A readily portable safe is bracketed to a bracket plate adapted to be secured to a solid surface by relative sliding motion. The safe is in two parts hinged together. A cylinder lock has a bolt which engages in registering holes in lugs on the plate and the two parts of the safe.

This invention relates to safes used for the safekeeping of valuable articles and particularly individual hand guns.
The safekeeping of hand guns has always been a problem for the owner. If not carried on the person, the firearm is either locked away out of reach and therefore unobtainable in an emergency or it is placed handily for use, with little or not regard to its safekeeping, e.g. in a bedside drawer, under a pillow or mattress, in the glove box of a motor car, etc. Many firearm owners that have fixed safes often remove the firearm at night in order that it may be more readily available during a night time emergency, but in the rush of the morning neglect to replace the firearm back in its safe. The firearm in such instances often finds its way into the hands of children or domestic employees, with often tragic results.


The specification describes an optical fiber device wherein a LOM is converted to an HOM prior to entering the gain section. The gain section is a few mode fiber that supports the HOM. The output from the gain section, i.e. the HOM, may be utilized as is, or converted back to the LOM. With suitable design of the few mode fiber in the gain section of the device, the effective area, Aeff, may be greater than 1600 μm2. The large mode separation in the gain section reduces mode coupling, allowing greater design freedom and reducing the bend sensitivity of the optical fiber.

(Parts of the following section may not be prior art.)
Fiber lasers with high pulse energy, good beam quality and excellent optical characteristics have applications in many fields and industries such as materials processing (marking, welding, semiconductor wafer and mask repair etc), medical and industrial spectroscopy (fluorescence, absorption), illumination, remote sensing and spectroscopy (wind speed, biohazards, ecosystem mapping etc), ranging and targeting (collision avoidance, military applications etc) and scientific instrumentation. For reasons of simplicity and efficiency, Yb3+-doped fibers are most commonly used. They can be optically pumped from 915 nm-975 nm and achieve emission from 975-1100 nm with optical conversion efficiency as high as 70%. Currently, advances in this field are primarily constrained by limitations in maximum extractable energy, and the onset of nonlinear impairments. Saturation energy of the gain medium is a key parameter for determining how much energy can be stored in an amplifier, and is given byi
                              E          sat                =                                            hν              s                                                  A              eff                                                          (                                                σ                  es                                +                                  σ                  as                                            )                                                  Γ              s                                                          (        1        )            where σes,σas are the emission and absorption cross section at the signal wavelength, hvs is signal energy at frequency vs, Aeff is area of the active doped region and Γs is signal overlap with the active dopant. As a general rule, the extractable energy stored in a fiber is limited to around ten times the saturation energy. As an example, for standard single mode Yb3+ doped fiber with 8□m core diameter, Esat=0.04 mJ, indicating extraction of only about 0.4 mJ per pulse.
Two deleterious nonlinear effects of concern are stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Both rob power from the signal and can cause catastrophic damage. For SRS, the threshold for peak power Pth before onset of serious Raman scattering in passive fibers is given by:
                              P          th                =                              16                                      A              eff                                                          g              R                                    L                                              (        2        )            where Aeff is the effective mode area of the fiber, gR is the Raman gain coefficient and L is the fiber length. For a fiber with 25 μm core diameter, Pth·L˜70 kWm. Since typical fiber lengths exceed 5 meters, this indicates peak powers of only 20 kW before Raman scattering becomes severe.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering arises from interaction of the signal with longitudinal acoustic modes of the fiber, causing part of the signal to be reflected backwards. Similar to the case of SRS, the threshold condition for SBS can be written as:
                              P          th                =                                            21                                            A                eff                                                                    g                B                                          L                                                      (                          1              +                              BW                                  BW                                      SiO                    2                                                                        )                                              (        3        )            where gB is the Brillouin gain coefficient, BW is the bandwidth of the signal and BWSi02 is the Brillouin bandwidth of a silica, i.e. Si02, fiber (˜50 MHz for silica). If the signal has bandwidth comparable to BWSi02, then for a fiber with 25 μm core diameter, Pth·L˜350 Wm. This is obviously a severe constraint and mitigation is desirable.
For both SBS and SRS impairments, equations (3) and (4) indicate mitigation is possible by increasing the modal area and decreasing the fiber length. Because a larger core occupies a larger fraction of the overall fiber cross-section and therefore has higher pump absorption, the optimum fiber length varies inversely with Aeff. Thus, increasing the core area naturally results in shorter length. Since the nonlinear effects vary as A/L, the increase in threshold varies as Aeff2.
Currently, the practical solution for obtaining large Aeff fiber is conceptually straightforward—simply increasing the core diameter. This results in monotonically increasing Aeff of the signal. However, there are several limitations to this approach. For single-mode operation, as the core diameter increases, the refractive index difference between the core and cladding, Δn, must decrease. If Δn<0.001, though, the fiber becomes bend sensitive. And when Δn is fixed at a minimum, further increase in core diameter results in multimode operation. While this is permissible, core size is then constrained by unavoidable but undesirable energy transfer among modes.
The mode coupling efficiency η between modes in a multimode fiber is given by
                    η        ∼                                            λ              2                                                  κ              2                                            Δ                                                                                n              eff                              2                                p                                                                        (        4        )            where κ is the perturbation amplitude due to index and microbend fluctuations, Δneff is the difference in effective indices between different modes, and p is a fitting parameter (with value >0) to account for mechanical perturbations on a fiber. Thus, large Δneff (e.g. >8×10−5) is desirable for low mode coupling. Unfortunately, as Aeff increases, Δneff decreases and rapidly asymptotes to values much smaller than 8×10−4, and mode coupling cannot be reduced. This is illustrated in FIG. 1, which shows simulations of two designs for achieving Aeff ˜1600 μm2(mode field ˜45 μm). FIG. 1a shows the refractive index profiles of the designs considered. The fiber with higher Δn has Δneff=6×10−5, indicating that it is highly susceptible to mode coupling. Note that this mode has negligible bend loss, as shown in FIG. 1b. Even with a huge reduction in Δn, Δneff is only increased by 30% and mode coupling remains catastrophic. Note that this reduction in Δn leads to extreme bend loss (FIG. 1b).
FIG. 1c illustrates an additional problem with large Aeff designs. All applications of high power lasers and amplifiers involve spatially transforming and focusing the device output. This is best achieved with Gaussian beams. Thus, an important metric for high power devices is the M2 of the output light, where M2 is a measure of the departure from a perfect Gaussian spatial profile (M2=1 is a perfectly Gaussian mode), given by:
                              M          2                =                              ∫                                          r                2                                                          E                2                                                          r                ·                                  ⅆ                  r                                                                          ∫                                                            (                                                            ⅆ                      E                                        /                                          ⅆ                      r                                                        )                                2                                                          r                ·                                  ⅆ                  r                                                                                (        5        )            where E is the electric field profile of the mode, and r is the radial coordinate. FIG. 1c shows two mode profiles representing two different M2 values for the two different designs (low and high mode coupling) represented in FIG. 1a. The output beam, becomes highly distorted (M2 dramatically increases) for the design with low mode coupling, and is sensitive to index perturbations in the core. Very tight control of fiber fabrication conditions is therefore necessary to maintain good beam quality, and this is difficult in fibers with Aeff>350 μm2.
Current preferred laser designs concentrate on means to force operation in a fundamental mode, even though the fiber may guide several modes. One disclosed means to achieve this is to preferentially strip the higher order modes (HOM). While this may be adequate for moderate Aeff, the higher modal content of large Aeff fibers leaves little room for discrimination of bend loss between modes. Alternatively, gain-inducing dopants can be selectively deposited in a fiber preform so that only the fundamental mode is substantially amplified or guided. While this technique would allow amplification of the desired mode in comparison to HOMs, it is designed for cases where the fundamental mode is substantially spatially separated from the HOMs—a condition typically absent in very large Aeff fibers. Another approach is to dope the fiber in a ring around the core rather than in the core itself. This increases the gain saturation limit of the gain medium, allowing extraction of higher power pulses. However, this technique leads to significant degradation of the output mode profile, i.e. departure from M2=1. Since many of the HOMs overlap spatially, mode coupling and mode discrimination becomes problematic.
Given the numerous performance trade-offs, gain fibers with current technology face a practical limit of mode field diameter ˜20 μm (Aeff=350 μm2) with little prospect of future advances using conventional engineering expedients. Thus there exists a need for an amplifier fiber that simultaneously yields very large Aeff, low mode coupling, and good output beam quality.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Large mode area fibers using higher order modes


An image reading apparatus according to the invention includes a transparent member on which an original document is placed, a reading unit arranged below the transparent member, the reading unit being movable reciprocally in a reading direction of the original document, a spacer member arranged at the reading unit for maintaining a prescribed interval between the transparent member and the reading unit by contacting to the transparent member, and an electrostatic removing member arranged at a position close to the spacer member when the reading unit is positioned at a prescribed position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image reading apparatus and, more particularly, to an image reading apparatus such as, e.g., a scanner and a facsimile machine, as well as to a multifunction apparatus having the image reading apparatus on an image forming apparatus thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
A known image reading apparatus having a reading sensor for reading images on original documents is provided with a spacer member between a reading face glass and the reading sensor to suppress shaking against the depth of focus. With such an apparatus, because static electricity may occur due to triboelectricity generated between the reading face glass and the spacer member according to reciprocal movements of the reading sensor, static electricity noise may enter in the reading sensor and the electric circuits, thereby possibly disordering output images.
To properly dissipate static electricity built between the reading face glass and the spacer member, Japanese Patent Application Publication NO. 2003-222955 discloses an image reading apparatus having a structure dissipating built static electricity via a conductive clip and a metal frame using a conductive member for the spacer member.
With the above prior art, the conductive clip and the metal frame used for conductive connection for static electricity, increase the number of the parts, and make assembly thereof complicated. Use of the metal frame increases the device weight of the reading sensor. Consequently, it requires a drive motor having a larger torque for driving the reading sensor, so that there raises a problem that the apparatus outer size is made larger because of introduction of such a larger motor.

