective color inks symmetrically with one another causes an increase in the number of printing heads and then causes an increase in the size of an apparatus using the printing heads and the manufacturing cost for the apparatus. Further, even if printing heads are configured so that printing heads for respective inks are recognized by a row of ejection orifices and are of chip forms which are integrated as one unit, such a system also causes an increase in the unit size and then causes an increase in the size of the apparatus. Further, the increase in the number of the printing head or the number of the chips in the fashion described above requires recovery units such as the caps, blades or the like being provided according to the printing heads, and then brings an increase in the size of the apparatus, the complication of the system of the apparatus and the increase in the manufacturing cost.
Further, the arrangements of the printing heads shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 2A respectively are designed so that the printing heads for ejecting the ink and the printing heads for ejecting the reacting liquid are arranged on a common scanning line. Thus, such printing head arrangement is apt to give rise to a problem such that bounce mists are caused when the reacting liquid ejected and landed to a printing medium, and that the mists of the reacting liquid adheres to ejection orifice surfaces of the printing heads for inks to form insoluble substances resulting from the reaction of the reacting liquid with the ink, which provides an adverse effect on the ejection of the ink.
As the system for reducing the problem relating to the increase in the size of the printing head unit and the like, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2001-138554 discloses a printing head arrangement in which the row of the reacting liquid ejection orifices is arranged to be shifted along a feeding direction of a printing medium (hereinafter referred to as a sub-scan direction) from rows of the ink ejection orifices.
FIG. 3A shows an example of such arrangement of the printing heads. In the system shown in the same figure, the respective rows of the ejection orifices for respective inks C, M and Y are arranged symmetrically with respect to the row of the ejection orifices for ink K, while the row of the ejection orifices for the reacting liquid Sp is arranged adjacent to the endmost row of the ink ejection orifices in the sub-scan direction (a sheet feeding direction). Further, the length of each row of the ink ejection orifices is set equal to the length of the row of the reacting liquid ejection orifices. According to this arrangement, as shown in FIG. 3B, in each scanning area, the reacting liquid is applied precedently by 1 pass to that inks are applied (i.e. during the 0th scan prior to the first scan for the ink; during the second scan prior to the first scan for the reacting liquid; during the third scan prior to the second scan for the reacting liquid and so on). More specifically, the inks are landed on the reacting liquid deposited during the scan preceding by 1 pass, and then the ink and the reacting liquid react with each other on the printing medium.
According to this arrangement, an order in which the reacting liquid and the ink overlap with each other can be kept constant regardless of the direction of scan as well as different scanning areas can be assigned to the reacting liquid to be ejected and the ink is to be ejected, whereby the effect of the mist of the reacting liquid can be reduced.
However, in performing printing during 1 pass by using the vertically arranged printing heads as are shown in FIG. 3A, when the difference in permeability between the ink and the reacting liquid is relatively large, such difference in the permeability may cause insufficient coloring in the vicinity of the boundary of the adjacent scanning areas, and then an printed image has white streaks throughout the whole printed image.
More specifically, in the case shown in FIG. 3B, if the permeability of the ink to be applied over the previously applied reacting liquid is higher than the permeability of such reacting liquid, the reacting liquid, which has been deposited on the printing medium preceding by 1 pass to the deposit of the ink, will be mixed to some extent with the ink, which has been deposited simultaneously with the reacting liquid during the same scan (i.e., the first scan, the second scan and whatever), in a hatched vicinity area of a boundary for the adjacent scanning area (on the right-hand side in the figure), and, as a result, the permeability of the reacting liquid mixed with the ink increases. Then, before the ink is applied in the following scans (i.e., the second scan, the third scan and whatever), the reacting liquid in the vicinity area marked with the hatching permeates a printing medium more than the reacting liquid in an area other than area marked with the hatching. In consequence, an amount of reacting of the ink with the reacting liquid in the hatched area decreases and then solubilization or coagulation of the coloring substance in the ink becomes insufficient, so that the marked area with the hatching has a lower optical density than that of the area other than the marked area. Then, the area having lower optical density can cause the problems such as the development of white streaks in the printed image.
Here, the cause of the phenomenon called the white streaks will be discussed specifically. Here, the discussion will be confined to the scanning area X, wherein the reacting liquid is applied during the first scan while the high-permeability ink is applied during the second scan (i.e., the area wherein the area 1 for application of the reacting liquid and the area 2 for application of the ink overlap with each other) and the scanning area Y, wherein the low-permeability reacting liquid is applied during the second scan while the high-permeability ink is applied during the third scan (i.e., the area wherein the area 2 for application of the reacting liquid and the area 3 for application of the high-permeability ink overlap with each other). Within the scanning area Y, the ink applied during the third scan reacts with the reacting liquid applied during the preceding second scan. In this arrangement, since the major portion (indicated as the non-hatched portion in the figure) of the scanning area Y is covered with the low-permeability reacting liquid, a sufficient amount of reacting liquid remain near the surface of the printing medium throughout the scanning area Y. Therefore, within the major portion (indicated as a non-hatched portion in the figure) of the scanning area Y, the ink and the reacting liquid can react sufficiently with each other to provide a sufficient optical density. However, the reacting liquid present within the portion indicated as the hatched portion in the figure of the scanning area Y has been mixed to some extent with the ink applied within the scanning area X during the second scan prior to application of the ink during the third scan, so that the permeability of the reacting liquid has been increased. In consequence, at the time of the third scan for application of the ink, the reacting liquid applied on the hatched area of the scanning area Y has already permeated into the printing medium to some extent. Consequently, the amount of the reacting liquid remaining near the surface of the printing medium within the hatched area (i.e., the amount of the reacting liquid for enabling the reaction with the ink to be applied during the third scan) becomes relatively small compared with the reacting liquid present within non-hatched area. In such a situation, the optical density of the hatched area becomes lower than that in the non-hatched area thereby causing the development of the white streak.