Image reading apparatus and multifunction apparatus


A sanitary packaging system and method of using the same for the packaging of a sanitary product comprising a sanitary housing portion, a product bag, a sliding adjustment tube and a product tube. The product tube extends inside the sanitary housing portion and is flexibly attached to the sliding adjustment tube to which the product bag is attached. The sanitary product under pressure passes through the product tube, sliding adjustment tube and into the product bag to complete packaging. Sanitized air is blown through the sanitary housing enclosure to create a positive pressure therein, whereby in the case of a leak within the product bag, sliding adjustment tube or product entry tube, sanitary product leaks outwardly therefrom rather than allowing contaminates to be pulled inwardly and contaminate said sanitized product.

This invention relates to a sanitary packaging system, and in particular, to a sanitary packaging system which prevents bacterial, microbial and particulate contamination of a final packaged product while providing a means of sanitary sampling of the product during the sanitary packaging process.
Throughout the packaging process of many various types of products, sanitary conditions must be continuously maintained to ensure product purity and to prevent bacterial, microbial, and particulate contamination. Although manufacturers and designers have in the past claimed to have provided sanitary packaging systems, none have been successful in maintaining a bacterial and microbial free product environment rather than simply a particulate free environment. There is therefore a need for a sanitary packaging system which is specifically designed to eliminate bacterial, microbial and particulate contamination during the packaging process of a product.
In general, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sanitary packaging system which will enable the sterile packaging of a product.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sanitary packaging system which maintains a bacterial, microbial and particulate free environment while being easy and convenient to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sanitary packaging system of the above character which in comparison to currently existing packaging systems in easily and inexpensively constructed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sanitary packaging system of the above character which allows for sampling of the product during the packaging process without bacterial, microbial and particulate contamination.
Additional objects and features of the present invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiment is set forth in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


Detector circuitry for detecting magnetic field disturbances resulting from the movement of equipment through a pipe of magnetic material, the detector circuitry comprising a difference circuit fed with the outputs of two longitudinally spaced sensor means via respective DC blocking means, a saturating difference amplifier feeding an integrator and fed with the outputs of the difference circuit and the integrator, and indicating means fed from the integrator. The detector circuitry may also including level setting means and a comparator fed with the outputs of the integrator and the level setting means and feeding the indicating means. A second comparator may be connected in parallel with the first comparator and fed with the inverse of the output of the level setting means and the output of the integrator.

The present invention relates to non-invasive detectors for detecting the presence of pieces of equipment through the walls of pipes, particularly steel pipes, typically pipes that are used in oil wells and the like. More specifically, it relates to the circuitry of such detectors.
In the oil industry, it is common to retain moving equipment inside a pressure vessel. An example is a downhole instrument which is retrieved from a well through a riser. The problem is that the pressure vessel forming the top of the riser is usually made of steel, and this stops the operator of the equipment from seeing what is going on because he cannot see through steel. Accordingly, some sort of sensor is required, so that the equipment operator can detect what is going on inside the pressure vessel without having to open it. This has safety benefits because it may prevent an accident and it has operational benefits because it may allow the operator to position equipment more accurately.
Various sensing devices have been proposed. The traditional sensing device is a sensing coil which encircles the riser, and detects magnets attached to equipment which may be passing up or down the well. As an alternative to sensing coils, other sensing devices can be used. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,856 (Halliburton) suggests a variety of detectors, such as the use of Hall effect, fiber optic, or Faraday effect detectors.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,923 (Stewart and Stevenson) is a more detailed example of the use of Hall effect devices. To detect the movement of a pipe joint through a pipe, a locator comprises a ring magnet with a pair of detector rings mounted one on each side (ie one above the ring magnet and one below it). Each detector ring comprises a set of four Hall effect devices mounted around the pipe. The Hall effect devices of a set have their outputs summed, and the sums of the two sets are differenced.
Further, our own earlier GB patent application no. 01.22431.0 (filed Sep. 17, 2001) describes the use of two pairs of Hall effect devices, one pair being located opposite each other on the riser and the other pair being similarly located opposite each other and longitudinally below the first pair. This patent application notes that with sufficient sensitivity, devices can be detected passing through the well even though they do not have magnets attached to or incorporated in them, provided that they use magnetizable material and their passage produces a sufficient change in the ambient magnetic field (ie the field due to drilling rig steelwork, the earth""s field, etc).
The general object of the present invention is to provide improved detector circuitry suitable for use with oil well pipes and risers.
According to the invention, there is provided detector circuitry for detecting magnetic field disturbances resulting from the movement of equipment through a pipe of magnetic material, the detector circuitry comprising a difference circuit fed with the outputs of two longitudinally spaced sensor means via respective DC blocking means, a saturating difference amplifier feeding an integrator and fed with the outputs of the difference circuit and the integrator, and indicating means fed from the integrator.
It may also be desirable for the sensor electronics to incorporate a threshold level setting. This can be used as a comparator signal to give a warning when a change in signal level is detected. Also, by having a threshold level that can be adjusted, it is possible to avoid detections that may result from sensor or system noise. A second comparator may be connected in parallel with the first and fed with inverse or reversed inputs, so that signals of both polarities can be detected. The indicating means may include matching means.


A process, device and system are provided for utilizing waste heat from a waste heat source, especially from an internal combustion engine, by a coolant being heated and by this heat being used to drive a turbine. The device utilizes waste heat with a waste heat source (10, 20) cooled by a coolant, with a turbine (11) and with an evaporating device (16) for the coolant. To increase the efficiency of such a process and such a device and system, and to reduce the design effort and the maintenance effort, the coolant is evaporated after it leaves the waste heat source (10, 20) and the evaporating means is provided after the waste heat source (10, 20) when viewed in the direction of flow of the coolant.

Such a device and such a process are known from US 2003/0005696 A1. The coolant, particularly water, is heated from 71° C. to 79° C. in an internal combustion engine and then evaporated by means of nozzles. The coolant is then introduced into an evaporating chamber, in which a vacuum of 0.5 bar prevails. The steam is drawn off from this evaporating chamber by means of a pump and afterheated in a exhaust gas heat exchanger. The steam thus afterheated is first introduced into a first turbine, which drives the pump, and it is sent to the working turbine proper only thereafter.
Consequently, the steam generated at first is still subjected to afterheating and secondary compression. Wet steam is obviously formed in such a case in the evaporating chamber (4), because the steam is present within this evaporating chamber together with the cooling water flowing back from the condenser. Therefore, there is a risk during the secondary compression of the wet steam by the pump that the steam will condense again. Moreover, a steam must be delivered, which is associated with higher losses, because, unlike a liquid, steam is a compressible medium. Not only because of this, a large part of the energy of expansion released during the evaporation of the coolant is destroyed by the aftertreatment of the steam.
It known from WO 2004/044386 A2 to feed the coolant, for example, from an internal combustion engine to heat exchanger/evaporator, in which another liquid is heated and evaporated in the process. This evaporated liquid is sent to a turbine and the latter is driven as a result. The turbine drives, in turn, a generator. As is usual in cycles, the steam is subsequently condensed and sent again to the heat exchanger/evaporator by means of a pump.
The drawback of this procedure is that heat losses occur due to the additional heat exchanger. In addition, the liquid or the steam can be heated in the evaporator to a temperature below the temperature of the coolant only. The efficiency is reduced hereby as well. Furthermore, a design effort and maintenance effort are needed for a second system.

Process and device for utilizing waste heat


The invention is to provide an image forming method of a long service life, a high image quality and a low running cost, capable of maintaining a stable cleaning performance over a prolonged period without causing an image deletion phenomenon, even with a image bearing member such as a photosensitive member, of a high durability (high strength and high abrasion resistance). The invention provides an image forming method characterized in that the image bearing member has a universal surface hardness HU of 150 to 220 N/mm2 and an elastic deformation ratio We of 40 to 65%, and, for a crossing angle θ (°) between a rotary axis of the contact charging roller and a rotary axis of the image bearing member, for a ratio A (weight %) of the transfer residual toner and the abrasive particles and for a contact pressure B (g/cm) of the cleaning blade, HU, We, A, B and θ satisfy the following relations (I), (II) and (III):(1/6000)×HU×We≦A×B   (I)A/B≦θ   (II)10≦B≦50.   (III)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming method utilizing an electrophotographic process.
2. Related Background Art
An electrophotographic system is widely employed in an image forming apparatus for example a copying apparatus, a printer or a facsimile for forming an image on a recording medium such as paper. In the electrophotographic system, an image bearing member such as a photosensitive member is uniformly charged on a surface thereof, which is irradiated with a laser light to generate a potential difference between an irradiated portion and a non-irradiated portion thereby forming an electrostatic latent image. Then a charged toner is deposited on the surface of the image bearing member, thereby developing the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image bearing member as a toner image. Thereafter, the toner image is transferred onto a recording medium to form an image thereon.
As charging means for charging the surface of the image bearing member, a corona discharge apparatus or a contact charging apparatus is utilized. The corona discharge apparatus is effective for charging the surface of the image bearing member at a specified potential, but involves drawbacks of requiring a high voltage source and generating ozone. On the other hand, the contact charging apparatus charges the surface of the image bearing member at a specified potential by contacting a voltage-applied conductive charging member with the surface of the image bearing member, and has features of not requiring a high voltage source, a much smaller ozone generation in comparison with the corona discharge apparatus, and a simpler structure.
As the toner image is formed repeatedly on the surface of the image bearing member, it is necessary to sufficiently remove, after the toner image transfer to the recording medium, a residual toner which is not transferred thereto but remains on the surface of the image bearing member. As a cleaning member in such electrophotographic system, there is employed a cleaning blade, which is a counter blade constituted of an elastic material. A method of eliminating the residual toner by contacting such cleaning blade with the surface of the image bearing member is widely utilized because of a low cost, a simple and compact configuration in the entire electrophotographic system and an excellent toner eliminating efficiency. Such cleaning blade is generally constituted of urethane rubber, which has a high hardness and a high elasticity and is satisfactory in an abrasion resistance, a mechanical strength, an oil resistance and an ozone resistance.
Physical properties of the cleaning blade and a mode of contact thereof with the image bearing member are significantly affected by an ease of cleaning depending on a level of adhesion of the transfer residual toner to the image bearing member and a surface property of the image bearing member. Also since the cleaning property is significantly influenced by physical properties of the toner such as a shape, a particle size and a material thereof, it is necessary to select a blade matching the toner and to set an angle and a contact load appropriate for the image bearing member.
A higher image quality and a lower running cost are recent requirements for the image forming apparatus. In the photosensitive member employed as the image bearing member in the electrophotographic system, a thinner photosensitive layer is adopted for achieving a higher image quality, and, for a lower running cost, improvements are being made on an electrical strength, a mechanical strength and an abrasion resistance of the surface of the photosensitive member, in order to extend the service life of the photosensitive member.
However, an image forming apparatus employing such image bearing member is found to have the following drawbacks.
In an image bearing member of a high durability having a high strength and a high abrasion resistance, particularly in an image bearing member of a very high abrasion resistance showing a surface abrasion of 2 mg or less in a Taber abrasion tester, the image bearing member is hardly refreshed by a surface scraping and tends to accumulate, over a prolonged period, an electrical damage by charging, a surface deterioration by a deposition of discharge products, and a mechanical damage caused by a friction with the cleaning blade. Also a sliding property of the surface of the image bearing member (particularly that to the cleaning blade) is lowered to cause a vibration, a squeaking and a tuck-up of the cleaning blade. Also as the surface of the image bearing member is not easily scraped, the discharge products are not easily removable thereby leading to an image deletion. Therefore, various measures have been proposed for solving this drawback.
As an example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. H01-34205 proposes a method of heating the image bearing member with a heater, thereby avoiding a low electrical resistance on the surface of the image bearing member caused by a moisture adsorption and preventing image smearing. However, such heater, also requiring thermal control means, complicates the configuration of the image forming apparatus, also leading to a complication in the system against the trend of the copying machine and the printer toward a compacter and more personal system. Also such heater requires a certain temperature elevating time, involving a long warm-up time from the start of power supply to the actual printing operation, and also involving an electric power for this purpose. Also the heating of the image bearing member, close to a glass transition temperature (Tg) of the toner, may cause sticking of the toner onto the surface of the image bearing member.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S61-100780 discloses another method to eliminate the discharge products by rubbing the surface of the image bearing member with an elastic roller. This method can provide a sufficient rubbing force, but the transfer residual toner, eliminated from the surface of the image bearing member and sticking to the elastic roller, is carried thereon unless eliminated by other means from the elastic roller, and is repeatedly subjected to a rubbing between the image bearing member and the elastic roller, thus causing a fused adhesion. On the other hand, even when the elimination from the surface of the elastic roller is achieved sufficiently, in case the transfer residual toner is present only in a small amount, the elastic roller comes into direct contact and rubbing with the surface of the image bearing member, thus damaging the surface thereof.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S61-278861 proposes still another method to use a developer containing an abrasive, thereby actively eliminating the discharge products. This method, which does not require a new member such as a heater or an elastic roller in the aforementioned rubbing method, allows to simplify the apparatus and to reduce the cost thereof.
However, in case an aforementioned contact charging apparatus is employed as the charging means, the abrasive leaking through the cleaning blade may contaminate the contact charging apparatus, thereby inducing an uneven charging to cause an image defect.

Image forming method capable of maintaining sustained stable cleaning performance without causing an image smearing phenomenon even with a high strength and high abrasion image bearing member


Disclosed is an ink composition used in an electrowetting display device and an electrowetting display device employing the same. The ink composition used in the electrowetting display device includes a non-polar solvent and a modified hydrophobic pigment, wherein the modified hydrophobic pigment has a structure represented by Formula (I), ofP-Gn                 wherein P is a pigment moiety, n is 1-4 and G is

Electrowetting display devices are rendered images in accordance with electrowetting or electrocapillary. Briefly, the free surface energy of some fluids is changed due to electric field effects such that distribution area of the fluids can thus change along with the electric field effects.
In general, the opaque ink of the electrowetting display device includes a composition having a dye. Since the outdoor operation requirements of display devices have gradually increased, the ink of the electrowetting display device must exhibit low driving voltage and high weathering resistance. The outdoor applications of the electrowetting display devices, however, are limited, due to inferior light resistance and thermal resistance of dyes.
An opaque ink including pigments for replacing the dyes has been developed. In order to ensure that electrowetting display devices can be operated under a low voltage, the pigments have to be in a nanoscale form.
The pigments with nanoscale particle sizes, however, are apt to be aggregated in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, due to the increase of surface area and surface energy of the pigments. In order to uniformly disperse nanoscale pigments in the ink composition, the conventional ink composition has to increase the addition of a dispersant. Therefore, due to the high concentration of the dispersant, the viscosity of the ink composition is increased, resulting in a reduction in the responsiveness of the electrowetting display device.

Ink composition used in electrowetting display device and electrowetting display device employing the same

Abstract: wherein R1 is a straight chain or a branched C4-20 alkyl group, or C5-20 cycloalkyl group.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


An intelligent cable is disclosed. The cable provides a connector and a metal core. The connector is pluggably coupled with an external apparatus and enclosing a circuit unit electrically connected to an external apparatus. The metal core is electrically connected to the circuit unit in the connector. The circuit unit includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter receives input signals from the external apparatus and outputs a transmitted signal to the metal core. The receiver receives the transmitted signal from the metal core and provides output signals to the external apparatus. A feature of the cable is that the transmitter modulates the input signals and the receiver de-modulates the transmitted signal both by the PAM configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a cable that implements an active connector for modulating differencial signals by the pulse-amplitude-modulation (RAM) configuration.
2. Background Arts
A Japanese Patent Application laid open No. 2005-135840A has disclosed a cable implementing connectors in respective ends thereof, where the connectors installs circuits to reshape signals to be transmitted and/or received.
Recent electronic systems, such as those connecting servers, storages, and/or switches in a datacenter, often implement a cable provided with active connectors. Conventionally, twisted pair cables, twin-Ax cables, and/or coaxial cables have been widely used for connecting such apparatuses of the servers and so on. Such cables transmit a differential signal output from the apparatus to another apparatus as keeping the configuration of the differential signal by a pair of metal cores constituting the twisted pair cable, the twinax cable, and so on.
An arrangement to transmit the differential signal by a paired cable inevitably requires a huge number of cables as increasing channels on which data are transmitted, which results in a thick cable containing a number of paired cables and degrades the flexibility thereof.