Ink-jet printing method and ink-jet printing apparatus


In a method for parametering a field device of process automation technology, wherein the field device is connected via a bus system with a control unit, parameter values are packaged in telegrams of cyclic services and transmitted to the field device whose parameter values are to be changed. No acyclic services are required for changing parameter values.

In process automation technology, field devices are often used, which serve to register and/or influence process variables. Examples of such field devices are fill level measuring devices, mass flow meters, pressure and temperature measuring devices, etc., which, as sensors, register the corresponding process variables, fill level, flow, e.g. flow rate, pressure and temperature, respectively.
Serving for influencing process variables are also field devices in the form of actuators, e.g. valves or pumps, via which flow of a liquid in a pipe section, and/or fill level in a container, can be changed.
In principle, all devices are designated as field devices, which are used near a process and which supply or process process-relevant information.
A large number of such field devices are manufactured and sold by the firm, Endress+Hauser.
As a rule, field devices in modern industrial plants are connected by bus systems (Profibus, Foundation Fieldbus, etc.) with superordinated units (control systems or control units). These superordinated units serve, among other things, for process control, process visualization, process monitoring, as well as for start-up of the field device.
Normally, the superordinated units are control units (e.g. programmable logic controllers, or PLCs). In the bus system (Profibus PA or DP), these control units function as Master Class 1. They are responsible for the cyclic data traffic on the bus system.
For the parametering and diagnosis of field devices, today, as a rule, additionally, service units with corresponding service programs (e.g. PDM of the firm, Siemens, FieldCare of the firm, Endress+Hauser) are deployed, which communicate with the field devices acyclically and function as Master Class 2.
Recently, the Profibus specifications were adapted so that also Master Class 1 units can make use of acyclic services. That means that parametering of field devices is now also possible with control units meeting the new specifications.
At present, in existing applications, almost exclusively, control units of the older generation are to be found, which have no acyclic services. Also in future applications, due to reliability reasons, control units of the older generation are apt still to be used frequently.
In order to be able to use the newly specified, acyclic services, the older control units would have to be replaced with new control units. For this, a shutdown of the plant would be necessary, accompanied by an interruption of the control process. Integration of the new control units could only be accomplished by highly-qualified technical personnel. All these measures would be extremely complex for the user and be tied to substantial costs. The probability that older controls will continue to be used into the future is, therefore, quite high.