Cable implementing active connector for modulating differential signals by PAM configuration


In an inter-vehicle distance control apparatus and an inter-vehicle distance control method, object detection information is obtained from a detection portion that detects a first preceding vehicle ahead of a vehicle, and an object ahead of the first preceding vehicle; a first possible target stop position is calculated taking into account the first preceding vehicle, and a second possible target stop position is calculated taking into account the object, based on the object detection information; and a target stop position for the vehicle is set to one of the first possible target stop position and the second possible target stop position, which is closer to the vehicle than the other of the first possible target stop position and the second possible target stop position is.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an inter-vehicle distance control apparatus and an inter-vehicle distance control method. More specifically, the invention relates to an inter-vehicle distance control apparatus and an inter-vehicle distance control method that control a distance between a vehicle and a first preceding vehicle ahead of the vehicle, by controlling drive power and braking power of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles provided with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems have been put into practical use. The ACC systems maintain a distance between a host vehicle and a vehicle ahead of the host vehicle (hereinafter, the vehicle ahead of the host vehicle will be referred to as "first preceding vehicle"), or the speed of the host vehicle by automatically controlling drive power and braking power of the host vehicle. The ACC systems are classified into a low speed range ACC system, a high speed range ACC system, and a full speed range ACC system, according to a speed range in which the host vehicle is controlled, and a control method.
For example, the high speed range ACC system controls the host vehicle so that when there is the first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, the host vehicle travels in a high speed range and follows the first preceding vehicle while the distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle is maintained at a preset inter-vehicle distance, and when there is no first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, the host vehicle constantly travels at a preset upper limit speed. The low speed range ACC system controls the host vehicle so that when there is the first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, the host vehicle travels in a low speed range, and follows the first preceding vehicle while the distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle is maintained at a preset inter-vehicle distance, and when there is no first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, a vehicle-following control for following the first preceding vehicle is stopped. The full speed range ACC system controls the host vehicle so that when there is the first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, the host vehicle follows the first preceding vehicle while the distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle is maintained at an inter-vehicle distance set for each speed in an entire vehicle speed range, and when there is no first preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, the host vehicle constantly travels at a preset vehicle speed. Thus, the full speed range ACC system seamlessly controls the host vehicle in the entire vehicle speed range from the low speed range to the high speed range.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-231490 (JP-A-2005-231490) describes a vehicle-following control apparatus that includes the ACC system. The vehicle-following control apparatus described in the publication No. 2005-231490 sets a target stop position for the host vehicle, based on a positional relation between the host vehicle provided with the vehicle-following control apparatus and the first preceding vehicle, and executes a stop control. Also, the vehicle-following control apparatus described in the publication No. 2005-231490 changes the control from the stop control to the vehicle-following control for following the first preceding vehicle, when a vehicle ahead of the first preceding vehicle (hereinafter, the vehicle ahead of the first preceding vehicle will be referred to as "second preceding vehicle") starts moving while the host vehicle is stopped.
If the second preceding vehicle suddenly stops or the second preceding vehicle is stopped while the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle are traveling, the first preceding vehicle may suddenly stop, or may avoid the second preceding vehicle by steering, to avoid a collision with the second preceding vehicle. However, the vehicle-following control apparatus described in the publication No. 2005-231490 does not take into account the possibility that the first preceding vehicle may be in the above-described situation. Therefore, it is difficult for the vehicle-following control apparatus to appropriately control the travel of the host vehicle when the above-described situation occurs. Also, when the vehicle-following control is executed so that the host vehicle follows the first preceding vehicle while the distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle is maintained, the stopped second preceding vehicle is not generally taken into account. Therefore, the vehicle-following control apparatus may not be able to appropriately control the host vehicle when the second preceding vehicle is stopped.

Inter-vehicle distance control apparatus and inter-vehicle distance control method


Provided herein, among other things, is a conjugate comprising a polymerase and a nucleoside triphosphate, where the polymerase and the nucleoside triphosphate are covalently linked via a linker that comprises a cleavable linkage. A set of such conjugates, where the conjugates correspond to G, A, T (or U) and C is also provided. Methods for synthesizing a nucleic acid of a defined sequence are also provided. The conjugates can also be used for sequencing applications.

The great majority of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) performed today is based on "sequencing by synthesis" (SBS), in which the sequence of a primed template molecule is determined by a signal resulting from stepwise incorporation of complementary nucleotides by a polymerase (Goodwin et al., Nat Rev Genet. 2016 May 17; 17(6):333-51). Currently, the most popular method for SBS employs fluorescent "reversible terminator" nucleotides (RTdNTPs)—nucleotides that are chemically modified to block elongation by a polymerase once they are incorporated into a primer. Post-incorporation, the free RTdNTPs are removed, and the identity of the added base is determined by a fluorescent signal from the incorporated nucleotide. Next, the fluorescent reporter and terminating group are removed from the incorporated nucleotide, rendering the primer non-fluorescent and ready for subsequent extension by a polymerase. By repeating this cycle of template-dependent extension, detection, and deprotection, the sequence of the template molecule is inferred from the sequence of fluorescence signals.
Contemporary DNA synthesis begins with chemical synthesis of tens to hundreds of 50-200 nt oligonucleotides (oligos) using the phosphoramidite method (Beaucage and Caruthers, Tetrahedron Letters 22.20 (1981): 1859-1862). These oligos are assembled into kilobase-sized products that are then isolated, sequence-verified, and amplified for subsequent recombination into the full-length target sequence if necessary (Kosuri and Church, Nature methods 11.5 (2014): 499-507.). Despite decades of incremental improvement, each chemical step of oligonucleotide synthesis results in 0.5-1.0% unreacted (or side-reacted) products, and these small losses compound exponentially to decimate the yield of the full-length oligo. Since many oligos are assembled into each kilobase-sized product, the presence of even a small fraction of erroneous oligos in the assembly reaction will result in most products containing at least one error. State of the art gene synthesis techniques apply various "error correction" strategies to enrich for error-free oligos or assembly products, but erroneous oligos are reported to be "the most crucial factor in DNA synthesis protocols today" (Czar et al., Trends in biotechnology 27.2 (2009): 63-72). Furthermore, many biologically relevant sequences, such as those with repetitive or structure-forming regions and/or high or low G/C content are difficult if not impossible to construct via assembly of oligonucleotides, impeding their use in research and engineering. Thus far, there is no practical method for de novo DNA synthesis using a polymerase to extend a nucleic acid in a cyclic manner analogous to SBS.
Arguably the key advances that lead to the NGS revolution came from the development of reversible terminator deoxynucleoside triphosphates (RTdNTPs) that can be incorporated into DNA by a polymerase and reversibly terminate further dNTP addition. Improved systems enabling single nucleotide extensions of a growing nucleic acid could benefit SBS and enable practical enzymatic de novo DNA synthesis.

Polymerase-tethered nucleoside triphosphates for use in nucleic acid synthesis

The Regents of the University of California


A connecting member 10 for connecting ends of adjacently arranged photovoltaic cell modules 4 fixed in a state in which the ends of the photovoltaic cell modules 4 each obtained by supporting an outer periphery of a photovoltaic cell panel 2 by frame bodies 3a and 3b are floating, including a plate-like upper piece 11, a plate-like lower piece 12 opposed to the upper piece 11 and a connecting piece 13 for connecting end sides on the same side of the lower piece 12 and the upper piece 11, where the connecting member 10 is capable of being fitted to the ends of the frame bodies 3a facing the same direction in the adjacent photovoltaic cell modules 4 so as to sandwich the same from a direction perpendicular thereto by the upper piece 11 and the lower piece 12.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connecting member for connecting ends of predetermined members such as a photovoltaic cell module obtained by supporting an outer periphery of a photovoltaic cell panel by a frame body and a decorative cover arranged on an outer peripheral side of the photovoltaic cell module, and especially relates to the connecting member for connecting the ends of the predetermined members fixed in a state in which the ends thereof are floating.
2. Description of the Related Art
When installing the photovoltaic cell module obtained by supporting the outer periphery of the photovoltaic cell panel by the frame body on a roof, the photovoltaic cell module to be installed on the roof by attaching a mount longer than the photovoltaic cell module on the roof at an interval corresponding to an outer size of the photovoltaic cell module, then putting frame bodies of opposed sides of the photovoltaic cell module on the mount and attaching a long cover member on the mount from above the frame body is conventionally known (Patent Document 1). However, in Patent document 1, it is necessary to attach the mount on the roof at a predetermined interval in advance according to a size of the photovoltaic cell module, and so that it takes increased time and effort for installation of the photovoltaic cell module. As a result, there is a problem that the cost of installation increases highly.
Therefore, the applicant of this application suggests the photovoltaic cell module of the above-described patent application capable of being installed on the roof through a fixing member fitted to the frame body of the photovoltaic cell module from a side surface side from a direction perpendicular thereto and is slidable along the frame body (Patent Document 2). According to this, it is not necessary to attach the fixing member in advance according to the interval of the photovoltaic cell module and the photovoltaic cell modules may be sequentially installed on the roof from one end side (for example, from an eave side) and the time and effort of installation may be simplified and the cost may be reduced.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-144266
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-165499
However, in Patent document 2, in order to secure aeration property and the like below the photovoltaic cell module, the photovoltaic cell module is fixed with a space between the same and a supporting member, such as a roof board, the fixing member is formed so as to be short such as from one-sixth to one-twentieth the length of one side of the photovoltaic cell module and is fixed to the one side of the photovoltaic cell module at a plurality of sites, so that the end of the photovoltaic cell module is probably in a floating state. Therefore, when a plurality of photovoltaic cell modules are installed so as to be arranged in a planar manner, depending on a state of the roof board, a roof material and the like as the supporting member to which the fixing member is attached, displacement (especially displacement in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the supporting member) occurs between the ends of the adjacent photovoltaic cell modules and appearance of a photovoltaic power generation system composed of a plurality of photovoltaic cell modules becomes problematically bad.
Also, when the above-described displacement is found after the installation of the photovoltaic cell modules (or after attachment of the fixing member to the supporting member), it is necessary to remove once the fixing member from the supporting member, put a spacer and the like below the fixing member and attach again the fixing member, so that there is a problem of increased installation cost, and since attaching strength of the fixing member might be deteriorated depending on the material of the supporting member when the fixing member once attached is fixed again on the same position, the fixing member, that is to say, the photovoltaic cell module might not be installed in an optimal state.
Therefore, in consideration of the above-described circumstances, a problem of the present invention is to provide the connecting member capable of eliminating the displacement between the ends, preventing the cost of installation from increasing and making the appearance of the installed photovoltaic cell module excellent only by being attached to the ends of the predetermined members such as the photovoltaic cell modules and the decorative covers.

Connecting member for installing photovoltaic cell module


A torque limiter of the present invention includes: a first rotor and a second rotor, the first and second rotors rotatable about a single center of rotation; a yoke board integrally formed with the first rotor; a magnet which is provided so as to be in contact with the yoke board; and a hysteresis board provided so as to be opposed to the magnet with a space therebetween, the hysteresis board is integrally formed with the second rotor and a washer having depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or a combination thereof is provided between the first and second rotors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a torque limiter which is used as, for example, a reel mount used for a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, such as a videotape or audiotape recorder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 9 through 11, a structure of a conventional torque limiter which is used as a reel mount will be described below.
The xe2x80x9ctorque limiterxe2x80x9d described herein is a reel mount on which a reel in a cassette is mounted, the torque on the reel when mounted being limited (controlled) by the torque limiter. As such, the terms xe2x80x9ctorque limiterxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9creelmountxe2x80x9d are interchangeably used in this description.
FIG. 9 is a top view of a conventional torque limiter. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the conventional torque limiter taken along line Bxe2x80x94B shown in FIG. 9. FIG. 11 is a top view of a lower reel mount member of the conventional torque limiter shown in FIG. 9.
In FIG. 10, reference numeral 1a denotes a reel in a cassette. A (magnetic) tape (not shown) is wound around the reel 1a. Reference numeral 1b denotes a body of the cassette, reference numeral 2 denotes a chassis of a conventional magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, such as a videotape or audiotape recorder, used for recording/reproducing information to/from the magnetic tape of the cassette, and reference numeral 3 denotes a rotation shaft provided in the chassis 2. The conventional torque limiter is placed on the rotation shaft 3 so as to be rotatable with respect to an axis of the rotation shaft 3 (shown as a broken line in FIG. 10). Reference numeral 303 denotes an upper reel mount member on which the reel 1a is mounted. Reference numeral 305 denotes a rotation engagement member which is movable up and down (i.e., in a direction parallel to the axis of the rotation shaft 3) and is engaged with the upper reel mount member 303 and the reel 1a along a rotation direction of the conventional torque limiter, reference numeral 304 denotes a spring which applies upward force to the rotation engagement member 305 with respect to the movement thereof such that the rotation engagement member 305 is engaged with a protruded portion of the upper reel mount member 303 and is supported by the upper reel mount member 303 and the spring 304, and reference numeral 307 denotes a yoke board provided in the form of a disk and made of a ferromagnet, such as a rolled steel board.
The yoke board 307is integrally formed with the upper reel mount member 303. It is common practice in the field of magnetic recording/reproducing apparatuses to integrally form a yoke board member, such as the yoke board 307, with an upper reel mount member, such as the upper reel mount member 303, by outsert molding. The upper reel mount member 303 integrally formed with the yoke board 307 is rotatable with respect to the axis of the rotation shaft 3. The integral upper reel mount member 303 and yoke board 307 together form a first rotor of the conventional reel mount. Reference numeral 308 denotes a magnet which applies magnetic force so that the magnet 308 is attached to and rotated with the yoke board 307 due to rotation of the upper reel mount member 303. Lines of magnetic force (not shown) generated by the magnet 308 form a magnetic loop passing through the yoke board 307.
Reference numeral 310 denotes a lower reel mount member (a second rotor) integrally formed with a hysteresis board 311 having a disk-like shape. The hysteresis board 311 is made of a material having large magnetic hysteresis loss. It is common practice in the field of magnetic recording/reproducing apparatuses to integrally form a hysteresis board member, such as the hysteresis board 311, with a lower reel mount member, such as the lower reel mount member 310, by outsert molding. Similar to the upper reel mount member 303, the lower reel mount member 310 integrally formed with the hysteresis board 311 is placed on the rotation shaft 3 so as to be rotatable with respect to the axis of the rotation shaft 3. The lower reel mount member 310 is attracted by the magnetic force generated by the magnet 308 so as to be in contact with the upper reel mount member 303.
Reference numeral 309 denotes a washer sandwiched between the lower reel mount member 310 integrally formed with the hysteresis board 311 and the upper reel mount member 303. The washer 309 is engaged with the lower reel mount member 310 so as to be rotated therewith. Reference numeral 302 denotes a gear member provided to the outer circumference of the lower reel mount member 310, which is engaged with an external gear (not shown). Reference numeral 306 denotes a reel bearing member provided on the upper reel mount member 303 and integrally formed with the yoke board 307 so as to come into contact with the reel 1a when the reel 1a is mounted on the conventional reel mount. Similar to the other reel mount members, it is common practice in the field of magnetic recording/reproducing apparatuses to integrally form a reel bearing member, such as the reel bearing member 306, with a yoke board member, such as the yoke board 307, by outsert molding.
When the reel 1a is mounted on the conventional torque limiter, a position in a vertical direction of the reel 1a with respect to the chassis 2 is defined by the reel bearing member 306. Reference numeral 4 denotes a chassis washer placed between the reel mount and the base of the rotation shaft 3 so as to define a space between the chassis 2 and the lower reel mount member 310. Reference numeral 5 denotes a shaft washer placed on the rotation shaft 3 so as to define movement of the reel mount along a thrust (vertical) direction of the reel mount and to provide a space between the rotation shaft 3 and the upper reel mount member 303.
As shown in FIG. 11, like ordinary washers, the washer 309 has a flat and even surface, however the washer 309 is provided with depression portions 309a at the inner circumference thereof unlike ordinary washers. Each depression portion 309a is engaged with a protrusion portion 310a provided on the lower reel mount member 310 such that the washer 309 is rotated with the lower reel mount member 310. Usually, grease or oil is applied to the washer 309 so as to stabilize clutch torque (discussed below) generated by the conventional torque limiter.
Operation of the conventional torque limiter is described below.
When the lower reel mount member 310 is rotated by the external gear through engagement with the gear member 302, friction torque is generated between the upper and lower reel mount members 303 and 310 via the washer 309 due to the magnetic attraction generated by the magnet 308 on the lower and upper parts of the reel mount. Simultaneously, the hysteresis board 311 is rotated through the magnetic loop generated by the magnet 308, so that magnetic hysteresis torque is generated. The friction torque and magnetic hysteresis torque result in clutch torque between the upper reel mount member 303 and the lower reel mount member 310 so that the reel 1a mounted on the upper reel mount member 303 is rotated by the rotation engagement member 305 while sufficient tension is applied to the magnetic tape wound around the reel 1a.
However, in the conventional torque limiter, it is difficult to generate stable clutch torque. Clutch torque generated by a torque limiter is always required to be stable without being affected by various disturbances in order to provide reliable and stable operation of the torque limiter. Specifically, the clutch torque must be stable even if there are variations in the rotating speed of the reel mount, the environmental temperature or humidity, the operating time of the reel mount, etc. Friction torque, which contributes to the clutch torque generated by the conventional torque limiter, is affected by the stability of a coefficient of friction between the washer 309 and the upper reel mount member 303. The coefficient of friction is determined by a value of a physical property peculiar to the materials used for the washer 309. Further, the coefficient of friction is greatly affected by a surface condition of the washer 309, an amount of grease applied to the washer 309, the way the washer 309 is smeared with the grease (e.g., whether or not the grease is uniformly applied to the washer 309), etc. Further still, the coefficient of friction varies according to variations in the rotating speed of the reel mount, the environmental temperature or humidity, the operating time of the reel mount, etc.
In the conventional torque limiter, since the surface of the washer 309 is flat, the washer 309 can become stuck to the surface of the upper reel mount member 303 and as such grease does not adhere well to the washer 309, so that the grease applied to the washer 309 is easily expended during operation of the torque limiter, thereby varying the friction torque. Furthermore, the washer 309 is worn through long-time use, such that fragments of the washer 309 are present between and pressed against the contact surfaces of the washer 309 and the upper reel mount member 303, which cause variations in the friction torque and may cause damage to the elements of the conventional torque limiter.
The present invention provides solutions to the above-described problems of the conventional torque limiter as described below.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a torque limiter which includes: a first rotor and a second rotor, the first and second rotors rotatable about a single center of rotation; a yoke board integrally formed with the first rotor; a magnet which is provided so as to be in contact with the yoke board; and a hysteresis board provided so as to be opposed to the magnet with a space therebetween, in which the hysteresis board is integrally formed with the second rotor and a washer having depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or a combination thereof is provided between the first and second rotors.
In this torque limiter structure of the present invention, the washer is provided with depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or combinations thereof so as to stabilize the coefficient of friction of the washer, thereby providing stable clutch torque.
In one embodiment of the present invention, first and second washers are provided between the first and second rotors and at least one of the first and second washers has depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or a combination thereof on the surface of the at least one of the first and second washers.
In this torque limiter structure of the present invention, the surface of at least one of the two washers is provided with depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or combinations thereof so as to stabilize the coefficient of friction of the washer, thereby providing stable clutch torque.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the first washer is made of a resin-based material and the second washer is made of a metal-based material.
In this torque limiter structure of the present invention, the surface of at least one of the washers is provided with depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or combinations thereof, and the washer made of a metal-based material and the other washer made of a resin-based material are in contact with each other while being rotated, thereby providing superior stable clutch torque.
In one embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the first and second washers is made of any one of polyethylene, UHMW polyethylene, POM, FR, PET, PA, PPS, PBT, PI and PEEK.
In this structure, at least one of the washers is provided with depression portions, protrusion portions, holes, or combinations thereof on the surface of the at least one of the washers and is made of any one of polyethylene, UHMW polyethylene, POM, FR, PET, PA, PPS, PBT, PI and PEEK and the other washer is made of a metal-based material, both washers being in contact with each other while being rotated, thereby providing superior stable clutch torque.
In one embodiment of the present invention, grease or oil is provided between the first and second washers substantially in a gap provided between the surfaces of the first and second washers.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the magnet is provided with a protrusion portion which interlocks with an engagement portion of the washer so as to provide engagement of the washer with the first rotor through the contact of the magnet and the first rotor.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the second rotor is provided with a protrusion portion which interlocks with an engagement portion of the second washer so as to provide engagement of the second washer with the second rotor.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the torque limiter is provided on a rotation shaft in a chassis of a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing information to/from a magnetic tape of a cassette, the first and second rotors being rotatable with respect to the rotation shaft.
Thus, the invention described herein makes possible the advantages of providing a torque limiter which generates stable clutch torque and therefore provides reliable and stable operation for use with a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying figures.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A switched capacitor circuit includes a capacitor and switches located on an input side and an output side of the capacitor. The switched capacitor circuit also includes an operational amplifier of a later stage which receives an output of the capacitor, wherein a current value of a current supplied to the operational amplifier is switched according to at least one open/closed state of at least one of the switches.