Method for parameterizing a process automation field device by simulating the acyclic services


A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing graph aggregation. In use, a graph with a plurality of vertices and a plurality of edges is identified. Additionally, aggregation is performed on the vertices and edges of the graph by computing a graph matching, where such graph matching is performed in a data-parallel manner.

Performing aggregation within a graph can result in simpler, more efficient decision making. For example, aggregation may be performed to simplify a high resolution problem by creating a lower resolution problem that may be easier to solve. However, current techniques for performing aggregation within a graph have been associated with various limitations.
For example, current implementations for performing aggregation within a graph have shown a variety of inefficiencies which may be amplified as data sets utilized during the aggregation increase in size. Furthermore, current implementations may show inefficiencies due to the fact that such implementations may be performed only utilizing serial methodologies. There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

System, method, and computer program product for performing graph aggregation


A Unified Debugger that enables the debugging of graphical models with combinations of entities from multiple domains such as time-based block diagrams, statecharts, and physical system models, with additional features for the debugging of hand-written and automatically generated code is disclosed. A view of the entity being executed that is consistent with the type of the modeling domain to which the entity currently being executed belongs is automatically generated for a user. Rather than requiring a user to manually transition from one debugger to the next, the Unified Debugger applies the appropriate debugging features from each modeling domain. The Unified Debugger also enables integration of diagnostic information from a multitude of modeling domains into a central user interface. In addition, a standard diagnostic interface which spans a plurality of modeling domains is defined that enables the customization of debug behavior.

Block diagrams are used to model real-world systems. Historically, engineers and scientists have utilized time-based block diagram models in numerous scientific areas such as Feedback Control Theory and Signal Processing to study, design, debug, and refine dynamic systems. Dynamic systems, which are characterized by the fact that their behaviors change over time, are representative of many real-world systems. A dynamic system (either natural or man-made) is a system whose response at any given time is a function of its input stimuli, its current state, and the current time. Such systems range from simple to highly complex systems. Physical dynamic systems include a falling body, the rotation of the earth, bio-mechanical systems (muscles, joints, etc.), bio-chemical systems (gene expression, protein pathways), and weather and climate pattern systems. Examples of man-made or engineered dynamic systems include: a bouncing ball, a spring with a mass tied on an end, automobiles, airplanes, control systems in major appliances, communication networks, audio signal processing, nuclear reactors, and a stock market.
A block diagram model of a dynamic system is represented schematically as a collection of blocks interconnected by lines that represent signals. A signal represents the input and output of a dynamic system. Each block represents an elemental dynamic system. A line emanating at one block and terminating at another signifies that the output of the first block is an input to the second block. Each distinct input or output on a block is referred to as a port. Signals correspond to the time-varying quantities represented by each line connection and are assumed to have values at each time instant at which the connecting blocks are enabled. The source block of a signal writes to the signal at a given time instant when its system equations are solved. The destination blocks of this signal read from the signal when their system equations are being solved.
Time-based block diagram models may be thought of as relationships between signals and state variables representative of a dynamic system. The solution (computation of system response) of the model is obtained by evaluating these relationships over time. The time-based relationship may start at a user-specified "start time" and end at a user-specified "stop time", or the evaluations may continue indefinitely. Each evaluation of these relationships is part of a time step. Signals represent quantities that change over time, and these quantities are defined for all points in time between the block diagram's start and optional stop time. The relationships between signals and state variables are defined by sets of equations represented by blocks. These equations define a relationship between the input signals, output signals, state, and time.
It should be noted that the term "block diagram" as used herein is also used to refer to other graphical modeling formalisms. For instance, flow-charts are block diagrams of entities that are connected by relations. Flow-charts are used to capture process flow and are not generally suitable for describing dynamic system behavior. Data flow block diagrams are diagrams of entities with relations between them that describe a graphical programming paradigm where the availability of data is used to initiate the execution of blocks, where a block represents an operation and a line represents execution dependency describing the direction of data flowing between blocks. It will be appreciated that a block diagram model may include entities that are based on other modeling domains within the block diagram. A common characteristic among these various forms of block diagrams is that they define semantics on how to execute them.
As noted above, professionals from diverse areas such as engineering, science, education, and economics build computational models of dynamic systems in order to better understand system behavior as it changes with the progression of time. The computational models aid in building "better" systems, where "better" may be defined in terms of a variety of performance measures such as quality, time-to-market, cost, speed, size, power consumption, robustness, etc. The computational models also aid in analyzing, debugging and repairing existing systems (be it the human body or the anti-lock braking system in a car). As systems become more complex, an increasingly large amount of time and effort is involved in creating accurate, detailed models. These models are typically hybrid dynamic systems that span a variety of domains, including continuous dynamics and discrete behavior, physical connections, and event-driven states. To add to the complexity, these systems may be depicted in a number of ways, including dynamic or physics block diagrams, finite state machines, and hand-written or automatically generated computer code.
To identify a cause when a model does not execute as expected, or when its execution time needs to be improved, detailed information about its execution has to be available. Unfortunately, this level of detail is not usually available as the display and the accessibility of such detailed information introduces significant execution overhead. Instead, the model can be run in a distinct 'debug' mode, where the additional information is exposed, but at the cost of execution speed. In order to debug the system behavior, the modeler must not only understand the inner workings of each piece of a model, but also how these different pieces interact. For example, the dynamic model could cause a transition in the finite state machine, or part of the dynamic system may be implemented in computer code, which is simulated in conjunction with the remainder that is modeled in the block diagram.
Currently, debugging tools exist that allow modelers to debug individual portions of their model from different modeling domains. Individual existing debuggers can walk the user through a dynamic block diagram, or show the transition order in a finite state machine, or step through running computer code. Unfortunately, the individual debuggers do not work together as a seamlessly integrated tool over multiple domains. This presents a number of problems. The modeler has to manually transition from one debugger to the next, losing the context of where they are in their system. Additionally, conventional debuggers provide no information about how the different domains of the system work together.