1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a switched capacitor circuit with reduced power consumption.
2. Background Art
A switched capacitor circuit is used in many cases as a circuit element of a discrete system, and is applied to a filter, a comparator, an analog-to-digital converter, a digital-to-analog converter, or the like. In addition, the switched capacitor circuit is primarily formed in combination with an operational amplifier.
FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a structure of a positive phase integrating circuit 100 to which a switched capacitor circuit 102 is applied. As shown in FIG. 2, the switched capacitor circuit 102 is operated in a switching manner between a sampling mode in which a clock signal φ1 is set to a high level and a clock signal φ2 is set to a low level such that switches SW1 and SW3 are set to the ON state and switches SW2 and SW4 are set to the OFF state, and charges corresponding to an input voltage VIN are held in a capacitor C1, and an integration mode in which the clock signal φ1 is set to the low level and the clock signal φ2 is set to the high level such that the switches SW1 and SW3 are set to the OFF state and the switches SW2 and SW4 are set to the ON state, and the charges sampled in the capacitor C1 are supplied to a capacitor C2 and integrated.
Here, power consumption of the operational amplifier in the system to which the switched capacitor circuit is applied accounts for a large portion of the power consumption of the overall system such as the analog-to-digital converter and the digital-to-analog converter. Because of this, reduction of the power consumption of the operational amplifier is very effective in reducing the power consumption of the overall system.
However, the reduction in the power consumption and the performance of the circuit are in a tradeoff relationship, and a simple reduction of the current flowing in the operational amplifier may cause degradation of the performance of the system.


The invention relates to liquid board comprising one or more layers of material containing cellulose, one or more of said layers comprising an additive that has the capacity to react with or decompose a disinfectant with which said liquid board is treated, so that a gas is formed that acts as a barrier and thereby prevents the penetration, especially edge penetration, of said disinfectant into the paperboard layer/layers.

Packagings for the packaging of liquid products such as liquid dairy products or juices are made from coated paperboard, which is termed liquid board. This is specially designed to counteract the effect of the liquid with which it is to be filled. In particular, it is the cut edges of the paperboard that have to be protected against the penetration of liquid, so-called edge penetration. For liquid dairy products, the most aggressive component of the liquid is lactic acid. The paperboard is therefore hydrophobized against the penetration of lactic acid, which is normally achieved by means of a neutral size, i.e. a size that produces optimal hydrophobicity when it is applied at pH values above 7. Typical neutral sizes comprise at least one hydrophobic, cellulose-reactive hydrophobizing agent and an anionic, cationic or amphoteric polymer, normally a cation-active starch. The, hydrophobic, cellulose-reactive hydrophobizing agent often consists of compounds of the type alkyl ketene dimers (AKD) or alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA). These are cellulose-reactive and bind directly to the carboxyl groups of the cellulose.
For aseptic liquid board, it is also the case that the paperboard has to be sterilized/disinfected before it is filled with the liquid food. Packagings of liquid board are normally disinfected by contact with a peroxide compound such as hydrogen peroxide solution at an increased temperature, e.g. around 70° C. Here also, however, it is the case that the liquid (disinfectant solution) must not penetrate the paperboard, the most exposed part being the cut edges. Unfortunately, however, the means normally used to prevent the penetration of lactic acid, i.e. neutral size, does not protect against the penetration of peroxide compounds, such as hydrogen peroxide. The liquid board is therefore hydrophobized conventionally against the penetration of peroxide by means of a second hydrophobizing agent, normally so-called resin size. Resin size usually comprises pine resin and/or gum resin. The resins comprise resin acids and a small portion of fatty acids. Commercially available hydrophobizing agents consist of so-called fortified resins, meaning that further carboxyl groups have been introduced to increase the retention tendency. The resin size is anchored to the cellulose surface by means of alum. Cationic resin size can be used in theory without alum, but the practical effect is better with alum.
The problem with hydrophobizing paperboard with both neutral size and with resin size is that hydrophobizing takes optimal effect at different pH values for the different sizes. As stated, neutral size works best at pH values above 7, while resin size works best at pH values below 7, meaning that a compromise solution has to be applied. However, not using the optimum pH for the two sizes means that they have to be dosed in larger quantities, incurring extra costs and also problems with the leftover chemicals that circulate in the water system, giving an unstable system with foaming and flakes etc. as a result.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,800, a solution is presented to the problems named, a sizing composition being used that aims to prevent the penetration of both hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid and can advantageously be applied at a neutral to alkaline pH. The sizing composition presented comprises a thermosetting resin, a cellulose-reactive hydrophobizing agent and a non-cellulose-reactive hydrophobizing agent. The resin size and wax contain resin acids and fatty acids, which, in the case of poor retention, cause foaming and act as foam stabilizers. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,800, problems regarding resistance to external pressure and problems regarding hydrophobizing of paperboard layers with a low density, as below, are not discussed.
In treatment to prevent liquid penetration, account must also be taken of the density of the paperboard. The liquid board usually has a middle layer (centre layer) with a lower density than the outer layers, with the aim of giving the paperboard the desired mechanical properties, such as rigidity. The middle layer functions here as a bulk-giving layer. At low density, however, the surface energy has a smaller effect, and large quantities of size have to be dosed to achieve the desired hydrophobizing effect.
In certain types of converting equipment, furthermore, the paperboard is conveyed down into a bath of hydrogen peroxide on disinfection, the paperboard being acted upon by an external pressure that corresponds to the liquid column in the bath. With external pressure, the significance of surface chemical effects is reduced, while the capillary structure acquires greater importance. It is therefore more difficult to reduce the penetration of hydrogen peroxide through the surface chemical effect when an external pressure is present.