A fluid-flow contaminant indicator includes a container having a fluid-flow path having an upstream region and a downstream region. A colorimetric indicator, disposed in the fluid-flow path, has a surface adapted to change color when exposed to a contaminant of interest. The colorimetric indicator has at least one hole passing there through such that the fluid-flow path extends through the hole(s) in the colorimetric indicator. A fluid-impervious mask is adhered to all of the colorimetric indicator's surface except for a region of the surface that is adjacent to the hole(s) in the colorimetric indicator wherein this region is exposed to the upstream region of the fluid-flow path.

Many public and industrial environments utilize air purification systems to remove contaminants from environmental air. As is known in the art, air purification systems are typically closed-loop systems that incorporate filter(s) to collect and/or absorb a variety of contaminants prior to cycling the air back into an environment. Over time, filters lose their efficacy and must be replaced. For example, filter beds known as sorbent filters are canisters filled with granular sorbents such as activated carbon, zeolites, and silica selected to absorb one or more contaminants of interest.
Once a sorbent filter is saturated with contaminant(s), the sorbent media must be replaced. Colorimetric indicators are used to signal when a sorbent media is saturated. Typically, a colorimetric indicator is placed in a fluid-flow region at or just downstream of a sorbent filter exit/exhaust. Such indicators change color to indicate the presence of a contaminant thereby signaling a sorbent media's loss of efficacy. However, in the presence of high levels of a contaminant and/or interfering substances, conventional colorimetric indicators can be prone to discoloration or bleaching thereby lending themselves susceptible to a false negative interpretation. An interfering substance can be a substance in the system other than the target contaminant. The interfering substance can react or interact with the target contaminant or with the indicator dye to cause discoloration. An interfering substance can also be the target contaminant itself when the target contaminant is present in excess or at high concentration. The above-mentioned false negative result can occur when a colorimetric indicator's color is affected by an interfering substance to the point that an observer can mistakenly interpret the colorimetric indicator as being indicative of a filter's sorbent media that is still effective.

Instantaneous and time-lapse fluid-flow contaminant indicator