An electrostatic precipitation module includes a plurality of conductive precipitation electrode plates and a plurality of non-precipitation electrode plates. The plurality of precipitation electrode plates are interlacedly distributed along the length of a first connecting rib; the precipitation electrode plates are made from conductive plastic material by injection molding, and a metal conductor is embedded inside the first connecting rib by in-mold injection molding, so that a precipitation electrode plate module is formed; a non-precipitation electrode plate module is formed with a similar structure. After the precipitation electrode plate module and the non-precipitation electrode plate module are assembled, the precipitation electrode plates and the non-precipitation electrode plates form an electrostatic precipitation module. Together they form an electrostatic air purifier using the electrostatic precipitation modules which can be assembled quickly, improves the uniformity of electric field distribution and has excellent electrostatic absorption performance.

An electrostatic precipitator may form an electric field, and dust particles in air are charged by the corona effect when the dust in air passes through the electric field. An electrostatic precipitation device generally consists of a plurality of parallel electrode plates, with a high-voltage (e.g., several KV, generally 3-10 KV) power supply provided between the electrode plates to form an electric field. Charged dust particles are deflected under stress when passing through the electric field, and are eventually trapped on the electrode plates. The electrode plates are generally made of metal plates which are usually manufactured by sheet stamping. This structure has the following disadvantages: the assembly of the manufactured electrode plates is relatively troublesome because dozens of electrode plates are to be fixed and mounted one by one with a uniform interval, and it is thus difficult to control the process; in addition, since stamping parts may have many sharp edges and burrs, discharging tips will be formed when a high voltage is applied to the electrode plates, resulting in, on one hand, insufficient voltage and deteriorated performance, and on the other hand, the generation of excessive ozone which is harmful to the user's health. The electrode plates may be made of profiles. In this case, dozens of profiles are also to be fixed and mounted one by one, and the process is also cumbersome. Although the problem of burrs caused by stamping is solved and it is thus advantageous to the improvement of performance, the material cost is high. Some electrode plates may be made of plastic material. If material with a high conductivity is used, it is also likely to result in breakdown on two poles, decreased voltage and deteriorated performance; however, if material with a lower conductivity is used, it is likely to result in non-uniform electric field intensity and non-uniform absorption capacity if electrodes are not manufactured well. Moreover, since a contact is simply formed besides electrodes in the conventional design, as shown in FIG. 9a, the potential cross the two poles gradually decreases from a contact to a position away from the contact, so that the absorption performance is influenced.
In addition, in Chinese Patent CN204074260U (Application No.: 201320459622.1) entitled ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATION BOX, the material structure of electrode plates is improved in the disclosed precipitation box, the problems of ignition and the generation of ozone are thus avoided, and moreover uniform interval among the electrode plates is ensured. However, the electrode plates still need to be mounted one by one, and the mounting process is relatively complicated. Furthermore, in the electrostatic precipitation devices disclosed in Chinese Patent Application CN104689921A (Application No.: 201510065803.X) entitled ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR and Chinese Patent CN204583490U (Application No.: 201420794435.3) entitled PRECIPITATION UNIT AND ELECTROSTATIC AIR PURIFICATION DEVICE, electrode plates are to be mounted one by one, so that quick mounting of the electrode plates is not possible.

Electrostatic dust collecting module an electrostatic air purifier thereof


Methods are described using a particular type of assay system, the Multi-Pathway High Throughput Assay, in conjunction with a novel experimental strategy, whereby repeated cycles of experiments result in the identification of the most effective synergistic combinations of potential active agents from a library of materials. The novel experimental strategy not only requires far fewer total experiments than would be required using conventional discovery strategies but also maximizes the probability of finding highly synergistic combinations through the principle of multiple-pathway intervention.

Synergy among biologically active agents is a well known phenomenon. Usually the synergy is discovered either serendipitously or as a result of deduction that synergy should take place from understanding of the biological process. For example, combination of penicillin with an inhibitor of penicillinase (the enzyme that degrades penicillin) would be expected to yield a higher performing antibiotic—which indeed it does.
As scientific understanding of the complexity of living processes has increased, it has become clear that the extent to which any single biological end point is affected by many different pathways is much greater than had been expected. In particular, it has become clear that mammalian and other cells have enormous redundancy within their pathways. Nowhere has this been clearer than in the results of gene knockout experiments where the complete deletion of a gene thought to have a critical function often results in no detectable effect on the organism.
A consequence of this complexity is that many desirable biological end effects might be most easily achieved by intervening simultaneously in several pathways, and/or at multiple points within such pathways, rather than focusing on finding a single highly potent agent to act at one vital "node" within the network of pathways.
A particularly clear way to understand this phenomenon is to consider the common concept of the "rate-limiting step". Conventionally, in biology, it is believed that one step within a pathway is usually rate limiting, i.e., inhibition of that step will have immediate effect on the whole pathway while inhibition of other steps will have little or no effect. Such rate limiting steps are thus the normal target for development of drugs. Consider however what happens in a complex, highly interlinked, system of pathways. When the rate-limiting step is inhibited by an active agent, other pathways within the system compensate for that inhibition. In this new "compensated" configuration, different pathways may become rate limiting and far greater impact on the overall system will be achieved by adding an agent that acts on this new rate limiting step than would be achieved by further inhibiting the, original rate limiting step. The same logic applies when one adds a third agent to the mixture—it is likely that yet a third pathway will have become rate limiting when both of the initial rate limiting pathways have been inhibited.
This paradigm of "multiple active intervention" as source of synergy is of relevance wherever discovery of biologically effective agents is desired, including in the pharmaceutical industry. The approach is however of particular interest in the industry sectors such as cosmetics, personal care products or dietary supplements where regulatory rules do not make use of complex mixtures of active agents difficult. Of particular importance in these sectors is the potential that combinations of active agents that individually are of low potency and broad specificity might in combination be highly potent and highly selective. This property of a combination to be more potent and/or selective than expected based on the individual components is defined here as "synergy" and the mixture of ingredients displaying this synergy is what is meant as a "synergistic" mixture.
Finding such highly efficacious combinations, i.e., synergistic mixtures, of active agents is challenging however. Serendipity is not a valid route as the number of potential combinations of agents is staggeringly large. For example, there are trillions of possible 5 fold combinations of even a relatively small palette of 5000 potential agents. The other normal discovery strategy of deducing potential combinations from knowledge of mechanism is also limited in its potential for the following reasons.
Many biological end points of living organisms are affected by multiple pathways. These pathways are often not known, and even when they are, the ways in which the pathways interact to produce the biological end effect are often unknown. By biological end effect is meant the ultimate biological effect that is desired of the agent or combination, e.g., hair growth stimulation or the slowing or reversal of the skin ageing process. To further complicate the picture, many potential active agents have broad specificity (in pharmaceutical parlance they are "dirty drugs"—like aspirin) and therefore simultaneously affect multiple pathways. The mathematical tools and data banks needed to model and thus understand such complexity, do not yet exist and so use of "mechanism based" discovery of multiple synergies can rarely be achieved.
A useful but limited approach to finding highly synergistic combinations of agents was described in WO 02/02074. In this case a number of specific steps were identified within the retinol metabolism pathway, which were predicted on theoretical grounds to act synergistically with each other. Actives effective on each step were identified through highly specific assays such as enzyme inhibition and the resulting smaller set of effective compounds were tested in high order combinations. High levels of synergy were found. This approach however is limited to the special case where the pathway of interest is well understood and can thus be theoretically modeled.
There thus remains a pressing need for effective methods capable of discovering these multiple synergies, particularly those involving multiple unknown or poorly understood pathways, in a timely and cost effective manner.
A particularly significant advantage of the experimental strategy and methods disclosed herein is the increased likelihood of identifying highly synergistic combinations of biologically active materials without requiring impractically large numbers of experimental tests.
An additional advantage especially when used with the assay methods of the invention is the ability to utilize high throughput experiment methods in biological models that incorporate the multi-pathway features of real systems of interest.
A still further advantage of the strategy and methods is in the identification of highly synergistic combinations that will be suitable for use by humans.
These and other advantages will become clear from the description of the invention.
The following additional patents and publications have been considered:
Systematic discovery of multicomponent therapeutics by Alexis A. Borisy, Peter J. Elliott, Nicole W. Hurst, Margaret S. Lee, Joseph Leha'r, E. Roydon Price, George Serbedzija, Grant R. Zimmermann, Michael A. Foley, Brent R. Stockwell, and Curtis T. Keith. Proceedings of New York Academy of Science, Jun. 24, 2003, Vol. 100, part 13, pp 7977-7982. This publication describes the principles of why unpredictable biological synergy among agents is expected to occur and demonstrates the detection of binary synergies among libraries of potential drugs using a conventional method of testing all possible binary synergies between drugs in the library. 36 tests are required for each binary combination and extremely simple and ultra high throughput assays are developed to make possible the enormous number of assays needed to probe merely binary synergies within the library. No suggestion is made that more experimentally efficient strategies to discover synergies are possible and the method is clearly impractical should 3 fold or higher orders of synergy be sought because of the large number of experiments required.
GB 2242978 (Phillpot et al) describes a method for assessing materials for hair growth or pigmentation activity whereby individually microdissected hair follicles are grown in culture medium. This method is the standard method used by almost all research groups needing an in vitro hair growth assay (the patent having been abandoned). The method is however fundamentally unsuited to any high throughput application due to the laborious process of microdissecting hair follicles.
None of the references cited above teaches the specific methods to assess biologically active materials and to identify synergistic combinations as disclosed herein. The inventor is not aware of any prior art that teaches the experimental design strategy or assays disclosed herein.

Methods to identify biologically active agents and synergistic combinations


A time delay circuit for providing a delayed replica of a digital input signal including first and second counters for providing first and second count outputs offset relative to each other by a predetermined value indicative of a predetermined delay, and further including a first-in first-out (FIFO) memory for controllably storing selected values of the digital input signal together with corresponding first count output values. First comparison circuitry compares each digital input with the immediately prior digital input, and controls the FIFO memory to store (a) each digital input which is different from the immediately prior digital input, and (b) the first counter output value associated therewith. The FIFO memory circuit provides an output comprising (1) a digital output that corresponds to the earliest changed digital output which has not yet been utilized in the delayed replica of the digital input signal, and (2) a FIFO count output that corresponds to the first counter output value associated with such digital output. Second comparison circuitry responsive to the second counter output and the FIFO count output controls the FIFO memory circuit to change its output when the second counter output and the FIFO count output are equal.

The disclosed invention is generally directed to time delay circuits, and is more particularly directed to a digital time delay circuit which does not utilize extensive shift register circuits, and further does not utilize high speed memory devices.
Time delay circuits are utilized to provide a delayed replica of a time varying signal, and are utilized in various types of signal processing including, for example, radar systems.
Known time delay circuits have included extensive banks of shift register circuitry for transferring data from one stage to another, where the number of stages is determined by the maximum delay required. It is well understood that the use of shift register time delay circuitry involves considerable circuitry when the required delays are large, which further results in greater power consumption.
Other known circuitry include high speed memory systems that continuously store the value of the input for later output. High speed memory, however, tends to be expensive, and large amounts of memory would be required for longer delays.
A further consideration with known time delay circuits is the difficulty in changing the delay provided.


In a method for admitting a new data file into a channel, a request for admission of the new data file into the channel is received. It is determined as to whether at least a minimum number of bits of at least one current data file has been transferred to the receiver. The rate at which the at least one current data file is transferred is reduced below a minimum constant bit rate in response to a determination that at least a minimum number of bits of the at least one current data file has been transferred to the receiver and the new data file is admitted into the channel.

Recently, multiple system cable operators (MSOs) have been providing ever increasing numbers of variable bit-rate (VBR) video, particularly as on-demand high-definition content. The instantaneous bandwidth usage of the compressed VBR video scales with the varying complexity of the video content and thus, the VBR videos are typically transmitted in short, uneven spurts of data. For instance, high definition VBR videos can reach instantaneous rates approaching 16 Mbps for MPEG2 compression and 8 Mbps for MPEG4 Advanced Video Coding compression.
Due to the uneven bandwidth utilizations associated with transmission of VBR videos, it is often difficult for the MSOs to achieve a high average channel utilization for multiple VBR video flows. For instance, situations often arise where the total bandwidth for the multiple VBR video flows exceeds the capacity of the channel, which substantially limits the number of VBR video flows that can be transmitted over the channel. In addition, if the average of the sum of the instantaneous VBR video flows is close to the capacity of the channel, there may be unacceptable delays in some of the video packets, degrading the operation of the video decoders. A proposed solution is channel bonding, which increases bandwidth to improve statistical multiplexing of video flows; however, channel bonding is oftentimes prohibitively expensive to implement.
Attempts at maximizing the channel capacity have also led to capping of the amounts of bandwidth each of the multiple VBR video streams are allotted. Other attempts have led to encoding of the VBR videos at constant bit rates. While both of these options reduce the problem with statistical multiplexing, they also degrade the signal-to-noise ratio of the video and thus degrade its quality.
It would thus be beneficial to achieve a relatively high average channel usage in the transmission of multiple VBR videos, without suffering from the disadvantages associated with conventional VBR video transmission techniques.


In a method for testing a transport packet decrypting module of a client device, a first decryption operation of the transport packet decrypting module is implemented on a test encrypted control word using a content decryption key ladder to derive a test control word, a second decryption operation of the transport packet decrypting module is implemented on one or more test transport packets using the test control word via a predetermined content decryption algorithm, the KIV is derived from the decrypted transport packets, and the derived KIV is compared with a value stored in the client device to verify whether the transport packet decrypting module of the client device is functioning properly.

In a conventional conditional access system, transport streams are encrypted using a control word with a transport encryption algorithm, such as the SCTE52 algorithm. The control word is delivered to a client device, such as a set-top box, in encrypted form (Encrypted Control Word (ECW)). In general, the encryption is performed based on a hardware key ladder, which includes different levels of encryption keys, using either a system wide global key when a global key ladder is used or a device unique key when a unique key ladder is used. Typically, these keys are stored in One Time Programmable (OTP) memory.
During a normal operation, the client device uses the hardware keys in the key ladder to decrypt the ECW to derive the control word. The client device then uses the control word to decrypt a transport stream. This operation involves a number of parameters, including Initialization Vectors (IVs), used by the transport encryption algorithm and a hardware key, such as the system wide global key or the device unique key. Some of these parameters are programmed on the OTP memory of the client device during a chip programming process, while other parameters may be part of the chip hardware/firmware. The keys, parameters, and key integrity value (KIV) are programmed onto the chip during a chip manufacturing and programming process. The keys and parameters are typically not accessible to a general purpose processor on the client device. Instead, the keys and parameters are typically only accessible by a secure processor to only perform specific functions as specified in the conditional access (CA) algorithm.
Errors, such as, incorrectly programmed bits of a parameter value, have been found to occur in some OTP memories during the chip programming process. Identification of such errors throughout the life cycles of client devices is thus critical to maintaining a relatively high level of product quality. Current techniques for manufacturing and using the client devices, however, are incapable of identifying such errors in a cost-effective, efficient, and secure manner because of the protection measures employed to keep the keys and parameters secret.

Transport packet decryption testing in a client device


Methods and systems for combined SPP and Raman scattering-based bio-detection are provided. Embodiments include a bio-detection system having a microfluidics chip, a Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP)-based system component, and a Raman scattering-based system component. The SPP-based and the Raman scattering-based system components can be used simultaneously or individually separately to detect biological and/or chemical analytes. The bio-detection system further includes an aerosol collector chip. Embodiments of the present invention can be used aboard means of propagation of biological and/or chemical analytes, including, for example, commercial aircrafts. Embodiments of the present invention can be used to enable an aircraft warning system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to bio-detection, and more particularly to multi-modal bio-detection of biological and/or chemical analytes.
2. Background Art
Bio-sensing systems that can rapidly detect and identify airborne and/or waterborne biological and/or chemical analytes are of particular importance today. These systems can be especially useful to limit the effects of potential epidemic outbreaks, intentional biological warfare attacks, food contamination outbreaks, or waterborne outbreaks (e.g., E. Coli).
Today, bio-sensing systems with acceptable false alarm rates in-situ present enormous challenges. Current bio-detectors fail to meet one or more performance criteria required for high volume applications such as commercial air traffic. These performance criteria include, for example, low false alarm probability (PFA<10−4 per sensor or PFA<10−6 per biosensor system per flight), high-sensitivity detection (probability of detection PD>0.9), rapid response times (on the order of minutes or less), and limited use of liquid consumable reagents. Furthermore, current bio-detectors are constrained in their ability to measure samples from multiple media, such as their ability to measure particles directly from exhaled breath, in air, water, soil, and on surfaces. In addition, current bio-detectors lack the high energy efficiency and compactness, which are desirable in various situations.
There is a need therefore for bio-sensing methods and systems that meet at least the above described performance criteria. In addition, bio-sensing methods and systems that allow multi-element, highly parallel multi-media sensing, high energy efficiency, and/or compact designs are needed.

Multi-modal surface plasmon polariton—raman scattering based bio-detection